Althouse: "The sheer volume of noncompetitive competitors is a distraction that Democrats can ill afford, given the enormity of the disaster at hand."

June 22, 2019

"The sheer volume of noncompetitive competitors is a distraction that Democrats can ill afford, given the enormity of the disaster at hand."

"Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than getting that mean-spirited, embarrassingly gauche, wishy-washy blowhard out of the White House. All of the Democratic fuming about staging a political revolution, shaking up the power structure, fighting the fossil fuel industry, taking down Wall Street, busting noses of the corporate elite, launching ground assaults on power and wealth-transforming the country — all that should be given over to building a well-planned and well-staffed presidential campaign apparatus that can support the candidate best able to do something about what’s happening now.... This is no time for Democrats to humor the ambition of newbies seeking to enter the big time or to pamper grizzled veterans out for a last hurrah... Democrats simply don’t have the luxury of engaging in months of intramural infighting that ends up trashing those most electable against Trump. The last thing they need is a battered nominee limping into the general election...."

Writes Colbert I. King in "All these wannabe Democratic nominees are wasting everybody’s time" (WaPo).

That's one very obvious position, but who's the pampered "grizzled veteran"? Isn't it Biden, and isn't he also the one who's supposed to be the closest to a sure thing that everyone else can get behind? And how can Trump-haters really believe that the blandest choice is really best?

King lists the ones he thinks are the extras who need to get out of the way: Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Julián Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Tim Ryan, Michael F. Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand, John Hickenlooper, Eric Swalwell, Marianne Williamson, Andrew Yang. Why isn't Buttigieg on that loser list? Why isn't Klobuchar? And why is Hickenlooper there? He could emerge as the serious, stable alternative to Trump that everyone could get behind.

Even if Trump opponents agree that what's crucially important is to beat Trump, plenty of them will say that a more excitingly progressive campaign is the better bet. Look at how Trump himself won (and look back to how Obama won). You have to look at what Americans have become and try to figure out what will be moving us 16 months from now. It's not easy, and it will take some magic.

I'm using the word "magic" to evoke President Trump, who recently asked about Biden, "Where's the magic?"

212 comments:

«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 212 of 212

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: "I'm not asking for your vote" -- the best Dem campaign slogan I've ever heard!; 6/23/19, 12:12 AM
walter said...: One of them needs to come out..as a Furry.; 6/23/19, 12:17 AM
Fen said...: gadfly: There appears to be another way to get gifts from Qatar. When the president threatens them as "funders of terrorism," suddenly Jared gets a Qatar loan to refinance 666 Fifth Ave and Donald sells expensive digs to them in Trump Tower.

AND it has a tie-in to Titleist Gate! According to the lease agreement: "tenant may use the 16th floor driving range on condition that he purchase 1 dozen Titleist Pro V1x gold balls per visit. Tenants found to instead be using the Titleist Pro V1 will be evicted".

I keep telling you people Titleist Gate has legs. Walls closing in. Tipping point. This could be the beginning of the end!

And remember to purchase your own sets of Titleist Pro V1x (but NOT Pro V1) through the Althouse-Amazon portal today!

(first 100 applicants will be entered for a chance to win a Titleist Pro V1x golfball autographed by Donald Trump while he serves out his term in Leavenworth Prison)

Special conditions apply (brunettes preferred); 6/23/19, 12:23 AM
walter said...: I don't see Gadfly dirtying his hands this go-round either.
Maybe he'll write in his own supreme self.
Who else could live up to his standards?; 6/23/19, 12:37 AM
FIDO said...: Democrats seem to have big problems with democracy.; 6/23/19, 3:06 AM
DEEBEE said...: It is obvious that King still feels the butt hurt, even three years after the impaling b’y the “imposter”. But the penetration was not deep enough to change heads. Still looking for a command and control campaign.; 6/23/19, 6:30 AM
stlcdr said...: I question the premise: disaster. In what way, shape or form has the current presidency been a disaster?; 6/23/19, 6:40 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: I'm interested in the word "gauche" as used by King. It means a person who is lacking social refinement, but it is a more complicated definition than that.
People who are in prison lack social refinement, but are usually not referred to as "gauche." The way King uses the word "gauche" seems to mean that Trump is the invader of the bourgeois (the bourgeois have little interaction with convicts). Rodney Dangerfield made an acting career out of playing gauche characters. It wasn't that long ago in pop culture, maybe three decades, when the characters that described other characters as gauche were the clueless bad guys, and the gauche were heroes. Randle McMurphy. Richard Pryor. The Blues Brothers.
The counter culture looks into the mirror with horror when it sees that it has become Judge Elihu Smails.; 6/23/19, 11:43 AM
hstad said...: "The sheer volume of noncompetitive competitors is a distraction that Democrats can ill afford, given the enormity of the disaster at hand."

“You keep using that word [competitors]. I do not think it means what you think it means.” – Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride.; 6/23/19, 12:04 PM
Ken B said...: So all you have to is to convince Democrat politicians to do something for the benefit of others.; 6/23/19, 1:37 PM
Martin said...: "Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than getting that mean-spirited, embarrassingly gauche, wishy-washy blowhard out of the White House."

That really says it all about the Trump-haters in both parties. It's about style and aesthetics and class privilege, not about substance.

Sure, Trump does things one can reasonably oppose, but the intensity of the hatred isn't about that--it is about privileged elites fearing they might be up-ended by the hoi polloi.

And, what the heck is a "wishy-washy blowhard"? Sounds like a contradiction in terms.; 6/23/19, 4:48 PM
Swede said...: It's a fund raising event for most of them.

Some mean things will be said and then many of them will drop out, once they're happy with the amount of donations.

The leftovers will then begin circling their wagons and that's when things get vicious.

They'll argue about who is going to be the most generous with the free stuff, whittle themselves down to the final person, and then make the mad dash for the center because, let's face it, they'll have to say some batshit insane things to get their hardcore lefty constituency behind them, but now, with just weeks left until election day, they'll have to pretend that they're just normal, every day people.

You won't hear the word "impeach".; 6/23/19, 7:41 PM