In other words: Socialism doesn't work toward the goal of getting our party elected.
So... vote for him because he'll refrain from saying that word that bothers some of those people out there. But the people in his audience aren't inspired, and really, why should they believe that people will vote for a person whose pitch is that he'll try not to bother those other people?
The WaPo writer supplements Hickenlooper's weak pitch with material from a Wall Street Journal op-ed that ran under his name last month: He's "running to save" the "only economic system that can support a strong middle class." And Hickenlooper responded to a phone call and conceded that he'd spoken "inartfully" (with the problem seeming to be that he was picking on Bernie Sanders, the out-and-proud socialist in the race).
But in that phone interview, he repeated the pitch that got booed: "If we’re not willing to draw a bright line and say we’re not socialists, we could quite possibly reelect this president."
Years ago, I knew a man who had the verbal tic of saying "quite possibly." I think I may have cured him of it by repeating "quite possibly" back to him when he said it. Oh, it was all in good fun. It was funny. And he really did need to be cured of that.
Does Hickenlooper have that tic? He says things like, "These are certainly big ideas. But they’re also quite possibly very bad ideas," and "It’s not that they wouldn’t get a pathway to citizenship, but what I said was if you put it aside and didn’t make that a part of the immediate solution, quite possibly you’d get to a pathway to citizenship faster..."
You see how the "quite possibly" weaseling works. (Check your weasel for tics.)
But maybe it's a fantastic way to exhibit carefulness and thereby beat Trump. In fact, I propose it as a slogan:
John Hickenlooper — quite possibly!
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The quite shows calm. Far from panicking you can see I'm retaining my composure in the face of the possibility and choosing my words carefully.
Biden is the least extreme of the Dems, but that’s not saying much. And Biden is slow, old and a tool of the ChiComs.
Trump wins.
The tic thing is funny. It’s also cute how Mr. Looper thinks lefties are the one’s who will decide if Trump gets re-elected. Like Tumop’s supporters don’t get a say. Like Mr. Looper thinks he’s a dictator or a man of influence or something.
The Dems' dilemma is that they do not have an honest candidate among them. And they know it.
They are left with "Marxism quite possibly will work this time."
Dems will lose because they refuse to confront realities. Economic, social, and foreign policy.
They have become the party of the mob.
John Hickenlooper’s quite possibly a smelly pooper.
Biden is to China in reality as Trump is to Russia in the lefty fever dreams.
Imagine if Don Jr rode to Russia on AF1, then two weeks later, an new fund he started got 1.2 billion in “investments” from Putin. There might be a stink!
Imagine if Trump’s campaign manager had gotten many millions of dollars in stock from a new Gazprom startup? Oh wait! That’ was Hillary’s campaign manager!
The only defense for these guys is to attack, attack, attack, because if they stop talking about Trump, people might start looking at them!
Hickenlooper should recognize that, like so many others, the Democrat Party has left him behind. Trump is no genius, he just saw that the Democrats had kicked a sizable tranche of their party to the curb, and he dusted off their clothes and offered to fight for them. It’s no mystery.
Biden is dominating the "moderate" lane (I should also put "lane" in quotes), and so long as he does, younger guys of that stripe, like Hickenlooper, won't get much traction. That is a very good thing if you love Trump, since the younger "moderates" might have a chance in the general.
Biden’s lost it and his corruption is so thick you could stir it with a stick.
The party establishment will once again have to steal the nomination away from Bernie.
Warning to Hickenlooper—the Democratic base doesn’t want. To hear that you are sane and sensible. They will never support someone who doesn’t scare and/or repulse normal people.
For every new regulation on colleges, an adminstrator is required to ensure compliance
For every new administrator, tuition goes up.
Student loans are crippling the young, they have been betrayed and beggared by the universities
They know their degrees are worthless.
Of course the young are pissed, but their problem is that because they are so poorly educated,
they can’t see who is really to blame.
What, exactly, is the difference between “big progressive goals” and “socialism”?
Quite possibly, Hickenlooper is just another weasel.
Trump is right up there with RR if you ask me. I groaned when people predicted he would be.
Democrats have gone from “Fighting for the working man” to “Fighting the working man.”
The biased polls put Trump’s approval a 48 disapproval at 52, I bet those numbers are at least reversed.
"These are certainly big ideas. But they’re also quite possibly very bad ideas," and "It’s not that they wouldn’t get a pathway to citizenship, but what I said was if you put it aside and didn’t make that a part of the immediate solution, quite possibly you’d get to a pathway to citizenship faster..."
=======
Trump's plain-spoken, sometimes crude but never mealy-mouthed utterances are sounding better and better.
Verbal tics are interesting. They don't register with me. Not like some of the people I've worked with, that make a big deal of it. Until someone starts using it to mock, I don't hear it. I had a boss that used "intimately involved" too much. Usually in terrible context that makes his sound way dumber that he is.
I'm with Rehajm, It's cute the Dems think they are the in control of the outcome of the election. If the media would stay with their tactic of the last 3 years, they would be playing "what if" What if Barr exposes Obama and the Democrats used spies against Republicans. Instead of playing "what if" the Dems are playing Ostrich.
By the way, Marxism only has ONE BIG ENEMY. And it's not the wealthy few, many of whom pretend they gladly embrace Marxism as a better way to rule over workers. It's the big, stubborn Middle Class that claims it has independent rights to their own Property and is more than willing to defend their independent lives with real Guns and real Religion.
I quite possibly prefer a quiet possum to a Hickenlooper.
