Pete Buttigieg’s recent popularity surge in Iowa and New Hampshire has many speculating that President Trump could face a Democratic ticket in 2020 that he doesn’t want and fears the most — the South Bend, Ind., mayor and another candidate recently in the spotlight, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
Despite what the “experts” might say, it’s certainly possible. Like weather forecasters and economists, political pundits often are proved embarrassingly wrong. Voters from both parties have a tendency to recalibrate rather quickly, and quite unexpectedly, toward candidates they believe actually might have a chance of winning.
In 2004, for example, Democratic voters threw the preening pundits a curveball when, during the primary process, they suddenly tapped on the brakes, took a much longer and harder look at front-runner Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, and turned in the slightly more “establishment” direction of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Four years later, Democratic primary voters most certainly went counterintuitive again when they bypassed the pundit-approved and -predicted Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York for the relatively unknown Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
The instincts of those primary voters almost won the Democratic Party the White House in 2004 and for sure got them a very popular two-term president in 2008.
In 2016, Republican primary voters made fools of an army of political pundits and pollsters who — even very late into the primary process — declared continually that Donald Trump had no chance of getting the Republican nomination.
Once he became the nominee, many of those same “experts” and Never Trumpers told us he had zero chance of beating Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Coming up on the end of the third year of his presidency, President Trump still delights in reminding those pundits and pollsters how earth-shatteringly wrong they were.
Today, many of these same political strategists tell us the Democratic nominee most likely will be either former Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
OK, unless the voters say otherwise — again.
As one who was involved in three winning presidential campaigns, I have watched the ever-evolving Democratic primary campaign for 2020 with growing interest. Over the course of the past year, I’ve discussed with a number of friends and political operatives from both parties that the two Democrats who should strike the most fear in Trump are Buttigieg and Gabbard.
Gabbard has been in the news lately after Clinton viciously and unfairly attacked her. Even though Gabbard has broken a number of “glass ceilings” and served her country with honor as a member of the United States Army in Iraq and Kuwait, Clinton hinted that she is an asset of the Russians who is being “groomed as a third-party candidate.”
An asset of the Russians? Truly despicable.
Gabbard fired back at Clinton, who had no proof to offer for her smear: “Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain.”
As irony would have it, Clinton unintentionally gave Gabbard just the boost she needed to potentially keep her going deep into the primary process.
This primary campaign — like the one in 2008 — is starting to also showcase another young, smart, well-spoken and relatively inexperienced candidate from the Midwest: Mayor Pete. He began his political career as a volunteer for Obama in 2007, before joining the Navy Reserve and serving the nation with distinction in Afghanistan. He’s also openly and proudly gay.
Because of that, many are asking the expected question: Is America ready to elect a gay president? The answer, for me at least, is that America is more than ready to do so, just as the nation was more than ready to elect a black president and is more than ready to elect a female president.
As Obama demonstrated, it still comes down to the candidate — can he or she connect with the American people? And Democratic voters finally are paying attention to the connections that Gabbard and Buttigieg can make, she as a more centrist candidate and he more left of center.
As a package, those two candidates, with their various skill sets and experiences, do speak to a great many communities and demographics across the country. Two young veterans who served their nation in Iraq and Afghanistan now are catching the attention of American voters.
If I were in the Trump White House or campaign, that ticket would send chills down my spine.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign...t-want-in-2020
Who is Michael Bloomberg?
AFP: Brendan Smialowski/File
One of the richest men in the world is preparing to run for president. Planet America’s John Barron asks who is Michael Bloomberg and is he even a Democrat?
Good video on whom he is and his chances in the Presidential Race ... https://tinyurl.com/wcxlqrw
Biden is in front everywhere.... obviously ditching the Malarkey has had a profound effect.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep...tion-6730.html
anyway, don't think Biden can win against Trump
Bloomberg might though, probably the best candidate now
the impeachment process might be enough to scare off Trump, so Mission Accomplished by the Democrats
Bloomberg is in because the corporate dems are scared silly of Warren, and Sanders too. They don't think those two can win against Trump, and if one of them actually does win it will be a disaster for the elites. They are counting on tons more free money from the gov't. like they've gotten these past several decades.
(Good idea, then no need to prepare for his impeachment...)
Biden signals to aides that he would serve only a single term
Advisers weigh the merits of a one-term pledge by the 77-year-old former vice president.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...le-term-082129
IMO it would be worse for the country for him to be re-elected than it was for him to be elected in the first place....but here we are.
How Trump wins in 2020
President Trump's re-election campaign wields more money, staff, infrastructure and advanced digital operations than the Democratic competitors — and a fan base that hears "impeachment" as a rallying cry.
Driving the news: Over a 90-minute PowerPoint session at a hotel in Arlington, Va., on Thursday, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign manager Brad Parscale and other senior Trump campaign officials presented dozens of national political reporters their theory of how Trump can win again in 2020.
