The Democratic Presidential Debates

ikiT · March 2020

Imma still vote for whoever is blue but Joe came outta nowhere.

Gern Blansten · March 2020

Jason P said:

Bloomberg wanted to be POTUS. He isn't going to be a chump piggybank for anyone.

oh yes he is....

CM189191 · March 2020

looks like the DNC is raising the delegate threshold to keep Tulsi out of debates

good.

pjl44 · March 2020

Flicker of hope

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1235330112515715080?s=19

mrussel1 · March 2020

Gern Blansten said:

Jason P said:

Bloomberg wanted to be POTUS. He isn't going to be a chump piggybank for anyone.

oh yes he is....

His campaign head was on MSNBC and said Bloom is giving his staff, infrastructure, everything to Biden. It's all paid for already through the end of the year.

Ledbetterman10 · March 2020

CM189191 said:

looks like the DNC is raising the delegate threshold to keep Tulsi out of debates

good.

Good is right. It would be a joke if she was out there. It was a joke seeing her name last night frankly. And I actually like her. But when you’re beat, you’re beat.

what dreams · March 2020

Ledbetterman10 said:
Both...for now. Certainly I like Biden's chances against Sanders much more now than I did a week ago though. But I still think he's a somewhat weak candidate. I understand that Obamas (exciting candidates) don't just grow on trees. But in this, the most important election ever (or so I've been told), the election that will rid us of the diabolical Team Trump Treason, it's unfortunate that the Dems have to settle on Biden, who first ran for President THIRTY years ago.

But on the other hand, good for Biden. He's put in his time in that Democratic Party. And all these years later, he's still standing. I respect that. And he has my vote. So go get 'em, Joe.

I find the bolded words above interesting. We didn't have to settle. We had more than 20 candidates to pick from, with a variety of strengths and experiences and policy proposals. We just pecked at them one by one until they were forced to drop out because nobody would get behind them. "Too many candidates." "Not winnable." "Never heard of him." "Not ready for a woman." "He's gay." And now we're like, oh great, we're stuck with Joe Biden.

josevolution · March 2020

what dreams said:

Ledbetterman10 said:
Both...for now. Certainly I like Biden's chances against Sanders much more now than I did a week ago though. But I still think he's a somewhat weak candidate. I understand that Obamas (exciting candidates) don't just grow on trees. But in this, the most important election ever (or so I've been told), the election that will rid us of the diabolical Team Trump Treason, it's unfortunate that the Dems have to settle on Biden, who first ran for President THIRTY years ago.

But on the other hand, good for Biden. He's put in his time in that Democratic Party. And all these years later, he's still standing. I respect that. And he has my vote. So go get 'em, Joe.

I find the bolded words above interesting. We didn't have to settle. We had more than 20 candidates to pick from, with a variety of strengths and experiences and policy proposals. We just pecked at them one by one until they were forced to drop out because nobody would get behind them. "Too many candidates." "Not winnable." "Never heard of him." "Not ready for a woman." "He's gay." And now we're like, oh great, we're stuck with Joe Biden.

I agree and it’s frustrating!

mrussel1 · March 2020

what dreams said:

Ledbetterman10 said:
Both...for now. Certainly I like Biden's chances against Sanders much more now than I did a week ago though. But I still think he's a somewhat weak candidate. I understand that Obamas (exciting candidates) don't just grow on trees. But in this, the most important election ever (or so I've been told), the election that will rid us of the diabolical Team Trump Treason, it's unfortunate that the Dems have to settle on Biden, who first ran for President THIRTY years ago.

But on the other hand, good for Biden. He's put in his time in that Democratic Party. And all these years later, he's still standing. I respect that. And he has my vote. So go get 'em, Joe.

I find the bolded words above interesting. We didn't have to settle. We had more than 20 candidates to pick from, with a variety of strengths and experiences and policy proposals. We just pecked at them one by one until they were forced to drop out because nobody would get behind them. "Too many candidates." "Not winnable." "Never heard of him." "Not ready for a woman." "He's gay." And now we're like, oh great, we're stuck with Joe Biden.