I'm not a member of the Democratic party, but that's my take and I'll stand by it.
I like the calling out of the weasel phrase, quite possibly. He thinks he's being engaging and cooperative, open minded even. I say he's displaying weakness: of thought and person.
This, quite possibly, calls for a new tag, "Weasel Phrases". Some say they agree with me.
Trump is quite possibly our best modern president. Change my mind.
"If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer."
Ahh, the seemingly sober platitudes of the modern day weasel Democrat politician. Trying to roast on Sanders, without having the guts to do it directly.
Let me rephrase it for better accuracy:
If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, we cannot openly advocate for "socialism" even though our party supports every component of socialism. Oh, and by the way, I'm currently at 1%, so I may as well take an oblique shot at Bernie Sanders
Socialism and socialism. Actually (tic), most of these people are Utopians, or I guess you could say Star Trek socialists - quite unmoored from reality and any sort of logic.
"Trump is no genius, he just saw that the Democrats had kicked a sizable tranche of their party to the curb, and he dusted off their clothes and offered to fight for them."
Same reason Roger Ailes was able to create Fox News from scratch and lead it to the top of the ratings in cable news. When the other choices were MSLSD and CNN, it didn't take a genius to exploit a forgotten audience, just guts and a plan.
It is interesting that this came up this way. Last night on the Greg Gutfeld show he eliminates Dem candidates by different criteria, and then ends with just Hickendooper’s name, then proceeds to scramble the letters of the name to spell something bizarre. Thing is though, is that he is one of the few Dem candidates with any real crossover appeal. He is comfortable for the upper middle class, and probably down into the middle middle. He always seemed to run ahead of the other Dems on the CO ballot statewide. Always seemed the adult in the room.
Of course, Biden has that lane, mostly by being old and senile. I doubt that Hickenzooper makes the debate cut, despite, I think, being one of the few who could seriously challenge Trump. We shall see.
We re-elected the worst president in American history in 2012.
I have telephone calls with a German-Swiss guy. His English is excellent but he uses the word “basically” all the time. I wonder if he has the same verbal tic in German.
Weasle tics spread lime disease, which is why the Green Party helps drain the Swamp.
Socialism or defeating Trump?
The Democrats are not the party of or.
They’d much rather lose everything and blame the winner for “cheating”.
That keeps hope - and the coalition - alive.
One of my verbal tics is the use of "intimate" when I mean "fuck" in regards to relationships. It goes over better in polite conversation.
I do confess to using "basically" way too much as a young adult and I rid myself of that verbal tic after taking classes in presentation techniques.
THEOLDMAN
The aspirational hope of all "socialism" lies in "To each according to his needs; from each according to his abilities."
The reality in "Socialism is where we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us."
(and notice the "we" and "they").
"Socialism is where we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”
That goes right to the heart of “From each according to his abilities” doesn’t it?
it didn't take a genius to exploit a forgotten audience, just guts and a plan.
I often think that great men are the men who have the guts to believe what that have come up with after careful analysis, especially when it goes strongly against the common wisdom.
"It's cute the Dems think they are the in control of the outcome of the election."
They are. If they harvest and/or manufacture enough dubious ballots, they can't lose.
This lesson on what happens when you stand up to the mob will not be lost on the other candidates.
I don't know that much about him, but he doesn't grate. He doesn't have a chance. The other leading candidates want to make America grate again, but he's bland and non-confrontational.
The Marxists and communists that are the new-base of the democratics, want socialism. They don't care if it's a disaster. Disaster is a bonus.
If there were a Buttigieg / Hickenlooper ticket they could call it, "Vote ButtLooper!" or reversely "Vote ChickenButt!"
Hickenlooper . . . the Weasel is strong in this one.
The Beer Guy who became governor of The Weed State.
Whoever I see his name I think
“With a name like Smuckers, it HAS to be good”
Just so we're clear here. It's 2019, and after over 100 years, this crowd booed someone who stated the obvious that Socialism doesn't work. Millions killed, entire countries and cultures destroyed, generations lost. This crowd is yearning for more of it still.
Nice party.
There aren't any big progressive goals in fact, not in the modern US.
There is no real public demand for them.
They have achieved their goals long ago, or it is apoarent to everyone that they are out of reach, due to their being unrealistic in a universal sense, or because they split their own coalitions, not because there is effective opposition.
Even the activists chase ever more trivial dissatisfactions as their purpose in life.
There are however various dominance displays that appeal to the partisans.
Explicitly things that would make the other side unhappy, and are goals for that reason. This is the nature of tribal warfare.
"Perhaps" there is another word that Hickenlooper could use in place of his double word expression designed to allow for wiggle room.
Hickenlooper has zero possibility.
They have achieved their goals long ago, or it is apoarent to everyone that they are out of reach, due to their being unrealistic in a universal sense,
No. Not every Democrat politician has gotten rich in office. There is still a way to go. Biden shows the way but Obama has been a little less obvious about it.
I’m glad Althouse is around to cure us of our bad habits. I’ve replaced my snuff addiction with a nicotine lozenge addiction. Help!
maybe what they mean is not getting more Trump, but extra Trump
cuz face it-- you're gonna get Trump
Every time i hear "Hickenlooper" I think "Chicken-cooper". Anyway, the Democrats will ever nominate an old white guy with a weird name.
Can you imagine a California Hispanic or a NYC Lesbian voting for Hickenlooper?
White Male Democrats need to understand that their days of dominating the Presidency are over. White supremacy is OUT. As Joe Biden said, they need to move aside and let women and minorities take the lead.
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