After three long debates and 7 candidates officially dropping out of the race, we’ve wound our list of potential nominees down to 8. We’re left with only one person of color still in the race, 3 women, 2 billionaires, and a certain surging Senator. On February 25th, 2020, there was the last debate before the South Carolina Primary and Super Tuesday where 18 states will be up for grabs. So this was the last chance many candidates had to impress, and boy, did they fail.
But before we get into that, let’s give a round of applause and a wave goodbye to the seven candidates who departed from this race, finally.
It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday….
1-2-2020 – Julian Castro ends Presidential Campaign
1-10-2020 – Marianne Williamson ends presidential bid
1-13-2020 – Cory Booker exits 2020 race
1-31-2020 –John Delaney drops out of the race days before Iowa
2-11-2020 – Michael Bennet drops out after New Hampshire Primary
2-11-2020 – Andrew Yang ends 2020 Presidential campaign
2-12-2020 –Deval Patrick ends his Presidential bid
Let’s be clear, this race was far too crowded anyway, as voting drew near, it was clear that there would only be so many votes to go around, and now we’re seeing the top 8 vote getters, and here’s where they rank:
#8 – Fmr. NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg: Unless Mike Bloomberg is into BDSM, he sure spent a lot of money to take a beating on the debate stage in Nevada and again in South Carolina. His ad buy spending has rocketed to over $400 million and all it’s proven is that he can buy really good PR, but once you see him in person, it’s like being catfished. He’s mealy-mouthed on stage, snide, condescending, and paternalistically over-righteous. The size difference alone between him and Trump would make him an easy target (as Trump has already used by calling him “Mini Mike”), but his policies are equally problematic. If you’re buying into Bloomberg because of his ads, I’d encourage you to look a lot deeper.
#7 – Minn. Sen. Amy Klobuchar: It’s a testament to Amy’s ability that she’s still in this race. She hasn’t had remarkable debate performances until Nevada, and that catapulted her to a third place finish, but she was mostly held up by an insistent media narrative that has officially run its course. She’s got the mom jokes down pat, but they’re not helping her (If I hear that ‘snowstorm’ joke one more time, God help me).
I think if it weren’t for her obvious hatred of Pete Buttigieg and the excellent characterization of her on “Our Cartoon President”, she would’ve been out of here by now. I expect the Senator will leave before the votes are cast on Super Tuesday or just after.
#6 – Fmr. South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigeig: No one, I repeat, no one has appeared as desperate as Peter has this cycle. He’s tried to lob every attack he can muster at Senator Sanders, all to very little effect, and some back room shady dealings led to him eeking out a deceptive “victory” in Iowa. Now that we’re out of the majority white states however, his appeal has gone down considerably, and he’s doing everything he can to hold on, including courting more billionaire donor money and alienating the progressive base by slandering Bernie’s online supporters as significantly toxic. All of his tactics are failing miserably, and a 4th or 5th place finish in South Carolina should finally end his campaign, but he’s likely to continue on because he’s just that hungry for cheese.
#5 – Mass. Sen. Elizabeth Warren: Talk about a rollercoaster campaign. Liz Warren came out to a lukewarm reception, then as she began laying out her vision and plans, shot to the top of the national discussion, then as she courted former Hillary, Kamala, and Obama staffers to her campaign and her vision became more about woke feminist faux progressivism, and she stabbed her friend in the back by lying about a “sexist” remark he made in a private discussion over two years ago earning her the twitter hashtags #WarrenIsASnake and #NeverWarren to getting the gift of billionaire oligarch Mike Bloomberg on the debate stage where she annihilated him like a Mortal Kombat fatality. All of this led to a fourth place finish in Nevada and a likely fourth place finish in South Carolina. Her path to the nomination has significantly narrowed and her plan now is to stay in the race until the convention in the hopes of subverting democracy to steal the nomination. Maybe those snake emojis weren’t that far off after all.
#4 – Fmr. Vice President Joe Biden: Even though Joe Biden is the most high profile candidate in this race, if he does not win the South Carolina primary, he’s likely to be the next candidate to drop out of the race. Biden hasn’t been doing well, both physically and in the polls. He can’t speak in full sentences and he uses outdated talking points and analogies like when he referred to a female voter at one of his rallies as a “lying dog-faced pony soldier” or his constant chiding to voters telling them to “vote for someone else.” It’s almost like he really doesn’t want the job. Especially considering the three times Joe Biden has run for President, the best showing he’s ever gotten was in Nevada losing to Bernie Sanders by 37 points. Needless to say, South Carolina is his final battle ground and its likely older black voters will keep him afloat, but honestly, why would you? He’s so ready to go home, I think it’s time we let him.
#3 – Billionaire Tom Steyer: The fact that Steyer has climbed up to third on our ranking isn’t because of anything he’s done, but rather because of how bad everyone else has been. Tom has tried his best to stay true to his message that he is the benevolent billionaire. And he’s not entirely wrong. His money has worked to help a lot of causes in minority neighborhoods and businesses and that is a message that will resonate with the black voters of South Carolina. Don’t sleep on Steyer, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a shock second place finish for him on Saturday.
#2 – Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard: Seems strange that Tulsi would be this high after failing to make the debate stages three times in a row and failing to garner any place higher than 6th in all the contests so far, and in some cases she came in behind the undecided voters. That meant more people chose no one than selected her. But the main reason for that is media blackout. It was the same tactic used against Bernie in 2016, but it has definitely been put to maximum effect on Tulsi this go round. And that’s significant. Tulsi scares them in ways they simply cannot allow. She’s Bernie, but younger, female, a veteran, and totally outspoken. Unafraid to go against the grain as evidenced by her ‘present’ vote in the impeachment trial. They can argue back against Bernie on the main stage by trying to label him as a ‘communist, sexist, marxist’ or whatever they can come up with, but there’s no way they’d be able to combat them both on the same stage fighting for progressive ideas. It’s why I’m hoping she’s keeping a low profile on purpose as to not take too much away from Sanders, but also doing her best to build a coalition on her own as either a powerful ally when she runs again or (fingers crossed) to use as Bernie’s VP.
So that means…
#1 – Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders:
Reclaiming his spot at the top of our list is pretty easy to do when you do what no other candidate in history has ever accomplished which is win the popular vote in all three of the first nominating contests. Bernie has essentially won Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and is on the cusp of possibly winning South Carolina. If that happens, with the projected wins he’s bound to get on Super Tuesday, the 2020 race for the democratic nominee will officially be over. It’s entirely possible that the media smear campaigns and dishonest attacks on him have forced voters to look at Sanders and his platform objectively, and the fact that his campaign was cheated last time, definitely put hindsight into the forefront in 2020. Sanders is positioned to steamroll through the primary, which means he will have dominated a field that at one time consisted of 28 other candidates. That’s like Ric Flair coming into the Royal Rumble at #2 and winning the whole damn thing and the World Title on top of that. It’s still just a possibility at this point, but we can dream, can’t we?
THE BEONAIR NEWS NETWORK 