Democrats 2020: WTF?

I dismissed Cory Booker when he announced his presidential campaign in the middle of 2019, thinking he was all résumé and no record, but his presence is sorely missed now that Joe Biden is merely treading water and Pete Buttigieg, at the time I last checked, is still underwhelming the most loyal element of the Democratic base (read black voters) at a time when the two leading candidates of the party's liberal wing can't agree on the truth.  At least that's the impression from the last Democratic presidential debate held before the Iowa caucuses.

CNN's Abby Phillip, one of the moderators of the Des Moines debate this past week, asked Sanders if it was true that he told Warren that a woman can't win the White House - a woman can't win the White House, for the record, and I'll get to that in a moment - and he flatly denied saying it.  Phillip then asked Warren how she reacted when Sanders said what he . . . denied saying.  So much for impartiality.  After the debate, Warren accused Sanders of lying in response to Phillip's question, and Sanders refused to engage her.  Maybe because he was still steamed about Philip refusing to believe his response.  Somehow this dust-up got more attention than anything that was actually said at the debate about policy.  All Sanders and Warren did with their feud was detract attention from the need for Democrats to defeat Donald Trump - who was over in Milwaukee holding a rally that allowed him to speak about the issues voters cared about, such as the economy and well, the economy - and cause Iowa voters to shrug and wonder what the heck was going on.

Okay, I obviously caused a stir of my own by insisting that a woman can't win the Presidency.  My position is not based on any misogyny on my part.  It is based on misogyny on everyone else's part.  America is simply too entrenched in patriarchy, which has gotten a lot of bad press these days but is still respected and revered in parts of the country that are necessary to win in the general election.  In certain areas of the Midwest and in much of the South - and many parts of the West, I might add - the idea of a female President is unthinkable and as undesirable.  Too many Americans in what is disparagingly called "flyover country" are more comfortable with a man in the Oval Office - even, I'm sorry to say, the man in the Oval Office now - and many people who would never vote for Donald Trump would rather stay home in November than vote for a woman.  Sure, I'll vote for Warren if shes the nominee, but how many people in Michigan, Wisconsin, or even Pennsylvania (technically in the Northeast but really in the Midwest) would?  The number would likely disappoint you - and destroy Democrats if the nominee is Warren or even Amy Klobuchar, who has gained little traction in the polls.  And if she were a man named Andrew Klobuchar, she wouldn't get very far with that spell-checker-unfriendly Slovenian surname.      

And thanks to Warren and Sanders, I'm talking about this and not the con job Trump is pulling on the economy, showing those rosy stock-market numbers as proof that his economic policies are working when so many people are underemployed and one paycheck away from eviction. Thanks to Aunt Liz and Grandpa Bernie, I'm not talking about rising sea levels or lowering life expectancies.  And thanks to Aunt Liz and Grandpa Bernie, Donald, the bastard stepfather that married your mom, is laughing all the way to acquittal in the impeachment trial about to get underway!

Cousin Martin - Martin O'Malley, who turns 57 today - wouldn't have bothered with any of this trivia.  I'm still flabbergasted over his decision not to run again in 2020 and instead support . . . who's that kid from El Paso again?  Bingo or something . . ..  (Talk about trivialities . . ..)