Saturday, September 21, 2019

Bye-bye Bill as de Blasio drops out


It's been three weeks since Kirsten  Gillibrand dropped out, so I've been quiet about the presidential campaign here other than updating Democratic candidates' Voteview scores and posting drinks for candidates at the September and October Democratic debates; the Emmy Awards have been more interesting.  All that changed yesterday as Bill de Blasio dropped out.  CBS News reports.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday morning that he's ending his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination after making no headway in the polls and failing to qualify for the last debate. CBSN political reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns has more on the latest shakeup in the race.
Oddly enough, I had just mentioned Mayor de Blasio in a comment to Turning on the Light at Kunstler's blog.
I've been following the ideological progress of Mayor De Blasio according to On The Issues since he announced his candidacy.  For such a notorious liberal, he started off near the right end of the spectrum.  Since then, he has moved to the left and is now the median candidate ideologically in the remaining field.  That means he's just an average Democrat.
And now he's gone, so it's time to quote FiveThirtyEight in their first 2020 drop out draft and then retire some memes and recipes.  Follow over the jump for those.

First, FiveThirtyEight.
sarahf [Sarah Frostenson, politics editor)]:...My second pick is less bold than my first, but arguably more likely to happen, at least by October anyway — Bill de Blasio.

De Blasio always had a tough road ahead of him, and as much as I can’t believe that the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, stands more of a chance than the mayor of New York City, that’s where I think we currently are. De Blasio strikes me as a candidate who never really stood a chance, or wasn’t running to win — although, I can’t exactly tell you what issue he was running on, per se.

And the most damning stat of his candidacy was his popularity at home — New Yorkers don’t like him and didn’t want him to run!

It’s like if those at home, who in theory know you best, don’t like you all that much, why try to catapult yourself onto a national stage? Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was at least popular when he mounted his 2008 presidential bid.

nrakich [Nathaniel Rakich, elections analyst]: Oh, see, Sarah, that’s kind of why I don’t think he’ll drop out anytime soon.

De Blasio strikes me as the kind of candidate who isn’t really running to win, just to throw some rhetorical bombs and maybe have a good time.

So why let having almost no chance of winning the nomination stop you?

Reportedly, de Blasio doesn’t like his day job as New York City mayor. So I think he’ll try to prolong his presidential campaign as long as possible — to stay away from City Hall.

geoffrey.skelley [Geoffrey Skelly, elections analyst]: Resources could be a problem though — de Blasio only raised $1.1 million by the end of June, and had just 6,700 donors. Yeesh. So yeah, I can see him leaving just because he can’t afford to stay in.

sarahf: Yeesh is right.
De Blasio ended being the sixth pick in the drop out draft, following John Hickenlooper in first, Seth Moulton in second, Gillibrand in third, and Jay Inslee in fifth.  This leaves Tim Ryan, who I wrote about in the comments to Midweek Cafe and Lounge, Vol. 129 at Progress Pond (formerly Booman Tribune).
I was originally planning on posting my drink selection for Tim Ryan, but he was the fourth candidate picked in FiveThirtyEight's drop out draft.  Since picks one, two, three, and five have already dropped out, I'm holding off on posting his drink until he drops out.
I'm still waiting for Ryan.  In the meantime, five down, four to go from FiveThirtyEight's drop-out draft.

Now to say farewell to two memes and a drink recipe.  Here's the first meme that I'm dispensing with.


I wouldn't have used this anyway, as other candidates will likely have moved farther left the next time I updated the ratings from On The Issues.  On the other hand, I might have used this meme again.


Now, the drink from Drinks for the Democratic debates, Part 1.

As Mayor of New York City, the obvious choice for Bill De Blasio would be a Manhattan.  However, he actually lives in Brooklyn, so I'm recommending The Brooklyn from Common Man Cocktails.
The Brooklyn cocktail is the ugly step child of the Manhattan cocktail. Historically, the Brooklyn cocktail never caught on and there were around five publicized recipes that just didn't hit it off with the customers. People could never find the love of the brooklyn like they did with the Manhattan and even the Bronx cocktail.

We give the Brooklyn cocktail a go with the first time and see how that goes! It has a lot in common with the other cocktails in this segment of classics and the best part of the tasting is getting a chance to see one of the cocktails that battled to get manhattan style status in the history books.
I guess the cocktail, like De Blasio, is an acquired taste.
I guess not enough Democratic voters, at least the ones who answer polls and donate money, acquired it.  Bye-bye Bill!

2 comments:

  1. Who?

    Honestly, I have no respect for guys like this. Choosing a Presidential nominee is serious business. We don't need these no-hope bozos cluttering up the process and forcing the debate organizers to pretend to take them seriously, just so they can "throw some rhetorical bombs and maybe have a good time". Even Yang and Inslee at least have actual ideas they're trying to advance. It sounds like de Blasio didn't even have much idea why he was running.

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    1. LOL, better than "that asshole." Seriously, other than trying and failing to prove that the Mayor of New York City was a bigger deal than the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, I'm not sure what the point of his campaign was. Maybe it really was just to raise his profile.

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