Opinion: How Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar Dropping Out Will Impact Super Tuesday

The first four Democratic Primary contests were all relatively straightforward. After South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s surprising and narrow victory at the disastrous Iowa caucus kickoff, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders went on to dominate both the New Hampshire Primary and Nevada Caucus, cementing his place as the frontrunner early-on and moving forward. Then came the atrocity of a debate days before South Carolina’s primary, where Joe Biden ended up outperforming the polls and winning handily, reestablishing himself as a worthy contender moving forward in the race. I, along with most, didn’t think much would change in the few days between Saturday’s primary and the upcoming Super Tuesday, but low and behold, a wrench has been thrown into the race with the sudden departure of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar from the race.

The Democratic National Committee has rules which establish that each candidate needs to surpass a viability threshold of fifteen percent support in order to begin accumulating pledged delegates. If a candidate is able to secure a majority of the delegates (1991 of them) before the Democratic National Convention, then that candidate automatically becomes the party’s nominee for the General Election. If not, then there is what is called a contested convention, and DNC officials known as Superdelegates vote and effectively select the nominee they want to choose, regardless of whether there is a candidate with more popular votes or a plurality of delegates at that point. Pretty complicated, but those are the primary rules in a nutshell.

Ideologically similar candidates split support from one another, and a crowded field of likeminded candidates often sabotages each candidate involved. In this particular primary, the moderate / establishment candidates had been pulling support from one another, and that trend looked likely to continue into Super Tuesday’s many contests. This led to Bernie Sanders becoming a clear frontrunner, as his only progressive competition up until this point had been Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. By dropping out of the race and endorsing Joe Biden within just days of Super Tuesday, moderate candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar are signaling to the electorate that the establishment is rallying all of their support behind Joe Biden for the nomination in an attempt to prevent Bernie Sanders from securing the highly-coveted majority of earned delegates. The Democratic primary has been known for pulling these sorts of tricks before… see 2016.

At this point I really only see two possible outcomes for this Democratic Primary. The first is that the young demographic shows up on Super Tuesday unlike they did in South Carolina, and that Bernie Sanders secures a nomination from a majority of delegates in the coming months. The chances of this happening are slimmer now that support will be consolidated behind Joe Biden. The second outcome is that the young vote will stay home as they are infamously known for, and that Joe Biden will be handed the nomination at a contested convention over the summer. We will likely know which of these two paths we are headed down after tomorrow’s votes, and there is no way to known for sure what is going to happen.

Politics are increasingly unpredictable in today’s climate. The electorate doesn’t get to know what happens behind closed doors, but it’s certainly easy to connect the dots and infer about connections between events and candidates. Either the Democratic Party will continue to implode over the coming days and months, or they will rally behind a popular candidate capable of defeating Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Tomorrow will be very telling, and I can’t wait to see what happens. We shall see. Things certainly just got a lot more interesting. Thanks for reading.

Why, As A Fan, I'm Excited For The Chicago Bears' Future

Growing up a fan of Chicago sports teams has taught me the valuable life lesson of never letting your hopes get too high. This was all but completely validated when the Bears lost Super Bowl XLI to Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts in 2007 and 8-year-old me was heartbroken. Even after last season’s nightmarish ending to an otherwise very successful year and a difficult schedule in the upcoming season, I’m optimistic for the Chicago Bears’ chances moving forward. Here’s why.

The first factor that leads me to find confidence in my navy and orange toting team is the lack of competition in their NFC North division. The Minnesota Vikings may give the Bears a run for their money in taking clinching a spot in the playoffs by winning the division, but a rebuilding Green Bay and a struggling Detroit almost guarantee 3-4 wins for Chicago next season. I’m hoping that another impressive defensive showing from Chicago is enough to propel them to the 11-12 wins likely needed to win their division.

Another factor that has me excited for next season is a healthy and maturing offense. Although they ranked #21 overall offensively last season, QB Mitchell Trubisky has had a long off-season to improve and make adjustments to his game. What I consider a stacked backfield and skilled receiver core should make Trubisky’s job relatively easy despite the challenging opponents Chicago will face next season.

