Main Paineframe posted:

Okay, I'm officially putting an end to talk in this thread about who you'll vote for in the general election. Yes, I know that each and every one of the thread regulars have primary candidates that they really hate. But nothing seems to cause more meltdowns here than talking about what happens after the primary, which is kind of out of scope for this thread anyway.

You can have all the nightmares you want about what happens if it ends up being your least favorite candidate vs Trump, but don't talk about them here or you're going to cat jail. Talk about it in some other thread, like this one.

quote:

Summary of the candidates _{courtesy of Main Paineframe, to whom all complaints and hate mail should be directed}


Cory Booker

Former mayor of Newark and current Senator of New Jersey. His hands-on approach as mayor got him plenty of good press for things like personally saving a person from a burning house, but that's largely been eclipsed by some dicey political stances, most famously when he bucked the Obama campaign to defend Romney and Bain Capital from the Obama campaign's cruel attacks against private equity funds. He's liberal on social issues, but conservative on most economic issues, and his close relationship to Wall Street and the healthcare industry is unlikely to win many friends on these forums.

In the primary so far, he's mostly campaigned as a moderate, resisting Medicare for All and talking up the virtues of compromise and bipartisan cooperation. However, he's recently drawn some attention by attacking Biden for talking too much about the virtues of compromise and bipartisan cooperation with segregationists and white supremacists. His debate performance was generally considered to be solid, but not stunning.



Bill de Blasio

Mayor of New York City. His record has been pretty center-left, but I'm not really sure what his presidential platform is because he only announced last month, has barely campaigned, and has made a number of bad campaign decisions. For example, he skipped a 9/11 memorial event and then blamed it on his staff, and his pre-debate policy release was tweeting an obviously-staged conversation with his son in which he was advised to bring a basket of puppies to the debate. That's about what he'd need, since right now he's polling as by far the most unpopular of the Dem primary candidates, and barely made the cutoff for the debate. He's gone after Biden even more aggressively than Booker did, but he needs a hell of a turnaround to have any chance.



Julián Castro

Former mayor of San Antonio, and HUD secretary under the Obama administration. Beloved by the political establishment, but that hasn't translated to much support among the media or on the ground. His highlight issues are universal pre-kindergarden and lead cleanup; other than that, he's very liberal on social policies and supports moderate incremental improvements in economic issues.

He's released plenty of detailed policy plans, but he's so far failed to gain any real traction, and he did great in the debates; this longtime rising star may be one to watch.

Also, he has a twin brother in Congress, so if you want hilarious place-changing hijinks like in a bunch of B-grade 90s comedies, this should be your #1 pick.



John Delaney

A former entrepeneur who founded a healthcare finance company and a commercial lender before he went into politics, winning a blue House seat in Maryland in 2012. Has declared himself to be the "most moderate" 2020 candidate, a "responsible president" who will "bring this country together". He wants to cut taxes for business, open up venture capital investment, and cooperate with Republicans on bipartisan legislation whereever possible.

Naturally, his primary campaign hasn't been doing all that great. He's been actively denouncing left-leaning policies like Medicare for All, which led him to getting loudly booed off stage by the crowd at the California Democratic Convention.



Tulsi Gabbard

An Iraq War veteran, and a House member in Hawaii since 2013. Unusually for an American politician, she's economically leftist but leans right on social issues, which leads to a lot of Ron Paul-style unusual positions, such as anti-interventionism. Her most famous issue these days is probably her open hatred for Muslims, but she spent much of the 00s openly anti-LGBT as well and supported conversion therapy and banning gay marriage.

Often appears wearing plant life in some form, possibly indicating that she is secretly a druid.



Jay Inslee

The current governor of the state of Washington, he's been in politics for a long time. He's running for president as a single-issue climate change candidate, and while some think his climate plan may not go far enough, he'll definitely bring up the subject as much as he can during the debates. I don't think he's talking much about his position on other issues, though he's mentioned that he's open to a "Medicare for those who want it" public option. Did a bit disappointing during the debates; he got distracted with meaningless junk and failed to hammer his strongest issue.