- The briefing took place as the House Judiciary Committee debated the articles of impeachment against Trump — setting up his near-certain impeachment by the full House next week.
The top takeaways:
1. Crushing the Never-Trumpers: They've"remade" the state parties in "the president's image," per one official — with 42 state party chair elections since the 2018 midterms. The Trump campaign isn't tolerating anti-Trump officials in state party leadership positions in 2020.
- The delegates team, Bill Stepien and Justin Clark, veterans of Trump's 2016 campaign and the White House, spent months ensuring that Trump loyalists command key party positions across the country, muscling out those cool to him.
- The campaign studied how modern-day incumbent presidents lost re-election. An important "commonality" was that the losing incumbent's team didn't pay enough attention to delegates and had to fight drawn-out primary campaigns, per a senior campaign official..
2. "New math": Tiny counties traditionally overlooked by candidates helped deliver Trump his 2016 victories in states like Wisconsin (where the smallest 48 counties = 22% of the statewide vote) and Pennsylvania (where the 45 smallest counties = 20% of the statewide vote), senior officials said.
- They think they can work that dynamic next year in Minnesota, which Trump narrowly lost last time.
- The campaign also sees Trump's grip on the party's message and the retirement of more old-guard Republicans as ways to redefine the party and appeal to new voters.
- Kushner said: "I was not a Republican. Now I'm a Republican. I think the Republican Party is growing now that people like me feel comfortable being part of it."
- They say they see a path to improve Trump's low standing with black voters by focusing on strong economic numbers and criminal justice reform.
3. "The DJT Disengager": This is another focus for the campaign. These are voters who remain enthusiastic about Trump but didn't vote in the 2018 midterms when Trump wasn't on the ballot.
- The Trump campaign says it has identified nearly 9 million of these voters and will throw everything at ensuring they vote next November.
4. Making the best of his unpopularity: Impeachment has been good for business, advisers said.
- The campaign has been raking in millions through text message and online fundraising, as we've previously reported, selling "Bull-Schiff" t-shirts and other impeachment merchandise on the Trump online store.
- Trump has been telling audiences variations on the idea they'll have "no choice" but to vote for him even if they don't like him personally — because his policies help them or Democrats' plans will hurt them.
- Through a recent commercial, the campaign is putting a positive spin on the reality that more than half of American voters consistently say they don't like him. The campaign is betting many of them will vote for him anyway.
5. The machine: They're now trying to turn a single Trump rally into a "four or five day experience for that location," an official said, by building in an extra stop by Vice President Mike Pence, local media hits from surrogates, targeted fundraising drives and volunteer outreach.
- Trump rallies have become massive data capturing opportunities, more sophisticated than in 2016, built for message testing as well as churning out new donors and volunteers.
- They say they already have 300,000 volunteers, and that their list of supporters has grown by nearly 200 percent since 2016.
https://www.axios.com/how-trump-wins...31e17e83c.html
The one thing about baldy orange cunto is that he's going to get both sets of voters out big time, and that's the Republican's worst nightmare.
Forget Biden, Poco and Sanders, these are all hotshots crippled by their own egos; the only one with any chance of upsetting Trump's second term is Bloomberg, a self-funding fresh face in an otherwise rabidly boring lineup.
In March this year, Bloomberg announced that he would not be running for president in 2020, while encouraging the Dems to move away from soundbites and political fantasy to nominate the person in the strongest position to defeat Trump. Over the next eight months he took stock, looked at the best crap the Dems were offering, realised they are scamming the electorate with same old same old empty promises that only the truly deranged might swallow, and decided to throw his hat into the ring.
If anyone could beat Trump it is Bloomberg, not saying he will win, it would be uphill all the way, but thick skinned as they are if the Dems nominate anyone else they have only themselves to blame for another 4 years of humiliation.
If Bloomberg gets the nod ... who is his running mate?
Big egos, this lot?
Not really, pikers compared to Trump-o the Clown
Biden is old school pol who says whatever to get elected (it has to poll well), milquetoast candidate.
Warren is a phony who is just trying catch the progressive bug that many have been pushing for since before 2016.
Sanders is the real deal, been walking the walk since before he became mayor 40 some years ago. Only guy in the crowded field worth his salt.
strange debate tonight....for most of the evening they were talking past each other. but then came the 'wine cave' and health care... and things got heated.
biden got off the stage more or less unscathed--the goal for any front runner.
klobuchar was aggressive and made sure she got a lot of talking time...most importantly she made some good points. it will be interesting to see if it reflects in the polls.
warren came off OK. i don't think this performance is going to change anyone's opinion--pro or con.
buttigieg took a lot of shots tonight, and i think the 'wine cave' might stick.
bernie seemed in good form...it's possible that he might have become a better candidate since his heart attack
steyer needs to drop out. he adds nothing.
yang also should drop out, but at least he's real.
iowa is in 6 weeks.
"peteswinecave.com" redirects to bernie's campaign donation page.
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,"
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