So, Howard Schultz, the former chairman of Starbucks, is mulling a run for the Presidency in 2020 and the Dems have all lined up to mess their pants a bit.
quote:
Democrats Uneasy About Potential Howard Schultz Bid Gene Johnson, Associated Press, Jan. 27, 2019
For a buisnessman who grew a small coffee roaster into an inescapable global chain, who ensured that even his part-time workers had benefits and who has given about $150,000 to Democratic campaigns, former Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz is generating tepid - or even hostile - responses within the party as he weighs a presidential bid in 2020.
That's partly because reports suggest he's considering running as an independent, a prospect many worry could draw support from the eventual Democratic nominee and hand President Donald Trump another four years in office. Among those urging him not to run as an independent are David Axelrod, the former adviser to President Barack Obama, and Tina Podlodowski, the Democratic Party chairwoman in Washington state, where Schultz has lived for decades. "For someone professing to be a lifelong Democrat, I think running as an independent in this particular cycle is not a wise thing to do," Podlodowski said. Julian Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development who announced a bid for the Democratic nomination this month, said Sunday on CNN he is concerned that if Schultz did run an independent campaign "it would provide Donald Trump with his best hope of getting re-elected."
The 65-year-old Seattle billionaire launches a tour Monday to promote his latest book, "From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America." He has stops this week in New York; Tempe, Arizona; Seattle; and San Francisco - but no dates listed for the early voting states of Iowa or New Hampshire. He's been mentioned as a potential candidate many times before, and he's done little to quell speculation about his presidential ambitions since saying when he retired from Starbucks last June that his future could include "public service". His office did not respond to an email seeking comment about his intentions. If he were to enter the race he would be the most high-profile candidate without prior elected experience.
On paper, Schultz offers a number of qualities that might appeal to voters. He grew up in public housing in Brooklyn, New York, and because the first person in his family to graduate from college. He took over Starbucks when it sold only coffee beans, not cups - it had 11 stores and fewer than 100 employees at the time - and grew it into a global behemoth that now has close to 30,000 stores in 78 countries. Along the way he adopted an ethos of corporate responsibility, making Starbucks one of the earliest U.S. companies to offer stock options and health insurance even to part-time employees, and more recently partnering with Arizona State University to cover tuition for workers who want to earn their bachelor's degree online.
He's waded into contentious social issues. In 2013, Starbucks asked customers not to bring guns into stores following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and in 2015, Schultz drew anger and ridicule after he urged baristas to write "Race Together" on cups to spark conversations amid tension over police shootings of black men. Last year, after two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks while waiting for a buisness meeting, Starbucks closed 8,000 U.S. stores early so employees could take anti-bias training. He's been a longtime Democratic donor, contributing to the campaigns of former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Washington Sen.s Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, among others. He has also criticized Trump, telling employees that the president was creating "chaos" and hurting buisness; calling Trump's tax cuts for corporations unnecessary and reckelss; and vowing to hire 10,000 refugees after Trump issued an executive order banning travel from seven mostly Muslim nations.
But some of his views might clash with a Democratic Party gearing up to unseat Trump. While some potential nominees, including Massacheusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and California Sen. Kamala Harris, have endorsed single-payer health care, heavily taxing the rich or free tuition at public colleges, Schultz has criticized some such proposals as unrealistic and instead emphasized expanding the economy and curbing entitlements to get the national debt under control. "It concerns me that so many voices within the Democratic Party are going so far to the left," Schultz told CNBC last June. "I ask myself, 'How are we going to pay for all of these things?' in terms of things like single-payer or people espousing the fact that the government is going to give everyone a job. I don't think that's realistic."
It's easy to see why he'd want to run as an independent. Tactically it immediately makes him a standout on the left - or at least keeps him from getting buried among the existing coterie of dwarves who are currently running for the Dem nomination. It also frees him from being put on the defensive about supporting whoever the eventual nominee is, which, from a sales standpoint, is exactly where he doesn't want to be. At the same time, it distinguishes him politically as the voice of the 'sane' left, which means he's kept lines of communication open to corporate types who still sympathize with the Dems (yes, they exist - mostly as guilt-ridden morons who don't actually follow the issues that don't directly impact on their profits) and corporations that have built a corporate identity as leftist.
But boy howdy does that ever position Howie as a spoiler. Heh, heh, heh, heh.
Posts: 27313 | Location: Deep in the heart of the brush country, and closing on that #&*%!?! roadrunner. Really. | Registered: February 05, 2008
So that makes like 40 Dem candidates for the primary? What a shit show this one should be. Can't wait.
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^^^ Makes sense. The video he needs should be plentiful, cheap to obtain and royalty-free. The beauty of it for me is the Schultz doesn't have to get pushed to the left to win a primary, but he'll exacerbate the Dems' tendency to push each other to the left in order to distinguish themselves not only from each other and Trump, but a wishy-washy pro-buisness liberal as well.
quote:
Originally posted by BBMW: I figured Bloomberg would do this.
Bloomberg knows he hasn't got a prayer, his lifestyle would take a radical dive, and that he has absolutely no chance of driving "the national conversation" in any particular direction. Schultz is still dumb enough to listen to his own ego and hasn't figured all that out yet.
quote:
Originally posted by zoom6zoom: shouldn't the title of his book be "From the Grounds Up"?
If he's burned out enough to have retired when the buisness is at its peak, "From the Ground Up" could be pretty appropriate. We'll know when we see how he campaigns.
Posts: 27313 | Location: Deep in the heart of the brush country, and closing on that #&*%!?! roadrunner. Really. | Registered: February 05, 2008
To be clear here, we want him to run as an independent, not as a democrap.
“We truly live in a wondrous age of stupid.” - 83v45magna
"I think it's important that people understand free speech doesn't mean free from consequences societally or politically or culturally." -Pranjit Kalita, founder and CIO of Birkoa Capital Management
^^ Ah, now there's another interesting thought - who wins an argument about "what makes buisness sense" that takes place in front of a general audience? Somehow I see Howie getting Mittensed and retreating into a cloud of hurt feelings on national TV.
Posts: 27313 | Location: Deep in the heart of the brush country, and closing on that #&*%!?! roadrunner. Really. | Registered: February 05, 2008
