Tulsi Gabbard is no more a serious candidate than Dennis Kucinich in 04/08

[Anna Komnene]

For the record, I'm not in Tulsi's camp for 2020 (or anyone else's for that matter), but if you want an argument for why she could be a legitimate contender beyond "muh berniebros," here goes.

First, it's not like there's a blueprint for what makes a serious contender.  From Barack Obama to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Ronald Reagan, there's a lot of differences among their resumes and backgrounds.  Plus, those are just people who won the presidency, not even counting the litany of people who didn't win but were definitely serious challengers in the primary.  So, I'm not sure there's any blueprint for what makes a serious contender, but there's definitely things that have helped candidates in the past.

She is a combat veteran and one of the few female veterans in congress.  Being a veteran isn't really the silver bullet that it used to be in American politics, but it's still a big boost.  Virtually any veteran politician gets labeled as a rising star (Jason Kander, etc.  Note that people are wanting him to run for president with even less experience than Tulsi Gabbard).  Being a veteran helps her in a number of ways.  It gives her real life experience to draw from outside of government and politics.  That's *always* a plus, especially when that experience is something like serving your country or being some sort of humanitarian.  It's also pretty much the backbone of her ideology.  She's used her experiences to justify a lot of her positions, from her evolution on lgbtq rights to her position on war and foreign policy.  It also helps her that she's been actively working to help veterans as a Congresswoman.  She's sponsored and worked on several veterans bills, everything from sexual assault in the military, to helping veterans find work, to helping disabled veterans get on flights, and combating child abuse.  These are all things that make her look genuine (genuine people work on issues that have always been important to them, like Tim Kaine said last year), they boost her standing among the veteran community for caring about their issues, and a lot of them are kind of issues that are difficult to attack for her opponents.  Lastly, as a woman, being a veteran helps give her an appearance of strength, even if her views on war are relatively dovish.  She's also on both the committees on foreign affairs and armed services, which are two of the traditional stepping stone committees to running for president.

She is also a prolific and skilled fundraiser with friends on capital hill.  The last I checked, she had one of the largest warchests of any politician in Hawaii with the exception of maybe Brian Schatz.  She definitely has a bigger warchest than Hirono, I know that much.  The fact that she has a contingent of loyal footsoldiers outside of her district means she has a bigger pool of donors to draw from than most people in the House of Representatives.  I know she's been taking the Bernie strategy of asking for very small donations but asking for them frequently, which proved to be a winning strategy for fundraising last year.  Her strength as a fundraiser also means that she has the ability to help other politicians if she wants to.  For example, last year she asked her supporters to donate to Rick Nolan's campaign toward the end of the election season to help him get over the finish line.  Considering that Nolan just barely won election, I wouldn't be surprised if he's feeling pretty appreciative of Tulsi.  I don't know of a lot of other specific examples, but that is exactly the kind of thing that can earn a politician endorsements in a primary.  It also means that she'll have the money to get out her message, which is always a problem for presidential contenders.  And despite arguments to the contrary, it means she is safe in her district.

Lastly, she seems to have her fingers dug into a lot of pots.  She's fairly popular on both the progressive left and the right for different reasons.  She has some fairly right wing views on foreign policy, but she's also an environmentalist and she's taken up some popular progressive causes from Dakota Access protests, to campaigning against military aid to Saudi Arabia, being anti-TPP and all that.  Like I've said before, politicians that are willing to fight for those causes do not grow on trees.  I think that this might actually be her undoing, because while it means she has a lot of potential supporters for very different reasons, it also means that lots of very different people have reasons to attack her and dislike her.  But it still means that she has a potentially wider pool of supporters than candidates that are more niche in terms of their issues and ideology.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Julian Castro or Tulsi Gabbard will be great candidates to run against Trump and I can see either one winning.

[7,052,770]

Hindu born in 1981

[politics_king]

For the record, I'm not in Tulsi's camp for 2020 (or anyone else's for that matter), but if you want an argument for why she could be a legitimate contender beyond "muh berniebros," here goes.

First, it's not like there's a blueprint for what makes a serious contender.  From Barack Obama to Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Ronald Reagan, there's a lot of differences among their resumes and backgrounds.  Plus, those are just people who won the presidency, not even counting the litany of people who didn't win but were definitely serious challengers in the primary.  So, I'm not sure there's any blueprint for what makes a serious contender, but there's definitely things that have helped candidates in the past.

She is a combat veteran and one of the few female veterans in congress.  Being a veteran isn't really the silver bullet that it used to be in American politics, but it's still a big boost.  Virtually any veteran politician gets labeled as a rising star (Jason Kander, etc.  Note that people are wanting him to run for president with even less experience than Tulsi Gabbard).  Being a veteran helps her in a number of ways.  It gives her real life experience to draw from outside of government and politics.  That's *always* a plus, especially when that experience is something like serving your country or being some sort of humanitarian.  It's also pretty much the backbone of her ideology.  She's used her experiences to justify a lot of her positions, from her evolution on lgbtq rights to her position on war and foreign policy.  It also helps her that she's been actively working to help veterans as a Congresswoman.  She's sponsored and worked on several veterans bills, everything from sexual assault in the military, to helping veterans find work, to helping disabled veterans get on flights, and combating child abuse.  These are all things that make her look genuine (genuine people work on issues that have always been important to them, like Tim Kaine said last year), they boost her standing among the veteran community for caring about their issues, and a lot of them are kind of issues that are difficult to attack for her opponents.  Lastly, as a woman, being a veteran helps give her an appearance of strength, even if her views on war are relatively dovish.  She's also on both the committees on foreign affairs and armed services, which are two of the traditional stepping stone committees to running for president.

