The Democratic field for the presidential nomination is getting culled rapidly.
Via Political Wire:
Lincoln Chafee said he is ending his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Two visible participants and one invisible primary participant departed the field in the past ten days. There are now three candidates who are running in the visible primary, and no one in the invisible primary. And all three of the remaining candidates are traditionally plausible candidates unlike the shit show on the Republican side. And then there is !Baud! but he is a different story.
I am not used to the Democratic Party being the organized party without encouraging lost causes on a whim.
Chyron HR
Doesn’t he have to start it first?
JMG
The metric system loses its last champion.
Peale
@JMG: you know, he was the one candidate offering something different that I could get behind. 2 decimeters at least. I’m still pissed that the last push for conversion died when Reagan took office.
AxelFoley
I think soonergrunt called it early this morning (or late last night).
sooner, you wouldn’t by chance know the Powerball numbers, would you?
Face
So Dem debates from this point on will just be Hillary and Doc Emmett Brown sitting on opposing couches bantering on manadatory vs. optional gay marriage for all Americans?
peach flavored shampoo
So much for having another Lincoln in the White House.
Punchy
@JMG: The problem was that his campaign was just inching along. By any yardstick, he was losing in the polls. A mile behind the Hill. This exit does kilometer’s chances at glory, however. I wonder how Lindsey Graham feels about this.
peach flavored shampoo
OT:
Holy crap. Why in hell is this not getting more airplay?
ETA: windgusts to 245mph? Wont this level literally everything in its path?
Laertes
That’s funny, because somehow it seems just as full as it ever did.
jibeaux
I can’t even think offhand who the third is, I guess it must be Martin O’Malley. But I got there by process of elimination. I expect he’ll probably depart soon enough.
The Rs, I don’t see any sort of real consensus building yet. Fun, fun.
Peale
@Face: they will be playing pétanque while they talk. It will be epic.
BubbaDave
@peach flavored shampoo:
Because the people in its path aren’t Anglos. SATSQ.
Germy Shoemangler
Larry Wilmore said something about Paul Ryan that hadn’t occurred to me: How can he demand more family time while simultaneously boasting about all the time he spends at the gym?
Xantar
@peach flavored shampoo:
Is it projected to touch the United States? If not, then there’s your answer as to why it’s not getting airplay.
Face
@peach flavored shampoo: I’m curious to see if Jim “I’m so brave/dumb that I must broadcast standing in any storm” Cantore will attempt to film in 200+ mph winds. If this hits the coast as a Cat 5, and Mexico not known for constructing well-built……anything…..I’m guessing there’ll be a lot dead, 10-fold more homeless, and Trump rejoicing at all the rapists put out of business.
Gin & Tonic
@Germy Shoemangler: When you’re on the job about 100 days out of the year, you can make time for multiple priorities.
Elizabelle
@Xantar: Weather service thinks remnants will hit Texas.
Sounding dire. Airport already closed; govt thinking of closing the major evacuation route out, because otherwise those fleeing will get stuck in a storm in the mountains. Time to shelter in place on higher ground.
Only lessening factor I heard is that it’s a narrow storm: very powerful, but only 15 or 20 miles across. Unless I misheard. Sounds like it’s bearing down on Puerto Vallarta.
Elizabelle
MSNBC on in background.
Think a Castro (Joaquin or Julio? Not sure which….) just said Paul Ryan is pledged to keeping the Hastert rule.
That would be dreadful. But it would kind of help Ryan, wouldn’t it?
Americans, no. But we don’t count for much in political calculations.
Germy Shoemangler
@Elizabelle: Everything Ryan does is to help Ryan. That’s the impression I get from him.
Mark B.
@Xantar: After it goes through Mexico, it’s expected to hit Texas and cause widespread flooding. Ten inches or more of precipitation in Central Texas where I am or more.
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: Airport already closed;
Which airport? PV?
scav
@Xantar: US and the edginess about getting near anything implying there may actually be something to this climate is be changing live-wire. Stronger hurricanes? ? ? . . . . um. let’s do a little tiptoeing here . . .
Mark B.
@Elizabelle: It looks considerably bigger than that, but indeed, it’s pretty concentrated. This is a pretty cool site for tracking storms:
https://www.windyty.com/?30.259,-97.734,4
Face
@Mark B.: Those people have plenty of book instructions on how to build an Ark, so they’ll be fine.
JPL
This morning I was waving signs for a local election. As most know, I live in a conservative district. Another gal asked if I watched the hearings yesterday. She mentioned that her husband who doesn’t like Clinton, walked away impressed. He couldn’t believe her stamina and knowledge. Also both she and her husband recognized if for the witch hunt that it was.
