The “Who is running in 2020?” tea leaves thread

[houseonaboat]

At this point, it's pretty obvious Cory Booker is going to run for President in 2020.

How so? Every Senator's trying to get on the Sunday morning circuit; by that standard, Chris Murphy will also be running

[houseonaboat]

WaPo has a new story on Franken:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/al-franken-has-found-a-new-role-in-the-trump-era/2017/03/18/247737bc-0b54-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html

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Franken and (to an extent) Chris Murphy have both been pretty clear that they don't intend to run for president and I believe them. I think Murphy's dream job is either Senate Majority Leader or Secretary of State, and Franken seems like he's content with being a career Senator.

[houseonaboat]

Sunday morning talk show watch: Kasich and Sanders will both be on CNN’s “State of the Union” tomorrow:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEWS_SHOWS?SITE=AP

In other news, Biden says he regrets “not being president” by sitting out the 2016 race:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-biden-gop-health-care_us_58d58b51e4b03692bea610cc

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I feel like Biden says some variation of this every other week.

[houseonaboat]

Meanwhile, Seth Moulton asked about 2020:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/30/moulton-calls-russia-biggest-threat-national-security/MGlZ4sRHGcSnQ4ckQPaSEK/story.html

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At some point, we're gonna have to move past the idea that only Senators can run for President. Yes, it makes sense given how large the country is and the difference in fundraising/campaigning required for each job, but the Democrat bench would be infinitely better if we had Moulton, Ruben Gallego, Joe Kennedy and other talented backbenchers also in the mix

[houseonaboat]

Jeff Merkley's national political profile went up, holding the Senate floor in opposition to the Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination...

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/filibuster-nuclear-option-Senate-Jeff-Merkley/2017/04/04/id/782554/

Ginsberg better be taking her damn vitamins. If her (or Breyer) kick the can before 2020 then all the pro-filibuster Senators are not going to look as nearly as wise and in-touch-with-the-base as they do now

[houseonaboat]

While on the subject of presidential trips, Booker was in Florida last weekend fundraising and campaigning for Bill Nelson, Indiana the week before for Donnelly, Ohio for Brown, and Montana for Tester.

[houseonaboat]

I really think, and I don't know how anyone would organize this, it's worth having a thread that tracks Warren and Booker's every move. Every state they visit, every check they dole out, every public statement they make, because I don't see a scenario in 2020 where they both don't run, and I think we'll get a good idea of how each candidate wants to win and what their read of the political landscape is.

[houseonaboat]

FWIW, Booker's gonna have to presumably make a hard choice sometime in 2019 between keeping his safe Senate seat and running for President. He could pull a Rubio and do both, but the Democratic bench in New Jersey is deep and he's already taken bruises from a primary once. So I don't think it's out of the question that he genuinely is "unsure" if he wants to run yet or not.

[houseonaboat]

"major role" sounds a lot more like endorsing than running to me.

That's what I'm thinking. I don't think Sanders will run in 2020. He'll likely try and rally as much momentum as possible into the progressive challenger in the race once the field narrows down. Whether that's Warren, Brown, Franken, etc. He'll do his best to get them through the primaries. His support and his wing of the Party will definitely put that candidate at a significant advantage.

I actually think he might take a bit longer to endorse and want certain candidates to proverbially "kiss the ring." I mean, the main reason he was in the race last year from April-June was so that he could pick up delegates to shape the party platform. If it's Warren vs. Booker, yes, he likely endorses right away but it's likely the field will be much bigger than that.

[houseonaboat]

Cory Booker, the piece of shi*, is doing his theatrics trying to live-stream with Schatz & Murphy trying to find the secret Trumpcare bill - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJfUSh1kDns

you okay man?

[houseonaboat]

Cory Booker started a sit-in on the steps of the Capitol with John Lewis (broadcast live on Facebook, of course), where they talked about the AHCA and brought in random passerbys for their thoughts. I have no idea how, but it evolved into a huge 3 and a half hour rally/protest, with a reported crowd of 400+ people, 8 or 9 Democratic senators showing up (including Murphy, Schumer, and Gillibrand), and a lot of Democratic activist leaders and senators giving speeches and impromptu speeches. The Facebook live video has 725k views, 17k likes, and 10k shares.

I watched a good hour of the beginning, and it was honestly just him and Lewis talking. A small line had started to form by that point, so they brought in random families/walkers to talk about their opinion on the AHCA. At one point, a Delaware family came, and I guess a Coons' staffer heard about this because Coons himself popped over for a bit. After that, Brian Schatz joined, followed by Gillibrand, and pretty soon a good quarter of the Democratic caucus was showing up. The crowd got bigger and bigger as well, growing from a few dozen people to about a hundred an hour in and 400+ (reported) by the end at nearly midnight.

Anyway, Booker gave a speech at the end that brought the house down. Don't really know how else to say it but he's really, really good at this. Evoked Langston Hughes, the Gospel of Matthew, "liberty and justice for all," and it seemed like he absolutely owned the crowd. Also impressive that he held the iPhone camera for a couple hours himself before the other senators started taking turns doing the recording.

(Appropriately right before he started his speech he was getting heckled by a protester that he managed to shut down)

[houseonaboat]

Lol I know for a fact that Warren and Wolf have done at least one other fundraiser together.