Juliajms

This is an interesting breakdown of how much money people are taking in. I wish we had more recent numbers, but it's something. https://www.politico.com/2020-election/president/democratic-primary/candidates/fundraising-and-campaign-finance-tracker/

I wonder how fundraising is going for Biden? I've seen questions about how much money his campaign has, but I haven't seen the numbers laid out.

That did annoy me at first, but I have to admit it changed the way I eat at restaurants. When you see those numbers staring back at you it can be hard to justify eating some of that stuff. Some of the soup at Panera is nearly 800 calories for pity's sake. None of that is here nor there though. I would absolutely vote for Bloomberg if he's the nominee. It would disgust me to have another billionaire president, but so be it, I'll take him over Bernie.

I can't defend JC, but this part was funny. Are we really sure Sanders can’t win? James Carville: Who the hell knows? But here’s what I do know: Sanders might get 280 electoral votes and win the presidency and maybe we keep the House. But there’s no chance in hell we’ll ever win the Senate with Sanders at the top of the party defining it for the public. Eighteen percent of the country elects more than half of our senators. That’s the deal, fair or not. So long as [Mitch] McConnell runs the Senate, it’s game over. There’s no chance we’ll change the courts, and nothing will happen, and he’ll just be sitting up there screaming in the microphone about the revolution. The purpose of a political party is to acquire power. All right? Without power, nothing matters.

But speaking of Carville he certainly doesn't sound all that high on the Democrats 2020 prospects in this interview. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/2/7/21123518/trump-2020-election-democratic-party-james-carville In fact he seems to think they are f*cking it up and I'm not sure he's wrong. I think he made some solid points, especially about Bernie Sanders. He's pretty funny on that topic. I've always liked his personality, but if the behind the scenes stuff is true that's obviously problematic.

Good Lord, if that isn't the truth. Let's just pray that if Biden has to go it's after the damn election.

The farther we get into this process the fewer of these people I actively want to vote for. I will, but it's more a vote against Trump than a vote for any of them.

It's the country that nearly half the voters either want or will tolerate. I've mostly come to accept that, even though it's stunning. Sadly, this is where Fox news, the internet and ignorance has brought us. I just saw that a doctor who warned people about the virus in China has just died of it after being arrested for telling people the truth. Now here we are punishing people for telling the truth. What could go wrong?

^ What a complete clusterf*ck. I have to admit it, I don't have confidence in the results we've been given. I certainly don't think there was a conspiracy against either of these candidates, I just think it comes down to utter incompetence. I want to slap whoever let this happen.

I agree. I think there was a time decades ago when it was nice for voters to get an intimate look at candidates via their interactions with small town locals. The country has changed so much in the last 40 years though. Not just in terms of race, but in terms of urbanization. I don't see how anyone can continue to justify letting these small places have an out-sized influence. Plus, most of what was real about seeing the candidates meet so many people and press the flesh has been lost anyhow. It has an air of reality TV about it now. You just know that images are being crafted and polished by consultants and it's all about image and perception. As for Mitt Romney, I don't see anyone who stands against Trump as a hero. It does make me happy that it wasn't a completely partisan vote however. It's like McCain and the healthcare vote, every once in awhile someone's conscious comes up for air, but doing the bare minimum right thing does not a hero make.

Well if he is, I wish he'd do it a bit faster.

That worries me too. Even though I live very close to Iowa, I'm not that familiar with the politics of the state. I would not have expected them to have enough people on the far left to support both Sanders and Warren as strongly as they did. I'm so eager to return to what I see as perceived safety it surprises me that other people aren't as well. It shocks me that so many people are up for another "revolution" or willing to take a chance on someone so inexperienced for that matter. Typical bias on my part I suppose.

It surprises me that both Warren and Sanders seem to have done better than Biden in IA.

Maybe this will be the final nail in the coffin when it comes to Iowa going first. I understand that people who have been covering elections forever have a certain nostalgia when it comes to IA and NH, but it's time to move on from these places getting the first crack at it.

Here's how I feel about it.

Yes. We can hope Biden has a firewall.

^ Good lord. It truly is like a strange cult. They need everyone to be true believers or they try to punish them. Yeah, let's put these people in charge.🙃 [!@#$%^&*]'em. Did you point out that you are nearly 30 years younger than Bernie? A Bernie supporter who bring up age in an argument. What a dimwit.

Got it. The sad thing is it wasn't hard for me to believe he could do those things and still be in the race.

Bernie did that? There is so much going on I missed it (or so many horrifying things are happening I'd forgotten it). Things just feel so out of control to me right now. At least one thing I can say about Biden is he seems to have a good heart. Maybe the most we can hope this time around is to get someone elected who is not going to try to actively hurt people. What a low bar, but here we are.

I would still choose Bernie over Trump. I agree he won't be able to get much of his domestic agenda through. That's a given, but I think we can hope he will stop the concentration camps on our border. That alone would be worth it to me. The travel ban would likely end. The misogyny would probably stay the same, but at least we wouldn't lose another SCOTUS or a POTUS who wants to end abortion rights. Then we have all the other federal judges that Trump could appoint if he gets four more years. No thanks. I would take Biden and Warren over Bernie though. The last thing we need to do is careen between right and left wing populism at this point. We really need to revert to the mean and that's basically Biden. There isn't a perfect candidate, but anyone but Trump works for me.

So Hillary said she won't commit to backing Sanders. He must have f*cked her over more than I realized. I knew there was bad blood but d*mn.

I think at this point we just have to hope to all that is holy that Biden can take on Trump. It's obviously not going to be anything like a fair fight with the voter suppression efforts going on.

I agree. Getting bills passed will likely be just as hard as it was for Obama, unless by some miracle we win the Senate. At this pint stopping our downfall is all I care about. Sure, I'll vote for Warren in the primary if she is still in it, but I will vote for the nominee whoever it is when the time comes. These Bernie Bro types are out of their minds and they clearly don't care who they hurt. They will flat out tell you they want things to go to hell so that other people will suffer.

Normally I wouldn't quote him, but my lord. Have we ever been cursed with a worse leader? If we have at least they didn't have nukes at their fingertips.

Yes. I am so sad about this. The amount of destabilization and civilian death our government has caused in the middle east is unconscionable. What is happening right now is nothing short of a pissing contest. I'd love to hear one person in the administration explain the goal. Blackmail and division possibly. I'm far from a ME expert, but I imagine the economic consequences of taking out Dubai would have far reaching effects to say the least.