Christie might get regulated too
At least I got my fat and loudmouth jokes in before he dropped.
Christie might get regulated too
Amazing. No more of him shouting and looking into my soul.Christie might get regulated too
Why does anyone in the media care about the candidates other than Trump, Carson, Cruz, and Rubio at this point? They're all dead and buried.
Even Cruz and Rubio aren't worth too much attention. This is Trump's race to lose.
B-dubs is the biggest Trump shill of all time and I love every minute of it. I should have picked Trump. Bush is making me lose money.
America may be in a reinforcing feedback loop of growing inequality and Republican rule
Oh boy this Vox article is depressing.
Certainly Democrats have plenty of incentives to mobilize the poor, who do tend to vote Democratic. But because of declining union infrastructure, various forms of disenfranchisement, and the weak social networks of the lower class, organization is difficult and costly. Moreover, the Democrats' most active donors may not be super eager to see the poor get super engaged in politics.
this, i think, is the most aggravating part of the democrats' off-year crisis: they need to mobilize the poor, yet the mechanisms generally used to do this were not only weaker than in our contemporaries in the "first world" to begin with, but they're actively getting weaker as a direct result of the status quo
I know this isn't surprising, but Bernie's numbers among women and non-whites is pure shit.
Just make sure you give him the knockout blow Hillary needs when you vote on March 15th.
Wait till he becomes the establishment candidate, when Rubio implodes and he becomes the GOPe's only chance of stopping Carson and Trump going into Super Tuesday.I told y'all about Ted Cruz. Whatever black magic he's using to run a stealth campaign and tie rubio here is amazing.
Republican Jay Dardenne is expected to endorse Democrat John Bel Edwards in the Louisiana governors race Thursday morning.
Edwards campaign had said it planned to make a major campaign announcement but offered no other details on Wednesday.
Multiple sources close to both Edwards and Dardenne have confirmed to The Advocate that the plan is for Dardenne to endorse Edwards during the news conference 9 a.m. at LSUs Free Speech Alley. None had been authorized to make speak on the record.
Both Edwards and Republican David Vitter have spent the past week making major endorsement announcements. On Wednesday, Vitter announced that he has won the backing of former Republican Gov. Mike Foster.
Dardenne and Scott Angelle the two key Republicans who didnt make it into the Nov. 21 runoff have not yet formally endorsed either candidate, but Dardenne, in particular, had been said to be edging toward an endorsement in recent days.
Vitters campaign didnt immediately respond to a request for comment on Dardennes decision to endorse.
Yeah. Cruz would be better than Carson or Trump, but not by much.Picking Trump, Carson, or Cruz is a quick way of delivering the election right to Clinton's lap. At least Rubio could move Florida in his favor.
We can all agree he's an idiot savant, right? How much more obvious could it be...?
Debbie needs to be fired.
http://morningconsult.com/2015/11/democrats-look-for-answers-after-surprising-losses/
I take back what I said about it being a better idea to lose the presidency in order to take back congress and the state legislatures. Aside from the pretty big deal of SC appointments, I completely forgot that there there's also a ton of federal judicial vacancies (66 at this point). Those are pretty dang important too.
I would always argue the presidency is more important. Half of politics is perception. The Reagan years greatly contributed to the notion that America is Republican by default even though Democrats held huge majorities in the House during his presidency.I take back what I said about it being a better idea to lose the presidency in order to take back congress and the state legislatures. Aside from the pretty big deal of SC appointments, I completely forgot that there there's also a ton of federal judicial vacancies (66 at this point). Those are pretty dang important too.
Debbie needs to be fired.
http://morningconsult.com/2015/11/democrats-look-for-answers-after-surprising-losses/
I would always argue the presidency is more important. Half of politics is perception. The Reagan years greatly contributed to the notion that America is Republican by default even though Democrats held huge majorities in the House during his presidency.
Two weeks before Election Day, the TV screens of New Jerseys 11th Legislative District glowed with a new negative ad. Republicans Mary Pat Angelini and Caroline Casagrande were under attack.
Voting records proved they routinely sabotaged womens health services, said a frustrated-sounding female narrator in the ad. They blocked even the most sensible gun safety measures.
It worked. Just two years after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) won a landslide in the state and district, suburban votes ousted the Republicans and helped boost Democrats to their biggest legislative majority since Jimmy Carter was president.
Chris Christies left a lot of Republican political body bags along the side of the road, said Michael Muller, a strategist for state Democrats.
The 2015 elections were rougher for Democrats in redder states, as they suffered a surprisingly large defeat in the Kentucky governors race, failed to win a majority in the Virginia Senate and saw voters thump an LGBT rights ordinance in Houston. But in blue states and cities, the party held or gained ground. As the parties head into a new presidential year, the countrys partisan divide has deepened. Republicans walked away from Tuesday with the big wins. Democrats walked away with fresh confidence that their map can win a third presidential election.
