Live commentary on today’s South Carolina primary, where Joe Biden has surged back to a big poll lead. Guest post by Adrian Beaumont. The main general discussion thread is here.
10:49am Tuesday Overnight, Amy Klobuchar also dropped out. She and Buttigieg will endorse Biden at a rally today. Biden has risen in California, and is likely to easily meet the 15% threshold for statewide delegates. The FiveThirtyEight forecast now shows a tossup between Sanders and Biden as to who wins more delegates.
10:45am Monday Pete Buttigieg has quit the presidential race. This is likely to help Biden, as Buttigieg was one of the moderates. Without such a crowded field, non-Sanders candidates are more likely to get over the 15% threshold in California, hurting Sanders’ delegate haul.
4:30pm With all precincts reporting, Biden wins by 48.4-19.9. There were almost 528,000 Democratic votes cast in South Carolina.
3:11pm In the FiveThirtyEight forecast, there is a 60% chance that nobody wins a pledged delegate majority, followed by Sanders at a 28% chance and Biden 11%. The chance of a delegate plurality is Sanders 64%, Biden 32%.
3:03pm With 96% reporting, Sanders has hit 20%, but Biden has almost 49%. Over 500,000 votes now in SC, which makes it the largest turnout increase of any state so far, according to Nate Cohn.
2:05pm With 87% reporting, Biden leads by 28.6% in the SC popular vote. The Green Papers has Sanders gaining two delegates for a 38-16 Biden delegate split. If only two candidates are viable, as in SC, then half-delegates are the crucial line. A candidate who is just over half a delegate gets the full delegate, while if they’re just under, they get no delegate. On the latest results, Biden’s remaining vote fell below a half-delegate in one Congressional District and statewide.
Sorry if the above explanation is confusing!
1:50pm It’s a dismal showing for Buttigieg, Warren and Klobuchar. Buttigieg has 8%, Warren 7% and Klobuchar just 3%.
1:38pm I recommend The Green Papers for tracking delegate counts. They currently have Biden winning SC’s 54 delegates by 40-14 over Sanders. After four states, Sanders still leads the delegate count over Biden by 58-53 with 26 for Buttigieg. But remember only 4% have been awarded so far!
1:32pm With 69% reporting, Biden has a 105,000 popular vote lead over Sanders in SC. That’s enough to give him the overall popular vote lead after four states have reported. Also, Tom Steyer has dropped out of the Democratic nomination contest.
1:17pm With 57% of E-day votes in, it’s Biden 50%, Sanders 19%, Steyer 12%.
12:43pm With 27% of Election Day precincts in, Biden leads Sanders by 52-18 with 12% for Tom Steyer.
12:20pm With 9% of Election Day precincts in, it’s Biden 53%, Sanders 17%, Steyer 12%. Sanders’ numbers are creeping up as more Election Day vote is counted.
12:12pm NY Times analyst Nate Cohn tweets that Sanders is doing much better on Election Day than postal votes in the ten precincts that have reported both.
12:09pm With 5% of election day precincts reporting, Sanders is up to 15.5%, above the 15% threshold for statewide delegates.
12:07pm Sanders had a big win in last Saturday’s Nevada caucus, but it was Biden who surged before SC. So the big SC Biden win won’t necessarily help him on Super Tuesday.
11:52am The vote we’ve got so far is mostly postal votes. Only five election-day precincts are in. Sanders will hope he does better when more of the election-day vote comes in.
11:45am So far just two counties in initial results – York and Greenfield – where Sanders is above 15%.
11:33am So far, Sanders is at less than 15% in all counties reporting. If that persists, he would be shut out of delegates.
11:25am First actual results have Biden with 70%, Tom Steyer at 14% and Sanders just 10%.
11:05am Biden CALLED the winner by CNN based on exit polls. He has a 60-17 lead over Sanders with black voters, who made up 56% of the electorate, slightly down from 61% in 2016.
Guest post by Adrian Beaumont, who joins us from time to time to provide commentary on elections internationally. Adrian is an honorary associate at the University of Melbourne. His work on electoral matters for The Conversation can be found here, and his own website is here.
