OT–
Let’s all write to McConnell at this address:
Moscow Mitch McConnell
Senate Office Building
317 Delaware Ave NE
Washington, DC
20510
You know what to do!!
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Wow. They really seem not to like De Blasio. Even when he was calling for more government jobs, he barely raised more than a modest amount of applause. This may partially be a problem of following Bernie.
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DeBlasio is a lab test of far left governance. He has been pretty good but people just find him annoying. Mainly, most people think the Mayor of NY is a pretty important job and he should just be doing it instead of this.
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And Amy Klobuchar got even less applause, which is saying something. (This may be her bad boss rumors.) To her credit, she opened with good humor, playing off the comment of the moderators.
Edit: She got a little more applause by citing a background of her union connections.
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She is cleverly tailoring her message to public employees. She isn’t on my list of top runners (in my private primary), but she is doing okay here.
Edit: she got applause by saying that she would get rid of Betsy Devos on her first day. (If you cannot get Democrats to applaud that, what would they applaud for?) She might find that it is harder to get rid of evil spirits than that.
Edit2: She closed with her usual claim of having won every race every time. She may have to modify that this time.
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Now it is John Delaney. Is he still running? (I think I heard a boo.)
Edit: Even his pro-union lines are falling flat.
Edit2: Ouch: Aren’t you running in the wrong primary? (Good zinger.)
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It doesn’t matter if the general election debates are framed as Socratic dialogues or as pie-throwing contests. trump will not debate. He will cite precedence (LBJ, Nixon) or he will just say No.
Sorry, but for everyone looking forward to Ms Harris eviscerating trump on live TV – it just won’t happen.
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He will say there is a national emergency at the border, and you want a debate/townhall? (He will find time to call in to Fox and Friends, of course.)
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The big news is that there is any enthusiasm.
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John Delaney’s agenda is more popular in the country than Bernie Sanders’ agenda. There it is. I said it.
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And yet I think the numbers would support the idea that Bernie is personally much more popular than Delaney. Curious.
Edit: I will also note that many of the voters who might vote for Delaney will instinctively vote for Trump instead. (Since a little less than half of the voting public seems to be start raving mad, I am not sure what Delaney’s constituency, on a national level, is.)
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I think that’s true too. The paradox of that debate is that you had the most viable candidates with the hardest to sell policy agenda (Sanders, Warren) on that stage facing off against the least viable candidates with the easiest to sell policy agenda (Delaney, Hickenlooper). Superior political skills of Warren and Sanders appeared to win out.
The most viable center-left candidates (Beto, Pete, Amy) ducked that ideological/philosophical discussion.
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And I think that there is a general sense, accurate or not, that both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are innately on the side of the common man (common person), and consequently they get a certain amount of leeway on specifics.
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I don’t know the answer to that question b/c Pete, Beto and Amy didn’t engage. It wasn’t an apples to apples comparison b/c the non-viables were never going to win that debate. This is why we need to see debates with the viable candidates in forums that makes sense. Not just DNC debates (god Tom Perez is bad at this), but I want forums and debates all over the place on a whole bunch of different topics.
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I don’t blame the format (at least for the MSNBC debates) of 10 randomly chosen candidates each night.
to me, the big problem is the questioners/moderators. They have no interest in informing the public---- its all about creating conflict and controversy, and reducing complex issues to gotcha questions.
A far better option would be to have “moderators” from the NAACP, ACLU, AFSCME etc…
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More information, less “news”
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I think Perez is doing the typical political thing, trying to have it both ways. He wants to have the appearance of everyone getting a fair shake, and trembling in his boots that someone other than the preferred establishment candidate might make it through the gauntlet.
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Tulsi Gabbard came on and I think the temperature in my house dropped several degrees.
Edit: There is something strangely androidish about the way she speaks.
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Kamala Harris getting into the details of her medicare for all plan with a lot of engagement and passion. Good overview of the transition to m4a. Defends private ins option. Pretty good. Has that balance of detail and big picture goals in her answers. Feels a bit like listening to Bill Clinton or Barack Obama when they proposed policy changes and mapped it out for people.
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