Going with the photogenic white men and leaving out everyone else?

Just gonads and pretty skin?

Harris, Klobuchar, Warren, Booker, Landrieu, Castro.

Come on, we are the party of inclusion. Let our presidential ticket in 2020 show that.

YOU on this. It would be a crime to leave off a woman /POC.

Amy is watching Last of the Mohicans in the other room with the kids. We started it last night after Ulysses’ basketball game. Pizza, carrots, Mohicans and then early to bed.

This morning, before everyone got up, I went on a run with Artemis and then made breakfast. Scones, German pancakes, bacon, eggs, and some bread that Jim and Christine brought by last night with butter and jam on it. Some coffee from beans that a friend in Austin sent to us last week. It’s not Whataburger, but...

After breakfast, we went on a hike in the Franklins with friends and dogs. Glorious morning in El Paso, crisp and clear, you can see for miles at the top of Crazy Cat.

Listening to the war cries and shots firing from the TV speaker in the other room, I’m smiling because we are all together again. Doing something -- just hanging out, just being around, just being -- that I haven’t done in almost two years.

Been to all the kids’ games over the last few days, made dinners at home, seen some friends and got to be outside, on the mountain and down at the river with Artemis.

I can hear Amy yelling in the other room “Don’t watch this part! Don’t watch it!”

And Henry saying “I’m watching it!” and laughing.

Already miss the road. Miss our team and the volunteers we’d see in every city, every town. Miss the energy and smiles and joy that I found all over Texas. Miss the purpose, the goal. Miss being part of something so much bigger than me or my life. Organized for a common cause and end. We were all together, really together. Never felt anything like that.

While there is loss, I also feel intense gratitude, waves of it every day. How was I so lucky to be part of something so amazing?

I can close my eyes and see so many faces and smiles. Hear the laughing and the cheering. I can see us hopeful and connecting as we shook one another’s hand, looking at each other and nodding, knowing. All the stories that have been shared with me, all part of me. Every gift and kindness, every word of encouragement. Every bit of faith in what we had set ourselves to.

We were doing this for one another, doing this the right way, doing this for our country at what we all know to be a defining moment of truth.

The loss is bitter, and I don’t know that I’ve been able to fully understand it. I try not to ask what I could have done differently because I don’t know that there is an end to those questions or thoughts. There are a million different decisions I could have made, paths I could have taken, things I could have said or not said, said better or differently. I did my best, everyone did. For our democracy to work, for us to be able to continue to work together, it’s important to be at peace with the outcome.

But what remains is this: I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have had the chance to do this with you. To bring power and joy to politics. People instead of PACs. Communities instead of corporations. Polls and consultants left to the wind and hopefully to the past. To have the confidence to move with the courage of our convictions. To open our hearts to one another. To not allow our differences (of party, of geography, of race or anything else) to divide us. To not know how it would end but to know that we had to give it everything.

I don’t know how to fully make sense of what remains or to measure the impact we’ve had.

Certainly, we changed something in Texas and in our politics. At the very least our campaign reflected a change already underway in Texas that hadn’t yet been seen in statewide campaigns.

Future campaigns will be won, influenced by the one we built. Candidates will run who otherwise wouldn’t have. Some will take heart in knowing that you don’t have to accept PAC money, you don’t have to hire a pollster to know how you think or what you want to say. They will have seen in our campaign that there is real joy and power in being with people, all people. Republicans, Democrats, Independents. People who’ve never voted and never will. People who will vote for you, people who won’t. People who live in the forgotten neighborhoods of the biggest cities. People who live in small towns that no Senate candidate has been to in 70 years.

I am grateful that you gave me a chance to be part of this. I feel responsible to you, to our country, to my kids and to my conscience to make sure that we continue to find a way to respond to the urgency that we still feel. It didn’t go away Tuesday night. Our ability to convert hope and inspiration into action and change must not be wasted or kept to a candidate or campaign lest it dissipate and be rendered unusable at the most challenging time in our country’s history.

Just know that I want to be part of the best way forward for this country -- whatever way I can help in whatever form that takes. Know that I am honored to have run this campaign with you and that I want to continue to honor and be honest to what was powerful about it.

For the time being, I am going to focus on being a better dad to our kids who have not had much of one for the last 22 months.

Movie is over. Now going to Molly’s basketball game and then we’ll see what’s next.

Grateful to you for being a part of this, for giving me a chance to be a part of this.

See you down the road,

Beto

especially at this point. Let's see what he says in 2019.

And it had nothing to do with them having a vagina, or with the color of their skin.

I support them because they embrace Democratic ideals.

