The Politics Thread

[DRW50]

How in the hell do we still barely have any results when the polls closed 5-6 hours ago?

 

The "improvements" in the caucuses this year were a huge shambles. 

 

More and more people have reasons to not even bother to vote. And sad to say, I can't blame them. 

[Chris B]

nevada doesn’t want what happened in Iowa to hit them so they’re slowly releasing the results to make sure their correct. In general I find caucuses stupid so I’m not understanding why this is a thing. 
 

As for the nomination, it looks like Biden may be second here. If he also does well in SC, that could carry him to Super Tuesday. This next debate these idiots need to band together and go after him. I also think a big problem is the moderate vote being split. Bernie is not winning by big margins overall. Pete and Amy need to drop out. Period. Pete and Amy have no path and are splitting the moderate vote. If they dropped out then Biden would easily be winning this nomination. With this many people in the race it’s easy for Bernie to slide through. He does have a base, it just isn’t large enough to win. Especially when he and his fans keep tellling people he doesn’t need their vote. They need more than his base to win. 
 

Russia loved Bernie because they know Trump will easily beat him. With voter suppression and the oppo research ready to come out, Bernie is done the second he gets the nomination. 

[DRW50]

 

It's impossible to say as of now but it seems Bernie may have done nearly as well as Biden in the black vote in Nevada. That doesn't bode well for South Carolina, although the voters in the party there are more conservative. 

 

All the moderates are frail in their own ways, which is why none of them are dropping out. I'm afraid it may be too late now.

 

I have a feeling, and I hope I'm wrong, Bernie will pretty much give up once he gets the nomination. His real battle will be over, and he will happily lose to Trump. 

[sivad40]

I had to laugh at this tweet.

[DRW50]

Considering how loathed and scandal-ridden he is, so did I.

[Khan]

More and more, I see a scenario where the independents and moderates break away entirely from the Democratic Party to form a party of their own.

 

Meanwhile...

 

“I have absolute confidence we can create a government based on compassion, based on love and based on truth, not what we have now of greed, corruption and lies.”

 

You know, that Bernie Sanders is nothing if not ironic!

[Wendy]

Guns 'N Roses did a cover of "Since I Don't Have You" back in the early '90s. Axl Rose being Axl Rose had to add in a line to the song that I think encompasses the whole Democratic position as of now:

 

"Yep, we're f-u-c-k-e-d."

[Chris B]

 

Biden still got around 40% of the black vote in Nevada. I think what is going to hurt him in SC where he polls second, is the split vote. If Amy and Pete dropped out now, Biden would easily win SC and he'd be in a better shot for Super Tuesday. Texas and Florida would complete the turnaround for Biden. The problem is, nobody is going to drop out. There isn't a leader who can go to an Amy or a Pete and tell them to stand down and run for Governor or Senate. They have absolutely no logical path to the nomination even if Biden and Bloomberg drop out, so it's just a shame they won't drop out so he can unite the moderate vote.

 

Bernie is gonna end up winning everything with 30-40% of the vote and then people gonna be looking crazy wondering why he isn't polling better in a head to head with Trump.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2020 by Chris B

[KristinG79]

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[DramatistDreamer]

What that Carole Myers tweet tells me is what I've already figured out in Iowa: voters lost interest in this primary race and are not coming out as they ought to.  The U.S. has always had a problem with turnout but this presidential primary season seems especially bad for the numbers.  I have my thoughts on why I think that is (and it would be observational speculation on my part, tbh). Suffice it to say, that I knew enthusiasm had dulled when the Culinary Union refused to endorse any of the current candidates.

 

At this point, I don't think Biden can take the black vote for granted. I don't think any of the candidates can take the black vote for granted. In addition to Bernie, the fact that Bloomberg seems to be suddenly picking up so many endorsements among various prominent figures across different political persuasions should be a cause for concern, imo. I hope I'm wrong but so much lacks promise about this election season so far. I really hope I'm wrong.

[marceline]

 

If he was going to replace Pence he needed to do it months ago.

 

Honestly I would prefer President Haley to President Pence.

[Khan]

At this point, I worry more about how a potential Bernie Sanders nomination might affect down-ballot races.  Sanders proved two years ago that his name and endorsement mean nothing, as all the candidates he'd backed lost in their respective contests.  Plus, the fact remains, we still don't have the Senate, and our hold on the House is shaky, too.  If Bernie were to become the nominee, there's a strong chance the Democrats could lose not just the Senate again, but also the House and the presidency as well; and if/when that happens, the party will be over, in more ways than one.

 

Which is why I can't take seriously Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar's claims that they are concerned about the direction this country has taken under the Donald Trump administration.  If they're as genuinely worried about this country as they say they are, then they need to exercise some common sense and get out of the damn race.  They've built up their respective brands enough to write their own tickets from here on out -- gubernatorial and senatorial races, network political analyst gigs, perhaps even future runs at the WH, you name it -- but this is so not their fight anymore.  The longer Buttigieg and Klobuchar stay in this game, the more they split the moderate vote, making the battle even tougher for Joe Biden, but more importantly, creating a path to the nomination for a divisive man (Sanders) who, I guarantee you, would not win against Trump in a general election.

 

In many respects, I like Buttigieg and Klobuchar, and I would gladly support either of them, if either of them had a real shot at becoming our next president.  However, I don't want to be sitting where I sit this time next year, looking down the path at a second Trump administration, where the GOP once again control all branches of government, and blaming those two in part(icular) for putting us there.

[Khan]

 

Mike Pence is precisely the kind of soulless brown-noser a demagogue like Donald Trump would want as his number-two.  IA that if Trump were going to replace Pence, then he needed to do so (and would have done so) a long time ago.

 

I really wonder how his left-leaning extended family members view Pence these days.  No doubt, they see an individual they no longer recognize.

[lovely_m]

 

Could Obama tell Amy and Pete to drop out?  I"m sure he has pull with the party still. 

 

He should also tell Bloomberg to stop using him in his ads or say he doesn't endorse Bloomberg.

 

Tom Steyer needs to drop out like yesterday.  If Biden doesn't have enough black voters to take Bernie down, it will Styer's fault.

 

I'm sad to say that I think the latino vote will help Bernie in Texas.

Edited February 23, 2020 by lovely_m

[DRW50]

 

 

Most likely the main reason Obama is staying quiet, beyond knowing his efforts would backfire, is because of Biden's frailty. At this point I don't really think Pete and Amy dropping out would even necessarily help Biden - he should, by all measures, be pulling away from Pete (Amy, other than New Hampshire and press hype, has mostly been a nonstarter), especially with the move to more diverse states, yet they were still relatively close in Nevada. 

 

If Steyer's results in Nevada are any indication, then polling may be vastly overstating his support. So that would be good for Biden in South Carolina, but when people seem to be seeking out so many alternatives to Biden, then  it suggests he just hasn't managed to win their support, and I'm not sure he would even if everyone dropped out and endorsed him.

 

I don't really believe most of the people running genuinely care about anything beyond entitlement and/or grifting. I think that 

Biden and Warren are the main exceptions, which is why I'm sad to see where they've ended up.