Amy Klobuchar 2020 campaign megathread

[Comrade Funk]

She's pretty inoffensive, and would be a "safe" pick, but that might not be what Democrats really need right now.

I guess "safe" in the way that Hillary out did Dewey in running a "safe" campaign.

Drink.

[gottsu]

Pretty nice, unobtrusive person - good VP pick for Brown or, say, Biden.

[Former Kentuckian]

I really like Klobuchar on paper, but the stories of how she treats her staff are horrific and disqualifying. I definitely couldn’t support her in the primary for that reason.

What are the stories?

There are no stories or Minnesota Republicans would be on them like a duck on a Junebug. Yes, she has high turnover, but if you look at her staff's LinkedIn profiles, it's clear they're circling between offices and most make their way back to hers. A recent example is Jeannette Cleland who worked for Klobuchar years ago, left to work for other Congress critters and Michelle Obama, and is now back to working for Klobuchar's nascent campaign. Her Chief of Staff, Brigit Helgen, is another example. She worked for Klobuchar, left to work for other offices and non-profits, then circled back to become Klobuchar's Chief of Staff. If Klobuchar had stories about mistreatment, these people wouldn't go back to her.

It should also be noted that she's not mentioned at all in the most recent data (for 2017) wherein Michael Bennet lost 33.3% of his staff in a single year: https://www.legbranch.org/2018-4-3-which-senate-offices-had-the-highest-staff-turnover-in-2017/

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

Pretty nice, unobtrusive person - good VP pick for Brown or, say, Biden.

Or Beto

She would provide some experience to a ticket with Beto on it.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Way too hawkish.

Yup. Welcome to the Democratic Party

It's not just "the Democratic Party" though.  Klobuchar is notably more hawkish than everyone else in the 2020 Dem. field, even (like Hillary Clinton at one point) having been in favor of a no fly zone in Syria.

Gillibrand also co-sponsored the "Free" Syria Act with her.

She's par for the course for most Dems. Not that that's a good thing.

Gillibrand, unlike Klobuchar, voiced skepticism of the US being involved in Syria at all by 2015:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sen-gillibrand-obamas-syria-strategy-wont-work-long-term/

Gillibrand also sounded ambivalent about the US mission in Libya back in 2011:

https://observer.com/2011/03/on-libya-gillibrand-and-nadler-sound-different/

And of course, Gillibrand, like the majority of Senate Dems, was critical of both of Trump's attacks on the Assad regime for chemical weapons use, while Klobuchar called it "the right thing to do".

Klobuchar also voted for the anti-BDS bill, while nearly all of the other 2020 Dems voted against it.  None of the others running or looking to run for prez in 2020 are as hawkish as her, as far as I can tell.

Props to her, may have to give Klobuchar another look.

[Scrumtrulescent]

Klobuchar is more high-energy and charismatic than Harris

I can agree with this.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Klobuchar is more high-energy and charismatic than Harris

I can agree with this.

It's not even close to being true.

[Former Kentuckian]

She just posted this video promoting her announcement at Boom Island: https://mobile.twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/1093233939081134080?

[Cold War Liberal]

Pretty nice, unobtrusive person - good VP pick for Brown or, say, Biden.

I think she would be a good pick for Harris too.

[Mr. Smith]

Klobuchar is more high-energy and charismatic than Harris

I can agree with this.

It's not even close to being true.

And I can agree with this

[Ban my account ffs!]

Amy Klobuchar is the kind of person who doesn't f**k around.  She is extremely intelligent and has a good memory and an insane attention to detail.  She will know precisely what to say and how it needs to be said knowing her own limits.

[Cassandra]

What's her appeal? I don't know what distinguishes her from the Booker/Harris/Gillibrand crowd.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I like her just fine as a Senator and I don't really have anything against her, but I always fail to recognize what she would bring differently to the field. She is a pretty generic Democrat in my opinion. But maybe that's a good thing. Generic Democrat always does well in polling. She also seems to have less baggage than the other female Senators...for the most part (see that thread about her possibly mistreating staff). So, I don't know. I'm definitely willing to hear her out, and at the very least, I agree that she would make a decent running mate for a male nominee.

[Blue3]

Klobuchar is more high-energy and charismatic than Harris

I can agree with this.

It's not even close to being true.

I've seen Klobuchar on TV a lot over the last decade, mostly on MSNBC and Rachel Maddow. She's personable and funny.

Harris seems to just be going through the motions. Did you watch her robotic "Wakanda salute"?

[Da2017]

Klobuchar is more high-energy and charismatic than Harris

I can agree with this.

It's not even close to being true.

I've seen Klobuchar on TV a lot over the last decade, mostly on MSNBC and Rachel Maddow. She's personable and funny.

Harris seems to just be going through the motions. Did you watch her robotic "Wakanda salute"?

Robotic? I get that more from Gillibrand than Harris. Klobachar is one of my top choices. Her competence could strike a nice contrast to Trump.

