The talking heads always say it’s the one who has the best story to tell. Like Obama in 2008. O’Rourke’s already telling the right story. Iowa will be very interesting. I mean, like, crazy interesting!
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I would be thrilled beyond belief at an O’Rourke/Abrams ticket. In prior ages the two would be considered too inexperienced for the job but after Trump the field has opened quite a bit. They are both smart, passionate, knowledgeable about policy minutiae but able to put it in a broader frame, which makes their message hopeful. They’re not just about burning things down but building things up and that, to me, is inspiring.
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That’s a ticket that couldn’t be stopped. O’Rourke/Harris just personally makes me a little uncomfortable being that she’s been the AG of the largest state and a senator while he’s a congressman. I don’t like the idea of her taking a backseat to him.
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Very excited to see Beto throw his hat in. Even if he’s not that experienced, I feel he has good judgement and would hire people around him that are competent. I think we need someone who can bring excitement to the race (and I say that because for some reason our Party seems to need a spark lit to get them to vote) and I feel he’s a nice stark contrast to trump.
My real hope is a Biden Beto ticket. I feel it’s a nice balance - Biden brings his experience and wisdom, Beto brings excitement/youth/looks. I like Biden because he has a way of talking that sounds simple but wise. I feel he would be an excellent match against trump. I’ll never forget him knocking the wind out of GHOULIani when he was running for president -
“I mean, think about it! Rudy Giuliani. There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence – a noun, a verb, and 9/11. There’s nothing else! There’s nothing else!”"
It. was. perfect.
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Well I have to say Stacey Abrams would be my first choice. I’d love to see that, and she’s a great campaigner.
But I’d go with anyone, for top or bottom of the ticket, that will get us over the finish line. It doesn’t matter to me. Or it does, I have my favorites too. But I’d go with any of them and just hope we all play it smart.
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Yeah she is and she is another southern hope. If we can break this stranglehold we can break the GOP utterly and forever.
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Abrams would be at the top of my list for a VP. I love her ability to frame the issues, as well as her stance on the issues.
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Exactly, No D voter is going to vote for Rs no matter who Rs run. But as we saw in 2016 a lot of middle of the line white males will vote R regardless of how dumb a fuck(s) republicans run. Beto Joe isn’t about drawing in Ds, it’s about drawing in white males that aren’t complete R only. And a woman, even if it’s not Hillary, on the D ticket isn’t going to draw in many if any conserative women. They are almost as dumb, even if more by choice, as conservative white males. Just my gut feeling. Conservative white folks are some prejudice, stubborn mofos.Two white guys on the D ticket will strike the fear of god in the republican party. It pretty much already is, in my mind, with the way they are reacting to Beto and Joe.
I’m with you 100% there. China will not stop trying to annex territory in the South China Sea. Who knows where the Koreas are going, and the Middle East could blow up at at any second. Something has to be done about efficiencies, corruption, and over-spending on the US military budget as well, including making sure the US nuclear stance doesn’t encourage escalation in a potential conflict. All of that requires a deep understanding of the current geopolitical scene, and a clear sense of the options and consequences.
Someone like Beto would undoubtedly surround himself with good advisers, but the person at the top makes the final decisions. Especially in a crisis, where you can’t go on a self-discovery road trip to think about what you need to do. Trump isn’t a good comparison, because he’s never been tested by any real crisis yet.
Anyway, the problem with what I just wrote above, is that except for Biden (who I hope doesn’t run), there are no other 2020 candidates,who I think are any better than Beto in that respect. They’re all paying lip service to foreign policy, but mainly focused on economics, health, the environment. It’s way early to have any strong personal preferences, but so far I see Beto as more of a potential VP choice for Harris, or maybe Warren.
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Just curious - what do you knowledgeable people think of Insley? I will admit that I know very little about him beyond the interview he did with Maddow a week or two ago. That said, unlike the legislator candidates, he has executive experience running a state. Not sure I love his (thus far) single issue candidacy. All things being equal, I also prefer a younger candidate for various reasons. That having been said, he seems to be an under the radar potentially good option.
