Democratic Presidential Candidates: 2020

Running As A Team

I've sometimes wondered whether combining presidential candidates into an All Star team ahead of a looming election might not work.

For example, if Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had agreed to campaign, together, as a team, and emphasized common ground, might the Democratic candidate have won easily?

The office of president has become almost overwhelming in its demands on a single politician, and having multiple candidates campaigning would seem more likely than an exhausted single candidate. Plus, emphasizing commonalities avoids the damaging rifts that can open up in a heated campaign and endanger votes in a general election.  Besides, most candidates in the party are on the same page, or their views are only marginally different.

Sure, the overall winner of the primary season would be The President; but what's more important, individual aspirations to fill that job, or the Democratic party agenda?

Perhaps each all-star team member would have a cabinet position reserved for them, in case they didn't win the presidency.

And, in order to qualify for that cabinet position, they'd have to have earned a certain number of primary campaign votes, or nominating convention delegates, or have signed on as a non-candidate.

Here, then, is what a first-rate All Star team might look like (note: I'm using lists of potential candidates that can be found on the internet):

Kamala Harris: Attorney General
Joe Biden (non-candidate): Trade
Elizabeth Warren (non-candidate): Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Bernie Sanders (non-candidate): Education
Kirsten Gillibrand: Defense
Cory Booker: Housing & Urban Development
Catherine Kennedy (non-candidate): Homeland Security
Michael Bloomberg: Treasury
Amy Klobuchar: Agriculture
John Hickenlooper (non-candidate): Small Business Administration
Hillary Clinton (non-candidate): State
Jerry Brown (non-candidate): Energy
Tammy Duckworth (non-candidate): Veterans Affairs
Jay Inslee: Interior
Michelle Obama (non-candidate): Health & Human Services
Mark Cuban: Commerce
Tulsi Gabbard: EPA
Andrew Cuomo: Labor
Oprah Winfrey (non-candidate): Moderator/Spokesperson
Julian Castro: UN Representative

The most unlikely all-star team member: Michelle Obama.  She isn't interested in running for office.  But if she didn't have to run, but was part of a team, she, Oprah, Tammy Duckworth, Jerry Brown, Hillary, Catherine Kennedy, Elizabeth Warren, and several others might feel that a united effort was worth the personal sacrifice.

A few positions don't make sense, at first.  Bernie for Education secretary?  But if this involved college for all?  And several positions could be thought of as steps downward for ambitious politicians: Cory Booker at HUD, Amy Klobuchar at Agriculture, and Andrew Cuomo at Labor.  But, these positions would involve a foot in the door.  If Booker, for example, won the nomination, someone else would fill his slot at HUD.  And on the other hand, if a politician said 'no' to being on the team, what kind of a team player image would that present?

Of course the person in charge, during the campaign, would be Oprah, moderating discussions (perhaps instead of debates) on issues that would attract some or all of the ten actual candidates on the list.  I'm assuming Bernie, who is a proud Independent, won't declare himself a Democrat in order to actually run; and that Biden, Warren, Clinton, Brown, Obama, and Winfrey are sincere in saying they aren't interested.  Also, notice that the list is Female/Male/Female/Male.  And, all candidates giving up their elected seat would almost certainly be replaced by a fellow Democrat in a subsequent election.