He led in getting rid of confederate statues. Good running mate material.

Here's a couple of links:

But I’m looking at a winning ticket that I would like to see.
No other motives. Please don’t read what isn’t there

You'd get all kinds of pushback.

But I guess this is different, so it's fine to propose two white Catholic Congressmen, one of whom just lost to one of the most unpopular politicians in the country and the other the scion of a political dynasty as our next Great White Hopes.

I have never not supported a person of color.
I am from Texas. I went to the Beto rallies.
I block walked and made phone calls.
I have every fucking right to voice my support for a candidate that I worked really hard to elect and connected with.
This is NOT a post against any other candidate nor is it one that is strategically making an attempt to disenfranchise anyone.
What I saw with Beto was man without color willing to lift up every citizen of this country without regard to color and his rallies mirrored that.
There were young and old and people of all races and creeds and colors.
I am not the one inserting racism into this conversation.

The Democratic Party base is made up of more people of color and women, especially black women, than white men but you skip all of them in favor of white males.

You think our base is going to be happy with that? That risks losing some voters to whatever third-party spoiler pops up, and we know one or two will. Some voters will feel totally betrayed by such a ticket and will sit home.

We are not the repug party where a two-white male ticket is expected.

Come on, we're not in '70s or '80s or '90s anymore where such a ticket was de rigueur. Even you should admit this won't fly in 2020.

I'm not against pairing one of them with one of our other fabulous candidates.

Wherein, even if the best possible candidates happened to be white and male, that has become UNACCEPTABLE.

Anyone not backing the 29 y.o. LGBTQ POC Flavor of the Month to be our POTUS choice in 2020 is clearly a closet GOPper, to be shunned and denigrated ...

Sorry, I don't make the rules ...

And for the record, if said 29 y.o. WAS the best candidate, I'd have zero problem promoting them.

And very reminiscent of when I supported Hillary against Obama.
I was called a racist.

But I really don't think there should be a litmus test, but if there IS to be one ... I think that litmus test should be ... we need to choose the BEST ticket, IOW, MOST LIKELY to WIN. It's too freaking important to WIN this go-round, IMHO.

FWIW, I'm totally down with Corey Booker in 2020, on either spot, and I'd back Kamala as VP ... but she wouldn't be a high pick for me as POTUS. Choosing a Californian Senator (male or female) as our POTUS has LOSS written all over it to me.



On Edit: And to those that would argue 'a woman CAN win because Hillary won the Popular Vote', to that I'd say ... BUT ... she didn't win, did she?

And I mean ... she's literally the MOST QUALIFIED woman, perhaps in the History of the USA, to be POTUS. And, the MOST famous Female politician, again, perhaps in History ... yet ... she DIDN'T WIN.

And I just don't think it's wise to discount those facts when 2020 comes around.

Look, a female VP choice, I'm TOTALLY DOWN. She can be a LGBTQ POC, all good by me.

But as POTUS?

I'm sorry, but I just don't know of anyone right now I'd put at the top of our ticket ... sorry, ladies. Doesn't mean I wouldn't absolutely LOVE a female POTUS though!!!

I'm in Arizona and I'd be happy to support Harris. Going for the ticket "most likely to win" is how we end up with Kerry or for the GOP side Mitt Romney.

Of course I'll vigorously support WHOEVER our Candidates are.

But a CA Senator for POTUS?

That screams 'loss' to me, like I say. It wouldn't be my first choice, female or male (not that male is an option in this case).

Despite LOVING my Home State.

I think we need a Superstar like Harris.

This is all based on Trump being a competent President for 2 years. I think if he is still in there anyone can beat him unless they run a terrible campaign.

Booker.

We're the party of inclusion so let's not exclude all our fabulous women and POCs.

But I would love Kamala Harris on the ticket.

the beautiful diversity of the Democratic Party. We have such a depth of honest, talented politicians from all walks of life at this time in history. This does not mean that we should automatically count every white male out, but white Protestant males seem to naturally reject cooperating anyone other than white Protestant males. We need to open our minds and hearts to allow the input of new ideas from the rest of the democratic gang.

is that all there is to diversity? Did their ancestors even from the same county, northern, southern? Were they even on the same side in the 30-years' war?

But for an obvious difference, Kennedy can stand still and Beto can't stop not standing still. I think they would inevitably appear strikingly different on stage.

Thanks for pointing it out. That's big!

I went to a meeting once that we put together for my boss to learn more about issues in a local community that was about 60% white and 40% black and Hispanic. We walked in to see 8 white men and 1 white woman sitting around the table.

