Who will join POTUS nominee Biden on the Democrat ticket as VP?

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I find no evidence whatsoever pointing to Mr. Perez having favored one of his candidates over another. I do acknowledge he is being tough on Mayor Bloomberg. But I am respectful Bloomberg’s is a special case and situation which presents Mr. Perez with a most difficult dilemma.

I do concede the following:

While Mr. Perez runs the DNC, he is not the most powerful Democrat by a LONG shot. I believe other Democrats are conspiring right now against the candidacy of Senator Sanders. This is very much akin to what happened to Senator Sanders four years ago. Apparently Democrats even more powerful and influential than Mr. Perez want Joe Biden to become the nominee. Or else, at the very least, they do NOT want Senator Sanders to be their nominee. And in the process of attempting to deep six Senator Sanders’ prospects, they do not at all mind Senators Warren and Klobuchar becoming collateral damage.

Candidates generally, unless they have Mayor Bloomberg’s kind of money, cannot win if they are unable to campaign for WEEKS just in advance of crucial elections! And heck, even Mayor Bloomberg is out there campaigning.

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Again, I say that it’s far more crucial for them to be doing the job they were already elected to do, than it is to stump for votes in a primary for the nomination to compete in an election happening nearly a year from now for a completely different job. If any of them want to complain how being a Senator is getting in the way of their campaigning for President, they should resign from the Senate immediately. Problem solved.

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358

No evidence other than what will be staring you in the face from the debate stage tonight: all the candidates on the stage are of the lighter skin color persuasion.

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359

I thought Klobuchar did well in this round compared to many of the less reasonable candidates/positions. I have a hard time taking some of the M4A proposals seriously when they start throwing around $30T costs that would double the whole government size and destroy a sector that is nearly 20% if the national economy, and then there’s always the question of how to pay for it.

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360

A fascinating wrinkle has emerged. This would inject fairness and would be a win for the four Democrat Senators in the race. This would be a loss for Democrats seeking to enhance Biden’s prospects at the expense especially of Senators Sanders and Warren. Credit for this goes to Senator Marsha Blackburn (R - TN):

Senator Blackburn suggests Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, and Bennet should recuse themselves, declining to be Senate jurors because they could not sit in judgement of Trump, a potential rival in the November general election.

Such recusals would free the Senators involved to return to the campaign trail in Iowa and Vermont. Consider:

In this century no Democrat has won their party’s POTUS nomination without first winning the Iowa caucuses.

361

Although this makes sense, and would seem honorable at first glance, I can’t imagine Fauxcahontas or Bernie missing a chance to vote for impeachment. Although she’s getting big corporate money, she still needs the far left wingers, and they want Trump impeached more than they want to be miserable.

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362

If there’s a conflict of interest with the candidates, there’s the same conflict with their supporters - which includes virtually the entire Democratic caucus.

Besides, having voted “yes” for impeachment is going to be one of the primary campaign rally cries this spring and summer. They arent going to give Republicans the opportunity to claim they bailed on doing their job (and it’d be admitting, or spun as an admission, they agree the outcome of the trial is inevitable, regardless of the theatrics and grandstanding being used along the way).

And I’m still against Senators skipping out on the duties of being a Senator, just to campaign for an entirely different job.

363

I suppose it would be an individual decision for all four Senators. The outcome would depend upon which motivated them more, their hatred for Trump or their burning desire to win in Iowa, and possibly even in Vermont as well if the impeachment trial continues on into a witness phase.

364

After yesterday the die appears to be cast. The four Senators will be doing their final in-person Iowa campaigning this weekend. They all have to be back in DC this coming Tuesday at 1:00 PM ET.

Word is it’ll be surrogates from that point forward until the Iowa caucuses on Monday, February third. That is just two weeks from this coming Monday! Bernie has a wife and the two lady Senators both have husbands. I dunno about Bennet. But Iowans like to get “up close and personal” with their caucus candidates . . . it’s the tradition there and it is how things are done in Iowa. The in-person absence of three important candidates (Bernie, Senator Warren, Senator Klobuchar) will hurt them. Biden and the remaining candidates, of course, are not impacted. I think they will be helped as three key players are deleted from the Iowa playing field.

Beyond Iowa, if this trial in DC is extended even longer, the same thing is going to happen in Vermont.

365

You mean that you don’t think your current employer should pay you to try to find a job at another company? :laughing:

366

Criteria for February seventh debate participation has been announced:

(From the AP wire)

BY MEG KINNARD, Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Democratic National Committee on Friday announced its criteria for the first debate to be held after voting begins in the 2020 presidential campaign, including a new pathway to the stage based off delegate pledges.

As they have before, qualifiers will need to meet polling and grassroots funding thresholds to participate in the Feb. 7 debate in Manchester, New Hampshire. But new for next month is a pathway centered around delegates: Based off the results of the lead-off Iowa caucuses, any candidate awarded at least one pledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention, as calculated by the Democratic Party, will be able to participate.

Party officials are relying on the same polling and grassroots thresholds as for the January debate in Des Moines, Iowa: either receiving 5% in at least four national or early-state surveys approved by the party, or receiving 7% in two polls in early voting states. But for these calculations, only polls from New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina will be used, with the party saying it would rely on caucus results instead of polls to reflect a candidate’s standing in Iowa.

Polls must be released from Dec. 13 to Feb. 6, the day before the debate.

In terms of fundraising, candidates must receive donations from at least 225,000 unique donors, with a minimum of 1,000 donors per state in at least 20 states.

