Serious 2020 Democratic Primary Thread

[MikeDawg]

Beto looks so adorable in this picture.

I feel bad that Kirsten is considered lower tier than Tulsi and Hickenlooper. :( Poor gal.

I think Kamala has a nice opportunity here to cut into the Warren/Bernie base as the most left-wing candidate on that stage (with more than 5 minutes of likely speaking time).

Night 1 will be kind of interesting. I'm curious to see if Bernie goes on the offensive, because I'm not sure he has much ground to stand on. Attacking Warren seems like a recipe for disaster, and nobody else on that stage is polling well enough for it to be worth it. My guess: 2 hours of stump speech, then a substantial dip in the polls (with Warren/Buttigieg getting a bump).

This field needs to (officially) slim down real fast. The fact that Yang, Booker, and Beto hold the 2nd tier slots says a lot.

Marrianne got robbed. First of all, she should have a slot on both nights. But more importantly, she's scored better in some polls than even Booker and Amy, iirc. She shouldn't be relegated to the very end slots. :(

Castro looks like a Skyrim character.

 

[Machoke]

Best case scenario for night 2 would be Yang and Gabbard ripping into Harris and Biden and making them lose support. But uh... Yang's too polite. And Gabbard's prob gonna get a dumb question again like "Are you homophobic"

Actually wait I think DeBlasio might be the one to do it. He was pretty gutsy last debate and called people (Beto lol) out successfully

 

[DetroitLolcat]

This is trashy.

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This is trashier.

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Bernie really needs a new public relations team. His 2016 staff was so much better.

This is trashy

 

[Shrug]

it's going to be harris. this is hell

 

[Machoke]

it's going to be harris. this is hell

How do we opt out lmao

 

[MikeDawg]

Not as dramatic as the headline makes it sound, but still lol considering this is one of his main issues, and he can't even deliver within his own campaign:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...6df9f4-a966-11e9-9214-246e594de5d5_story.html

“I am struggling financially to do my job, and in my state, we’ve already had 4 people quit in the past 4 weeks because of financial struggles,” wrote one field organizer. Another employee said his co-workers “shouldn’t have to get payday loans to sustain themselves."

He pays Jeff Weaver and management exorbitant salaries, has the highest burn rate on media, and has some of the best fundraising numbers-- yet he still pays his field staff less than he's demanding for every other American worker. Now he's trying to negotiate $42,000/year, which, with the 60 hours minimum that they're working... is $14.58, still less than $15/hour.

It's not feasible to make the hours shorter, but it's more than a little outrageous that his campaign is as guilty of what they're accusing everyone else of doing.

 

[MikeDawg]

This is trashy

The difference is that Bernie is capitalizing on her trauma to gain donations. Instead of just graciously boosting her campaign using his massive social media following and donor network, he's taking 50% of the cut in exchange for the advertisement.

It's one thing to say, "Trump said racist things, so give us money." That's just typical fundraising off current events.

It's another to take advantage of a specific targetted person for the free "I'm charitable" clout and still take money for it. The tacky part is the double dipping and explicitly using a POC's trauma for financial gain and pretending it's just authentic good will.

 

[MikeDawg]

Alcohol and w for ed has taught me that mariiane is the obvious 1st choice for any progressive. All the love with none of the bullshit populism. Especially yood at 17:00 and on
What a brilliant take on reparations and love
Wh

 

[Ampharos]

The difference is that Bernie is capitalizing on her trauma to gain donations. Instead of just graciously boosting her campaign using his massive social media following and donor network, he's taking 50% of the cut in exchange for the advertisement.

It's one thing to say, "Trump said racist things, so give us money." That's just typical fundraising off current events.

It's another to take advantage of a specific targetted person for the free "I'm charitable" clout and still take money for it. The tacky part is the double dipping and explicitly using a POC's trauma for financial gain and pretending it's just authentic good will.

You understand she probably agreed to this ahead of time, yes?

 

[fanyfan]

TIL expanding Medicare coverage to millions and launching a public option is 42x worse than the worst terrorist attack in US history.

I just have to point out that no, he was not saying it was worse than 9/11 and you know that he wasn’t saying that. Biden’s own team said that the best case scenario is 97% coverage. That leaves 3% of the us, a pretty big country, uninsured. Using the estimates that the Center for American Progress uses (they’re very neolib) that approximately 1 death occurs for every 830 uninsured people per year. Then, you just do the math. If best case scenario 125,000 unnecessary deaths from lack of heath insurance over ten years is your goal, we just have huge fundamental disagreements on this issue and I can’t help you.