Out host started the meeting by proudly telling us they'd gathered a "diverse group of people" for the meeting. "We have people from different areas of the city with different backgrounds so you can get a wide range of views."

This imagined diversity and Joe remind me, though.

Some months ago when Joe III's name came up, the great enthusiasm among some surprised me. I initially chalked it up to silly romanticism, "Kennedy royal family" (gag me), youth and good looks -- the Ohhh, Bobbie! thing.

But then I belatedly realized that he's also very northern European white and that that must be a factor, just how much? We haven't had a young-white-"glam" package since the Kennedys, though. Closest young white might have been John Edwards, and that's not close.

At that, I still hadn't caught on to any significance that little Joe's Irish American. A huge nothing to me, but he may be holding a "well, he is one of us" card for some 10% of the electorate, an invisible, "you're kidding, but real" diversity. And he's Catholic.

Which thought brings me once again right to ***Kamala Harris for President***, and she can decide who she wants for a running mate.

Is that the only ticket Democrats can offer?

Irish Catholic.

Only white Catholic males need apply?? Can we not find leaders more representative of and responsive to all Democrats?

I get it, Beto and Kennedy are both attractive, intelligent, charismatic young men. What's not to like? But together, they do not represent the face of the modern democratic party. Women make up 53% of the population, we can't find one to put on the ticket? White voters only make up 43% of the democratic party- given that statistic, how would it be representative to have 2 white faces on that top ticket? The democratic party needs to be what it professes to me, the party of diversity. It needs to reflect that in our top ticket names.

I still want Oprah and Harris. O magazine cover.

No thanks.

He might have the right ideology, but doubt he could win it.

Then I’m sure whatever candidate you choose won’t have any trouble beating him in the primaries should he run. So relax.

Talk about bullying.

That elected Cruz in the first place.

It's Texas, that means the Republican wins. Even if it is Ted Cruz.

He is not, he is republican, as is much of this state. I can't think of a single thing cruz could have done to lose this election. The fact that Beto got so close to unseating him is amazing, but he was not going to win. I live in Texas, I see the real, gut level hatred republicans have for dems here. Beto ran an amazing campaign, did as much for building the party brand in Texas as any single candidate has ever done (his coat tails helped get some house seats flipped) in the modern non-southern democrat era. Beto kicked off a movement in Texas toward a real, liberal/progressive democratic statewide party that may change the perception of democrats in this state, but it may take the next 10 years to come to fruition. Beto lost an election he was going to lose, but the way he ran and what he ran on boosted the Democratic party here in ways I have never seen before. The democratic party is much stronger in Texas because Beto ran. His losing to cruz is not about Beto, it's a condemnation of what the republican party has become here...and that is something we can work with.

Even though Ted Cruz is terrible and extremely unlikable, he's a republican. They would rather have a terrible republican, over a democrat.

If Jesus Christ ran as a Democrat in Texas, he would lose.

What if the opponent had been Cornyn instead? My guess is Beto would have been crushed.

The only way we will find out is if he runs for something again. I don't think that should start with President.

...and got closer in Texas than anyone since Bentson in a year when Democrats in the Senate were getting slaughtered in red states... he was closer in red Texas than veterans McCaskill or Donnelly got in traditionally purple Missouri and Indiana. It has nothing to do with the opponent being Ted Cruz, its that the right dug in in support of Trump in these places and yet Beto almost won in an unlikely place with a LIBERAL message. To say he shouldn't run for national office because he didn't win in Texas shows no understanding of demographics.

Hell yes, I could get behind Beto if he chose to run.

Texas isn’t like other states.
It is the test ground for how to cheat and win elections.
It’s Karl Rove’s testing ground.
It is likely that without shenanigans, Beto might have truly won.
We don’t know that but we know he turned Texas purple.
I was at an election watch party in Dallas and the new Da promised to overturn convictions of young black men unjustly convicted.
I watched him call for justice that hasn’t been served since the 90’s for many people of color.
What I didn’t see was yard signs for this man. What I saw was yard signs for Beto.

How do we know which?

Beto has to prove himself first by winning something. We should not be conducting experiments with our presidential nominee

It was obvious who brought people out.

Nice try tho.

You don’t call that winning something?

One of the reasons people don't get elected president straight out of Congress.

In some districts a parrot could get elected to congress as a dem or repub depending on the makeup of the district. I believe he was in El Paso, a highly Democratic area.

He got close in Texas against a lousy opponent. Yes, he got big crowds and seemed to excite people and he previously won in a district that probably no democrat could have lost in.

