Here’s his campaign launch video:
Is it meaningful that Senator Booker lives in the working-class neighborhood where he grew up? Some dismiss it as a stunt, but I don’t; it shows an uncommon level of commitment, IMO.
Booker’s exploits as mayor of Newark are legendary. He once rescued a woman from a burning building and saved a dog that was accidentally left out in freezing weather by her owner.
Cynics will note that cameras always happened to be there. Anonymous rivals recently criticized Booker for hamming it up, suggesting that he has an authenticity problem. Well, the man is a politician and a US Senator, so grandstanding comes with the territory. Does it matter?
You’ll recall that President Obama was relentlessly criticized by Republicans for being an empty suit celebrity, and then those same Republicans turned around and nominated an evil reality TV jerk with a spray tan and cotton-candy coif. They have no standing to cast asparagus at anyone for being a self-promoter, ever.
On the Democratic side, where dining on our own is a tradition, anyone with boldness and/or charisma will be criticized as shrill and/or inauthentic, and anyone low-key or detail-focused will be dismissed as a bore and/or too wonky.
Obama was a Goldilocks candidate in that he struck exactly the right balance. He was no-drama Obama while mastering policy details and debating bug-eyed Republican loons, yet he was one of the most electrifying, inspiring speakers to ever hold the office. That’s rare.
In the intro video, Booker raises the specter of Trump without speaking his name. He mentions battling slumlords, his opposition to shoving kids into “cages and coffins” and says Americans are yearning to see leaders on TV who instill “pride rather than shame.” That’s true of most of us, I think.
Some Democrats grumble about Booker’s ties to Wall Street. I don’t know enough about his voting record to assess whether that’s fair criticism or not. What do you think?
Anyhoo, I look forward to hearing more from Senator Booker. The 2020 field is shaping up to be a strong one!
kindness
I will support which ever DEMOCRAT wins the primaries.
Sorry Tulsi, Bernie. That means you are out.
JMG
Criticizing a New Jersey Senator for having ties to Wall Street is like criticizing a Senator from Wisconsin for having ties to dairy farmers pr a Senator from Florida for supporting orange growers.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m not so high on Booker at this point but is there a NY or NJ politician without ties to Wall Street? It’s a cheap shot.
Another Scott
Good morning, everyone.
I don’t know much more about Booker than the things Betty mentioned. I do think that it’s admirable that he’s shoveled driveways, and rescued pets, and all the rest. I don’t know “what’s in his heart” and I don’t really care. Actions matter most. Let’s have more “faking” and “having the cameras there” for good deeds by politicians (and people in general) – the country would be better off for it.
Looking forward to learning more from vigorous policy debates. Not looking forward to the MSM turning it into another horse race about personalities and trivia.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yellowdog
No one should cast asparagus; they are too delicious to waste.
Nicole
I don’t love his record on education, but in fairness, that’s a criticism that can be levied against a lot of Democrats, including Obama. Democrats got suckered by the charter school scam in the early aughts. I’m hopeful his position on charter schools has evolved since then. If Booker ends up the nominee, I’ll vote for him without question.
evap
I’m excited about all the good choices we have and am looking forward to learning more about Booker. I have a vague recollection of reading somewhere that he is gay. It’s none of my business, but having a gay black president would be so awesome. Just think of all the Republican heads that would explode!
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: Everybody gloms onto that interview where he said Obama was being mean to Bain Capital, but I don’t think his past associations are any more troubling than, say, Kamala Harris’s.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yellowdog: They can cast it my way anytime.
Mike in DC
I hope the Bernie Bros attack basically everyone else running, because it will accelerate Bernie’s departure from the race. Why? There will be little incentive for other candidates not to return fire, and when you have a dozen well-funded rivals coming at you from a dozen different angles, you don’t last long. Plus Bernie seems a little brittle when it comes to criticism.
MattF
@JMG: For those whose NYC-area geography is weak, Newark is immediately across the water from Manhattan/Wall Street. They are connected via mass transit. Dinging Booker about connections to Wall Street is like disliking your big toe because it’s part of your foot.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: Find me the perfect candidate and I will never vote for the lying sack of shit wind vane.
Bruuuuce
I would love to see a Harris/Booker (or the reverse) ticket, but we’d hear “coastal elites” about a bajillion times a day, on CNN, far less Faux. Then again, if one of them wins the nom and chooses one of the Tammys for Veep, that would both solve the problem and be an awesome ticket.
Betty Cracker
Thread on Booker from a constituent:
He mentions the charter school thing, etc., but concludes overall that Booker is the real deal and a strong candidate. I think Nicole got it right on the charter school issue at #6.
hells littlest angel
I like Corey Booker, and I’d enthusiastically vote for him in the general election. That’s not to say that I’d be deeply disappointed and pissed if he beat the three much better woman candidates (none of whom is Tulsi Gabbard) in the primary.
Bruuuuce
The only real issue with Booker is the education one. As Senator from the state that is across from Wall Street (and in which many of the bankers live), and where Johnson & Johnson is a major constituent, it’s no surprise that he has ties to banking and pharma.
But the guy also spent a week subsisting on food assistance, among other things, and is more in touch with real people than the entire GOP combined.
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: huh?