She is also a prolific and skilled fundraiser with friends on capital hill.  The last I checked, she had one of the largest warchests of any politician in Hawaii with the exception of maybe Brian Schatz.  She definitely has a bigger warchest than Hirono, I know that much.  The fact that she has a contingent of loyal footsoldiers outside of her district means she has a bigger pool of donors to draw from than most people in the House of Representatives.  I know she's been taking the Bernie strategy of asking for very small donations but asking for them frequently, which proved to be a winning strategy for fundraising last year.  Her strength as a fundraiser also means that she has the ability to help other politicians if she wants to.  For example, last year she asked her supporters to donate to Rick Nolan's campaign toward the end of the election season to help him get over the finish line.  Considering that Nolan just barely won election, I wouldn't be surprised if he's feeling pretty appreciative of Tulsi.  I don't know of a lot of other specific examples, but that is exactly the kind of thing that can earn a politician endorsements in a primary.  It also means that she'll have the money to get out her message, which is always a problem for presidential contenders.  And despite arguments to the contrary, it means she is safe in her district.

Lastly, she seems to have her fingers dug into a lot of pots.  She's fairly popular on both the progressive left and the right for different reasons.  She has some fairly right wing views on foreign policy, but she's also an environmentalist and she's taken up some popular progressive causes from Dakota Access protests, to campaigning against military aid to Saudi Arabia, being anti-TPP and all that.  Like I've said before, politicians that are willing to fight for those causes do not grow on trees.  I think that this might actually be her undoing, because while it means she has a lot of potential supporters for very different reasons, it also means that lots of very different people have reasons to attack her and dislike her.  But it still means that she has a potentially wider pool of supporters than candidates that are more niche in terms of their issues and ideology.

I endorse this statement. She's a Libertarian leaning Democrat like Mike Gravel.

[publicunofficial]

Mike Gravel, but sexy? My god, it's unstoppable.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

https://twitter.com/timkmak/status/836769064353693696

[publicunofficial]

https://twitter.com/timkmak/status/836769064353693696

Prediction: She's trying to lose her primary so she can cash in and become a talking head spouting lines about how the Democratic Establishment forced her out.

[Famous Mortimer]

The only other Dem house member who clapped as much was Marcy Kaptur, one of the few politicians endorsed by Bernie.

[Shadows]

Tulsi Gabbard introduced a bill to decriminalize Marijuana.

So far the bill she has introduced -

Paid Family & Medical leave
Modern Glass Steagal
Stop funding terrorists (Funding rebels in Syria)
Decriminalize Marijuana
EPA Oversight at Red Hill, Hawaii
Half a dozen Veterans Bills including healthcare, preventive healthcare, job training etc

She went to Dakota to oppose Dakota pipeline.

I don't know what she has to do to be considered a progressive - Glass Steagal, Marijuana, Dakota Pipeline, Paid Leave, Veterans Healthcare/Funding etc !

She opposed TPP even before she endorsed Bernie! On what basis are people calling her a moderate?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Her foreign policy is identical to Trump's.

[Blair]

I don't know what she has to do to be considered a progressive -

She voted against a motion condemning Russian war crimes in Syria...

[(Still) muted by Kalwejt until March 31]

I don't know what she has to do to be considered a progressive -

She voted against a motion condemning Russian war crimes in Syria...

-For excellent reason: because that was a total crock, as long as it was complemented by a vote to continue arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and such "war crimes" are endemic to all state parties.

Being hypocritical is in no sense progressive.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

Her foreign policy is identical to Trump's.

Which is better than having a foreign policy identifical to George W Bush's, which most corporate Democrats have.

[houseonaboat]

Incidentially the only reason why I bash "Tulsibots" so much here is that this is basically the only place where they exist, the only other place on the Internet I've found people thinking she's a serious and top tier candidate, or even likely to run is her cult-like subreddit.

Hey, she also has a (remarkably active) cult-like Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1273065276040925/

And then there's this:

https://www.facebook.com/TulsiGabbard2020/

Jesus 25000 members as well. Probably a good way to get grassroots money and build up a warchest

[Mr. Morden]

Incidentially the only reason why I bash "Tulsibots" so much here is that this is basically the only place where they exist, the only other place on the Internet I've found people thinking she's a serious and top tier candidate, or even likely to run is her cult-like subreddit.

Hey, she also has a (remarkably active) cult-like Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1273065276040925/

And then there's this:

https://www.facebook.com/TulsiGabbard2020/

Jesus 25000 members as well. Probably a good way to get grassroots money and build up a warchest

The RunTulsiRun Facebook group is a highly informative internet rest stop.  Where else can I find graphs like this?