Let him throw his hat in the ring if he wants to. I will give him a fair shake and consider what he has to say. Maybe he will prove himself to be the best candidate.

But I am not going to get all excited about him over anyone else just because he got close to beating Ted Cruz.

There is nothing more offensive than willful ignorance but I am not your educator.

Is that how you debate with others, by calling them stupid if they don't agree with you?

Nice.

So that argument ends up supporting a run for national office.

But only those on the left, which doesn't really matter much for Texas elections on the ground. (That said, Cruz's profile and status as a national lightning rod for democrats and progressives certainly brought extra attention and money to Beto's campaign.)

Cruz's approval ratings in Texas have always been higher, for example, than John Cornyn's (the other senator). He's been especially popular with republicans (which is most of Texas) and with conservatives in that state. (He was a tea party darling.)

for now.

She should stay out of politics and take up knitting

And, as always, her loss was HER fault so she needs to take responsibility and stop blaming everything and everyone else. But Beto couldn't beat one of the most umpopular politicians in the country and he's just a victim of nefarious forces beyond his control and should now run for president.

I wonder if some people care anymore what they sound like when they write this stuff down and hit "post."

Beto has a cult of personality. Just like Bernie did. Not interested in either of them.

We wouldn’t be having this discussion....

that is all white or all male and especially all white AND all male. It is well past time to demand better than that.

I don't know either of them well enough to know what I think of them but I am very certain that those days are gone for some time to come. Once things balance out better socially maybe, but all white and all male have had their time. I am not interested in voting for that platform simply for that reason.

We really need to solidify the upper midwest/ great lakes with Florida and Ohio looking like a bad bet to hang your hat on.

This cycle I heard her speak a few times and was very impressed.

Sen. Klobuchar, running mate PA Gov. Tom Wolf. Midwest Nice and a very popular Gov who just won re-election in a landslide in this purple state. Plus like it or not we’re stuck with the EC for a while and this would guarantee PA. Yeah he’s a white male but he’s Jewish.

… a woman on the ticket... although it's nice to see a minority (men) represented!

No.

And no to Biden.

Beto, as much as I like him, couldn't even beat Ted Cruz. No.

You can disagree with a candidate but stop with the divisive “so-called” progressives.
I’d put my bonafides against yours any day and win.

n/t

I would gladly flip the ticket. I just think Beto has that je ne sais quoi ala Robert Kennedy and Barack Obama.

Talk about clueless toward situational impact and all applicable logic.

I commend myself for not responding to each and every one of those posts, because they more than deserved it.

I like Kamala Harris but I'm not sure she is special enough. I haven't seen here in enough situations where she has to make meaningful decisions and responses on the fly. I saw plenty of that from Beto and was impressed. More than anything, during the debates with Cruz and during that campaign itself I appreciated that Beto understood he didn't have to frantically respond to everything. He calmly defaulted to his base principals. That is going to be vital against Trump. Nobody is going to win a liar/liar contest against him.

I am not confident that Kamala Harris or any woman would understand how to deal with matters, once Trump goes that low.

More than anything I didn't like that Kamala Harris had the perfect question for Kavanaugh, "Did you watch Dr. Ford's testimony this morning?" but she obviously she didn't understand the significance of that, and used it solely as an aside in the final seconds of her allotted time.

That should have been the Perry Mason moment of the hearings, courtesy of Kamala Harris:

"Let me get this straight, Mr. Kavanaugh. You have been falsely accused of sexual assault from more than 30 years ago. You have never spoken to Dr. Ford about it. You are completely baffled by the false allegations since you weren't even at that party in the first place. You are outraged that these false claims surfaced now, embarrassing yourself and your family and potentially jeopardizing confirmation to the United States Supreme Court. You have prepared testimony for this committee, while understanding that the entirety of your statement and the question answer period would follow Dr. Ford, the person who is making these false allegations."

"And yet you don't bother to watch what she says, the specific accusations against you?"

"I am sorry, Mr. Kavanuagh, that doesn't begin to pass the laugh test, or the probability test, let alone the serious matters before this committee."

***

Now, if Kamala Harris had offered something like that, then I could be confident of her star power. Heck, she would already be a star nationally in Democratic circles among partisans who have not heard of her now. That segment would have been replayed everywhere, especially if she had a sharp response to whatever Kavanaugh offered in reply.

But to merely ask the question like it was a late night senate microphone op in front of an empty gallery was beyond pathetic.

so true, the argument is absurd.

We hate Cruz, but the majority of Texas voters do not.

soon and certainly not by 2020.

... but if the other choice is someone I despise, then I'd definitely support either. (I guess that's how primaries work.)

