Doesn’t Matter Who Wins the K Race; We’re All the Same

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

So what to do next time?

To start every one of you should send me $10k now so I can get it to where it will help.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

To start every one of you should send me $10k now so I can get it to where it will help.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

Enjoy your money. https://tenor.com/view/trump-hitler-...cs-gif-9912996

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

You couldn't be more wrong. To beat Trump, a democrat needs to not suck, plain and simple.

As a presidential candidate, Biden sucks.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

As a presidential candidate, Biden sucks.

I thought he’d drop out after the debate, but Icky’s man is on the cover of the NYT magazine.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

As a presidential candidate, Biden sucks.

I think Icky is looking at the remainder of the field and rationally concluding Biden has the best chance by a very wide margin.

Harris = Hillary II. Corporate candidate. Turns off populists. Can't win Blue Wall.
Bernie = Tired iron.
Warren = I think she has a chance, which, given my predictions in the past means she has no chance.
Pete = He's running for 2024 or 2028. I think the guy could be President in the next decade or so. He checks all the right boxes and is really impressive. But too green for now. Perhaps a VP.

I have to agree with Icky that, as a matter of simple math, Biden appears at least 50% more likely than any of these contenders to win the presidency.

Also, Biden is the only big tent of bunch. He connects with working class white populists (Blue Wall), has the black vote pretty sewn up from what I've read (pragmatists), and placates the corporatists.

(Progressives don't count in this election.* The places where you'll find them, other than on Twitter, are already blue to their core. They're the left equivalent of Trump nation. The two cancel out each other.)
_______
* ETA: People call Warren a progressive. But she can connect with populists and working class voters in a manner progressives cannot. If you've heard her speak about what it's like to be poor and indebted, you've heard a person who knows the story every small business owner or individual meeting with a loan workout or bankruptcy lawyer is telling. She's real. There's a true authenticity there. When she says she wants to impeach Trump she means it. It's not just a political opportunity, or a soundbite or plank she's been told to offer. Warren appears to have a very strong and fixed sense of right and wrong, and of fairness, that appeals to common voters. So, I don't view her as a progressive at all. I'd call her platform an appeal to fairness.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

I think Icky is looking at the remainder of the field and rationally concluding Biden has the best chance by a very wide margin.

If the election were held today, maybe so. But the election will be held late next year.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Icky Thump

And about to do it again, big time by voting for Harris, Big Gay Pete, whomever, instead of Biden, who would win.

I get that assumption 6 months ago, but not any more. Biden, personally, and his team, reacted to the last three years like the only change needed was to not be Hillary. They're out of touch.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

That's not Stein voters exerting privilege.

You still do not understand the concept of privilege.

But he won the election.

And then criminally obstructed justice into an investigation into foreign interference into it and done nothing to prevent future interference.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

Biden = Hillary II. Corporate candidate. Turns off populists. Can't win Blue Wall.

Fixed it for you.

But she can connect with populists and working class voters in a manner progressives cannot. If you've heard her speak about what it's like to be poor and indebted, you've heard a person who knows the story every small business owner or individual meeting with a loan workout or bankruptcy lawyer is telling. She's real. There's a true authenticity there. When she says she wants to impeach Trump she means it. It's not just a political opportunity, or a soundbite or plank she's been told to offer. Warren appears to have a very strong and fixed sense of right and wrong, and of fairness, that appeals to common voters.

Yup

[sebastian_dangerfield]

You still do not understand that concept of privilege.

Actually, I do. And having finished almost all of that book, I've developed the view that your understanding of privilege is silly and incoherent in comparison to DiAngelo's.

Halfway through, at the same time she was changing my mind on some issues, this thought became inescapable: If only this lucid person was delivering this message on TV, online, exclusively, instead of it being mangled by whiffle intellects like Adder. Yes, I actually considered you specifically.

And then criminally obstructed justice into an investigation into foreign interference into it and done nothing to prevent future interference.

Russia did not change any vote by hacking into a system. It tried, but it didn't succeed. It acquired votes for Trump by a campaign of disinformation. Which is called "campaigning." Half the people running right now are offering disinformation. It's not a crime to bullshit voters. In fact, it's been standard operating procedure for a couple hundred years.

Nor is it a crime to fail to prevent future interference. You may not like that, I may not like that, but that's just a nihilist in a nihilist's game rationally playing his hand. I see little difference between that and Clinton's racist shenanigans in the South against Obama, or Bush's vile xenophobic mailings about McCain's adopted children. Kennedy fixed votes in Chicago, and some Democratic wards in Philly still today show over 90% turnout. Reagan used a racist dog whistle when he started his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Nixon had the Southern Strategy, and Bush I had Willie Horton. Bill Clinton had "super-predators" and executed a mentally handicapped man to look "tough on crime" while campaigning.

One can credibly argue that turning a blind eye to foreign influence is just par for a long course of odious behavior. If past politicians had the capacity to use it, both D and R, they'd have done so. They'd just have been a hell of a lot smarter about it than His Orangeness.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Adder

Fixed it for you.



Yup

Lunchbox Joe can play the everyman. You can spot Harris as a corporate cipher ten miles away.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

If the election were held today, maybe so. But the election will be held late next year.

It is early, and following Buffet's rule, "Thou shalt not predict the future." But... Who else do you see emerging as: (1) a serious contender to Biden; (2) who can actually win a general?

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

As a presidential candidate, Biden sucks.

Enjoy Trump. I’d say 4 more years but if he wins again gonna need to learn Russian.

[Icky Thump]

Originally Posted by Adder

I get that assumption 6 months ago, but not any more. Biden, personally, and his team, reacted to the last three years like the only change needed was to not be Hillary. They're out of touch.

They are right almost. To win one needs to not be Hillary. And while a woman would be my first choice in every plausible scenario, a woman will not beat Trump.