Patterico's Pontifications

Everyone thank me for not quoting from his Medium piece announcing his packing it in. I started to read it, and the sheer banality of it made my eyes glaze over so I never quite made it all the way through. You can click on the link in the post yourself and give it a go, if you have the stamina.

JVW (54fd0b) — 11/1/2019 @ 2:49 pm

Of course he got to give himself and all his pals huge salaries and luxurious accommodations, meals, travel.

He didn’t do well enough to be a very credible VP candidate, but he was running to balance Warren or Harris I am guessing. Maybe he still has a shot at that, but he wasn’t a very good attacker so I wouldn’t pick him.

Dustin (861237) — 11/1/2019 @ 2:59 pm

Gives him time to focus on his all-furry band.

Damion (2a893e) — 11/1/2019 @ 3:03 pm

Maybe Kamala is next. Reports say she is closing campaign offices in New Hampshire to focus on Iowa…

Dana (16b5ab) — 11/1/2019 @ 3:06 pm

1. Banality is so commonplace in politics (especially among the losers), it’s utterly….well, banal.

Gryph (08c844) — 11/1/2019 @ 3:10 pm

It’s going to be so lit when Super Tuesday comes down to Lieawatha versus My Little Aloha Sweetie, Biden having self-immolated, Sanders suddenly being recognized as an elderly white male, and Buttigieg leaving to make big money doing the Norwegian translation of Michelle Obama’s autobiography.

JVW (54fd0b) — 11/1/2019 @ 3:11 pm

Lol, JVW.

Dana (16b5ab) — 11/1/2019 @ 3:33 pm

Meanwhile check out who still lurks like a specter over the whole thing. Thank you, Mr. Noah for being the Guinea pig/ sacrificial lamb for the Arkancide and Fifth Avenue theories.

http://nypost.com/2019/11/01/trevor-noah-asks-hillary-clinton-how-she-killed-jeffrey-epstein/

urbanleftbehind (69226a) — 11/1/2019 @ 3:34 pm

And here I was all set for him to storm my house and ignore my 2nd Amendment rights…

harkin (337580) — 11/1/2019 @ 3:34 pm

To throw his own words back at him, “Hell yes”!

norcal (eec1aa) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:00 pm

Remember the Betomo!

Another Texan bites the dust.

DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:01 pm

I have a confession to make, JVW. Just as you seem attracted to Tulsi, I am attracted to Kamala. I know, I know. Her politics are horrible, but I can’t deny her outward appeal.

norcal (eec1aa) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:11 pm

another never trumper tossed in the cesspool

mg (8cbc69) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:17 pm

‘My Little Aloha Sweetie lives to fight another day.’

… and Putin smiled. 😉

DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:23 pm

I was super impressed by his Senate campaign, and at how he managed to explain liberal views in a reasonable way without being condescending to, or otherwise rude to, conservatives who asked about them. It was a great skill that I wish more people had.

His presidential candidacy was always a stretch, and he ran an awful campaign and turned out to be a terrible candidate.

And that was even before he tried to make his candidacy about gun control. Really, Beto?

aphrael (e0cdc9) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:35 pm

Dana, I think Kamala probably is next, and I will shed zero tears.

I am ok with her as a legislator, more or less. I do not trust her in any executive office.

aphrael (e0cdc9) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:36 pm

Gabbard is going nowhere, JVW.

At this point my money is on Warren for the prize.

aphrael (e0cdc9) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:37 pm

another never trumper tossed in the cesspool

Only 20% of Americans voted for the criminal traitor Trump, mg.

nk (dbc370) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:51 pm

Gabbard is going nowhere, JVW.

At this point my money is on Warren for the prize.

aphrael (e0cdc9) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:37 pm

Let the man dream….

whembly (c30c83) — 11/1/2019 @ 4:57 pm

Stay golden, Pony Boy!

If that doesn’t work out, hit up your wife’s daddy for more dinero to go back to playing awful guitar in a crappy bar cover band. Or burglary. Though In Texas, everyone has a gun so…

Bugg (ebf485) — 11/1/2019 @ 5:35 pm

His campaign was so uninspiring that I couldn’t find the inspiration to write a clever comment.
The Bablyon Bee is disappointed because they have one less person in the 2020 campaign to mock.