NotMax
Something about him has always set the inner radar to alternate between cautious and skeptical, printing out a report summarized as proficiency: a mile wide and an inch deep.
plato
Yup. If ever there was a right man (with a right woman) at the right time, it was da kenyan. The mold was meant to be used once only.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major:
There is no perfect candidate and any that appear as such lie like trump only wishes he could and puts a finger in the wind before taking a position on anything.
germy
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/01/31/sen-bernie-sanders-proposes-77-percent-estate-tax-rate.html
Duane
After giving us this illegitimate jackass excuse for a president, republicans have no standing to cast anything about anyone.
Sebastian
@Nicole:
I don’t know enough about the general issue with charter schools but the charter school my kid goes to and the one we are applying for are both absolutely superb in every possible aspect.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker:
The problem is, we don’t have an education problem in this nation; we have a poverty and racism problem and until we’re really willing to face up to the actual root issue, everything is a band-aid on a bleeding artery. Not helping and possibly making things worse- charter schools in NYC have turned into a huge money suck on the public school system.
That said, I’m always amenable to a politician’s position evolving, as long as they’re going in the correct direction. Warren was a registered Republican until 1996, Gillibrand represented an overwhelmingly white district and voted accordingly. They both eschew their previous positions; I believe them when they say they don’t think the same now as they did then and I am glad to give Booker the same opportunity.
Mai Naem mobile
Booker is too close to Wall Street and it does matter. Finance is too big a pie of the US economy . I mean making money from money rather than investing it in something useful. Also, I think he’s a little awkward in interviews – his mannerisms and the way he talks. That said, if he gets the nomination I will enthusiastically vote for him.
daveNYC
Education and the Financial Industry are his weak spots. He’s going to have to come out with some pretty baller policies since Warren, Harris, and Gillibrand are already staking out some pretty left wing positions.
germy
schrodingers_cat
So how many candidates do we have so far
Ds
1. Warren
2. Harris
3. Booker
4. Gabbard
5. Mayor from Indiana
6.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sebastian: Most aren’t. There is a big scandal in Ohio about rigging their scores to make them look massively better than they are.
eta public schools have a lot of restraints on them mandated by law, while charter schools are free of them so that they can “innovate”.
schrodingers_cat
So how many candidates do we have so far
Ds
1. Warren
2. Harris
3. Booker
4. Gabbard
5. Mayor from Indiana
6.
Nicole
@Sebastian:
Charter schools, like lots of other things, are great in theory. The idea behind them, I believe, was to experiment with innovative education methods and try to extrapolate the things that worked well into larger usage. On a small scale I think a lot of them are fine.
In practice though, many of them are opportunities for grift at the expense of an already disadvantaged population. Overall, they don’t do a better job educating students, and may do worse. And if they aren’t doing a better job, then why are they getting government money when we already have a public school system?
This is not a dig on your child’s school; I almost did a #notallcharterschools on my original post because I knew someone would chime in about the excellent experience their particular child is having, and I know some do a good job. But overall, they are harmful to the public education system and for some reason the government and politicians who should know better continue to throw public money at them.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
Julian Castro. Kristen Gillibrand.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: 5 is Pete Buttigieg.
Gillibrand, Castro. Some guy named John Delaney, who’s a Maryland Congressman. I think that’s it for formally-declared candidates.
hells littlest angel
@germy: Brown would be a GREAT vice president. He’s like an unembarrassing Joe Biden.
JR
In the Democratic primaries, I’m pretty much a one issue guy — that issue being National Sovereignty.
Gabbard and Sanders are probably out.
FlipYrWhig
I don’t love the financial sector. I also don’t love the industrial sector. We have to get straight whether we mean the bosses or the workers, and whether we fault people for being hired grunts in a morally dubious and/or just plain shitty line of work. (We hear a lot about the plight of the left-behind factory worker and coal miner, but the plight of the left-behind data-entry clerk or billing specialist is scoffed at.)
gene108
@daveNYC:
Gillibrand is going to be tough on Wall Street? Isn’t her husband a VC or financier of some kind.
Guilt by association is not something we need to venture into.
Let them say what their policies will be and then judge.
germy
This video:
OzarkHillbilly
@JR: I’m a one issue guy too- Can s/he beat trump?
NotMax
OT.
Just saw a promo for The ABC Murders, a new series on Amazon Prime based on Agatha Christie’s output. While generally find Christie-inspired films and TV innocuous enough, John Malkovich as a brooding Hercule Poirot may be a bridge too far.
jacy
I’ve always liked Cory Booker. If you want an anecdote, my 29-year-old son is a huge Booker fan. (He is also a huge Biden fan). My kid is somewhat emblematic of the young “independent” voter (we got into a heated argument in the car yesterday with me yelling at him that people need to pick a side, and being an “independent” is a cop-out, but we have that argument every once in a while depending on how pissed off I am about things in general and how much I feel like ranting for the kids to get off my lawn.) Booker appeals to his cohort. Me, I don’t care — as long as we have a progressive Democrat, I’ll throw every ounce of my support behind them. And anybody who wants to ride their particular purity pony off into the sunset, I’ll happily whack them with a frying pan. Literally, not figuratively.
Nicole
@gene108:
Didn’t stop her from voting against the bailout in ’08 as a Representative.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
Agreed.
I would vote for my cat if I knew she could beat trump. After she won the general election, we could worry about assembling a team of advisors for her.