Good job repubs!
p.a.
Our last hope to put a blacksmith in the White House.
Waldo
@Germy Shoemangler: Not to mention Ryan didn’t think family time would be an issue when he ran for VP — I guess because he was on the ticket with Romney.
GregB
@Elizabelle:
You didn’t get the memo. It is now the Sandusky Rule.
JPL
@peach flavored shampoo: The local weather person mentioned that it could go across Texas and cause 5 to 10 inches of rain in Dallas and Houston.
I hope that the people in the area of the storm are safe.
Just saw that Mark mentioned the same forecast for Texas.
bystander
@Germy Shoemangler:
Yet nothing he does seems to help.
Bobby Thomson
Lessig: “I’m right here!”
Poopyman
@BubbaDave: It’s getting plenty of airplay mostly for the expectation of it dumping a foot or more of rain on Texas.
I’m so old I remember Rick Perry calling for a statewide day of prayer for rain. And nothing happened.
Chris
@Peale:
That was Reagan who did that?
Is there ANYTHING bad that can’t be traced back to that fucker?
Germy Shoemangler
@bystander:
Oh, I don’t know. He works 100 days a year. He’s made more money than I’ll ever see in my lifetime. He gets called “smart” by people who don’t know any better. I think things are working out fine for him.
And who knows? Maybe he’ll be president someday. He’s young.
rikyrah
PHUCK OUTTA HERE.
BARACK OBAMA showed Democrats how to win.
…………………..
Desert Dweller
@Sedona_333
Justin Trudeau Just Showed American Democrats How to Win the Next Election via @thenation http://www.thenation.com/article/what-american-democrats-can-learn-from-justin-
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: Guessing it was Puerto Vallarta airport. Seemed to be what they were discussing. (TV on in background, and was coffee swilling and web surfing in foreground.)
RSR
quoting Dave Weigel:
#feelthechafe
OzarkHillbilly
@Xantar: Actually, they expect the moisture laden air to reach an already saturated Texas and dump even more water on it. When it does it will become a story.
Gin & Tonic
@Germy Shoemangler: The odds are against him. Only one Speaker has ever made it to the White House.
The Gray Adder
I’m sure whichever flake the GOPers end up nominating will get the full, unconditional support of the conservative media machine. That, and the rest of the media will do their best to ensure they have a “horse race” to report on.
Mark B.
@Gin & Tonic: Well, the Speaker is 3rd in line in presidential succession. That’s an alternate route to the White House. It might be his best hope, because he sure as hell isn’t going to win a national election.
NonyNony
@Gin & Tonic:
I think a chunk of that is because if you make it to Speaker, why would you want the demotion to President? :)
(Under normal Congressional operating procedures, of course. Boehner seem to have had less power in his organization than a cashier at Chuck E Cheez as at his/hers. And Ryan looks like he might be giving in to become a powerless Speaker as well.)
Baud
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly stayed silent.
NonyNony
Unless I’ve missed something, you’ve forgotten about Larry Lessig. Whether you want to count him as visible or invisible is up to you, but technically he still thinks he’s running.
Gin & Tonic
@NonyNony: And Baud!
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I like my Dark Horse status.
ETA: And as far as anyone knows, I’m as scandal free as Chaffee.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Out of how many who ran?
Patricia Kayden
@Chyron HR: Good question. He’ll be better at it by 2020. By then he’ll figure out that “campaign” is a verb as well as a noun.
Amir Khalid
@NonyNony:
The Yes, We Are Running Unity Ticket: Lessig/Gilmore 2016!
Baud
And there’s my foothold. Tradition!
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Gilmore would never accept second billing.
Matt McIrvin
@JPL: Though the danger will be mostly from rain at that point–the winds will weaken rapidly once it hits land.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: Just as long as Lessig doesn’t want to do public election funding with a car tax.
NonyNony
@Cervantes: Not even if Larry renews his promise to resign as soon as hey gets his election reform ideas past Congress?
Soylent Green
@Baud: You’re a block of granite.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Good question. I’m not really up on all the 18th and 19th C speakers, but since the beginning of the 20th, John Nance Gardner ran, but ended up as FDR’s veep, and Newton Leroy Gingrich ran more than once. That’s all I’m coming up with. It’s not, seemingly, a natural path.
benw
So we got Hillz, Bern, and MOM. I’m good with that.
And Paul Ryan is a lying liar who can eat a bag of Congress, but I’m glad that poor Amir doesn’t have to be Speaker.