Ha! So true. There's only been 4 great Democrats in the past 80 years.. FDR, JFC, WJC and Barack. Yet we sit around and wait for one and complain.

mickeyrat · March 2020

we'll see what happens over the next 2 weeks and the results from those states. I expect here in Ohio we'll begin hearing Biden ads to replace the Bloomberg ones......

Ledbetterman10 · March 2020

what dreams said:

Ledbetterman10 said:
Both...for now. Certainly I like Biden's chances against Sanders much more now than I did a week ago though. But I still think he's a somewhat weak candidate. I understand that Obamas (exciting candidates) don't just grow on trees. But in this, the most important election ever (or so I've been told), the election that will rid us of the diabolical Team Trump Treason, it's unfortunate that the Dems have to settle on Biden, who first ran for President THIRTY years ago.

But on the other hand, good for Biden. He's put in his time in that Democratic Party. And all these years later, he's still standing. I respect that. And he has my vote. So go get 'em, Joe.

I find the bolded words above interesting. We didn't have to settle. We had more than 20 candidates to pick from, with a variety of strengths and experiences and policy proposals. We just pecked at them one by one until they were forced to drop out because nobody would get behind them. "Too many candidates." "Not winnable." "Never heard of him." "Not ready for a woman." "He's gay." And now we're like, oh great, we're stuck with Joe Biden.

Well me saying Dems “settled” is pretty much like you saying “stuck with.” But I understand what you’re lamenting. It’s like they’re afraid to try something new. Like really, in the technological world of 2020, who would you really want in charge? Andrew Yang or Biden? Biden probably doesn’t even know how to use email. There’s like a glass ceiling or something. It’s hard to get a real shot at the presidency. Either be a once-in-a-lifetime guy like Obama, or stick around very, very long like Dole, McCain, and Biden.

F Me In The Brain · March 2020

Ledbetterman10 said:

what dreams said:

Ledbetterman10 said:
Both...for now. Certainly I like Biden's chances against Sanders much more now than I did a week ago though. But I still think he's a somewhat weak candidate. I understand that Obamas (exciting candidates) don't just grow on trees. But in this, the most important election ever (or so I've been told), the election that will rid us of the diabolical Team Trump Treason, it's unfortunate that the Dems have to settle on Biden, who first ran for President THIRTY years ago.

But on the other hand, good for Biden. He's put in his time in that Democratic Party. And all these years later, he's still standing. I respect that. And he has my vote. So go get 'em, Joe.

I find the bolded words above interesting. We didn't have to settle. We had more than 20 candidates to pick from, with a variety of strengths and experiences and policy proposals. We just pecked at them one by one until they were forced to drop out because nobody would get behind them. "Too many candidates." "Not winnable." "Never heard of him." "Not ready for a woman." "He's gay." And now we're like, oh great, we're stuck with Joe Biden.

Well me saying Dems “settled” is pretty much like you saying “stuck with.” But I understand what you’re lamenting. It’s like they’re afraid to try something new. Like really, in the technological world of 2020, who would you really want in charge? Andrew Yang or Biden? Biden probably doesn’t even know how to use email. There’s like a glass ceiling or something. It’s hard to get a real shot at the presidency. Either be a once-in-a-lifetime guy like Obama, or stick around very, very long like Dole, McCain, and Biden.

People are excited and I think that is great - but I agree totally the choice is not very inspiring. He is going to be 78 years old for FSM's sake!
(If he were 15 to 20 years younger I would think he was the best choice of the candidates.)

Ledbetterman10 · March 2020

F Me In The Brain said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

what dreams said:

Ledbetterman10 said:
Both...for now. Certainly I like Biden's chances against Sanders much more now than I did a week ago though. But I still think he's a somewhat weak candidate. I understand that Obamas (exciting candidates) don't just grow on trees. But in this, the most important election ever (or so I've been told), the election that will rid us of the diabolical Team Trump Treason, it's unfortunate that the Dems have to settle on Biden, who first ran for President THIRTY years ago.

