These are the candidates Democrats are considering for 2020. I prefer candidates with executive experience for this role, so I’d say maybe Hickenlooper.
Joe Biden, former Vice President
Cory Booker, New Jersey Senator
Julian Castro, former HUD Secretary
Andrew Cuomo, New York Governor
Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles Mayor
Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Senator
Kamala Harris, California Senator
Eric Holder, former Attorney
GeneralJohn Hickenlooper, Colorado Governor
Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Senator
Deval Patrick, former Massachusetts Governor
Bernie Sanders, Vermont Senator
Tom Steyer, Environmental and Trump Impeachment advocate
Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Senator
Oprah Winfrey, Media Entrepreneur
None of the above – I support Donald
Trump
Clarissa's Blog 
I like Kamala Harris. I think she centrist enough to actually win. Her policy points are democratic enough to get folks fired up (so long as Bernie doesn’t get involved), and she has a military background that would appeal to many conservatives. Also, she’s junior enough that she doesn’t have the baggage of so many of the other candidates.
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I don’t know much about her but I remember that jacobin.ru really hated her. Which means she is a worthy candidate. Whoever they hate, I like.
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“that would appeal to many conservatives.”
When will this myth of the moderate Republican die? Dude, they’ll never vote for the democratic nominee no matter how centrist she is.
And I really can’t believe people are still saying stuff like “she is centrist enough to win”. Being a centrist is a liability for democratic candidates, not a badge of honor.
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I’m not sure that the categories of moderate and centrist are very useful any more. I’ll be happy with anybody who doesn’t think that an electoral program should consist of pseudo-progressive slogans and nothing else. Don’t tell me that black lives matter. Tell me specifically what you will do in terms of the justice system reform, housing, education, etc that will help racial justice. Don’t tell me about war on women or women’s marches. Tell me about a specific plan to make paid parental leave a reality.
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In the general election, Independents outnumber both Rs and Ds. Neither far left nor far right appeal to Independents. Bernie ran a smart campaign that appealed to Independents, and lost some on the far left as a result, but an extreme liberal simply won’t win, and I don’t want another four years of Trump.
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I agree with Vic. If it doesn’t speak to regular, run-of-the-mill folks, it’s doomed.
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Vic is right. If the Democrats are stupid enough to run a far-left candidate in the general presidential election, the Republicans will win in a cake-walk. When extreme liberals like Michelle Goldberg go on the MSNBC talk shows and insist that the Democratic Party needs to take a sharp turn to the left, they’re preaching to a very small choir that doesn’t even represent the most Democrats, let alone enough general voters to have a chance in a national election.
Sure, Sanders is “very popular” — in his home state and with his own fervent base.
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If far-left meant anything but “in favor of turning every aspect of our lives into a version of Melissa McEwan’s comment section,” I’d be very interested to see what it looked like. But I’m not seeing any far left that isn’t a constant bickering over who’s more oppressed by whose terminology.
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Harris would lose big in the Rust Belt. I don’t think she’d be a good choice at all.
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Gillibrand for me.
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I like her postal banking legislation she recently introduced.
“The bill brings to Congress for the first time a policy idea that has already won the support of liberal economists and anti-poverty activists: Turning the nation’s sprawling network of U.S. Postal Service facilities into places where working-class and low-income Americans who lack adequate access to commercial banking can obtain low-cost, short-term loans.
The central goal of the bill is to replace risky financial products like payday loans, which can trap borrowers in prolonged cycles of debt, with regulated alternatives.”
She supports Medicare For All. She’s less insane than Kamala Harris on Israel. She supports a government-backed jobs guarantee program, a position so popular that Cory Booker (noted centrist and lover of wall st) followed her lead immediately.
She’s not afraid to actually lead.
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Yeah, the postal banking idea is really great. I’m all for that. It would do more for racial and class justice than a thousand tours with grieving mothers.
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I would love to hear more about the candidates I’m not familiar with like Hickenlooper. I don’t know anything about Tom Steyer except he’s a hedge fund owner, which is a substantial drawback.
