Friday, March 06, 2020

Race for the White House Update

Name change as referenced previously; post appearing later than usual because everybody's now dropped out that is going to (this week).  Which is to mean: Tulsi.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is still running for president, despite low national polling numbers and winning only two pledged delegates in the nominating contests so far.

The Hawaii Democrat's two delegates came from American Samoa, a US territory that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg won on Super Tuesday. (Bloomberg has since dropped out of the race.)

These delegates qualified her for the next debate, March 15 in Phoenix AZ, but the DNC apparently will revise the rules to exclude her.


Gabbard is a gadfly, as we are all aware, and her consequence has been that she's no more feeling the democracy from the Democratic Party than Bernie.

Waiting to post gave me the luxury of not having to reset the entire play-by-play from Sunday, when Barack Obama staged a neoliberal intervention on behalf of Sundownin' Joe.


The "Vote Blue No Matter Who Except for You-Know-Who" crew, particularly in Texas, made their complaints loud and clear.  And their Saviour answered their prayers.

The masses yearning to vote shitlib then obediently turned out, in such numbers that they broke all the voting machines in minority precincts.  There's a joke about sheep and souls and polls that I wanted to make here but thought the better of, so perhaps if your Google is as snarky as mine you can find it.  If not, just infer what you wish.

Bloomer wilted as the seasons turned to spring, his millions buying him a win in the afore-mentioned American Samoa primary, a handful of delegates, and little else.  After first declaring he would stay in, he joined Pete and Amy and fell in line.  And after trying to negotiate something with both Bernie and Biden, Warren did the same yesterday.  Not the endorsement part.


So it's just Sanders and Biden, as we -- or at least I -- have long thought it would be, with Gabbard doing whatever she will do (today she's traveling to Las Vegas to speak at a NORML convention.  That's not meant to be a pun, though you're welcome to take it as such).

The new ads between the two left standing have started rolling, and Biden is calling Bernie a socialist, accusing him of calling black voters the establishment, and a few other smears.

Bernie has tacked to the right as well.

On Tuesday, he began running a campaign ad consisting entirely of Barack Obama speaking in glowing terms of the senator who (infrequently) calls himself a “democratic socialist.”

“Feel the Bern!” the ex-president exclaims in the ad.


The ad is not only a bid for black votes, it is also a signal to the Democratic Party, including the African American party establishment, that they have nothing to fear from his “political revolution.”

This, along with Bernie's insistence that he will do whatever he can to support the Democratic nominee, and his defense of Elizabeth Warren in spite of her craven manipulation of his goodwill throughout the primary, has led me to the conclusion that I needed to prepare my Plan B options.

Which are not the same as Bernie's.


I watched the Free and Equal debates from Wednesday, and found Howie, and Mark Charles, and Gloria la Riva all vote-worthy.  They are in various states of qualifying for the Texas ballot.

I will not be ridin' with Biden.  I'm impervious to the guilt of Jackasses trying to shame me into voting for him, and I can't be shepherded onto a Biden bandwagon by any of Bernie's support network.  Bernie needs to win on the first ballot or the DNC superdelegates will surely steal it from him and give it to Old Joe, or some other candidate they prefer who will be just as centrist-shitty.

I have no faith in Democratic Party unity pledges.  I'm making plans to attend the convention in Milwaukee, if not as a delegate or a media representative then as a yellow vest in the street.