NYT: The Case for Amy Klobuchar

[brooklynite]

Since President Trump took office, Democrats have been having a passionate debate about what matters more: increasing progressive turnout or winning over swing voters. And there is no doubt that both tactics help Democrats win elections. But the evidence about which tactic matters more is pretty overwhelming. Persuasion does.

Take one stark pattern: In the 2018 midterms, many Democratic candidates who ran persuasion campaigns flipped areas that had gone for President Trump in 2016. Not a single Democrat won a competitive state or House district with an unabashedly progressive campaign.

Yet the presidential field is dominated by candidates who haven’t had to worry about persuading swing voters in years, if ever. Delaware (Joe Biden’s home), Massachusetts (Elizabeth Warren’s) and Vermont (Bernie Sanders’s) all voted against Trump by large margins. Pete Buttigieg and Mike Bloomberg were each the mayor of an overwhelmingly Democratic city.

The best case for Amy Klobuchar is that she’s the only remaining candidate with a track record of winning over the kind of voters that the Democrats will need to beat Trump. She has built her career on a middle-class image that avoids the leftism of Sanders or Warren and the elitism of Buttigieg or Bloomberg. As for Biden, Klobuchar looks sharper than he does — and she has a much more impressive electoral history.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/opinion/amy-klobuchar-2020.html

[tinrobot]

1. Amy's great, but she's had no traction.

I honestly don't see how she turns it around.

[squirecam]

4. After Tuesday

It’s down to Sanders and Biden. No one else can win a majority.

[MoonlitKnight]

2. Pretty lackluster case

Her one point is that she has been elected in Minnesota.

You know, the state that was the only one to go for Mondale. The state that had Paul Wellstone and Al Franken as Senators. Oh and the wrestling guy, Jesse Ventura as governor.

[judeling]

3. Oh

A state that has elected Norm Colman and Tim Pawlenty not to mention Michelle Bachman and Tom Emmer.

In point of fact the only candidate that possibly could demonstrate anything close to her ability to win in Red, Purple and Blue areas anywhere close to her was Tester and he could not show the sheer dominance she can.

The more you look at her electoral history the more impressive it is. She leads the ticket every time. Every time she runs the state house available to be flipped from Red to Blue does so. Of the hundreds of Democrats who have shared a ticket with her you would be hard pressed to find any that got more votes in their area then she does. From Obama down to local candidates.

And that History was true from the very first race.

[BusyBeingBest]

5. Amy's my second favorite. I think Brooks nails it

on the last paragraph posted above. I don't see a path for her, though.