Let’s cut to the chase already.
The 2020 Democratic primary is still overcrowded with candidates who have not even a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming the nominee. The best thing that could happen now to move things along would be for at least two or three contestants to take a page from former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s book and bow out of the race.
It would save everyone a lot of time and effort.
The trick is winnowing the list down to those who ought to drop out now versus those who still have at least a small reason to hang around. To do that, we should look to the candidates who suffer not only abysmal polling numbers, and have nothing to offer that better polling candidates do not offer already, but who also risk doing considerable damage to their reputations by delaying the inevitable, fizzling out eventually with an embarrassing whimper.
To slink away from 2020 a total failure is to show flaws and weakness, opening oneself up to years of justified mockery and ridicule. The following individuals would, therefore, do well to suspend their campaigns immediately.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California: What happened? The senator came into the 2020 primary like a lion, and she is going to go out like a lamb. Harris’ polling numbers have cratered, dropping to just 4.5% in November, down from her all-time high of 15.2% in July, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. That is a collapse of 10.7 percentage points in just a little more than three months.
Harris went from being a top-tier 2020 candidate, a no-nonsense former prosecutor, and a full-time #Resistance hero to becoming a hapless punching bag for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii.
What happened? Voters got to know Harris, that’s what happened. The senator still cannot state whether she believes private health insurance should be eliminated. More recently, Harris tried to boycott a criminal justice forum because it honored the White House. She reversed her decision later, but the damage was done already. The episode served mostly to remind everyone of not just the senator’s disturbing record as a corrupt prosecutor, but also that she is a flip-flopper.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey: What even is his campaign message? At just 2.3% in the polls, the New Jersey lawmaker and his constituents would probably be better served were he to return to the Senate to “resist” the White House’s agenda full-time. Perhaps Booker is angling for a gig as vice president. If so, he can do so without also having to stay in the 2020 primary. It would save Booker’s supporters an enormous amount of cash and effort.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Please, God, no. As a proud nanny-statist, Bloomberg offers nothing that Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, don’t already offer more persuasively. Bloomberg enjoys all the trappings of the life of a billionaire with little of the scrutiny that usually comes with it, all thanks to his support for the “correct” political causes, including gun control. If Bloomberg actually launches a 2020 primary campaign, only to lose eventually to Biden, he would draw only scorn and condemnation from the same people with whom he has spent years ingratiating himself.
Things like Bloomberg’s recent remarks praising communist China would suddenly become very interesting to more than just conservatives and a handful of journalists, drawing the widespread criticism he deserves. He has nothing to gain from losing an expensive primary and everything to lose, including cash and the goodwill he has built up for himself on the Left in the past decade. Do the opposite of Nike, Bloomberg. Just don’t do it.
