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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHmmmmmm possible new name for Democratic POTUS for 2020???
Mitch Landrieu isnt, for the moment, getting ready to run for president. But thats not stopping the Democrat who led the rebuilding of New Orleans from speaking out against institutional racism and what he calls the nightmare loop that links Donald Trump to David Duke.
With a media tour for his new book, In the Shadow of Statues (out Tuesday), and after headlining this months media-fest Gridiron Dinner in Washington, Landrieu knows hes kept people talking. Monday night on The Daily Show, he smiled through a long burst of applause when Trevor Noah pitched him on 2020. Ridiculous as he and everyone around him knows it is to think about a New Orleans mayor making a serious bid for the White House, they also see the unique profile hed have in a huge Democratic field concentrated on the coasts the white Southern liberal who loves wrestling and musical theater, and looks like he could blend right in at a Trump rally.
Barack Obama has taken note of Landrieus record as mayor and a speech he gave last year on removing Confederate monuments. The former president has said privately that he could see the appeal of a bald white guy from Louisiana talking up progressive politics in a Cajun accent. Though Obama is far from signing up, some notable players in his orbit are daydreaming of finding the next unlikely superstar and making it happen.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/21/mitch-landrieu-2020-democrats-473648
world wide wally
(21,719 posts)nolabear
(41,915 posts)and generally with good reason. I dont know much about him but if he survived without going to jail he might have a shot at running. Getting elected, now...would be fun though.
fleur-de-lisa
(14,615 posts)He is in good standing with minorities because he removed a bunch of Confederate monuments last year.
Honestly though, I don't know about making the jump from mayor of a smallish city to President. Has that ever been done?
nolabear
(41,915 posts)But I havent lived there for far too long and though I keep up I hear the complaints from the right and the generally disgruntled more than most of the rest.
Hows the new mayor doing? The idea of a scandal free mayor is
fleur-de-lisa
(14,615 posts)Although the election was in November, the winner (LaToya Cantrell - first female and she is African American!) does not get sworn in for another month or so. I can't remember why, but it's due to some one-time procedural issue.
Unfortunately, Cantrell was accused of improperly using her City-issued credit card for personal expenses (she was a Council woman). She has since repaid it. Both she and her opponent in the run-off (another black female and a judge!) accused each other of improperly using taxpayer money.
The credit card scandal seems to have died down. I expect it to rear its ugly head again as her inauguration approaches. We shall see.
I didn't really care which one of them won. Either way, we were going to have our first female mayor ever, and both of them are black! Win-win!
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)than a Georgia Governor or an Arkansas Governor or a South Dakota Senator.
But I do not see "institutional racism" as a winning theme.