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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBernie Sanders endorses in the KY-SEN Primary
Link to tweet
His record of endorsement success isn't getting any better.
The Magistrate
(95,255 posts)Ms. McGrath actually has a chance of defeating McConnell. Sanders' endorsement will make no difference at all, certainly, but still --- a stupid damn thing to do.
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)He seems to like challenging Democratic incumbents.
BannonsLiver
(16,448 posts)Ideological purity is viewed as being more important than actually winning, gaining political power etc.
BlueLucy
(1,609 posts)The guy Bernie endorsed does not. Right now, Rose twitter is going after McGrath in a rather vicious and nasty way. All they're doing is weakening her for the GE.
Captain_New_York
(161 posts)Guessing Kentucky is not a hotbed of Bernie Bros
Brother Buzz
(36,463 posts)Booker, at best, will carry Louisville, Kentucky. Then, like a good Democrat, he will throw everything in and support McGrath, and even stump for her.
In turn, Senator McGrath will support Booker down the road, when he runs for congress. That is, when Yarmuth announces his retirement. Booker is young, and Yarmuth still has a couple of years left, so it will be down the road a bit.
ismnotwasm
(42,008 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)controls the senate and/or getting that democracy-destroyer Mitch McConnell out of power are less important to him than making an ideological statement or paying off a campaign debt.
The polling, which was conducted by RMG Group, shows McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot, with the support of 41 percent of voters, while McConnell is backed by 40 percent. However, the polling also showed that when voters are informed that McGrath supports congressional term limits while McConnell does not, her lead over the Republican jumps significantly.
With the candidates' positions on term limits factored in, McGrath was backed by 45 percent of respondents, while McConnell was supported by just 30 percent. But 17 percent of those surveyed were still undecided, and 8 percent said they'd vote for a different candidate.
Hopefully, Booker's undermining doesn't eat into McGrath's support when she faces off against McConnell in the GE. Formerly obscure, he's now getting a big surge of attention from George Floyd's murder. In contrast to Sanders' endorsement, though, he seems to be trying to paint himself as a male mainstream liberal alternative to McGrath.
The ad uses language that downplays some of Bookers more progressive views, opting for the term healthcare for all instead of touting his support of Medicare for All, and using the phrase a living wage for all instead of universal basic income, which are two major pillars of his campaign.
It also shows a picture of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear when Booker talks about how Democrats need to mobilize young and old, black, brown and white, fighting for real change. Beshear, who has surged in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic, is from the more moderate wing of the Kentucky Democratic Party.
https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article243390726.html
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/kentucky/2020/06/09/kentucky-senate-primary-election-2020-democrat-charles-booker-releases-first-tv-ad/5325157002/
OilemFirchen
(7,143 posts)but not male and female. Straight out of the JD playbook.
And, of course, McGrath, at 45, is a whopping ten years older than Booker.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)believe keeping a mainstream Democrat like McGrath out of the senate is more important than worrying about McConnell and cabal.
Strange phenom, far-lefties who must always oppose the dominant liberal power bloc, even to the point of supporting inimical RW powers to do it. Political psychologists have explanations of course, but I've never been to "feel" what goes on in their heads enough to understand.
The Magistrate
(95,255 posts)Destructive, self-indulgent swill that's rancid well before its sell-by date....
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)who ran as a way to promote his name. Is there something big I don't know? Of course, then George Floyd was murdered and he and practically every black candidate in the nation got a big boost in attention, which surely he shouldn't be blamed for?
Now he's riding the zeitgeist roller-coaster, including Sanders' endorsement, but will lose the primary as always expected anyway. Senators have to represent most of a state, and that's quite a trick for someone like Booker to pull off. (Sanders does it in a small-population state by keeping in good with VT's conservative voters and making sure their liberal Democrats have no one else to vote for.)
Seems to me what matters is how much damage, if any, this unexpected change in dynamics does to McGrath's chances to kick McConnell out of the senate.
The Magistrate
(95,255 posts)That seems to be the import of his advertisement, that she will 'just help Trump get his way' if elected. That is unforgivable conduct in a primary, particularly from a long-shot against someone who has a chance at evicting the wretch who sees to it Trump gets his way.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)something she said to imply she supports Trump's positions. She spoke of Trump betraying KY voters who believed him.
Noting that BOTH Trump and Sanders promised to repeal the ACA and replace it with a FAR better program that costed MUCH less, while Democrats promised to finish the ACA to provide universal healthcare, the only one of the three who could deliver on the promises. Lots of opportunity for verbal chicanery there.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I really just wish he would take his ball and go home. He always has to be a spoiler. This is all about his ego. I am so damned tired of his bullshit!
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)What a shame!
aidbo
(2,328 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)However, in this case, since this Sanders' endorsee is hiding his leanings to portray himself as a mainstream Democrat, aligning with mainstream Dem. Gov. Beshear and Amy McGrath herself, hopefully in the end he'll be seen mainly as a black male version of McGrath and end up reinforcing the Democratic message.
liskddksil
(2,753 posts)brooklynite
(94,727 posts)lapucelle
(18,319 posts)tishaLA
(14,176 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,795 posts)oasis
(49,407 posts)Booker didn't hesitate throwing shade on Democratic opponent Amy McGrath.
Booker hasn't got a prayer of beating Moscow Mitch, but why would he stoop to driving down Amy's numbers in the G.E.?