Al's Rules for 2020 Presidential Candidates
Al Giordano ✔ @AlGiordano

1. Stories like this on potential 2020 presidential candidates have started, so here are MY ground rules:

2. Ronald Reagan used to cite his commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican." Democrats could learn from that...

3. My own policy is going to be an amended version: "I will only speak ill of 2020 Democrats who speak ill of Democratic values & leaders.

4. So if you're a candidate who is going to drag on President Obama instead of embracing his legacy, I'm going to hit your hard & often.

5. Likewise, if you're going to pander to the "Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate" ...., I hope you can take it as hard as you dish it

6. But if you're out there talking about issues & strategy & tactics & how to get change, I'm not going to speak ill of you. And I expect...

7. ...that my mentions on social media be free of such internecine food fights. I will block people for dragging on any potential nominee...

8. ...except to counter any candidate who himself is dragging on other potential nominees (I'm especially talking to you,...).

9. If you're going to seek the Democratic Party nomination, you have a *duty* to leave that nomination in better condition than you found it

10. If in your ambition & selfishness you weaken the value of that nomination (& eventual nominee), then fuck you, it's going to be war.

11. We're all paying the steep price of those kinds of antics today, and we'll be paying them at least through January 20, 2021.

12. The Democratic nomination comes through millions of people who are very diverse but embrace one label: Democrat. Grok that!

13. We will defend closed primaries in states that choose them & will not broke any asshole trying to drag the legitimacy of their results.

14. We will sabotage any aspiring nominee who panders to non-Democrats by running against the DNC & lowering its value. We will destroy you.

15. Yes, we all have things we want the Democratic Party to do better. And we fight for them the effective way, within the family, not media

16. We will neither tolerate attempts to abandon the pieces of our coalition in favor of a re-centering of white and/or male voters.

17. If you're one of those people using those bottom-feeding tactics, & you think we hit you hard in 2016, you ain't seen nothing yet.

18. This time we'll be more ready to isolate, contain & marginalize you for trying to weaken the value of our vehicle to win in November.

19. If you want the nomination, you had better be adding to its value - no matter who the eventual nominee - every day of your campaign.

20. If you try to win by parasite tactics that suck away its value, you forfeit any right to that nomination. And you will lose. Badly.

21. Those are my rules from here to 2020: Thou shalt not speak ill of any Democratic presidential candidate who does not speak ill of others

22. But that rule has a rider attached: If you speak ill of the party or any of its potential nominees, the gloves come off. End memo

But the most puzzling development this week is Sanders's decision to keep Georgia special election candidate Jon Ossoff at arms-length. Sanders hasn't endorsed Ossoff, and in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he seemed to suggest Ossoff's progressive bona fides were in question.