'I don't really know her': Why Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign is stuck at 0.3%

[TexasTowelie]

NEW LONDON, N.H. – Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand swept into a gift shop in the center of this quaint New England town eight days ago and greeted Kathryn Kull with a smile and a handshake.

Kull responded with a look of surprise that told the tale of Gillibrand’s presidential campaign.

“I don’t really know her as well as I know the other candidates,” Kull acknowledged later. “And honestly, there are so many candidates.”

To be exact, 23 serious candidates are vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Read more: https://buffalonews.com/2019/06/23/kirsten-gillibrands-n-h-problem-giving-voters-a-reason-to-back-her/

[Zoonart]

1. My Senator

Right of center. Not likeable. Just MHO.

[PatSeg]

14. I think that is the general consensus

and has been for quite some time.

[USALiberal]

2. Hope she drops out soon! nt

[Submariner]

3. She tombstoned the career of the great Senator Al Franken without allowing him the hearing

he requested to clear the air of the charges levied against him.

She went for his jugular fast with her hyped up rhetoric when it was obvious a setup was being used to take Al down. Therefore, she is persona non grata in the field of presidential contenders imho.

[walkingman]

7. I'll never forget or forgive her actions. He is a major loss to our party.

[dalton99a]

10. +1. She did it with clear malice, and she considers it a great accomplishment

[brooklynite]

22. Please justify "clear malice" with evidence

[hlthe2b]

11. And if MORE remember that or LEARN that fact, her support will not even register.

Not to mention her past policy views that were exceedingly RW. She's converted on those now--good for her, but I think her undeserved sanctimony is off-putting and her 180-degree conversion of policies not always sincere.

[Politicub]

12. Franken sunk Franken. The picture of him miming squeezing a sleeping woman's breasts

did him in. It was moronic and childish for him to do that. If people don’t acknowledge Franken’s stupid action in the same breath as condemning Gillibrand, they are concealing half of the story.

And Gillibrand was not alone in saying Biden’s actions were wrong, but she bears the brunt. There were men who also condemned Franken. They get a pass. I wonder why that is?

I know this isn’t the popular opinion on DU, but it’s being honest.

Franken didn’t fight for himself. He resigned instead. Crucifying Gillibrand each time her name is mentioned is an easy, cheap shot. In the primary discussions, it’s used as a scarlet letter to signify she is too impure and unclean for consideration.

On edit: the woman wasn’t a soldier. Corrected. She was a right winger who was part of a ratfucking campaign that used the photo.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. "Sleeping soldier"?

The "sleeping soldier" was Leeann Tweeden, right-wing radio talk-show host and good pal of Sean Hannity and Roger Stone - who knew in advance that the allegations were coming out and tweeted about it hours before Tweeden made her accusations on the air. https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/360726-stone-appeared-to-know-franken-allegation-was-coming The whole thing stunk of ratfucking.

[Politicub]

16. So Franken didn't pose for a photo?

As odious as Tweeden is, she didn’t use some kind of psychic power to cause Franken to do what he did.

Ratfucking did happen. And it was a right-wing hit job. Franken made it easy for creation of the bait, though.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. But Tweeden grabbing guys' butts during the USO show didn't seem to be a problem.

Link to tweet

/photo/1

I'm not interested in relitigating this, but nobody seemed to mind Tweeden's raunchy behavior on the same tour. She got a pass.

[hlthe2b]

17. Only shows how readily a few RW memes are in bamboozling some Dems/Progressives.

[Politicub]

20. RW memes do sometimes rely on fallibility of memory.

I was taken in, I guess. The camouflage garb was what I remembered from the picture. I corrected my post and noted why.

[Trenzalore]

21. At the time Franken was being mentioned in the same breath as Bill Cosby and Weinstein

The me too movement went off the rails when it failed to recognize there are degrees of bad behavior.

The woman was a right wing media personality who shopped her story to right wing media outlets with the intent to take down a sitting US Senator.

Harris has as much to do with the Franken resignation as Gillibrand but Harris was smarter about not running in front of every camera. Gillibrand became the face of those in the Senate to push Franken out and she willingly took that mantle thinking no tolerance would be a winning issue for her in 2020.

Pretending to grab someone's breast on a USO tour didn't seem to me to rise to the level of forcing a distinguished Senator to resign then and it doesn't now.

[Politicub]

26. I agree it shouldn't have risen to forcing a senator to resign

This is not a hill I wish to die on. She’s near the bottom of my list of nominees. She overreached.

I wrote my post because it gets old that when every time Gillibrand’s name comes up, any discussion gets scuttled by someone invoking Franken. That’s boring in a discussion forum about primary candidates.

Her record in the senate is moderate-to-conservative. I don’t think she’s targeting people who think “Franken” whenever she’s in the spotlight. There was a 60 Minutes piece featuring her, and she comes across well. Not from a policy perspective, but she is a polished candidate.

She has a record of coming from behind and winning. We ignore her strengths at our own peril. Franken doesn’t register with the people she is targeting, other than casting him as a caricature in the #metoo bonafides she is burnishing.