But on the other hand, good for Biden. He's put in his time in that Democratic Party. And all these years later, he's still standing. I respect that. And he has my vote. So go get 'em, Joe.

I find the bolded words above interesting. We didn't have to settle. We had more than 20 candidates to pick from, with a variety of strengths and experiences and policy proposals. We just pecked at them one by one until they were forced to drop out because nobody would get behind them. "Too many candidates." "Not winnable." "Never heard of him." "Not ready for a woman." "He's gay." And now we're like, oh great, we're stuck with Joe Biden.

Well me saying Dems “settled” is pretty much like you saying “stuck with.” But I understand what you’re lamenting. It’s like they’re afraid to try something new. Like really, in the technological world of 2020, who would you really want in charge? Andrew Yang or Biden? Biden probably doesn’t even know how to use email. There’s like a glass ceiling or something. It’s hard to get a real shot at the presidency. Either be a once-in-a-lifetime guy like Obama, or stick around very, very long like Dole, McCain, and Biden.

People are excited and I think that is great - but I agree totally the choice is not very inspiring. He is going to be 78 years old for FSM's sake!
(If he were 15 to 20 years younger I would think he was the best choice of the candidates.)

Hell, FOUR years younger. Back in 2016! I think he, as the sitting VP, could have beaten Hillary and then Trump. That was his window, after all those years, and he didn’t go for it. Maybe because his son had died (as my father argues), or maybe because the party masters felt it was Hillary’s turn (as I argue), but that was HIS time.

That’s not to say he can’t beat Trump now. But there’s not a doubt in my mind he would’ve beat him in 2016. For 2020, I have many doubts.

F Me In The Brain · March 2020

I hope like hell that he does but choosing between two old as hell guys is not what we should be doing for such a demanding job.

Halifax2TheMax · March 2020

mrussel1 said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

mrussel1 said:

Lerxst1992 said:

Ledbetterman10 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

if it works, it wasn't a waste.

I'm not saying his throwing money behind the cause of getting rid of Trump is a waste. His actual campaign for president was. In fact, I think he'd have been better off bankrolling Biden from the get-go, keeping a low public profile, and then emerging as Biden's running-mate.

The way Biden came back from the dead, literally and figuratively, is the perfect comeback kid story for the fall.

Biden took down Bernie with no "on the ground" resources and no TV ads.

I dont think we have ever seen a Lazarus story like this one.

He energized the base and the party saw what happened in SC and rallied to be at his side.

It's really amazing.. there's no parallel in modern political history. Now he has to close the deal.

Bill Clinton is the original “come back kid” during the primary and then against an opponent from the opposing party who enjoyed 90%+ approval rating.

He was the original, you're right, but I don't think he came back from such poor showings in the first rounds. He was battling all sorts of personal demons of course... such was life with WJC.

He lost Iowa and NH. Back then, that was a death knell.

what dreams · March 2020

For some reason, I didn't expect the average age of Presidents to be so young:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_age

Halifax2TheMax · March 2020

I didn’t expect Bernie to misrepresent so, so much. Desperado, you’ve got the weight of making cheese and ice cream on your shoulders and a ski lift on your arm............buh bye.

mickeyrat · March 2020

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/04/i-was-1968-version-bernie-bro-i-still-regret-it/
By Joe Klein
March 04 at 4:39 PM EST
Joe Klein, a veteran of the New Yorker, Newsweek and Time, is the author of seven books, including “Primary Colors.”

I am trying to remember the person I was in 1968. I was 22 years old and a recent college graduate. I was angry, infuriated by the war in Vietnam and racial segregation. It was my first chance to vote in a presidential election. I was living in New Jersey — very briefly — and I voted for Dick Gregory, the brilliant comedian running as a write-in candidate, instead of Hubert Humphrey, the Democrat running against Republican Richard Nixon. It was a protest vote, obviously. I regret it to this day.

