Are Voters Looking For Candidates From The Mushy Middle?

Didn't we learn anything from the Hillary debacle? Voters are looking for someone authentic-- not a concoction of consultant and pollster memos-- who stands for something that helps ordinary working families. I doubtHouse Democrats will even try to live up to that once they take over in January, but that's what turned out their voters three weeks ago. Today ABC had two of the mushiest politicians they could find as guests on This Week with George Stephanopoulos-- plus one, Sherrod Brown who plays the role of being authentic on TV. Brown's the guy who will never waver from his backing for the working class-- unless there's an election. After a career of flip-flops, he most recently abandoned his support for revitalizing Glass-Steagall and breaking up the too-big-to-fail banks. (Note: the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, he's taken $7,366,743 from the banksters, something which should disqualify him from any kind of presidential consideration.)

Any Klobuchar is an inoffensive centrist. Of 49 Senate Democrats, her record is the 33rd most progressive, earning her a gentlewoman's "C" from ProgressivePunch. She's exactly what you want if you want Hillary without the Hillary baggage. You think that's what voters are looking for? She doesn't stand for anything at all outside of milquetoast, garden variety Democratic policy. In an illustrated thesaurus, her photo could be on the page for antonyms for "inspirational."

Stephanopoulos introduced her as a "key Democrat on the Judiciary Committee." Who would be a non-key member? Dianne Feinstein? She's the ranking member. Patrick Leahy? Dick Durbin? Sheldon Whitehouse? They all have more seniority than Klobuchar. Chris Coons? Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris/ I guess everyone is a key member-- so no one is. So maybe Stephanopoulos should just stop the rote bullshit and stop sleepwalking through his show.

We were treated to some classic Klobuchar on the show today-- presumably what she will use to bore voters to death if she runs for president: "My mom taught second grade until she was 70 years old, and she always told me if you do something wrong, you don’t tell the truth, you take responsibility for it. You don’t blame it on the other kid." I swear she said that. Here's her exchange with the dull witted host about her presidential aspirations:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You are coming off a big re-election victory in the state of Minnesota, congratulations for that. You did well …

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.

STEPHANOPOULOS: … in a lot of areas where President Trump had done well back in 2016. It sparked a lot of speculation that you might be looking at the 2020 race for president. You’ve been to Iowa a couple times as well. So can you just fill us in on how you’re thinking about that and what’s shaping your potential decision?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, people are talking to me about this, I think, in part because I’ve worked really hard to go not just where it’s comfortable but where it’s uncomfortable, and had-- did well in a number of those places that Donald Trump won. And I also am someone that, for those that are exhausted with politics, likes to get things done. But right now, I am just still thinking about this, talking to people. I’m sorry to say, I have no announcement for you on your show.

And I actually learned this from my Senate race once, when I first was considering running for the Senate and told someone that on the radio. And that was how my husband found out about it. And since he is watching today, I’m not going to repeat that again.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You’re not going to share your Thanksgiving conversations either, but that is not a no either. So I’m going to end with an invitation. When you’re ready to announce, you can do it right here on This Week.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you, George.

Done puking? After the relief of a flight of ads, George brought on the Republican equivalent in nothingness and meaningless, John Kasich, another presidential wannabe, who already tried once, only to be swatted like a fly gnat by Trump.



