Not just incredibly rare for a Republican, it’s the first time any senator has voted for the removal of a president from their own party. It was widely expected so not a big deal, Romney is now essentially irrelevant within the Republican party.
As expected Trump is acquitted (52-48 and 53-47), like Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton before him. A victory for the US system of government, no president should be removed unless on a bipartisan basis, as the wise founders of the country intended (impeachment should never be used on a partisan basis, as eloquently stated by Democrat Jerry Nadler during the trial of Bill Clinton).
I now fully expect Democrats to launch their next impeachment effort next week, given this one has been such a roaring success, resulting in Trump’s approval rating going up by 5%.
With 86% reporting, looks like the Iowa caucus will result in 11 delegates each for Buttigieg and Sanders, 5 for Warren and zero for Biden. This is a disaster for Biden who already is under performing on cash raised and corporate donors will now likely abandon him.
It was very petulant, a new low in an already poisonous political environment.
Democrats have a serious issue here. They lost the election in 2016 because enough white working class voters switched sides from traditionally voting Democrat to Republican and swung the swing states red. The absolute nightmare scenario for Democrats is enough African American and Hispanic working class do the same in 2020, this would result in a landslide win for Trump.
Now people might suggest that’s an insane concept given that Trump is a racist fascist, but believe it or not African American and Hispanic working class care most about the same things as white working class, mainly jobs and wages, and the current trend there is quite positive for these demographics.
Sanders and Warren comfortably the two best candidates in the race, and with Biden failing and Buttigieg polling 0% with black voters, they are easily the two most electable candidates.
As with the national election, the popular vote is largely irrelevant, it’s the number of delegates (electoral votes in the national election) you win. Sanders and Buttigieg get 11 each in Iowa, Warren gets 5, that’s it.
In the national election, who can win the swing states is all that matters. Winning the popular vote by 100% to 0% in CA or NY makes no difference. A left wing / socialist progressive that appeals to champagne socialists on the coasts will not necessarily appeal to voters in the Midwest.
As things stand right now, here are the respective platforms of Trump and Sanders/Warren.
Trump: The economy is doing great, unemployment is at an all time low, wages are rising, especially for minorities. The number of people entering the country illegally has plummeted due to strong border security.
Sanders/Warren: You life is shit, we need to allow all the poor in the world in and give them free healthcare, free education, release all prisoners, forgive the debt of those who borrowed to go to college. You need to give up your private health insurance (that 170 million are covered by) and trust the government to manage health care for the entire country. A government that has less than 20% approval rating.
If Buttigieg wins the nomination current support among black voters isn’t a problem. African Americans are the most reliable Democratic voters and will vote for whoever the candidate is.
Buttigieg’s rock bottom polling numbers with non-whites means it’s unlikely he will be the nominee, as well as the general milquetoast nature of his candidacy. Sanders is now surging with non-whites in polls and the Iowa debacle will benefit him as the narrative now is that the DNC is trying to screw him.
A big problem for the corporate centrist candidates now is that they risk splitting the vote among themselves. Bloomberg is entering the race for Super Tuesday and he has a massive ad spend of $91m for that. It’s unlikely to be successful but could eat into the votes of Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar etc.