Humphrey barely lost New Jersey to Nixon. Gregory’s 8,084 votes would not have turned the state. But I wonder: What would have happened if I, and hundreds of thousands like me nationwide, had given Humphrey the same level of energy, support and enthusiasm we lavished upon Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy in the primaries?

Humphrey was the Joe Biden of his day, a standard-issue establishment Democrat. He was known to be a lovely man who had a problem with his mouth: He talked too much. He had started out as a civil-rights crusader in Minnesota, but that seemed like ancient history to me. Worse, he was Lyndon B. Johnson’s vice president and a supporter of the war in Vietnam until late in the campaign. We — the Bernie Bros of the moment — had driven Johnson from the race. It was infuriating that we’d done so in order to make the world safe for Hubert Horatio Humphrey.

In retrospect, my vote was an act of blind defiance. I was part of a generational movement — not just political but also cultural, perhaps more so. We were so different from our parents: Our music was different, we dressed differently — vehemently informal and provocative, we wore our hair long (letting our “freak flag fly,” in the words of a contemporary song). Our parents were so pathetic, especially when they started to imitate us by lengthening their sideburns and wearing, yuck, leisure suits.

We were counseled by our elders: Vote the lesser of two evils. But Humphrey’s kindness and humanity simply didn’t register. We saw only this wimpy, old guy who was probably lying about his newfound opposition to the war. And it didn’t really matter if Nixon won: We were young; we had a world to win, an establishment to overthrow. We had a plenty of time. Four years of Nixon would bring the country to its senses. What was one election?

It was more than 20,000 American deaths in Vietnam and uncountable numbers of Vietnamese people killed and wounded. It was the onset of a politics — Nixon’s Southern strategy — that began the process, which continues to this day, of white racial backlash. It was a descent, by many of us, into a reflexive, silly left-liberalism that caused the Democratic Party to suffer more than 20 years of defeat before being hauled back to reality by Bill Clinton in 1992.

In 2016, I asked Hillary Clinton if the 1968 version of herself — the antiwar civil-rights crusader — would have voted for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary. She made a brave attempt to argue against a vote for Bernie, but we both knew the real answer.

We also knew what the 1968 versions of ourselves had learned in the 50 intervening years. We had learned the importance of stability, especially in a democracy. In Beirut in 1978, I had seen a sophisticated city ripped to shreds by tribalism … and had learned how fragile a civilized society can be. We had both learned how hard it is to make a difference, that the best change comes incrementally and only with a national consensus. We had both learned that idealism needs to be enhanced by civility and some institutional memory.

I am not trying to persuade young Sanders zealots that they should cast a vote for this year’s version of Humphrey. Not yet. In any case, they’re not going to listen to a geezer like me. I understand their impatience and anger, even if I don’t understand why a 78-year-old man insists on the puerile offensiveness of calling himself a “socialist” when the countries he purportedly admires — the Scandinavians — are bastions of free enterprise tempered by a robust welfare state. Perhaps Sanders needs to grow up a little, too.

My question to young voters is this: If Sanders loses the nomination to Biden, will you be as stupid as I was in 1968? Will you allow the country — the federal government, the Environmental Protection Agency, the judiciary, the diplomatic corps — another four years of President Trump? Are you entirely sure we can survive that?

JimmyV · March 2020

Vote your conscience, but do so knowing your vote has consequences. I voted third party in 2016 and I don't regret it one bit, but I'm in Massachusetts. (I could have voted for Bozo and it wouldn't have mattered, and in Gary Johnson I pretty much did.) If you are in a contested state that is not a luxury you have. Every third party vote in a contested state is a vote for Trump.

Spiritual_Chaos · March 2020

https://twitter.com/HowardMortman/status/1235556892396720129?s=20

The Democratic Presidential Debates

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