Let’s not kid ourselves, folks. The 2020 Democratic field is going to be big, but there are two people that are no longer running. Anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti, who continues to be the Left’s professional clown, opted not to run in an announcement released yesterday, despite pounding his chest about how he would win if he ran in 2020. So, we’ll chalk that as a win for Trump. Truth be told, Avenatti would have been thrashed, he had no national constituency, and would have embarrassed the Democratic Party immensely. It’s also partially why I wanted him to run. It would have been amazing watching Avenatti pick fights with the rest of the 2020 field. Well, that field is also less one Democrat: former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. He’s out too (via NYT):
Deval Patrick, the former two-term Democratic governor of Massachusetts, plans to announce shortly that he will not run for president in 2020, according to a person close to Mr. Patrick.
Mr. Patrick had been discussing a possible run with associates and had been traveling around the country to support Democratic candidates in the midterm elections. But he had also expressed some reluctance about a possible presidential run, telling David Axelrod, a former Obama adviser, that he wasn’t sure there was a place for him.
“It’s hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity — and I’m none of those things and I’m never going to be any of those things,” Mr. Patrick said in a podcast interview in September with Mr. Axelrod.
The person who confirmed Mr. Patrick’s decision, and spoke on condition of anonymity late Tuesday night to share confidential information, declined to say why Mr. Patrick would not run.
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Hmmm…could it be that Patrick couldn’t beat Trump. That might be it, as with the rest of the 2020 field.
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