Democratic Party Presidential Clown Car Update for March 4, 2019

Hickenlooper is In, Inslee is more officially In, and the B team (Biden, Bloomberg and Beto) are still Hamleting. It’s your Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update!

The Washington Post plays the answer top Google questions about the candidates game. Got a chuckle out of this on Pete Buttigieg: “Not only would he be the youngest person ever elected president, he would also be both the first gay president and the first president who liked University of Notre Dame athletics.”

538 polls which candidate early primary state Democratic activists are considering backing. Finally, a poll Kamala Harris comes out on top of! She’s followed by Booker, Brown, Warren, Klobuchar, Biden and Sanders. Biggest drop between November and February? O’Rourke, whose support halved.

538 Presidential roundup.

538 polls.

Democratic Party presidential primary schedule.

Now on to the clown car itself:

  • Losing Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams: Out.
  • Creepy Porn Lawyer Michael Avenatti: Out.
  • Colorado Senator Michael Bennet: Leaning Toward In. He says people are tired of “rage Olympics,” applauded President Donald Trump’s “America will never be a socialist country” line and says Medicare for all is a pipe-dream. It will be interesting to see if that message gets any traction in a crowed field…
  • Former Vice President Joe Biden: Leaning Towards Running. Says his family has signed off on him running. Have some Washington Post consensus opinion on why Biden should run. Oh, and Biden said something nice about his successor, Vice President Mike Pence, which is right up there with the Rape of Nanking or using the wrong pronoun among Democratic Media Complex activists…
  • Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Leaning Towards Running. He’s evidently interviewing potential staffers in Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s also supposedly looking at Manhattan office space for his campaign. Because running a campaign from New York City worked out so well for Hillary Clinton…
  • New Jersey Senator Cory Booker: In. Twitter. Facebook. He campaigned in South Carolina. He’s also leading the endorsement race.
  • Former California Governor Jerry Brown: Doesn’t sound like it.
  • Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown: Likely In. “U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is starting the final leg of his tour of the early presidential primary and caucus states. As he visits South Carolina, Brown says he’s learned a lot as he gets closer to making a decision on a possible presidential run.” Decision? If you’re touring Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, you’ve already decided to get in…
  • Montana Governor Steve Bullock: Leaning toward In, but is reportedly going to wait until Montana’s legislative session finishes, which would be May 1.
  • South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg: In. Twitter. Facebook. With all the attention on Iowa, New hampshire and Couth Carolina, Buttigieg is campaigning at…Scripps College in Claremont, California. I actually had to look that up. It’s part of the Los Angeles sprawl, just west of Rancho Cucamonga…
  • Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, Jr.: Out.
  • Former San Antonio Mayor and Obama HUD Secretary Julian Castro: In. Twitter. Facebook. Said he’s going to run on education, including pre-K funding. (Tiny problem: It doesn’t work. But don’t expect any of Castro’s rivals to voice that heretical thought…)
  • Former First Lady, New York Senator, Secretary of State and losing 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton: Probably not. But check out this ABC news headline: “Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and other 2020 hopefuls honor march on Selma”
  • New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: Out.
  • New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio: Leaning toward In. Not even his wife thinks he should run. Of course, that’s the same wife that can’t account for $850 million in mental health funding
  • Maryland Representative John Delaney: In. Twitter. Facebook. Here’s how Delaney has been campaigning:

    You go to Dewitt, Tipton, Glenwood, Denison, Alba, Knoxville, Perry, Grimes and nine other places this year alone—emphasizing the small Iowa towns that seldom see a presidential candidate. You take out an ad during the Super Bowl two years before the Iowa caucuses — an unheard-of extravagance that no one dared try before. You open six campaign offices in Iowa — before your better-known rivals have opened even one. You win the endorsement of four county central Democratic committees in Iowa — long before the top-tier candidates have lassoed any.

    And you make 24 campaign trips to Iowa and another 14 to New Hampshire, the sites of the first two political tests of the 2020 campaign, states that pride themselves on being the political equivalent of the Cheers bar — places where, the civic folklore says, everyone knows your name.

    Everyone in the political world knows your name, unless, of course, your name is John Delaney.

  • Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard: In. Twitter. Facebook. Paste offers up the far-left peacenik case for Gabbard.
  • Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti: Out.
  • New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: In. Twitter. Facebook. “Big tobacco, big soda, big booze, big burger, casinos, and Viagra might sound like the ingredients for an extremely lively and health-hazardous night out on the town. They also represent some of New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s major financial backers.”
  • Former Tallahassee Mayor and failed Florida Senate candidate Andrew Gillum: Out.
  • California Senator Kamala Harris: In. Twitter. Facebook. Harris wants all the California Benjamins. Politico says she’s she’s just too awesome at connecting emotionally with voters to offer actual details or plans. “She’s been noncommittal or vague on a range of issues.” One plan floated: legalizing prostitution. My libertarian half both agrees and points out that it’s a state level issue, and thus nothing the President can or should affect. That WaPo Google answer bit above offers this tidbit: “Her sister is Maya Harris, a former adviser to the 2016 campaign of Hillary Clinton who now acts as a political analyst for MSNBC.” It’s incest all the way down…
  • Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper: In. Website. Twitter. Announced this morning. His kickoff rally is in Denver March 7. Upgrade over leaning toward in.
  • Washington Governor Jay Inslee: In. Twitter. Facebook. Already had him as in, but now he’s made it even more official, running as the Climate Change Scold. “2020 Hopeful Jay Inslee Goes National With A Climate Agenda He Failed To Implement In His Own State.”
  • Virginia Senator and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Vice Presidential running mate Tim Kaine: Out.
  • Former Obama Secretary of State and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry: Not seeing any sign. Hey, Vox says they’re monitoring him.
  • Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar: In. Facebook. Twitter. Here’s the roundup list of all the allegations of her abusing staff. I hear she once shot a staffer in Reno, just to watch her die…
  • New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu: Probably Out.
  • Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe: Leaning toward a run? It’s been radio silence from Clintonus Toadius Maximus.
  • Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley: Sounding doubtful. Not hearing much on him. But he got more support in that 538 activists poll than Castro or O’Rourke.
  • Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton: Seems doubtful, but he says he’s still considering a run. Maybe he just enjoys the Morning Joe attention…
  • Former First Lady Michelle Obama: Out.
  • Former West Virginia State Senator Richard Ojeda: Out.
  • Former Texas Representative and failed Senatorial candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke: Maybe. He’s made up his mind! But he’s not telling us. Yet. More from The Dallas Morning News, if you can get past the beg blocker.
  • New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Constitutionally ineligible to run in 2020.
  • Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick: Out.
  • Ohio Democratic Representative Tim Ryan: Maybe Shading Toward In? Says he’s strong considering it. It’s like a friggng Hamlet convention here…
  • Vermont Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders: In. Twitter. Facebook. Held his first campaign rally in Brooklyn. This just in: The Democratic Party is still trying to screw Bernie:

  • Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer: Out.
  • California Representative Eric Swalwell: Leaning Toward In. He’s in New Hampshire. Evidently what Swalwell learned from the 2016 Presidential election is that the path to the White House is tweeting crazy shit.
  • Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren: In. Twitter. Facebook.
  • Author and spiritual advisor Marianne Williamson: In. Twitter. Facebook. She’s evidently having an Iowa Black Caucus Event, and she has other events scheduled in Iowa and New Hampshire.
  • Talk show host Oprah Winfrey: Out.
  • Venture capitalist Andrew Yang: Running but no one cares. Twitter. Facebook. He was on Tucker Carlson, and an amazingly similar interview, also on Fox, with Not Quite Tucker Carlson. (Is that Pete Hegseth? I’m asking here, I honestly don’t know.)
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    5 Responses to “Democratic Party Presidential Clown Car Update for March 4, 2019”

    1. Howard says:

      Waitaminute … Pete Buttigieg … he’s gay, AND his name is Pete Buttigieg?!

      Peter is slang for penis. Peter Butt? Dick Butt?!?!

      I want to join his campaign, just so the jokes will flow copiously. Actually feel sorry for him.

    2. Howard says:

      Andy Yang’s interview on Joe Rogan was quite good. He actually changed my mind on UBI. I’m still not 100% for it, but I’m no longer 100% against it, and that’s something coming from me.

    3. Lawrence Person says:

      They tried UBI in the 1960s and it was disasterous; see the SIME/DIME experiments. Charles Murray covers it briefly in Losing Ground.

    4. Retired Man says:

      Is there any difference between them besides demographics? Seems to me that every candidate signs up for the latest nutty policy. Last week: Reparations.

    5. Lawrence Person says:

      They range from Almost Sane to Complete Screaming Leftwing Nutjob.

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