…& then there were [DOT 2/3/20]

2/3/20 SplinterRIP 33

…well, it could perhaps have happened to some nicer guys…& arguably already did depending on how nice you think Castro & Booker are…but the race for the Dem ticket is down two white guys

Tom Steyer Drops Out of 2020 Presidential Race
Pete Buttigieg to Quit Democratic Presidential Race

…& I don’t want to accidentally stray into bury-your-gays territory but if I’m honest I’m not sorry Pete decided not to see how super things turned out to look the morning after Super Tuesday

….I’m also not entirely up to speed on what that does to shorten (or otherwise) the odds on our remaining runners & riders…but if you’ll forgive my saying so it’d make me feel a whole lot better about a few things if it wound up pulling Warren back into contention in more people’s minds

…at least as I understand it there’s a possibility that as the convention nears she could still clock up a respectable showing in the delegate stakes but it continues to mystify me at least a little quite how she’s been stuck behind Mayor Pete in that tally when in a fairly fundamental fashion she seems like the most serious candidate the party has had to offer for a good many years?

…by which I mean a candidate who appears to be taking the whole exercise seriously to an extent that I’m not sure has been matched…& not just in the sense of all those plans she’s been so much more detailed about than the others care to be about their own

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/south-carolina-primary-elizabeth-warren-joe-biden-super-tuesday-a9366891.html

…but let’s face it…ol’ joe ain’t calling it quits either…which, honestly – & with all due respect to the points KC made the other day regarding his appeal to the PoC demographic – seems like a damn shame…speaking of which concerns

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/new-york-police-under-michael-bloomberg-scarred-me-my-family-ncna1145686

…because Moneybags McCorporate Candidate doesn’t seem inclined to stop trying to buy the pot anytime soon

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/26/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-ad-campaign-spending.html

…& for some reason Klobuchar is still in the thing?

…possibly as a backdoor fundraising gig for a senate bid…but surely the diminishing returns have to be kicking in now…why wait to be on the wrong end of a kicking on Super Tuesday when that’s not helping anybody?

I mean, there’s that thing they say about clouds & silver linings…

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/after-south-carolina-win-biden-takes-aim-sanders-very-controversial-n1146431

…but if the balloon always had a hole in it I’m not sure how much it helps to breathe new life into it?

…although it’s a safe bet it’s more than this kind of shit helps anybody…even the moron talking the shit

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-coronavirus-democrats-new-hoax-n1145721

…but then that corner of this fight has been steeping in confabulation since before most folks thought they were in a fight in the first place…so much so that it’s like operating in a different world…fish meet bicycle…being out of water is the least of your concerns?

…take his libel case against the NYT…which of course isn’t “his” case

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/29/why-trumps-frivolous-libel-lawsuit-against-new-york-times-is-dangerous/

…I mean, just to stick with the highlights…having your campaign (since corporations are people, too) claim that it has standing to pursue a frivolous lawsuit based on damage to a personal reputation

[…notalawyer & all but in my experience libel is something generally claimed by the actual person being libeled…not their incorporated vehicle…mind you, I bet he finds it scarier when they call it being de-famed]

…which positively screams a desire to insulate the principal to an extent that makes a couple of things obvious which I’d be prepared to argue ought to invalidate the suit & get it dropped by all courts in perpetuity, sight unseen

[…yes…I know that’s not how it works…but this is an obvious attempt to game a system & I think it ought to bounce like a badly addressed email]

…since a) you’re hiding from discovery on the grounds that not only do you know your ass can’t prove your case but you can barely find a file or record that doesn’t incriminate you for something because corruption is literally your natural element

…b) you know the case is DoA since truth is generally held to be a defense in such cases & the truth is never on your side…we all know if he thought it was capable of providing a win he’d tie that shit to himself faster than he could mash his bring-me-a-diet-coke button…probably with a damn flag

…c) & this is probably the bit he’s proudest of…lord knows it isn’t the quality of the lawyer he found to execute the formalities of the thing…but the liabilities are confined to the campaign as an entity…so all those MAGA hat buying 45 voters are bankrolling yet another of his shit-fits…& likely on the hook for whatever tab the Times racks up turning this paper tiger into papier mache

…speaking of which

https://www.lawfareblog.com/house-representatives-files-supreme-court-brief-mazars-and-deutsche-bank-cases

…we call a lot of things laughable…even some stuff that probably isn’t funny when you think about it…but the arguments for why he should be able to block the release of his financial information started out laughable…at this point that shit is breathing an atmosphere permanently infused with potentially fatal levels of nitrous oxide

…when the consciousness of guilt is so thick you could cut it with a knife it sure seems like it would only be fitting to serve it up & make him choke it down each & every meal of each & every day…there’s plenty left over for snacks, too

…mind you, seems like maybe we all deserve at the very least a good dinner in better company?

