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It’s Bernie’s moment. But it’s Bloomberg’s race. (archive)
If it can be summed up, then, the Democratic “mood” is basically this: “We like Bernie. He’s a warrior. But we’re afraid if we nominate him, he’ll lose in the fall. We need someone to get the job done.”
If the two men who might be that someone — former vice president Joe Biden and former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg — lose to Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire, that would make their “electability” somewhat less convincing. Defeat can be contagious. There are not many voters who say: “I like him — he loses a lot.”
So it’s Bernie’s moment, which has sent a wave of panic through the Democratic ecosystem. It’s like waking up from a nightmare, only to realize that you’re waking up in a nightmare.
Which helps explain why Democrats across the country will soon find themselves with a newfound appreciation for the virtues of one Mike Bloomberg, former Republican mayor of New York and billionaire founder of a financial data services empire. He might not have been exactly what they had in mind, but by Super Tuesday he’ll look like Brad Pitt.
Two b(m)illionaires competing for the Presidency is the kaiju battle we need right now. So let's repeat the mistake success of 2016 and finally send Bernie to a retirement home.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @04:25AM (8 children)
You better be trollin'
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday January 12 2020, @04:39AM (4 children)
I'm just relaying the conventional wisdom of "John Ellis... a former political columnist for the Boston Globe and the editor of News Items, a daily online newsletter."
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:51PM (1 child)
By your response I see you're just a troll.
Troll away, though I thought trolls were too stupid to use computers
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday January 12 2020, @07:23PM
Jokes are trolling now, huh? I'm surprised you know how to breathe.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday January 13 2020, @06:05PM (1 child)
Well John Ellis just took one hell of a jump, then!
So, it's not Bernie, the #2 in the polls. Therefore, let's skip #3, #4, #5, #7......all the way down to Bloomberg!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 13 2020, @07:44PM
Reading this made me think that Biden was in a bad position. But then I looked up the numbers [fivethirtyeight.com] and you can see Biden in the lead overall and basically tied with Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire, with South Carolina on lockdown as expected.
There is a limit to how late you can be to this party.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @12:24AM (2 children)
Four more years of Trump will finish destroying the Repubilcan Party and pave the way for AOC in 2024.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @05:40AM (1 child)
You're obviously joking but something I don't think many understand is that Trump's approval rating [gallup.com] among republicans is around 90%. His approval rating among independents is also higher than ever at 42%. To put this into context, Trump is currently substantially more popular than Obama was at this time in his presidency. Obama [gallup.com] had an 80% approval among democrats, and shared a 42% approval among independents. It's kind of interesting how broken the media has become that I imagine nobody would ever guess these numbers.
In general I'd go the other way. I think Trump winning in 2020 will probably end the current corrupt democratic party and replace them with a genuine liberal party instead of this neoliberal big-business big-war big-bullshit entity we have today that's only staying in power due to a mixture of racebaiting + media manipulation. Anyhow so many of the 'old guard' of the democratic party are going to start dropping dead over the coming years. What are they going to do in 2024? Run Chelsea?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @05:42PM
I wasn't joking.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @05:05AM (8 children)
Who can then go into the final race against one Donald Trump, former Democrat from New York and billionaire founder of a real estate empire.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:06AM (5 children)
I find is somewhat humorous that in the last few rounds, Republicans are running former Democrats and the Democrats are running former Republicans and no one seems to notice or care.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:45PM (3 children)
The feud between the MSM and Trump is directly connected to Trump's change of party (and his defeat of the D's anointed one).
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday January 12 2020, @08:43PM
No it's not. That is a dumb comment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @08:45PM
Even before Trump you had you still had people changing sides, the most obvious example being the 2016 Democratic presidential primary or Van Drew's treatment after his change. As dumb as Trump is sometimes, he learned from the previous rounds that as long as you say the right things now that people won't care. In addition, if you are part of the establishment, the MSM won't call you out either because they don't want to take themselves out either.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday January 13 2020, @06:02PM
Who knew winning the presidential primary (by millions of votes) also comes with an anointment!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @06:04AM
There was a time in the early 20th century where the parties flipped ideologies. There was no clear demarcation or declaration of such, it just gradually happened. As some of the more overt examples of this, the KKK was mostly democratic and Abraham Lincoln was a republican.