Amy Klobuchar

A former prosecutor who, having served as a senator in Minnesota for over a decade, has gotten a lot of media buzz as the bipartisan moderate candidate who might win back the red-leaning states in the Midwest by attracting conservative votes. However, despite the pundits' predictions and lots of early media buzz, she's failed to gain much traction and hasn't brought anything interesting to the policy table. So far, her campaign's biggest headline-grabber has been leaks about her horrible treatment of staff, bullying and terrorizing them. Most famous for reportedly eating a salad with a comb, and then forcing a staffer to wash that comb as punishment for forgetting her fork.

Made reporters wait out in a snowstorm for her announcement. And there were a lot of them there, since she was supposed to be the Great Midwestern Hope.



Beto O'Rourke

Remember that guy who everyone loved more than Ted Cruz? Well, it turned out that was a pretty low bar to clear. This Texas House Representative was popular during his ultimately unsuccessful Senate run, but is finding a much frostier reception on the national stage. A pro-business moderate who won the 2018 Prize for Civility for his cross-country road trip with a GOP representative, his campaign has been criticized for preferring vague empty rhetoric, and he's had a hard time connecting with those newfangled kids with awkward moves like livestreaming a dentist visit. The media loved him for a few months, but as other candidates have done better at usurping his role as "somewhat charismatic white centrist with lots of aspirational talk", his polling has collapsed and he probably won't be getting far now that his trademark move of standing on counters has apparently lost its luster.

One of the biggest losers of debate night 1. Doing bits of his answers in Spanish backfired when other candidates and even the moderators started asking him questions in Spanish while he stared blankly.



Tim Ryan

House member from Ohio, he's a conservative who suddenly lurched leftward as soon as he thought he'd been in the House long enough to start aiming for leadership positions. Is there any appetite for a guy who backed banning abortion as recently as 2015? I guess we'll find out, but so far the polls aren't looking good for him.

May secretly lust for the annihilation of the Earth.



Elizabeth Warren

Probably the only candidate almost everyone here has heard of, and the only one who's polling at more than a couple percent right now. A Harvard-educated lawyer, professor, and Massachusetts senator, she's most famous for her pro-consumer advocacy and being the driving force between the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. However, she's competing for basically the same voters as Bernie Sanders. Her history as a Republican who changed parties in the 90s and her openly identifying as a capitalist have made it difficult to win over the leftists and socialists most likely to support her pro-consumer economic policies. On top of that, her campaign has made a lot of dumb moves, such as putting a list of negative rumors about her on her website, and advising her to take a DNA test to see if she really had Native American ancestry that could be used to justify her identifying as a native for much of her life.

Still, she's easily in the top three farthest-left candidates we'll see in these debates, and her numerous detailed policy proposals and impassioned in-person speeches mean that she's managed to stay in the game, even though she's not a frontrunner. Debate night 1 was expected to be an easy event for her against no-hopers and nobodies, and she didn't disappoint.


Joe Biden

You've heard about this guy. But if you only started paying attention to politics over the last decade, you've probably heard about the guy who stood next to Obama doing nothing for eight years while the Onion invented a parody character based on him. Unfortunately, that's not the Joe Biden who's running for president. The Joe Biden who's running for president is the Joe Biden who opposed anti-segregation busing, the Joe Biden who made student loans bankruptcy-proof, the Joe Biden who gave Strom Thurmond's eulogy, the Joe Biden who invades womens' personal space without consent at every opportunity, the Joe Biden who ran twice for president only to fail miserably both times, and the Joe Biden who still defends all of that and insists that he's never done anything wrong in his entire life. His primary campaign platform is based on working with Republicans, and he's openly declared that he's convinced that Mitch McConnell will work with him to pass bipartisan progressive legislation.

