Options
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Beto O’Rourke, third favourite for WH2020, gets closer to putt

The biggest UK political betting market continues to be the US presidential election in 2020 and overnight there have been big developments with Beto O’Rourke saying that he isn’t rulling out a bid.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
O'Rourke is a good communicator but he's pretty inexperienced and his main claim to fame is losing a Senate race.
Kamala Harris is mind-numbingly dull. I think she's the dullest person in 1617 people I follow on Twitter. I know there's a tendency to run somebody who's the opposite of the president but I think you need a certain amount of spikiness to compete in the social media era.
I would watch:
- Elizabeth Warren. I wouldn't recommend the Dems did this as she doesn't have great favourables but she's as good as said she's running, and if the Dems want to indulge themselves she's the obvious way to go.
- Kirsten Gillbrand: Sharp and audacious, check out how she turned on Clinton over sexual harassment.
- Amy Klobuchar: Excellent communicator, actually won her Senate race. (Betfair can't spell her name though.)
- Sherrod Brown: Reaches parts the other Dems can't, and they really want to win this time.
Think Warren's moment has passed, and must admit I'll have to google Mr EiT's other suggestions.
Beto should have another swing at the Senate next time out where he will have an even weaker opponent than he did this time. I think he will and this is about keeping his profile and funding up.
He's going to be 68 in 2020. Not as old as Trump but not exactly a fresh face either. Does have a strong base in Ohio though which is obviously important. Maybe a strong VP candidate?
Kristen: ok value, no more. I like her. I don't think she has mass appeal.
Amy: probably worth a small punt. She'd be excellent in the debates, but there's a better than even chance she won't make it that far.
Sherrod: pile on. Won a swing state by a big margin. Is economically populist without being obviously racist, corrupt or crazy. I think he'd be terrible for America, but he's hugely mispriced.
He only went as far as he did in 2016 because he was opposing Hillary (and pretty much just Hillary). 2020 means younger and better opponents. I'll offer any PBer's who's keen a 15% uplift to the bookies 11-1 for Democratic nominee.
Surely a shoo-in then?
He'd probably walk the Presidency. But, like Trump, he thinks America's problems are caused by free trade. (There's a certain irony here: populists in the UK think their country needs more free trade; those in the US think theirs needs a lot less.)
I am not convinced that the average Populist voter is very keen on it, whether Corbynite or Farageist. It is more a favoirite of the metropolitan elite wolves in sheeps clothing.
It would make hedging positions more interesting.
And he might well pick up the Senate seat.
Win/win.
An elastic band I was going to use seemingly vanished this morning. It was there one moment and gone the next. I'm uncertain whether this was due to global warming or Brexit.
Interesting to try and consider who the runners and riders might be. When do the processes actually get underway? I know the contests last a long old time, so is it just months away that the first chaps and ladies announce their desire to personally topple Trump?
As Keynes himself pointed out those who espouse economic ideas are all too often in thrall to some dead economist, in this case Adam Smith. Free trade with those who aspire to a far lower standard of living than we currently enjoy and are rather less particular about either pollution or H&S is not necessarily to our advantage.
Here's an article (FWIW) in favour:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/beto-orourke-should-run-for-senate-in-2020-he-could-win/2018/11/09/99263192-e462-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/21/michael-avenatti-stormy-daniels-lawyer-escapes-felony-charge
Ok. Not exciting. But it is sensible.
https://twitter.com/LukeSmithF1/status/1067274384669372419
The idiocy of four compounds (more than half the set) being some variety of 'soft' was irksome.
Also, Raikkonen's driving the Sauber today. He last raced for the team about 17 years ago.
Those who thought we were better off out but fairly flexible on how, yet look at May's excoriated deal, look at the prospect of no deal, and think "I don't want to be in the EU, but the 'negotiation' has produced three options, and of these Remain is the least bad."
A lot of attention is given to the noisy fringes on either side but most people are both rather less interested and rather closer to the middle.
Biden, Sanders, Warren and Harris remain the key contenders for the 2020 Democratic nomination in the national and early state polls of Democratic voters
They are not my politics and it looks like the brexiteers are going to doom brexit so they can continue a divisive anti EU position for the foreseable future.
Sadly my party is not fit for office if the ERG take over
I still maintain a pivot to Norway is the best option and important to avoid a nasty, spiteful and angry referendum, which if it keeps us in the EU, will break the fabric of out society for decades. Those campaigning for it need to be aware of the consequences if they succeed, irrespective of margin of victory.
If I thought it would put the matter to bed I would support it but I am gravely concerned that it will make a deadful position worse, much worse
Remember many Tories were also protectionists at one time or another from Disraeli to Joseph Chamberlain
Turns out Brexit means Brexit.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/we-need-to-stop-being-so-english-aboutbrexit-290jjfkmp
Plus there’s no guarantee we can revoke/extend Article 50.
Who knows, Spain might demand Gibraltar as the price for extending/revoking A50, every country has a veto in that situation
Sometimes it's good to get your head out of the bubble.
If that is the case, then it maybe that the GOP in states such as Texas and Florida, which are low tax, might have more structural protection due to these new voters than is assumed. It also raises the question as to whether the recent SALT changes will accelerate internal migration in the States and the flight from high tax to low tax states.
As an aside, I also wonder whether some of the weakness of the GOP in the House in areas such as Orange County in CA and New Jersey / New York is also being driven by the internal migration issue. Seems to me that, if you are fleeing a state because of high taxes, you are more likely to vote for the GOP.
The Yugoslav civil war started with a punch up at a wedding reception...
Wales also voted to leave.
In a national referendum, votes all count the same. Or does the author think a Scottish vote should be worth more than an English or Welsh one? The alternative flavour of drunken madness would be to give subordinate political bodies the right to veto foreign policy, the right for a minority to dictate policy to the majority.
It's also worth noting the people of Scotland voted to remain British knowing that such a referendum was in the Conservative manifesto for 2015.
Knocking the English is fashionable in some quarters. That doesn't make it intelligent.
https://twitter.com/ottocrat/status/1067328759290826752
https://twitter.com/martincuff/status/1067330887837237249
And we will.
That's the point.
I wonder how things would be if the immigration figures were reversed? And also wonder if some in certain countries think unfettered emigration may not have been such a great idea.
https://twitter.com/guardiannews/status/1067340429081890816
I'm sure the diehard Leavers who want to wave her work away will come up with some good reasons why her work is unaccountably winning so many awards.
I’d not back him at current odds.
PS - It is fake news if Tissue Price says he backed Beto at even longer odds for 2020.
https://twitter.com/adamfleming/status/1067335420449570816
Read the thread. People from former Eastern European states (some of whom had exit visas in the past) will have greater freedom of movement than we will.
It's also interesting that the HMG and the EU Council and Commission are on the same side in the ECJ case.