The Case for Michael Bennet

Yeah, I know Bennet will be lucky to make the next “debate” but this piece does a good job of making the case for why he should be the choice for our next President

Go here to read the whole piece

Could Michael Bennet Make Us Sane Again?

While Biden suggests that the cure for our paralysis is simply expelling Trump, Bennet’s diagnosis goes deeper. Trump is a symptom: the persistent agents of stasis are interest groups, plutocrats like the Koch brothers, and the provocateurs of cable news and social media who roil a noisy minority of Americans. The result, he told the Washington Post, is “perpetual partisan warfare” wherein “it’s much easier to create a constituency to break the government and to do nothing, than it is to create a constituency for change.”
To counter this, Bennet believes that Democrats “need to galvanize our base and bring other voters to the polls for us to win,” including some of the 7 million people who voted for Obama and then Trump. “You can’t do that just by going on MSNBC every night,” he says. “You [must] have a conversation with people who today don’t support Democrats…” In Bennet’s formulation, it is misguided to dismiss Republican voters as irredeemably wedded to Trump and Mitch McConnell.
This belief separates Bennet from his more ideological competitors. “It is possible to write policy proposals that have no basis in reality,” he told the Atlantic. “You might as well call them candy. … I don’t think people believe that stuff. I think they want to see a serious approach to politics and a serious approach to policy.”

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41 thoughts on “The Case for Michael Bennet”

  1. another roller coaster ride at the market circus this week? or not?

    nytimes.com/2019/08/25/business/global-markets
    BEIJING — Global markets opened mostly lower on Monday after a tumultuous weekend of events that further clouded prospects for a foreseeable end to the trade war between the United States and China.
    Still, losses in Asian markets moderated in Europe after President Trump said he received a call from China requesting a restart for trade talks. That followed comments earlier in the day by a senior Chinese trade official who expressed Beijing’s willingness to talk further.
    Stocks in Hong Kong, where weekend clashes between the police and anti-government demonstrators grew increasingly violent, were down 1.9 percent late on Monday in Asia, leading a drop among major markets. European markets were modestly lower. On Wall Street, futures markets that had pointed to a loss at the start of trading on Monday turned positive after Mr. Trump mentioned the possibility of resuming trade talks with China.
    China’s currency weakened to a new 11-year low against the American dollar, a threshold it has crossed with some frequency since Beijing allowed it to weaken past the psychologically important level of 7 renminbi to the dollar this month. The weakened renminbi indicates concern over the slowing of the Chinese economy, though it also helps Chinese factories because a weaker currency makes their goods more attractive in other countries.

    [continues]

  2. speaking of campaign long shots (or shooting blanks), on the other side as reported the other day in
    NY Times:

    Mr. Walsh met on Thursday with George T. Conway III, the prominent conservative lawyer who is married to Ms. Conway, one of Mr. Trump’s longest-serving aides. During the hourslong conversation, the two discussed strategy going forward, according to two people familiar with the conversation, and Mr. Walsh asked Mr. Conway if he would join his nascent campaign in a leading formal role.
    Mr. Conway, who has gained a large following on Twitter for his increasingly virulent critiques of Mr. Trump and his mental state but who has never worked on a political campaign before, did not commit to anything, telling Mr. Walsh he would think about it, the two people said.
    Mr. Walsh has virtually no chance of wresting the Republican presidential nomination away from Mr. Trump, whose poll numbers with Republicans remain consistently in the high-80s. But as a former supporter and media-trained radio show host attacking him from the right, he has an opportunity to rattle Mr. Trump with his television criticisms, and with audacious moves like trying to work with Mr. Conway, whose denunciations have personally enraged the president and his family members.

    […]

    “I think Walsh’s plan to attack Trump for his dishonesty, amorality, instability and incompetence is absolutely the right approach, and I’ll do whatever I can to help,” Mr. Conway said in an interview, though he declined to say whether he would formally join the campaign.

    […]

    Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign has dismissed Mr. Walsh’s bid as a “certain failure” and declined to comment its interest in Mr. Conway.
    On the same day that Mr. Conway was meeting with Mr. Walsh, Ms. Conway headlined a “Women for Trump” event in Tampa, Fla., which drew hundreds of female supporters.

  3. 7news Miami:

    (CNN) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he is “possibly” looking at hosting the next G7 summit at his Trump National Doral Miami Golf Resort.

     

    The US is next up to host the G7 in 2020. Trump said while he hasn’t made a final decision on where to host the summit, officials “haven’t found anything that’s even close to competing with it.”
    Trump was meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G7 in Biarritz, France, as he highlighted the pros of hosting the summit at his club, saying that it could “handle whatever happens” and repeated several times that it is a short drive to Miami’s international airport.
    Trump is sure to receive criticism if he goes through with the idea and will face questions about whether he stands to profit financially from the large summit. Trump has received such criticism in the past for hosting foreign leaders, including China’s President Xi Jinping, at his Mar-a-Lago Golf Club in Florida.
    Trump also stressed that the large club and resort could easily accommodate the large presence of G7 leaders, delegations and press.
    When asked by reporters whether he will have any “surprise guests” at his summit, a reference to French President Emmanuel Macron inviting Iran’s Foreign Minister Zariff to this G7, Trump said “no.” Trump did compliment his French counterpart for a successful G7.
    The Washington Post first reported in June that Trump was looking at hosting the next G7 at his Doral club.