L85NJGT
Not just proximity and commuters. Financial firms decentralized operations to NJ after 9-11.
He’s got that Hillary 2008 “up with people” vibe. Not this misanthrope’s cup of tea, but I assume it hits the spot for a lot of voters.
Mai Naem mobile
I would like a Jerry Brown and Sherrod Brown ticket for a Brown/Brown ticket. Brown x 2 ticket. Brown squared ticket. Its a pity one of them isn’t brown.
mad citizen
@evap: News article I just read said he’d be first bachelor since 1850something, and that he told a Philly media outlet that he is straight. For whatever that’s worth.
I watched the video, and am aware of some of his previous deeds. I like him, and would have no problems with him as President if that’s how it goes. I should probably even prefer him based on his background, how he’s living his life, etc., but there’s just something about Kamala Harris that I like a lot. For one, would she be the first Dem from California to be President? A great contrast to Nixon and Reagan.
satby
@Nicole:
and the same can be said for the burgeoning online “K-12” scam artists, who have convinced several states (including IN and MI) to turn over their public education system to them.
Nicole
@satby:
Boy, ain’t that the truth. Education, good education, costs money. There is no cheap solution.
satby
@NotMax: if you haven’t caught the recent remake of And Then There Were None, you should.
I mentioned it before, I thought this version was really well done.
rp
We should be happy that we have a number of strong candidates. Because the people on our side aren’t crazy and hateful, I think the competition will be a good thing for the candidates.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@OzarkHillbilly:
That, and the overarching issue with charter schools, for me (apart from the innumerable huckstering grifters who are associated with them), is even when they “work”, they, at best, make a devil’s bargain. “These kids” get money and resources for schooling, and “those kids” in public schools get fuck-all-nothing bupkis. “Thanks for playing, suckers!”
If your only concern is for your own child, then I spose charter schools can seem like a good thing. And even then, not always.
But if you view the education of the country’s children as an essential national priority, charter schools are just another libertarian boondoggle fuck-you-I-got-mine that “picks winners” and blames everyone who’s left behind for not beating the stacked deck of malign neglect.
(And twining revenue for public education to property taxes is yet another cruel and unfair way to institutionalize failure.)
@Nicole:
So Michelle Rhee and similar proponents of “education reform” can make bank?
(Education reform! Who can be against that?! Obvs.!)
Among the many things I’d like to hear from the Dem candidates for prez is a loud, ringing committment to public education.
germy
@Nicole:
And true believers like the DeVos family have advocated for decades. They believe public education is for the devil.
gene108
@evap:
He’s around 50 and never married. He’s had girlfriends, I think.
But any single man over 40, who has never been married, will be assumed to be gay by a segment of the population, just because he’s over 40 and single.
See Lindsay Graham, as an example.
Ohio Mom
@Sebastian: There are a few good charters out there. They serve as decoys for the rest of them, most of which are mainly money skimming enterprises.
On the whole, charters do not perform better than public schools, and that is after they refuse all the more challenging students (such as students with disabilities).
I actually think that in theory there could be a small role for heavily regulated charters to play, particularly with specialized populations that need remediation.
But that was never the goal of the charter creators. Their goals were strictly neoliberal: privatize a public good and break up the teachers’ unions.
I don’t have a beef with you personally. Putting your kid in a good charter isn’t any different in my mind than doing what we did, which was move to a very well-funded suburban district. But don’t extrapolate your very specific circumstances into what would be good general policy.
Creigh Gordon
@JMG: As others have pointed out, (see Mai Naem mobile at 25) finance is not like oranges or dairy. The biggest con finance has pulled is convincing Congresspeople, economists, and people in general that it is like oranges or dairy, i.e. part of the real economy. It isn’t; it is an overhead cost to the real economy. For the real economy to operate most efficiently for real people, overhead costs must be minimized. I’d really like to see politicians in office that recognize that fact.(No idea if Booker does or not, but “ties to Wall Street” makes me nervous. Warren and Sanders do get it, at some level.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Nicole:
WASF.
satby
I’ve always liked what I’ve heard about Booker. I lean more to Harris or Warren, but a dream team of any combination of the three would be fine.
And Pete Buttigieg was on the View yesterday, in case anyone wants to see him talk about why he’s running.
My sister texted me to tell me he was on. I don’t think even he thinks he has a chance, but he’s a nice guy and we need more of those in politics at all levels.
Cheryl Rofer
Nicole
@Ohio Mom:
Here in NYC, I have been told by more than one source in public ed, one of the big charter chains accepts kids with IEPs (and the additional money the city and state provide for that child) and then, after the deadline has passed, push the kid out of the school. The kid goes to whichever public school can take them, which must then provide the mandated IEP services… without the money initially provided, which the charter school keeps. It’s such BS.
Grift, grift, grift.
Major Major Major Major
@gene108: booker seems to have developed a girlfriend in October. ??♂️
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Ohio Mom:
Succinctly and well said. Wisht I’da said it so clear.
Rufus Firefly
@germy:
Yeah, Clinton came out with Fix Obamacare and Bernie would offer just a bit more: you know, something like Medicare for All. It was really rather shameless of him.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It’s particularly difficult now, though. The teacher strikes are huge and they’re not stopping- they’re building. Education is not a minor issue for Democrats. It’s minor in national polling of all voters, but we’re the “government” people – we believe in a public sector. He will have hugely passionate opposition on that, and it’s changed since Obama. It’s not 2007.