Nothing matters unless control of the House and Senate change…first. I don’t care if the goddamn reincarnation of LBJ & FDR makes it into office; nothing good will happen if a party of lunatics controls the legislative branch. And I’m sorry — I grew up in a socially conservative home and my father has contributed to Republican candidates in the past. It’s just as accurate to say the party left me a long time ago as it was that I changed.
Honestly, my attention is more toward the local races. I do not want my current governor to become the next senator from Florida, for example.
My low info take:
Assuming that Trump or Pence is still in office, I sense none of these people are charismatic and media savvy enough to win. Are they even aggressive enough in terms of dealing with legislative dirty tricks? It would be folly I think to compete on “experience” even though that’s sorely needed.
I would dearly love to see evidence otherwise. I know people who loathe Trump but love Pence and they’re not evangelical; just Republicans.
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If the Democrats don’t manage to take the office from Trump in 2020, it will really be what the comedienne said. It’s a party that can lose to Joe Pedophile neo-Nazi by 12 points. A party that can accomplish this feat should go die in shame.
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It’s fairly rare for presidents to go one term though. Clinton, Bush II, and Obama were all two termers. I am thinking Trump will get reelected. (Unless he decides he doesn’t want to run for a second term).
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There are very strong parallels between 2016 and 1976
short story:
Hillary – Ford
Bernie – Reagan
Trump – Carter
There are suggestions that Trump (trying and failing to redirect his party to populism) will be quite vulnerable to a challenge from Sanders (if he can get the nomination).
There’s a lot that I don’t like at this blog, but he makes a great case for Bernie being able to deliver on Trump’s promises (which he can’t deliver on) and setting the agenda away from neocon neoliberalism.
http://akinokure.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-disintegration-of-gop-during-18-and.html
http://akinokure.blogspot.com/2018/04/with-gop-ers-not-campaigning-as.html
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I’d be extremely happy if Democrats became the party that says “globalization comes at an enormous cost and we want at least to slow it down a bit.” Very, very happy. I’m not seeing that occurring any time soon. All we have right now is Democrats saying that they appeal to identities that are not as vicious and scary as the ones that Republicans appeal to. And it’s absolutely true. So that’s the difference. But they both eat at the same neoliberal trough and are not in any hurry to abandon it.
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Actually, all of the Republicans I’ve asked (just myself — almost all of my friends are likable but clueless Democrats) think Pence would be a significantly worse president than Trump.
Trump has no political or moral bearings and is, cynically or unconsciously, letting the Republican Party ethos pull him inexorably into conservative action on issues that matter, like judges, taxes, national defense, and immigration.
Pence is a true-believer fanatic religious conservative who might seriously try to turn back the clock on settled issues like abortion and gay rights, school prayer, the teaching of creation mythology, etc.
No thanks! I’ll take Trump over him any day.
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Actually, all of the Republicans I’ve asked (just myself — almost all of my friends are likable but clueless Democrats) think Pence would be a significantly worse president than Trump….
Pence is a true-believer fanatic religious conservative who might seriously try to turn back the clock on settled issues like abortion and gay rights, school prayer, the teaching of creation mythology, etc.
Interesting!
I thought being a Republican meant comfort or at least indifference to all of the above culture war crap in favor of positive tax cuts. If anything I thought this Republican Congress would’ve shoved Pence in there by now, since he would do exactly what Trump is already doing but is probably more palatable personally to those Republican congress members and appear more focused.
[Which is why I don’t think the Democrats will impeach Trump’s ridiculousness ass even if they somehow manage to flip both the House and Senate.]
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The sincerely religious do have an actual problem with the moral relativism upon which an acceptance of fluidity feeds. So yeah, nobody wants any real power to go to Pence.
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I’m mostly concerned about who can win. (As long as the choice is reasonable. I don’t consider Oprah to be a reasonable choice on any level.) And I like Kamala Harris too but she’s already been smeared by the Bernie patrol and they’ve already proven that they will sit out elections, consequences be damned. I honestly don’t think that crowd will vote for a woman. I think maybe Julian Castro has a good shot at winning. He can potentially turn out the Hispanic vote and is youngish and eloquent.
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I also like Gillibrand. I just truly don’t think a woman can win the presidency at this point in our history.
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Oh, it’s this person: https://www.google.com/amp/s/clarissasblog.com/2017/12/20/soviet-rhetoric/amp/
No, thanks. She’ll just sloganeer and I can’t stand any of that.
