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Friday, November 24, 2017

The Demnocrats Are Trying To Make 2020 Look Good -- It Doesn't

There have been a spate of 2020 articles recently.  Today The Hill is out with an article ranking the Democrats' 2020 contenders.  It begins by saying that there could be 30 Democrats vying for the nomination.  That's supposed to be a good thing, but we all remember candidates like Lincoln Chafee who ran in 2016 just long enough to look foolish and then dropped out as soon as the primaries/caucuses began.  Would it help the Democrats to have 20 more of these people floating around the nation?  I doubt it.  Certainly, it did not help the Republicans to have all the second and third string candidates like Lindsay Graham, Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee in 2016.

Let's look at the top three according to The Hill to get a sense of the new face of the Democrats.  Here are the three that The Hill says are the pick of most Democrat insiders:  Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.  The three share a few common characteristics.

1.  They are really old.  Warren is the youngest, but she will be in her 70s in 2020.  Sanders will be a few months from his 80th birthday with Biden close behind.  The bigger question is not which of the three will be nominated, but rather will all three survive to 2020.

2.  They are not just old, but they are remembrances of the past.  Sanders is a throwback to the Cold War, but on the side of the Soviets.  Biden has been in Washington for over 40 years.  Warren also seems like she was freeze dried 25 years ago and just brought out now.

3.  They are not successful candidates.  Biden ran for president repeatedly in the past and was quickly rejected by the voters in the early primaries.  Other than in Delaware (which is hardly a state of importance) and while running with Obama, Biden has never won an election.  Warren has shown herself to be a weak candidate in Massachusetts.  She barely won her election to the senate and has not yet had to run for re-election.  Sanders has been successful in Vermont, but he lost to Hillary Clinton in 2008.  That may sound good, but remember that Sanders is the only person to lose a national election to Hillary.  (She lost to Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016.)

4.  Each of the three comes with a lot of baggage that gets worse with age.  Biden is on video doing the "Al Franken".  One wonders how many women and even children he has "hugged" inappropriately.  Those videos and photos would all be brought out in a 2020 election.  Sanders may have to run in 2020 with his wife in prison for defrauding a bank in Vermont.  She is currently being investigated by the FBI.  Warren used her bogus claim of Native American heritage to gain employment at Penn and at Harvard in the past.  That will not sit well with many voters.

The truth is that there is not yet any Democrat who can take on President Trump by offering something new and different.  Trump could still lose, but the Democrats right now would be trying to beat somebody with a nobody.

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