Democrats won on public education state-level in Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They can shed Ohio and replace those electoral votes but they can’t take the whole Great Lakes region for granted. There needs to be some coherence there- they can’t have one set of principles at the federal level and another at the state level.
FlipYrWhig
@Creigh Gordon: Meh. Sanders represents a state with no businesses and no people. That’s doing politics on the easiest possible setting. Warren’s home-state favoritism thing is medical devices.
Major Major Major Major
@Creigh Gordon:
Farming in America as practiced is also kind of a tire fire, and (writ large) a big proponent of seriously abusive labor practices, animal cruelty, and environmental damage. But they have much better PR.
Ohio Mom
@germy: The funny part of course about Sherrod Brown pretending to forget the last name of “the coffee guy” is that his wife Connie has the same last name. Sherrod is a lot more sly than he first appears.
I’m currently going from “Oh no, Sherrod, stay where you are,” to being quite taken with the idea of President Brown.
On a related note, I am retroactively irritated that we did not have this embarrassment of riches the last go-round. No Democrat went up against Hillary but Martin Who? O’Malley, and it made our party look weak. No one would know what a deep bench we had.
geg6
@Sebastian:
Well, the fact that they suck money out of many already poor school districts is pretty damn problematic. Also the fact that they can discriminate, much like the all-white Christian academies do/did during the Civil Rights era. And they pay much less, provide fewer benefits and shut out unions among educators is extremely problematic. And that’s before we even get to looking at the incredible amount of corruption in the industry. Other than that, I have no problem with charter schools.
I like Booker a lot. I’ve liked him for a long time, at least a decade. There was a documentary series about him as mayor of Newark that I watched that really impressed me as to whether he was the real deal or not. My conclusion all those years ago is that he is. If he’s gotten more woke on the charter school issue, I could see me making him my top pick right now. He’s probably the candidate with whom I’m most familiar.
rikyrah
I have always been hesitant about Booker. Something about him just bugs me….he’s not being his true self. And, if he actually IS being his true self, then, his true self is…eh…
raven
He’s tight with Rachel.
Yarrow
I like Cory Booker well enough. I was disappointed in how he used his time during the Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh hearings. He just grandstanded and there wasn’t any substance. I don’t know if that’s typical of how he operates but it was a big stage and for me he fell short.
Nicole
@Kay:
Absolutely, and so I’m curious to see what his position is on it now. The best thing any politician can do, I think, is do what Gillibrand has done and say, “I said x-thing when I didn’t know what I do now and that was a mistake.” If Booker comes out and says something like, “At the time, I believed what many people did, that charter schools were a good solution, but now that more information and data is available I believe America’s best education system is our public one” I think it would fade away pretty quick. But politicians are as susceptible as anyone to not wanting to admit they were wrong about something.
Unlike the GOP, I don’t believe Dems are against public education in principle. I think they got duped.
L85NJGT
@mad citizen:
No Democratic candidate from west of Texas. Re-alignment is mostly viewed through the lens of the GOP’s southern strategy, and the usual suspects will prattle on about seizing the means of production, but those Pelosi districts are going to be the ballgame.
Kay
@Mai Naem mobile:
I would too. It’s a tragedy he was never President. Woulda been great at it.
geg6
@mad citizen:
You do realize, I suppose, that this is not something anyone not from California gives a shit about, right? I’ve got nothing against Harris, but this is a pretty stupid selling point for any candidate.
TaMara (HFG)
Looking forward to hearing more about Booker. I’ve always liked him. And whoever said it above, I will be voting for whichever Democrat wins the primary.
satby
@Cheryl Rofer: wow, had no idea he was fairly fluent in Spanish
Ohio Mom
@Nicole: Yup, that is a very widespread and established practice of many, many charters (mixed metaphor alert): puff up the student head count until the census week, then start the cherry-picking.
The fact that there are no safe guards against this practice tells you everything you need to know about the true motives of the charter proponents.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: I agree. Something about him just feels…off. I don’t know what it is. It’s like he’s wearing his “authenticity” like clothes he puts on in the morning. He says good things, he does good things, but something doesn’t feel quite right.
Oh, well. It’s a big field. He can jump in the race and we’ll see who wins!
mad citizen
@geg6: Yes, I agree, a minor point. I was just pointing it out from a historical point of view. Above someone pointed out a Harris/Booker or Booker/Harris ticket being a “coastal elites” ticket, and I was thinking, Crap, that’s where the Dems are, what would you expect? But thinking about the last three Dem Presidents, it’s been Illinois, Arkansas and Georgia.
Major Major Major Major
I’ve come to the conclusion that Booker acts the way he does because he really is earnestly authentic, but he has no idea how to actually act like it. Nobody would choose to fake it in this manner for so long.
Raven
@Ohio Mom: In the world of dropouts and the GED we used to talk abut “push outs”. School would retain students until the day necessary for funding and then encourage them to quit and pursue the “three pronged false hope” of the military, cosmetology school and the GED.
Kay
@Nicole:
If he’s evolved he hadn’t done so by last week, when he launched at a charter school rally.
IMO, it’s a mindset, a way of thinking. That the private sector is inherently superior. I just don’t believe that. Booker is actually on the extreme end for Democrats- further than Obama was- because Booker supports vouchers.
