O’Rourke-Harris, and shift the conversation from the east to the west coast
O’Rourke-Abrams, and serve notice the GOP is over
O’Rourke’s speaking style sounds herky-jerky to me, especially when he’s animated. He doesn’t impress me yet as an orator and I hope he improves. But the things he says seem to me to be honest, sensible, and heartfelt.
And yes, @tena, experience and oratory styles are non-issues after Trump. At least Beto can put together a grammatically correct sentence, and even toss out a multi-syllable word here and there.
I agree about his speaking style. It’s what gives me pause. But I don’t think most people care so much about the herky-jerkiness. He’s got star quality, even with that. And the GenXers and millenials love him.
I was very impressed by O’Rourke when I saw him interviewed at a live Pod Save America, he’s great at staying on-message and thinks on his feet, but I actually got bored when I went to a rally. He’s good in conversations and in short bursts, but a whole speech was too much.
Damn. I hadn’t thought of that, it’s a great idea. Honestly, Biden, Hilary, Obama…don’t know whether the last two would even consider it, but we need to bring in the absolute biggest guns for the next Sec. of State.
The other one I like for State is Bill Burns, former Deputy Sec’y of State, rumored to be Hillary’s choice for the job. I heard him on Pod Save the World and he was so impressive. I want to get his new book, The Back Channel.
I’m excited Beto is in the race. He’s the last of my horses, after Brown stayed in the Senate.
My Top 5 got shifted, I’m moving Warren up, the more I hear her talk the more I like her. 3 of my Top 5 are women, which is great. Can’t wait for the first debate.
I completely see where you are coming from with this point. He has the magnetic “it” factor in a way that pretty much nobody else seems to have. I do worry about the same things that others have expressed as well. Is there enough depth and experience to restore the institutional damage. I’m really not sure. I think it’s a tall order for anyone. But most importantly, we need someone that can win and he’s a candidate that I can see having some real success irrespective of his policy positions.
It’s so fucking cool how many we have this time. It’s such a far cry from the days when just one female candidate was a big deal. This is the way it should be - lots of us running.
Absolutely. He’d make a great SoS too. We just really need someone very seasoned who has lots of respect on the world stage.
I was one of the ones more skeptical about her candidacy, but I have noticed that she’s gotten a lot better at public speaking. She sounds less like my 3rd grade teacher and more like a president. She also comes off as a lot more relaxed than she has before. She’s definitely moved up to my top five.
I am glad to have Beto talking about immigration in a positive way. So far my favorite ticket is Warren/Buttigieg. (Aside from the East Coast/Midwest Progressive/Moderate-but-not-Wishy-Washy dynamic, I think their husbands would be cute together on the stump.)
I have liked Kamala Harris in Senate hearings, but I was not very impressed with her interview on Morning Edition today…
I agree about Warren. Going back to before she threw her hat in the ring, I thought she was a non-starter, but I like what I’ve seen of her on the campaign trail. I have family in Massachusetts and they really like her, so maybe they’ve known all along. They’ve seen her campaign before. O’Rourke/Warren (or the reverse as well?) would make an interesting ticket too. It would please both the moderates and the progressives.
Yes, and the kind of experience I really think we need is not something you can learn on the job. You can only learn it from having been immersed in it for years. I just think we need the experience of a senator, a former cabinet member, or VP. Here’s the thing folks keep forgetting: Whomever becomes president is going to spend a lot of time just trying to get us back to 1/20/17 at 11:59 am. Undoing PP will be the major focus of any Democratic president.
Yep. A smart, motivated person can be a policy wonk. But a smart, motivated policy wonk with charisma …
I helped with his second city council campaign in El Paso. He and his council allies were given a lot of grief by constituents for their proposals to revive the downtown area. He took a lot of hits with people accusing him of shilling for his father-in-law, who supported the revitalization plan. He weathered that storm beautifully.
I wasn’t living there when he ran to unseat the incumbent Democratic congressman, who was not at all popular but held the seat because El Paso is solidly blue. But I read the local blogs and paper about that campaign and the shitstorm that was drummed up by the same people who opposed him in the downtown revitalization combined with the Congressman’s well-connected supporters was a gawd-awful fight. And he won!
The Dems have a pretty awesome slate of announced candidates already. I’m happy with all of them so far. This will be exciting, and also fun, I hope.
I just think we need some color on the ticket. I don’t think that combo is going to do much for non-white America and those are the people we most need to get to the polls.
She has me utterly enchanted with her as a human being. As a President, maybe. I would have no problem supporting her whole heartedly if she got the nomination. Can’t say the same about all of them.
But I will freely admit here that I have ulterior motives that are extra for supporting Beto. IHe would carry Texas and that would change everything for us down here. If we could elect a Progressive President from Texas, I would die ecstatically happy.
And arguably we really need this = it would also be good for the country if we could break up this GOP deadlock on the south. Texas has a lot of EC votes, too.