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

[NOVA Green]

Btw, speaking of that David Brock donor event in Florida, one of the other attendees besides Bullock was Jeff Merkley:

http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/IndyBlog/archives/2017/01/20/gov-steve-bullock-slated-to-speak-at-david-brock-led-democratic-conference-in-florida-on-saturday

which is worth a mention now, since he was included in Politico's long list of Senate Dems who might be thinking about a presidential run.

Awesome--- Merkley's pretty cool, and glad he is getting coverage in your thread along with other "long-shot" Dem 2020 candidates.

Hopefully Merkley will be in attendance in the "Ideas Conference" as well this coming May...

[NOVA Green]

Mr Morden....

Just wanted to jump in and say how much I, and many other members of the Forum, appreciate all of the hard work and dedication that you have provided 24 hours on this thread.   

Most of us rarely post, but this thread is obviously not only a project of love, but also contributes to the overall "Body of Knowledge" on Atlas, as well as all of the lurkers that monitor this thread, and share your current updates on many other forums on the Blogosphere (Did I just date myself)      

[NOVA Green]

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/

[NOVA Green]

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/

If Bernie doesn't run in 2020 (which is pretty likely give his age), I wonder what happens if both Merkley & Warren run. It will totally split the Bernie wing as both are great progressives !

True, and both appeal to somewhat different segments of the Progressive Democratic coalition....

Warren likely would play better in parts of the NE/Central Atlantic, as well as in more well-heeled suburbs throughout the country.

Merkley will likely do much better in Western States, and the MidWest in general, as well as rural and small town areas in Appalachia, PA, and upstate NY....

Key question is how both candidates will perform in the Southern primaries, as well as places like Texas and the Southwest.....

[NOVA Green]

What about Bob Corker running in 2020?

He's been throwing a lot of punches in Trump's way as of late.

He obviously would face a lot of difficult questions regarding his political ethics when it comes to stock market investments in Senate Committees where he has a major amount of sway, but he could potentially unite both the Moderate Republican and the Evangelical Wing of the Party, and would likely do quite well come Super Tuesday 2020 if Trump's unfavs start to eat deeper into the Republican Base....

[NOVA Green]

This news is a few weeks old now, but I don't see it posted in the thread: Sasse is headed to Iowa on July 7th, where he will be the keynote speaker at a dinner for Story County Republicans:

http://www.amestrib.com/news/20170523/sen-sasse-to-headline-story-county-gop-dinner

Note that while the story says the event will be in "Nevada", that's Nevada the town in Iowa, not Nevada the state.

Two early primaries/caucuses in one! No point in holding an election, Sasse has this in the bag!

Unfortunately for Sasse, he is no Chuck Hagel, and the political opportunity structure for him is narrower than trying to thread a small piece of string through the eye of a needle for a Republican from the Western realms of the Midwest in the current Republican Presidential environment....

Could see him doing ok in Iowa however if Trump's popularity collapses in the Western MidWest, and if there aren't a ton of evangelical Pubs running in the race, he might have some street cred heading into SC and the Southlands....

[NOVA Green]

Merkley does not rule out running for prez:

https://kobi5.com/news/senator-merkley-addresses-rumors-of-presidential-bid-55607/

I'm hyperventilating.

I just... really don't see it. And I say this as one of the resident torch waving Berniecrats on the board.

He's extremely boring which...might be an advantage in 2020 when Americans are hopefully tired of a blowhard?

Well arguably most of the current crop of potential 2020 Democratic Presidential contenders might well be classified as "boring", not to even bring up potential Republican contenders in 2020 if Trump is still Pres and someone chooses to run against (Kasich, Rubio?).

Americans might well be tired of a reality TV show come 2020, and boring would likely be an asset in both parties.

Still, plenty of time to go, and I am firmly convinced we are not done with the political roller-cycle ride that started about two years back, so who knows what we will all be saying 1-2 years from now.

[NOVA Green]

And Julian Castro calls Trump a pendejo over the Arpaio pardon:

https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/901244569911734273

I was pretty sure Castro didn't even speak Spanish?

Shoot, this was a word that I didn't even realize I knew in Spanish, that I allegedly spoke to an Ex-GF back in '95 after we had an argument over the phone a few hours after we came home from going to a strip-club down the road and I had apparently consumed way too much Whiskey.

So, idk about Julian's fluency in Spanish, but pretty sure he is much more fluent than myself, even although I had a year of College Spanish in my Mid '20s, and learned tons more Spanish working with a majority Latino workforce in Houston Texas in the early 2010s...

He's basically "calling a dog a dog" using a pejorative nickname/term in Spanish, where frequently among Mexican-Americans using nicknames are common as descriptive terms to refer to individuals in social circles (Frequently not in a pejorative sense). I had a couple Spanish language nicknames among the 200 people I worked with in Houston, that were heavily Latino.

One referenced the color of my skin (Red) because I have Rosacea which is very common among people of Northern European Ancestry, and another where I was called "The Peoples Boss"....

Nicknames are not unusual among Spanish speakers in Texas, and in fact in Mexico Trump's "nickname" well before the 2016 GE was Payaso....

I'm sure that calling Trump a Pendejo or a Payaso, is politically speaking using relatively soft gloves in the event he is preparing for a major WWE style boxing round to go "toe-to-toe" with Trump.