2020 US Elections | Biden certified as President | Dems control Congress

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Fairly good summary of what we're up against: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/a...ican-party-discovers-virtues-stimulus/609244/

TL:DR: The GOP are a bunch of political grafters with no interest whatsoever in actually holding principles (deficits? good or bad depending on who is in office; bailouts? good or bad depending on the industry) or helping people. Just seeing the quotes from Graham and McConnell about stimulus in 2009 vs today is basically a textbook definition of hypocrisy. I wish they'd all come very close to this virus and see how it feels about their politics.
 
Is there any chance the fact that potentially millions of Americans are going to be facing Bill's of tens of thousands of dollars a day to be on a ventilator possibly going to move the debate about a public healthcare system on significantly

Or will it get lost in the partisan soundbites and blame game
 
Beachryan said:
Fairly good summary of what we're up against: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/a...ican-party-discovers-virtues-stimulus/609244/

TL:DR: The GOP are a bunch of political grafters with no interest whatsoever in actually holding principles (deficits? good or bad depending on who is in office; bailouts? good or bad depending on the industry) or helping people. Just seeing the quotes from Graham and McConnell about stimulus in 2009 vs today is basically a textbook definition of hypocrisy. I wish they'd all come very close to this virus and see how it feels about their politics.
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One of them has been shot and is still a strong supporter of gun rights.
 
Trump is no republican. He is for Trump. Today if the Dems will support him he will change.
 
Heardy said:
Wtf - that is insane. I suppose the hope is this is a temporary blip for a few months in the hope jobs are restored.

Had no idea this was exponentially worse than say 2008 this early!
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To be fair, it's not worse than 2008, yet.

That chart shows the initial jobless claims and it jumped last week, but overall the unemployment rate is only at 4.4%, 08/09 was closer to 10% if I remember correctly.
 
Cal? said:
That chart shows the initial jobless claims and it jumped last week, but overall the unemployment rate is only at 4.4%, 08/09 was closer to 10% if I remember correctly.
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Not wrong, but a bit misleading.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate said:
The numbers are expected to get even worse in April as the government surveyed businesses and households for the report in mid-March, before majority of people was under some form of a lockdown.
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This guy was the biggest advocate of Bernie+Warren unity last year and even past SUper Tuesday. Reality catches up with everyone I guess.
 
Anti-Sanders super PAC is backing moderate Democrats for House races

A hybrid PAC that opposed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential bid is switching its focus to congressional races and recently announced it will endorse four moderate Democrats facing progressive primary challengers.

Established last year, the Democratic Majority for Israel says its mission is to “defend Israel’s legitimacy” and was formed to mobilize leaders in the Democratic party to support Israel. The group, which spent $1.4 million on ads opposing Sanders, attacked him for receiving endorsements from lawmakers who support boycotting Israel.

The hybrid PAC is now backing eight Democratic congressional candidates who have a history of supporting Israel. They include six incumbents, a former congressman and the former chairwoman of a major Jewish group.

Two candidates supported by the pro-Israel group won their March 3 primary contests: Rep. Henry Cuellar in Texas‘ 28th District and Kathy Manning, the former chairwoman of Jewish Federations of North America, running for the recently redrawn North Carolina’s 6th District.

As the coronavirus outbreak delays some House primaries, the hybrid PAC is supporting other moderate Democratic candidates who have a history of supporting Israel. It is backing two New York incumbents facing primary challenges, Rep. Eliot Engel in the state’s 16th District and Rep. Carolyn Maloney in New York’s 12th District.

Engel, who has served 16 terms in Congress and is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has consistently received support from pro-Israel groups. His progressive primary opponents have criticized him for supporting the Iraq War and opposing the Iran Nuclear deal. He has raised almost $1.2 million in his reelection bid so far. His biggest rival is middle school principal Jamaal Bowman, who has raised over $351,000 and is being backed by the progressive Justice Democrats.

Maloney, who has raised nearly $1.4 million, received significant contributions from employees of NASDAQ, Deloitte LLP and BlackRock Inc. She faces progressive NYU lecturer Suraj Patel, who has raised less than half Maloney’s take.

The hybrid PAC contributed to Cuellar, Manning, Engel and Maloney recently, according to filings with the Federal Election Commision.

The PAC is also endorsing incumbent Rep. Alcee Hastings from Florida’s 20th District and Rep. Joyce Beatty who faces a younger progressive candidate in Ohio’s 3rd District. Hastings has raised over $212,000 this election cycle, and faces minor opposition. Beatty has raised significantly more than her Democratic contenders with over $1.4 million.

Two-term Rep. Josh Gottheimer from New Jersey’s 5th District is also being backed by Democratic Majority for Israel. Last year, Gottheimer drafted an amendment to a resolution supporting the existing two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, along with reaffirming U.S. military aid to Israel. Gottheimer has raised over $3.4 million this cycle, considerably more than any other candidate in the race on either side of the aisle. He represents a Republican-leaning district and is a top target of GOP groups.

