2020 Presidential Candidates

This sentence nailed it home for me:
“It is the people who elect presidents,” Pauley reflected, “but it is the politicians who try and give them the best field to select from.” Having “become convinced that Wallace could only bring disaster to the nation and our party, [we did] our job both as citizens and practical politicians.”

I used to rail at "the establishment" without really thinking through what that meant. Yes, I believe we should seriously consider things like term limits for members of Congress, but I also now appreciate the knowledge, experience, and steady hand that long-serving members bring. I think the DNC and RNC need to be overhauled, but I don't know what that looks like and am open to discussion (for example, this constantly changing the requirement for debates is for the birds and needs to stop - there's not reason not to let Gabbard up on stage). I absolutely believe we need to fix lobbying, and how elections are funded and conducted. Gerry-mandering shouldn't be allowed, anonymous donors shouldn't be allowed, and there should be a time limit for campaigning.

That said, I see the complaints by the Sanders campaign that the process is "rigged" and that Klobuchar and Buttigieg dropped out after being pressured and it's bullshit. They weren't viable candidates and at some point had to realize it was a futile effort. We weren't going to have 6 candidates still going up until November so how else other than voters in primaries choosing their favorite candidates did he think this was going to be decided? He sounds like a whiny victim frankly, and it's absurd to see. Biden has done a better job at building a coalition. That's what good candidates do, because that's how they need to function after election in working with their fellow representatives. It. Is. Not. A. Bad. Thing.

So, some history that when it works as it should, The People are served well:
Op-Ed: How Democrats dealt with the Bernie Sanders of 1944
By BENN STEIL
MARCH 8, 20203 AM

As mainstream Democrats ponder the real possibility that Bernie Sanders will be their presidential nominee, it is worth considering how the party handled a similar challenge in 1944.

The renomination of President Franklin Roosevelt for a fourth term was a foregone conclusion, but that of his vice president — the staunchly liberal and fiercely pro-Soviet Henry A. Wallace — was not. Though vice presidents have little official power beyond resolving tie votes in the Senate, they reside a heartbeat from the presidency. And though Roosevelt’s medical diagnosis was a well-kept secret (even from him), his advanced congestive heart failure was, by the spring of 1944, visible in his pallor, trembling hands and declining weight.

Party leaders were alarmed and determined to act. They considered Wallace to be both an electoral liability and a man whose views and judgment rendered him incapable of filling Roosevelt’s shoes should his health fail entirely. They couldn’t persuade the president to ditch his friend outright and anoint another running mate, but Roosevelt agreed to give Wallace the weakest of endorsements and to allow an open convention in July.

As for the party leaders who had orchestrated Truman’s rise in 1944, they were wholly unapologetic about their intervention.

“When I die,” Hannegan would tell a journalist a few years later, “I would like to have one thing on my headstone — that I was the man who kept Henry Wallace from becoming president of the United States.”

I concur with this article. No, the Democratic voters aren't sexist, homophobic, or racist, they simply knew she was a bad candidate. Same as Sanders, Harris, Bloomberg, and Gabbard. Klobuchar made a critical error in not addressing early rumors of being abusive toward staff, and I'm still hopeful that she'll be the VP choice (though my money's on Gretchen Whitmer as I think she has a slightly better shot at being picked, she's joined Biden's campaign as Co-Chair).

Elizabeth Warren Deserved to Lose
It wasn't sexism. She wasn't silenced. She ran a bad campaign and made terrible decisions.
by JONATHAN V. LAST, The Bulwark | March 10, 2020

In death, as in life, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has been the most lavishly praised effort of the 2020 cycle. We’ve now seen essay after essay after essay after essay analyzing what went wrong for Warren. The general consensus seems to be something like:

• Sexism.
• The awful power of the Democratic establishment.
• Voters couldn’t handle her detailed plans and hard truths.
• Warren didn’t show voters how hard she could fight until the Nevada debate where she took down Mike Bloomberg.

This is all wrong. All of it. Literally every one of these explanations runs exactly counter to what happened during the race.

Warren lost not because of sexism, or the establishment, or the stupidity of voters, or a lack of aggression. She did not lose because of her own particular vulnerabilities as a candidate.

Warren lost because of a series of strategic decisions she made over the last four years. This nomination was hers for the taking and she made unforced errors at every important inflection point.

Elizabeth Warren deserved to lose.*

1. She missed her moment.
2. She ran as a progressive.
3. She refused to attack Sanders.
4. Medicare for All.
5. She changed her pitch twice in the final weeks.

Bernie is pretty much done, I'm betting he won't win Florida next week. He declined to address his supporters following his losses yesterday, he is scheduled to make remarks today. I've seen rumors that he's going to suspend his campaign, and I hope that's so. This country, liberal and conservative, does not want socialism, he'd be a terrible, divisive candidate and an ineffective, inflammatory president.

The voters are speaking loud and clear, we want a return to normal, someone who is experienced, can build coalitions and work with others, who is friendly and gets along with people, and cares about others. Biden may not be as sharp as he once was, but he's far from senile (and seriously, given Trump's extensive video evidence of not even being able to clearly speak easy words, and his word salads, it's laughable that that claim is even being brought up) - and it's sad that the Bernie Bros pushed that narrative so hard (along with the bots and trolls on Twitter).