Somewhat surprisingly Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer have exited the contest for the Democratic nomination for president. “Surprisingly” because it was just three days before “Super Tuesday”, when 14 states holding about a third of all of the committed delegates were voting. I don’t think that running out of money or cutting their losses are credible explanations. To me the most credible explanation is that their exits are strategic in nature—based on polls and performance they realize that neither will emerge as the eventual nominee and their presence merely sucks a few votes away from other candidates who are more likely to win.
I don’t think that either Tom Steyer or Pete Buttigieg would have made a good president and I doubt I would have voted for either of them.
Now the field is limited to Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar. I don’t believe that either Sen. Warren or Sen. Klobuchar actually has a chance at this point. Sen. Warren, presumably, pulls some votes away from Bernie Sanders while Sen. Klobuchar pulls from Biden.
By all appearances Bernie Sanders has a base of support of a little more than 15% of primary voters while Biden has a floor of about 8%. As candidates have left the field, Biden’s floor has risen to about 15% while Sanders’s has stayed about the same.
The question is whether all of this is too late.
California has been voting for weeks now; along with the other Super Tuesday states.
I think even the post Super Tuesday states like Florida, Michigan, and Ohio have started early voting.
So all the early votes for the departed candidates are now wasted? I would expect Buttigieg would have gotten lots of CA votes.
I’m surprised he didn’t stay in. IMO the DNC has decided that Mr. Plastic Gay’s voters will vote for anyone but Bernie, so there was no point in throwing any more good money after bad.
Many pundits figure that Klobuchar and Warren will also throw in the towel after the Minnesota and Massachusetts votes are in. I think Warren stays in because a lot of her support would end up with Bernie whereas Klobuchar’s voters are Never-Bernie. Depends on how big Bernie wins on Super Tuesday. If he’s a big time winner, IMO figure on the DNC adding enough superdelegates to ensure Sanders doesn’t get the nomination. Then it’s on to the pot smoke filled room.
I still say the DNC should let Sanders have the nomination so they can clean house of him, the Clintons, AOC and her acolytes, and maybe even Obama’s crew as well after the expected drubbing and rebuild for 2024.
If they can. The Woke and the Muslim apologists and the Communists are poised to take over the party. If that happens, the Democratic party nationally will be in the political wilderness for at least a couple of election cycles. Usually the young acquire more mature political beliefs as they age, but much of this crowd is so loony left I’m afraid they’ll still make Bernie look like a conservative when they’re his age.
“I don’t think that either Tom Steyer or Pete Buttigieg”
Better than Trump (now there is a low bar) , and neither has particularly loony ideas as far as I can tell.
Steve
Putting aside the visceral hatred a partisan may have for a sitting president, Steyer and Buttigieg are nothing more than empty ambitious vessels who happen to have a D stamped behind their name. One is a climate obsessed, virtue-signaling billionaire, making early fortunes in a fuel he now derides. The other is an articulate young clone of Obama, running on a resume of mismanaging a city with a population .00028 the size of the US.