Fundraising by Democratic Presidential Candidates Looks Like A Bad Omen For Trump
Dave Weigel
@daveweigel
Trump raised $46 million for the quarter. For all the "impeachment is SURGING Trump's fundraising" stuff (I'm sure it did!), the Dem field is easily going to double him. That is really, really unusual. The 2012 GOP field and 2004 Dem field did not outpace incumbent presidents.
Dave Weigel covers Washington D.C. politics for The Washington Post.
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Democratic enthusiasm is very high. There is potential there to bury Trump.
so what's new?
hillary spent twice what trump spent for the 2016 election.
dollars spent do not equal votes
Ironically, Democrats are always accusing Republicans of trying to buy elections, but they routinely spend more. Also, though they love to rip Trump for spending his own money on his campaign, there seems to be very little outrage over the substantial personal fortunes being spent by the likes of Delaney, Steyer and Bloomberg.
There is no potential at all, because the Democrats don't have the numbers to beat Trump, and none of the Dem candidates is really very electable. All of them are too extreme for the majority of American voters
well, there's always the potential to bury one candidate. But then again, on Aug 30th there's always 32 NFL teams who are champing at the bit to get to the Super Bowl.
Total bullshit. The vast majority of Americans disapprove of dishonest Donald and he will lose the popular vote by at least 5 million. The only chance he has is another electoral college win by eking out narrow victories in four key battleground States as he did last time. In the last election, 110,000 votes in two swing States are what overturned the will of the vast majority (over 3,000,000 more) of American people. 110,000 people overturned the will of 66 million Americans, so it's rather funny to hear the Republicans cry about how the very constitutional (just like the electoral college) impeachment might "overturn the will of 63 million Americans". Funny how they never seem to offer up the fact that 72 million Americans didn't vote for Trump or that the majority still disapprove of his job as President.
Now I'm sure there are many of the conservatives here who want to jump in and point out that he won the electoral college and is the President. I'm not in any way saying he didn't. I just think it's beyond dishonest to make stupid claims like Trump will win because the "majority of American voters" think Democrats are too extreme. Are there some dumb shit right wing pundits who are trying to frame every Democrat candidate as "too extreme"? Of course, that's what they get their dirty dollars for, lying or twisting and contorting facts to fit a tired, outdated and monumentally flawed conservative ideology.
"While the president remains divisive, the report finds majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans agree on many things. Seventy percent or more of those surveyed, including majorities of Republicans, agreed with each of the following statements:
That’s not all. People of every political persuasion give President Trump negative marks on his handling of health care and poverty. When asked what they believed is the most important issue that Trump and Congress should address in the coming year, “making health care more affordable” was cited by a majority of voters. Only a third of the entire electorate supported cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in an effort to address the national debt. And 8 in 10 Democrats and three-fourths of independents believe corporations have too much power and should be “strongly regulated” — something even 49 percent of Republicans also signed off on."
He's going to be reelected. I guess there is no possibility of educating you about reality
We'll have to wait and see. The very fact he was elected proves that anything can happen.
He's going to lose the popular vote by 5 to 8 million. Whether he can pull off another electoral win is still to be seen and we'll likely not know until the day after the election this year. I for one hope the majority of Americans in those swing States will vote their conscience instead of voting party lines, but we shall see.
You see, that may be one of the biggest elitist attitudes that helped him win before. What makes you think they didn't vote their conscience? Because they didn't vote the way you did?
If you dislike Hillary - as I do - then you should dislike Trump even more, because he's 100 times more dishonest and unethical.
If you give a crap about our Constitution and our system of government, the dignity of the office of President, ethics, patriotism, morals, and our standing in the world - voting for Trump would be against your conscience. And since I don't think all those voters in swing states have no morals or ethics, that tells me they voted against their conscience. And of course, some of them just love Trump's validation of their hatred, bigotry, and conspiracy theories and have no conscience to vote against.
Neither was Trump. You just can't tell with voters.
