Day 747 Wednesday January 23, 2019 846 Days to Go
It’s time to look at who is running for President. Currently, on the Democratic side there are eight people who have formally entered and a total of twenty who might, of which there are the “Four B’s” to consider: Bernie, Beto, Booker, and someone else. I’ll think of it.
Of the eight who are currently in, two I have never heard of:
Rep. Gabbard of Hawaii,
John Delaney former Congressman from Maryland.
Rep Tulsi Gabbard is from Samoa. She has some history with anti-gay LGBT rights via a group her dad founded and at the time was a backer of gay conversion therapy.
John Delaney is a business man who ran for Congress and won. He was the only businessman who actually created companies that went public and were traded on the New York Stock Exchange. One was a company that made loans to smaller health care institutions; ones ignored by larger banks. That company got bought out. He then founded a company that made commercial loans to over 5,000 small and medium sized companies. It too, got listed and later bought out. He comes from New Jersey but now lives in Potomac, Maryland. So he’s a rich white guy with Democratic bona fides. Interesting.
I don’t see either of these folks making a dent in the field.
Someone who will be and has been talked about, but won’t have much impact is Richard Ojeda. He’s the big muscled blue collar talking guy from West Virginia, a former state senator. Nice guy, tough talk but lacking experience and a national presence.
This narrows the current field to five. Let’s go bottom to top.
Julian Castro, former HUD Secretary for Obama, comes from a very active political tradition. Has a twin brother. Probably the biggest problem for him is he’s Latino and he has a twin. Which is which? Does it matter? I’m not sure. I think if he and his brother teamed up and did some fantastic stuff in the next few years we’d really have something, but now? He’s interesting and inspiring, but…
There are currently three women Senators that have announced: Gillibrand, Harris, and Warren. Why are they running? Because Hillary kicked the door wide open. Let’s deal with them. Gillibrand led the charge to oust Al Franken from the Senate. It turned out it was a trumped up charge leveled at him by a woman who was promoting her news show and for whom Franken had worked with on a USO tour. Her backer? Roger Stone. Then some highly doctored photos came out and one woman said Franken put his arm around her waist in a photo. Gillibrand went off and wanted him out. He left without a trial in the Senate. As far as I’m concerned that it for Gillibrand. Warren? I like her. She’s been building a good ground game I am told. She’s been attacked and made fun of by Trump and the far right. But she has worked to stop big companies and the government from ripping off average folks. She’s got a good shot. Then there’s Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator and former prosecutor. Some say her time as prosecutor will hurt her, not sure why that is being said. I’ve liked what I’ve seen of her on the Senate committees. What really interests me about her was a comment one of the commentators said about her. She’s got the magic, like Jack Kennedy. I haven’t seen that yet, but I’ll keep an eye out.
This leaves one declared candidate Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend. He, to me, is the most interesting. He ran for head of the Democratic Party and lost to Clinton backed Tom Perez. At that time John Dean said that you want someone to head your party who looks like the kind of people you are trying to get to vote for your candidates. Buttigieg fits the bill. (So does Beto but we’ll get to him in a moment.) I liked Buttigieg then and I like him even more now. When he declared he released a video saying why he was running. Essentially, it said okay you’ve had your turn now it’s our time.
I think he’s right. I think he’s got the magic.
We’ll see.
Let’s go over some that may enter the race, notably The Four B’s:
Biden – nice guy, not smart enough, made too many gaffs.
Bernie – old, hasn’t polled that well this time, which suggests his appeal last time was “not Hillary.”
Booker – interesting guy, doesn’t come across as that ready.
Beto – young, has the magic, but not enough experience.
Who’s left? Lots of folks. None seem all that relevant. Maybe, Bloomberg. Maybe, Hickenlooper. But I don’t see any of the others that might run being any better than those who are running.
Who will be the Republican candidate? If Trump is or is not in jail he will be their candidate and the Republican party, the far right, and the Russians will do whatever they can to get him re-elected. All for their own selfish reasons.
846 Days to Go
PS Here’s the lineup.
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