Jay Inslee Ends Campaign To Spend More Time With Planet

Also available to be Climate Czar.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced last night he's ending his presidential campaign after not reaching the polling threshold to be included in the September Democratic debates. On MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show," Inslee said he was glad his campaign had "advanced the dialogue" on climate change in the 2020 race, and that he believes America is finally ready to take the action needed to prevent the worst possible effects of global warming.

I've been fighting climate change for 25 years, and I've never been so confident of the ability of America now to reach critical mass to move the ball.

Inslee also said that his detailed plan to address climate change, which he said has been recognized as the "gold standard," is now "open source" and should should be adopted by other candidates. Quip points to Maddow, who said Inslee's multi-part program "isn't just a road map, it's an atlas." Whoever gets the nomination and replaces the guy Inslee called "the climate denier in the White House" now has available to them a thorough plan to meet the goal of getting the US to net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and resume the role of world leadership on the greatest threat to humanity. Here's hoping they take it.

Here's Inslee's announcement on the Maddow program; it's a pretty good exit interview.

Governor Jay Inslee Announces Exit From Democratic Primary Race | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC    www.youtube.com 

Inslee told Maddow he intends to support whoever wins the nomination, and that, at the moment, he isn't planning an endorsement of any of the remaining candidates. Rather, he said he would "help all the other candidates raise their level of ambition" on climate, and that he was glad to see that his decision to run as the climate candidate had sparked something of an "arms race" among other candidates seeking to put forward increasingly detailed plans. He also rather pointedly refused to take the bait when Maddow asked if there were any Democratic candidate he wouldn't be able to endorse, noting that any of the people still running would be "100 percent better than the current occupant of the White House." And that includes John Delaney, so that's a real burn on Trump.

Inslee also repeated his call for the Democratic National Committee to hold a debate that would be focused solely on the issue of climate change. So far, the DNC has resisted the idea of any "single issue" debates, which is stupid of the DNC, but both CNN and MSNBC are planning televised "town halls" on the issue, at least. A DNC committee is scheduled to vote today on proposals for a climate debate -- or at least not to punish candidates for appearing in a climate debate sponsored by some other group. Delegates to the group's annual meeting this weekend in San Francisco are promising a floor fight if the committee votes the idea down today. Hey, DNC: we're talking existential crisis for human survival here. Have a debate on it.

Both the AP and NBC News report that Inslee will soon announce a run for a third term as Washington governor. The AP notes three Democrats have expressed interest in running, but only if Inslee decided not to. Washington Republicans made some noises about how this could finally be their year, because you have to sound optimistic even when facing a popular incumbent. State GOP Chair Caleb Heimlich coughed up this wishful thinking:

Getting elected to a third term is a tough task. And doing so on the heels of a failed presidential campaign where you sent a message to voters that you want a different job, that doesn't sit very well.

Republicans haven't won the governorship in Washington in 30 years, so we'll go out on a limb and suggest that Inslee, who doesn't face any term limits, is probably not daunted by his reelection prospects.

In other good news for non-presidential Dems, former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper announced today he'll run for the US Senate seat held by Cory Gardner. Flipping the Colorado seat is a top priority for Democrats' hopes of taking back the Senate in 2020. Enjoy his brew-pub and pool-shootin' themed announcement video.

Not Done Fighting    youtu.be 

We hope Montana's Steve Bullock and Texas's Beto O'Rourke are listening right now. And as Yr Wonkette promised, now that Hickenlooper wants to add the honorific "Sen." to his name, we shall henceforth refrain from making fun of that one thing about him we used to make fun of. At least until he wins.

God, you perverts, we were talking about his goofy name . Stop that.

[ NBC News / AP / NYT / Denver Post/ Image: Wonkette photoshoop, based on photo by "TEIX 2007," Creative Commonslicense 2.0 ]

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