I think he is going to have trouble distinguishing his position from that of Republicans, and there’s a reason for that- it’s all but identical- he just uses different language and supports federal civil rights “guardrails”, but lots of Republicans support federal civil rights guardrails for schools- they have to- all this has already been litigated and they lost. They can’t NOT support federal civil rights laws as to public schools- they would lose in court.
To me it’s a dealbreaker as to supporting him in a primary, but I know that’s not a majority position even in the Party and we have a good field and if he wins I would of course vote for him rather than Trump.
germy
Whoever wins the Democratic nomination, I’m not sure they’ll be running against trump.
Lately he’s been tweeting stuff like “I’m losing money on the presidenting thing” as if he’s preparing for a dignified way of quitting, or at least not running again.
zhena gogolia
I know very little about him, I’m just going by the video. I don’t understand the story of his parents wanting to move into a white neighborhood with better schools, which changed the course of his life, but then his saying he needs to live in central Newark because it’s the community that made him who he was. Am I missing something?
Ohio Mom
Someone who knows more history than I do: Have we ever had this many Democratic hopefuls? If so, how did it shake out?
I keep thinking of how many Republicans there were the last time, and how the seemingly reasonable ones split the seemingly reasonable vote into tiny pieces until what was left was the most ridiculous choice of all.
Please note: I said “seemingly.” I have never pined for a President Kasich or a third President Bush.
I am just afraid that a similar dynamic will play out for us this time. Not that there is anything I can do about that.
germy
@Kay: I look forward to the Democratic primary debates. I want to see them address this stuff.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Major Major Major Major:
Maybe. Little too eager to please, imo, inna bad way. Anxious. (Heard Booker don’t smoke or drink, but I get the strong sense Mr. Booker’s jittery temperament would be vastly improved by smoking a blunt or two.)
In any event, happy to be mistaken, and we’ll see how he does amid the fray.
germy
@zhena gogolia:
I saw the documentary a few years ago, but I thought his reasoning was that he wanted to live among his constituents, rather than removed from them.
Not so much that he was raised there, but that he wanted to understand their concerns.
mad citizen
@zhena gogolia: I only watched the video once, but I was also confused by that part. Did his family move or not move? What did the white lawyers help his family with? Moving or staying in their neighborhood?
Daniel'sBob
@Yarrow: Agree. He seems to like the sound of his own voice too much. I was tired of listening to him before he managed to get around to his point or question.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ohio Mom: At the 2008 Iowa caucus, there were a lot of D candidates: HRC, Edwards, Obama, Biden, Richardson, Dodd, Kucinich. Hm. Maybe more? There were a lot of signs up in the middle school cafeteria my precinct used.
Ohio Mom
@Raven: I guess that’s where the charters picked up that trick.
I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in my corner of Ohio there has been a big push to get those kids a diploma, with what are called credit recovery programs.
I get the impression are mostly rooms full of computers where students do on-line classes in whatever they still need to meet the graduation requirements. I doubt they learn all that much but at least there is a way they can get that diploma.
Cheryl Rofer
@zhena gogolia: They wanted to move to Harrington Park, the town next to the one where I grew up. I didn’t realize that Harrington Park was so discriminatory. My town had a few blacks, but not many. The high school for the area is Northern Valley Regional, with branches in Demarest and Old Tappan. It continues to be one of the best in New Jersey. I don’t know as much about the Harrington Park grade schools, but imagine they are good.
He moved to Newark when he was older. I think germy is right, but don’t know for sure. In the video, Booker says that was twenty years ago. So he can say that Newark made him what he is.
Kay
@germy:
They will address it. Democrats are aware of the salience of the issue and they must have noticed PA, MI and WI.
They put up a school infrastructure bill yesterday in the House- that’s new. Public schools don’t usually get dedicated federal funding for buildings. They get low income district funding that can be used in various ways, but this is specifically school infrastructure. It was smart. Now they can say Trump will build walls but not schools, which is exactly what they said :)
It’s one of those things that is not universal in the Democratic Party, but the faction who care about it care about it a lot.
Major Major Major Major
@poleaxedbyboatwork: I’m not gonna hold a little eagerness and cluelessness against somebody.
Cheryl Rofer
@mad citizen: The white lawyers helped his family to be able to buy a home in Harrington Park. I don’t know the details, but they probably helped strike down some ordinances, or perhaps threatened the real estate agents with lawsuits.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
“I could be making more money in business” is not, to my mind, a dignified reason for leaving the Presidency before the end of one’s term. Even if it were true, which in Trump’s case there is reason to doubt.
beth
@germy: Booker grew up in Harrington Park, a white suburb of Newark but moved into a low income housing project either during his law school years or after he got elected to City Council in Newark. People may say it was a stunt but I certainly wouldn’t move to inner city Newark when he did. I give him credit for living among his constituents and working alongside them to try and solve problems. Of course the right wing universe claims he doesn’t really live there anymore and just keeps the apartment to burnish his reputation as a man of the people but that’s fairly easy to prove and I’m not sure he’d run with such an obvious lie hanging over his campaign. Or maybe he would, I really don’t know enough about him. I’m glad he’s in the race and look forward to hearing more about him.
