This fucking guy:
Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a third-term congressman who has pushed for a “new generation of leadership” in Washington, declared his candidacy for president on Monday, becoming the 19th candidate to enter the Democratic primary field.
“I’m running because I’m a patriot, because I believe in this country and because I’ve never wanted to sit on the sidelines when it comes to serving it,” Mr. Moulton said Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Mr. Moulton, 40, garnered attention in November when he helped lead a group of rebellious Democrats who had sought to deny Speaker Nancy Pelosi the gavel in the new Congress. The effort was unsuccessful, and Mr. Moulton ultimately voted for Ms. Pelosi. His online biography paints him as something of a disrupter, noting that he was “the only Democrat to unseat an incumbent in a primary” in the House of Representatives when he was first elected in 2014.
One of the other real problems created by the Trump presidency is that literally anyone thinks they can be President now. Here we’ve got some shmuck with no natural constituency and who hasn’t been in politics long enough to accomplish anything and whose name you only know because he came at the queen and failed thinking he has the right stuff. Not to mention, boy does he have his finger on the pulse of the Democratic party, wanting to ignore domestic issues and run on national security. Hoo boy.
Return to sender.
david
The upcoming Democratic primary is looking more and more like one huge clown car. And we’re not even close to all the announcements. Biden formally announces Wednesday, which would make him Number 20 (and counting).
Time to dust off all the ’16 GOP primary jokes and recycle. After all, it is Earth Day.
OzarkHillbilly
The grift is strong with this one.
MattF
‘Mediocre White Male’ is the new hot demographic. I foretell a tidal wave of books, op-ed columns, contrarian Slate essays… not to mention money-seeking candidates,
Scott
Failing upward is apparently the only path to success in today’s America.
TaMara (HFG)
I said this when Swalwell entered the race. I have nothing against any of these guys – but the fact they don’t understand the energy of the country is flowing in the direction of “anything but middle-age/old white guy” (see: 2018 blue wave) is a strike against them. If they can’t see that, I seriously question their judgment.
gene108
Sigh…I can get long shot candidates like Andrew Yang, who have an idea to plug, running. There have always been candidates like that.
I don’t get what Ryan, Moulton, and others hope to get out of it…
rikyrah
Exactly, Cole.
Tell it.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: Co-signed. With extra blech.
OzarkHillbilly
@TaMara (HFG):
One should.
Dan Myers
Just what the Democratic party needs. A candidate wearing a MAGA hat.
Baud
Tell me about it.
Duane
When you hear someone proclaim ” I’m a patriot,” time to run. Away. Quickly. They’re a delusional idiot.
PST
I thought Tim Ryan was the most unnecessary candidate, but now he’ll have to move over. I don’t care at all for Ryan, but I felt somewhat reassured after hearing him interviewed the other day. He’s a Democrat and he pretty much follows the party line. He’s right of the Democratic center but no Joe Manchin (or Joe Lieberman). People like him won’t jump to Trump.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Are you feeling the Moultonmentum yet? I am!
Chris
If “running on national security” means “people, Russia is hacking our elections, trying to disrupt our alliances, and spilling its borders, and we badly need to lock ranks against it and its friends,” hey, good for him.
If, however, it’s yet another “we need to screw over our nonwhite immigrants, give the security state more powers to abuse, keep rattling the saber at a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, and keep selling nuclear materials to one that did…”
The Moar You Know
The national security issue we face is our current domestic leadership, specifically Mitch McConnell and the howling orange rubber stamp who is in charge of nothing.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108:
The $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ that comes with a higher profile. Also a nice ego boost, “Presidential Candidate Seth Moulton…” has such a nice ring to it, don’t you agree?
NotMax
Welcome to Earth-Hruska.
MattF
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Hmm. in the femto-mo regime?
feebog
This is all going to shake out pretty quickly. First, some of these mooks are not going to make the debates, so they will sink into the same obscurity from which they rose. Second, even if a few of them do make the debates it is doubtful any of them will catch lightning in a bottle. Third, by Super Tuesday it will be down to 3-5 candidates and no on will remember any of candidates.
Juju
Oh goody. Another over entitled under talented white guy running for president. You know I’m thrilled. ?
MazeDancer
Who votes in the Democratic Primary?
Women!
Who wants to see Moulton flayed alive – metaphorically – for dissing Queen Pelosi?
Women!
Eric Swalwell will make an excellent candidate for POTUS in 20 years.
Seth Moulton will still be a White Boy Fool.
NotMax
This is what comes from the ‘everybody gets a trophy’ mentality.
joel hanes
Eagerly awaiting the first fund-raising mail so I can reply.