I think this is probably happening again. Democrats when "we" were younger tended to stand for freedom, worker's rights, and avoidance of war. So major platform issues were things like freedom of speech, improving ties with China and other nations, and a strong domestic economy. For instance it was even Carter that deregulated the airlines beer industry to help local business. Before Carter it was illegal to sell malt/hopes/yeast to home brewers! He's literally why we have a gazillion microbreweries today. By contrast republicans were the party of identity politics, big business, forcing their morality down your throat, and hoora forever-wars. They were even trying to literally ban video and dice games? Remember the dungeons and dragons, or 'night trap' nonsense?
Today democrats are increasingly becoming what republicans were. Only thing that change is the identity politics swapped from religion to race and sexuality. Even things like free speech are now a republican instead of democratic value - how the hell did that happen? And now nearly all big business, besides petrol, is starting to go democratic. Ultimately the reason I mention this is because I'm also finding myself starting switch parties. However, it's not really because my views have changed - but because the parties have. And I don't think I'm alone in this perception.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:45AM
Bloomberg is shacking up with Diana Taylor. They need a best man, a bridesmaid, a cake, lots of flowers, a ring, and a few other odds and ends.
I find it interesting that Diana Taylor "focused on utilizing banks for economic development in low-income communities in New York State" while she was the New York State Superintendent of Banks. To put it less politely, she fueled the sub-prime mortgage disaster by pestering banks to give more home loans to people who shouldn't have qualified.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @03:58PM
2020: A Democrat pretending to be a Republican Vs. a Republican pretending to be a Democrat. Vote uniparty!
(Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:31AM (5 children)
In the general? I'd say his chances of beating Trump are low. Maybe high 30s low 40s.
Biden or Buttigieg? Zero. Absolutely no chance at all. Trump would shred either without even trying, and rightly so.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Informative) by fustakrakich on Sunday January 12 2020, @07:01AM (4 children)
A brokered convention is very likely, and that means... Super delegates! Wheee!
DNC will nominate Biden, perfectly happy to toss the election to Trump. Whenever he gets into trouble, he calls Hillary
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @07:58AM
Party insiders can force a brokered convention via their control of the media. Simply prop up the struggling candidates, and the convention will be brokered. Without a brokered convention those pesky voters would get in the way of the superdelegates, and that wouldn't be OK. It would be democratic even, which is just supposed to be the branding.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @09:01PM
Look at what they did. People complained about superdelegates be undemocratic and looked too much like rigging the outcome. So they changed the rule so they wouldn't vote in the first round. They then turned around and clogged the field to try and force the second round of voting. The problem is, and history has borne this out, when you have a large field, it helps outsiders and early front-runners have a hard time sustaining because there are too many avenues for oppo and it's harder to strike back. In many ways, the effects of their two strategies may work against each other and make it even harder to get the easy win they were looking for.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday January 13 2020, @06:08PM (1 child)
People having a different opinion than you on who can beat Trump is not a conspiracy. It's just people disagreeing with you.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday January 13 2020, @06:39PM
The DNC is not out to "beat" Trump. They work together to share power and keep it in the "family". Flipping between democrat and republican is the same as reelecting the same. The party always wins.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Touché) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:40AM (5 children)
It does not matter which billionaire will be voted in by disoriented People. What really is important, it must be a billionaire. Anything else is just a decorative scenery. Sanders always played his assigned secondary role obediently.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:52AM (2 children)
Sanders isn't there yet, but he is oddly rich for a person who has only ever "worked" as a politician. You have to wonder how he got so rich without any corruption at all. Amazing!