When George asked him how serious he is about running in 2020, he said "Very seriously. I’m considering it George, these are earnest conversations that go on virtually every day with some of my friends, with my family. Look, I-- we need different leadership, there isn’t any question about it. And I’m not only just worried about the tone and the name calling and the division in our country and the partisanship, but I also worry about the policies. You know, rising debt, the problem and inability to deal with immigration, the problems that we have as America alone in the world. You know, this is what I consider a rotten deal with the Saudis to look the other way. I mean these are things that, George, I’m worried about our country and not just in the short term, but I’m worried about our country in the long term. So the question for me is what-- what do I do about this? Is it-- you know, what exactly-- do I run because I’ve determined that I can win or is it important for me to make such a good showing that I can send a message that can disrupt the political system in this country? So yeah, I have to think about it, I think about it seriously. As you know, I still travel, I make, you know, I’m-- I’m out there trying to do what I can do. I don’t know when I will have to make a decision, but let’s not-- let’s be clear, I’m not being coy, I’m not trying to do this for some kind of a game. This is really, really serious to me... [A]ll options are on the table for me. But let me ask you a statement, let me ask you to think about this. At what point does somebody work and stand on principle, to say that the direction we’re going is wrong? I mean obviously, want to have some sort of a practical opportunity, you-- but you want to be-- you want to be able to make a statement. Now maybe I do that by running again or, you know, and frankly in the last election I was the last man standing with very little money and very little name recognition. It grew over time. But what I ask myself is what do I owe to my country? What can I do to help my country? Is this-- does it mean I run for office again or are there other ways in which I can impact the flow of events? And I listened to your last interview with the senator, I thought she did a very good job, but I mean it’s the same old stuff. It’s just all this politics and mumbo jumbo and lead this and that bill and we’ve got to get out of this mire and out of this mix and it’s going-- it’s going to depend on raising the public to say we deserve and want better. I don’t know where this is all going to lead, George, but this is a serious thought and consideration every day... [L]et’s just say that Donald Trump is nominated and Elizabeth Warren is nominated, and you have this ocean of people who sit in the middle. Is there a legitimate opportunity for a third party, bipartisan kind of ticket to be able to-- to score a victory or to have a profound impact on the future of American politics? That’d be something that I would talk to you about offline and get your view, because we don’t know at this point. In other words... Well you know what? You know what? No one thought a guy like Donald Trump would be elected president. No one thought we’d have electric cars. No one thought we could-- we could talk on phones and see the person we’re talking to. I mean, this is a time of change-- dynamic change. And you can’t judge tomorrow on the basis of what happened yesterday. So I don’t know about that. Hickenlooper, love him, the name’s too long. Hickenlooper-Kasich, you couldn’t fit it on a bumper sticker. You’d need to like go around with billboards or something.

Yesterday, Nicole Goodkind wrote about the Democratic candidate who actually does stand for something and who's not in the crowded mushy middle: "The 2020 presidential election," she asserted in Newsweek "is Senator Bernie Sanders’ race to lose, according to a new survey of more than a dozen top Democratic strategists."

“His people have never gone away,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon told The Hill. “And he has a loyal core following out there that will be with him come hell or high water.” Sanders is the most popular politician in America, with an approval rating of 75 percent, according to a recent Harvard-Harris poll.

Since losing the 2016 primary to Hillary Clinton, Sanders has toured the U.S. to promote his political group, Our Revolution, and his Medicare-for-all bill. His frequent travel has led many to speculate that he’s drumming up support for another presidential run. Advisers to the Vermont senator also have indicated that he’s eyeing the top job. When one of Sanders' associates was asked if his team was thinking about another run, the associate simply said, "Yes, is the answer."

Sanders considers himself a Democratic Socialist, and is registered as an Independent in the Senate but ran as a Democrat in the 2016 election. Bannon says that since 2016, Sanders far-left politics have been embraced by Democrats at large. “The Sanders wing is becoming the dominant wing of the party,” he said.

Sanders’ Medicare For All Act of 2017, which promotes a single-payer healthcare plan, is now supported by a third of Senate Democrats. When Sanders presented a version of the bill in 2013, he was unable to garner any support at all.

Wow, a third of Senate Democrats! What about among the real people, who these multimillionaires are supposed to be more or less representing? Do you wonder how they feel about Medicare-for-All?

Other candidates from the mushy-middle, besides Klobuchar, gearing up-- or possibly gearing up-- to run: Joe Biden, Kirsten Gillibrand, the Starbucks guy, Mike Bloomberg, Andrew Cuomo, Eric Garcetti, Michael Avenatti, Tim Kaine, one of the Castro brothers, John Warner, Pete Buttigieg, Tim Ryan, Seth Moulton, Eric Swalwell, John Hickenlooper, Mitch Landrieu, Deval Patrick, Steve Bullock, Oprah, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Mark Cuban, Eric Holder, Joe Kennedy III, Beto O'Rourke... [Note: I'm not 100% sure whether Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has decided to portray himself as a centrist or in some other way, but I threw his name in anyway, since these are all loser candidates that should save their donors the cash and go back to sleep.]