Washington, D.C. Megathread

[tpfkaw]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/president-obama-endorses-muriel-bowser-amid-hard-fought-dc-mayor-race/2014/10/06/c7319b3a-4d62-11e4-babe-e91da079cb8a_story.html

It's over, if it had ever even started in the first place.

[tpfkaw]

I'll also take the opportunity to comment that Obama is quite the D hack (as suits his position, I suppose). Clinton at least had the good sense not to endorse Marion Barry in 1994.

[tpfkaw]

I mean, honestly, and I'm not being a concern troll here, it's a really mystifying decision to me from a political strategy perspective for Obama to have endorsed Bowser.

He could've done nothing, obviously, which would be no-risk/no-reward.

If he'd endorsed Catania, he would've helped the Democrats in Northern Virginia (and hell, MD-Gov this year). It'd also be throwing a bone to the LGBT community, and it would be helpful for making him appear centrist, pragmatic, and non-racial. If Catania is left enough for Shumlin he should be left enough for Obama, and Bowser would probably still win anyway.

The downsides are that some blacks in DC might get upset and not turn out in 2016, so Hillary gets 87% of the vote instead of 88%, and that for one week 2 years before the next election the media would spin an (unlikely) Catania victory as the Democrats losing blacks/cities, which would be mitigated significantly by the fact that Obama endorsed him.

All these effects are marginal of course, but elections sometimes do come down to the margins, and I think the upsides clearly outweigh the downsides here.

By endorsing Bowser, he's tying himself and, by extension, the national Democratic Party, to a candidate virtually certain, as mayor, to become a national (and in particular, Northern Virginia) embarrassment to the Democrats.