Your 2020 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

No way. Bad move. Bernie’s dedicated fanbase wouldn’t fall for that. What they want is pure policy, not personalities. Meat and potatoes not bells and whistles.

cool

"We must stand with Israel" repeated over and over. Itemizing in detail various weapons systems, she says, "Which is why I support the United States commitment to provide $38 billion over the next decade." "I am fully committed to maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge." https://t.co/TLDrCTSJzs

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) January 23, 2019

He's in! Stay calm everybody.

Pete Buttigieg, a 37-year-old Indiana mayor and Afghanistan war veteran, launches a long-shot bid to be the first openly gay president https://t.co/yWbMQOjsCO

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 23, 2019

I've read two pretty lengthy pieces on Pete Buttigieg in the past two days yet I can't say I really learned much of anything about where he stands on any specific issue. So that's not great.

haha xp

However unfair it might be, no one with the last name 'Buttigieg' will ever become president.

he seems like a nice guy

the two articles both took pains to inform us how to pronounce his last name yet came to different conclusions somehow (Boot-uh-judge vs. BOOTY-jidge)

Whatever the correct pronunciation is, a sizable portion of the electorate is probably just going to wind up him Butt Gauge.

"booty judge" seems, alarmingly, most likely

BUTTMENTUM

I would feel compelled to employ gentle dissuasion if any of the Butz-es in my extended family considered a run for public office.

His Twitter bio says "BOOT-edge-edge"

Getting people to remember a correct pronunciation isn't the problem. That'll just be a phonetics shortcut.

Getting people to remember the spelling will be impossible.

He should get people to start calling him by a snappy nickname and try again in 2024.

Boot-O

OTOH, someone with a name like that may have the requisite experience in dealing with bullies to make him a formidable Trump opponent.

lil boots, bootsie, bootsie collins, giggles

cool

I hate AIPAC but there's pretty much no candidate that crosses the Israel lobby. Sanders comes the closest.

i'm sure Trump and his crack team of nicknamers would find a way to give Mayor Pete a sobriquet that was coded gay-bashing.

i think i've said this before but i really like buttigieg's run for the dnc chair, he said a lot of the right things to get my attention -- a run to raise his national profile & set him up for bigger things than small town mayor is a good thing in my book even if he's a longshot

i've listened to interviews with him and he seems pretty great

reminds me of Obama in the sense that he has a technocratic bravado, "why can't we just do this?", seems unafraid (for now) of crossing entrenched Dem powers

technocratic bravado married to what feels like a legitimate 'just folks' ability to communicate with everyday people without coming off as too high minded

('just folks' here being my pretty thoughtless stand-in for 'small-town middle aged white people')

the two articles both took pains to inform us how to pronounce his last name yet came to different conclusions somehow (Boot-uh-judge vs. BOOTY-jidge)

― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Wednesday, January 23, 2019 9:44 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the booty judge is running for president baby

come to think of it I'd vote for Diamond Joe if he ran as a single-issue trains candidate

every year in SE DC there's an MLK day march/parade and this year featured a Go Go band on a float naming bandmates & passerby with big butts ("GEORGE...has a big ol butt...FELICIA...has a big ol butt") and concluding triumphantly with "MLK...HAD THE BIGGEST BUTT"

take that booty judge

Clearly he should have been the one to announce on MLK Day

sad lol at stuff like this coming out before he even announces

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/426626-biden-made-paid-speech-for-michigan-gop-ahead-of-midterm-elections-report

Opinion on Medicare-for-All is highly elastic (in both directions) to messaging. When you tell respondents it would eliminate private insurance, support goes from +14 to -21. https://t.co/JYdFqYCCJg pic.twitter.com/pTpgcmdf05

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) January 23, 2019

that's not true tho.

places with nationalized healthcare still have private healthcare

Can confirm

medicare for all, as currently proposed, would indeed eliminate private insurance iirc

I'd like to call for a ban on josh barro tweets tho

Noted

"Opinion on _____ is highly elastic (in both directions) to messaging" is something I learned in high school government class, it's incredible to me how often people present this as a novel observation

Those are still bad numbers for M4A, which indeed will lead to some of those things that make it unpopular.

I've been wondering a bit if the Green New Deal is meant to take over the role of M4A, as an election promise that can actually probably get through the legislative progress in a still very popular form.

those numbers do not really concern me -- those are all pretty misleading prompts. it shouldn't be shocking that a plan so ambitious is going to require a concerted messaging effort on the part of democrats. it's a fight worth fighting

Sure. But it might be the second budget reconciliation bill under president Harris, instead of the first, is all I'm saying.

how would M4A eliminate something like Kaiser Permanente? I can see how it would eliminate their *insurance* business, but not the entire company, which could still run its healthcare service network and be paid through Medicare... right?

wait until Deez Nuts make a formal announcement imo

― rob, Tuesday, January 22, 2019 4:05 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i deeznuts do solemnly swear

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, January 22, 2019 4:06 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

DC scuttlebutt sez Hungry4Ass has launched and exploratory committee

medicare for all, as currently proposed, would indeed eliminate private insurance iirc

No it wouldn't. We still have AFLAC and Met Life and Geico and whatevers.

Socialized medicine will get you a hospital bed. Private insurance can get you a private room.

The Daily Beast reports:

Billionaire former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says he can’t run for president as a Democrat because he doesn’t like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to slap a 70-percent marginal tax rate on income above $10 million.

In an interview with CNBC Monday night, he shed some light on why he feels he would not run as a Democrat: Because he could end up having to argue for massive taxes on the super-rich like himself.

“I respect the Democratic Party. I no longer feel affiliated because I don’t know their views represent the majority of Americans. I don’t think we want a 70 percent income tax in America,” he said.

he's not running as a democrat bc he's running as a spoiler to throw the election to trump

I hope he continues to get viciously heckled at all of his appearances

yeah the Presidential nominee of a party usually has to adopt the policies of individual House members

not a fan of Mr Coffee, but isn't it possible he'd draw more votes from Yam a la Ross Perot?

Are there really a lot of Trump supporters out there dying to vote for someone who describes himself as "socially liberal?" The whole Trump phenomenon is in part a reaction *against* social liberalism!

lmao this guy rules

I love telling this story:

When Howard Shultz bought the Sonics, my friend worked there in sales. For Christmas, Shultz gave everyone a Starbucks gift card, for $3.

Back then you couldn't buy a Sbx card for less than $5. He had those $3 cards custom made.

Merry Christmas!

— Chirping from the bench (@taterpie) January 28, 2019

Are there really a lot of Trump supporters out there dying to vote for someone who describes himself as "socially liberal?" The whole Trump phenomenon is in part a reaction *against* social liberalism!

yes, college educated suburban voters in VA

He doesn’t pay any fucking taxes. What’s his strategy? Open a Howard Schultz either side of Donald Trump to shut him down?