Immanentize
@Yarrow:
Agree. But his authenticity suit, as someone above mentioned, is at least made of positive and progressive cloth. I just wonder how that will wear in the rough and tumble. I think Harris and Warren are both more comfortable just being who they are. Or they are just better at portraying self-assurance? Booker seems insecure to me which, if true, will reveal itself in the campaign. But I am certainly happy to be wrong.
Yarrow
@Dorothy A. Winsor: From Wikipedia, results of 2008 Iowa caucuses:
Barack Obama – 32%
Hillary Clinton – 25%
John Edwards – 24%
Bill Richardson – 6%
Joe Biden – 4%
Christopher Dodd – 2%
Dennis Kucinich – 1%
Mike Gravel – 0%
Not sure/Uncommitted – 6%
So good number of candidates but not double digits. I think we’ll be in double digits this time for sure if we’re not already.
Nicole
@Kay:
That is… very good to know. Thank you for the information. That moves me away from, “Maybe he’s evolved” towards “Hrmph.” I don’t like to think of myself as a single issue voter (I contain multitudes!) but support for public education is very high on my list of what I want in a candidate.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major:
I think you just aced your counterintuitive test and you can now be hired by the New York Times for their op-ed page.
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: nah, I know several people like that.
ETA from the twitter thread Betty linked to:
Yarrow
@Immanentize: The thing about authenticity being something he puts on in the morning like a suit is that he also takes it off at times. In the difficult times, what Cory Booker will be making the tough calls? The authenticity suit or what’s underneath it? I don’t know.
NotMax
@Ohio Mom
Sure. Less crowded fields (as in 10 or less) in some other within memory years, here are a couple of the more extreme examples:
1972:
George McGovern
Hubert Humphrey
Edmund Muskie
Scoop Jackson
Eugene McCarthy
Shirley Chisholm
Patsy Mink
George Wallace
Terry Sanford
Wilbur Mills
John Lindsay
Vance Hartky
Sam Yorty
Fred Harris
Birch Bayh
1988:
Michael Dukakis
Jesse Jackson
Al Gore
Gary Hart
Paul Simon
Dick Gephardt
Bruce Babbitt
Joe Biden
Jim Traficant
Pat Schroeder
Douglas Applegate
Lyndon LaRouche
David Duke
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: at least we won’t have LaRouche and Duke this time around.
zhena gogolia
@Cheryl Rofer:
Okay . . . but to someone who doesn’t know his life story already the video makes no sense.
As someone (white) who stayed in the inner-city public school while lots of other people (not just white but black) fled, and had to bascially educate myself, I feel a teeny bit of resentment at this story, at least the way it’s presented in the video.
Creigh Gordon
@Major Major Major Major: “Farming in America as practiced is also kind of a tire fire”
Undoubtedly true, but still the public purpose of farming is production of real goods and services whereas the only actual public purpose of finance is to facilitate the production of real goods and services. Most of what it does beyond that (and it does plenty) is parasitic and raises costs for the productive economy. See many of the practices that led to the financial crisis of 2007 and recession of 2009, which was driven by forces that were very profitable for finance but pretty much a disaster for everyone else. Finance is not an end in itself, and when it is allowed to do things in its own interests, the rest of the economy pays the price. Economic policy needs to focus on the productive side of the economy (yes with regulations on adverse environmental effects) and keep finance where it belongs.
gvg
Charter schools are different according to what state they are in. The state sets the rules, and there isn’t one template. That means that one states good/bad won’t be identical to another states, which is going to complicate the debates, a lot.
Innovate teaching within the state rules I can see. Avoid having to disclose how public money was spent or not publish meetings like florida’s Sunshine laws mandate and the rest of the public schools have to, and I say “not legal”. Public money going to religious schools and I say not legal. that’s here in Florida. I also think some of it is an attempt to avoid paying teachers benefits and retirement. Funding schools and testing companies that happen to be owned by the governors donors is also not legal IMO. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I’d like to see a charter that simply quit over testing the students and when they did test, they used scientifically proven tests instead of just written last week by the friends of the Governor/legislators.
I haven’t been impressed around here, can you tell?
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Look no further than California’s Westlands Water District to see Big Ag’s massive malevolent influence and intentions at work.
Zinke’s Interior Department is hellbent on raising Shasta Dam primarily for Westland’s benefit, (His departure has not slowed their efforts.)
Brickley Paiste
Number one – he’s not a woman
Number two – America is not going to elect a gay man. Sorry, that’s just a fact.
He’s a fucking asshole for even announcing. If he really gives a shit about saving this country, he would have endorsed Harris.
Brickley Paiste
@rikyrah:”true self” … that is one way to put it
mad citizen
I wonder who would be our disaster candidate, our Trump? I put forward Elon Musk. Reading the current Wired article about him, he seems like a real nut with lots of issues. Glad he’s not trying to run for President.
Kay
@Brickley Paiste:
I would do that if I were in the senate- revel in the endorsement. “I’m still on the fence!” :)
It would be much more fun than actually running – ugh.
NotMax
@mad citizen
Musk not a natural born citizen, thus ineligible.
