“…his campaign is projecting confidence that he doesn’t have to lead early to succeed with a strategy built more on grassroots enthusiasm than national buzz…”
The AP will find that bothsiderism wherever it resides.
He will need money and lots of it for a successful campaign, that will be hard to come by after Sanders has sucked democratic pockets dry and stolen everybody’s air time with his rants and other shenanigans.
I really like Booker. I want to see and hear more from him. He has an intense personal style, which I believe is genuine and honest. Actually I know that it’s genuine and honest. The man runs into burning buildings to save people! He shovels his neighbors’ walkways and driveways during snow storms, and then opens his own home to those who lose power. The man has a heart of gold.
But I also fear that the age of Trump has tired me, and I don’t know if I am looking for another intense personality right now. While he might be perfect to run against Cruz, I don’t know if he is to run against Trump.
While everyone is asking if a gay man can be elected, I sometimes wonder if a vegan might get even more blow back from rural America. I am joking of course, but maybe not. I live with these people in red America, and while they all know at least one gay person (two if they know a couple), most don’t know any vegans.
People who contribute to Sanders most likely wouldn’t be contributing to Booker even if Sanders weren’t running. Sanders is Warren’s competition in the money game, and if it weren’t for him she very well might be hoovering it in rather than struggling.
But Harris is more Booker’s competition. Maybe O’Rourke too. Maybe everybody else, actually.
I am sure you are right. I just have this deep aversion to Sanders trying to upstage Democrats that I can not think straight when it comes to Sanders.
I don’t. What about his votes against drug importation? And his NJ Big Pharma donors?
NJ is a pharma state, and many of his constituents earn their living from the pharmaceutical companies. What do you want him to do? Do want him to ignore and hate on the livelihood of his constituents?
Yes, I know all about NJ. If he’s running for President, he needs to consider ALL of the country and we have to have the confidence he will do that. I have no such confidence, given his past history. He also has been overly “thoughtful” of Wall Street. There are other candidates trying to run their campaigns without corporate donors who have outsize influence. Lobbyists in addition to big donations. You may or may not like Bernie Sanders, but he showed us that a viable national campaign can be financed by grass roots donors. And for that I am grateful.
Booker might be 1000 times better than Trump, but I don’t see him breaking out of the pack of other good candidates with a focus on “unity.” You don’t have to get all the way in the gutter with Trump, but I still think Dem voters are looking for more of a fighter this time around. Maybe not as red-faced and yelling as Bernie’s style, but not a younger and blacker version of Joe Biden’s Senatorial “comity” either.
Booker is also making “reparations” a part of his campaign. While that’s nice in theory, the details of implementing it are impossible to do fairly, without turning off other minorities and white voters we need.
Do you want purity, or someone who will be the strongest Democratic nominee?
The votes you mention and support from big pharma are to be expected from a senator from New Jersey. Would you begrudge a senator from Illinois for voting for farm subsidies, or one from Maine for supporting fisheries?
I’m not supporting Booker, but I’m interested in him. I want a Democrat who will unite voters–someone who’s not the antiTrump, but Trump’s antithesis.
“Critics will tell us that a campaign powered by grace and love and a deep faith in each other” cannot prevail, Booker said.
The critics are correct.
The Dem nominee is going to be either Biden, Warren, Sanders, Harris or O’Rourke. I don’t see any room for Booker.
Well, you have plenty of company!
“The first stops on Booker’s national tour are in Iowa, Georgia and Nevada.”
The expectation must be that Georgia will choose to be on Super Tuesday again like 2016. So far, Georgia has not set the date for it’s 2020 primary.
Aaah. The old purity argument. If I point out what I consider to be a downside to a candidate you like, then I’m a purist. Health care, including drug prices, happens to be the biggest issue favoring Democrats right now. A candidate who recently parted with his party to vote down a bill that would reduce drug prices isn’t well positioned to lead on that issue.
This link shows the extent of his donations related to pharmaceuticals. Data are from Open Secrets.
I am not a Sanders fan but seems to me that it is Democrats who support him, he isn’t upstaging.
Hmm … What would happen if one were to complain that someone else’s candidate is a … purist?
Like him or not, many of the most engaging issues for the Democratic Party today were raised by Sanders 2 and 3 years ago. He also showed us the way to running a viable national campaign based on many donors making small donations. People were outraged at both. Pie in the sky. Ridiculous. Could never win. Well, look at the midterms. These candidates didn’t win by campaigning for tweaks and incremental changes. Today most of the candidates are doing what was considered unacceptable by many just 3 years ago. Voters want bolder ideas and more independence from big money, be it big banks, big pharma or any another big corporate sector.
The purity argument is DOA, as far as I am concerned. Regardless of who the candidate is. It’s an epithet, and only meant to criticize without adding to our knowledge. We have enough shallow name calling with this President without indulging in it ourselves.