Polls in South Carolina close today at 11am AEDT. It’s a primary, not a caucus, so it is handled by the state’s election authorities. Shortly before the Nevada caucus, the RealClearPolitics poll average had Joe Biden’s lead over Bernie Sanders down to just three points. But in the last week, Biden has pulled away again, and now leads Sanders by 12.5 points. There is large variation in the Biden leads, from four points to 21 in individual polls.
Another favourable point for Biden is that in the last two contested Democratic primaries (2008 and 2016), polls in South Carolina greatly understated the victory margin for the candidate with more black support (Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton).
In national polls, Sanders has 29.5%, Biden 18.4%, Mike Bloomberg 15.5%, Elizabeth Warren 12.1%, Pete Buttigieg 10.5% and Amy Klobuchar 5.0%. Bloomberg and Klobuchar are down on last week, while Biden is up a little. If Biden has a big victory in South Carolina, will that boost him enough to be competitive with Sanders?
As of South Carolina, only 155 pledged delegates, or 4% of the total of 3,979, will be allocated. The biggest day of the primaries is three days later. On Wednesday AEDT, 14 states vote, and 1,357 delegates (34% of the total) are allocated. The largest delegate prizes are California (415 pledged delegates) and Texas (229). Polls close from 11am to 3pm AEDT.
Democratic delegates are awarded proportionally, but with a high 15% threshold applied at both the state and Congressional District (CD) level. So if a candidate is just below the 15% threshold in a large state, that candidate is likely to win CD delegates from variation in their vote share.
In the RealClearPolitics Super Tuesday averages, Sanders has 32.5% in California, followed by Warren at 15.3%, Biden 12.5%, Bloomberg 10.8% and Buttigieg 9.5%. If this occurs, it will be a BIG delegate haul for Sanders from California. However, US polls include undecided voters, so it may not be that bad for the non-Sanders candidates. In Texas, Sanders has 26.0%, Biden 20.0%, Bloomberg 18.7% and Warren 13.3%. Biden needs a major boost from South Carolina to stop Sanders getting a large delegate lead in three days.
One complication for Sanders is that California takes four weeks to fully count all its votes. Votes counted after Election Day skew heavily left. Based on Election Day counts, the media could say Sanders had a disappointing night, and this narrative could impact his chances in later March states.
The only reason that Donald Trump has a realistic chance of re-election is the good US economy. The coronavirus-caused stock market rout last week is bad news for Trump. If the economy falters on an issue that draws attention to the US healthcare system, Trump’s ratings are likely to fall, and his re-election chances will deteriorate.
C@tmomma says: Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 4:50 pm
I think it will be Biden-Stacey Abrams with Kamala Harris as AG. Adam Schiff needs to hang around to take over as House Majority Leader after Nancy Pelosi retires.
********************************************************
I’ll take WHOEVER combination that the Dems come up with as long as they can defeat Trump in 2020 …… 🙂
There have been several reports of late suggesting that Obama will keep his powder dry re endorsements until much later on. First of all, Obama is genuinely even-handed, and wants to let the process play out with voters before putting his oar in. This is what he did in 2016, despite his personal preference for Clinton. Second, Obama recognises that he may be called upon to play peace-maker at a brokered Conventiin, and he can only do that with clean hands. If #44 does endorse someone, it will only be after their nomination is beyond doubt.
phoenixRED,
In a way it’s good that Joe Biden has been put through the wringer early on. It’s tested his mettle and allowed others to play their strongest hand. Even Trump.
I am hoping that Super Tuesday will bring people back to their senses and allow a true Democrat to take the fight up to Trump. Not some Fauxacrat.
Of course I would prefer Mayor Pete to be the nominee. Still. I guess I might have to wait until we are looking at an Abrams-Buttigieg ticket, followed by a Buttigieg-AOC ticket. 🙂
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who got pummeled in last Tuesday’s debate, never found a real foothold here outside his base of young voters. He won only 17 percent of voters 45 and older, according to exit polling.