So, Zuckerberg. Case closed.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: The only negative I have on Booker relates to his early support for the charter school movement. On the other hand, Booker was part of the movement at its inception, before it had metastasized in a way that accentuated the greed factor for most of the operators, and all the other problems. In his case, I think he genuinely was trying to deal with an awful situation in the public school district when he had only limited ability to raise money or unilaterally change conditions that were subject to state law. I would be interested in knowing how his views have changed. Also, my only real disappointment with Obama related to the same thing, especially when it came to Arne Duncan, his secretary of education, who frequently spouted charter school platitudes. It irked me intensely because his own kids went to schools in my district, where there are no charters and no vouchers. Any time Obama need to give a speech or visit a school, it was usually in my district.
Matt McIrvin
@rp:
The memory of 2016 and the shitstorms already brewing on social media give me pause here. I am actually really worried about our nominee, whoever it is, coming pre-ruined by the primary fight.
Major Major Major Major
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t really think the crazy hateful people from 2016 count as “on our side.”
Matt McIrvin
@mad citizen: Our Trump would be Trump if he randomly decided to be a Democrat.
rikyrah
@evap:
If he is…he has to own his truth.
THAT is the problem for me with him..I don’t think he does own his truth.
A Black candidate CANNOT HAVE ANYTHING IN HIS BACKGROUND THAT WOULD MAKE HIM BLACKMAILABLE…
NOTHING.
Yarrow
@NotMax: Zuckerberg has other things to worry about. His coziness with Russians and their money is going be a bigger and bigger problems for him.
germy
@rikyrah: True, because you know they’re combing through every little detail right now. The minute he announced. Probably even before.
See, also, what they’re trying with Harris.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: Did you watch Sandberg on Finding your roots?
germy
@schrodingers_cat: We watching Finding Your Roots every week, but I confess we changed the channel when she came on.
NotMax
@Yarrow
Strengthens the appellation “disaster candidate.”
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: there have been persistent rumors, of …I’ll go with medium plausibility, I wouldn’t be surprised either way. He’s been spotted with ladies a number of times though.
MazeDancer
Jelani Cobb was shading Booker deeply on Twitter. About FaceBook money in Newark. As a huge Jelani Cobb fan, he was certainly giving me pause on Booker. Cobb didn’t link to some NYer expose of yore on the subject, but apparently there is one.
OTOH, big props to Booker for drumline in the video.
Brickley Paiste
@Major Major Major Major:
And Roger Stone is married. And Lindsey Graham “just hasn’t found the right woman yet”.
Please.
rp
@Matt McIrvin: I hear you, but I think the fact it was Hillary vs. Bernie with no other serious contenders was a huge part of the problem. The sides hardened early on, but at the same time Clinton was never going to attack Bernie because she didn’t need to and didn’t want to seem on the defensive. But that emboldened the Bernie supporters and created the dynamic you describe.
I doubt Bernie will get much oxygen this time because of the number of strong candidates, and his supporters’ rage won’t be directed at a single candidate.
Ohio Mom
@NotMax: Thank you.
What sense can I make of these lists?
One thing I see right away is that we have always had our share of candidates that didn’t belong on a Democratic stage, such as LaRouche and Duke. It’s a tradition I would place Bernie Sanders in, even if he is from the other side of the left-right spectrum.
We’ve long had what I would call aspirational candidates, people who had no chance at all during their eras but were making a statement, such as Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, and Pat Schroeder. And good for them for being trailblazers.
Also, are a lot of forgotten names on these lists: for example, Hartky, Yorty, and Applegate ring no bells for me. Some other names I recognize but could tell you nothing about them.
Finally and obviously, these two sets of primaries gave us candidates that were soundly defeated.
You have provided me with perspective but maybe not hope that this overcrowded primary field will serve us well.
Monala
@Yarrow: this list reminds me of the time Obama appeared on SNL in 2008, in a skit about the “Democratic candidates’ costume party.” Joe Biden and Chris Dodd came as conjoined twins, Dennis Kucinich was an elf, and Mike Gavel came unshaven, hair unkempt, wearing a straitjacket and muttering to himself. Hilary Clinton dressed as a bride, and Bill was supposed to be a groom, but he dressed up as the Pickup Artist instead.
Barack Obama came as himself.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: No. What was she like?
Another Scott
OT – Very annoying sidebar autoplay ad on the right now.
It took me a while, but I finally got rid of it using UBlock Origin with the rule “||i.connatix.com/*$image”.
I’ll try to send a note to the Powers That Be, but maybe that will help others until they can block it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Barbara:
Democrats literally ran against DeVos and the American Federation for Children in 2018 and they did it in House and Senate races as much as governor’s races. He is going to have to explain how he is different from what is the far Right on education and he will have trouble doing that, because as a practical matter he’s not different. Saying he supports federal civil rights protections for public schools is the mainstream position…. of the GOP. Other than wackaloons like Rand Paul they all do.
Immanentize
@Brickley Paiste: I believe Roger Stone is polymorphically perverse. Don’t forget his fun with Epstein and Dersh!
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Major Major Major Major:
I’ma mos def hold it against Booker if his anxious eagerness is a nervous tic prompted by him being closeted.
Far’s his sexuality? Do. Not. Care. Personally.
But if he’s running for president and is hiding that, it will come out, and it will blow the fuck up if he ain’t the one revealing it. Not b/c it should (shouldn’t matter), but it decidedly will.
No idea if the rumors are true. But if they are, I would like to see him come out and proudly run as a gay man. That’d be great. Worked for the guy from Colorado.