The hybrid PAC is also endorsing Kweisi Mfume in a crowded Democratic primary for Maryland’s 7th district, which will elect the successor to the late Rep. Elijah Cummings. Mfume’s biggest competition is law professor F. Michael Higginbotham, who put $451,000 of his own money into the campaign, nearly 78 percent of what he’s raised. Mfume has raised over $266,000.



The pro-Israel PAC has also endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden in his presidential bid and announced its support for certain House Democratic candidates after Sander’s campaign started losing steam. Biden won 10 of 14 Super Tuesday states and won almost all major contests since then.

The PAC’s biggest donor is Stacy Schusterman, an energy executive, who has donated $1 million this election cycle and is also a national council member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Other big donors to the group include Gary Mark Lauder and Milton Cooper who gave $500,000 and $150,000 respectively. Both also have links to AIPAC, The Intercept reported.

After running $1.4 million worth of ads against Sanders in Iowa and Nevada, the outside group announced in February that it would focus on Democratic congressional races.

“We will be involved in congressional races and in some cases those are Democrats running against Republican and in some case, those are pro-Israel champions running against anti-Israel challengers,” Mark Mellman, president of the outside group, told Jewish Insider.
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It's over for Bernie anyway. But I don't see Biden beating Trump. He has made himself irrelevant. Trump is always in the news be it terrible news for a lot of people.
 
Foxbatt said:
It's over for Bernie anyway. But I don't see Biden beating Trump. He has made himself irrelevant. Trump is always in the news be it terrible news for a lot of people.
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The campaign has been pretty much suspended so its probably good he's not spending too much time in the news.
 
I still think Biden is going to lose. Dems will mess it up by getting a VP whom no one will support and Trump is going to eat Biden. Trump doesn't do facts and Biden is Biden and could never win an argument against Trump. It's going to be an argument and not a debate because Trump is going to fight the only way he knows and that's not a fair fight.
 
Foxbatt said:
I still think Biden is going to lose. Dems will mess it up by getting a VP whom no one will support and Trump is going to eat Biden. Trump doesn't do facts and Biden is Biden and could never win an argument against Trump. It's going to be an argument and not a debate because Trump is going to fight the only way he knows and that's not a fair fight.
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I don't know about that. Trump trumped Hillary because mysoginy is for real. He won't have it so easy against Biden imo.
 
Raoul said:
I don't know about that. Trump trumped Hillary because mysoginy is for real. He won't have it so easy against Biden imo.
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It's Biden who is going to lose. He needs his strategy to beat Trump. That means he needs a top running mate. Going with an African American lady is not going to help. He needs someone like Bernie or Cuomo as the VP.
 
Foxbatt said:
It's Biden who is going to lose. He needs his strategy to beat Trump. That means he needs a top running mate. Going with an African American lady is not going to help. He needs someone like Bernie or Cuomo as the VP.
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I agree on the last bit. Unfortunately, he has sort of committed to going with a woman, which will limit him to a very narrow group of people to choose from.
 
Raoul said:
I agree on the last bit. Unfortunately, he has sort of committed to going with a woman, which will limit him to a very narrow group of people to choose from.
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His first priority is to win the election by beating Trump. If it means going back on your commitment so be it. That was the mantra used against Bernie. That the most important issue is beating Trump. The way things are going Cuomo would easily beat Trump and with him as VP Biden would have a much easier time than with some unknown lady.
 
Foxbatt said:
His first priority is to win the election by beating Trump. If it means going back on your commitment so be it. That was the mantra used against Bernie. That the most important issue is beating Trump. The way things are going Cuomo would easily beat Trump and with him as VP Biden would have a much easier time than with some unknown lady.
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Personally, I believe he should choose Bernie. Its the only way to unite the factions imo.
 
Foxbatt said:
I still think Biden is going to lose. Dems will mess it up by getting a VP whom no one will support and Trump is going to eat Biden. Trump doesn't do facts and Biden is Biden and could never win an argument against Trump. It's going to be an argument and not a debate because Trump is going to fight the only way he knows and that's not a fair fight.
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There's good a reason why Trump said Biden would be his dream opponent in 2020.

You can make fun of Trump's mistakes all day but Biden literally cannot string a few sentences together without looking like a bumbling fool. I had a sad laughing fit when Biden haplessly uttered "we cannot be reelected" and "we can only reelect Donald Trump."

Trump will eviscerate Biden in the 2020 debates and that's a sad thing to think about given that Trump isn't exactly the most articulate politican himself, either.

Haven't exactly been a fan of Bernie since he bowed to Hillary 4 years ago but he would've definitely stood a much better chance against Trump.
 
