The Democrat Party has sorta-kinda turned itself into fodder for every comedian. With 21 ‘major’ candidates, there are an additional 200 candidates who have filed appropriate FEC paperwork declaring their candidacy, and five who are still sitting on the fence. There are so many candidates the DNC isn’t exactly sure how to conduct debates. All Democrats candidates have fiercely stated they will not attend a debate hosted by Fox News, and currently CNN and NBC are the ticketed sponsors.
Surprise!
In order to qualify for the debate there are two threshold criteria: 1. Attain a minimum of 1% approval based on three approved official polls, and 2. A candidate must receive donations from a minimum of 65,000 unique donors, with at least 200 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.
In addition, private sponsors are hosting ‘forums’ in which only select candidates will debate. For example, Texas University is hosting “She The People” to discuss issues affecting women of color. The agenda includes Corey Booker, Julian Castro, Gabbard, Harris, Klobuchar, Beto, Sanders and Warren. Thus, one woman of color is included in a debate about women of color.
Castro, Klobuchar and Warren are invited to attend all scheduled Forums.
To date the Democrat polls indicate that Biden is leading with 34%, Sanders 26%, Buttigieg and Harris each hold 9%, Booker and Warren at 5%, Beto 4% and Bullock 1%.
In that it would appear that the race is between Biden and Bernie and the rest are fudgemutton. Rumors are already rampant that the DNC is doing what it does best – deleting Bernie. Ed Rendell, Chairman of the DNC is an avid Biden supporter who has also commented positively about Amy Klobuchar, leaving an opening for her to potentially be called in as a Biden VP.
Klobuchar, a lawyer, a feminist, accused of unprecedented rage by her office wherein staffers claim she utilizes fear, anger and shame to administrate, with a 36% staff turnover rate – is likely to be seen as a bit over the top. And like nearly all politicians, in 2015 she published her memoire.
Some of her endorsements are rather interesting including; Palestinian Rights, NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and various unions.
Both Klobuchar and Biden met in February with Hillary, purportedly to gain insight into campaigning and mud-slinging. In addition, her campaign financing includes Soros’ son Alex. As of 12/31/18, she had raised $5.2 million with top contributors from her former law firm Dorsey and Whitney, Delta Airlines, Cargill, and Walt Disney as well as $3 million left over from her Senate campaign. Still her financing is significantly less than her competitors. However given the sheer number of candidates, financing is likely to dry up quickly until the field is cleaned. Roughly $60 million has been handed out so far with Gillibrand and Booker also sitting on Senate campaign financing that could be transferred to the presidential run – or not.
While the media tends to liken a candidates campaign financing with their ‘win’, history has shown this false narrative to fail. Hillary spent nearly twice as much as Trump – and lost. The senate race between Beto and Cruz was one of the priciest campaigns ever and yet Beto lost after raising significantly more money, more than twice Cruz.
Klobuchar seems more hillaryesque than the other dutiful Clintonite, Kamala Harris. When seen together, Harris seems to become a wall-flower by comparison. Both are attorneys, both have a history of prosecuting and sentencing a disproportionate number of blacks, and both have the filter of a bull in a china shop.
If Biden were to debate either of these candidates, the cabal would surely order a stand-down to allow Biden to shine despite his unsavvy economic and political knowledge base. Brash and bullyish, they could easily make mincemeat of him. Unless ordered not to. It will be easy to recognize given their lawyerly talents.