Steve Benen notes a new undercurrent in the Democratic Party and expresses a little unease at it:
And as a New York Times report noted today, “It’s that time of the election season for Democrats.”
“Since the last debate, just anecdotally, I’ve had five or six people ask me: ‘Is there anybody else?'” said Leah Daughtry, a longtime Democrat who has run two of the party’s recent conventions.
With doubts rising about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s ability to finance a multistate primary campaign, persistent questions about Senator Elizabeth Warren’s viability in the general election and skepticism that Mayor Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend, Ind., can broaden his appeal beyond white voters, Democratic leaders are engaging in a familiar rite: fretting about who is in the race and longing for a white knight to enter the contest at the last minute.
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But even if we put these relevant angles aside, there’s a more obvious concern related to the 2020 cycle: Democrats don’t necessarily need a “white knight” because – and this is important – they’re already winning. General election polling currently shows each of the party’s top contenders ahead of Donald Trump in 2020 match-ups.
While the size of any field is misleading, as the big Republican field of 2016 demonstrated in that it had roughly 17 ambitious but ultimately unimpressive and unqualified, in my judgment, candidates (with the possible exception of Kasich), I think there’s enough qualified candidates in the Democratic field that Benen is right to think the unease of some Democrats is unwarranted.
However, in reviewing the Democratic field today, I think it’s worth noting that recent non-campaign events have stirred the pot quite a lot, specifically the heart attack of Senator Sanders (I-VT). It’s a reminder that an elderly leader, no matter how apparently robust, is at risk of sudden health conditions impairing their competency. For the concerned Democratic primary voter who is not tightly bound to any candidate, the top three candidates, who are former VP and Senator Biden (76), Senator Sanders (78), and Senator Warren (70), become a little more worrisome. The office of the President is stressful, and cleaning up after Trump will make it only moreso.
So who might be seen as moving up? Mayor Buttigieg (37) has the attributes of youth, military service, distinguished academic achievements, and charisma; his civil service is somewhat limited, although it is of the Executive sort. And he is a white guy, which in some Democratic communities might be seen as a necessity for defeating President Trump. But some Democratic voters are still uncomfortable with voting for a gay candidate, and in combination with his rather extreme youth and his limited experience with national and foreign affairs, he may not be the best pick.
Which leads to Senator Klobuchar (59) of Minnesota. True, she’s not charismatic, but she’s in the right age range, a good amount of civil service with some private sector work thrown in, apparently healthy, reportedly highly respected in the Senate, and brings a degree of diversity in her gender to the office desirable to most Democratic primary voters – apologies to the Mayor. She can argue her work as a prosecuting attorney gives her some executive experience, and her time in the Senate has undoubtedly exposed her to national and international issues. She can play mean, as we saw at the last debate (well, I read about it), or in reports of how she treats her campaign workers.
More importantly, Klobuchar is more of a centrist. She has not endorsed Buttigieg’s plan to reconfigure the Supreme Court. She doesn’t support Medicare for All, arguing that most voters are satisfied with their health care insurance and would prefer not to take the big leap into the unknown. While that may engender a thumbs-down from the progressive wing, the fact of the matter is that the Democrats need to win the Presidency, and the progressives may just have to hold their noses and vote for someone who hasn’t received their stamp of approval – just as non-progressives might have found themselves voting for Sanders if it wasn’t for his heart attack.
In terms of dirt, Klobuchar has remarkably little, although I believe a little bit has been dug up from her time as Hennepin County attorney. She may become the compromise candidate for the Democrats, which would certainly be worthy of a party built on compromise.
The key hurdle will be the Iowa caucuses. If she does well, the rest of the field had better look out.