…Biden certainly will grab the headlines and garner praise from the cable TV talking heads just days before Super Tuesday. The size of the victory may be as critical in maintaining the aura of new-found strength as the win itself. As voters see moderates such as Klobuchar and Buttigieg fade, Biden may enjoy a surge of support going into Tuesday’s cluster of primary contests. If he can duplicate the results here with commanding wins in states with large numbers of African American voters (such as Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia) totaling 356 delegates, he may compensate for delegate-rich states in which Sanders currently leads in the polls.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/29/south-carolina-may-have-just-rescued-democrats/
@Hugo:
“ bringing us to Dems 248 v GOP 219. You’d probably rather be the Dems in that scenario, as winning Florida or any two of the others would be enough (noting that there are a couple of tie possibilities), but Trump does still have a path to victory, without doubt.”
Trump has three clear pathways to victory:
1. Bernie;
2. Sleepy Joe; and
3. The economy.
I think you also said that the biggest thing against Joe (and I assume also Bernie) is his age. Wrong. The biggest thing against Joe is that he is a dope. While he looks like the American President from central casting, he just looks presidential until he opens his mouth for long enough to prove otherwise. This has been the problem for 32 years.
The best chance the democrats have now is Trump seriously fucking up the response to the corona virus and Americans actually bothering to notice his shortcomings.
C@tmomma,
Pete has time on his side. If a Democrat wins the presidency this year and assuming they gets two terms, Pete can run in 2028 at the ripe old age of 46.
Andrew_Earlwood – I appreciate that you hold an especially dim view of both Biden and Sanders, but I actually don’t think either of them are necessarily disastrous choices in the context of this election. The key issue in November will be Trump himself, and everything else will fade into the background. The Donald is that polarising that the election result will mostly likely come down to the motivations of people who actually vote. Trump can count on the devotion of 40% of electorate, while the Dems have around 50% of voters dead set against him. Just how many of each group turn out in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona (and maybe one or two others) will decide the election. Just who the Democratic nominee is will of course be a factor, but secondary to the polarising effect of the incumbent.
To my mind, all of the remaining Democratic contenders have serious flaws, which might or might not be significant in November. I share some of your concerns about Biden, but it could well be that he is the least inoffensive of them all. And this year, that might well be enough.
“ I share some of your concerns about Biden, but it could well be that he is the least inoffensive of them all. And this year, that might well be enough.”
Sure, I’m not offended by Biden, but will I actually stand in line for hours to vote for him on a cold November Tuesday? Said independents, latinos and especially black voters.
I reckon the answer will be no.
They will if they hate Trump enough. And the evidence at the moment suggests that they do.
“followed by a Buttigieg-AOC ticket”
***
AOC is anti-estab and a big Bernie backer. Wouldn’t work.
Buttigieg is a rising star of the establishment though and I’m sure we’ll see more of him in the future.
AOC Slammed Pete Buttigieg for Big Dollar Donors: ‘It’s Called Having Values’
“For anyone who accuses us for instituting purity tests, it’s called having values. It’s called, giving a damn,” the freshman Congresswoman told the crowd. “It’s called having standards for your conduct, to not be funded by billionaires but to be funded by the people, which is different.”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4agykq/aoc-slammed-pete-buttigieg-for-purity-tests-its-called-having-values
Grovelling “apology” from the balding fat man posing as Treasurer coming soon.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/01/josh-frydenberg-urged-to-do-the-right-thing-after-offensive-hindu-comments
“My wings are like a shield of steel.”
kirky @ #107 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 5:29 pm
He’ll be as ripe as a Georgia Peach. 🙂
Andrew_Earlwood @ #109 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 5:47 pm
Well they did on an arguably colder Saturday in February. 😐
Just what are Buttigieg’s qualifications for the presidency again. Oh yes, he’s gay…what else…. err nuthen much. The vacuous nature of woke politics
Clem Attlee – you may well be correct in your assessment of Buttigieg, but I seem to recall people making similar assessments of Barack Obama back in 2007-08, and he turned out ok. In reality, experience and expertise is only part of the story in choosing a President. Charisma, judgement, temperament and communication are probably equally important, which may well one reason be why we don’t talk about, for example, ex-Presidents Gore and Kerry. To my mind, Buttigieg probably has an edge in the areas of temperament and charisma, so I wouldn’t write him off as a potential Pres later in the 2020s – he’s certainly got plenty of time on his side. To that end, he might be best served in the long run by running for the Senate from Indiana in 2022, but his run for President this year won’t have done him any harm.