This is the broader threat with Gillibrand. I could see her weaponizing Franken and using her stance to win votes. He wasn’t a beloved senator with everyone.

He was one of my favorite senators. I didn’t only admire him in the senate, I was a fan of his talk show and earlier work. It disappointed me that he didn’t fight harder. The photo would have blown over if it wasn’t coupled to the emotional flashpoint of his resignation. He could have beat it.

But I guess I did my part in keeping Franken as the main discussion point with Gillibrand by spawning this conversation. I am undercutting my own point.

[Trenzalore]

30. She's an opportunist and been smart in the past

A statement that could pretty much summarize anyone in the field.

I don't think there is an appetite for her in 2020. She is having trouble raising money and a lot of that has to do with the Franken controversy. The crowd in NY she could usually count on for money won't donate til they deem her viable.

I have been wrong many times in the past but absent a breakout performance in a debate I don't expect her to even register when Iowa and New Hampshire vote in 2020 because she will be out of money.

[Trumpocalypse]

35. Moderate to conservative?

Actually she has a very liberal record in the Senate, and is the most anti-Trump voting record. However, her record in the House was very conservative which is why many don't trust her.

[Politicub]

38. I stand corrected. I don't know that much about her time in the house.

She sure is a lightening rod. But I knew that before I posted. Glutton for punishment, I guess.

[Trumpocalypse]

34. Not running in front of every camera?

Harris was the first to go on TV calling for Franken to resign.

And while you make a point about Tweeden, there were 7 other women that accused Franken and no evidence has ever been presented to discredit them.

[avebury]

25. Yes the photo was stupid but the woman has zero credibiility.

There is a video out there of her on stage with a band during a USO show. She is prancing around and comes up behind the guitarist and starts to grope him in the butt. He didn't apprciate it and reached around and pushed her away. She then pranced around, laughing, goes up behind the hind and spanks him in the butt a couple of times. I think I posted the video on DU quite a while back when the attack on Al Franken took place.

[Politicub]

27. He could have won the fight.

Maybe I’m wrong.

[Trumpocalypse]

36. To be honest

No one called for Franken to resign after Tweeden accused him. It was only after seven other women came forward, including an Army vet and a former congressional staffer, that they did.

[earthshine]

37. What about Harris???

>> There were men who also condemned Franken. They get a pass.

They don't get a pass, and neither does Harris.

And Harris tweeted, "Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere. I believe the best thing for Senator Franken to do is step down."

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/06/gillibrand-calls-on-franken-to-resign-282112

[Demsrule86]

39. She was the first...so I would not votefor her in a primary.

[brooklynite]

24. What then is the excuse for Klobuchar being at 1% and Booker being at 2%?

[Johnyawl]

29. Exactly!

I'll never forgive her for that. I'll vote for any Democrat that gets the nomination, but on my preferred list she's in the bottom 4.

[Trumpocalypse]

31. Her and over 30 other Senators

including Harris, Warren, Booker and Sanders.

And an ethics committee hearing does not determine guilt or innocence, only if congressional ethics rules had been violated.

Plus since it was such an obvious setup surely you can produce evidence that all 7 women, other than Tweeden, were lying.

[Zambero]

4. Lightweight

In a field of 20+ Gillibrand ranks near the bottom, and not merely in poll numbers.

[Indykatie]

5. To Be Exact We Don't Have 23 "Serious" Candidates - Some of the 23 Are Wasting Our Time and Theirs.

[Perseus]

9. I wonder if the strategy is to gain national exposure to then go for Senate sits

Otherwise, like you said, it is a total waste of time and money.

[Lochloosa]

6. She needs to go away.

[democratisphere]

8. One thing.

Al Franken 2024.

[Politicub]

18. Don't you mean 2028?

[dalton99a]

13. She has every right to run, and people have every right to know what she did.

[brooklynite]

23. Funny how the woman she talked to didn't know about her and Franken...

It's almost as if it wasn't a big issue to the average voter.

[Trumpocalypse]

32. It wasn't

Which is why she run re-election to the Senate with 2/3rds of the vote.

But in a Presidential field, she is just not dynamic enough.

[Funtatlaguy]

28. A friend calls her Mother Superior because of

The way she says that Gillibrand treated Franken.
I didn’t say this, my friend did.
She wants Franken to move to New York and primary Gillibrand. Oh my.

[Trumpocalypse]

33. In 5 years?

Gillibrand isn't up for re-election again until 24.

Maybe he should primary Warren or Sanders or Booker or Harris or any of the over 30 other Senators who called for his resignation the very same day.

[Funtatlaguy]

40. She was the ringleader though. Just sayin

[Trumpocalypse]

42. So the others were all just blind followers?

Doesn’t speak well for them.

[USALiberal]

41. LOL,here we go again! nt

[Trumpocalypse]

43. Sorry

that facts upset you.

[madville]

44. No Senator that supported Franken's resignation will win the primary

That includes her, Booker, Harris, Warren, Sanders, etc.

[Raine]

45. I know all I need to know about her and can sum it up

in two words .... Al Franken! and that for me is a BIG NO to her!