'The surge is real': Klobuchar makes late push in Iowa

[brooklynite]

SHELDON, Iowa — Amy Klobuchar keeps telling Iowans about the text she got from a friend cheering her “insurgency” after last week’s debate. The friend meant to say “surge,” but Klobuchar found the auto-correct error funny — and whatever you call it, she’s desperate to convince Iowa it’s for real.

Sprinting across the state’s sparsely populated, westernmost reaches, Klobuchar is heralding her many endorsements in the state, a doubling of her staff in Iowa and the $1 million she raised in the day after the debate on Thursday night.

Six weeks before the caucuses, the Minnesota senator occupies a unique place in the Democratic presidential primary. She sits firmly outside the top tier of contenders. But she is the one candidate viewed widely in Iowa — by local party officials, campaign operatives and her competitors — as having the last, best chance to disrupt the caucus field.

“Amy is dynamite,” said former Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, who has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden but attended a Klobuchar house party this past weekend in Council Bluffs. “Who knows where it leads, but Iowans have spent the last six months getting to know these candidates, and now they’re in the position where they’re getting to make up their minds.”

Damn Establishment Democrats.....

[apcalc]

1. Go Amy!

[bucolic_frolic]

2. She will vivisect Pence, unless she has to liquify Haley

I find little downside in Klobuchar. The worst that can be said is she has a centrist voting record, voted to approve some of Trump's judges, and being from the midwest is a bit demure or not very loud. Everything else is as solid as it gets. In my view, no way she's not VP material.

[pressbox69]

3. I thought she did well in last weeks debate.

[beastie boy]

4. She is one of only two candidates (the other being Buttigieg) who can legitimately claim a surge,

both in Iowa and nationally.

[judeling]

5. Is it big enough?

We wont know that for a while yet but what I found interesting is that other campaigns noticed.

Strategists working with several rival campaigns said they expected Klobuchar’s debate to result in at least some polling uptick in the state. And by the weekend, they were beginning to recirculate opposition research on Klobuchar — from old accusations of mistreatment by staff to her past support for some of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees.
Of her post-debate bump, an adviser to one candidate said, “She hasn’t been attacked yet. I don’t think anyone’s going to let this stand.”
A strategist working with another candidate said he does not expect that Klobuchar will “light it up anywhere,” but that “she’ll be viable in most places in the state, which is good for fourth.”

That was quite interesting, let it Stand? That was obviously from the Buttigieg camp because both Warren and Sanders know her and know its not a zero sum game and she is a great infighter.

Good for Fourth? That probably came from the Sanders camp who understand caucuses very well. But that acknowledgement of broad appeal while minimizing is a bit more telling then it appears.

[squirecam]

7. Fourth is fine right now

Amy doesn’t need to be in the top three. She doesn’t need the focused fire. She needs to keep doing what she’s doing, and try to get into the top 3 just before the caucus.

[cwydro]

6. I liked her a lot.

I’d be happy to see a successful “insurgency” lol.