AOC aint gonna be no-ones VP.
Hugoaugogo,
You’re correct in saying that Mayor Pete would benefit from the national profile he has created as far as using it to run for another national position. I’m not sure what the Senate positions for Indiana look like in 2022, but if not that then a House seat.
Hey, why not go for broke and set him up to run as Governor of Indiana? 🙂
So after 4 primary/caucuses Iowa, NH, Nevada, SC – what is the aggregated popular vote looking like
1. Joe Biden 29.49
2. Bernie Sanders 24.47
3. Pete Buttigieg 16.13
4. Elizabeth Warren 10.16
South Carolina landslide to Uncle Joe has reset the race. No mandate yet, Bernie Bros
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries
Isn’t AOC too young to run for a Presidential/VP position?
“Wrong. The biggest thing against Joe is that he is a dope. While he looks like the American President from central casting, he just looks presidential until he opens his mouth for long enough to prove otherwise. ”
I think Trump, GW Bush and Reagan prove that being a dope is no impediment to being POTUS. trump tries to look presidential and do his big boy leader voice, but sounds like a drunk simpleton succumbing to dementia, and his supporters love him for it.
Trump is dumber than dogshit and only has money because russian financiers backed/bought him once he’d blown his daddy’s and investors money. His supporters are so stupid that they have bought his “self made billionaire/master of the deal” bullshit. His has been the most chaotic and corrupt whitehouse since Harding. Economic recovery has followed trend from Obama, but has now stalled and the current crash should put paid to the idea Trump had anything to do with recovery. His unstainable tax breaks to the wealthiest will impoverish most other Americans and the deficit climbs to record levels under his mismanagement. He is not going to be remembered well by anyone other than redneck white nationalists and other far right loons. Given your use of his infantile names for his opponents, I’m guessing you’re in that camp?
AOC will be 35 (the Constitutionally mandated minimum age) in October, 2024, so in theory she could run in four years. In practice, she’s not going to be a serious contender until 2032 (she’ll be 43) at the earliest, and she’ll more likely start off by being a Veep candidate or cabinet minister first. Of course, 12 years is a long time in politics, which is plenty of time for her to get some runs on the board, but equally plenty of time for her to make the big compromises necessary to actually get things done in politics. Her current activist fan base might not be quite so enamoured with her by then. One reason why Bernie (and Corbyn) has been able to stay true to his beliefs is because he’s gone through a long political career that’s actually pretty thin on achievement. AOC will need to decide whether she wants to remain pure, but on the sidelines, or to get muddy in the scrum and actually change things. Peter Garrett arrived at a similar crossroads here, and he decided that the imperfect was less the enemy of the possible than the perfect. As a result, Garrett probably managed more concrete achievements than, say, Bob Brown, even though we all remember St Bob much more fondly.
Game on, I guess. But Biden will have to turn the polling on it’s head and drastically improve his fundraising and ground game to strike a knockout blow on Super Tuesday. In just three days!
Bellwether – I agree that Sanders is still in the box seat, given his apparent advantage in delegate-rich California. But the SC certainly gives Biden a big boost, and augers well for him in similar Southern states that also vote on Tuesday, as well as black-heavy Congressional districts (which also award delegates).
The other thing that SC might yet be a harbinger of is the long-predicted coalescing of the moderates. If Biden can follow-through on Tuesday, then the other candidates like Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Bloomberg drop out, then he will become the non-Bernie candidate (and frankly, he was the only of the moderates likely to be able to do this). If that happens, then Biden could become the favourite quite quickly.
C@tmomma says:
Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 6:20 pm
kirky @ #107 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 5:29 pm
C@tmomma,
Pete has time on his side. If a Democrat wins the presidency this year and assuming they gets two terms, Pete can run in 2028 at the ripe old age of 46.
He’ll be as ripe as a Georgia Peach.
________________________________
What is it with you and delighting in the dirty talk innuendo? For the uninitiated you can check the slang reference in Urban Dictionary.
I suspect that you’re drawing a bit of a long bow there, LVT.