A much stronger ticket.

for heaven's sake. No one likes Beto for his being a white man. If anything, he is more like Obama than the others. It's the charisma.

POCs and women.

Get a grip, people.

Pair one of them with one of our fabulous women or POC candidates then I'm down with it, but two white males?

Please. We're not in '80s or '90s anymore.

and will feel excluded. Like I said, the majority of the party is not white males, it's women and POCs.

Running two white males and excluding all others is not just stupid in this era of women and POCs getting elected all over the country, it's suicidal for a presidential ticket.

It's just inviting 3rd party votes and voters staying home.

You should know better.

they only make up maybe 25% of the party. Also like I said, pair either with one of our fabulous women or POC and we're good.

Two white males as our ticket is not just exclusionary it's stupid.

And we've seen as recently as 2016 what happens when people sit home or vote 3rd party.

Democracy is a form of government that requires thinking more than emotion. Germany learned that in 6 years in the 20th century. It is no accident that they let the uncharismatic but skillful and rational Merkel guide them through the last decade.

The Athenians learned it a long time ago when they choose charisma over reason and lost their democracy-limited as it was.

We will be in a world facing huge challenges and lots of people searching for the strongman who who will tell them what to do and what to think.

When you see the crowds cheering the charismatic leader, you are not seeing people who are hungry for democracy-you are seeing people looking to the Strongman, the one who can push their emotional buttons.

Does it have to either/or--no. But in 2020 we need experience (deep experience), wisdom, and rationality and persons with leadership qualities who can engage the Minds of the people even more than their emotions.

Don't know of anyone disqualifying white men for being white men.We still have a very large majority in positions of power; we need the contributions and perspectives of the rest of us.

...2 white male candidates, when we just won so many races with candidates who are neither white nor male?

The Republicans ran an orange TV show host who is a racist misogynist, a Russian asset, and an elitist billionaire from New York with the IQ of a potato. And they won. Putin convinced Bob the coal miner that this is the man who will MAGA.

And somehow I hear my fellow liberals talking about how we can only win in 2020 if we have 2 white guys in the race from the heart of America, and I couldn’t disagree more. Hillary didn’t lose the EC because she’s a woman. Hillary lost because of Russia, Comey, and 30+ years of hatred from the right. And Trump won because of Russia, Comey, the hatred for Hillary, and people who decided to sit out the election in 2016. He only won by about 70K votes.

We need candidates who are sane, intelligent, with a good vision for the future, and who can get people excited to vote, regardless of color or gender.

the two of them together might work, and piss off a bunch of repugs at the top of the party.

was very pleased Beto campaign called me twice, once sunday night before early voting opened on Monday. That's the way to remind registered voters.

Also got a couple 'snail mails' from www.turnoutpac.org, reminding the same thing, where and when to vote.

I'll support either if they get the nomination, I'm sure, but I don't think it's the ticket I would most like to see.

Cruz has much more support in Texas than Cornyn ever has, though certainly his divisiveness as a national figure brought some energy, attention, and finances to Beto's campaign. Beto got almost as many votes in a midterm year as Cornyn did in a presidential year back in '08. And if Beto devoted the next two years to solidifying and expanding the organization that he built this past election I think he could really build something special in Texas.

I believe the republican base in Texas is going to show up for Cornyn. Cornyn may be end leeching off the people that show up for Trump. Going off of the 2012 election year, the republican got 4.4 million vote, and I think Beto's gonna have to get at least that to win this time. That is a massive gap that he has to bridge, and his midterm performance is the best model we have for winning as that's the best performance we've had.

I won't say it's impossible but I think it will be a much more difficult challenge than this midterm.

Additionally, I think Dem organizations need to take advantage of the enthusiasm Beto brought to Texas Dems. They have a chance to build a solid organized ground network in Texas for future Democratic candidates. I hope they capitalize.

The base is not going to widely support two white men even if they are good men.

...about what the policy positions of their preferred candidates are.

As I stated...numerous rallies, canvassing and phone calls. That’s what I based my decision on.

POC and women. That's the way to resurrect the Obama Coalition.

If we run a Beto/Kennedy/Biden kind of ticket, POCs will not once again feel frozen out of the process...let's go for a team that gets everyone excited, and in particular our base.

I loved Beto’s campaign but what makes him qualified to be the President? He’s been in the House and he lost a senate race. Ok. What executive experience does he have? Foreign policy?

What makes you think he’s up to the job? And Kennedy? What has he done that makes him qualified to be second?

Although, another black man in the WH would probably drive the right crazy a.g.a.i.n.