February 25, 2020

There's another debate tonight, and it's not too soon.

It's less than a week since the last debate, but everything's speeded up now. There's the South Carolina primary this weekend, followed by Super Tuesday. And last week it was all about piling on Mike Bloomberg, but now Bernie Sanders has blown up into a seemingly unbeatable beast. So does everyone who isn't Bloomberg still go after Bloomberg, or is it forget about Bloomberg, and everyone who's not Bernie goes after Bernie? Or is it more complex?

I don't think Bernie should go after anyone. He must defend and would do best to appear worthily presidential and above the fray. But is he capable of controlling his angry face and modulating his yelling voice? Doesn't matter. Let Bernie be Bernie. It's worked so far, and how could he possibly change at this stage? Stand your ground, Bernie. Your mere presence as the frontrunner is horrifying and flummoxing to all the rest of them.

Elizabeth Warren should have a secret alliance with Bernie. All the delegates she collects can be handed over to Bernie later. She could give him the majority he needs at the convention. As she collects delegates, the radical left position gains force, but it's less obvious than it would be if all of them went to Bernie. She's serving his interests, and he can make her his VP choice.

In any case, Warren is not allied with Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar. They're the moderates, all begging for the nonradical voters in a desperate, bungling stop-Bernie effort. Warren should attack all of them, especially Bloomberg. She's good at that.

And what should Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar do? Continually barge in front of each other demanding to be seen as the one person who's palatable enough to have a ghost of a chance against Trump? Or will they take a first-things-first approach and insist they're the one to stop Bernie?They probably have convinced themselves that to do one is to do the other. The reason to vote for B/B/B/K is that Bernie must be stopped in order to stop Trump. But it has to be one of them, not 4 of them, and so they will have to turn on each other.

Bloomberg has a special position: He can say that he should be the one of the 4, because he has his own money, and none of the others has stood out enough as a candidate to have a stronger argument than that. That's why Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar all need to keep beating up on Bloomberg, and that keeps Bloomberg in at least as bad a position as Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar. And it keeps the entire group from mounting a serious challenge to Sanders.

Maybe Bloomberg will rise to the occasion. Expectations are low now, after last week's debate fiasco. Surely, he's taken some coaching and has a more realistic idea of how to do a debate. He's incredibly arrogant, but he got an epic humiliation. And everyone's interested in seeing what he can do to make a comeback. And now now there's less hope than ever that one of the other nonradicals (Biden, Buttigieg, or Klobuchar) can get all the attention, he's got reason to hope he can be the one. And he's got the motivation to regain his dignity and the constant boost of knowing that he's the one with all the money.

UPDATE: I'm told Tom Steyer will also be in the debate. Oh! That is so dull. He does not belong there. I guess he hurts Bloomberg because it is just so ridiculous to have 2 billionaires who've bought their way on to the stage and will be standing there so long after all those governors and senators have slipped away.

IN THE COMMENTS: DanTheMan says:
The so called moderates need to go after Biden. If he loses in SC he’s done and a big chunk of moderates have to find a new home.
I'm picturing something in the form of an intervention. He needs it. So much damage he has caused.

218 comments:

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narciso said...

well the sequel was Oklahoma city, where Clinton was utterly shameless, but reno's pathetic promotion for the atf clearly backfired, meanwhile a Bernie bro goes full kamikaze and no one asks duckworth and durbin if they knew anything about the shooter,

but it's expected, and as pointed about above, twitter will do their best to fan the flames, like with parkland, and simultaneously bury the truth,

narciso said...

similarly we had the reid landgrab directed at the bundy ranch, and similar instance in mahegun (sic) Oregon, we know how that was played up, as opposed to the rash of deliberate assassination of law enforcement officers we've seen in new York and elsewhere fanned by mayor bane, I mean Wilhelm,

narciso said...

even in an ostensibly center right government, leftist operatives seek their vengeance,


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/25/british-soldiers-50-times-likely-prosecuted-troubles-deaths/

rcocean said...

What Althouse has mapped out is pretty good. It'd say the following:

1) Warren should support Bernie by attacking Bloomberg
2) No one needs to attack Buttigig and Amy K - they aren't going to win anything.
3) Biden is self-destructing - so leave him alone. Maybe a zinger about his gaffes.
4) Bernie should use the "we need to unite and not attack each other" line. Also make a play for blacks and attack Trump.
5) As for Steyr - When is this boring fuck going to quit?

Every Right-winger/Republican should be rooting for Bernie. We need an HONEST election. No more Fake Moderates. On either side.

John henry said...

I've not been watching the debates. I tjink tonight is the night slojo shows up wearing nothing but cowboy boots an a chicken.

Gonna sit back and laugh my ass right off.

John Henry

narciso said...

why a chicken?

yes they won't seriously attack sanders,

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Maybe Bloomberg will rise to the occasion.

How does an arrogant, party-switching billionaire distinguish himself against Trump? It would appear he doesn't.

But Steyer's less of a greedy lunatic, at least. So it's good to have him splitting the "I Vote For Billionaires" party against Mini Mike, and in Bernie's favor.

The others are all as bland as can be. Butt-Judge can't figure out how to stand for anything less bland than what will sell in the phony state of Indiana, and KlobberJaw's leadership potential probably, secretly ends with the binders she abusively swats at her staff with.

