Beto O’Rourke 2020 campaign megathread

[John Dule]

You can tell a major presidential campaign has truly cratered when its Atlas megathread is unstickied.

The real question is why it was stickied in the first place.

"Something something the next Barack Obama" -- circa Winter 2018

I have absolutely no respect for the political instincts of people who thought Beto O'Rourke would do well in this campaign. If you legitimately can't see the difference between O'Rourke and Obama, then you're just an obscenely poor judge of character.

[Ilhan Apologist]

You can tell a major presidential campaign has truly cratered when its Atlas megathread is unstickied.

The real question is why it was stickied in the first place.

"Something something the next Barack Obama" -- circa Winter 2018

I have absolutely no respect for the political instincts of people who thought Beto O'Rourke would do well in this campaign. If you legitimately can't see the difference between O'Rourke and Obama, then you're just an obscenely poor judge of character.

There's a difference between thinking he's the next Obama and just thinking Democratic primary voters will like him because he reminds them of Obama.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

You can tell a major presidential campaign has truly cratered when its Atlas megathread is unstickied.

Lol I remember when the forum was blowing up with threads like "Where will President O' Rourke put his presidential library?" the day he announced and I was facepalming.

Yeah, this forum says a lot of things.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

John McCain was at 3% in Summer 2007 and we all know how that ended up going. Beto could very well be blessed with the luck of the Irish and have a McCain style comeback.

[brucejoel99]

John McCain was at 3% in Summer 2007 and we all know how that ended up going. Beto could very well be blessed with the luck of the Irish and have a McCain style comeback.

Beto O'Rourke is no John McCain.

[Mr. Morden]

John McCain was at 3% in Summer 2007

No, he was in the low teens.  There were only a handful of polls that had him below 10%:

link

[brucejoel99]

John McCain was at 3% in Summer 2007

No, he was in the low teens.  There were only a handful of polls that had him below 10%:

link

Well, in that case, yeah, Beto O'Rourke really is no John McCain.

[IceSpear]

Beto made the wrong move. He should've run against Cornyn. Sadly the Democrats as a whole could end up being screwed by that decision.

[brucejoel99]

Beto made the wrong move. He should've run against Cornyn. Sadly the Democrats as a whole could end up being screwed by that decision.

*cries in MJ Hegar*

[politicallefty]

I'm off the ship now, I'm sad to say. It's obvious now that he was unprepared for a presidential campaign, let alone the Presidency.

[Shadows]

Well Beto just called Medicare for all as a system where 180M will lose their insurance & spread other lies & falsehoods. He is running to be more moderate than Joe Biden. He is @ 1.8% in RCP. If he has a bad debate, then he will struggle to get 2% in 3-4 polls which are needed to qualify for the 3rd debate.

With MJ Hegar running for Senate, I think Beto is essentially auditioning for a Cabinet Secretary role in a Biden administration because his career in Texas is done.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Well Beto just called Medicare for all as a system where 180M will lose their insurance & spread other lies & falsehoods. He is running to be more moderate than Joe Biden. He is @ 1.8% in RCP. If he has a bad debate, then he will struggle to get 2% in 3-4 polls which are needed to qualify for the 3rd debate.

With MJ Hegar running for Senate, I think Beto is essentially auditioning for a Cabinet Secretary role in a Biden administration because his career in Texas is done.

Yeah, I’m glad De Blasio called him out on this:

"If someone proposed a 'radical' idea called public education today, Beto would try to warn us that 180 million Americans would be kicked out of their schools. Let’s leave the lazy fear mongering tactics to Trump," the mayor of New York tweeted after O’Rourke said getting rid of private health care would force a majority of Americans off their existing insurance.

De Blasio replied: "An important debate, my friend. But the best way to guarantee high-quality care is to make sure wealthy and poor people, healthy and sick people all get the same care. To allow corporate interests to stay at the table will do the opposite."

At this point, I would eagerly back MJ Hegar in the Senate primary, even if Beto decides to enter.

