It is no secret that Donald Trump is running for reelection as President. There are several problems that might derail his run for a second term. If the economy goes into the tank, it will be hard for him to win. Most polls put his personal popularity pretty low. Twitter bursts do not help him much, either. And, of course, the Democrats are gearing up to nominate a tough candidate to defeat him.
Except, of course, in the field for the Dems, now about 23 since two have dropped out, each one features at least one drawback that, when presented in a general election, will not help them win. When faced with a President that has generated a robust economy, strengthened our military, ended ISIS power in the Middle East, created better trade relations with several of our trade partners, and made the U. S. more respected (or feared) on the world stage, any candidate is facing an uphill battle.
Let us take just a few of these wannabes and see their “Achilles heels”. First, just the moderates are few and have much baggage. Their frontrunner, Joe Biden, brings name recognition to the campaign, and is ahead of the field by double digits in the early polling. Yet good ‘ol Joe has a history of making gaffes, usually whenever he gets up to make a speech. Recently he claimed that poor kids were just as smart as white kids, for which he was taken to the proverbial woodshed. Also, since his days in law school, Joe has had a penchant for plagiarizing others’ works. He has already flipped on previous issues, and has been criticized by his Democratic rivals and he is running on the Obama-Biden economy and Obamacare, neither of which was very successful. Oh, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune! Oops! That last was plagiarized from the Bard of Avon, right? Will he be able to overcome his age and misstatements to win the brass ring?
Another “moderate” is Amy Klobuchar, Senator from Minnesota. Since no candidate from the upper Midwest has ever won the White House (read Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Walter Mondale) Amy faces an uphill climb. Given her low national name recognition and her legendary rants against her staff and subsequent record turnover in her office, and low polling numbers, we can safely bet against her if she faces off against the President.
Bernie Sanders is polling well, probably a leftover from his improbable run against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primaries. Yet he is telling those who choose to listen to him that he wants the expensive Medicare for All, free stuff like college which will be almost impossible to pay for. Add to that he is not really a Democrat, but a self-described Democratic Socialist who honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Again, a hard slog if he is to upset the present resident of the Oval Office.
One of the up and coming candidates is Elizabeth Warren, Senator from Massachusetts. She has championed the Green New Deal (and its 32 trillion dollar pricetag), free college and forgiveness of college debt. But she still has not put to rest her attempt to claim minority status as an American Indian, especially after her DNA test put her at about 1/1024th Native American. From my viewpoint, Trump would make her a pinata during Presidential debates, forcing her to take and defend her unpopular stances.
Mayor Pete of South Bend, IN, is an up and comer. But with his mantra of being “the only gay person” in the race, and his low (so low it cannot be quantified) approval rating among African Americans in his city, he appears to be an also ran. And add his name to the growing list of Democrats advocating for open borders, allowing illegal immigrants to come into the country with no control over them. This alone will alienate many voters come next fall.
“I Am Spartacus!” This rant by Cory Booker, Senator from New Jersey, will be replayed again and again during any campaign. His actions and words during the Kavanaugh hearings show he might not have the ability to stand up to the New York street fighter Trump has been shown to be.
One who seems to be losing support is the Senator from California, Kamala Harris. One good debate and one poor one and she is now polling at about 5%. Some of that loss comes from her record as prosecutor in her home state, where she jailed some 1500 for marijuana offenses, and then laughed off her own use of weed when she was younger. Also dogging her was the admitted affair she had with a powerful politician when she was just getting started in public service, an affair that resulted in being given preferential treatment on her way up the ladder. Do you think that the Republicans will forget that in the election?
The hope of Hispanics rests on Julian Castro, former mayor of a large Texas city. He comes with his own baggage, not least of which is his twin brother, a U. S. Representative who “doxxed” Trump donors. Also he has to defend his assertion that a transgender man should have a right to a taxpayer funded abortion. Trump and associates will have a field day with those gaffes if he is the Dem nominee.
Then there is Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, whose star was rising when he lost a close election to Texas Senator Ted Cruz last year. But he, like Icarus, flew too close to the sun and his poll numbers have plummeted.
Dark horses abound, but most are polling in the low single digits. Bill de Blasio is disliked by a large majority of New Yorkers, even though he is their mayor. Kirsten Gillibrand has somewhat lower than 0% poll numbers. Tulsi Gabbard made a splash when she attacked (verbally) Kamala Harris in the second debate, but her popularity has not risen, partly because she met with the Damascus butcher, Bashar Assad, three years ago and cannot adequately explain that away. There are others, like Tim Ryan, but he barely shows up on the radar. Any of these would face an up mountain obstacle (what is steeper than uphill?) to defeat Trump.
My take on it is that whoever runs in the 2020 Presidential election for the Democrats will have that on their resume after November next year, but no success for their efforts. If you want to waste your vote for President, vote Democratic!