He's spent the last week or so embroiled in trouble because he talked about his good working relationship with his old segregationist buddies. When Booker and De Blasio called him out and said bipartisan cooperation with literal white supremacists was unacceptable, he demanded that Booker apologize. Despite this and many other stupid moves, he's the frontrunner by a wide margin right now, to the dismay of pretty much everyone left of Bush, and most of the candidates are gunning for him right now.

His aides and advisors have been keeping him away from crowds and cameras as much as possible, fueling all sorts of speculation and rumors about his speaking ability, and he just got completely murdered during the debate. It's unlikely he's gone for good, but even the media and his own staffers are throwing him under the bus, so it doesn't look good for Diamond Joe.



Michael Bennet

Senator for Colorado. Conservative bipartisan moderate. Hickenlooper's protege. If you felt good about John Delaney and wanted to see more of him on the stage, this guy will probably be a pretty good substitute for him. I have nothing else to say about this guy, at all.



Pete Buttigieg

The Harvard-educated mayor of South Bend, Indiana, this guy has been treated as a young Democratic rising star for a couple years now. He's reasonably charismatic and the media absolutely loves him, but he has a preference for talking inspirational fluff rather than politics, and he doesn't have much of a political record to look at. Is gay and married. His support has been surging in recent months as he's largely stolen Beto's role, but his base is overwhelmingly white so far.

A recent police shooting of a black male under questionable circumstances in South Bend has thrown his failure to win over minorities into the spotlight, and he's widely considered to have badly mishandled his response to the shooting. He usually ranks in third or fourth place in polls, and his campaign has been fairly uninteresting so far. Did mediocre at best in the debate, where his failings in South Bend were brought up repeatedly.



Kirsten Gillibrand

A New York senator, and a former corporate defense attorney who defended Philip Morris execs facing litigation over their role in covering up the health effects of smoking. So boring that I couldn't even find a funny picture of her. While in the House, she was a conservative bipartisan moderate who voted against economic stimulus, voted for a ban on sanctuary cities, and had a 100% rating from the NRA. In the last few years, she's moved in a liberal direction on many of those issues, but it's hard to nail down exactly where she'll stand on the issues as president or how she stands out from the rest of the pack.

Her major distinguishing feature is her advocacy on women's issues. Most famously, she was one of the first Dems to call for Al Franken's resignation after the sexual assault allegations against him, long before the Dem establishment and donors got on board with that, and in recent years she's even spoken out against Bill Clinton. And as a result, there's a wing of the old Dem political establishment that absolutely loathes her.

As someone who's evolved on the issues over the years, she has some room to pivot, but she'll face a big challenge in convincing voters that her evolution is genuine.



Kamala Harris

Former Attorney General of California and current California Senator, this self-proclaimed "America's prosecutor" was expected to be a big contender, but she's been lagging. A standard center-left Democrat, socially liberal and economically centrist.

Her major distinguishing feature is her history as a California prosecutor. Her preference for tough-on-crime rhetoric and a tendency to see prosecution as the solution to every problem have come back to bite her in the era of Black Lives Matter, which has made it difficult for her to win over progressives.

She was originally expected to be the party establishment pick and attract most of the Dem loyalists and donors, but she's been largely eclipsed by Biden and has struggled to remain a contender, polling poorly even in her home state. She took a big bite out of him on the debate stage, though.



John Hickenlooper

Ex-governor of Colorado, socially liberal and economically conservative. Bipartisan moderate who believes the government should stay out of issues and let private business handle making America great.



Bernie Sanders

The guy everyone either loves to love or loves to hate, the independent self-proclaimed socialist Senator from Vermont who challenged Clinton in 2016 needs no introduction. He's been the fairly consistent #2 in polls, and unlike Biden, his speech performance hasn't declined despite his age. Everyone knows who this guy is, and I'm sure there'll be plenty of talk about him. No meltdowns, please.