Lee
OT: Texas Teahadist AG (who is under indictment) raided PP clinics.
Felonius Monk
@Baud:
Hopefully, you are not about to be Swift-Bauded. Or are you?
Baud
@Felonius Monk:
There was that one time, in band camp…
But, no, I’m confident all those bodies are sufficiently buried. They got nothing.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Wasn’t Gardner the VP who compared that job to a warm bucket of piss?
Botsplainer
@peach flavored shampoo:
Here in the Yucatan, fishermen are pulling their boats from the water.
Baud
@Botsplainer:
OMG, are you in the path?
ETA: It’s north of you, right
Paul in KY
@Germy Shoemangler: Family has mandatory gym sessions?
Germy Shoemangler
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — One man was killed and three women were wounded in an on-campus shooting stemming from a fight over a dice game on the campus of Tennessee State University, police said Friday.
Germy Shoemangler
@Paul in KY: I assume the gym sessions are Ryan’s “Me” time.
SFAW
@Baud:
“Vote Baud! He’s probably as scandal-free as that other guy – you know, the metric guy … Chaffee, was it? …. yeah, him!”
NonyNony
@Gin & Tonic:
My “joke” up above is not actually a joke – most Speakers wouldn’t give up the power of the position to run for the Oval Office, and most ex-Speakers usually aren’t popular enough to run when they stop being Speaker.
Also too – I suspect that what makes someone good at climbing the power ladder to become Speaker of the House is not necessarily the same thing as what makes someone good at campaigning for President. Becoming Speaker has historically been about gaining influence over the other members – typically through large donations to their war chests to run for office. And once they have the office they tend to keep it because constituents are loathe to give up the pork that a Speaker from their district brings home. Which means Speakers tend to come from safe seats where their positions are rarely challenged and so their ability to run a political campaign is usually only slightly above average and their personal charisma is usually just enough to get fellow Congressmen to like them enough to support them.
All that is to say – both Newt Gingrich and John Nance Garner were individuals with exceptionally large egos and an overinflated sense of how much their fellow partisans like them. Even for Speakers.
Botsplainer
In the annals of Clownhall, there was never a more glorious headline than this:
http://m.townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2015/10/23/biden-decision-leaves-both-parties-in-disarray-n2069744?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
shell
Much has been made of Trey Gowdy;s shiny pate at the hearings. Flop sweat? He looked more like an exhibit at the House Of Wax when the AC cuts out in an August heat wave.
Paul in KY
@Mark B.: We don’t want him to get it that way!
balconesfault
One problem is MSNBC is probably paying Al Sharpton too much money to make it worthwhile for him to make a run …
Botsplainer
@Baud:
North of me, but outer band bullshit is bound to fuck up my outbound on Sunday. I got no reef dives in – I’ve done 4 cavern dives (very cool – one of them was to 112 feet) and a couple of murky, express current shallow dives off the beach. There was talk that Cozumel may have some calm spots, but most harbors have been closed to small craft since before I arrived.
I went ahead and booked a couple of cenotes for tomorrow, just to get in water.
Paul in KY
@Germy Shoemangler: They are, but the family also has to be there so he can also count it as ‘family’ time. Multitasking!
NonyNony
@Botsplainer: I hope that they actually believe that. And that their readers believe it too. It’ll make winning next fall much easier if they think that the Dems are in as bad a shape as the GOP is.
I know it’s probably futile, but I would like to hope that a third consecutive Democratic term in office would be the shock to the system needed to pull the GOP back to the center. Or force it to bust itself up into two parties. Or anything to shake them up and get a second potential governing party into this mix.
(I think what would actually be needed would be not just a victory here, but also a loss of GOP seats in the 2018 Congressional midterms (which are unlikely to happen no matter who wins the presidential election, I think). Maybe a fourth Dem term in the Oval Office would be enough and victories in 2016 and 2020 would do it, or maybe they’d need to lose the 2022 midterms to start the shift back. What I do know is that it is unlikely that the Dems are going to continue to hold the presidency in perpetuity, so the GOP needs to be pulled back to something sane in the longer term or we are in serious trouble.)
Amir Khalid
@Botsplainer:
Look at the writer’s bio:
I think he wrote for POLITICO as well.
Face
Who’s the Libertarian Party running as their nominee? Ventura?
Baud
@Botsplainer:
Glad to hear. Hope you don’t see any problems. This is going to be a mess.
Felonius Monk
@Botsplainer: I noticed that Clownhall refers to the NRA as a civil rights group. What mendacity!
