A Quick Primer on the Upcoming Democratic Debates

June 26 and 27 we will be able to watch the twenty Democratic candidates debate.

According to the polls Biden is in the lead, Warren and Bernie Sanders are closing in on his heels, and Kamala Harris and Mayor Pete a little bit behind them.  The debate is being held a little over a year before the Democratic convention which is to take place in Milwaukee in the middle of July 2020. There is one thing for certain which is by the time the convention rolls around we cannot even guess at who will be the nominee.

Perhaps by the time of the Iowa caucus next February 3 or the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries the following week the field would have thinned out somewhat and one or more of those in the lead will still be there.

Aside from the five I have mentioned, there are fifteen others who will debate and another half-dozen who are still biting at the bit to get in on the action. Of the latter group I know something about Seth Moulton mainly because he was a Marine and is a Massachusetts congressman.

Someone suggested that he be added to the group but another objected saying there were enough white men there already. Not an auspicious sign to be admitting or omitting based on skin color but that’s become more and more of an issue in the Democratic Party  – that and the sex of the contestants. It pretty much means from my view that if a white guy gets the nod the running mate will have to be a female, or a female and person of color.

June 26 the first night of the debate features Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, Elizabeth Warren.  Five white men, three white women, a Hispanic, and a black man. I’m a little familiar with the women. Gabbard is well spoken but has cozied up with Assad of Syria; Klobuchar a senator has her head well on her shoulders but lacks pizzazz at a time that is essential, and Elizabeth Warren who enthusiastically likes to give things away reminding me of some of those college kids who give out free samples from some corporation introducing a new product.

The black man, Cory Booker, is the well-known mayor of New Jersey who has shown a steady competence; the Hispanic Julián Castro had a job under Obama doing something or the other,  de Blasio is getting out of the heat of New York City. John Delaney, Tim Ryan and Jay Inslee, are strangers to me and most of America. That leaves Beto O’Rourke.  a Texan, full of energy but seriously lacking gravitas. It should prove an interesting night as O’Rourke tries to outdo Warren on giving out free gifts.

June 27 is supposed to present team A.

Michael Bennet, Joseph R. Biden Jr., Pete Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper, Bernie Sanders, Eric Swalwell, Marianne Williamson, Andrew Yang. 6 white guys, 2 white women, 1 black woman, and one Asian. Bennet, Hickenhlooper, Swalwell, and Yang are along for the hell of it. Gillibrand will be talking mainly women suppression and Williamson (had to look her up) will talk about spirituality and a $200bn-$500bn plan of reparations for slavery,

Buttigieg a midwestern major is a bright guy married to another guy, smart and earnest; Harris, a two term attorney general from California with a good mind but lacking a good base of support. To make headway they need one or both of  the two top guys to falter.

Biden going in as the front-runner will be very cautious. He’d prefer to stand there and just smile. I’d guess having walked away from the Hyde Amendment he’ll be asked if he’s in favor of third-term abortions? Bernie Sanders will have to explain how socialism will help the working man when we are at an all time low in unemployment.

He is trying to hide his roots reaching down to October 1917 when another guy called on the working people to better their lives by going with him. At that time unemployment was about 50%, people were starving, and the country was having its men slaughtered on the Eastern Front.

Bernie apparently thinks conditions haven’t changed. As Betty Athelry said of Benie’s position, “it only means another lot of lazy loafers will make a good thing out of the working classes.”

6 Comments

  1. william m. connolly

    President Trump yesterday said his supporters “may demand a third term.” Of course, he was joshing, somewhat, but the leftists went berserk. Demagogue. The true demagogues are in the leftist Media.
    Review, if you dare, the MSM coverage of Trump before he won the election, and the MSM reaction when Trump won and Hillary lost. MSNBC especially, but most of the others on cable and in the press, were saying things like “dark days” were ahead for America, “an apocalypse” had occurred, “all over America, people are crying literally crying, in tears” . . ..THE BIGOTED MAINSTREAM MEDIA was crestfallen when Trump won . . .there was no joy in Mudville, when mighty Hillary struck out

    MUDVILLE = MAIN STREAM MEDIA, illiberally biased

    And I write as a form liberal, highly educated, objectively . . .

    I have witnessed the grotesque deterioration of the MSM into an arm of the leftwing of social democrats. As they cheered Hillary and protected Hillary, they will do so to the next DEMs running

  2. william m. connolly

    Joe Biden has zero credibility. He’ll say anything to get political power. His switch on the Hyde Amendment is typical.
    Worse, when Trump said there were “fine” people on the pro-Confederate Statue issue and anti-Confederate Statue issue, Biden maliciously turned that into Trump said there fine people in both the pro-KKK camps and pro-NAZI camps.
    Joe Biden, like most pols on the left these days, is a cipher, an empty drum, lacking moral values, moral principles, the simplest of which is HONESTY.

    On the honesty issue, when Trump uses words loosely, metaphorically, makes approximations, says he said this or that in 2011, when he said something a little different in 2012, the leftist press calls him a LIAR. LIES, LIES, 2,000 LIES THE NEW YORK TIMES reported Trump said.
    But never has Joe Biden or Hillary or any liberal Dem lied . . .the NYT doesn’t keep count of their lies.

    Recently, Kirsten Gillebrand proposed radical reforms to immigration policy so that illegals could get schools, social security etc. ALL THE LEFTIST MEDIA rushed to her defense and said she never said that; all the liberal FACT CHECKERS said she was taken out of context.
    However, when you read her exact words in context she was proposing exactly that: that illegals contribution to social security (even tho its illegal to hire an illegal) be counted . . .and that illegals have “a right” to schools, social security etc.

    This is where the Debates will be fun listening to the DEMS tell us their plans for massively expanding GOVERNMENT, stealing from the rich, and MORE REGULATIONS . . .

    Oh for the days when we had men of integrity, pro-life Dems like Joe Moakley and Bill Bulger and Paul White, who stood for something.

    • “Worse, when Trump said there were “fine” people on the pro-Confederate Statue issue and anti-Confederate Statue issue, Biden maliciously turned that into Trump said there fine people in both the pro-KKK camps and pro-NAZI camps.”

      Bill. Where do you get this bullshit? Bonespur’s use of the word ‘fine’ and the Confederate statue issue had absolutely nothing to do with each other. Go lift some more weights, and use a good spotter on those military presses.

  3. Four more years. Maybe eight.

    • Perhaps four, but it could be life time, in that case it will be much less.

      • william m. connolly

        Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, today is a gift, that’s why we call it the present.
        Perhaps tomorrow never comes, so live in the day and enjoy it to the max

        , and don’t lose sleep over what politicians say or do . . . you can’t trust most of them, anyway. The politicians and MSM have lost all credibility (except the Wall Street Journal and guys like Steve Lynch still have some principles, and President Trump is doing a good job on pro-life issues and appointing constitutionalists to the courts and downsizing government and decreasing regulation . . .and keeping us out of war, so far . . .DON’T LISTEN TO THE NEO-CONS

        So, be happy and have fun . . .I’m off to the YMCA to lift weights, stretch and gawk at the coeds . . .later “a walk in the sun”