OK, MineralMan, excuse the rant below - it is a respectful one, and this gleeful post by Leser kind of rubbed me the wrong way. So take it with a grain of salt...but...
In my state we have some really good Dem candidates at all levels - I guess what it looks like to me on the ground is that we will trust the primary process. In the end, at least most of the time in my state, the more electable candidate makes the general.
A story for all of you to provoke some thought here, though.
We had an incumbent Dem US Senator. He was an establishment Dem, pretty middle of the road. Always careful what he said, and which issues to be lukewarm on (most of Bernie's). Basically, people in the party on the ground called him an 'empty suit.'
Now, he was running in 2014 against a rabid right winger. Nice guy, but horrible policy positions. Basic Republican - not pure TP, but right of establishment.
This is a purple state, too, and our guy, the incumbent Dem, who should EASILY have been reelected, ran such a lame campaign it made many of us sick. Like forehead-palm sick. This fellow's message was so mushy and ultra-careful, most people were at sea as to what the guy actually stood for, if anything. I mean, listening to him was like getting your face pushed through mush.
So the result?
In a purple state that went Obama in 08 and 12, and Clinton in 16? Our guy got 944,203 votes and the RIGHT WINGER got 983,891 votes. AND...to add insult to injury, the right winger was instrumental in making the giant tax cut for billionaires happen.
The moral of my story? People like their candidates to be firm on their positions and to actually stand FOR something. As a voter, I don't need to agree with everything a candidate says, just most of it.
Bottom line, I'm not sure this gleefulness is going to do us much good. And the message that people like 'middle-of-the-road' candidates? Depends on the candidate.
This country is going the wrong direction awful fast. I'm hoping we don't go the wrong direction in our own quaint little Democratic Party way.
One other observation - I consider Warren and Bernie basically in the same policy category - left progressive. Now, Obama is a centrist. Racism didn't allow him to be an 'establishment' Democrat, but he is further toward the center than Warren definitely. Yet, again it depends on the candidate. I liked Obama enough to work on both his 08 and 12 campaigns, and I liked Bernie in 16.
Maybe it's not so much whether a person is a rabid left-winger or not, you know? It's whether you think you can trust the candidate, whether they are willing to compromise, and what kind of person they seem. And, of course, whether they are definite and firm about what they stand for.
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