The people running the DNC (Democratic National Committee) seem to have learned their lesson from 2016; for the most part, they are not picking favorites in the 2020 race. They announced in March that they were rejecting Fox News for the debates. I understand why they did this but I can't say I agree with their decision.While, yes, Fox News seems to become a state TV network for Trump, much like RT (Russia Today) is for Putin. It is more of a propaganda network than it is a news network, but it is still the most popular "news" network in the country. Some people who watch that network may still be reachable. Having one debate in hostile territory may be a good idea. It might even be the only debate worth watching since the rest of them are so useless, unwatchable and not even debates. They are political pageantry without intrigue and seem scripted. Regardless of how bad they are, I will not only drop everything to watch them but I will be twittering away the evening with pithy comments ... how proud I am with my own wit.
Before I talk about the Democrats, lets spend some time talking about Bill Weld. He is running in the Republican primaries against Donald Trump. Since the goal is to remove Trump from office, a Weld candidacy is a good thing. He is a moderate Republican which is a rare breed these days. He also ran for VP on the Libertarian ticket in 2016. I lived in Massachusetts when he was governor. I liked him for some things and really hated him for others. He is a fiscal hawk and he was pro-gay marriage long before most people even knew it was a thing. He is smart politician who recognized how conservative the gay population of Boston was and capitalized on it. One of my worst memories of his Governorship was seeing him talking about how he reduced tuition to state colleges. Which he had done, but only by shifting the cost of education from tuition to fees. State colleges still costed the same. Under Weld tuition went down but fees went up. This sucked for someone like me that was getting tuition reimbursement from my employer. My employer didn't cover fees, only tuition. This is where Weld's policies fell into the category of your typical Republican bullshit. But lets face it, he is still much better than Trump by about a million degrees. Vermont has an open primary so I might just vote in the Republican primary. Ousting Trump before the general election would be a great thing, but I wouldn't count on it. Maybe, just maybe, Weld can damage Trump enough to hurt him in the general election ... like Kennedy did to Carter.
Joe Biden is hugging inappropriately. The media is talking about this is like it is important while our president grabs women "by the pussy," admits to it and justifies it by saying that he can get away with it because he is rich. Yet, somehow, Biden, who isn't even running for anything officially, is being talked about like he is a sexual predator. This is the era we live in. Please be smart enough to realize that this is a distraction.
Entering the race this month:
Ex-Congressman Beto O'Rourke: Those of you who are unfamiliar with Beto, check out his speeches during his recent run for Senate. He is magnetic! He reminds me a lot of Obama when he was an unknown. Beto recently ran against Ted Cruz for Senate in Texas and lost. Some may ask why we should support a loser, but he came very close in a state that is heavily Republican. Closest is recent years. His popularity outside of Texas has been is a lot higher than inside, hence the presidential run. He is an exciting candidate. His real first name is Robert. He was given the nickname Beto when he was very young to distinguish him from his grandfather who was also Robert. He is from El Paso, a border town. His mother owned a furniture store while his father was a local politician. Beto is fluent is Spanish.
Colorado Governor, John Hickenlooper: He is from Pennsylvania and was brought up by a single mom after his father passed away at an early age. He moved to Colorado to work as a geologist for an oil company. When he was laid off, he stayed in Colorado and opened a brewpub which is still in business. His records as Denver's Mayor and Governor of CO are both quite impressive.
Mayor of Miramar, Florida, Wayne Messam: I write this sentence on March 29th. Wayne announced his candidacy yesterday on the 28th. He is one of the few people running that I have never heard of before he announced. I've never even heard of the city of which he is the mayor. It is in South Florida on the Atlantic side and has a population of 122,000 which is still bigger than South Bend, Indiana. He is a first generation American with both his parents being from Jamaica.I am looking forward to learning more about him.
Congressman from Ohio, Tim Ryan: Ryan is most famous for challenging Nancy Pelosi, unsuccessfully, to be the new leader of the Democratic Party in 2016. I don't know a lot about him yet. He announced this week, the first week of April and today, the 6th, as I write this, he is having his first Presidential rally. He may do well in NH because he got his Doctorate from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord and may know the state better than outsiders.
Alaskan Senator, Mike Gravel: Mike is from Springfield, MA and he is from French Canadian background (hey, like me). He is my people! He moved to pre-state Alaska in 1956. He is a Unitarian and has Libertarian leanings. He ran for president as a Libertarian in 2008.
Not running:
Michael Bloomberg
Sharrod Brown
With Bloomberg out, the moderate lane is widening making it even more likely that Biden will enter the race.It would work just fine for me if the old guard of Biden and Sanders, just stepped out of this race. It is time for new younger blood. Sure, Biden might wipe the floor with Trump but I am willing to bet that Booker Warren and Harris and most of these other candidates would as well.
