Digby asks some reasonable post-impeachment questions that are not so much about electability and fear-driven GOTV as it will be minimizing whatever negative messaging will be thrown at the Democratic nominee. The implication especially with the withdrawal of Kamala Harris is that ticket balancing could be looming, with a Biden-Harris among far too many possible permutations.
There is some talk that the Democrats will include the Volume II charges in the Mueller Report in an impeachment article on obstruction of justice, which makes sense. The Mueller team obviously wrote that part of the report as a quasi-impeachment referral and handed it to the House practically tied up in a big red bow. It's full of testimony given under oath by dozens of Trump associates, flunkeys and administration officials that tells the story of a presidential campaign to defeat and undermine the Russia investigation. These two crimes, the Russian interference and the attempted Ukrainian bribery, are like bookends, with the first informing the second.
Whatever the Democrats decide to do about the specific charges, Trump is going to be impeached. I would think dragging that out and keeping him tied down and off-balance would be the better way to ensure that he doesn't use his office for personal political gain again. But that ship is rapidly sailing out of the harbor.
[...]
….most analysts agree that impeachment will also have the effect of hardening opposition to Trump, making it even more difficult for him to reach beyond his hardcore base.
The only way Trump can change that dynamic is by sullying the opposition so that he is seen as the lesser of two evils by just enough people to win. On some subconscious level, he obviously knew that all along, which explains his desire to project his own corruption onto Joe Biden, his own pathological lying onto Elizabeth Warren and his own craziness onto Bernie Sanders. Trump has no analytical skills but he does possess a feral survival instinct which tells him that his only hope is to turn his opponents into mirror images of himself and then attack them for it.
digbysblog.blogspot.com/...
In conversations with two dozen voters across Iowa this week, the President's name came up again and again as Democrats weigh their choices and search for the candidate they believe is the most electable.
It was always Trump's intention to play a central role in the Democratic primary. And now, he is. Even among unabashedly proud liberals, Trump is shaping decisions.
What voters are saying
"I identify as a Democratic socialist. Progressive politics speak to me and that's what I prefer, but I also understand that I am not representative of the whole electorate," said Maggie Willems, a social studies teacher who has been agonizing over her choice for months. "We need to be sure to select a candidate that can defeat Donald Trump."