JPL
@MazeDancer: If trump loses, Seth will run as a republican in a few years.
rikyrah
The unmitigated caucasity…
BWA HA HA HA HA H HA HA
Amir Khalid
Oh nice, another future also-ran.
zhena gogolia
I know virtually nothing about him besides his challenge to Pelosi. I guess this is the year for Harvard-educated vets.
But I will say: national security is our number one problem right now and the candidates aren’t talking about it much.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I am beginning to think you seriously should declare.
zhena gogolia
@Chris:
right.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
Haha, that’s a good one!
Just One More Canuck
@zhena gogolia: I want to see his tax returns
zhena gogolia
Not really OT, interesting anecdote from Oriental Research Partners:
zhena gogolia
@Just One More Canuck:
Oh, God, I don’t!
sdhays
This fucking tool didn’t even have the guts to actually run against Pelosi for the Speakership. He had years developing direct relationships with those people to try to take over the caucus, but was either too lazy or failed at getting his colleagues to like him enough. And he knew this, which is why he didn’t even dare to formally run against her. He tried to lure an African American lady into that buzzsaw instead.
I smell someone angling for a lucrative contract with CNN as a pundit in 2021. He wants to raise his profile to be able to make lots of money. It’s not really a different plan from Buttigieg, although I think Buttigieg wants to stay in politics rather than cynically make lots of money.
zhena gogolia
@sdhays:
Buttigieg has a superior intellect and some real political talent, so I think he’ll fare better than Moulton with this strategy. I just watched 30 seconds of Moulton’s announcement and he’s a meathead.
randy khan
I’m pretty sure Moulton is running for a commentator spot on CNN, but I bet he’d settle for Fox if the money was good enough.
Betty
After his failed coup attempt, I saw quite a few of his constituents saying that want him out of office altogether. Not a good start, I would think.
Michael Cain
One of the things I worry about is the House Democratic caucus’s rules that favor age for leadership and important committee chairs. Much as I admire Speaker Pelosi and the job she has done, she’s going to be 80. The leadership behind her is 80-ish. The chairs of Appropriations, Budget, and Ways & Means range in age from 69 to 81. Members who are 60-ish and desire to move into bigger leadership roles have effectively been told to wait in line until the oldsters ahead of them retire or die. A young third-term Congressman is looking at another 15 years or so before they get any effective power.
The huge Republican gains in the House in 1994 forced their caucus leadership to revamp the Republican rules and cede some power to newer younger members (eg, Republican committee chairs are term-limited). I am curious to see if the Democrats do the same thing because of the large number of freshman that came in last year.
sdhays
@zhena gogolia: The comparison ends at high-level strategy/actual end goal. Neither of these guys is going to be the nominee, and they both know that the odds are largely against them, so they’re hoping to come out the end closer to where they want to be than if they had not run at all. At least I hope that’s their real plan. Otherwise, they’re kind of insanely delusional.
ETA: I don’t really care what Seth Moulton’s real plan is. I just hope he fails at it, spectacularly. Again.
rikyrah
Freeborn Black Woman First of Her Name ? (@TheWayWithAnoa) Tweeted:
I know Buttigieg makes a lot of y’all feel comfortable and safe with his empty words, but you can’t get plugged back into the matrix beloveds. And there is nothing about him that is better than Warren or Castro if the Bern is too spicy or you just not feeling it. https://twitter.com/TheWayWithAnoa/status/1119993504095195137?s=17
TaMara (HFG)
@NotMax And yet, that comment deserves a: ?
Citizen_X
Like being a United States Congressman—especially in these times—is “sitting on the sidelines!” Sorry you don’t appreciate your work, Seth. As one of your bosses/constituents, I’ll look for somebody more suited to the job. Anybody But Seth 2020!
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
Doesn’t anyone realize that Buttigieg potentially helps to stop Sanders? Why am I the only one who sees him that way?
cmorenc
Seth Moulton won’t be the D POTUS nominee in 2020. He’ll get weeded out early in the process next spring, if he makes it that far.
The real issue him throwing his name in the hat raises is: as his own candidacy flails and fails, how much collateral damage will he do as an insurgent in-house critic of the actual nominee and Democratic party cause? Probably of itself only a relatiely minor amount, but OTOH, Clinton only lost the electoral college by way of a relatively minor slippage of 75K votes distributed across Penn, Mich, & Wisc.
Major Major Major Major
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: He gives the right people the feels, by making them comfortable about their own bigotry. Telling folks that voting for T was understandable. He sure is not on my side. That much I know.
