DownWithTyranny!: The Less Than One Percent Club-- The Republican Wing Of The Democratic Party

The other day, I noted how there are six 2020 presidential candidates actively campaigning, each of whom has so little support than none of them even tops half a percent in the polls. One, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, went to the California Democratic Party convention over the weekend to extol capitalism and undermine Bernie. This is what happened to the clueless asshole. Frackenlooper wasn't the only candidate to be booed at the convention. John Delaney-- who insists he's further right than either Frackenlooper or Status Quo Joe-- purposely baited the convention by using flase Republican Party talking points to demean Medicare-For-All-- and was roundly and loudly booed. Mission accomplished. Delaney, the first Democrat to announce his 2020 candidacy-- now having lent his campaign $16,280,000.00 (half of which is already flushed down the toilet)-- has a polling average of 0.5% nationally, 1.5% in Iowa (where he has been living for over a year and spending millions on advertising), and 0.3% in New Hampshire.

Eight elected officials being overwhelmingly rejected by Democratic primary voters:

• Rep. Tulsi Gabbard- 0.7%
• Rep. Tim Ryan- 0.7%
• Rep. John Delaney- 0.5%
• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand- 0.3%
• Gov. John Hickenlooper- 0.3%
• Rep. Seth Moulton- 0.2%
• Gov. Steve Bullock- 0.2%
• Sen. Mike Bennet- 0.2%

It would seem that Delaney, who walked out of the San Francisco convention as the most hated candidate, really has a lot to lose-- having sold his House seat to another multi-millionaire and having already spent so much on his campaign. Was he trying to get boo-ed so that he can use the footage in ads showing how conservative he is? Is that how he thinks he's going to win the Democratic nomination? Or is he hoping for a job inside the Trump regime?

Yesterday, writing for The Hill, Scott Wong surveyed the biggest losers in the 2020 cycle. "Tim Ryan. John Delaney. Eric Swalwell. Their names," he wrote, "don't spark the same nods of recognition as former Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), but these are three of the 24 Democrats running for president. Each is polling at less than 1 percent-- and they're hardly alone. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and Sen. Michael Bennet (CO) also have national polling averages under 1 percent, according to RealClearPolitics. So do two candidates with arguably more national name recognition. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's polling average is 0.3 percent, just behind Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (NY) 0.4 percent." For no apparent reason, Wong awarded Gillibrand an extra 0.01%... but who's quibbling? The main question most people ask about most of them is when will they get out of the race or why are they running in the first place.

All of these candidates, along with a few others in the crowded race, are decided long shots to win the nomination. But all stand to benefit from a race that will bring attention even to those candidates pulling in relatively few votes.

“There are candidates who are running to win, and there are candidates who are running to raise their profile,” said Chris Kofinis, who served as a senior adviser to the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clarke in 2004 and John Edwards in 2008.

The long-shot candidates say they don’t see themselves that way. They see a wide-open race for the Democratic nomination, arguing that if the front-runners falter, they have as good a shot as anyone at catching fire. With the unpredictability of Trump-era politics, they say it can pay just to have your name in the mix.

In reality, many of the candidates know they are doomed, say veteran Democrats, but see the race as a chance to boost their profiles and position themselves for future opportunities.

“The next six months are going to distinguish which ones are really running and which ones aren’t,” Kofinis said.

Some candidates are young and playing the long game. Eric Swalwell, the California congressman, and Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii congresswoman, are both 38; Julián Castro, the Obama-era Housing and Urban Development secretary, is 44; and Ryan, the Ohio congressman, is 45.

With the first Democratic primary debate just weeks away, experts say a failed presidential bid now could set some candidates up for a stronger run in 2024, 2028 or beyond.

Other White House hopefuls may be gunning for Cabinet posts in a new Democratic administration-- Commerce or Labor secretary-- or aiming for a future bid for a higher office, such as senator or governor. Most wouldn't mind being picked as a vice presidential running mate, as front-runner Joe Biden was after his failed 2008 White House bid-- though that seems highly unlikely for a candidate pulling in just 1 percent support.

The bottom line is these candidates see little downside in a failed shot at the presidency. A White House run in this never-ending campaign media cycle-- chock-full of CNN and MSNBC town halls, televised debates, and cable news hits-- will raise these candidates' profiles no matter how their campaigns fare. That could lead to future book deals, speaking gigs or cable news contracts.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), who serves with many of the candidates but has yet to endorse, said the motivation is “all of the above.”

“Just as likely, it’s that running for president could be a stepping stone to other things,” he said. “Just the fact that they are a presidential candidate who throws their support ultimately to the person that wins” could lead to other opportunities.

Yet another possible explanation: Some long-shot candidates are running to draw attention to a pet issue or cause they feel is being ignored by some of the top-tier contenders.

Jay Inslee, the Washington state governor, is billing himself as the climate change candidate.

Seth Moulton, a Marine and Iraq War veteran who is a congressman from Massachusetts, launched his mental health plan this week by disclosing that he had personally been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

“I'm sharing my experience because I want people to know they're not alone and they should feel empowered to get the treatment they need,” tweeted Moulton, whose polling average stands at just 0.3 percent.

Ryan, the insurgent who challenged Nancy Pelosi for minority leader after Democrats’ 2016 drubbing, has turned his focus to job loss and the opioid epidemic in Rust Belt districts like his, which he says have too long been ignored by his party.

“Come to Youngstown, Ohio, and see what communities are actually going through, and you'll see why I'm running and why I have a shot,” Ryan told The Hill during an interview at the Capitol. “There's a lot of communities that look like that. And people are fed up and tired of being ignored.”

...One member of the long-shot pool who has had more time than others to get his name out there is John Delaney. The wealthy businessman and former Maryland congressman became the first Democrat to enter the race when he announced his campaign in 2017, planning to use his own money to build name recognition in places such as Iowa and New Hampshire. But so far, the strategy hasn’t paid dividends.

Asked if he’s running for some other political position, Delaney replied, “I’m running for president. That’s all I got to say about it. Opinions are like people’s mouths. Everyone has one.”

Still, he conceded that it has been a challenge to break through the news cycle when there are 24 Democrats vying for the nomination, including a former vice president and a handful of governors and senators.

Amid an increasingly prominent progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Delaney still sees a lane for a centrist, bipartisan, pro-business candidate like himself.

...“I think we’ve entered the theater of the absurd with this many candidates in the race, where reality and logic suggests the overwhelming majority simply won’t be competitive,” said one Democratic campaign strategist.

“Try to convince candidates they can’t win when they’ve convinced themselves they can is a losing proposition… A lot of it is ego, man. It's ego,” the strategist added.

Delaney was always a bad fit for the Democratic Party. One of his former colleagues in the House told me "no one liked him and no one trusted him... everyone was glad when he announced he was retiring. Now he feels the only way forward for him is to tear down Biden, who dominates the conservative lane Delaney had hoped he would have to himself. Delaney goes on Fox to criticize Bernie and Kamala and Elizabeth Warren and by raging against progressive policies. Recently he praised Biden as "very well known and he’s very well liked, and I admire him greatly." BUT... "I think my ideas are better. I think I’m a new face, which I think is what the party really wants. I think we want new ideas and new people... I think in many ways it’s a reminder that we need a moderate candidate who can win the center to beat Donald Trump... The only way we’re going to beat [Trump] is with a candidate the center believes will not derail the progress we’ve made economically. For example, if you put socialism on the ballot, we’re not going to win. If the economy’s doing well and we’re running on socialism, I think that’s a disaster for us."