Amy Klobuchar

Another hat flew into the ring this week, this time in a snowstorm. Amy Klobuchar, senior senator from Minnesota, announced her candidacy amid a shower of snowflakes, which prompted the Exalted Cheetoh to tweet that this was proof global warming did not exist.

Klobuchar is a very appealing candidate, at least to those who are single-mindedly trying to find a candidate who can beat Trump. She is hearty Midwesterner who laughs at blizzards, and would seem not to have too much baggage, if any (she is supposed to be a mean boss, but when a man admits to grabbing pussy, that doesn't seem like much of an issue). Despite her alleged tyranny in the office, she strikes one as being excessively nice, like a kindergarten teacher, or a woman with Welcome Wagon.

But this folksy, wholesome girl of the Iron Range is no pushover. I've watched her in a few Supreme Court hearings. She can be almost too cloying--she talked baseball with Sotomayor and Twilight with Kagan (much to the latter's dismay) but was brutally calm with Kavanaugh, making him go berserk while she crouched silently like a tiger. I think people probably underestimate her, and I think she's got a great shot, if only as being tapped as a veep candidate.

On the issues, Klobuchar is thought to be a moderate, but these days even a moderate Democrat is against everything Trump. She is for Obamacare, LGBT rights, pro-choice, and has an F rating from the NRA. She was for something called the Protect America Act, which is as bad as it sounds--it removed the need for warrants to surveil foreign intelligence contacts. She also fought for keeping pizza in lunches at schools, not because she loves pizza, but because a huge food conglomerate that would have lost three billion dollars is in Minnesota. This led to tomato sauce being declared a vegetable.

Running through her Wikipedia article, I agree with all her other stands. She did speak at AIPAC, which is distressing, and I wonder if she were president would she feel free of these connections to horrible organizations and drift further left. In any event, there is nothing else controversial about her. I might prefer her as second on the ticket, if only because she comes across a little bland. Put someone spicier on the top of the ticket, like Beto O'Rourke or Kamala Harris, and Klobuchar would be a perfect match.