Politics: 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Thoughts

I may start doing recurring posts in this blog about the two party’s primaries until after both of them have been decided. Since a Republican is president now, the Democrats get to go first this year and I hope to be able to do recurring updates sometimes when I can. I will mention some of the candidates as far too many aren’t important even if they are in the race.

Michael Bennet is a Colorado senator. He could be good, but hasn’t made a mark yet in the race. I don’t think that we should vote for people who don’t really make a mark, although we could try to prove the media wrong and say that he would be a good person. I’d say that he is a good person with good values, but might not work without a notable good boost. Strangely, him being a white man might actually help.

Joe Biden is not the good choice for president that many people think he is. He might have even hurt Obama’s chances of winning the presidency. He’s not a safe choice. The scandals with him regarding women aren’t too bad, but they are bad enough that we won’t ever hear the end of them. He’s known for blunders and not admitting when he’s wrong. He is almost like Trump in some ways that make me think he shouldn’t be trying to replace him. In 2012, people might have voted for Obama as they didn’t see Mitt Romney as being much different. We could have that same issue with Joe Biden against Trump.

Cory Booker is a New Jersey senator and a largely good candidate. But I don’t know if he has done much to stand out in this large race. Still, if SNL can get Keegan Michael Key to show up and do Cory Booker impersonations, that would be something I’d like to see at least once. And I do think that he’s different enough from Obama that he’ll avoid any potential pratfalls there. He does have possible personality issues, but that might be common where he’s from.

Steve Bullock is the governor of Montana. He is a Democrat is a red state. He could be good, but hasn’t made a mark in the race. He might be one of the candidates who would be better off running for senate instead. (Does Montana have a class two senate seat?) If he can win in red places, he might be a better choice than others.

Pete Buttigieg is a gay mayor in Indiana. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with him due to him being gay. But that might be his only claim to fame right now. He could be questionable in terms of quality and whether or not he should last in the race. He’s also really young. And it would be very interesting if it were him against Mike Pence in 2020. I do like the fact that Pete is a Christian. I’d put him at the better end of the spectrum, but not at the top.

Julián Castro is a former Obama cabinet member. He’s a good candidate, but hasn’t made a mark on the race yet. Maybe he will work. I think that he’s Hispanic so that could be a good pro in the race since Trump has done a lot of negative things regarding the Hispanic community. I guess that we’ll see what kind of mark he’ll leave on the race and if he’ll stay in long or not.

John Delaney is a current US representative. It is too hard to tell if he’s a good candidate or not. He might be one. He’s a possible moderate, which might be good for attracting independents and Republicans who don’t want to vote for Trump. Maybe he’s a better choice that we realize, but he hasn’t made much of a mark just yet.

Tulsi Gabbard is a current US representative and it is too hard to tell if she will have a major impact on the race in the end. Maybe she will work, or maybe she won’t. I don’t think that she has much impact on the race right now, but isn’t a bad candidate at all.

Kamala Harris is a California senator. Maybe she would work. It is kind of complicated, her place in the senate right now. But she could work. She is kind of in a similar place where Obama was when he first ran for president in 2008. I think that she is too new and can be a bit of a loud person who can be mean or at least come off that way at times.

Amy Klobuchar is a Minnesota senator and she seems good, but hasn’t made much of a dent yet in the race. Apparently, she might be ill tempered according to people who have worked with her. Buzzfeed made it seem like a bunch of people who worked for her suffered emotional abuse and she has an unusually high turnover rate of those people. While I don’t know for sure if this is accurate, I have the feeling that she might not be as good a choice as I first thought that she was as you might have seen in my Madam Secretary blog.

Wayne Messam is a Florida mayor and might not even be considered a real candidate. I don’t think that he has been invited to any debates just yet. He is black, not that it matters much. He should probably be avoided when it comes time for the election.

Beto O’Rourke is a former representative and maybe he would work, but he is probably running for the wrong office. He should run for the US senate again instead of president as he had a better chance of flipping a Texas seat blue than he does of winning the presidency.

Tim Ryan is a current US representative. He is possibly good, but fails to make a mark yet. I’d have to say that since he hasn’t stood out in any way, he might be good just to ignore unless he makes more of a mark in the future.

Bernie Sanders is a Vermont senator who is a good, but I think he’s not someone to vote for this time around. He might just be going for the next in line for the presidency and that hasn’t been a good thing. It failed Democrats in 2016 going with who they felt was next in line to run and it also failed Republicans in both 2008 and 2012. Plus, his health problems are worrisome as well and he should just stay where he is in the senate.

Joe Sestak is a former representative and he might be the worst candidate in the race out of all of them with experience simply because Democrats don’t like him. They have supported others before him and you shouldn’t go with someone that their own party doesn’t like.

Tom Steyer has no political experience and I can’t remember much else about him such as who he is or how he made such an important enough dent in the race to be important enough to be considered a major candidate. Like all candidates without experience, he should be avoided as we’ve seen what lack of experience translates to in terms of no things done.

Elizabeth Warren is a Massachusetts senator and she might be the best choice for who out of the Democrats should be the next president. I think that it is more likely her winning than anyone else. We’ll see what happens for sure later. If all conservatives have against her are racist attacks and name calling, maybe she’ll turn the phrase “nevertheless, she persisted,” into “nevertheless, she was elected.”

I’m going to combine the last two people into one section. Neither Marianne Williamson nor Andrew Yang have political experience. Andrew says that he wants to give every American $1,000. It sounds like it would work as incentive to vote for him, but that money is better spent elsewhere outside of just random handouts. I don’t even know much about Marianne Williamson in terms of who she is or what she does. Would the fact that they are minorities help them or hurt them against Trump? I have no idea, but I think that good candidates should have experience and while we can get good people without it, why take that risk?

There are others in the race, but they aren’t important in terms of whether or not they should be voted for or even have an influence on the race. Do people even know offhand about all of the other candidates in the race? They aren’t really serious at all.

Now I get to my endorsement of who people should vote for in the election: Elizabeth Warren. She is the best candidate in my mind and she will keep persisting until she wins. I hope that she is as good a candidate as I think she is, although I don’t think that she’s flawed like some others might think either.

I’m going to wrap up this post around here. I might do more of these in the future as more of the candidates change and we’ll see what all happens with that. I hope to have a post on the DNC convention next year and will continue to post on the presidential election until after it’s over and I have the final results. We’ll see what else I’ll talk about in terms of the elections.