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| Steve Bullock |
What a nice, affable guy.
His campaign has a premise, that Biden is a paper tiger and is ready to fade. And when he drops out the world will turn its eyes to him.
Who is he?
He is a governor from a small state, far away from the beltway, with a message of unity and national healing. It is a formula that worked for Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. That is his shot at the White House.
He is a governor from a small state, far away from the beltway, with a message of unity and national healing. It is a formula that worked for Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. That is his shot at the White House.
Steve Bullock is likable, articulate, and he has the typical suite of policies we see in the moderate lane of Democratic candidates. He has essentially the same policy positions as Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Michael Bennet, Tom Steyer, and John Delaney.
***Expand health access with a public office, but not Medicare for All.
***Comprehensive immigration reform.
***Address climate problems.
***Get money out of politics.
***Affirm reproductive rights.
***Tax the wealthy more--but doesn't hate the wealthy. Just tax them.
At this point, voters are choosing among differences of identity, biography, and presentation. We are looking for a personality we like. He could be noticed if he had money, or came with name recognition, or was well known in a big state, or had something memorable to differentiate himself so that the current Biden voters realized he was a perfect substitution.
He has none of those things. He is lost in the crowd. His problem has gotten worse because party activists, including the larger donors Biden needs, are observing what I observed when I watched Biden a few days ago. He looked old and frail. They have lost faith that Biden is the warrior who can take on Trump. Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick must have seen it, too, that sign of weakness buzzards see when they look down and start circling. Opportunity and duty. The nation needs them to step into what they see as a void.
So Bullock's space got even more crowded.
***Expand health access with a public office, but not Medicare for All.
***Comprehensive immigration reform.
***Address climate problems.
***Get money out of politics.
***Affirm reproductive rights.
***Tax the wealthy more--but doesn't hate the wealthy. Just tax them.
At this point, voters are choosing among differences of identity, biography, and presentation. We are looking for a personality we like. He could be noticed if he had money, or came with name recognition, or was well known in a big state, or had something memorable to differentiate himself so that the current Biden voters realized he was a perfect substitution.
He has none of those things. He is lost in the crowd. His problem has gotten worse because party activists, including the larger donors Biden needs, are observing what I observed when I watched Biden a few days ago. He looked old and frail. They have lost faith that Biden is the warrior who can take on Trump. Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick must have seen it, too, that sign of weakness buzzards see when they look down and start circling. Opportunity and duty. The nation needs them to step into what they see as a void.
So Bullock's space got even more crowded.
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| Click: small sample poll |
Bullock's point of distinction is that he was elected with a 4% margin in a state Trump carried by twenty points. He one-ups Klobachar's victory in Minnesota and raises.
He is 53, the perfect age, not too old like Biden, not too young like Buttigieg. He isn't from Wall Street. He looks good on TV. If there are scandalous embarrassments, no one knows about them yet.
He has an Iowa strategy, which means he spends much more time there than in New Hampshire. His campaign circulated a poll saying he was leading Harris, Klobuchar, Bennet, Castro and others. Bullock had 4% and they had less. The poll has little credibility since its tiny sample was only 327 total interviews, and the margin of error far exceeds the difference among the various candidates, but apparently 12 voters in Iowa chose Bullock as their choice. Voters around the country may not have heard of him, but some Iowa voters have.
A good showing in Iowa would get him noticed.
He is 53, the perfect age, not too old like Biden, not too young like Buttigieg. He isn't from Wall Street. He looks good on TV. If there are scandalous embarrassments, no one knows about them yet.
He has an Iowa strategy, which means he spends much more time there than in New Hampshire. His campaign circulated a poll saying he was leading Harris, Klobuchar, Bennet, Castro and others. Bullock had 4% and they had less. The poll has little credibility since its tiny sample was only 327 total interviews, and the margin of error far exceeds the difference among the various candidates, but apparently 12 voters in Iowa chose Bullock as their choice. Voters around the country may not have heard of him, but some Iowa voters have.
A good showing in Iowa would get him noticed.
If he is new to readers, it is time to notice him. Click here to watch and listen for 3 minutes:
https://youtu.be/IsGyIloBAg4
6 comments:
You have to give Peter Sage credit for attempting to pump-up unknown candidates who have zero chance of winning.
Quite frankly, the majority of democratic candidates are doing their party a disservice by staying in the race. There are still about 18 of them running and only about 4 or 5 who have a real chance of getting the nomination. The others are wasting resources distracting the voters. The voters need to focus on those with a real chance of winning, and that's not Steve Bullock.
Bullock's been my favorite for months. Sure wish he would move up in the polls, and voting. Seems by far the best qualified to appeal to some Trump voters.
If you can't get into the debates, there is no path. Bullock couldn't announce his candidacy until after the Montana budget was passed, and Montana Republicans stretched that process out.
Pretty much everyone besides Steve Bullock wants to see him run for US Senate for Montana, but he has consistently said "no". It would still be a longshot even if he did run for Senate, but he could make it competitive.
As it is, he'll likely keep doing the run through Iowa, drop out after getting very little support, and make his case for a cabinet position in a Democratic White House. Not everyone gets to be President, and there's no shame in serving in other capacities.
I am not pumping the long shot candidates up, but I am describing them and putting them in context. Gene McCarthy changed history by running and losing. Pat Buchanan revealed a dangerous impulse in the GOP electorate, which came to fruition in 2016, 16 years later.
Clinton and Carter both polled at near zero 90 days before the election.
In any case I want to pay them the respect of exposing the public to them. They traveled to Iowa and New Hampshire. They paid some dues. Most of them will lose, by definition.
Peter Sage
Peter: Absolutely continue to cover all of the candidates. Steve Bullock is in the ring, he’s trying. Attempting to claw his way into national media coverage. If the only criteria is perceived ‘electability,’ then only the party’s hand picked standard bearer Joe Biden would get any media coverage and there would be a total media blackout for a maverick like Bernie Sanders.
Oh, wait...
These presidential primaries appear to be job auditions for cabinet seats. Candidates are running to pad their resumes so that it says they ran for president, and then to give them assistance in garnering a cabinet post. How many of the current field will be looking to get a job in the next democratic administration? Guys like career politician Julian Castro have zero chance of winning, but you can be assured he'll weasel his way into another cabinet position.
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