I understand why we get such crappy candidates these days - who in their right mind would WANT to be president, much go through all the crap to get elected - but it's still irritating.
Coming from the one who just said people who voted for Hillary don't have a conscience - that's hilarious.
And that too is hilarious coming from someone who claims to know the conscience of people who voted for Mr. Trump.........or at least thinks they need to be indoctrinated because they are just so wrong..................
And MUVA didn't say that people that voted for Hilary didn't have a conscience. The statement was "As if".
The meaning was clear.
As far as the "indoctrinated" bit - I'd be happy if they'd just give up the Infowars and Breitbart and debunked conspiracy theories and willful ignorance, but unfortunately that will never happen. You can't force someone to give a shit about facts when their idol is telling them that what they see isn't real.
You mean like Republicans who forced us through an impeachment for a President lying about a blow job and then spending the next 20 years acting morally superior using the lying adulterer as an example of the worst of humanity, and then turning around and electing an even worse lying adulterer to represent themselves? That is truly hilarious.
My posts look nothing like any extremists manifesto, though you can certainly try all you want to twist my words into some straw man you can ignorantly attack. Your comments, on the other hand, often could be mistaken for the right wing manifesto of the El Paso Walmart shooter as can many of the right wing extremist comments I regularly run into on these boards.
"As if voting for Hillary means you have a conscience." - I'm not buying your excuse.
He was never disbarred, he paid $25,000 to his state' Supreme Court and had his license suspended for 5 years.
He has never attempted to be reinstated although he has been eligible since 2006.
He resigned from practicing at the U.S. Supreme Court to avoid any penalties.
Like Mr Trump has done so many times, Clinton settled out of court with an accuser while admitting no wrong.
One more time...
Breitbart insists that he was disbarred from the Supreme Court because there is no paperwork after the NYT story.
Doubtful that he ever argued a case in the Supreme Court or that he ever would practice law again after fulfilling his last term.
Yes, for lying about a blow job as I said. I can see that you agree that Republicans set the "moral superiority" bar with their impeachment of Bill Clinton for lying about a blow job as you didn't even try to defend them. Donald Trump has five times more accusations of sexual assault as Bill Clinton had and admitted on tape that he doesn't "even wait" for consent and just starts kissing women he finds attractive and "grabs them by the pussy" which is textbook sexual assault. And let me remind you, I'm not defending Bill Clinton in the least, I believed his accusers just like I believe Trumps accusers, there are just a lot more of them with dirty Donald and his own words of admission to back up their accusations.
If two dozen women accused Donald Trump of picking his nose and eating his boogers, and we had tape of Donald saying "I don't even wait, I just start picking, grab it by the crusty bit and pull. Mmmmm, salty, so good, I just can't help myself" would all of his sycophant followers really be saying "Nah, I can't believe those two dozen women saying Trump picked his nose and ate it, and his admissions were just locker room talk. I mean, everyone talks about picking and eating their boogers but they never do it, right?"...
So you can accept that Trump is a sexual predator and just be okay with that, but this nonsense that it's all fake news is just silly. He's a sick pervert and you all know it. He cheated on all three of his wives. He cheated on the current first lady right after she'd given birth to his latest child and then paid hundreds of thousands to keep those porn star mistresses quiet during the 2016 campaign in violation of campaign finance law. Dirty dishonest Donald is a sick man, a disgusting bigot and would be nothing but a small time real estate criminal and small business con-man had a minority of the American people not been bamboozled into voting for him. Much like Al Capone, he's a two bit criminal with a 95 or lower IQ who was empowered by bitter Americans simply angry with the system, mostly because they don't understand it anymore because society has moved on while they're still stuck in the past. Regardless of what you think of Trump, he will inevitably go down in history as one of the worst Presidents in US history because Presidential historians don't accept the "alternate facts" of his Presidency, they're not as stupid as those who do and can easily parse between fact and fiction. Trump will be the next Nixon in the text books and our kids and grandkids will learn about all his affairs and his Access Hollywood bus tape, and Stormy Daniels, the fact he spent the last two years of his only term as an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal campaign finance case where his coconspirator was already serving time, was accused by more than two dozen credible women of sexual assault who were far more credible than dishonest Donald and his mountain of lies.