Aleta
If you run for president you can sell a book someone wrote for you. Or (as Bernie seems to have done) use campaign contributions to buy your books, you get that money for yourself. Then you can give away the books at events and people can donate ‘whatever they like’ to your campaign.
Searcher
Gods above, I cannot believe that the two Democratic front-runners are OLDER than Trump. I’m definitely worried about all of the better candidates diluting each other’s votes, the vainglorious idiots sucking up the oxygen, and one of the old white guys winning by default.
If things stay as they are, I’m hereby pledging that I will vote in the primaries for whichever one of (Harris, Warren, Klobuchar, Gillibrand) is polling highest, personal preferences among the lot be damned.
jl
There is an ‘issue’ here. Compared to Trump, in fact, millions of US citizens of all ages, races and ethnicities, genders, educational levels, would be better presidents than Trump.
But, that bar is far too low.
Anyway, a lot of these people are just getting into the race to get another gig. So, they’ll bob around, maybe get into a poll or two, then they’ll disappear into the next stage of the real job hunt.
FlipYrWhig
Doesn’t it feel like all the young white dudes are sort of running on the premise that if the old white dudes falter there’ll be a white-dude-shaped gap in the field, so, hey, maybe if they can hang in there a few months they can be the one true That Guy?
rikyrah
@FlipYrWhig: \
UH HUH
UH HUH
Another Scott
@Michael Cain: Already done, in December:
IIRC, rumors were that Pelosi planned on retiring if Hillary won.
There are more important things to worry about now than the age of the House leadership…
Cheers,
Scott.
Leto
Moulton is the Jonah Ryan of candidates. There essentially to get enough delegates, so that at convention time he can try to parlay that into a cabinet position. I hope he has a good Amy.
azlib
Fundraising will sort the field pretty quickly.
Betty
From the Boston Globe
Betty
Let me know if I used the quote thingy wrong.
Captain C
I think it’ll go as well as his passive aggressive bid for the Speakership.
Chris
@zhena gogolia:
I hear this kind of story about Dubya from time to time. And I think they’re way overplayed, and the bottom line for Dubya is that the guy belongs at the Hague for war crimes. But still, it’s the kind of minimal level of humanity and self-awareness that you can’t even imagine Trump having.
Chris
@zhena gogolia:
You’re not. In general, the more people to take votes from Sanders, the better.
bmoak
Mayor Pete and Beto at least can use the rationale that, as politicians in red states who are very unlikely to win statewide office no matter how well they campaign, a presidential run would be a good way to raise their political profile. Moulton is from Mass, so what’s his excuse?
Chris
@FlipYrWhig:
Yeah.
The thing that’s really struck me since this whole mess began is, it’s not like I can’t handle another white dude. After all, I’m a white dude myself. It’s just that the white dudes we’re getting thrown our way are just… very throughly unimpressive. Especially compared to, say, Warren.
RinaX
@TaMara (HFG):
Respectfully…is it? I’m Black, and the overwhelming energy is against Trump no matter what, regardless of who the Dem nominee is. White guy, woman…there doesn’t seem to be a particular preference. I have yet to see this “No White Guy” mentality manifest outside of the internet. For reference, I live in a purple county in Florida.
Aleta
@Chris: Yeah, for many of them I feel like their calculation to leap in now, go bravely after that boyhood fantasy, is biased by the mediocre. If Tr goes down, this year could be their only shot. And with a bred-in belief that they can do better than the women. Or else what they’d call realism: that sexism (but not from them!) will prevent enough votes for a woman to become pres.
TD
He’s a Harvard graduate who served in Afghanistan then got elected to Congress. This is not mediocre in any sense of the word. There is nothing wrong with white men running for president. There’s nothing wrong with people who are patriotic. You can choose to for for someone else but that doesn’t mean you have to eat our own.
Aleta
@bmoak: If his real reasons were as he claims, he’d campaign for Warren.
“to build a strong and safe country, create the jobs of the future, elect leaders we can be proud of.”
“because I’ve never wanted to sit on the sidelines when it comes to serving it”
He heckled Pelosi from the sidelines. To serve, support other Dem candidates. But by running, he can heckle them too. It works if you’re trying out for gigs on TV.
“Youngest person to ever run for president” has a nice ring in his ears.
burnspbesq
@TaMara (HFG):
Swalwell is an idiot. He has the inside shot at California AG if Harris wins the Presidency (Newsome would almost certainly appoint Becerra to her Senate seat), and AG is a pretty good springboard from which to go for Gov or the Senate.
Cacti
While I’m no fan of the Moulton DINO-bro caucus, in what meaningful way is he less qualified than Beto O’Rourke or Pete Buttigieg?