 

[Laurel]

Anyone but bernie or biden

 

[Ampharos]

I'm hoping Warren's seriously challenged by someone at Debate 2 (tm) because she's still my personal frontrunner and she basically skated through debate 1 without having to answer to anyone.

Like, I think it's important to see how a politician handles being forced off-script. I think a lot of the depth of thought behind their ideas only really becomes evident when they're held accountable and forced to elaborate on their positions. I think that's part of what drives me to like Warren over Bernie thus far - while I respect the hell out of Bernie and what he's been fighting for since approximately 1642, I feel he's too quick to revert to stump-speech mode anytime someone presses him on a topic that's maybe outside his comfort area. Whether or not it's intended, I feel like it sometimes gives off the impression that he's significantly less prepared on those issues than on healthcare or income inequality.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not particularly concerned about Warren's level of preparation - God knows the woman's got policy chops for days - but I am curious to see what an out of her comfort zone Warren looks like, given that she was very... ~above it all~ at debate 1.

unrelated: lol they put harris and biden on the same stage again

 

[Bughouse]

There’s no “they put” x and y on the same debate stage. The drawing of who is in what group is random. It’s also done by the network not the dnc.

 

[TheValkyries]

"random." Sure.

 

[Bughouse]

How is one supposed engage with people who believe literally everything including how 20 people were divided into two groups of 10 is a conspiracy lmao

The process last time involved separating the candidates into 2 groups (I think the top 8, who were over 2% in polling averages, and the bottom 12, and then drawing 4 and 6 from each of those two groups to make groups of 10.)

This time it's 3 groups. The top 4 (Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris), the next 6 (Booker, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Castro, O'Rourke, and Yang), and the remaining 10, again split by their polling averages.

Then 2 from the top 4, 3 from the middle 6, and 5 from the bottom 10 were all randomly drawn and combined to make 10.

The odds of Harris matching up against Biden in this method is literally 1/3. OOooooooh such a conspiracy.

Moreover, this draw was actually presented LIVE on CNN in a ridiculously overdone spectacle (per the CNN norm lol).
https://www.mediaite.com/election-2...boxes-to-determine-democratic-debate-line-up/

 

[Myzozoa]

even after 2016 dems still aren't paying attention to staging, they rly would leave something like that up to chance and be like 'w.e.'

and also these debates are such a spectacle, 10 ppl dont debate each other, 2 maybe 3 ppl at the most can debate each other.

 

[Ampharos]

I realize stage draw was random lol

was just a turn of phrase

 

[faint]

Anyone but bernie or biden

I'm curious to know why? Outside of both of them being old and white I don't exactly see why one would exclude them both.

 

[Laurel]

I'm curious to know why? Outside of both of them being old and white I don't exactly see why one would exclude them both.

I dont like either for different reasons

 

[TheValkyries]

I like being called out for questioning the claim of random only to be shown it is vaguely random in the sense that it was engineered to be “random” but still have desirable grouping outcomes. I’m glad they decided that their main Billings really could be decided by coinflips so long as the main Billings remained in tact for both nights. How truly impartial. My mistake for doubting.

 

[Shrug]

the speculation that it was rigged comes from the draw being unmissably good for harris and warren. warren because bernie is not a particularly fleet debater, meaning warrens smoothness and range gives cnn msnbc nyt etc the means necessary to both create and then gas the flames of the bernie fade. harris gets another chance to go up against americans handsy dementia uncle. if theres anything prosecutors are good at its going after the vulnerable, and shes about to deliver some mikedawg-licked cop boot right into his stumbling ribcage on national television. maybe she even wont walk it back this time.

 

[MikeDawg]

the important endorsements

Edit:

fuck

 

[faint]

the important endorsements

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Edit:

fuck

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Are you sure they're not just a photo with her?

 

[tcr]

no faint you dumb fucking idiot you retard theyre very clearly sending a political message. celebrities dont take photos with just anyone

 

[orch]

the important endorsements

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Edit:

fuck

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Wow! Some dumb celebrities took pictures with some politician. Let's think that it's somehow important!