Eric Swalwell

Who? I've never even heard of this guy, and I'm not going to bother reading up on him because there's no way he's going to be significant tonight or any other night. A quick Google says he's a Martin O'Malley supporter, which I didn't think was actually possible. Seriously, what? I guess he's a House member.



Marianne Williamson

An author and activist whose only political history is finishing fourth in a House race in California. Despite that, she's got better positions than at least half the candidates on this stage...for the most part. She wouldn't be out of place in the Green Party, mixing strong progressive policies like M4A and the Green New Deal with downright wacky stuff like antivax talk.

Her signature issue is reparations for slavery, having come out with the earliest and biggest proposal.

She's not a serious contender for the presidency, but her mixture of cool and crazy talk has earned her a meme fanbase after the debate.



Andrew Yang

A serial entrepeneur and venture capitalist, this is his first entry into politics. Even though he's an East Coaster, his policies are about what you'd expect from a Silicon Valley character. He often identifies the problems facing society, only to come up with solutions that are either badly flawed or downright stupid, like combating bad laws by passing a Constitutional amendment forcing all laws to have an automatic expiration date. Unfortunately, the demographic he's been most successful with are extremely online conservatives, who love his meme-heavy campaign and his inclination to talk about the problems most politicians tend to ignore (like AI and automation), and he's responding by being more appealing to them and going on their favorite shows and stuff.

His most famous and most widely advertised issue is the "Freedom Dividend", a UBI proposal that would give everyone $1k a month...except that you have to give up any other government benefits to get it, so the poor will benefit less than everyone else.

He's not polling well, but his willingness to talk about issues that no one else really wants to talk about make him a bit of a wildcard. It's unlikely he'll win, but he might be able to become a Ron Paul-style meme candidate...except that if the debate is any indication, he's not that great a speaker either.

Gripweed posted:

https://twitter.com/corbin_dewitt/status/1144448430376275968

Solvent posted:

Yeowch!!! My Balls!!! posted:

she is deeply amusing. not least because, in the grand tradition of the wacky weirdo who managed to scam their way in, she's saying a few things that genuinely need to be said.

her raising the issue of why, exactly, all these people felt the need to flee their countries after we destroyed them recalls the sensible chuckles had at the expense of that wacky Mr. Kucinich, and his argument that trans people are people, back in 2004.

good times. remember the way Jon Stewart just DESTROYED that crazy rear end in a top hat, for thinking "chicks with dicks" could be qualified for government roles? it is to laugh.

Tibalt posted:

Did I miss this story?

Gabbard's my personal "Hell loving No" candidate.

Democrazy posted:

Are those kids even 18? That’s really gross.

theblackw0lf posted:

https://twitter.com/Robillard/status/1144638906975031296

VH4Ever posted:

Dude this LITERALLY is how we have Trump. Remember people saying "OMG we MEMED a president into office!"

I don't think she'll win either but this sort of thinking is so wrong-headed and dangerous I've no idea where to begin.

Trabisnikof posted:

Except she explicitly said she isn't an anti-vaxxer:

TGLT posted:

she's the only candidate with a plan for a mass exodus back to the primeval plane
https://twitter.com/marwilliamson/status/145658786131099649

King of Solomon posted:

No, she's just hilarious.

Vox Nihili posted:

https://mobile.twitter.com/marwilliamson/status/1138576840128225280

Punk da Bundo posted:

i like how the thread continues to poo poo on Marianne yet she's better than every loving neoliberal shill up there, and you have nothing to back up your argument other than "she's sooo wackyyyy".

Marianne wouldn't go to war, she supports reparations, she wants you to have healthcare, she's against imperialism.

she's better than harris, biden, booker, warren. literally only Bernie is a better choice.

Gripweed posted:

What's wrong in that post?