O. Felix Culpa
@zhena gogolia:
Not disagreeing with your observation, but is that why he’s running?
FlipYrWhig
@Cacti: Being from Massachusetts.
artem1s
@NotMax:
this is what comes from ‘team broken glass’ mentality. hard pass on this one too.
TriassicSands
Moulton, another completely unnecessary candidate. The Republicans, in 2016, showed what can happen when too many candidates run for president. They nominated Trump, a man given no chance at the beginning of the campaign. The Democrat’s Trump, Bernie Sanders, is in a similar, but even better position — and like Trump in 2016 he has a significant devoted base, while every other candidate is dividing up what’s left.
Sanders, again like Trump, is extraordinarily shallow — a walking slogan with no substance. Yes, he’s certainly better than Trump, but he has no real qualifications to be president. Just like many of the Democratic candidates who have announced.
A strong Democratic field would include Inslee (an excellent governor and the only candidate focused on the most critical issue of all), Warren (very strong on domestic issues), Harris (presents as a competent, decisive candidate), Sanders (by virtue of his 2016 showing…and no other reason), and perhaps Booker and Gillibrand. Julian Castro is on the edge. Personally, Klobuchar* leaves me cold, and her claim to bipartisan appeal is, I believe, a fantasy, but as a three-term Senator, she’s at least not a complete impostor like much of the Democratic field. That would be a field of seven or eight with a good mix of gender and ethnicity/race.
O’Rourke, Buttigieg, Gabbard, Williamson, Delaney, Hickenlooper, Messam, Moulton, Ryan, Swalwell, and Yang are mostly a waste of time. O’Rourke, if he proves he can actually win at the state level might be a good future prospect.
All we’re missing is a white nationalist — to attract all those bitter white guys — and Joe Biden — a failed candidate of the twentieth century whose best “qualification” is that Obama had (IMO) the poor judgment to choose him as VP (where he mostly couldn’t do any damage).
*I think Sherrod Brown would have been a much better candidate to attract the voters Klobuchar claims she can win over.
Ruckus
@gene108:
They hope to get political gravitas and publicity, which they think will get them power. Because that’s how a lot of politicians get started on the road to fame and fortune.
I just had a thought, I notice that most white men ask the question, “What do I need to do to impress enough people to vote for me to have power?” while most white women and black men and women tell us what they would like to accomplish to earn our votes. Mmmmm, I wonder who I’m going to vote for, the power/position hungry or the person with the best ideas……..
Dan B
@RinaX: Good to hear you are picking up an anyone but Trump sentiment. There seems to be several social media influencers that promoting the idea that Buttigieg is secretly a racist. In the gay blogs there is a consistent refrain that it’s great to have an openly gay candidate that has some impressive chops. There are some who worship him but most are realistic that the math isn’t there. 59% tell pollsters that they are comfortable voting for a gay candidate. In reality some don’t believe their friends would. So the actual figure is likely under 50%. And he’s really young. My guess is he’ll max out at 35% if he’s lucky. Then again we got Obama twice so who knows.
My favorites are Harris and Warren with Warren in a majority Dem Senate so the Mass Gov doesn’t appoint a GOP Senator. What bothers me is the energy spent warning people that Buttigieg should be going into promoting Harris, Warren, Castro, and other favorites. I would love for lots of people to know why they are enthusiastic about their candidate. Voter turnout overcomes some of the voter suppression and other crap when people are energized. We also need to know when attacks against them are false and where they are less than perfect but it does not matter in the big picture. Is Harris a big corp supporter and a lock em up cop? Is Warren a threat to the economy and a socialist atheist?
On a related note the Supreme Court is hearing two LGBT civil rights cases today. The outcome doesn’t look good. That plus upcoming “religious freedom” cases and dozens of Pence approved judges doesn’t bode well for LGBT people, or women’s rights – or any minority’s rights in the long run. So Pete Buttigieg’s quick rise has been a bright spot. The accusations against him feel personal even though we try to avoid feeling that way.
Thanks again for your insights. It’s a reminder that only a small number can obscure the true measure of the pulse of the nation.
MoxieM
Am about to move to CT, which is looking like the only state whose Senators are neither one running … leaving MA, but I’m happy with Blumenthal & Murphy.
Uncle Cosmo
@MoxieM: Add MD – neither Cardin nor Van Hollen (both solid Dems) has moved a Planck length toward a Presidential run.
AnotherBruce
@TriassicSands: You missed Inslee. He actually is a competent white guy. But I don’t see him getting much traction. He’s been quiet lately.