Getting all the way to $1,000,000,000 is not much of a challenge. Despite advanced age, Bernie Sanders can still become a billionaire. Remember how he idolized Venezuela? Hyperinflation is the answer. With the power of socialism, he can be a billionaire. We can all be billionaires!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @05:04PM (1 child)
Do not worry. Mike Bloomberg will put that antisemitic incel in his place. We need a strong candidate like Bloomberg to convince khallow and the Runaway to vote for the Democratic Party.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 12 2020, @05:16PM
Sorry, Mr. Anti-Big Gulp isn't getting my vote ever. We don't need that nannyism running the US.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday January 13 2020, @07:58PM (1 child)
Sanders is not a billionaire. [foxbusiness.com] You're off by three orders of magnitude.
Warren is not a billionaire. [businessinsider.com] You're off by two orders of magnitude.
Biden is not a billionaire. [businessinsider.com] You're off by three orders of magnitude.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @11:39PM
Neither is Trump.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 12 2020, @08:45AM (13 children)
The party which claims to have put the first black man in office, then failed to put the first woman in office, has gone back to what works. Old rich white men.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:11AM (2 children)
Fuck you, Runaway, fuck you up your racist Republican sympathizing ass. When the "Boogaloo" goes down, we are coming to your house first.
(Score: 3, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 12 2020, @01:35PM
Let's dance. Molon labe.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Sulla on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:13PM
Boogaloo is a worthless word that is fun to add to stuff to make it humerous, PBS was fake newsin for clicks
Iranian Revolution 2: Dance through the boogoloo
ISIS 2: Return of the boogoloo
WWIII: Pakistan and the nuclear electric boogoloo
PBS saw what they wanted to see and ran with it
Bernie nomination 2: Super delegate boogoloo
All of the above are correct uses of internet definition of boogoloo
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:41AM
The Dems haven't gotten an old, rich, white man in the oval office in my lifetime. Clinton was the closest they came and he wasn't old when he first ran, though he was looking pretty ragged by the time he left office.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 12 2020, @07:06PM (6 children)
(((White))) men, indeed.
Damn shame that they're not running Tulsi, she'd actually win. And I might actually vote for her since Zion Don would rather pester a bunch of goatfuckers for Israel than defend our borders and our livelihood.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @09:07PM (4 children)
I don't know if she'd win. You just run Republican against an anti-war DINO. I've also thought that she never seemed serious in her run, but seemed to do and say just enough to pivot into something else. Maybe pundit/PR for a contractor.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday January 12 2020, @09:29PM (3 children)
She's the only contender on the Dem side who is an America-first moderate and not an old male Jew. And she went to Syria to call out the bullshit [theguardian.com] going on. Of course the Jews are gonna demonize her as a "Russian Asset."
I think that if she were a little more aggressive she could do to the Dems in 2020 or 2024 what Trump did to the Republicans in 2016. Plus she's not fucking senile like Biden, she's an authentic minority unlike Warren (whose hoary short-haired appearance is pure San Francisco Jew-Dyke) and ain't likely to keel over unexpectedly like Boinie Sandahs.
America is not Europe, we're not just gonna sit on our hands and get politically steamrolled by globalist Bolsheviks. We don't want fighting bullshit wars for Jews and Arab goatfuckers, we don't like unfettered invasion from those who seek to suckle from our teet without embracing our language and culture, and we don't want to give up our middle-class lifestyle for those who want to work for it just because a bunch of gimme-gimmes want to get paid to play video games all day. Tulsi is shifting the Overton window more right ever so subtly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:55PM
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/bernie-sanders-jewish-liberal-probably-anti-semitic-according-right-ncna1103036 [nbcnews.com]
https://spectator.us/bernie-sanders-anti-semite-best-friends/ [spectator.us]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @12:52AM (1 child)
Tulsi gabbard is a Russian asset.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @01:25AM
Go to bed Hillary you're drunk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:53PM
Why not that anti-Semite, Bernie?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday January 12 2020, @08:41PM (1 child)
The party which claims to have put the first black man in office
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 12 2020, @09:42PM
That quote doesn't ring any bells here. But, for the record, that "first black president" was only half black, and he wasn't descended from American slaves. (Slavery runs rampant in Africa, he may be descended from some good old fashioned African and/or Arabic slaves.)
