Kremer’s Corner: The guessing game for 2020

Jerry Kremer

It is hard to believe that it’s only a few short weeks since the 2018 mid-term election and the political pundits are already talking about the 2020 presidential election.

Most of the names being floated are the same ones you would have expected but the more you look at the early roster it is not a leap to say that many will cancel each other out.

Once Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are out of the starting gate, both will realize that their platforms are the same and the chances of either one beating Donald Trump are almost impossible.

The second tier that includes Kirsten Gillibrand and Corey Booker don’t have the ability to excite voters in between the California and New York coasts. I know I have forgotten at least six others you were thinking of but for now, I will take a pass on mentioning their names.

America is looking for the right person to take on Mr. Trump who thinks that he can win another term by acting like Don Rickles.

With apologies to the late Mr. Rickles, at least he was funny and not mean-spirited. So it’s worth looking at the field. Some of my friends have immediately discounted Mayor Michael Bloomberg. That could be a mistake.

If the country is hungering for a true independent with modest charisma and who can finance his own campaign so do not discard the mayor so quickly. He may not be nominated but he may be a big player in picking the next Democratic hopeful.

A group of Southwestern Democratic donors has started floating the name of Beto O’Rourke, who just lost an amazing race for the U.S. Senate in Texas. Beto has star power but he did lose and the rest of the country outside of the Alamo knows nothing about him. His campaign was based on health care for all and other progressive ideas, but that agenda may be too rich for the average voter.

There are elected officials out there who will make a primary interesting. U.S. Senator Kamala Harris(D-CA) is very bright and focused and she has the ability to stay in the running and could wind up as a Vice President pick.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown was the only winner in a state that killed the Democrats. Brown may just have the right tone and ideas to project him into the final round.

New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo will survive a round or two of the primaries because he is articulate and has a record of taking on big projects that haven’t been attacked since the death of Robert Moses.

Many voters outside the Empire State don’t love New York, but that’s because we have Wall Street and now Amazon.

If the Democratic Party is looking for a celebrity try Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Mehmet Oz or George Clooney.

I doubt that any of these great people with their wealth and comfortable lives would be willing to get into the ugliness of a national campaign.

But once upon a time, a B movie actor named Ronald Reagan proved that show business people could win elections. Being the country sadly elected a television performer to the White House, there is no real appetite for another one.

Some of the readers may think that I have forgotten former Vice President Joe Biden but I haven’t passed him by. The first thing that keeps his name up front is the fact that President Trump doesn’t want Joe Biden as an opponent.

The only reliable base that the Republican party has is rural America. Biden is respected in blue-collar country and paired with the right running mate, either a woman or a respected minority, he could topple Trump.

I also skipped Hillary Clinton. I truly respect her but it’s time for her to leave the stage and take on new challenges in her chosen field.

So being everyone else is starting to speculate about Democratic presidential candidates, I took my opening shot on names that will be in the running and others that will fade away quickly.

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