Gripweed posted:

How is it a gimmick then? It's just an accurate statement

papa horny michael posted:

https://www.marianne2020.com/issues/healthcare

"I robustly support high-quality universal health coverage for every American. I will do this by making medicare an 0ption on the Obamacare exchanges. Over time, more people will migrate to medicare. I also support federal subsidies to ensure medical coverage for every American, even those in states which have refused medicaid expansion.

Those who wish to keep their private insurance may do so."

Ogmius815 posted:

Guys Marianne Williamson is not going to be the democratic nominee.

If Marianne Williamson is the democratic nominee, I will get a tattoo of VitalSign’s choice on a part of my body ordinarily covered by clothing.

volts5000 posted:

For me, someone has to break the stranglehold that corporations have on our government. Bernie is obviously good on this. Warren’s fight to build the CFPB and her very public attitudes against Wall Street make me believe she’s good on this as well.

If a candidate can reject lobbying and corporate money like them, I feel like our voices would carry more weight and Warren’s weaknesses could be fought easier. With Biden’s dirty money, he doesn’t have to listen to a drat thing we say.

I know I could be wrong about this and, ultimately, I’m not going to be the deciding vote. I just feel that’s why Warren is better than the other non-Bernie candidates.

Majorian posted:

Well, hold on a second - are we stipulating that this thread is just for 2020 primaries, just for the presidential primaries, or something else? Because if you just want it for 2020 races, fair enough, but I don't think we should exclude downticket races from this thread.

(I'm not trying to be cute, this is an important thing to stipulate)

Majorian posted:

This is such a weird thing for her to say. Is it just kind of a lawyer mental tic that she's exhibiting when she does this? "Oops, that thing that I said last week that everybody loved? Yeah, the opposite of that."

Party Plane Jones posted:

https://twitter.com/jeneps/status/1146869989275832321

Party Plane Jones posted:

https://twitter.com/gustavot888/status/1143238472381059072

Oracle posted:

No. I went to a bar mitzvah and the dad of the mitzvah kid was wearing a Cubs one. I mean granted you probably won't see like Hasidic Jews sporting something like that but yeah, novelty yarmulkes are a thing.

Grapplejack posted:

This plan is bad and now I'm voting for Marianne, who will open up the void and let us all sleep in the endless clouds of the shared mindspace.

Martha Stewart Undying posted:

The saddest thing is there's no press on how bad this plan is. Everything about warren and housing paints her as some kind of revolutionary socialist.

Pinky Artichoke posted:

I'm always puzzled how people think Bernie, the guy who has had a laser-focus on a single issue since 1972, is somehow going to prioritize all these things that are not that.

Nonsense posted:

Bernie is the only one who’s recognized being harassed by the left isn’t fun or good. I don’t think he’s concerned with fake news centrists.

Luckyellow posted:

Isn't it technically correct that the left wing activists is the donor base for Bernie?

Condiv posted:

if warren drops out I expect her to endorse harris or someone instead of bernie

Wicked Them Beats posted:

Warren is a political genius who never makes the sorts of missteps people accuse her of.

And I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Elizabeth Warren does NOT take Risperdal. Learn more at https://facts.elizabethwarren.com.

Discendo Vox posted:

https://twitter.com/IfNotNowOrg/status/1148380673381560320

FlamingLiberal posted:

Good news guys, the best candidate of them all has wandered in!

https://twitter.com/tomsteyer/status/1148579342680637440?s=21

eke out posted:

correct, she reversed 20 years of stated positions and votes back around late 2016 when she began to prepare to run and has been like this since. which is why every time this comes up people have to link that jacobin piece about her pre-2016 votes (particularly 2014, during 'protective edge' or whatever euphemism israel gave that particular set of attacks on gaza)

on the other hand, that jacobin piece is actually significantly more fair to her than your take here, because it notes that she's basically been good since then and the real question is whether this is a sincerely held change in beliefs or just a necessary political re-positioning