I really don't see this as a partisan issue anymore, it's about right and wrong, and if you're having to convince yourself and others that what Trump has done and is doing is "right", then you already know what side of history you'll be on. Our grandkids will one day laugh about the scum bag Trump and the sad morons who elected him and ask "How did that happen? You didn't support him did you granddad?" to which some will be able to truthfully say "Not in a million years" while others will likely have to lie like many Nixon supporters did years later pretending like they were the one Republican who knew and didn't trust tricky Dick.
Like Mr Trump has done so many times, Clinton settled out of court with an accuser while admitting no wrong.
Still confusing civil settlements with criminal penalties. Please stop conflating the two.
What if he does? Is THAT what Democratic candidates are striving for--a popular vote win? Did they learn nothing from the Great Hillary campaign?
Now, that sounds exactly like you don't think people who vote for Trump are voting their conscience. Based on WHAT facts?
Or is it simply that you feel only NON-Trump voters have a conscience?
They aren't. I believe they are voting intentionally, willfully, against their conscience. They know everything about Trump is wrong. They know he's a sick lying pervert and very few would allow their daughters within arms reach of the man. However, they have made a calculated decision to vote against their conscience in exchange for three specific things. First, they believe they can use him to get what they want (conservative judges/supreme court justices who might eventually overturn Roe v Wade, anti-immigrant policies/pro-white culture protectionist policies, intentionally anti-minority voter ID laws, etc.). Second, they believed Trump would royally upset the establishment which they feel is too out of touch with the rust belt and the bible belt, so throwing a monkey wrench into what they perceive as non-functioning government wasn't a real problem, and hoped that somehow destroying the establishment would be financially beneficial to them. And third, they wanted desperately to punch liberals, progressives, Hollywood and those they see as the 'coastal elites', right in the face after feeling left behind and ridiculed as "ignorant" for sticking to their traditional rural bible based educations and eschewing higher education.
It isn't that "non-Trump voters" have something the Trump voters don't, they just choose to use it and listen to it. They just didn't believe the short term gain was worth abandoning their morals, conscience and self respect.
Man, you sure claim to have a lot of insight as to why some 60+million of people voted for him.
How'd you come to that conclusion? What did you do to determine that?
Someone who votes differently than you may very well have reasons you simply can't fathom as to why they vote as they do.
I never claim that Democrats don't have a conscience simply because they vote differently. That is a weak accusation I don't engage in.
The main impetus for the Trump presidential campaign was/is white grievance. It was when Trump wanted to run in 2012 (he led the birther conspiracy theory at that time) and it was in 2016 when he ran and it is in 2020 when he runs for re-election. The people who are upset about "their" country being taken away from them are largely white evangelicals and to a lesser extent white conservative Catholics who together make up most of Trump's base.
Unlike the "Beer Summit", that was ALL about "Black Grievance" !
The amount Trump has raised, just since the faux impeachment is what democrats should be concerned about! It takes a rare individual to somehow try and turn it around. Nice try, but the dems are dead in the water.
Cumulative totals for Democrats are akin to cumulative vote totals for all of Congress----virtually meaningless.
You also seem to think that the levels of donations will remain steady as candidates on the Democratic side drop out one by one, that people who have donated to the ones who drop out will simply donate to whoever is left.
The fact, pure and simple, that Mr. Sanders was the biggest receiver of campaign contributions on the left side should be telling. How many think he could actually defeat Mr. Trump when the dust settles?
Better think about it........................
If the Democrats nominate Sanders it would be a huge risk. IF young people came out and voted in large numbers for sanders he could beat Trump. But since Sanders support is very much based on young people, the Democrats would be putting all their faith in a factor that is unproven (that a "youth vote" could overpower GOP support from older whites).
Sanders has generally held his own or better in polling against Trump though, so the choice, both whether or not to nominate Sanders, and the potential general election outcome of Sanders vs. Trump, is on a razors edge.
