Cerebralbore101 said:
Moren said: He'd likely lose the African American vote to Steve King. And despite this, despite the lack of qualifications, despite his abysmal connection to minority voters - his ego, sense of entitlement and vanity are more important than his values and his principles. |
Could you explain the bolded, a little more? I don't know much about him beyond his policy stances, which I like. What baggage does he have that makes you think the bolded is true? What happened to give people this idea of him?
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I was obviously exaggerating the Steve King line, but yeah.
As far I understand, race relations in South Bend (where he used to be mayor) were pretty poor, and there even was a police chief scandal at one point during his tenure. So having little connection to the only AA constituents you've ever had is already a very shaky start.
I don't think he helped his case during the initial months of his campaign. You can't build non-existing relations overnight (and even Steyer seems to be far more effective at connecting with black South Carolina voters). From the "fake endorsements" to the stock photo from Africa, he seemed to try to force the appearance to be liked, rather than being legitimately liked.
And I can't judge the court of public opinion, and it could be the minority voters were already firmly behind Biden and Sanders and had appetite for little else, but even among staffers, there were accusations that they were chosen as tokens for his campaign. If the public perceives this as patronizing, it only furthers his disconnect among non-white voters.
I was on team Pete until it became apparent he had no shot at the nomination. This is not coming from me, but from pretty much every analyst and model in existence. Even when he was "victorious" in Iowa, models basically collapsed Biden, skyrocketed Sanders, and had little movement for Pete.
Hence my second line (which is more of a personal opinion). He has no path to the nomination, but he'll continue to run sinking other more viable candidates (yes, I believe, even after Monday, that Biden and Warren are far more viable than Pete). I don't think he is being true to his vision of America if he understands this fact and chooses to willfully ignore it.