Winrar said:
There's good a reason why Trump said Biden would be his dream opponent in 2020.

You can make fun of Trump's mistakes all day but Biden literally cannot string a few sentences together without looking like a bumbling fool. I had a sad laughing fit when Biden haplessly uttered "we cannot be reelected" and "we can only reelect Donald Trump."

Trump will eviscerate Biden in the 2020 debates and that's a sad thing to think about given that Trump isn't exactly the most articulate politican himself, either.

Haven't exactly been a fan of Bernie since he bowed to Hillary 4 years ago but he would've definitely stood a much better chance against Trump.
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Trump wanted Bernie which is why he is saying the Dems are rigging the election against him. It's dumb two-step psychology, play up who you think is the weakest opponent so that you make the general election easier. Lindsay Graham said himself that Biden in reality is who the GOP worry about more. Bernie would not have won in 2016 (would have lost by more sadly) and would lose by a wide margin in 2020 because he is unable to build a strong enough coalition of majority voters.
 
Raoul said:
Personally, I believe he should choose Bernie. Its the only way to unite the factions imo.
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Do you think nominating Bernie would turn off swing voters? Don't think young people are going to be motivated by that ticket and hardcore Sanders supporters would just think he sold out imo.
 
sport2793 said:
Do you think nominating Bernie would turn off swing voters? Don't think young people are going to be motivated by that ticket and hardcore Sanders supporters would just think he sold out imo.
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It would be a tradeoff imo. Some Bernie voters may vote for Biden if Bernie was on the ticket. Likewise, the independents who support Biden would probably still support him since its him who would be President.

I certainly can't see someone like Abrams or Warren being more popular than Bernie.
 
Raoul said:
I don't know about that. Trump trumped Hillary because mysoginy is for real. He won't have it so easy against Biden imo.
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People here forget how unpopular Hillary is. When you see how Biden has completely turned the tables on Bernie in the primaries, with a convincing win in MI and even getting a victory in WA, you realize how hated Hillary must have been in 2016. It all goes back to the Lewinsky scandal sadly and Hillary's penchant for being too guarded and opaque, leading people to distrust her. Biden would have won in 2016. I question about 2020 due to his advancing age, unless the economy doesn't recover by election time.

EDIT: Also forgot to mention that there is an inherent advantage running as an incumbent and as someone who can give speeches from the White House and frame the conversation. Although with Trump it could just as easily backfire...
 
Cal? said:
To be fair, it's not worse than 2008, yet.

That chart shows the initial jobless claims and it jumped last week, but overall the unemployment rate is only at 4.4%, 08/09 was closer to 10% if I remember correctly.
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This is going to be much worse than 2008. Small businesses, which employ around 80% of the workforce, are going to go under in droves. Virtually every small business owner I’ve spoken to, and I am one, has around 30-60 days left of cash. At the most. Here in Chicago we are shut down for another 30 days at least, and so many hourly workers have lost their jobs that even when companies do reopen, people will have way less money to spend. Most companies are going to try and get back to full operation with way less staff than before. We are talking a solid 2-3 years until the market recovers properly. And at that point, with the amount of quantitative easing that has gone on (and will still go on as there will need to be a second stimulus package), we will all be facing enormous inflationary pressures. It could get so bad, don’t rule out a restructure of the Fed and a devaluation of the currency.

Economically, we are tip of the iceberg.
 
Raoul said:
It would be a tradeoff imo. Some Bernie voters may vote for Biden if Bernie was on the ticket. Likewise, the independents who support Biden would probably still support him since its him who would be President.

I certainly can't see someone like Abrams or Warren being more popular than Bernie.
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I agree definitely with the last sentence. While Kamala won't really help Biden I don't think Trump and his VP can attack her the way they will go after Warren. There is also a chance she may turn out African American voters to get closer to Obama levels, which would really solve every issue facing Biden as this would put NC and FL in real play.
 
sport2793 said:
Trump wanted Bernie which is why he is saying the Dems are rigging the election against him. It's dumb two-step psychology, play up who you think is the weakest opponent so that you make the general election easier. Lindsay Graham said himself that Biden in reality is who the GOP worry about more. Bernie would not have won in 2016 (would have lost by more sadly) and would lose by a wide margin in 2020 because he is unable to build a strong enough coalition of majority voters.
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I don't know, from what I've seen of Biden, he seems extremely inarticulate even compared to Trump, to the point where I can see him sweeping the floor with Biden in the debates. And I haven't even mentioned his tendency to be weird around girls and women.

I'm just waiting for this pandemic to blow over in hopefully a few months from now I can enjoy the circus of election whatever the outcome is. I think Trump will handily win reelection but I have been wrong before, and perhaps Biden's showing in the primaries point to him being more of a threat than Bernie despite my intuition.
 
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