The bad news is that Sen. Harris is out of the Presidential race:
Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California announced that she is ending her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In a note to supporters, Harris wrote that “my campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue.”“It is with deep regret — but also with deep gratitude— that I am suspending my campaign today,” she wrote. “But I want to be clear with you: I am still very much in this fight.”
Harris had qualified for the December debate but was in single digits in both national and early-state polls.
the good news is she is still a Senator, which is a pretty damned big deal, and a young one at that. This is not the last we will hear from her, thank goodness.
Wapiti
My yard sign is staying up for now.
bg
The good news is that she will be in the Senate to question witnesses at the impeachment trial
tinare
Sorry to hear that. She’s a good candidate. Hopefully this was a learning experience for her next run.
Tim C.
This is the way!
VeniceRiley
Too soon. Still mourning my loss. After Hillary, it’s too much to ask to dust myself off and root for a pen*s. We need female leadership. A Senator is 1 of 100. I want the entire executive branch.
zhena gogolia
@bg:
Apparently they don’t get to say anything.
Betty
I think ahe still has a big contribution to make. She seemed uncertain about what her agenda would be and can now take time to develop that.
Elizabelle
Kamala Harris has a lot to contribute. We are lucky to have a person of her calibre on our side.
zhena gogolia
I’m completely orphaned now. I don’t know whom I should send my contributions to. I hate Gabbard and Sanders but other than that I have no real preference among the remaining candidates. And I’m sure as hell not giving to all of them.
My “Joyful Warrior” bumper sticker stays on. (Next to Clinton-Kaine, Obama-Biden, and Kerry-Edwards. My car is a bit unsightly.)
Steve in the ATL
She was my first choice. Since she’s out, I’ll renounce my membership in the Democratic Party and vote for either Trump/Pence or Gabbard/Sarandon.
Steve in Motown
Capri
There are political realities that suck, but that doesn’t make them less real. I am very worried for Warren as well.
schrodingers_cat
When she did that dosa making video I knew she was done. She knew then that she had nothing left to lose.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Save it up for the general.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: ??? Please explain re the dosa video.
Doug R
That leaves her open to be Attorney General in the Warren administration.
Baud
I was more optimistic at the beginning of the primary season than I am now (for a variety of reasons in addition to today’s news). Still think we can beat Trump but getting less optimistic about the ensuing administration. But nothing to do but press forward.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: The video with Mindy Kaling that Tamara had put up. Where she embraced her south Indian roots. That was clearly not to win votes. I doubt that Indian Americans make up even 1% of the electorate.
lamh36
I will vote for the Dem nominee…but my purse is basically closed until maybe after their is a nominee. Might throw some coins to Castro until they force him out, because at least he’s been calling out the bullshit from the beginning. I will encourage my friends & fam to vote Dem in Nov 2020 no more no less.
If I had to be pushed for who I will support from afar going forward. It’s Biden.
schrodingers_cat
I am on team Amy K now.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steve in the ATL:
You forgot about Wilmer
West of the Rockies
@Steve in the ATL:
You rat-bastard!//
CarolDuhart2
@Baud: She has a lot of options. Accumulate seniority as the senior Senator from California, take a position in the next Democratic Administration, try again for President, or become Governor of California. (She would be the first black female Governor and gain some reformer points that way).
schrodingers_cat
@lamh36: Castro has been good. MSM has been trying to cast him as angry from the get go.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t particularly mind her positions, but isn’t she the one that screamed at staff as a Senator?
The Moar You Know
@bg: not how it works. She will not be questioning anyone.
Lyrebird
YES! My thoughts exactly. She is a fantastic leader and questioner. We’ll need both.
My respect for her has gone up even more.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@schrodingers_cat:
Are you serious? The racism of the “liberal” MSM on full display. I hadn’t seen much coverage of Booker, but I’ll take your word for it
PsiFighter37
@lamh36: Castro is a lightweight IMO. Running San Antonio (which has a weak mayor’s office) and 2-3 years, or however long it was, as an unremarkable, unnoted Secretary of HUD…meh.
At this point, the candidates I would seriously consider are:
Top tier: Biden and Warren
Everyone else: Klobuchar and Booker. I would ordinarily put Deval Patrick in here, but he should have known working at Bain (after what Democrats did to Romney) would kill him, and entering this late is not serious at all.
Sanders, Gabbard, Steyer and Bloomberg can all go DIAF.
schrodingers_cat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The same. She is tough. She had the foresight not to jump on the BS moronic M4A bandwagon. She doesn’t attack other Ds with R talking points like the boy wonder or want to hug it out with Rs like Joe Biden. She is best of the people that are left in my opinion. YMMV.
Lyrebird
@schrodingers_cat: I also saw that and thought, hmm, I think she might be ready to get off of the campaign treadmill. Fun video, just seemed almost too relaxed.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t know. What’s her position on a public option or M4A with private health insurance for those that want it? It’s not a make or break thing for me, just curious.
As for the staff thing, toxic bosses are toxic bosses, no matter sex. If she’s the nominee, I will vote for her no matter what, but that’s a turnoff for me.
With Harris out, I’ll probably support Warren. Her anti-corruption theme, similar to Harris’, is what I like about her.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: Seriously?? I loved that video.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): test
The Dangerman
@Steve in the ATL:
I think you mean Trump/Trump. Donald wants to spend more quality time with Ivanka.
I wish Harris had stayed in long enough to be a VP candidate; maybe she still can be. I don’t know the rule of thumbs there.
Steve in the ATL
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I ain’t voting for no corporate sellout!
Steve in the ATL
@The Dangerman: trump/hailey?
bg
@The Moar You Know: @zhena gogolia:
Now I am even sadder to see her go.
Chris Johnson
@The Dangerman: Well, I’d like to see her be Veep. That’s a path to later being President, if we all play our cards right. She was my second choice and I don’t want to write her off: I won’t. I’ll live long enough to vote for her, dammit :)
schrodingers_cat
@Lyrebird:
@tobie:
I loved it too except the generalization about how all Indians are vegetarians, Indian dogs are vegetarian and so on..
It seemed like a going away gift for all her Indian fans.
schrodingers_cat
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yes it was. They cast him as the angry Hispanic man with crazy immigration positions from the get go.
ETA: I don’t agree with them obviously. MSM likes diversity as long as those diverse view points are not too hostile to the existing status quo.
tobie
@PsiFighter37: It’s telling that Castro has never risen above 3% in Texas polls. Folks in his home state don’t seem to like him. I came to dislike him when he made Sec 1325(a) the be-all-and-end-all of immigration reform even though it was clear that this provision had nothing to do with why immigrants were being detained and families separated. It was pure political showmanship, as was his attack on Biden for a memory lapse that turned out not to be one. Biden said lots of awful things in that debate which were cringeworthy and deserved to be criticized. But Castro’s rehearsed attack lines felt off and frankly craven.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Yes, plus I’m giving to Amy McGrath and possibly will start giving to Tedra who’s up against Stefanik.
NotMax
@Chris Johnson
Not a notably successful one (outside of in-term succession), historically speaking.
tobie
@schrodingers_cat: Maybe. I thought the video was appealing because it was playful and showed Kamala’s human side. The Southern Indian community may not mean much in terms of votes but could be significant when it comes to donations. Or so I thought. There’s a reason I’m not a political strategist. Anyhow, I’m sorry to see her exit the race. She’s the candidate who put K-12 education and criminal justice reform on the map and both strike me as super important.
Citizen Alan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Given the way things work nowadays, I can easily believe Klobuchar just raised her voice slightly and everyone around her freaked out about the “emotional hysterical woman.”
Mary G
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, my rage increases daily and a good mean bitch is right in my sweet spot. Warren is charming and I love how much she scares the MOTUs, but she’s repeating the same points over and over and seems a bit tired out, possibly due to her age.
schrodingers_cat
@tobie: This is just my guess I have no inside info about the Harris campaign.
lamh36
@PsiFighter37: Lightweight or not…it’s where I will be sending money if I send any at all.
PJ
Yes, it’s the FTFNYT, but it looks like money and organization problems were the immediate cause of what sunk Harris’ campaign: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/us/politics/kamala-harris-2020.html
and https://twitter.com/AsteadWesley/status/1200385457722445824
But Harris also never got enough traction with minority voters. Astead Herndon makes the point that black and Latino voters are not supporting black and Latino candidates, and that to ignore this is to ignore their concerns: https://twitter.com/AsteadWesley/status/1201936285314756608
It may be that older black support is one of the main things keeping Biden viable: https://twitter.com/Steinernomics/status/1200419469954310145
japa21
@schrodingers_cat: Fully agree. I was down to Harris and Amy with third choice being Biden. Leaves me now at Amy with Joe a choice of last resort. None of the others, including Warren, has given me a single reason to support them in the primary.
Melusine
Fuck. She and Warren were my favs. If Warren doesn’t make it that leaves us with…
? I’m going to start drinking now to avoid the rush.
Hopefully she’ll make AG.
Amir Khalid
This is very bad news. To me Harris has shown herself to have more presidential stuff than the rest of the Democratic field put together. And so has Warren.
MoxieM
I’m just gonna say this right here out loud, even if the thread is over and all that. For all her good points, and even if she’s a crap boss (ever hear about how Lyndon Johnson treated people?) I find Amy Klobuchar to be a black hole of negative charisma. She was sadly given a godawful nasal voice–and I don’t mean the accent–it’s the voice itself. Is it just me but it sounds like nails on a chalkboard? And she’s just not, dunno, I hope I’m not being double-standard-y misogynistic, but she is just not compelling to me. No sex appeal, if you will, like the comparisons between JFK and Nixon (showing my age here, eh?). She reminds me of a poorly-fitting Lands-End cotton sweater, honest to God.
OK, that’s all. Back to chilly snow and happy dog.
J R in WV
I spent most of the afternoon standing in the snow and drizzle watching an electrician work on the power drop for our water well. After spending several hours cleaning connections, he decided we need all new breaker panel box etc. So will be back tomorrow doing all that again with new equipment.
Worked hard on my arthritis and misery, plus mucho $$ per hour. This after minor ‘scope surgery on my knee last Tuesday. Other knee now hurts more than the one worked on, typical.
Sad that Harris didn’t click. Perhaps hiring for your campaign is more important than for your Senate office? Only presidential candidate we have contributed to so far. Hate several of the remaining candidates…. what to do???
Melusine
@MoxieM: ? The sweater comparison is very apt. During the last debate she looked like she was either going to run off stage in tears or burst into maniacal laughter.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@MoxieM: @Melusine:
Since she’s the only candidate I’ve met, I can tell you that she is a great deal more engaging in person – lively, funny, and quick, with a good concise delivery of her points and program. However, that’s not enough on the campaign trail and the national stage and TV. She needs to project that personality and she really doesn’t at scale. And yeah, her voice is nasal and mildly unattractive, but I’ve always hated JFK’s voice so what do I know. I wasn’t over the moon about her, but I’d still crawl over broken glass etc., etc.
So bummed about Harris. She and Warren are my co-first-choice despite their policy differences. Racism, sexism, and deep-rooted MSM bias are all factors there and I am indescribably pissed off. At nearly 59 years old, I am genuinely starting to think I will not live to see a woman president.