It says good things for Hillary Clinton, said Carolyn Fiddler, communications director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. Im sure she would have preferred it if [Gov.] Terry McAuliffe won a Senate majority for Virginia Democrats, but despite all the money spent there, the status quo continued. The blueness is seeping out from the cities as folks move and settle families. Its a long-term shift.
Democrats were not papering over the failure in Virginia, but they were encouraged to see where the blue vote held. The race for the 29th Senate District, centered on Manassas in the Washington exurbs, was one of the years most expensive. Democrat Jeremy McPike won it by eight points, thanks to votes from fast-growing, racially diverse Prince William County. Democrats failed to defeat Sen. Richard H. Black (R-Loudoun County), a perennial target, but they cut his margin from 14 points in 2011 to five points Tuesday. The race for an open seat in the Richmond suburbs was even closer, with the Republicans triumphing by 2.7 points in a seat theyd last won by 13 points.
Coverage of that last Democratic loss centered on big ad spending by pro-gun-control groups, which were outmatched by the National Rifle Association. Please, please run on gun control, Republican strategist Chris LaCivita advised Clinton, sarcastically.
But LaCivita, who worked another suburban campaign that went against Republicans, cautioned that the results were close. What Tuesday showed is that Virginia is still a swing state, an up-for-grabs state, he said. Weve got to draw a message that has crossover appeal to suburban voters.
Democrats, who have long viewed the 2016 election as a demographic grind, finished Tuesday with confidence that theyd cracked the suburbs. In Colorado, where Democrats lost a 2014 U.S. Senate race after a heavy focus on abortion rights, party activists ousted three members of the Jefferson County school board.
Progressives put recall elections on the ballot after the board members introduced merit pay and challenged history lessons that did not respect American exceptionalism. Julie Williams, one of the defeated conservatives, told the Denver Post that the liberal agenda and union bosses were responsible for a 28-point landslide against her. But nearly half a million dollars in pro-recall spending was matched unsuccessfully by the local branch of Americans for Prosperity, funded in part by the Koch brothers.
In Pennsylvania, another swing state that Democrats include in their 2016 map, the party celebrated a sweep of state Supreme Court elections. That was a break from tradition, of the partys base staying home in sleepy off-year races. It was enabled by direct mail to Democrats featuring President Obama, a nationalization of the race and a mirror image of Obama-centric ads that buried Democrats in Kentucky.
The worry behind this election was that Philadelphia would not turn out, or produce a very low turnout, said Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), who made nearly a dozen campaign appearances for the Democratic candidates between Halloween and Election Day and who has endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for president. As it turned out, Philly contributed more than 10 percent of the statewide vote. Hillary, who already has a very strong base, can look to that. Her potential in our state is strong because shell keep the Philly vote, do well in suburbs, and has a chance to exceed the presidents numbers in western Pennsylvania.
In an interview, Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Rob Gleason pointed to wins in some county and legislative races to argue for a good night marred by an unconscionable judicial campaign. We didnt have a good candidate for mayor in Philadelphia, he said, and the unions spent $10 million. Of course that was a problem.
Urban turnout, a key to Democratic hopes in 2016, was strong enough to notch wins. The party took back city hall in Indianapolis and held it in Charlotte. In both cases, Democratic strategists suggested that they benefited from anger at Republican control, epitomized by Indianas bungle of a Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
If applied to 2016, that strategy points to an election fought by inches, on the issues most likely to drive out the base. Clinton, who has built a lead in Democratic primary polling after a shaky summer, has focused on gun control and other base-driving issues to a greater degree than most Democratic nominees. Kentucky, a swing state in both of Bill Clintons presidential runs, is off the Democrats new map. Colorados Jefferson County and Virginias Prince William County are decidedly on it. And in New Jersey, Democrats reached out to voters who did not necessarily turn out every election and found the cultural issues that scared them most.
We discovered that we could treat them like a base voter if we talked in the right way, Muller said.
A good place to start is by educting Dem voters how important all the non-Presidential offices truly are. I know when I started really following politics in 2008 that I didn't initially understand what the big deal was when Arlen Specter became a Democrat (I remember being puzzled by Obama personally welcoming him to the party and being really confused what all the hubbub was about). And I didn't even understand what the hell gerrymandering was until 2010. If this could happen with someone who did follow politics, imagine what would happen with people who don't.
Reid Wilson ‏@ConsultReid 4h4 hours ago
Addendum: Included NE in purple states because Obama won the Omaha district in 2008.