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/sunday-nights-get-you-down-it-s-time-bring-back-ncna1144556

…so Monday might be being it’s habitually objectionable self…but next time we’ll be ready for that shit?

avataravataravataravataravataravatar

33 Comments

  1. I didn’t hear about Pete yesterday. I wasn’t sorry to see Tom go. He was nothing more than an interloper trying to buy his way in, before buying your way in was cool. But I’m a little disappointed that Pete dropped out before Super Tuesday because that just consolidates they centrist vote more. Hopefully enough ballots were cast in early voting that his departure won’t make much difference.

    • …yeah…it’s possible that with a better grasp of the repercussions I might be less sanguine about Pete butting out…or more likely with the benefit of hindsight it might look that way to me in retrospect

      …but I guess I’m in the unfashionable position of still thinking that it’d make more sense to dump Bernie’s supporters into Warren’s column than the other way around if getting shit done is what we’re ultimately interested in…so I guess I care less than I should about whether folks that think either would be a mistake fall in behind Biden or Bloomberg?

      • Also, he said he would declare climate change a national emergency on day 1. That needs to be EVERYONE’s message. I saw him being interviewed on MSNBC & the reporter asked him how he would get along w/ Mitch McConnell? His answer was “how come I get asked this but you don’t ask this of McConnell? When has he ever tried to work w/ any Democrats?” I didn’t want him to win the election but I hope his message lives on and he helps to flip the Senate.

  2. I’m interested in seeing how Warren fares on Tuesday but honestly I’m not expecting much at this point. On the Corporate Dem side it’s basically coming down to how effective Bloomie’s ad buys have been considering how he got destroyed in the debates. I think, no matter what, the Last Centrist Standing is going to be pressured by the DNC to take it all the way to the convention because they “have a responsibility to the country” to make sure we don’t become the USSR.

  3. Someone else said this but I’m stealing: That Pete basically won in Iowa yet ran out of gas before Super Tuesday is a good argument against Iowa having caucuses and going first AND the current campaign finance structure. I have no love for Mayor Pete — as craven and empty a political operator as I’ve seen in some time — but it’s ridiculous that he had to walk away now.

  4. I started to write a blog about this a while back, but, uh, work happened?

    As long as we’re working from the premise that a series of successive primaries helps foster debate and momentum, then it’s unimportant who goes first. Someone has to go first!

    Yes, Iowa isn’t representative of America as a whole, but why does that matter? Why does the first primary have to be predictive of all the rest?

    #trusttheprocess

    • …the thing is I’m not sure I buy into the premise…a lot of dynamics are at play during the course of campaign season that lead to a sort of feedback loop of almost arms race proportions at least some of which might be mitigated if the process operated differently

      …one idea I heard recently which appealed to me was that based on voter turnout in the actual election in this round the primaries would take place in descending order from most engaged electorate to least when next they rolled around

      …as an incentive to make your state’s electorate turn out on the day it seemed to have something going for it…& in the event of a tie there’s nothing to say that several (or even all) states couldn’t be the same day?

      …I mean, there’s an argument that we ought to be spending less time arguing which flavor of not-trump we’re looking at & a lot more on any & all R seats up for grabs down ticket?

      • Okay, but you’re still assuming the first primary has or should have some kind of influence or determinative outcome that campaigns ought to prize. That’s the conventional wisdom — but it’s not quite true.

        Perhaps it would be smarter to have the primaries divided up into 4 or 5 groups of states that carry relatively equal delegates and demographic representation.

        What’s useful about the first few primaries is that candidates have to appeal to diverse states. What wins in Iowa isn’t what wins in SC, but to be President you should be able to represent — if not win — everywhere.

    • I’m not quite to “One-day national primary” because I think that’s a little too fast, but the length of the campaign cries out for a shortening. The media narrative of “All this arguing helps Trump!” is dumb as hell, but it’s not wrong that this shit feels endless.