Paul Montagu (00daa1) — 11/1/2019 @ 5:39 pm

PS-Mayor Pete has the VP slot locked up. The gay money and influence will be too much for any Dem nominee to ignore. Problem will be Mayor Pete is a guy of little accomplishment. And worse, the African-American part of the Coalition of the Fringes is not as enamored with gays as is the rest of said Coalition. Polling especially in the South has borne this out. So Dem nominee might be looking at a mess of otherwise purple states like VA, NC, GA and FL going solidly red.

Bugg (ebf485) — 11/1/2019 @ 5:40 pm

And now there’s a mad rush by the other candidates to claim Beto’s six or seven supporters.

Paul Montagu (00daa1) — 11/1/2019 @ 6:24 pm

@2.Agreed.

Warren-Buttafuco

DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/1/2019 @ 6:27 pm

^22

DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/1/2019 @ 6:27 pm

I have a confession to make, JVW. Just as you seem attracted to Tulsi, I am attracted to Kamala.

This is a safe space for that sort of weirdness, norcal. You go on wit’ yo’ bad self. I too think that Kamala is generally a rather attractive woman for her age. If her personality wasn’t so poisonous I might have a soft spot for her in my heart as well.

JVW (54fd0b) — 11/1/2019 @ 11:03 pm

Gabbard is going nowhere, JVW.

I’ll bet, aphrael, that the first time you watched Rudy you spent the first three-quarters of the movie telling yourself, “That guy is never going to get to suit up for a varsity game.” You didn’t see the passion for football in his eyes, the love for the Fighting Irish in his heart, the warm aloha in her beautiful brown eyes as they beckoned you to come share a wave —

Sorry, got a bit carried away there for a moment.

Anyway, even when Coach Parseghian says to him, “Rudy, if you stick with the team I’ll let you suit up next year,” you were probably still a skeptic. You probably said to yourself, “Hey, as I recall Parseghian leaves the team after this season and Dan Devine takes over.” And you probably spent that final half-hour of the movie watching Rudy try to impress the new coach, knowing that Devine was far too busy trying to build a championship team in a high-pressure environment to give any consideration to an undersized walk-on who had busted his rear-end to try and impart his devotion to the team of Harper, Rockne, Leahy, and Parseghian on the players who were better know, more highly regarded than he. And then when Rudy is left off of the dress list for the final game of the year and he leaves the team in disgust, you probably told yourself that this is just how it goes: the underdog doesn’t win in real life; it’s always midnight for Cinderella.

Maybe you even walked out of the movie theater at that very moment figuring that there was nothing more to see. But Rudy did in fact suit up, my friend, once Ryan and Beto and Swalwell and Hickenlooper marched into George Soros’s office and laid their jerseys on his desk telling him, “If Aloha Sweetie doesn’t play then I don’t play” —

Oops, mixing stories again.

So, uh, in the end Rudy does get to dress for the Georgia Tech game, and lo and behold Jon Favreau (not the one who worked for Obama) rents a limo and comes up from Miami and then leads the crowd in a “Rooo-deee, Rooo-deee, Sweeee-teeeee” chant and Biden goes into the wrong huddle and Bernie walks to the sideline clutching his heart and Mayor Pete gets distracted by trying to organize the peanut vendors for a Fight for $15 campaign and then My Little Aloha Sweetie comes in and tackles Fauxcahontas behind the line of scrimmage and then she’s carried off the field while someone dumps beer on the heads of the Squad and then the Jerry Goldsmith score swells and the end credits roll.

This is America, where this sort of magic can be expected to happen.

JVW (54fd0b) — 11/1/2019 @ 11:33 pm

Bugg, at 22: I like Mayor Pete in a lot of ways. He’s bright, and thoughtful, and has a good analytical mind. But he shouldnt’ be running for President — he belongs in the Senate, or in the Cabinet.

aphrael (971fba) — 11/1/2019 @ 11:41 pm

whembly, at 19 — i don’t actually know yet who i’m going to vote for. but i look at the trends within the party, and i see: biden is going to collapse, sanders is polarizing. buttigieg is too young and has no support outside the liberal white folk. everyone else except warren is a nonentity.

i think the party unifies around warren.

aphrael (971fba) — 11/1/2019 @ 11:43 pm

JVW, at 27: I’ve never seen the movie.

