And They're Off! The Democratic Candidates for 2020

[drogulus]

    The main point of "interference" by government is the promotion of money driven markets, done by its purchases of goods and services by the currency thus provided. The value of the currency is maintained within a range largely by the tax return, which grows as the economy does.

     There is no such thing as nonintereference in a currency by the issuer of it. The idea is incompatible with the history of the most successful government program ever, capitalism.

[Todd]

Democrats have settled on Biden because he can win.  Biden has said multiple racist things throughout this career, and during each of his three runs for president.  In prior races, Dems used those statements against him.  Here, for obvious reasons, Dems will look the other way.  Just like they have taken to attacking Tara Reade, a behavior that is clearly reprehensible if a Republican does it and would (and has) invite Democrat scorn and derision.  Joe Biden is a terrible person.  That's a fact.  Ask Anita Hill.  Dems are willing to accept him as their next president.  It is always worth repeating that if it weren't for double standards, Democrats would have no standards at all.

Many young Dems are not so quick to forget or forgive or accept.  A good number of young progressive men and women do have a problem with Biden.  He will have problems controlling his party.  For instance, Biden took only two-thirds of the Dem vote in the Oregon primary, and it was this week.

[Ratliff]

https://apple.news/Ai-SSzkf9QoOddKL8S7W2jg

Amazing that an 80 year old "liberal" white guy can say something like this and some of you here ignore it while you blather on about "Trump racist, Trump bad, blah blah blah......."

I would categorize it as a gaffe, but I would not categorize it as offensive. I think what he was trying to get across is "Trump has been so offensive to black people in words and actions that it is unlikely a typical black person would support him." Of course, since I am not a black person my viewpoint is not the most relevant. It remains to be seen if Biden has offended black supporters, of if it is only his haters that have taken offense on behalf of black people.

[arpeggio]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
So what? For every stupid thing Biden says that irritates me, Trump says at least a dozen.

[greg]

As good a self-serving rationale as any.

Well, this is going to be the way to think about things for anyone determined to vote (Trump or Biden regardless).

But they could also not vote... oh, wait, never mind, that's illegal... oh wait, never mind, that's immoral... oh wait, never mind, that's just an alternate method of preventing cognitive dissonance. Ok, yeah, that's pretty much it.

[Todd]

Since it was clear last year that Biden was the man with the plan for the Dems, I stopped paying much attention to him.  Sure, he'll bomb the shit out of some poor, brown country or countries, and probably raise my federal income taxes a bit, maybe cutting into my CD/download buying habit (nah), but otherwise he won't impact my life.  (And really, it's just the tax increase that I'll notice.  He can bomb the shit out of a dozen poor, brown countries and it won't impact me.)  But recently, for chuckles, I've started paying attention to some of his "gaffes", as his apologists call them.  I'm sure these are old hat to Biden fans, but they were new to me.

Uncle Joe's thoughts on leg hair, among other topics:

https://www.youtube.com/v/3DbE2SmV2bs


And then there's Biden sucking his wife's fingers during one of her speeches.  (This made it on the august, serious news show The Daily Show, for those who need a gauge of its seriousness.)



There's your stable genius.  Way to go Dems!

(Yeah, yeah, I know, what about Trump?!?!)

[SimonNZ]

Will this be like the Trumpists who said Hilary's "deplorable" gaffe outweighed the daily mountain of Trump's offensiveness?

So Trump can completely shit the bed day after day after day and bungle appallingly this ongoing ultimate test of his "leadership"...but one boneheaded comment from the D means game over?

[Karl Henning]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
So what? For every stupid thing Biden says that irritates me, Trump says at least a dozen.

And, Biden has apologized, unlike President "apologizing is a sign of weakness."

[SimonNZ]

Reading is hard.

If you want to disagree or point out something I've overlooked or misread then just do so.

[SimonNZ]

You didn't pay attention to what he wrote earlier, Simon. Shame on you.

"Shame on me"??

Are you guys referring to post 4257 as though it should have been the final word on the subject? Its no such thing. I disagree with pretty much everything in it.