Reid Wilson ‏@ConsultReid 4h4 hours ago
11 Purple states (flipped at least 1x since 2000: CO, FL, IA, IN, NC, NE, NH, NM, NV, OH, VA): Total of 31 D House members, 68 Rs. (4/4)
Reid Wilson ‏@ConsultReid 4h4 hours ago
21 Red Wall states (voted last 4 times for GOP): Total of 28 D House members, 106 Rs. (3/4)
Reid Wilson ‏@ConsultReid 4h4 hours ago
18 Blue Wall states (voted last 6 times for Dems): Total of 130 D House members, 73 Rs, plus DC's Dem delegate (2/4)
Reid Wilson ‏@ConsultReid 4h4 hours ago
Repubs win many more House seats in Blue Wall states than Dems do in Red Wall states, GOP has 2-1 edge in purple states (1/4)
A good place to start is by educting Dem voters how important all the non-Presidential offices truly are. I know when I started really following politics in 2008 that I didn't initially understand what the big deal was when Arlen Specter became a Democrat (I remember being puzzled by Obama personally welcoming him to the party and being really confused what all the hubbub was about). And I didn't even understand what the hell gerrymandering was until 2010. If this could happen with someone who did follow politics, imagine what would happen with people who don't.
Nothing is going to come of any of the discussions in that morning consult article. The centrist DLC/New Democrat types are going to argue that the party needs to move to the center. The leftish progressive types like myself are going to argue the party needs a stronger message on economics to turn people out to vote. Nobodies' mind is going to be changed, and the party will continue to muddle on until it is forced to change direction by a loss at the Presidential level.
The weird place the Democrats find themselves in right now is that they are essentially trying to run as an incumbent party despite the opposition controlling the other branches of government. As a result, the Democrats are trying to uphold a status quo they had little part in creating. Nevertheless, the Democratic rank and file clearly desires a continuation of the direction the party is currently taking, but that path also appears to lead to ever steeper losses in any election that isn't held in a Presidential year at the state level.
Something has to give eventually.
What is this something?
Duh.Viva la revolución.
Nothing is going to come of any of the discussions in that morning consult article. The centrist DLC/New Democrat types are going to argue that the party needs to move to the center. The leftish progressive types like myself are going to argue the party needs a stronger message on economics to turn people out to vote. Nobodies' mind is going to be changed, and the party will continue to muddle on until it is forced to change direction by a loss at the Presidential level.
The weird place the Democrats find themselves in right now is that they are essentially trying to run as an incumbent party despite the opposition controlling the other branches of government. As a result, the Democrats are trying to uphold a status quo they had little part in creating. Nevertheless, the Democratic rank and file clearly desires a continuation of the direction the party is currently taking, but that path also appears to lead to ever steeper losses in any election that isn't held in a Presidential year at the state level.
Something has to give eventually.
Sounds morbid, but we need to wait a good twenty years before the majority of the baby boomers are dead. I still don't know if anything will change in the Deep South and Midwest, demographically speaking, but if the Dems can make TX, AZ, and GA purple, and NC and VA solid blue, then the future looks bright.
It's long-established that people get more conservative as they get older. Heck, I've thought about it.
Waiting for boomers to die isn't going to change much, the older Gen X demographic that grew up with Reagan is voting nearly as conservative, and almost certainly sending more right wing politicans to office than the generation before it.
It's long-established that people get more conservative as they get older. Heck, I've thought about it.
Isn't it just that they get relatively more conservative?
I mean, Germaine Greer was liberal for her day, but is pretty close to the far right now and I don't think her opinions have changed much.
It's long-established that people get more conservative as they get older. Heck, I've thought about it.
Maggie Haberman ‏@maggieNYT 3m3 minutes ago
And for the first time Sanders is raising questions about Clinton's character
Maggie Haberman ‏@maggieNYT 3m3 minutes ago
I think - I THINK - Sanders is going to go a bit more negative on Clinton in the next debate
You mean relative to everyone else? Sure, that happens, too. But I recall a case study of people becoming more supportive of neoliberalism as they grew older and started to accumulate wealth. Home-ownership was another one that tipped people. The professor concluded this partly explains Bush's home-ownership push - get 'em a home and they'll vote to protect it.Isn't it just that they get relatively more conservative?
I mean, Germaine Greer was liberal for her day, but is pretty close to the far right now and I don't think her opinions have changed much.
No they don't.
Politics just tend to move left over time. Moral arc of the universe and whatnot.
I don't think the Democratic base is going to respond well to this. But we'll see I guess.
It's long-established that people get more conservative as they get older. Heck, I've thought about it.
There was a study, that's probably been posted before, that basically showed that whatever impressions and party identity affiliations people develop during their formative years tends to stick.
.
There was a study, that's probably been posted before, that basically showed that whatever impressions and party identity affiliations people develop during their formative years tends to stick.
Also, it's been posted before, but "young people" are pretty inconsistently "liberal" really. They don't really want to be taxed, but want a lot of services. Basically young people are dumb.
Part of that is probably also because there's something of a conflict between social identity politics and some economically leftist political planks, e.g. unions vs immigration.
I don't think the Democratic base is going to respond well to this. But we'll see I guess.
This continues to solidify the idea posited earlier by myself and others, I think. His staff - who have largely run failed campaigns - are probably more thirsty for the WH and pushing this more than he is. And they're more willing to do so by any means necessary.