  5. warren castro with 2020 vision

    quote from commonwealth mag 6/27/19:
    Many Latino journalists and prominent local immigration attorneys noted what an intriguing paring Warren-Castro would be, particularly with their similar immigration interests and their execution of incredibly complex policy (and explaining it to the average Joe). While Warren comes from a liberal state, Castro is from the state that has seen the most conservative border and migration policies executed, and a state that has struggled with its blue/red identity in the wake of a growing Latino and Democratic demographic.
    The Boston-Austin alliance worked out well almost 60 years ago when John F. Kennedy paired up with Lyndon Johnson. Perhaps we’ll see another joining of Massachusetts and Texas political forces.

  6. reflecting on a rainbow Warren-Castro cabinet with Stacey Abrams, Andrew Yang and Pete Buttigieg to start off. maybe an old-fashioned liberal republican white guy thrown in for good measure

  9. SFB’s narcissism run amok.

    Speaking to reporters on the White House’s South Lawn on Wednesday, President Trump claimed he was warmly welcomed at hospitals in the wake of recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, and intimated that surgeons had even deserted their patients to meet him.

    “The doctors were coming out of the operating rooms,” Trump said. “There were hundreds and hundreds of people all over the floor. You couldn’t even walk on it.”

    But the hospitals he visited say that isn’t what happened — and that doctors would never pause surgery to greet the president.

    “At no time did, or would, physicians or staff leave active operating rooms during the presidential visit,” Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Center of El Paso, said in a statement to The Washington Post on Thursday. “Our priority is always patient care.”
     
    Trump visited University Medical Center earlier this month, days after a gunman police say was motivated by anti-immigrant hatred killed 22 and wounded dozens at a Walmart. Although two patients who had already been discharged returned to the hospital to meet the president, none of the eight victims who were still being treated wanted to do so, Mielke told The Post at the time.
     
    “This is a very sensitive time in their lives,” he said. “Some of them said they didn’t want to meet with the president, some of them didn’t want any visitors.”
     
    The rejection apparently stung, because Trump returned to the subject on Wednesday, weeks after his visit to the city. When asked during a freewheeling exchange with reporters if he had spoken to the victims of mass shootings about whether they would support changes to gun laws, he ignored the question and instead took the opportunity to complain about news coverage of his visits to El Paso and Dayton.
     
    At hospitals in both cities, the president claimed, “the love for me — and me, maybe, as a representative of the country — but for me — and my love for them was unparalleled. These are incredible people. But if you read the papers, it was like nobody would meet with me.”
     
    That wasn’t true, he insisted: “Not only did they meet with me, they were pouring out of the room.”
     
    ***
     
     
    After the visit to Dayton, where Trump appears to have experienced a more hospitable reception than in El Paso, the White House released photos and a video showing the president smiling for pictures with nurses in scrubs and doctors with lab coats and stethoscopes. There was no indication, however, that any of those hospital staffers had just stepped out of the operating room. None are wearing the long-sleeved gowns, surgical masks and head coverings typically required in sterile surgical environments. (Medical personnel dressed in such attire did watch through the window as protesters gathered outside the hospital to oppose Trump’s visit, as captured by an Associated Press photographer.)
     
    [continues]

    What a maroon.

  10. x-r, you asked about the dude in the hat?  above is his  Minnesotan  lumberjack cousin Sven

  11. Jack…  great piece on that black composer….  thanks for that!
     
    As to Bennet…  he’s a decent guy and I think he’d make a really good president.  As a left of center person, I prefer his brand of pragmatism.  BUT…  with a field this large there’s going to be room at the top for only a few.  He’s not one of them.  And…  I’d give my vote to Klobuchar (as the same type of candidate) before I’d give it to Bennet.

  13. Jennifer Rubin in wapo today has advice for dems to succinctly brand the twit  [BTW, Jen, our fearless leader already has with “Don the Con”]:

     

