Wednesday, February 19, 2020

i'll admit i'd like to see a gay president on some level, but i'm not supporting buttigieg, he's far too right-wing for me. there's no way.

remember: since i've pulled back from sanders, for me, this is just a math problem.

an eight point bump in south carolina, though, and the possibility of viability, is something to think about. this is an online poll, so there's reasons to be skeptical, but i would expect to see more movement than i have, and am sort of curious as to why i haven't.

if 80% of the south carolina democratic party vote is black, that means 20% isn't. the flip side of sanders salvaging the state by splitting the black vote is that somebody could in theory be competitive by doing overwhelmingly well with the white vote. could buttigieg potentially appeal to a john edwards type constituency in the south? it might have been a dead end with the black vote consolidated, but with it split, it opens up a path.

at the least, it seems like nobody is going to run away with the south this cycle, which is good, as it will prevent it from distorting the results. that was a problem the last cycle, as these states are not likely to be very competitive in the general.

note the specific role of tom steyer, who has no serious chance of winning, but is effectively siphoning out enough black voters to prevent them from deciding who the nominee is. reparations are an enticing promise, aren't they?

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/483577-biden-sanders-tied-for-first-place-in-south-carolina-poll