To clarify — I DO love that we have candidates campaigning on the environment and global warming. I also think he needs to be campaigning on other issues.
He hates men with real charisma, real height, and real hair. If Beto was also really wealthy I think HIPPOTUS would explode.
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To top it all off, Beto has a great nickname. hahahahahahahahaha You’re right if he was rich, Trump would explode.
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There really never was much point in that, anyway. There isn’t any correlation between “experience” and performance in office. Being President is so unlike any other role that it’s really trial by fire, no matter who you get.
The closest you can get to having relevant experience is being a governor of a state like California but, even there, it’s just not the same. All you can realistically do as a voter is vote for someone intelligent who has good instincts and good, sane, and reasonably practical positions.
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Understand O’Malley endorsed O’Rourke this afternoon.
At the very least, Beto O’Rourke will (already is) add an edge of excitement to the preprimary/primary going forward. He brings an ‘it’ factor to the mix. Whether he manages to sustain the excitement–convince voters that he’s more than style and dream-making–remains to be seen. But eyes and ears on O’Rourke means eyes and ears on Democratic messaging which in my mind is a good thing.
I, too, am looking forward to the debates. Should be a wowsa event.
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Pete > Beto. O’Rourke is all smoke and no fire, but Buttigieg is the real McCoy.
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I agree with this and with gubernatorial experience being probably as good a template as you can get and it’s still not there.
So it rather comes down to temperament and brains.
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(Posted this in the wrong place!)
When it comes to POTUS, I agree. The executive branch can get that in a POTUS’ Veep and cabinet.
Another reason I agree is because I really really want to do whatever it takes to win the WH. Beto is a perfect foil to Trump. We need get the house, senate, and White House so we can get to work on rolling back the power of the POTUS. Seriously, permanently rolled back. We have inched our way closer and closer over the last 100 years towards making our POTUS a monarch. That is exactly what the constitution was trying to avoid.
This has happened because we are locked into a two party system which has become disfunctionally partisan. Our political landscape has devolved into two warring tribes that require the intervention of a “king” to get anything done.
I don’t know what the solution is, but we need to figure it out before the trumpers latch onto a smarter version of Trump and move him towards the White House.
I guess that I’m just a little more hesitant than the rest of you.
“Man, I’m just born to be in it”
Man, I just don’t know. That statement on the cover of Vanity Fair and his Annie Leibovitz photo shoot kinda’ gave me the heebie jeebies – maybe a little too cult of personality for my taste. But then again, maybe that’s just what we need to beat Trump, .
p.s. The happiest man in Texas this morning was John Cornyn.
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Totally agree with your take on Beto: “…too soon…rather he run for Senate…”, but he might’ve figured if, even with ginormous amounts of $$$, popularity and media hype, he still couldn’t take down the slimiest scumbag in the Senate he’d probably fare no better vs Cornyn.
Just spitballin’ here…
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He’s my governor. As I see it, he has too many negatives and not enough to offer. The negatives:
- He’s another old(er) white guy. Personally, that’s not what I want at the top of the ticket this time.
- He’s an okay campaigner, but not good at firing people up. You don’t need to be super-charismatic to win a run for Governor as a Democrat in a deep blue state like Washington. We do need that to beat Trump and Trump-ism on the national stage.
The positives:
- His focus on the environment and climate change.
That’s about it on the positive side, and I just don’t think that means much this time around, because who isn’t including that in their platform? It’s going to be talked about with or without him in the race. Also, he has some history that will be difficult to explain as an environmental warrior, like pushing for expansion of highways in the state. You can’t try to mitigate climate change while putting more cars on the road.
Anyway, I think he’d be an okay President if elected, but I don’t see him standing out from the crowd enough to get the nomination.
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