But what I see of Gabbard is that *literally* the only people I sever see talking about her are conservatives and Trump supporters. She’s an extreme outlier within the party and cannot gather enough support to win the nomination, or honestly to place in the top three.

aphrael (971fba) — 11/1/2019 @ 11:44 pm

Well, I might have gotten a bit carried away there anyway.

JVW (54fd0b) — 11/1/2019 @ 11:53 pm

@16 Harris didn’t play to her strengths and so the authenticity isn’t there. She probably could have done well as a middle of the road, law and order, union Dem, she’s worked with enough police to be fairly comfortable in that role, but she tried to be everyone else instead and just disappeared into the crowd.

@22 I think that’s what he’s going for. If Warren gets the nod he might get VP or she could choose Beto, or she might go with someone who isn’t even on our radar.

Beto wasn’t ready for the big game. He’s used to getting what he wants through charm and it was a bit too obvious. Also, a little seasoning wouldn’t hurt if he really wants to be successful in the politics game.

@31 Good luck, but I think it’s going to be Warren.

Nic (896fdf) — 11/2/2019 @ 12:25 am

JVW,

Your comment at 27 was epic!

norcal (eec1aa) — 11/2/2019 @ 2:53 am

Bobby should have eaten more dirt cookies.

mg (8cbc69) — 11/2/2019 @ 3:10 am

Lieawatha thanks the lot of you for voting for her over Trump.

mg (8cbc69) — 11/2/2019 @ 3:13 am

JVW (54fd0b) — 11/1/2019 @ 11:33 pm

Spectacular comment, JVW! Too bad it was delivered to, perhaps, the last human (of a certain age) remaining on Earth who has not seen Rudy.

It is not too late, aphreal, to see Rudy – my own, beloved, late sister did not see Cool Hand Luke until she was well into her 40’s. Wait. You have seen Cool Hand Luke, right?

felipe (023cc9) — 11/2/2019 @ 4:32 am

I can eat 50 eggs!

felipe (023cc9) — 11/2/2019 @ 4:38 am

Too bad. He was a Giant among, foul mouthed, dumb, skaterboarders with an net worth of $10 million.

rcocean (1a839e) — 11/2/2019 @ 5:23 am

Beto never really stood a chance. He just does not have national appeal. His only appeal was in Texas, and that only because he was running against Cruz. I will give him credit though for campaigning in every county in the state. That’s something Cruz did not do, because as an incumbent and didn’t think it necessary. It damn near cost him the race, which he very narrowly won.

That should give Cornyn great pause, because if the Democrats nominate a credible candidate, he could very well lost re-election. It’s the Trump factor. The more in thrall the Republicans beome of him, the more likely they are to lose.

Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 11/2/2019 @ 6:17 am

Since you seem to be up this morning and “taking calls”, Gawains Ghost, what would be likely statewide office outcomes if Texas elections were jungle primaries followed by top 2 in November (yes, a Californication of an idea). Would the most conservative still when out or would weary Dems oftentimes pick the moderate R instead of the D in the jungle round because the mod-R would actually win in November. The same question for many Southern states.

urbanleftbehind (955a38) — 11/2/2019 @ 6:46 am

Oh, I don’t know, urbanleftbehind. Texas is such a vast state. It’s really like five states combined into one. It depends on where you live–northeast, northwest, central, southeast, southwest. But historically Texas was deeply blue for decades.

The congressional district I live in, for example, has never elected a Republican since it was created in 1913. In fact, in one-out-of-four elections the Republicans didn’t even bother to field a candidate.

That has nothing to with Californication, which mostly affects other districts, such as in Central Texas, where most Californians immigrate because of the tech-boom. It has to do with the nature of the state.

Texas did not become solidly red until the Reagan revolution. I was there; I witnessed it. I attended his speech to announce his re-election on Auditorium Shores. I also met William F. Buckley when he came to the UT campus to film an episode of Firing Line. Sat in for the session. Got his autograph after the show, for my father who had read all of his books.

But that was back when the Republican party was conservative/libertarian. It is not so now.

Trumpification has ruined the party. I did not and will not vote for Trump, because I see him as what he is, a total fraud.