Immanentize
@Ohio Mom:
This is always one I quibble about — Wiki about the 1988 primary:
NotMax
@Ohio Mom
Sam Yorty was a mayor of Los Angeles.
Vance Hartke (misspelling above mine) was a senator from Indiana and somewhat prominent anti-Viet Nam war voice.
Applegate was a long time state legislator and later member of the House from Ohio.
Major Major Major Major
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
He is ?
I imagine we’ll find out soon enough, if that’s the case. Don’t see much point in speculating right this second.
NotMax
@Ohio Mom
if it’s any consolation, 2016 was an aberration. 6 to 8 still standing by the time of the first primaries is pretty much the norm.
VeniceRiley
I want a woman. (Tulsi excepted) I want one and shade from Bernie won’t stop me from insisting on it.
Brickley Paiste
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
Exactly.
He should come out and help pave the way for the future gay president
He’s selfish
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Brickley Paiste:
I was, admittedly, dealing in speculative matters (if this/then that).
You are dealing in absolutes.
You gotta right to your opinion, but what you’re saying ain’t what I was saying.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: Fake and sacchriny. She is 98% Jewish and her ancestors went through some harrowing times in the last century and before, because of that. She also milked her husband’s sudden death for all it was worth. Calculated.
Call me cynical, I think it was damage control because of the fallout from the damaging stories about the anti-Semitic themes on FB about Soros.
Barbara
@Kay: Thanks.
Cameron
@Kay: Early in his career he was tied to the Manhattan Institute, which isn’t a very good look for a Democrat. That might have something to do with his views on charter schools.
Ohio Mom
@Immanentize:
Maybe the chance Jesse Jackson didn’t have was based not on the number of primary votes he inspired (which were indeed impressive) but the way that the party bigwigs felt about him?
Just spitballing here, I wasn’t paying much attention to politics back then.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I had no idea Booker was so far down the charter school rabbit hole. I agree it’ll be a big problem for him. It certainly gives me pause.
misterpuff
@Nicole: The argument about charter schools is not about their effectiveness (they may be more effective or not), it is about the hollowing out of the public school system and the resulting lowering of outcomes for those forced to utilize those systems. We must support better public schools not just some better schools.
Ohio Mom
As tempted as I am, I can’t spend my whole day here. My parting thought about Booker is that given the other hopefuls, he seems redundant.
Required disclaimer, Not that I wouldn’t do everything I could to get him elected if he became the Decomcratic candidate.
JustRuss
I never read the byline before I start reading a post, in Betty’s posts there’s always a point where I go “Hey, this must be B. Cracker!”
Meaning that in a good way.
geg6
@Brickley Paiste:
So far, I like him better than Harris and, as a woman, I don’t consider a being a woman to be a necessary criterion for running. And there is no evidence that he’s gay, although I wouldn’t care if he was. He has every right to run and you are the asshole I always thought you were for saying he doesn’t. Fuck off, troll.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
But nothing about Trump is dignified, not his inauguration, not his Home Tower, not his country clubs, not even his gold-plated toilet! Why should his departure be any different? I prefer in handcuffs, struggling with US Marshals… but I’ll take an undignified resignation to make more money, even if I don’t believe a word of it.
@Sebastian:
translated from the original:
“I don’t know enough about the general issue with charter schools but the charter school my kid goes to and the one we are applying for are both absolutely superb in every possible aspect.”
Which is so self-centered, “My kid has it all — “superb in every possible aspect,” screw the general public.” Also not true, Kid in question isn’t attending school with disabled yet smart students, with racially diverse students, plus is stealing money from the local school district.
Regarding privatizing public services more generally: This is always a scam. Others have mentioned the lack of protection and unions when services are privatized.
Government is not a profit-making business, the private sector performing formerly public services is. Thus the cost of those services MUST go up by both the profit margin of that business AND the overhead of managing that service, which the state must continue to provide for all the other not-yet-privatised services.
We had a (R) governor who privatized many functions of the State Road agency, guard-rails installed by a company from Ohio, painting safety stripes on the highways, same, etc. Was there a kickback from those out-of-state companies? Well, that governor spent time in a federal prison for soliciting bribes and kickbacks on tape, so probably.
Even using contracts with consulting firms for projects means bringing in staff with NO experience with a given government agency and it’s legal requirements, and paying a huge profit overhead for the “experts” supplied, who need to be educated by the state employees who already know the laws, rules, and requirements before they can even begin productive work!
Now I’ve said my piece. I’ve dealt with great contractors from all over the world, but I’ve also seen terrible job performance by over-priced drones being charged out at top billing rates.
On topic, I will support Sen Cory Booker if he is nominated. He did enter a a burning building to rescue folks. As a trained Navy firefighter, for an untrained civilian, that is incredibly brave, so whatever else Sen Booker has going for him, he has balls! That’s a good thing in today’s world!
J R in WV
@geg6:
This!!
Brickey paste is and always has been a despicable troll with hateful attitides. I had him in the pie filter for a long time, then was induced to remove everyone, since I often click the interpret icon for comments on interesting threads. Perhaps time to put him back in his little cage?!
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
Great take on perfect candidates. Of which there are zero in this world.
Just saw on the way home, a BS 2020 bumper sticker, right next to the BS 2016 sticker. Now that’s a lost soul.
Sam Land
@poleaxedbyboatwork: This!