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Or this:
“Hardworking men and women deserve not only job security, but also a paycheck when they need to take time off to care for a loved one.”
What does that even mean? How can a politician provide “job security”?
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That’s exactly what a government-backed jobs guarantee program is. I think it’s a great idea. Companies like Walmart and Amazon will need to reevaluate the oppressive working conditions they subject their workers to, or risk losing those workers (who only stay because they don’t have a choice).
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Well, everyone will sloganeer. But I just don’t think Gillibrand will win. As Shakti mentioned, we need somebody with some media presence. And she doesn’t have that star quality factor. (Or at least not for an electorate that hates seeing women in positions of authority.) That’s why I keep coming back to Julian Castro. People talked about his speech at the Democratic Convention for Obama’s second term for weeks. He fired everyone up. That’s the sort of presence Democrats need.
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Obama was completely unknown on the eve of his first campaign. So even if it’s a completely unknown candidate, enthusiasm can be whipped up fast. So I’m not worried about that aspect.
On the local level, a fellow came to speak to our union meeting yesterday and he said that even though he is a Republican, he’s begging us to do all we can to defeat Rauner. Because Rauner is so bad for education that you don’t even have to be a democrat to hate him. And I have to say, that did make me more enthusiastic for Pritzker.
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Obama was completely unknown on the eve of his first campaign
Not true. He spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He made quite an impression. Also Obama was charismatic and had media savvy. Also he won his very first elected office by getting a more popular established candidate kicked off the ballot by questioning some of her signatures.
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Even I had never heard his name before the campaign. And let’s agree most people are not as into politics as I am.
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I am also good with Gillibrand. I just think she has too much baggage. The thing both Obama and Trump have in common is the perception that they’re outsiders and that they can promise change. So anyone who has more than one or two terms in the Senate I think is screwed.
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Yes. Enthusiasm can be whipped up quickly but only for the right candidate. Hillary Clinton never whipped up that enthusiasm. Neither did John Kerry. Obama and Bill Clinton easily did. To some extent, Sanders did but he has way too many strikes against him (age, socialism) to make him viable in the general election. But this is all to say that the Dems need somebody with star power this election cycle (but who is still an actual politician).
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“Sanders did but he has way too many strikes against him”
Poll after poll confirms that he is still the most popular politician in the country.
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Not so much. Biden is.
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Warren.
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What do you think the chances are Warren will get any support nationally?
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Booker is the former mayor of NJ’s largest city. Drawbacks: he’s black and likely to be portrayed as an Obama clone, and takes money from Big Pharma. Cuomo came up with an amazing solution for education funding in NY, and got both parties to buy into it. Will that enable him to speak to the rest of the country? Don’t know. Biden has a strong following. Bernie is Bernie, always liked him. Hickenlooper’s ability to motivate grass roots is uncertain. The rest — regardless of how good they are as people — are probably losers to Trump. The women will be protrayed as Hillary clones, and that’s a huge liability.
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I’ll vote for whomever Democrats put up, as long as it’s not a complete identity freak, but right now, not a single one of these candidates is exciting to me. And by exciting I mean somebody I’d want to go out and organize for.
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You forgot to include Mark Zuckerberg and Dwayne (“The Rock”) Johnson on your list. 🙂
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That’s why I prefer Booker. I suspect that ‘Obama clone’ will be the strongest visceral argument the Democrats can possibly make, and at this point I don’t give a shit about the specific person, just as long as it’s not a ravening incompetent grotesque.
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Even I had never heard his name before the campaign. And let’s agree most people are not as into politics as I am.
In those days I followed politics much more closely and emotionally.
I guess you didn’t watch that national convention, because my mother saw it and said she was convinced Obama would be President one day.
The Illinois Senate race garnered national attention, mainly because Jack Ryan dropped out after his divorce files from Jeri Ryan, best known as Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager came out and Alan Keyes ran. Obama got lucky.
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I don’t know who I’d choose from this list. My top choice is still Steve Bullock, but I’m not sure he can make it through a primary. This list leaves me fairly underwhelmed, although there’s people on it who I like okay.
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