Lizzie's a liar who has trouble figuring out what to do when not attacking, but at least she knows enough to know that helping Bernie, the only authentic and decent original in the race, is the best thing for that party and the country.

Biden is so sad. The only reason he's run for a fourth time in his life is because he was enough of a dim-witted, melarchy-spouting cracker to give the Obama presidential ticket working class white man credentials. He is so done. He couldn't even run for president properly back in the 1980s. Although it will be interesting to see what happens if he comes in better than 3rd place in the Fort Sumter state, as well as in the other Confederate states.

If Joe comes in second in those states, then we've got a real race. If he wins, we've got a real problem. And if he's third or worse, then we can finally stick a fork in the moribund Third Way Democratic party and finally allow the FDR types to re-take that party, which is rightfully theirs. They called FDR a socialist, too. How arrogant these crony elitists are. The nerve they have to think that it's their party, just because a phony grifter like Clinton got two terms (plus impeachment and policies that gave us a huge economic crash 8 years later) and Obama tried not to distance himself too far away from Slick Willie.

Drago said...

HoaxPPT: "But Steyer's less of a greedy lunatic, at least. So it's good to have him splitting the "I Vote For Billionaires" party against Mini Mike, and in Bernie's favor."

I often wonder how a coal-mining hedge fund manager like Steyer is able to hang around this long.

Drago said...

HoaxPPT: "They called FDR a socialist, too."

Mostly Henry Wallace and a few other commies causing blowback.

Drago said...

The good news is Slow Joe has decided he is actually running for a Senate seat against some other Biden!!

Seriously, why is his family allowing this to go on? It has to be fear of investigations as to how 5 members of Bidens family got rich in 8 years of his vice presidency.

Bernie will lock it up by Super Tuesday.

THEN the fun can really begin.

bagoh20 said...

You may or may not find it entertaining, but if you watch the debate tonight, you will watch a group of very angry unhappy people yelling and attacking each other even though they all agree on everything except which one of them should get the power. Meanwhile in the Trump camp there is singing, dancing, hugging, smiling and later on, fornication, even though they don't agree on everything. What tribe do you want to join?

bagoh20 said...

The question developing is do we want to transition from the best President in modern history to the worst? If we do make that change, you heard it here first.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I often wonder how a coal-mining hedge fund manager like Steyer is able to hang around this long.

Uh... money. Is it really that hard to figure out?

Plus, he's a lot nicer and less out of touch than Bloomberg and actually seems to like/admire the front-runner with the momentum: Bernie.

Bernie allies are welcome.

I think all he has to do to lock it up is to unleash a whole horde of diversity hired surrogates. They are generally passionate and a good number are pretty articulate/bright, as well. I saw Nina Turner totally shut down the corporate hack on Ali Velshi's show. And then he had a pretty Latin girl on a CNN or MSNBC discussion panel doing his thing, also. Faiz Shakur isn't bad. Plus, more and more of Hollywood's on board, which every D needs to lock it up and in the bag.

He has some smart people working for him and more and more flashy ones also. I think he's doing what he needs to do to pull off a Democratic nomination.

Drago said...

HoaxPPT: "He has some smart people working for him and more and more flashy ones also. I think he's doing what he needs to do to pull off a Democratic nomination."

He has his share of all types but its time for this battle. This should have been the matchup in 2016 which would have been the biggest middle finger to the "elites"/powers-that-be ever.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You may or may not find it entertaining, but if you watch the debate tonight, you will watch a group of very angry unhappy people yelling and attacking each other even though they all agree on everything except which one of them should get the power. Meanwhile in the Trump camp there is singing, dancing, hugging, smiling and later on, fornication, even though they don't agree on everything. What tribe do you want to join?

The one that's less classist, exclusivist and divisive - obviously.

Bernie's getting the celebrities. They're more fun to party with. The only celebrities that Trump gets are the truly crazy ones. The Kanyes. The Kardashians.

In any event, everyone knows how powerful and happy you think your money makes you. That's why we're having an election. For all the normal people. You're just too special for America. You should go someplace where all anyone cares about is how happy you are - since you don't care about people anyway, just your money.

Have you ever considered moving to an Arab gulf state? The rich dudes that run that place are happy to have a government that caters to them alone (mostly), and they like the bargain. They don't like people either and are content to just remind themselves of how rich they are.

What a relief it would be for you to be able to just do that. Being an American is too much of a burden on a guy like you. Although I suspect you rather like living in a country where the next homeless guy sleeping on the sidewalk you tread on has a head sticking out for you to kick. But that's the kind of thing that makes you not really an American.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

This should have been the matchup in 2016 which would have been the biggest middle finger to the "elites"/powers-that-be ever.

Comedy Central did these Bernie vs. Trump match-ups in 2016 that were pretty funny. You should check them out.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Sanders will be napping 80% of the day, The Swamp will love him.

Bilwick said...

"The term 'jack booted thugs': was coined by John Dingell, a life member of the NRA, back when Democrats cared about normal people."

And of course the term is totally misleading. Everyone knows that when the federales come for you, they're wearing sandals, singing "Kumbaya," and armed only with incense and love beads.

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