FiveThirtyEight (Now without Nate Silver anymore) does a politics chat. about the two out of touch people runnin against President Biden’s second term effort….
They got NO Chance….
But?
They HAVE gotten some media attention and Kennedy Jr. sc ores in the raly polling in double digits around 40% behind Biden in the current polling a year and half or so out from the 2024 Democratic Prtesidential primaries…
nrakich: Basically, they’re being covered like serious candidates. Reporters are going to their rallies and writing exposés on them. Even if they say they are extreme long-shot candidates, they aren’t treating them that way. Actions speak louder than words….
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kaleigh: Right. Also-rans who try to challenge a sitting president in the primary are nothing new, but they’re typically given very little attention from the public and the press.
nrakich: Yeah. The 2020 Democratic primary was a wide-open field; I think it’s quite understandable that the media would cover all the candidates a little bit as voters were getting to know them. But the 2024 Democratic primary isn’t even a race, and pretending that it is does a disservice to readers.
Monica Potts: Also, Nathaniel has written about this, but since the 2020 cycle, Democrats have cared about electability quite a lot. Williamson has some unorthodox ideas and may be too progressive even for mainstream Democrats, so that could explain why even Democrats unhappy with Biden might not want to take a risk on a candidate like her.
nrakich: Yeah, the people who want to replace Biden on the Democratic ticket aren’t looking for someone more progressive; according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll from February, only 21 percent of Democratic registered voters agreed with the idea that Biden is too conservative. They are looking for someone (a) more electable and (b) younger. Williamson has never won an election in her career, and she is also not that much younger than Biden. At 70, she would be the second-oldest president ever elected, after Scranton Joe…
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nrakich: To quote one respondent of the poll, “I liked his dad (RFK) and his uncle (JFK) a lot. I would hope he has a similar mindset.” But the thing is, he doesn’t. He is one of the most prominent vaccine skeptics in America. A lot of Democrats probably don’t know that, and they may reconsider their support once they learn. According to the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of Democrats say that healthy children should be required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella to attend public school…
Clown show