DUMP TRUMP (previously 2020 candidates)

He's in.  Overall, might be a good VP pick.

jamie said:

He's in.  Overall, might be a good VP pick.

 Not if Warren is the nominee (President and Vice President have to be from different states).

nohero said:

 Not if Warren is the nominee (President and Vice President have to be from different states).

Not quite.  The 12th Amendment would just limit MA electors from voting for both Warren and Patrick.  ("The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.")  If you're confident enough that you'll have enough of a margin of victory, they could run as a ticket.

Deval Patrick killed Toys R Us.

Both Patrick and Doomsberg are interesting in their own way, but they also both face seriously uphill climbs given their late entries. I've seen it written that Patrick was Obama before Obama, so if he resonates he will eat Biden's lunch. 

drummerboy said:

Deval Patrick killed Toys R Us.

 Every candidate has his/her own stuff to get past. 

It's just what we need - a vulture capitalist as President.

Steve said:

Not quite.  The 12th Amendment would just limit MA electors from voting for both Warren and Patrick.  ("The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.")  If you're confident enough that you'll have enough of a margin of victory, they could run as a ticket.

 Yes, I was just giving the shorthand version.  Nominating two candidates from Massachusetts assuming it's okay if you don't get the VP votes from that state would be in the "we've visited Wisconsin enough times" category.  

Very true, but many people have the misconception that it would violate the Constitution to have a President and VP elected from the same state.

drummerboy said:

Deval Patrick killed Toys R Us.

 Not quite true...TRU was well on the way to bankruptcy well before he even became Gov of MA. 

Dennis_Seelbach said:

drummerboy said:

Deval Patrick killed Toys R Us.

 Not quite true...TRU was well on the way to bankruptcy well before he even became Gov of MA. 

I'm talking about his employment with Bain Capital. They're the ones who ate up TRU and killed them.

Food for thought. Conflicts with the common MOL view that "centrists" are really Republicans in disguise. 

Nate Silver@NateSilver538·1hIt's a bit weird, at least in a US context, when people are calling candidates like Hillary Clinton Joe Biden "centrists". They're definitely left of center relative to the overall US political spectrum. And their views are well-aligned with those of the median Democratic voter.

Sadly, the Democratic Party (of which I am a member) lurched to the right starting during the Reagan years.

Dennis_Seelbach said:

 Not quite true...TRU was well on the way to bankruptcy well before he even became Gov of MA. 

 actually this is not true.  TRU certainly faced challenges of stagnant growth going back to the 90s, but its operation was running at a decent profitability until the end.  It was the debt burden that put them under.  And when they went under, it was a blow to the entire toy industry.  

How Vulture Capitalists Ate Toys R Us

This enormous cash drain probably made it impossible for the company to invest or innovate even if its trio of buyers had been up to the challenge. It also made it impossible to sustainably turn a profit. Toys 'R' Us consistently saw net losses from 2014 to 2017. But in the last three years, those net losses were considerably smaller than its debt payments. In fact, the losses were shrinking amidst a general boom in toy industry sales; by 2017, its losses were all the way down to $36 million.
In other words, if Bain, KKR, and Vornado had never come along, Toys 'R' Us wouldn't be doing stellar, but it probably could've muddled through. As recently as last year, the company still accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. toy sales.
Instead, the legacy of the leveraged buyout turned this into an existential crisis, and Toys 'R' Us filed for bankruptcy midway through last year. Then, when holiday sales didn't pan out, the company's leadership decided to sell or shutter all its stores. And 33,000 working people could lose their jobs.

Smedley said:

Food for thought. Conflicts with the common MOL view that "centrists" are really Republicans in disguise. 

Nate Silver@NateSilver538·1hIt's a bit weird, at least in a US context, when people are calling candidates like Hillary Clinton Joe Biden "centrists". They're definitely left of center relative to the overall US political spectrum. And their views are well-aligned with those of the median Democratic voter.

 those of us who are old enough to remember (which means older than Nate), have a different perspective.  The world didn't begin in 1992 when Bill Clinton was elected.  There was a time when there were real liberals like Walter Mondale, Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, and Paul Welstone in the Democratic Party.  And real liberals like Clifford Case, Jacob Javits and Millicent Fenwick in the Republican Party.  So when I say Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden is a centrist, it's because my perspective includes an era when their views would have lined up better with the centrists in both parties than with the liberals in both parties.  Maybe a centrist is the most likely person to beat Donald Trump.  But Nate shouldn't try to persuade us that the median Democratic voter today is a liberal in the context of the post WWII U.S.  The median Democratic voter is to the left of the GOP, but that doesn't make that person a liberal.

Also just noticed that Nate is getting badly ratioed over that tweet. 

ml1 said:

Dennis_Seelbach said:

 Not quite true...TRU was well on the way to bankruptcy well before he even became Gov of MA. 

 actually this is not true.  TRU certainly faced challenges of stagnant growth going back to the 90s, but its operation was running at a decent profitability until the end.  It was the debt burden that put them under.  And when they went under, it was a blow to the entire toy industry.  

