At this point, no Democrat stands out as leading the pack

[kentuck]

In my opinion, the primaries will determine the nominee. We have no idea who might catch on with the masses? Or what the masses may be looking for?

I think they are looking for an inspirational leader, one with honesty and character? But, they could be looking for something else?

In my opinion, the primaries will determine who will be the candidate.

At this time, we have our favorites and we tend to promote them, but there is no guarantee either of them will be the nominee.

But, it's fun to promote them.

[manor321]

1. Remember the media swoon over Fred Thompson?

Then people started voting and.....bupkis.

[Zoonart]

2. Here's my problem with all the 2020 posts...

The house is on fire.
Why are we arguging about what color to paint the house two years from now?

[safeinOhio]

3. We do have it figured out

Any color other than orange.

[Zoonart]

4. Spot on!

Orange stain out.

[lark]

5. Biden had 30%, the next contender was in the low teens.

So Biden is showing early dominance, which may count for nothing at this point? There's a whole primary season to go and many debates to be had. I look forward to learning more about various folks' rx for returning our country to democracy and fixing all the trump ills. My early rooting is going to Joe because I've known and loved him for a long time. He isn't perfect, but none of them are, and he is a really good man and someone I feel would do us proud. Is someone else better, well, we'll soon see who's running and what they stand for and then judgements will be made and we'll end up with a general election candidate who's thousands of times better than the alternative.

[monmouth4]

6. I am hopelessly hoping Adam Schiff enters the race. I'd like to see what his nos. are at this point

[lark]

7. He's one of the ones I've thought about too.

[monmouth4]

8. He truly has it all. Very, very smart, the right age, much experience and to simplify, a very good

man with the right priorities. I think we need to start talking him up..

[WeekiWater]

9. I think a lot of it will be determined by who established infrastructures get behind.

These things make an enormous difference.

Two people currently in the public sphere have massive and distinct advantages. Trump and Sanders. Sanders even more so than Trump. Neither ever stopped campaigning outside of Sanders for a very brief period. Even during that brief period his silence was what his base wanted.

So now to the established infrastructure part. Does Sanders run or does he endorse and support. His network will be used to influence power one way or another.

Now to move away from the one person on the left who has been non-stop campaigning at the national level for years. Both Obama and Clinton have pretty solid infrastructures in place. They do it more at an arms length as they are not campaigning. That said, their email lists have grown and the organizations are still there. The organizations these two helped to start and have fostered can pull more contributions overnight for someone than just about anyone out there. Some have had over a decade to work on improved targeting for funds, organic support, and to support GOTV efforts.

These groups can immediately give someone the upper hand. The difference in who they fall behind will be enormous. This is a relatively new aspect to politics. Politicians maintaining, often at an arms length, invaluable organizations.