I suppose most Texas Republicans see him as the same.

Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1) — 11/2/2019 @ 2:57 pm

“Beto wasn’t ready for the big game”

Which is curious because he had the cheerleaders dialed in:

Beto O’Rourke campaign ‘cheer guides’ uncovered in Des Moines arena

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/so-sad-beto-orourke-campaign-cheer-guides-uncovered-in-des-moines-arena

harkin (337580) — 11/3/2019 @ 8:22 am

If you believed what people said in a poll, Beto O’Rourke was the ideal candidate.

There was a New York Times/Siena College poll of likely Democratic Iowa caucus go-ers that asked people if a candidate having various characteristics would have an easier or harder time, beating
President Trump in a general election, or make no difference.

Whatever the characteristic was, between 40% and 50% said it made no difference. But with most of the others something like 40% said it harmed the candidate;s chances: a female candidate, an African-American, over age 75, gay. but over 50% said it would be easier for a white male.

Beto O’Rourke was the highest polling white male under age 75 who was heterosexual.

But I don’t think most people believed he would have an easier tme beating President Trump than most of the others,

Sammy Finkelman (58e1fc) — 11/3/2019 @ 10:15 am

Kamala Harris may not qualify for the December debate, but will try to hold out until afer the Iowa caucuses.

Sammy Finkelman (58e1fc) — 11/3/2019 @ 10:18 am

Joe Biden is now polling 4th in an Iowa poll, but the top four are all tightly bunched from 22% to 17%. The average for the top four is 19%. They rank, in order: Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

Joe Biden will probably not do so well in New Hampshire either. He looks better in SOuth Carolina because he gets the black vote. African Americans are the most “regular” voters there are, and he has got the fact that he was Barack Obama’s vice president to go on – he likes to say “Barack and me”, Meanwhile Mayor Pete actually has one of these unfair police cases against him, and the other two are mostly nobodies and probably have few endorsements in South Carolina. EW has unions, but that’s more of a Nevada thing.

Joe Biden could recover from losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, but he is in danger of running out of money. He’s starting to conserve and taking fewer plane trips but may not realize how much he needs to economize.

Mike Bloomberg and others might jump in in Biden quits, but filing deadlines make it structurally difficult, Bloomberg should not have money problem.

The greatest problem with our presidential election system is that it is virtually impossible for someone to jump in late, I mean after some voting has taken place, and if they do, they get discouraged.

Sammy Finkelman (58e1fc) — 11/3/2019 @ 10:30 am

40. urbanleftbehind (955a38) — 11/2/2019 @ 6:46 am

if Texas elections were jungle primaries followed by top 2 in November (yes, a Californication of an idea).

Maybe you should call it a Louisiana idea, because it was that way in Louisiana long before it was that way in Texas. That;s how they got a choice in 1991 for Goverrnor between Edwin Edwards and David Duke. A slogan that year was “Vote for the Crook, it’s important. Although David Duke turned out to be also a crook.)

In Louisiana in addition to the jungle primary the only elections that take place on the second Tuesday after the second Monday in November are federal elections – U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate) and even they can have runoffs, except maybe for Presidential electors)

Sammy Finkelman (58e1fc) — 11/3/2019 @ 10:38 am

“And now there’s a mad rush by the other candidates to claim Beto’s six or seven supporters.”

His mother and who else?

Bored Lawyer (998177) — 11/4/2019 @ 7:55 am

Joe Biden;’s support among polled likely Iowa caucus go-ers is negligible among those under age 45.

That measn, that ti support Biden, you;ve got to remember back to when he was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee or when he ran for president before. He definitely used to be a moderate who wanted to justify more extreme positions.

Biden’s support is also highest (over one third) among those who said they had neer attended an Iowa caucus before. (and these people were all born before 1975)

Sammy Finkelman (1a8726) — 11/4/2019 @ 9:06 am

Meanwhile, Rudy G aims another blow at Hunter Biden, and seems to have hit himself along the way…

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rudy-guliani-hunter-biden-romania-louis-freeh-ukraine-impeachment-scandal-a9172061.html

kishnevi (496414) — 11/4/2019 @ 9:17 am

11/1/2019

Beto Bows Out

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