The “Who is running in 2020?” tea leaves thread, Part 3

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Didn't see this in the last few pages:

Sen. Michael Bennet ‘Seriously Thinking’ About A 2020 Run For President (Bente Bierkeland, Colorado Public Radio)

I wasn't expecting this. I know Bennet has voiced frustration with the culture of the Senate, but I would have figured he would have left for agency work or private sector work before trying a Presidential run. It'd be pretty interesting seeing a race between him and Hickenlooper - Bennet's base seems like it would be rather small and niche and he hardly has a chance with anyone in the Progressive Wing who pays any attention to individual Senator's voting records.

I remember him also being mentioned by Obama as a potential presidential candidate, which really surprised me at the time. I wonder if Patrick doesn't end up running, whether or not Obamaworld will throw its weight behind Bennet.

I doubt it, Bennet voted for Gorsuch. 

Based on Bennet's 2016 reelection numbers which mirrored the numbers of the Democratic Party in the state at the Congressional and Presidential level, even though he was running against a weak challenger, Bennet strikes me as a generic corporate Democrat.

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I'm worried Gillibrand will play too much Identity politics. Out of all the females candidate she is likely to play woman's card. Right now she has a steep hill to climb. I think voters will perceive her is saying what they want to hear rather than what she believes in. It's easy to accuse her of pandering.

I agree with this.  It's not hard to think she's insincere.  In addition to what you wrote here there was also,
during the election campaign: Shermanesque "I'm not running for President"
Immediately after being reelected "I'm considering running for President."

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If this hasn't been mentioned before, Stacey Abrams is looking at running for U.S Senate or Governor in Georgia and not for President.

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1.Hasn't Jay Inslee already announced that he's running for President?

2.These people expressed an interest at some points, but haven't said anything since:  Bill De Blasio, Bob Casey and John Kerry.  Are they still interested?

3.Others seemed very interested at one point, but seemed to have gone off the radar:  John Hickenlooper, Jeff Merkley and Eric Holder.  Are they still interested?

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1.Hasn't Jay Inslee already announced that he's running for President?

2.These people expressed an interest at some points, but haven't said anything since:  Bill De Blasio, Bob Casey and John Kerry.  Are they still interested?

3.Others seemed very interested at one point, but seemed to have gone off the radar:  John Hickenlooper, Jeff Merkley and Eric Holder.  Are they still interested?

1. Not officially yet, but he's visiting IA and NH a ton. This report says he's going to jump in sometime in the next few weeks: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/06/washington-gov-jay-inslee-nears-decision-on-2020-presidential-run.html

2. Casey ruled himself out. I don't think the other two are likely to run. Kerry had his chance in 2004, and Bloomberg is acting more like a candidate than De Blasio at this point.

3. Hick is definitely still interested. He's been traveling a bunch to the early states, and will reportedly decide soon. Not sure about Merkley, but his lane is already occupied by Warren and potentially Bernie. Holder is a joke and would get absolutely nowhere.

Thanks for the information!

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1.Hasn't Jay Inslee already announced that he's running for President?

No.

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Casey already said he’s not running.  Kerry gave a “I’m not planning on it, but I never take anything off the table” type answer a few weeks ago.  de Blasio stopped talking about a run at some point in 2018, but he just started talking about it again a few weeks ago.  He says he’s thinking about it, but has no decision timeline at the moment.

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Hickenlooper is super active, and has already done multiple early primary state visits this month.  He says he’ll decide by the end of this month.

Merkley has been less active recently, and hasn’t given any substantive updates on his plans since about four weeks ago, when he was sounding pessimistic about being able to raise enough $ to launch a national campaign, so I doubt he’ll run.  But he hasn’t closed the door yet, and says he’ll decide in March.

Holder dropped off the radar completely after the midterms, but he’s giving a speech in Iowa tomorrow, so maybe he’ll give us more info then.

Thanks for the information!

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I think this is my favorite article title of the season so far: Sherrod Brown Is Not an Idiot

Yes, but the author of that article, Rich Lowry, is an idiot.

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Attended this tonight: https://events.ubc.ca/john-kasich/?fbclid=IwAR3Ek2GqoPe0vysn7Z55P8WpLCTixUYrEFVMRrNW3O2uBtENIWz5x7ktrNI

UBC Connects with Governor John Kasich

Kasich said he has no idea what the future holds for him, but said that he very much enjoyed running for President.  He said that he wishes that he had 'slowed down' when running though.  

I.E when going through life take time to stop and smell the roses.

According to a biographer on Aleister Crowley, what he meant by 'do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law' Crowley was not at all stating 'do whatever you want' but more or less the exact opposite.  Although Crowley was apparently an agnostic, he believed that every person was given a mission by their creator and a person's purpose in life was to do their mission: 'do what thou wilt.'

Kasich's talk was a mix of politics, positive thinking and spiritual/religious views and he essentially expressed the same philosophy as Alistair Crowley in that regard.

I disagree with Governor Kasich on a lot of issues, but I think he'd be a very decent President.

He said that every individual can effect change in their own way (positive thinking) but he also endorsed protests to effect change on the political level.  He said that he supported the teens who take time off of school to protest inaction on global warming and he said that he tried to get people to organize a mass protest in Ohio to support 'red flag' gun laws, but that nobody was interested.

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Democrats (and quite a few independants) DO love Joe Biden. Lots of Ds on this sub and Bernie bots on other social media platforms seem to dislike him though, making it seem as though he is unpopular.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/422084-biden-tops-2020-dems-for-favorability-rating-in-new-poll

They like Joe Biden as he is now, the former VP to a President they strongly like and admire.

If/when he runs for President as championing the pre-2016 status quo, and inevitably has multiple gaffes, they aren't gonna like him as much. He may not implode but his numbers are gonna come down to Earth pretty fast.

This was the same thing when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was retired from politics from 2012-2015.

Also, Eric Holder has announced he isn't running for President.