Up until this round, the eighth of the Democratic campaign, party officials had steadily increased polling and fundraising thresholds, standards that had been scrutinized by candidates and party activists, as DNC Chairman Tom Perez has juggled the tasks of keeping a historically large field from being too unwieldy for voters while keeping his promise that everyone running would have a fair shot to make a case on the national stage.

The field of six candidates on the stage in Des Moines — former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, as well as former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and billionaire Tom Steyer — was the smallest and least diverse of the 2020 cycle, which at times has sprawled onto two stages and back-to-back nights.

All six onstage in Des Moines appear to have met the polling and grassroots thresholds for next month’s debate. Businessman Andrew Yang, who failed to qualify for Des Moines, has met some but not all of next month’s requirements.

ABC News, ABC’s New Hampshire affiliate WMUR-TV and Apple News are co-hosting the debate at Saint Anselm College on Feb. 7, four days after the Iowa caucuses and four days before New Hampshire’s votes are cast. Later debates will follow in Las Vegas on Feb. 19, and in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 25.

Mayor Bloomberg is once again out of luck. He is remaining aloof from the early going, so he is unlikely to garner any delegates. And of course, as prior, he continues to decline campaign contributions.

It’s funny. Mayor Bloomberg, to my mind, is the one Democrat candidate who has the brass, chutzpah, and money to go toe to toe with Trump and quite possibly more than hold his own. The other Democrat contenders . . . well . . . Trump will eat them alive.

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367

CNN has cancelled town halls for Democrat POTUS candidates which were timed to inform Iowa voters just prior to the Iowa caucuses.

Reason for cancellation: the Senate trial

CNN cancels Iowa town halls

The cancellation shows how the impeachment trial is upending the 2020 campaign schedule just days before the Iowa caucuses.

The network is working on rescheduling the town halls, the spokesperson said.

But of course rescheduling the Iowa caucuses is another matter entirely and does not appear likely.

I hope trial activity in the Senate does not also extend to where New Hampshire campaigning and voting is similarly disrupted.

368

I hope the trial lasts all the way to Nov 3rd. :slight_smile:

Correction - I hope whatever is going on now lasts to Nov 3rd.

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369

More and more it appears we are witnessing a redux of 2016 where Bernie is concerned. Except this time it is NOT the fault of the DNC chair (Mr. Perez).

Instead, major players elsewhere in the party are either speaking out against Bernie personally (Obama, Hillary), or bottling him up in his Senate seat at this critical juncture in the race (Pelosi et al.).

I concede Bernie is not a Democrat and real, genuine, Democrats do not owe him the respect, allegiance, and deference to which he would be entitled if he were.

Regardless, things are getting pretty rough out there for Bernie, just like last time. Everything old is new again.

370

Only in politics is the requirement to do the job you were elected to do considered a punishment or otherwise unfair…

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371

It is a time honored tradition, and an accepted practice, in American politics that any politician has the right to aspire to and try for a higher political office. Bernie, a long-time Senator, has legitimate aspirations to become POTUS. That is not at all outlandish or out of the main stream of our political history.

What is remarkable and unprecedented is Pelosi’s having sat on the impeachment articles for twenty-eight days, purposefully moving the inevitable Senate trial squarely into the critical period just prior to pivotal Iowa caucuses, and the New Hampshire primary vote as well.

Pelosi, Hillary, and Obama all have their thumbs on the scale in an effort to favor Biden at the expense of both Bernie and Elizabeth Warren, but Bernie especially. This is as plain as the nose on your face.

372

How do you know it’s to favor Biden and not Pete?

373

Mayor Pete not leading in Iowa. It’s between Biden and Bernie, neck and neck. However, I concede:

Polls suck, as was proved in 2016. We will know so much more once voters have opportunity to caucus and actually cast their ballots.

Still, I sense hostility to Bernie’s candidacy. I mean, heck, those I have cited are on the record just in these last few days. They have spoken out publicly.

I agree with Mr. Perez: Democrat voters, and not bigwigs, should choose their candidate. The candidates campaign and the people listen and decide. Course that does not work when some candidates are captive, unable to be out there on the trail.

374

Uh, and what is the difference between Bernie and LIzzie? … other than cheekbones. :wink:

375

The Iowa caucuses are one week from tomorrow. A high level of drama is possibly upcoming shortly, drama impacting four of our protagonists on this thread, Bernie, Liz, Amy, and Michael (yes, even Michael). All these folks are Senators who will be voting, it now would appear, prior to week’s end.

Trump’s defense team will not be using their full twenty-four hour time allotment. When they’re done the rules limit written questions to sixteen hours. After that all Senators will vote regarding the calling witnesses. If witnesses are decided upon it’s likely curtains for the campaigns of our four heroes. Witnesses would take out Iowa entirely, and almost surely imperil the February eleventh New Hampshire vote as well in terms of the ability of the four to get out and campaign in the normal manner. Beyond that, if there are court proceedings, only God knows how much longer this trial could go on.

But there is a fascinating aspect for all four candidates, yes even including Bennet which is why I mentioned him. They all four hold the fate of their campaigns to some extent in their own hands. Should the vote go against witnesses everybody is back out on the campaign trail pronto. However the Republicans do not have votes to spare and Romney has all but formally announced he will vote with the Democrats. This puts the Republicans at fifty-two and able to lose only one more vote.

But that assumes all Democrats will vote as a block for witnesses. Will our four heroes all vote to extend a hopeless trial at their own expense in terms of ability to campaign? One wonders. And then there is this fascinating aspect:

What if the vote for witnesses comes out a 50-50 tie? What then? With Pence nowhere to be seen, can Roberts cast the deciding vote? It turns out he can, but with certain caveats.

Bottom line, though, restoration of any sort of normalcy to the race which is the subject of this thread could be hanging by one. :wink: