I'm not suggesting that the Democratic candidate pool is the best that Dems could put up. But every one of them is intelligent, thoughtful, experienced, mostly honest, and mostly decent. You may prefer one over the others and believe that everyone else is a moron for supporting someone else, but, hey, that's life.
As for who can beat Trump. I'm not entirely sure that this is quite the right approach. Sure, the candidate is important, but, as noted, every one of them has something going, or they wouldn't be where they are at this point in the process. I think the more important point is whether whoever gets the nomination will run a campaign that will beat Trump. Will that candidate ensure that there is a rapid response team to respond to every trump tweet or insult or lie? And to respond instantaneously and in volume. Will that candidate use the micro targetting capabilities on FB? Will they put out hundreds - thousands - of news releases, news reports from every quarter. Not from Macedonia, but from hundreds of social media saavy Dems. If Bloomberg is not the candidate, will he spend hundreds of millions on TV ads? If so, great. New ads every day. In every market. If trump has a rally in DesMoines, the candidate needs to show up a day before. That's what I mean by Rapid Reponse. Every paid employee of whoever's campaign it is needs to be confirmed and reconfirmed as someone without the sort of baggage - racist tweets, sexist video, homophobic slurs - that can derail a campaign. Yes, the campaign needs to be a 50-state campaign, but emphasis has to be on the electoral college states that can really fuck us up again. And, yes, even the red states, with messages that might appeal to them. Consistency. On track. Focus. Be ready for every insult or threat. PACs need to mock, mock, mock. Hair, height, make-up - hey male farmers, do you put on makeup when to go to work every morning?
Yes, this is standard campaign stuff, but Dems have managed to forget or get sidetracked. This is not the time for either.
Can any current candidate have a decent chance if all of this is done? Frankly, I don't think so. But I won't say who I think would fall short regardless of running a forceful campaign. But I think we need to go into the primary voting booths with the belief that "our candidate" can pull it off.
And all of this is apart from the GOTV issue, which is a problem all by itself, and one that has to have its own concerted effort in the general. We have to get beyond the my candidate or bust attitude.
Congratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
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