[Fuzzy Bear]

She's one of the Democrats I'd consider voting for.

Harris, Warren, Buttgieg, and Booker are just plain awful.  Delaney is a joke.  (Is he still running?)

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Klobuchar is more high-energy and charismatic than Harris

I can agree with this.

It's not even close to being true.

I've seen Klobuchar on TV a lot over the last decade, mostly on MSNBC and Rachel Maddow. She's personable and funny.

Harris seems to just be going through the motions. Did you watch her robotic "Wakanda salute"?

I like Amy. However, she is definitely not more charismatic than Harris.

Harris may not have Bill Clinton or Barack Obama levels of charisma but she is far more charismatic than Klobuchar.

Also, Amy is more of just a generic Democrat. That's not going to be enough to win the primary in 2020.

[Mycool]

I really like Klobuchar on paper, but the stories of how she treats her staff are horrific and disqualifying. I definitely couldn’t support her in the primary for that reason.

What are the stories?

Ik she has the highest staff turnover rate.

That's all I could find on google. While it does raise some question about the reasons why her staff turnover is so high (and even that, it doesn't even seem THAT high compared to the highest staff turnover in the House which is around .65 IIRC), I would hardly call that disqualifying in itself, unless there are actual reports of bad behaviour which the op seemed to hint at.

Not just staff turnover rate. Living in the DC metro area has lead to me hearing many stories about her mistreating her staff and being downright cruel. I’ve heard many stories about verbal abuse. It’s pretty well known around Washington, and I’ve heard it from MANY different sources. I know it probably seems hard to believe, but she’s got a real reputation for treatment like what HuffPost reported below.
 https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5c5a1cb1e4b0871047588649?ncid=APPLENEWS00001

[henster]

I really like Klobuchar on paper, but the stories of how she treats her staff are horrific and disqualifying. I definitely couldn’t support her in the primary for that reason.

What are the stories?

Ik she has the highest staff turnover rate.

That's all I could find on google. While it does raise some question about the reasons why her staff turnover is so high (and even that, it doesn't even seem THAT high compared to the highest staff turnover in the House which is around .65 IIRC), I would hardly call that disqualifying in itself, unless there are actual reports of bad behaviour which the op seemed to hint at.

Not just staff turnover rate. Living in the DC metro area has lead to me hearing many stories about her mistreating her staff and being downright cruel. I’ve heard many stories about verbal abuse. It’s pretty well known around Washington, and I’ve heard it from MANY different sources. I know it probably seems hard to believe, but she’s got a real reputation for treatment like what HuffPost reported below.
 https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5c5a1cb1e4b0871047588649?ncid=APPLENEWS00001

The most concerning thing about the story is about her having her aides do personal errands for her. That's what forced out one congressman here in VA and led to an ethics investigation. I think she will end up having the biggest skeletons in her closet out of the field.

[Mr. Morden]

I will admit she's somewhat to the right of the other contenders on foreign policy, bit it's hardly a noticeable difference. Booker also co-sponsored the anti-BDS bill

He voted against it though.

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Well, I'm comparing Klobuchar to the others who are running for president (or likely to run).  Maybe Bennet is more hawkish than her, I'm not sure.  I don't think anyone else running is though.

[Big Abraham]

I will admit she's somewhat to the right of the other contenders on foreign policy, bit it's hardly a noticeable difference. Booker also co-sponsored the anti-BDS bill

He voted against it though.

My bad, I actually meant to refer to the Anti-Israel Boycott Act, a very similar bill introduced at the beginning of the last Congress which "prohibits any U.S. person engaged interstate or foreign commerce from supporting any request by a foreign country to impose any boycott against a country that is friendly to the United States and that is not itself the object of any form of boycott pursuant to United States law or regulation, or any boycott fostered or imposed by any international governmental organisation against Israel or any request by any international governmental organisation to impose such a boycott". This actually makes it far worse than the bill which specifically targeted BDS because this one prohibits individuals from publicly supporting any governmental organisation that boycotts Israel. Yeah. Booker co-sponsored that bill.

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Well, I'm comparing Klobuchar to the others who are running for president (or likely to run).  Maybe Bennet is more hawkish than her, I'm not sure.  I don't think anyone else running is though.

I would say Bennet is likely to run, but it doesn't really matter. Nearly every other candidate with the possible exception of Sanders and Gabbard (both of whom are still largely pro-military and pro-Israel) is a defender of the American war machine, and the fact that Klobuchar is slightly less likely to pay lip service to dovish ideals doesn't really make a damn difference to me

[Tender Branson]

Happening right now (but the official event will only start in 45 minutes).



NBC News live stream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5V1WubFQvI

[Skye]

What a nice weather to launch a presidential campaign.

[Tender Branson]

What a nice weather to launch a presidential campaign.

Nothing unusual to people who are used to snow ...

[Dr. Arch]

What a nice weather to launch a presidential campaign.

It's the most Midwestern thing she could do, alongside eating ice cream while wearing shorts and/or sandals.