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StuFLaW 08/28: Buttigieg, Booker, Trump

I have a series of posts called StuFLaW that release concurrently with my normal posts, an acronym for Stuff From Last Week designed to make it really hard to press the shift key at the correct time while typing it. StuFLaW will contain topics from the previous week that are really more suited to a quick paragraph or a few than an entire blog post, but I was thinking about them and wanted to include them. There's no regular schedule for StuFLaW; it will happen whenever it's necessary. 


This one has a presidential candidate theme, I guess. Access the companion post here.


Pete Buttigieg Rally

On Monday, I had the good fortune to be able to attend an event with Mayor Pete Buttigieg. He's an extremely charismatic, passionate orator, and that really came through. He proposed some policies that seem like common sense, such as creating a "war sunset," which forces wars to be renewed every few years by Congress. War should be a last resort.


Someone wore this shirt at the event. I love it. Image credit: Diamond Clothings.

By the way, Buttigieg truly answered every question he was asked. The only one he beated around the bush while answering was "What's your favorite ice cream flavor?" (Chocolate was the eventual answer.)


Pete Buttigieg is highly talented, competent, and interesting. I strongly recommend you support him for President of the United States.


Cory Booker Q/A

Yesterday, I saw Sen. Cory Booker on a broadcast associated with the Working Families Party.* I love his message of hope, and his spirit of optimism. He would be a strong role model for our nation's children. Also, he would be the first vegan president. He is one of my favorite candidates for President of the United States.


However, his policy felt muddled, and it felt like he evaded a lot of questions. I love all the general parts of Booker's candidacy, but I'm unsure about the specifics. (I have a similar issue with Sen. Kamala Harris.)


Donald Trump Reelection

I've been hearing from some people that Donald Trump is a favorite to win reelection, or that it's imperative Democrats nominate Former Vice President Joe Biden or else we lose.


This is simply not true. Remember that Trump's favorable ratings have never gone above 50% during his presidency, even his supporters don't think he's honest, and his campaign strategy is not likely to substantially increase his base.


2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Image credit: Twitter.

Remember that in 2016, Hillary Clinton was favored to win. If FBI Director James Comey hadn't reopened the investigation, or if Sen. Bernie Sanders had dropped out before the DC primary, or if the media coverage hadn't been all "she's certain to win," then she would have won easily. That's the fact of the matter. And so looking at the one data point of Election Day 2016 is not correct. Also, even though Clinton was favored to win, she was the second-least popular nominee in history, after Trump. So even if Democrats pick someone super unpopular, they'll likely win against Trump.


Not to say Democrats can't lose. We learned in 2016 that it's important to be prepared for anything. Some big scandal could happen to the Democratic nominee, or Trump could just win the debate about the overall thriving economy. (Though if the economy goes downhill, that's really bad for his reelection odds.) The point is, don't act like Biden is the only candidate that can defeat Trump. Each and every candidate will probably defeat Trump.


(Note that general election polling is historically not predictive at this stage of the election.)


–beautifulthorns


*I signed one petition once, so I'm on their email list. I just filter their emails into a folder and read the folder periodically.

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