[greg]

And, Biden has apologized, unlike President "apologizing is a sign of weakness."

Apologizing is neither a good or bad thing, it entirely depends on context.

(I won't go into specific detail regarding Biden or Trump, just wanted to point that out).

[Todd]

Looks like Creepy Uncle Joe has a thing for kissing his granddaughter on the mouth.  In public.






I thought only The Donald did icky stuff like this.  Guess not.  I had actually not seen these before.  That's how little I have paid attention given the inevitability of the Creepy Uncle Joe Presidency.  I will not be surprised if some GMGer says it's perfectly normal, or it's not so bad because, you know, Trump.

Social distancing should cut down on moments of creepiness for the next president, at least for a while.

[SimonNZ]

Christ this is desperate.

Its perfectly normal. Assuming its a quick peck and not a Hollywood makeout session.

Find some better muck to throw.

[Todd]

As expected.

[greg]

Looks like Creepy Uncle Joe has a thing for kissing his granddaughter on the mouth.  In public.

Wtf. 

Christ this is desperate.

Its perfectly normal. Assuming its a quick peck and not a Hollywood makeout session.

Find some better muck to throw.

I don't think it's normal for Americans to do this... maybe for Europeans, idk. Maybe some families are just weird like that.

[SimonNZ]

Don't worry, buddy: we will.

The days of the GOP being afraid to fight back are long gone. There's a lot of dirt on that shitty candidate of yours and by November he'll be flushed like HRC.

He's not "my" candidate. And playing this game from a distance of 10,000 km I would have rated Biden as "my" sixth or seventh choice from the D field - without having experienced any of their governing at a local level.

Which were the days when the GOP was "afraid to fight back"?. Its been the Atwater-Stone style low road of dirty tricks and smears from them for as long as I've been watching.

[JBS]

Don't worry, buddy: we will.

The days of the GOP being afraid to fight back are long gone. There's a lot of dirt on that shitty candidate of yours and by November he'll be flushed like HRC.

I am sure that if GOP voters can ignore all the dirt on Trump, Democratic voters can ignore the dirt on Biden.

Besides, Biden came to DC in 1973. Whatever dirt that can be dug up on him probably has already.

[SimonNZ]

You believe everything you see on CNN, MSNBC the "big three" or even Netflix that is spewing leftist crap.

Ever since Watergate the GOP lost its balls and was afraid to stand up to the liberal media. However, the revolution in media has changed that. First talk radio, then Fox, the WWW and later social media gave conservatives a voice to stand up to the bullying and attacks. Stories that the leftist MSM ignored or tried to heavily filter get passed around now and spread to a wide audience. Hence why the Leftists want to break up Big Tech and censor online content.

I'd need Sky to watch CNN here, and MSNBC isn't even available that way.

Presumably I could stream them, but as I said in reply to something else: I've allocated that bandwidth to Al Jazeera.

It ought to have been clear from the things I link to where I'm getting my news from.

[JBS]

Nope, as Todd mentioned there is an idealogical split in the Dems between the remaining silent generation/baby boomer and slowly graying Gen Xers who overwhelmingly voted for Biden and the Millennial/Gen Z who embraced Sanders or Warren. That gap can be exploited like in 2016.

Unlike both Trump and HRC, Biden is not arrogant and openly corrupt.  Which is why people who didn't vote for HRC will vote for Biden.  And why people who held their noses and voted for Trump in 2016 because they couldn't stand Hillary will stay home this year.

Also, unlike 2016, Trump's utter incompetence and the GOP's craven refusal to force even minimal competence on him, are fully on display.

[SimonNZ]

Who would be the equivalent of William F Buckley Jr. in right wing media today?

To reply to Dowder's second part in his post to me I want to say that the contrasting voice for a Rachel Maddow wouldn't be a Rush Limbaugh or a Sean Hannity, it would be someone like Buckley - but I can't think who is filling that role of conservative public intellectual. Whoever that is I might actually like to tune in to them.