Your 2020 Presidential Candidate Speculation Thread

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?

i don't know Eliza, but there were all those NYT Trump Voter profiles that quoted them as saying, "He shouldn't say those things, BUT..."

Krugman has had some good tweets on this today, specifically this one:

More generally, the socially-liberal/economically conservative position -- the lower right quadrant in this figure -- is basically the Empty Quadrant of American politics -- except in green rooms 5/ pic.twitter.com/fNXcxLV9bg

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) January 29, 2019

otoh

ha that would be nice - let the plutocrats fight it out and make way for social democracy - the benefits of a fractured ruling class https://t.co/z9yoAAHgbT

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) January 29, 2019

LOL

I mean so far Schultz's entire platform appears to be "please don't tax my riches, we'll work something out," and I don't think that's going to work.

I thought his platform was "what's a billionaire to do to get some service around here?"

his platform is free $3 starbucks gift cards for everyone. it's a $1 billion annual program

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

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 29, 2019 11:07 AM (fifty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think the notion that schultz could split the right vote emanates from the belief that right-wingers truly want a moderate, low-tax guy with a calm and principled demeanor. i don't know what more they have to do to prove to you that is not true https://t.co/DBicCeZdsT

— Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) January 29, 2019

look at all the guys who ran in '16 for the republican nomination, and look who they chose. they already had the opportunity to pick a suit with a managerial disposition. they didn't want one

— Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) January 29, 2019

That doesn’t mean they all don’t want one and clearly such a constituency still exists they just don’t control the party anymore (and arguably if they had unified behind one candidate they would’ve beaten trump who was never able to capture a majority in the primaries).

no that's true. but i'm not at all confident his candidacy would be a good thing (or a wash) for the dem nominee.

it would be a bad thing for starbucks business, so hopefully he won't do it.

I am all for things that are bad for Starbucks and this guy has zero chance so yeah you go ahead and fuck up your career bro

yeah 'boycott starbucks because you hate trump' is one of those things that people could actually follow through with. there's probably not a more ideal brand for democrats to have that kind of stupid leverage over.

I'm sure he still has unvested exec comp left of course but he has nothing to do with starbucks anymore.

but yeah still bad for starbucks so whatever.

even if it doesn't hit his pocket that directly, he's gotta still have tons of personal ties to the top of the company. plus its brand is basically what he's running on.

Tax brackets will be renamed tall, grande, and venti