You are assuming that all the "youth vote" will be there for the Democrats. Time and history has proven this theory to be wrong. Not all young people are that stupid and short sighted.
Bernie Sanders' edge is authenticity. That's somewhat similar to Ron Paul's appeal. However, Ron Paul wasn't a proven fundraiser, so he did not receive attention or support from the party establishment.
Sanders is competitive with Trump on authenticity. Both deliver an unvarnished stump speech. Neither are eloquent speakers and do not carefully choose their words to conform to party talking points. A campaign between Sanders and Trump would, of necessity, become a competition between ideas for the future of the United States.
Remember Walter Mondale's campaign ads; "where's the beef?" In my view, Sanders and Trump are beef; they aren't mayonnaise.
He's way too far left. I don't see how he could possibly beat Trump. Oh, and he's also too old - but then so are Trump and Sanders.
Hillary Clinton's fundraising (@ $1.2 billion) was almost double that of Donald Trump (@ $0.65 billion). And Clinton outspent Trump by almost a 2 to 1 margin, too.
Campaign fundraising was not a reliable indicator for the 2016 election and won't be for the 2020 election either.
I dont think fundraising proves much, just like the weekend box office totals dont prove whether or not a movie is any good.
But Trump likes to brag about it, and he appears to be losing the fundraising race badly, so maybe he should stop bragging about it.
Just about everything Trump says and does seems to ultimately work out for him.
You can't keep a proven winner and leader down!
I agree. But Trump's braggadocio isn't any different than what other politicians do. To me, bragging about spending public money is worse than bragging about fundraising.
The key thing to keep in mind is that both parties tend to provide more support for their best fundraisers. Fundraising is an indicator of who the party establishment are going to support.
He likes to brag about his crowd sizes too - and he really doesn't give a shit that it's clearly obviously nothing but lies. I think his mental illness makes it possible for him to actually convince himself, and convincing himself is just as important as bamboozling his worshippers, and necessary for his psychopathy.
Damn John, you seeded an article saying Democratic fundraising looks like a bad omen for Trump, are you now taking that back?
Yeah but that obsession hasn't been about the White House. The Democrat's blue wall is slated to lose seven, possibly eight, Congressional districts (and electoral votes) in 2022. And Democrats are not in a good position to control redistricting in the states that will gain Congressional districts (and electoral votes).
More people are moving out of Democratic enclaves than are moving in. The old Democratic playbook of coastal politics isn't going to work as well. The Democratic Party is being forced to deal with an existential crisis that will require changing the party's focus away from the coasts. Democrats have forgotten how to do politics in the heartland; that's why there is a note of desperation in what Democrats are doing.
Democrats have always liked wasting money.....
Yeah...like the current impeachment scandal and impasse.
Hillary Clinton spent about twice as much as Trump, and that doesn't even count the billions worth of free air time she received from the MSM acting as her proxy and the even bigger advantage she got from google filtering search results to favor her.
Sadly for Democrats, money can't buy the Presidency
Trump got a lot more free media coverage than anyone.
And many voters are dumb enough to vote for the person whose name they've heard the most often.
I like to joke that in my state, if Harry Byrd were on the ballot, he'd receive a lot of votes. But I'm not sure it's actually a joke!
Fixed it for you.
Which is the reason the MSM isn't trusted anymore.
Most people's minds are already made up, raising and spending money and bombarding us with annoying advertising is mostly a waste
This is another example of what is wrong with our election process. It makes me ill seeing this much money being raised for an election. There is much more we could be accomplishing with this money.
Vote for the Libertarian candidate he will only raise a small fraction of the total amount wasted in the election.
In case you forgot, the Dems are fund raising to go against each other. Not Trump !
Trumps raising tons of money....just Because !
Yup, a lot of money being burned in the DNC primary. Trump's huge war chest is reserved for the General Election.
Yippers !
He's not running against ANY OF THEM right now, But them Dems want you to think he is.