@
deadgerbil @
Burnley123 it's funny but also sad. They had four years to cultivate another younger candidate but didn't. Now we have to settle for a geriatric to beat an orange menace
You might have saw me say this before: the Democrats have a weak bench.
When you have a smaller pool of talent, you're simply not going to have as many capable candidates.
And I put that blame
(yes, I am invoking Misty's Law @
MistyCee...
https://similarworlds.com/politics/2514801-Ever-Notice-How-Often-Mistys-Law-Is-Violated-on-SW
...mostly on President Obama.
In 83 of the 99 state legislative chambers, the Republican Party held more seats following the 2016 general election than it did after the general election in 2008.
During President Barack Obama's (D) presidency, Democrats lost a net 948 state legislative seats, the largest loss of Democratic seats during any presidency since at least 1921. Twenty-nine state legislative chambers in 19 states flipped from Democratic to Republican control compared to the start of Obama's presidency. In ten states these flips resulted in the creation of Republican trifectas, where Republicans controlled both chambers as well as the governorship. Democrats did not gain total control of any chambers by the end of Obama's presidency that they did not already control at its start, however, the Alaska House of Representatives flipped from Republican control to a bipartisan coalition following the 2016 elections.
The loss of 948 Democrat-held state legislative seats was the largest loss of the president's party's state legislative seats since the Herbert Hoover (R) administration, which saw a loss of a net 1,662 Republican state legislative seats from 1929 to 1933. Obama's and Hoover's administrations saw the largest loss of Democratic and Republican state legislative seats, respectively.
https://ballotpedia.org/Changes_in_state_legislative_seats_during_the_Obama_presidency
ObamaCare was the biggest culprit.
Instead of addressing the economic difficulty that the worst off face, and despite having a large majority in the Senate and a majority in the House, he went for health care instead of raising the minimum wage and tying it to something (inflation, Congressional or judicial salaries, etc.). And to solve health care: force people to buy it instead of an employer mandate. Mandatory health insurance put on the backs of the individual, something REPUBLICANS advocated during the debates over HillaryCare in 1993.
He wouldn't even consider a Canadian-style health care system - something than even DONALD TRUMP advocated for in one of his early books. Bernie Sanders was given a symbolic vote on his proposal for single-payer, that's all.
ObamaCare wasn't worth losing the mid-terms and the eventual helping bring about the election of Donald Trump. Not when other avenues were available (maximum caps on the cost of care, fully deductibles or tax credits, expansion of Medicare and/or powering the age limit for applicants to the program; the pre-existing exclusion provision could have been a bill passed by itself). Instead, the ACA it was a gargantuan bill that divided Democrats and gave Republicans ammunition.
