The Nuclear Option
Some time around the end of last November we started to see a few articles like this:
Waiting for Obama
With typical quotes like these:
Publicly, he has been clear that he won’t intervene in the primary for or against a candidate, unless he believed there was some egregious attack. “I can't even imagine with this field how bad it would have to be for him to say something,” said a close adviser. Instead, he sees his role as providing guardrails to keep the process from getting too ugly and to unite the party when the nominee is clear. There is one potential exception: Back when Sanders seemed like more of a threat than he does now, Obama said privately that if Bernie were running away with the nomination, Obama would speak up to stop him.
I remember reading those headlines at the time, thinking, if he steps in to stop Bernie publicly, it will destroy his legacy. And if there is one thing Obama cares about, it's his legacy.
And that was it, we haven't heard a peep from the the former President since. It seemed as though he was more concerned about his Netflix production company than politics these days. Happy to be playing golf, relaxing on some billionaire's yacht.
Except Bernie was supposed to go away. He was a fringe candidate with a high floor but a low ceiling. He was supposed to get his base excited, and then bow out to O'Rourke or Harris or Gillibrand or Booker or Patrick or Buttigieg, or, or....
So with Bernie surging, and the rest of the field divided with no clear path to the nomination you would think now would be the time to speak up. If he was going to have an impact on the race it would have to be before Super Tuesday.
Obama isn't stupid though, and he knows if he steps out publicly against Bernie it will damage his reputation. So what's a neoliberal, technocrat to do? Don't worry...
Mike's Got This:
Comments
the silence is deafening
the players all have their scripts
the set-up is pre-planned
not to let the cat out of the bag
timing is fulfilling strategies
we just get to watch the show
question everything
Can you say "Blaxplosion"?
If he's really stumping for BLOOMBERG, then it's a little hard to say "Obama isn't stupid" (I mean, unless he's playing the same 5-D chess game as Don Dotardo - I don't know, maybe they're playing Calvinball).
This could be how the recent, devastatingly disenchanting spate of what I can only call "Afro-narcissism" finally ends; can you imagine the cracks and contradictions (both sides blazing out of the same ethno-wonks, in some cases) that this could force into the open???
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Bla bla bla
soothing non-speak
until an explosion
of instructional videos
on the ruler's plan
whiplash acceptance
for the good of the message
question everything
List of Open Primaries through March 3rd, Super Tuesday
Given the nearly $1,000,000 monied interference of conservative never-Trumper Bill Kristrol in organizing conservative-leaning indepedents to vote for either Buttigieg or Klobuchar (gee, I wonder which way they opted to go?/s) in New Hampshire, an open primary state, I'm sure that this will continue in primaries down the road. And there are a bunch of them coming up through Super Tuesday. Bernie won the independent vote in NH but not by as much as anticipated, no doubt because of the monied meddling that I would guess Bloomberg will bankroll now. Here's the list through March 3, Super Tuesday (includes pledged and then superdelegates in parentheses). It will be interesting to see if Tulsi gets any delegates in American Somoa:
Edit/ RCP listed some states now with primaries as still having caucuses. I think this listing below now corrects those errors although there's the possibility that RCP was also wrong re open and closed primaries/caucuses.
Nevada February 22/ 36 (12) Caucus Closed
SC February 29/ 54 (9) Primary Open
Alabama March 3/ 52 (9) Primary Open
Samoa March 3/ 6 (5) Caucus Closed
Ark'sas March 3/ 31 (5) Primary Open
CA March 3/ 415 (79) Primary Semi-closed
CO March 3/ 67 (13) Primary Closed
Maine March 3/ 24 (8) Primary Closed
MA March 3/ 91 (23) Primary Semi-closed
MN March 3/ 75 (16) Primary Open
NC March 3/ 110 (12) Primary Semi-closed
OK March 3/ 37 (5) Primary Semi-closed
TN March 3/ 64 (9) Primary Open
TX March 3/ 228 (33) Primary Open
VT March 3/ 16 (8) Primary Open
VA March 3/ 99 (25) Primary Open
Utah March 3/ 29 (6) Primary Semi-open
caucuses
I think you might be looking at old data? Except for Samoa, all the states you list as caucus have changed to primaries for 2020. I believe IA, NV, and kind-of-WY are the only caucus states this time (ND too, but its a caucus by name only).
It seems the RCP listing are screwed up
I got the listing from RCP: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/democratic_deleg...
But I just quickly checked CO and they have indeed changed to a primary. I will try to fix the listing as to primaries and caucuses. I'm not sure if RCP is right on open/closed, either.
I think that Idaho should be in there too
They switched to primary this year. The Presidential primary election is March 10. Open to registered Democrats and registered "unaffiliated" voters.
Date and participation is from the ID-SOS page at: https://sos.idaho.gov/elections-division/2020-presidential-primary-infor...
on the "Party Participation" tab.
Here's another quote from that Politico story
I wonder if he's going to get that membership after all...
What legacy does Obama have?
Trump is Obama's legacy.
Open slave markets in Libya is the first black president of the USA legacy.
Wealth inequality not seen since the last Great Depression is Obama's legacy
The GOP getting out of the ditch in two years not decades is Obama's legacy.
Losing close to 1,000 seats during his tenure is Obama's legacy.
Hillary losing to Trump is Obama's legacy.
Russia Gate is Obama's legacy.
Bloody Gina Haspel war criminal and torturer heading the CIA today is Obama's legacy.
SO go ahead Barak and jump in to derail Bernie's campaign. Lots of people will see it as you doing something great. People who know the truth about you will see it as a lame attempt to cancel Bernie and showing what your true legacy is. You had the chance to be a really great president and you had the chance to change the direction of the country. You flopped on that for whatever reason you told yourself and you are going to be know as the best president for the moneyed class money could buy and the absolute one for the 99%.
And there's always that crap health insurance
that cost too much anyway.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Obama, the Great Disappointment.
Obama has earned a place in infamy by completely selling out. The first black President who failed spectacularly by giving us restricted civil rights, government assassinations, rampant inequality, and, generally, everything to help the rich and screw the poor. My feelings about him are so negative that I can't bring myself to watch him or read his lies. C99ers have given me a place to come and check my sanity. What a horrible man and what a terrible situation the country is in
thanks to our neoliberal politicians starting with Carter. Bernie is our last faint hope and I'm worried that if he wins the Presidency the CIA or some other alphabet agency will kill him as they did the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, and so many other good people here and abroad. That fact is our real "exceptionalism".
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962
Do we know --
if Obama was or wasn't "sold out" BEFORE he let a Citigroup member pick his cabinet?
Obama's #1 achievement, without a doubt, was fooling the public. And it worked -- really well. Today people think that explaining Obama's record makes you a Trump supporter. And if you recognize any of this record past the minor achievements that constitute everything the True Believers are proud of, you need to express disappointment, as if you expected that Obama was going to be something he was never going to be in the first place. Saying you were conned -- well, that's completely beyond the pale. Obama made dipsh*ts of us all.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.