The Democrats seem to have been able to get the field down to ten for their next debate. That will save them the two-night split-field layout designed to give the back-of-the-pack folks some air time against the big kids.
There are some interesting inclusions. Amy Klobuchar seems to have qualified largely by showing on radar in neighboring Iowa, where there's a market for her Minnesota-nice statesmanship; this piece highlighting freshman Iowa congresswoman Amy Finkenauer, who could almost pass for Klobucahr's niece both in looks and style shows that at least one of Iowa's districts might give her a hearing. Nationally, she's under 1% per Real Clear Politics in 11th, with Tulsi Gabbart getting the short end of the stick at 1.4% but only cracking 2% in two DNC-accredited polls (four was the cut-off).
Julian Castro made the cut, which surprised me. He seems a bit to establishmentarian to sell well in a Democratic primary, although some decriminalization of illegal immigrant status rhetoric might have pushed the needle.
Andrew Yang made the cut as well. He's a fellow nerd with some interesting ideas (universal income of $1000/month as an answer to more and more folks getting automated out of jobs) who wins over some 2016 Trump supporters. The article shows him to be more profane than I'm comfortable with, but that seems to be par for the course for younger candidates, or even older ones, as the current president has a potty mouth as well. He'd have a shot at winning over some blue-collar secular conservatives looking for a better answer than MAGA tariffs which don't make America greater so far. However, that's a bit of a long-shot.
Cory Booker also made the cut. I don't always like his histrionics, but there seems to be a nice, reasonable guy at the core. He's got the middle-ground issue where he's too establishment for the left wing but not moderate enough for what's left of the centrist wing.
Beto O'Rourke got in as well. Had the primary been in December 2018, he'd be in the lead pack, but when he went from being the Great Liberal Hope to oust Ted Cruz in Texas to just another candidate on a national stage, he's suffered, possibly from a lot of his Thoughtful Young Liberal vibe getting stolen by Mayor Pete. The El Paso shootings in his home tuft gave him a platform and may have saved him to resurrect that 2018 vibe.
I'm still a "Never Trumper" as the saying goes but would find it hard to cast a positive vote for any of the Democrats in the field come next November. However, there isn't someone to vote for in the GOP side as of yet (Joe Walsh and Bill Weld don't move the needle for me, either), so I could easily see myself raiding the open Democratic primary and voting for the least objectionable candidate who has a shot.
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