he made a campaign ad where he is teaching his child how to build a wall, chanting “build the wall.” He’s a despicable human.

Florida gov. race will be interesting.

Gillum is extremely well spoken and personable. For the most part he has avoided all things Trump. He's focused on issues and being the man of the people.

We watched the Democratic debates and both wife and I were really impressed but we thought he had no chance.

The Democratic party doesn't seem to be fractured here. There wasn't much mudslinging except for Greene, but he never went after Gillum. I suspect he'll support him. Graham has already endorsed him and I think the party will be behind him full force here.

DeSantis doesn't seem to have any platform whatsoever other than being a Trumpkin. That might be enough here. Dunno.

woof woof bark!

I laughed. But seriously he sounds like someone who may energize voters rather than just running on “look at this Trump slappy.” I don’t think Florida is a swing state as long as Trump is Pres though, they ****ing love him down there. Texas and AZ seem more in play at this point.

Do you understand how primaries work?

I'm curious what this means.

It’s generally offensive to say he or she is “well spoken” because it almost is exclusively used in reference to black people. It conveys the view that it’s a surprise or noteworthy that a black person is well spoken. Regardless of whether you meant it in that way, that’s the way it comes across.

Oh wow.

We watched the Democratic debates and we both thought he was the best speaker of all of them. My wife voted for him.

Kinda sad you have to be careful about stuff like this.

Yeah, I’ve met/interacted with Chris King, Gillum, and Graham on a handful of occasions, and Gillum is the most personable in the role of a politician. Gwen Graham is nice and means well, but she definitely lacks the charisma/charm of her father. Chris King is another guy who comes across as well meaning and earnest, but he’s a kind-of goofy, rich white guy who definitely won’t energize minority populations.

It doesn't matter what the Republicans hammer the Dem candidate for. And the Democrats who hammer Bernie for being old won't be doing it because of his age.

There will definitely be some "Jews will not replace Trump" chants if Bernie runs.

Also there exists some nonzero % of Nevertrumpers who didn't bother to change their registration

Desantis bat**** ads were hand to God the first time I had heard the sound of his voice, ever.

(I live in his district)

He emphasizes 'monkey'. Saying the quiet parts even louder.

Attacking Bernie for his age while running against Trump might sound like some Karl-Rove-attack-them-for-our-weakness kind of mental jiu-jitsu, but I don't see it working that well, when there is the whole "honeymoon in the Soviet Union" thing which will tie nicely with any "socialist", "New England" "out of touch" narrative to go to.

Context matters and it’s almost exclusively applied to black athletes imo, when people say “I’m surprised how articulate he is!” or something in that vein. I think that was the joke; seems fine to describe a politician that way without any underlying connotation.

Pretty sure Tom was just goofing.

I think this is correct. When they come at Bernie it will be OMGZ SOCIALISM! not his age. We're already seeing that this cycle. Some nevertrumper on Twitter whose name escapes me posted an e-mail she got from "Newt Gingrich" where he spells out the playbook: they're going after SOCIALISM and touting "Trump's economy." That's why you see every GOP talking head coming at AOC from all sides.

They're not even talking about the tax cuts, which is basically their only legislative achievement, because it's unpopular with everyone who isn't megarich.

Yeah. Almost every GOP candidate and talking head is saying socialism now. But, and I'm tempted to all caps this, any Dem candidate will be called a socialist. Bernie or someone like him shrugging and saying 'whatever bro, free college and universal healthcare' is better than the centrist trying to out-hate socialism while all the people so inclined believe they are a socialist anyway.

Is it actually unpopular? I thought most people (predictably) just didn’t really notice any difference.

I think tom was being sarcastic, and I think everyone knows what you meant. But unfortunately there are different connotations to someone being "an excellent orator" vs. "well-spoken," esp. when referring to black candidates.

Polling was upside down as of late June anyway

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...tax-law-656387

If they wanted to be able to run on it they should have done what Dubya did and mailed everyone a check. That's tangible. People don't notice a few extra dollars per week especially when even that gets eaten up by higher gas prices and whatnot.

And Trump's people are aware of this, which is why he feels obliged to tweet about every insignificant piece of economic news as if it's earth-shattering.

watch this interview, the guy gets it. if one of the other dems had won i'd say desantis would win for sure, but gillum can energize turnout since he is strong on policy which will draw him all the progressives and a lot of independents. plus his voters may even help save lowly bill nelson.

more far-fetched than a racist game show host with no political experience?