[brucejoel99]

I'm off the ship now, I'm sad to say. It's obvious now that he was unprepared for a presidential campaign, let alone the Presidency.

And another one gone, & another one gone
Another [Beto supporter] bites the dust

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

Hate to be that guy and bring politics into a terrible tragedy such as this, but this disturbing act of racist terrorism seems to have jolted Beto back into his 2018-form. If he can sustain that passion and energy, he might be able to stage a comeback. Might

https://twitter.com/channel4news/status/1158375056126480384?s=21

This is what I’m talking about. This is the fire he’s been missing all year

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

Hate to be that guy and bring politics into a terrible tragedy such as this, but this disturbing act of racist terrorism seems to have jolted Beto back into his 2018-form. If he can sustain that passion and energy, he might be able to stage a comeback. Might

https://twitter.com/channel4news/status/1158375056126480384?s=21

This is what I’m talking about. This is the fire he’s been missing all year

This is the Beto that has been missing. I’m cautiously putting him back in the number one slot. He needs to keep this up, not the wishy washy stuff he’s been putting out for the last few months, but this and what he was dishing out in 2018. Speaking truth to power and not apologizing for it.

“True to form” and his defense of Kaepernick come to mind.

[Mr. Morden]

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1158550534133112833

[Lisa's voting Biden]

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/06/beto-orourke-f-bomb-228038

[libertpaulian]

The past several days have embodied Beto at his worst, not his best. A lack of sincerity has never ranked among the problems besetting this campaign.

Beto's recent stunts remind me of this:

https://www.businessinsider.com/rand-paul-debate-media-middle-finger-2016-1

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/11/19/rand_paul_bullsh**t_they_need_more_surveillance_after_paris_attacks.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/13/rand-paul-makes-the-cnn-prime-time-debate-by-a-hair/

[walleye26]

I’ve heard so much about this line and how it plays into Republican hands, but I’m skeptical. Polls consistently show the public favoring many forms of gun control, so does this really swing independents? Sure, it’ll rile up the GOP base and NRA come election time, but do you guys really think this will swing independents? Guns usually aren’t a top priority for voters.

[GeneralMacArthur]

They're gonna take it out of context.  Beto only wants your AR-15 and your AK-47.  But Republicans are gonna say he's coming for your Glock.

[Matty]

People always cite "polls" , but actual ballot initiatives show even background checks barely win or lose.

In 2016, a maine ballot initiative for universal background checks lost by 3 points.

In nevada, a similar initiative won with only 50.57% of the vote.

If you don't think the optics of the government forcing 6 milion households to turn in their AR-15s would be damaging, then I don' know what to tell you.

ALso, dems have a house majority RIGHT NOW and can't get the votes for an assault weapons ban. What does that say?

[LAKISYLVANIA]

It will hurt the Democrats.

[Famous Mortimer]

They're gonna take it out of context.  Beto only wants your AR-15 and your AK-47.  But Republicans are gonna say he's coming for your Glock.

Republican voters don't own glocks, they own assault rifles, that's actually why Beto and the Democrats want to take away one and not the other.

Taking away glocks (or all guns) would actually make much more sense than taking away just assault rifles, since hand guns are used in far far more murders than assault rifles.

[SCNCmod]

This is the one issue that some of the die hard Trump Supporters (in NC) would actually not have a problem with.  I've heard several of my family members who are hardcore Trumpets say that something has to be done about the Gun issue... and that no one needs an AK47 or AR15 (these are Females & Octogenarians).

So I think this is an issue that will prove to break hard and fast- in favor of a ban on semi-auto rifles (although a mandatory buyback would be very hard to accomplish, even though many would not have a problem with it in theory).

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

The NRA is gonna say “the Democraps are taking yer guns” regardless of what gun policy we propose. We might as well fight for what we believe in.

Voters respond better to candidate they disagree with that’s leveling with them, than one that’s pretending to agree with them to win their votes. Look at Kander in MO and Beto in TX. They did as well as they did because they ran campaigns based on what they believed in.