Not really hugoaugogo , I think its an attempt at sly references. Peach emoji is slang or a symbol for buttocks according to google.
As In Pete Buttigieg is a ripe peach.
I suspect that the innuendo is more in your mind than anywhere else, LVT, but good luck to you.
“Charisma, judgement, temperament and communication are probably equally important, which may well one reason be why we don’t talk about, for example, ex-Presidents Gore and Kerry. To my mind, Buttigieg probably has an edge in the areas of temperament and charisma, so I wouldn’t write him off as a potential Pres later in the 2020s”
Charisma seems to be an old paradigm quality in a politician. Bernie gained popularity despite being the opposite of charismatic. Also am I the only one here that thinks Mayor Pete sounds totally fake when he talks? Maybe that’s my Bernie bro bias clouding my judgement. I also think in 8 years time a younger progressive will likely have emerged to continue the Bernie movement, perhaps Ro Khanna, who knows
Meanwhile I wonder if there’s much truth to the reports that Obama didn’t want Biden running for Pres – I’m not expecting any imminent endorsements from him: https://www.gq.com/story/obama-to-biden-dont-run
Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama 10 days after Obama won South Carolina, if Obama wanted Biden to be President he would presumably endorse at a similar point.
More likely Super Tuesday will give Sanders a significant lead in delegates. Will the Democrats split the party to try and use the super-delegates to give Biden the nomination? Seems unlikely.
According to the polls on a national basis Bernie has more support among African Americans than Joe Biden does. The nature of the African American electorate in South Carolina and a few other southern states is idiosyncratic. Bernie is doing well enough among African Americans to win the nomination.
I think we will find that this result in South Carolina will be the high water mark for Joe Biden’s campaign. He has very little cash on hand, he has invested few resources in Super Tuesday states, and he is trailing Sanders in the polls in the vast majority of Super Tuesday states, including the two biggest states of California and Texas. Bernie is likely to emerge from Super Tuesday with an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates.
If Eugene V.Debs believed in Heaven, he would be smiling after Super Tuesday.
Nicholas
I wouldn’t be relying on the polls showing Bernie improving with African Americans, vis a vis Biden.
The SC polling had Biden at 30-35. He got 48. why the discrepancy? largely due to the polling underestimating his support amongst African Americans, and conversely the polls overestimating Bernie’s allure.
And just a reminder who votes on Wednesday (our time)
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Democrats Abroad, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia will all hold their presidential primaries on that date. 1,357 of the 3,979 pledged delegates to be awarded to the candidates in the Democratic primaries
Well Bob Sprocket, lets see only 72 hours to go. The Clyburn machine may have delivered South Carolina but what can Biden do in 72 hours.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/us/politics/joe-biden-south-carolina-primary.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
What chance those Republicans and independents voted for Biden over Bernie, preferring a moderate Democrat as the nominee?
Bernie is already ahead of Biden among African American voters in the national polls. It is only in South Carolina and a few comparable southern states where there are regional peculiarities that lead to Biden getting a lot of African American support.
In South Carolina there is a strong patron-client type of relationship in which African American church leaders and elected officials are able to shape and shepherd the decisions of African American voters in a highly coordinated way. That kind of dynamic is not present in the vast majority of states, where endorsements by church leaders and elected officials carry much less clout among rank and file African American voters.
AOC is too young for President or VP (35 is the minimum age). She is almost too young to run for the senate (Age limit of 30 which she only passed in October).
Anyway, she is going to get a primary challenger and it is likely she will lose if the party machine backs the other candidate.
Nicholas – you seem to be arguing that opinion polling is a more valuable source of data than actual elections. Bernie may well be improving his standing among African-American voters according to the former, but it certainly didn’t play out that way in South Carolina, a state where the Democratic electorate is 60% black. That seems to me to be pretty solid data that Sanders’ much documented issues with black voters hasn’t gone away. This was also the case in Nevada, a State where Sanders won comfortably, but Biden bested him among African-Americans.
