Trump's lovely weekend break in Paris wasn't so lovely, as we all know. But now we know how
he saw it...
President Trump’s 43-hour stay in Paris was fraught. As the Washington Post reports, he “brooded” over midterm recounts in Florida, “sulked” over Democratic victories elsewhere, “erupted” at his staff following the media’s coverage of his decision to skip a ceremony honoring World War I veterans, was “resentful” about Emmanuel Macron’s censure of nationalism, and all the while was “plotting a shake-up” of his own administration.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/si ... v-14-2018/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... 596a42f5bdMeanwhile, another Democratic contender for 2020 (one of my favorites, personally, despite his long odds) is preparing for the long road ahead...
Julián Castro convened a group of supporters in San Antonio Monday in preparation for a 2020 presidential campaign, sources familiar with the gathering told POLITICO.
Castro and his twin brother, Rep. Joaquin Castro, brought together about 20 of their loyal donors and bundlers in San Antonio to begin to sketch out a national bid, according to one person present and another with direct knowledge of the meeting.
The session lasted several hours and invited the potential donors to ask questions about a potential presidential campaign. The 44-year-old brothers even left the room for a bit to give their allies a chance to talk freely, according to Scott Atlas, a prominent Houston attorney and the finance chair for Democrat Bill White’s 2010 challenge to then-Governor Rick Perry.
“The consensus was that Julián brings a lot to the table. He’s part of a new generation and most of the candidates who are talked about are not,” said Atlas, who declined to name the other participants at the meeting but said it was mostly people from Texas with longstanding ties to the Castro brothers.
The former mayor of San Antonio and secretary for Housing and Urban Development in the final years of the Obama administration has been strongly hinting at a presidential run over the past year. He has made several trips to early primary states, written a memoir, and created and formed the Opportunity First PAC to help build the Democratic bench. During his book tour this fall, Castro told Rolling Stone that he is “likely” to run.
Potentially the only Latino candidate in a sprawling Democratic presidential field, Castro recently assembled a group of Latino leaders in Washington to talk a 2020 campaign, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting. Castro and his brother both have long been considered rising stars on the left, with Julián rising to national prominence when he gave the keynote address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Hillary Clinton’s campaign then vetted him for vice president in 2016.
Castro would likely enter the race trailing other better-known candidates such as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris.
But, as Castro concluded in his recent book: “Embrace your own unlikely journey.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/ ... ion-987534He's Latinx (better get used to hearing that term in place of Latino/Latina), got dem progressive chops, and worked with Obama. He's Texan, to boot, so like O'Rourke, he could potentially open up more paths to the presidency in his home state and across the south-west. Strategically, he's valuable, I think, and he could prove formidable if he were to team up with any number of other candidates - any of the women, Cory Booker, etc. Time will tell if his shot is a success, but even if he falls short, should one of his competitors win the race, I think they should put him in a key cabinet role to position him for another run later on.