Our field:
Elizabeth Warren: She has really been impressing me.She has proposed a wealth tax that would be used to fund universal childcare. She has proposed a plan to break up big tech firms like Google, Amazon and Facebook much like we did in the 80's with the Bell Systems. She has also presented a plan to eliminate the electoral college. She is definitely the policy candidate.
Bernie Sanders: The spark that Bernie ignited in 2016 is not so bright in 2020 with 17 other, mostly great, candidates. Now that he is sharing a stage with some other lefties that are younger and have basically, a lot of the same ideas as him, his popularity isn't quite so high. He's not the Johnny-Come-Lately anymore, but old news. I love Bernie, I will vote for him if he is the candidate, but I just don't think he will be. He is too old and too damaged.
His volunteers need to stop bothering me:
Cory Booker: Booker has always been a fighter for the less privileged. His most recent proposal is baby bonds. Basically, each newborn gets a $1,000.00 bond at birth. They can't touch it until they turn 18, after it has been accumulating interest. The hope would be that they could pay for college, or at least assist them in the transition to adulthood. Somehow, I think we are looking at a boom in keg parties starting in 2038.
Kamala Harris: She wrote an opp ed in the Washington Post about teacher's salary. If you are, know and/or love a teacher, this might really hit a vein with you. Teacher's require the same level of education that doctors and lawyers do, yet are compensated at a much lower rate mostly because we fund their salaries with our property taxes. Harris proposes that the federal government get more involved in raising the bar a bit. When a state increases a teacher's pay by one dollar, the federal government will contribute three. This might put some fire under some people. There are a lot of teachers in this country and all of them are underpaid. As long as this isn't another one of those Federal mandates that aren't funded, I am all for it.
Jay Inslee: He is hitting me hard with email mostly asking for money. I understand, but delete you I must Mr. Inslee. I don't have a lot of money, so until I can see he can beat Trump, he isn't getting any of my money. He is getting a chilly response from New Hampshire Democrats mostly because of his poor support of Molly Kelly when he was the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
Pete Buttigieg: He continues to impress me. Maybe we need a millennial as our next president. He's very smart and extremely likable. Check out this interview he did on Pod Save America. He's on message and engaging for the entire hour. The fact that he is gay, is open and quite comfortable about it, does make him a stand-out. Every interview I have heard with him is like this one. He'd be a great president.
Julian Castro: He has released an immigration policy proposal that would give 11 million illegal immigrates a path to citizenship. He's also on Real Time with Bill Maher this week which should give him some exposure.
John Delaney: He released a plan to revitalize rural American called the "Heartland Fair Deal" which concentrated on assisting local businesses completing with large companies and fighting climate change. The rural vote is something that the Democrat Party has really failed with the past few decades. It is nice to see someone giving them attention.
Amy Klobuchar: She is the first candidate that I have seen give infrastructure a priority. She has release a plan to revamp our transportation infrastructure. I bitch about the roads a lot, so here it is, a candidate that should go to the top of my list. She is also focusing on "heartland economics" and is reported a really difficult person to work with. If she is elected, expect high turn-over ... ahem ... but nothing close to what we have now with Agent Orange in the White House.
Andrew Yang: This guy is still very intriguing. He has no chance to win but hearing him talk about the Universal Basic Income (UBI) is fascinating. Jobs are being lost now to automation, not to illegals, foreigners or trade deals. Artificial Intelligence is getting so good now that even skilled labor is being replaced. With self driving cars becoming viable, we may not need truckers within the next five or ten years. So what do you do when jobs just don't exist. UBI is basically a stipend, of $1k a month, to every American whether you have a job or not. Wild idea. If you are interested, check out Yang's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast. I don't expect this to go anywhere, but it is certainly a great though experiment.
Tulsi Gabbard: She has visited NH, IA, CA and PA in March, but hasn't released any major policy proposals. One has to wonder if she is just running for VP. If a man gets the nomination for President, you would think that she would be in the running for VP.
We have 18 candidates running for the Democratic nomination with two running for the Republican. If I had to rank the Democrats in order of my personal preference, I would do so in the following manner:
Warren
Harris
Booker
Buttigieg
O'Rourke
Sanders
Hickenlooper
Inslee
Klobuchar
Delaney
Castro
Gabbard
Messam
Gravel
Ryan
Yang
Gillibrand
Williamson
But this will change. I am not ready to open my pocket book yet.
We have some great candidates here. I hope they continue to do what they are doing ... stick to the issues. The big issues are healthcare and the environment. Hopefully they do not over-commit. If they are elected and cannot deliver, we will be back to another worthless Republican president in four years.