      So, rather than argue over who gets to go first, the answer is: the first primary shouldn’t be one state on its own. The first primary day doesn’t have to be the size of Super Tuesday, but it should be big enough to actually mean something. It should be mostly rotated each time out. Do one potential battleground state, one of the high-turnout states (per Jake’s idea above), one of the big states and then maybe two others to diversify the starting slate. That way a) you end the “should x state have this much say?” debate and b) it forces campaigns to actually be well-prepared and strategic and see how they might hold up to a national race when they can’t just descend on one place for months at a time.

      And FWIW, Iowa can be included every year with this to keep its first-in-the-nation status if that really matters. I ain’t mad at Iowa; it’s a place that I’d like to see Democrats compete in sooner rather than later! But it’s not really a good test of a candidate to post up there for months at a time without having to even consider 49 other states plus other voting territories.

    • “now, where did we put that wheelbarrow the albino had?”

      “over the albino”

      …some castles just demand storming, after all…& humperdink had it coming I think we can all agree?

  6. I find the timing of Mayor Pete dropping a little worthy of a conspiracy theory that Biden promised him a job in his administration if he helped consolidate to defeat the evil Socialist Bernie. Secretary of Defense maybe? I can only imagine that is the only reason that Klobuchar is still in the race, she couldn’t really be that delusional to think she could still win?

  7. I’ve been holding out on filling out my ballot just to make sure that Warren is still in after Super Tuesday. I feel like she’s probably going to pull out if she has a weak showing then.

  9. Looks like Klobuchar is dropping out today and endorsing Biden. The DNC is definitely ramping up to stop Bernie anyway they can! I sure hope he doesn’t offer her the VP job, it would be the Republican-lite ticket!

  10. I was just running to share the news, lol. Not surprising, her performance in NH seemed to be a fluke of open primary voting tbh. Bye Felicia.

    Now it remains to be seen how much of a fluke SC was for Biden.

    I will say the timing of these candidates dropping out is getting stinky. There’s been a lot of early voting. So these votes for candidates who dropped out get allocated to people who meet the 15% threshold right? Therefore padding the numbers of a candidate who’s under performing by default? Maybe giving someone like Biden the illusion of “momentum”?

    • …it’s that kind of math that I was talking about when I said I wasn’t all the way up to speed with what it does to the leaderboard & projected trajectories of the remaining candidates…but it is kind of a worry, I’d agree

  12. “possibly as a backdoor fundraising gig for a senate bid…”

    This would surprise me, as a Minnesotan, simply because Amy’s seat is safe for the next 4 years.

    Amy won her re-election bid in 2016, as did Tina Smith.

    Smith’s seat (seat 2, the former Franken, Wellstone, Humphrey-first term, and Mondale seat😉) is now in it’s normal election cycle.

    We sit out any senatorial races (barring a vacancy) in 2022, and two years after that–2024, seat 1 (Amy’s) is up in it’s normal cycle again.

  13. Could it possibly be pressure from party bosses/insiders?

    It also comes immediately after she had to shut down her rally Sunday night, when so many folks protesting Myon Burell’s conviction for the murder of Tyesha Edwards took over her stage:
    https://kstp.com/news/amy-klobuchar-rally-canceled-myon-burrell-protesters/5661512/

    That sort of thing happening on literally home turf (over in St. Louis Park, a “first ring”** Minneapolis
    suburb might have made them/her realize how difficult afull race would be.

    Plus, with the Senate control so absolutely VITAL right now, and Tina’s seat up for grabs this cycle, there’s logical pressing to *not* allow any vacancy in seat 1.

    **I don’t know about other cities, but here in the MSP metro-region, we have “inner ring”/”outer ring” suburbs.

    Inner/outer ring is split by whether a suburb lies mostly inside or outside the I-494/694 freeway,which creates a circle around Minneapolis & St. Paul.
    The inner-ring is more lefty-liberal, and the outer ring can be a conservative hellscape😉

    https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/02/20/suburbpolitics

    Side note, the 494/694 ring/loop is *also* supposedly a reason why the MSP region attracts so many wiccan & pagan people–we quite literally create a giant (protective) salt ring around hundreds of thousands of people,homes, & businesses every.single.year😉

Leave a Reply