2020 not so far away

Matthew Yglesias


To me key sentence here is “among those who say Sanders is their first choice, 40 percent say Biden is their second choice.”

Voters not seeing ideological “lanes.”

South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, started 32 years ago as a music festival. This weekend it became a political confab, as nine Democratic presidential hopefuls descended on the central Texas city to make their pitch to convention-goers.

One by one, the candidates took the stage in Austin, most in one-on-one, hour-long interviews with journalists at a theatre better known for rollicking music concerts than high-minded political discussions.

How did they do? Here's a look at the biggest ideas and biggest weaknesses of those who showed up - and how they were received.

Within days of his announcement that he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Beto O’Rourke shot up in the rankings in terms of money, media coverage and Google searches.

Then the knives came out — progressives, women, African-Americans and party loyalists all took a stab at him.

The response to Beto is polarizing the Democratic activist community. The overriding question for Democrats is electability: who can beat Trump is a matter of pressing concern and profound anxiety for at least half the nation. The wrong choice would be disastrous.

(...)

who can beat Trump is a matter of pressing concern and profound anxiety for at least half the nation.

8:08 p.m. ET, February 25, 2019
Sanders pledges to support the Democratic nominee — no matter who it is

Sen. Bernie Sanders said President Trump "must be defeated" in 2020, adding that he hopes all Democratic voters will support whoever the eventual nominee is.

“I pledge certainly to do that," Sanders said. "Trump has got be be defeated."
He said President Trump is trying to divide the American people.

To be clear, I'm not trying to single out Sanders for criticism here, nor am I covertly arguing on behalf of some other candidate. All the Democrats in the 2020 field need to remember the dangers of fighting so hard for the primary that they forget the real task: Winning the presidential election and ending the reign of Donald Trump. Sanders is the first to make a major move that signals a willingness to go negative. I doubt he will be the last. Unfortunately, once someone breaks that seal, other candidates often feel they have to go negative in order to compete. Things could get really nasty, really fast.

Democrats must keep their eyes on the prize. Most of the factors that led to Trump's flukish 2016 win are still in place: Voter suppression, Russian trolls, irresponsible social media, Fox News blanketing middle America with pro-Trump propaganda. The only thing Democrats can directly control, right now, is the level of rancor during the primary campaign. Trump could still win in 2020. Anyone who denies that in order to justify indulging in ugly internecine warfare is fooling himself. If that happens, we all pay the price.

Campaigns like Hillary’s