    Democrats should not get down in the mud with Trump. They should not spew obscenities, cruel remarks and bigoted stereotypes. However, they do want to name Trump’s greatest weakness and create an easy-to-remember message associated with the Democratic nominee. I humbly offer: “Stop the Craziness” (or “Stop the Crazy” or “End the Crazy,” if you want to fit it on a hat).
    After all, Trump’s most defining feature these days is a frightful, manic personality more detached from reality than ever before. On Sunday, newly announced candidate Joe Walsh described the phenomenon that most of us have observed but too few say out loud: “We’ve got a guy in the White House who’s unfit. Completely unfit to be president. … “Everybody believes — in the Republican Party, everybody believes that he’s unfit.” He continued, “The country is sick of this guy’s tantrum. He’s — he’s a child. Again, the litany — he lies every time he opens his mouth. Look at what’s happened this week. He is — the president of the United States is tweeting us into a recession. I can tell you … that most of my former colleagues up on the Hill, they agree privately with everything I’m saying.” He reiterated, “You can’t believe a word he says. And again, I don’t care your politics, that should concern you. He’s nuts. He’s erratic. He’s cruel. He stokes bigotry. He’s incompetent. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
    We don’t need a medical diagnosis or the 25th Amendment to conclude Trump is crazy in the colloquial sense — cuckoo, nuts, non compos mentis, off his rocker, unhinged. Even Republicans who like the tax cuts or the judges at some level understand this is not normal behavior and, at key moments, feels downright scary.
    Name his greatest weakness. Say out loud what’s in the thought bubble above everyone’s head. And you can be certain between now and Election Day 2020, he will say and do things that confirm he is unfit and unstable. Crazy Trump.
    Now, you might say that in the 2016 campaign Hillary Clinton and the entire Democratic Party made the case he was a mean, lying, cruel bully. People didn’t care and still voted for him (although to his chagrin, not a majority or even plurality of those who cast ballots). Why is this different?
    This is crucial: It’s one thing to be mean and corrupt. His defenders say lots of politicians are. It is quite another to say he’s so erratic, so unhinged, so crazy that he sends the economy into a tailspin and risks international conflict (or capitulation to enemies such as Kim Jong Un, who Trump — crazily — believes likes him). Tying Trump’s unfitness to dangers to the country and to voters’ personal safety and prosperity should be a key objective for the eventual nominee. Unlike in 2016, “Crazy Trump” doesn’t make a moral judgment. It’s a statement of fact, a highly inconvenient fact for his apologists.

    […]
    Spelling out what’s on everyone’s mind in succinct terms is good marketing, and perhaps the only thing Trump is truly skilled in doing (other than corrupting those around him). Sure, Democrats will have to offer an alternative agenda. But first and foremost, they must promise to Stop the Craziness.

     

  15. First paper towels for Puerto Ricans surviving hurricanes now he wants to nuke hurricanes before they get going as usual not an original idea but one that has been debunked by actual scientists over the years.
    Mr. I only believe it if it isn’t true
     

  20. Womens’ Equality Day   acronym : WED
    Maybe could have found a better name for it ?

  23. I like Michael Bennet.  He and the governor of Montana are a bit alike in my view although I like Bennet better

  25. bbronc, aside from “virtual three-way tie among Sanders (20%), Warren (20%), and Biden (19%)” here’s another thing interesting in that Monmouth poll:

    Warren has seen her personal ratings improve steadily over the past few months.  She currently earns a 65% favorable and 13% unfavorable rating, up from 60%-14% in May, the last time Monmouth tracked the 2020 candidate ratings.  At the same, time Biden has seen his ratings drop to 66% favorable and 25% unfavorable, from 74%-17% three months ago. The ratings for Sanders have been comparatively more stable at 64% favorable and 24% unfavorable compared with 65%-21% in Monmouth’s May poll.

  26. Trump’s not crazy- he’s selfish.  Trump’s (probably) not a racist- he’s just so cynical he’s eager to stoke racial animosity for personal benefit.
     
    Say it like it is, Liberal influencers: the reality is scarier that the hyperbole.

  27. considering the UNfavs at 25% for Joe and 24% for Bernie and only 13% for her, lizzie is more than just likeable enough.

  30.  

     

     

     

     
    Palmer report.

    Pro tip: the new Monmouth poll, which has Bernie Sanders suddenly skyrocketing into first place for no discernible reason, and Joe Biden suddenly plummeting 13 points for no reason, is an obvious outlier poll. Any pundit quoting this poll today should be banned from the planet.

  32. As you say, Mr Sturgeone. A plague could come along and leave only Williamson and walsh in the race.
     
    I’d vote Williamson, for certain. I’d even ask the nice lady if I could please have a second helping of that ballot.

  33. I’m hesitant to draw any  conclusions from the Monmouth Poll.  The Hill, Faux and Politico polls show a 2-3 point drop for Biden and a mixed bag for Bernie! and Lizzie.  ON average, Biden and Warren are right where they were a month ago (RCP average) and Bernie! has picked up a couple of points. And yes, Lizzie is definitely likable enough – of the 3 she’s got that quality in spades.
     
    With 2 days left to meet the qualifying requirements, I’m guessing only Steyer has a chance tom make it 11 instead of the 10 who’ve already qualified.  I want him hanging around because he’s the single most confrontational candidate against SFB, and I want to hear that drumbeat.

  34. Palmer:
    1) Monmouth obviously shifted its methodology and unwittingly overshot the mark. It happens. 2) It’s why you ONLY EVER look at the polling averages. 3) The polls aren’t the problem. The…pundits who quote individual polls, while ignoring the averages, are the problem.

  35. “Monmouth obviously shifted its methodology”

    -lol, they explain the methodology with the poll results.  See patd’s link above

  37. …looks like it would behoove him to take a gander at TrailMix before getting his tweet on.

  39. If only they knew… after all, there ain’t a lot of stupid here (except yours truly, and I wear my stupidity with pride.) 

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