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:47AM
They might as well nominate Bernie, it's not like they're going to win whoever they run. At least Bernie might push the Overton Window more in the direction of Karentown so they might win in 2024.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by shortscreen on Sunday January 12 2020, @03:27PM (12 children)
Does anyone actually think/say this? I'm more inclined to believe that this is the corporate media telling the herd what to think. Putting words in voters' mouths. They spread this meme during every election cycle. "You must support the moderate / electable / horrendously mediocre candidate! It's the only way for your team to win!"
If this is a real dilemma every time, it just points to the need for a better electoral system than primaries/FPTP.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday January 12 2020, @03:58PM (7 children)
Latest 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Polls [realclearpolitics.com]
Who Will Win The 2020 Democratic Nomination? [fivethirtyeight.com]
Biden trounces other 2020 candidates in poll of black Democrats [thehill.com]
electability Google News search [google.com]
It's definitely a political analyst meme, but people do vote that way. It explains some of Biden's support and he used the electability argument himself in the debates.
Ironically, the "unelectable" "socialist" Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton in Michigan and Wisconsin, two of the states that decided the election.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:29PM (6 children)
The blacks will put their support behind the democrat that will not rock the boat of lifetime welfare and food stamps for the non working.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 12 2020, @09:51PM (5 children)
I read past your post, and kind of brushed it off as trolling. I even closed the window, but then I found myself wondering if it's just a troll. It itched a bit, so I had to come back and look again.
The thing is - all those self-loathing whites, SJW's, and socialist activists? Basically everyone who supports the welfare state. I wonder if their motivation isn't just as base as the black who will vote for free stuff. Maybe in the backs of their minds, all of those self-loathers, SJW's and socialist activists KNOW that they are failures, and that they will need all that welfare down the road.
Something to keep in mind the next time you hear a bunch of goober smoochers bitching about how heartless all of us racists are for keeping the black man down.
No one wants to admit that welfare is nothing more than a tool, used side-by-side with the prison-for-profit scheme, to keep the black man on the plantation. If dat nigga is properly submissive, he get him some welfare. If nigga don't submit, he get prison. It's pretty simple, ain't it?
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @10:22PM
What I said was coarse and inconsiderate, and I expected it to be just modded Troll or Flamebait by the do-gooders here. But the Democrats take the black electorate for granted. On the one hand, they are for soft borders and bringing in illegals that displace working black people from employment. On the other hand, the implied promise is that if blacks continue to vote for business-as-usual Democrats, they won't let them starve.
A truly shitty prospect. Then a (non-)Democrat runs for office who promised a better future for all Americans. Sanders had support from a wide swath of Americans. Hell, even in rural central Kentucky there were Sanders signs in front yards. He likely would have beaten Trump. But many blacks dared not trade the safety of subsistence under the establishment Democrats for a chance of a new deal. In Marxist terminology, they are the lumpenproletariat.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Monday January 13 2020, @01:46AM (1 child)
What would be the point of keeping 'em on the plantation if they're not going to work? Other than obscenely wealthy people, I don't know many who'd be willing to pay people to be submissive whom they have no contact with...
I think it's all just displaced white liberal guilt, pounded into their heads from an early age in the same way that a few generations of Germans were raised to feel deep shame for an event that, however catastrophic, happened long before their birth.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @02:23AM
The party bosses - once they get into power, they can redistribute your wealth for these ends.
Having lived in both places, there is decidedly not a culture of self-flagellation in the US as there is in Germany. Americans will avoid thinking about slavery, lynchings and institutional racism in their recent history, instead they are annoyed that while every conceivable group of immigrants and ethnicities has overcome racism after a generation or two, blacks are having a large part in perpetuating their own misery.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @06:41AM
In my opinion the explanation is much more simple.
