Castro is out (who?).
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Time marches on, we are in a new year, and the Iowa caucuses are less than one month away!
The Democrat candidates, those remaining at least, will debate on January fourteenth in Des Moines beneath the auspices of CNN and the Des Moines Register.
Controversy continues to swirl around the event as only five candidates have qualified so far for the stage. Present will be the seven who were on stage in December, minus Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang. Specifically, only Biden, Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar, and (former) Mayor Pete have qualified so far.
It’s a war of attrition out there right now and some of the “left out” candidates are squawking rather loudly and shouting “unfair” and “foul”.
Watched Tom Perez, DNC chair, earlier today on TV. He was on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.
I thought Mr. Perez did a good job explaining and defending the Democrat’s nomination process so far.
Bloomberg tied for 3rd/4th with Warren in recent poll, behind front runner Biden and Sanders in 2nd.
Marianne Williamson has dropped out of the race.
She’s still running, in spirit!
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Mayor Bloomberg is unquestionably raising his profile. I have seen a few of his TV ads and they are pretty well done (at least in my view). And goodness knows he has the money to elevate his candidacy even higher, should that be his desire.
I support and respect Mr. Perez’s efforts so far to create a fair, level playing field for all of his candidates. But I really believe a way must be found to include Mayor Bloomberg in the debates. It is completely legitimate, even praiseworthy, for the Mayor to decline all outside campaign contributions. That should not be a basis to disallow his debate participation. Mayor Bloomberg clearly his risen already into the top tier of candidates, and his campaign only continues to become even more important. Something needs to be done about the debates so he can be on that stage.
Maybe Bloomberg should get pledges from the required 165,000 donors, stating they will donate if he chooses to solicit donations. Heck, actually collect the money and put it in escrow, with the terms stating that it will be given to charity once the election is over.
I’ve never understood what’s fair about making supporters pay so that their candidate can debate? That’s the definition of “pay to play”. The “required” spending levels for a legit, effective campaign is ridiculous enough, without also fussing over where the money comes from (within the election laws, of course). Most of a candidate’s support comes from people agreeing with them, very little is based on the fact candidate was able to con $25 out of you.
I’m not a fan of Bloomberg, or any particular candidate for that matter, but some respect is earned from putting your own money where your mouth is. As opposed to spending half your time begging for money…oops…sorry, I mean “fundraising” to indulge your fantasy to play “presidential candidate” for a few months.
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We are in an early voting area. That, combined with being a cheap ad market, means we are seeing lots of his ads. I can’t recall seeing anyone else’s ads. I don’t watch a ton of TV, but I’m already sick of them.
Aha! I’ve just decided which Democrat I’ll vote for - the one with the fewest ads / nauseates me the least. Now that could be a heck of a campaign slogan.
Booker is out.
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The President tweets:
Really Big Breaking News (Kidding): Booker, who was in zero polling territory, just dropped out of the Democrat Presidential Primary Race. Now I can rest easy tonight. I was sooo concerned that I would someday have to go head to head with him!
Now, IIRC, the only minority left is the one most universities actively discriminate against in their admissions policies i.e. Yang
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Update
Stuff is happening in this hot race. Debate stage qualification for tomorrow night’s debate, in Iowa, has closed. In alphabetical order the winners are:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden
- Former mayor of South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg
- Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar
- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders
- Billionaire investor and activist Tom Steyer
- Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren
This is the final debate prior to the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Yang, who qualified last month, was unable to do so this time.
The candidates not debating:
A number of active candidates remain in the race but will not, for various reasons, be participating tomorrow night. Here is a list of those candidates:
- Colorado Senator Michael Bennet
- Former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg
- Former Maryland Representative John Delaney
- Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard
- Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick
- Venture for America founder Andrew Yang
Bloomberg is very active as we all are aware. Tulsi’s focus remains on New Hampshire. I know Mr. Yang has been campaigning in Iowa. You don’t hear too much from the others.
I have been respectful of Mr. Perez, DNC chair, in earlier posts. That will not change here. Perez is doing his best to offer all Democrat POTUS candidates a level playing field. This is in sharp contrast to the way things went down four years ago when the DNC chair at that time, DWS, was forced to resign after demonstrably favoring Hillary so blatantly over Bernie.
But while Mr. Perez is operating honestly, I have to wonder about other Democrats, and about Nancy Pelosi and the people around her in particular. Pelosi has influenced the timing of the impeachment so as to place two of Biden’s principal opponents, again Bernie and also Senator Warren, at a serious disadvantage. Both of those candidates, and Senator Klobuchar as well, will be eliminated from the Iowa campaign playing field very soon. All Senators must, by rule, be in the Senate chamber when a matter of impeachment comes before the body. Those three candidates cannot be simultaneously in Washington, DC, and in Iowa.
Meanwhile, Biden is free to campaign across Iowa as much as he wishes.
So is this Biden boost unintended? Or are we, despite the honesty and best efforts of Mr. Perez, back to something akin to what happened in 2016?
Now look, we all know that Joe is just a “regular Joe” … just like one of us. He has said that for years. Thus, I believe he will do the honorable thing and not campaign (other than ads) while the Senate is attending the impeachment festivities.
This might be even more severe than I was thinking earlier. Based on fresh reports this impeachment thing could tie up those Senators past Iowa and on up close to Vermont!! Perhaps Mr. Yang and Tulsi have the right idea. 
Bernie and Senator Warren are the big losers here. The Senate trial will tie them up six days each week. They have to sit in their Senate seats, as jurors, and remain quiet.
I did some jury service back in 2016. Sure, to serve as a juror you have to attend to the trial, the presentations, and so forth. You cannot be absent and still be a juror. I understand the rationale.
But this is so unfair to those candidates. Senator Booker gave his impending impeachment jury service as one of several reasons he suspended his candidacy. It’s really a serious matter, and not something from which Bernie, Senator Warren, and Senator Klobuchar can escape . . . at least insofar as I can figure.
Meanwhile Biden and the others roll on.
Even without the impeachment stuff, they still have jobs to do as Senators. They’re the ones who should be impeached, for campaigning for another job while still on the Senate’s clock.
Regardless, I thought all the complaining and delays with forwarding the articles of impeachment to the Senate were because everyone “knows” the whole “trial” is going to take a couple days, tops? And then they get to go back out on the campaign trail with the rally cry about how they were steadfast with their “yes” vote despite a fixed trial. That’s something Biden and Yang and whoever else do not have going for them.
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Unsurprisingly, I am not so respectful of Mr. Perez and the Democrats. Imagine the fits of the Left media if the Republicans set up their rules to exclude all the racial minority candidates. But with the Democrats, we hear crickets.
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But it’s not the rules, it’s the racist Democratic base who refuses to vote for them in the polls! Either that or they just are poor candidates unrelated to their skin color, could always be that.
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You obviously are not aware of your white privilege. Next you will be saying that the proportionately higher incarceration rate of blacks is because they commit more crimes or that they do poorer in school because they study less than other groups like Asians.
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Or, contrary to common stereotypes, they simply arent that good at begging people for money.
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