How Vulture Capitalists Ate Toys R Us

This enormous cash drain probably made it impossible for the company to invest or innovate even if its trio of buyers had been up to the challenge. It also made it impossible to sustainably turn a profit. Toys 'R' Us consistently saw net losses from 2014 to 2017. But in the last three years, those net losses were considerably smaller than its debt payments. In fact, the losses were shrinking amidst a general boom in toy industry sales; by 2017, its losses were all the way down to $36 million.
In other words, if Bain, KKR, and Vornado had never come along, Toys 'R' Us wouldn't be doing stellar, but it probably could've muddled through. As recently as last year, the company still accounted for 20 percent of all U.S. toy sales.
Instead, the legacy of the leveraged buyout turned this into an existential crisis, and Toys 'R' Us filed for bankruptcy midway through last year. Then, when holiday sales didn't pan out, the company's leadership decided to sell or shutter all its stores. And 33,000 working people could lose their jobs.

 As a former TRU exec., I can assure you that the business model was NOT working, and the demise of the company was pre-ordained. With the power of Walmart, and the rise of the Amazon economy, the category-killer big box store has become an anachronism. As a single-category version, TRU was destined to be among the first to fail. Did Bain and the rest hasten the end? Absolutely. But with or without them, TRU was doomed.

What an awful commercial.  And what's the deal with Patrick's voice?  Is there a kazoo lodged in his throat or does he have a cold?

dave said:

What an awful commercial.  And what's the deal with Patrick's voice?  Is there a kazoo lodged in his throat or does he have a cold?

 Before 2016 I would have said it was hard for a candidate who didn't look and sound "Presidential" to win in the age of video. It might still be the case, in which case I agree about Patrick from the clips I've heard recently. He doesn't have a commanding oratory presence.

I think it crops up with other candidates. I like Kamala Harris but her voice doesn't carry or resonate. Sanders sounds irate a lot of the time. Klobuchar sounds vaguely annoyed. I listen to the radio a lot so these things stick with me.

One of Obama's best tools as a candidate was his voice, if you ask me. 

mrincredible said:

I think it crops up with other candidates. I like Kamala Harris but her voice doesn't carry or resonate. Sanders sounds irate a lot of the time. Klobuchar sounds vaguely annoyed. I listen to the radio a lot so these things stick with me.

One of Obama's best tools as a candidate was his voice, if you ask me. 

I disagree about Harris.  I think she sounds very authoritative, especially when she goes into "prosecutor mode".   

So, Buttieig has been trying to invent black support in South Carolina through his "Douglas Plan for Black Americans."  He listed people as endorsers who did not endorse the plan or him.  He did some kind of "opt-in" or "opt-out" in fine print at the bottom of an email and tricked a bunch of people into supposedly endorsing. Also, he listed a number of white people who support his plan for the black community while making it seem that all supporters were black. 

PETE BUTTIGIEG TOUTED THREE MAJOR SUPPORTERS OF HIS DOUGLASS PLAN FOR BLACK AMERICA. THEY WERE ALARMED WHEN THEY SAW IT.

https://www.amazon.com/Beistle-24020-Snowflake-Stickers-White/dp/B017HAFFUK/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=snowflake+stickers&qid=1573817817&sr=8-1

Nan must feel threatened by Mayor Pete.

nan said:

So, Buttieig has been trying to invent black support in South Carolina through his "Douglas Plan for Black Americans."  He listed people as endorsers who did not endorse the plan or him.  He did some kind of "opt-in" or "opt-out" in fine print at the bottom of an email and tricked a bunch of people into supposedly endorsing. Also, he listed a number of white people who support his plan for the black community while making it seem that all supporters were black. 

PETE BUTTIGIEG TOUTED THREE MAJOR SUPPORTERS OF HIS DOUGLASS PLAN FOR BLACK AMERICA. THEY WERE ALARMED WHEN THEY SAW IT.

https://www.amazon.com/Beistle-24020-Snowflake-Stickers-White/dp/B017HAFFUK/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=snowflake+stickers&qid=1573817817&sr=8-1

 Bernie has been running for President for the better part of the last 4 1/2 years and he gets only 12% of the black vote. That’s less than 1 of 8 voters. 

How do you explain this tepid at best support, and what makes you think he has any further upside with this voting bloc ?

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/464419-biden-holds-24-point-lead-over-democratic-field-among-black-voters

Tulsi the Delusional thinks she is going to be the President.  

Only if Putin steps down.

https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1195312994005266433/video/1

sbenois said:

Nan must feel threatened by Mayor Pete.

 More like disgusted by Mayor Pete.  

https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1142233502257225728

Don't worry Nan, Mayor Pete won't be in your rear view mirror too much longer.  Pretty soon you'll be watching him through your windshield.

And he will be pulling away from you.

Mayor Pete 2020!

Nan would rather have candidates opine about ongoing FBI cases for which they have no evidence.

dave said:

Nan would rather have candidates opine about ongoing FBI cases for which they have no evidence.

Nan would rather have candidates who support Medicare for All and who are not corporate tools.  

Pete's not stopping with the fake endorsements for his Douglas plan. The Pete Buttigieg plan for black communities in America used a photo from Kenya.  Are there no usable photos of Ameican black communities?

Nan conveniently forgets to respond to my question as to why after all his time on the campaign trail Bernie has only 12% A-A support.