There's no great war, there's no great enemy, things like clear institutional racism (e.g. - blacks in the back, irish need not apply, etc) are relics of the past, and in general if you want you could live a perfectly sterile life that'd probably have little to no hiccups going from day 0 to your deathbed. This is what we, humanity, have been trying to achieve for literally thousands of years. And we're finally closing in on it. But there's a major problem. Turns out we're not creating a utopia - but a hell - life becomes intolerably boring. If your average social justice type was given the choice of living today or living during the 60s, which would they choose? Since they're supposed to be all about improving society, ostensibly 100% would choose today where the issues of the 60s are now history. But I expect the ratio would be near the opposite. It's not about the goal but about the journey. They want to fight for something - to be a part of something bigger.
What's the point of living an impotent life where one wakes up each day to go work a 9-5 only to be "rewarded" with retirement which happens, not coincidentally, in the years after your body and mind start to fail making you no longer fit for much of anything, except leading nations apparently? It seems like an utterly empty and meaningless existence. People need something to strive for - and an enemy to fight against. And when no such enemy exists, we will simply create one. This is probably an evolutionary imperative we all have. The combative and driven are probably going to be more likely to pass on their genes than those happy to passively go day by day, until they die. Or millennia, you get us. A people that can probably never truly be content - because we've bred contentedness out of ourselves.
I think politicians have realized this and are simply tapping into this primal drive we have. Ultimately I think this is probably just a refinement, but a more favorable explanation, for the notion of a useful idiot. The SJW types would, alongside the "nazis" they label all who oppose them, be among the first to sign up to fight the real Nazis following Pearl Harbor. It's just that as they've lost any clear enemy, they're flailing out like a tiger pacing anxiously and increasingly mentally unstable in his zoo enclosure with no enemy, no fear for lack of food, and absolutely nothing to fight for or against.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday January 13 2020, @06:48AM
Charitable interpretation is they may just be a bit more forward looking. Automation is steadily removing jobs. Even without real AI, narrow AI is improving. It's not just about complete replacement, but also greatly amplifying the productivity of those that remain. At the most basic level, one guy with a backhoe can outdig 40 guys with shovels.
Dunning-Kruger aside, most people don't think they are in the top 1% of competency that will be able to stay employed. They know automation is coming for their jobs, and welfare and wealth redistribution are going to be necessary. The alternatives are a managed transition to post-scarcity, or a few trillionaires and hungry mobs with pitchforks and ropes.
I think a UBI should be styled as a citizen dividend. Owning stock in (being part of) society should pay a dividend, much like owning stock in a company does. That dividend should be enough to pay for basic food, clothing, shelter, and medical care.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 13 2020, @02:31AM
No, see, it's just the truth and it's the political system doing what it's supposed to do. Which is to say protecting us from minorities with radical political agendas that most of the nation would never under any circumstances support.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday January 13 2020, @06:17PM (2 children)
I definitely do. Job #1 is to beat Trump.
I just believe that running another status-quo candidate would be repeating the same mistake as 2016.
However, I don't think it's that crazy to believe a 'return to normal' candidate has a better chance after Trump.
Why does every damn thing need to be some kind of conspiracy?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday January 13 2020, @11:20PM
Job #1 is to beat Trump.
With what, a pillow?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Tuesday January 14 2020, @06:26AM
Why not aspire to something better?
You are not alone.
Anyone nominated by one of the two parties in a two-party system has a chance. But if you want to convince voters to "return to normal" you need to define normal and define how it is better than the present.
Because the world where people are always honest and sincere and never motivated by the persuit of money or power is not the world we live in? The corporate media runs on advertising. It's their job to influence you. Qui bono?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:30PM (1 child)
Sanders has been confirmed as a putin puppet.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x7NA_RZ8UfE [youtube.com]
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iDcTue3O67A [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 13 2020, @07:47AM
Fake news. YouTube is Russia's alt-right video depository.