The final and main factor that has me excited for the Chicago Bears’ next season and future in general is an absolute powerhouse defensive unit. Headed by Pro Bowler Khalil Mack, the Bears defensive unit may not be able to again rank #1 overall defensively, but they should still be a force to reckoned with for opposing offenses. I expect a high amount of forced turnovers and low points allowed again for Chicago. It isn’t Bears football without some high quality defense, right?

While there may be a regression from last year’s promising season, and there are still factors to consider such as a lack of a competent kicker and a difficult upcoming schedule, I’m going against my learned apprehension as a Chicago sports fan and am choosing to be optimistic and excited for the future of the Chicago Bears. Hopefully my dreams aren’t double-doinked into oblivion all over again.

2019 NBA Off-Season - Anthony Davis To Los Angeles Lakers Reaction

Onto the next one. Less than 48 hours after the Toronto Raptors were crowned our 2019 NBA Champions in their Game 6 defeat of the Golden State Warriors, attention shifted to the first major off-season move of what I expect will be many more to come. That move, of course, is the trade between the New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers which sends Anthony Davis to California in exchange for essentially every single Laker except for LeBron James himself. That’s right, in exchange for the Brow, the Magic-Johnson-free Lakers decided to package Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and 3 first-round draft picks (including this year’s #4 overall) to the Pelicans, who are likely to select Zion Williamson first overall during Thursday night’s NBA Draft. The acquisition and pairing of AD with LeBron seem logical for LA, but in this post I will be analyzing the trade and explaining why I think that Los Angeles gave up too much depth to justify it, and why it may end up hurting them in the long run.

Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Josh Hart are all young and promising players. I’m not going to go as far as Lavar Ball often does when describing his son’s talents, but I expect him to develop into a solid starting point guard if he’s able to avoid injuries as his career continues. Brandon Ingram has been called the “next KD” which I think may be a stretch to some degree, but it’s entirely possible that Ingram will one day develop into an all-star level player especially if surrounded by other young talented players. Josh Hart and the 3 first round draft picks (WAY too many, in my opinion) are unknowns to me, but at the very least I expect one of those four players to at least benefit the Pelicans’ depth. In return for this haul, the Lakers acquired superstar Anthony Davis. While I’m excited to see Davis play alongside LeBron James on a nightly basis, I’m worried about the Lakers’ lack of depth now that the deal is done. The way that the Lakers handle free agency this offseason is going to dramatically shape their future for the next 3 to 5 years, and I think going after another superstar like Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, or Jimmy Butler this summer would be a mistake. While Golden State was able to find success and win championships with a star-studded roster, that was only possible with a talented bench who could get buckets every night to take the load off of their superstars. They were unable to win it all this year as their bench proved to be insufficient and injuries shook the foundation of their super-team. The Lakers may run into the same fate if they try to acquire another superstar. I also do not like the prospect of removing young players and draft picks. It may be a harsh reality to some, but LeBron is aging, won’t be in the league forever, and has a supermassive contract which eats up cap space to acquire depths and shooters to surround the new best backcourt in the Western Conference and possibly the NBA. LAL seems to be convinced they can win a championship next season, but I am doubting that as of right now. On the other hand, I think that the New Orleans Pelicans will be a force to be reckoned with in a few years, and would be even more of a threat sooner if they were in the Eastern Conference (they’re in Louisiana, why aren’t they anyway?).

I completely expect Kenan Thompson to give us Lavar Ball’s reaction to the trade as soon as SNL returns.

I’m already caught up in F5 season as I sit on NBA threads refreshing to see if there are any new developments in trade talks or free agency. I have a feeling that this will be a very eventful off-season as we approach a new era of NBA Basketball. All of the happenings around the league will be covered and analyzed right here on this blog, so stay tuned if you geek about this stuff as much as I do. Also - is ‘Big Baller Brand’ even a thing anymore? RIP to anyone who bought those $495 sneakers Lonzo released a couple of years ago.