Now, you may well be correct in suggesting that SC proves to be something of a flash in the pan for Biden, but it certainly gives him momentum head8ng into Tuesday. I’d expect that Sanders will win in California, probably by a fair margin, and therefore pick up a large swag of delegates, but SC suggests that Biden may do a lot better than expected across the South (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas all vote on Tuesday, with Mississippi, Georgia and Florida to follow soon after), and if so, he’ll probably come close to Sanders for delegate hauls this week.
All that said, you are probably right to urge caution on those getting excited about a Biden surge, much like the Bernie-sceptics made about Sanders’ chances after the first two contests. There is still a ways to go in this race.
BS Fairman – the minimum age for Senators is 25, so she could run for theSenate, though the two NY Senators (Chuck Schumer – who is Minority Leader – and Kirsten Gillibrand) are pretty well-ensconced.
It’s true that AOC is facing a primary challenge, but she’s actually a great fit for her seat (in Queens), and I’d say it’s highly unlikely she’d lose. Given how safe a Democratic seat it is, I’d say it’s hers for as long as she wants it.
Oddly, the age limit for office in America does not preclude a candidate underage from running for office, just for taking office. In 1934, a 29 year old called Rush Holt won a senate spot in West Virginia for the Democrats. After winning he just didn’t take his seat until until his 30th Birthday which was in June 1935. He is the youngest person ever to sit in the Senate.
And a Congressman was elected whilst only 24 but had his birthday seven days before the start of the session. The HoR has a 25 year old age limit.
Heaps of previous elections – not just polls – show that there are regionally specific factors that shape the decisions of African American voters in South Carolina. What happens in South Carolina is not representative of African American voters in the rest of the country.
This result will indeed be a flash in the pan for Biden. He might win in Alabama and North Carolina for similar regionally specific reasons, but he is not doing well enough in general to win the nomination. He is toast, particularly when you consider how under-resourced he is in Super Tuesday states, plus the fact that a lot of votes have already been cast in those states through early voting. This South Carolina result is too little too late for Biden.
Hugoaugogo – The minimum age for senators is 30 (article 1, section 3, clause 3 of the constitution). And House of Reps is 25 (article 1, section 2, clause 2 of the constitution).
How authentic is Buttigieg? Wow! He is just a series of pre scripted talking points. What a plastic! Everything about this guy is fake, but oh he’s gay right, so let’s all support him..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/29/bernie-sanders-is-poised-win-california-would-that-be-mistake/
By Bill Whalen
Bill Whalen, the Virginia Hobbs Carpenter Fellow at the Hoover Institution, hosts Hoover’s “Area 45” podcast on the Trump presidency.
gary Johnson @ #144 Sunday, March 1st, 2020 – 10:31 pm
What a horrible HOMOPHOBIC comment!
Why are people so obsessed with Buttigieg’s sexuality? He’s no different to all other presidential candidates in history by being married to his partner. So his partner is male, big deal.
BS Fairman – I stand corrected. Thanks for the info.
clem attlee:
Um, Pete is basically as UN-woke as you can get. Yes, he’s gay, but that’s all he has going for him in terms of woke-ness (using the term as I assume you understand it; being non-exclusively heterosexual does not, in any way, of itself, make someone ‘woke’).
You see, it simplifies things terribly to assume that people only like a particular candidate because of a particular (irrelevant) personal characteristic, such as their gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
I’m gay. I don’t care that Pete’s gay; that alone would not make me want to vote for him just to see a gay President, if I was American. Sure, some gay people, or people who think it would be nice to have a gay President for a change, might be swayed by that factor; but they’re probably not the type who think too deeply about what they’re voting for. Just as people didn’t vote (or not vote) for Hillary solely because she was a woman. Had they done so, she would have had approximately 50% of the vote (assuming there was equal gender representation among voters, which there probably wasn’t) *plus* any men who voted for her. The election would have been in the bag for her.
Of course, if Pete actually gets the nomination, I would vote for him over Trump any day. But it would be through gritted teeth.
Crankmomma in full ‘woke’ mode. How was my comment homophobic exactly? You are a moron. My criticism was aimed at mindless stooges like you, who support him purely because he is gay, not because of any policy initiatives on his part. So the fact that you bit immediately proved both my points. Frankly his sexuality is irrelevant, the wokeism in response to it is the issue.