Amir Khalid
@Face:
I didn’t know Ace was in politics.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Close. “Not worth a bucket of warm piss” was John Nance Garner.
Jay C
@JMG:
But at least he went the last kilometer for the cause….
Botsplainer
@Amir Khalid:
He did – he’s a hack’s hack.
Gimlet
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-10-23/jeb-bush-orders-across-the-board-pay-cuts-for-struggling-campaign
Jeb Bush once a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is implementing an across-the-board pay cut for his struggling campaign, removing some senior staff from the payroll, and canceling some fundraisers as the former Florida governor attempts a mid-campaign course correction 100 days out from the party’s first nominating contest.
The campaign is parting ways with some consultants and downsizing its staff at their Miami headquarters in moves that will save more than $1 million per month and cut payroll by 40 percent this week, according to Bush campaign officials who requested anonymity to speak about internal changes.
The campaign is also cutting back 45 percent of its budget, except for dollars earmarked for TV advertising and spending for voter contacts, such as phone calls and mailers.
Baud
@Gimlet:
Looks like the Brinks Trucks got a flat.
Baud
@Gimlet:
They should keep the staff and fire Jeb!
SFAW
@NonyNony:
Probably? They’re more likely to double- or triple-down. I can hear Yertle now (assuming Hitlary wins): “Our job is to impeach that bitch before the mid-terms.”
Soonergrunt
@AxelFoley: If only.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
I am beyond tired of how our media constantly try to erase PBO’s record.
SFAW
@Jay C:
Umm … 1.6 km
Punchy
@Face: No, he’s pitching for the Royals tonite.
Soonergrunt
@peach flavored shampoo: Because the victims won’t be white people. SATSQ.
Redshift
I’m at the Hillary event in Alexandria. Excited but not huge crowd, yet, though there are still people steadily coming through security and she’s not scheduled to go on until 12:30. I’m feeling pretty good about it, but it’s not Obama level. Hope everyone is prepared to work for this!
Paul in KY
@Baud: I bet the staff would be OK with that! Probably would revitalize the campaign! How about: NOT-JENNA!
She could do better than JEBzzzz.
Felonius Monk
@Baud: The JEB? campaign is holding a fundraiser this weekend — “Dollars for Doofus”.
SFAW
@Gimlet:
So does that mean Right to Racism/Racism Above will be posting less, due to Jeb!’s no-longer-unlimited corporate cash? Or will he continue to post, gratis, out of love for Jeb!?
Brachiator
I suppose, although after the Benghazi hearing nonsense, which left HRC shining triumphant, I would think that Sanders and whoever (O’Malley?) should be crafting an exit strategy.
And there is no rational reason for the bottom 6 or so Republican klowns to still be in the race, especially those who will be relegated to the kiddie table in the upcoming GOP debate.
gene108
@peach flavored shampoo:
It will, when the remnants start flooding Texas again. And there’ll be a mystery as to where all the rain suddenly came from.
The Weather Channel has been all over this hurricane and how it will impact Mexico.
Fun channel to watch.
Having professionals on, who are knowledgeable in their field informing you about the topic the channel specializes in.
There was another typhoon that hit the Philippines recently that was pretty bad.
They got hit by Hayain in 2013
and Koppu (Lando) last week and Typhoon Goni a couple of months ago.
Just because we are not getting hit by hurricanes, does not mean the rest of the world is not getting whacked by more storm activity due to Global Warming.
The Moar You Know
@peach flavored shampoo: Human history’s first hypercane. Won’t be the last. Keep burning those hydrocarbons, everyone! We can get a 300mph storm if we just burn enough!
PaulW
I have never before seen a late hurricane storm on the Pacific side of Mexico like this. Remind me is this common?
Chris
@NonyNony:
As near as I can tell, the last two big political realignments went like this –
1) The new president (Roosevelt/Reagan) introduces something radically new into the system.
2) The momentum is strong enough that the new president’s VP (Truman/Bush), a guy nobody is particularly wild about, gets elected anyway and carries on his predecessor’s legacy.
3) The opposition party finally gets back in the White House (Eisenhower/Clinton) – but only by running a centrist who’s basically a toned-down version of his two predecessors.
No idea if that’s what’s in the works here, though, because the level of psycho opposition in the other party is worse than anything the last two realigners faced.
SFAW
@Punchy:
Robin Ventura? Is he still playing? I thought he retired 10 or so years ago.
Peale
@SFAW: Yep. I think Biden’s “Republicans aren’t the enemy” moment is probably missing. We aren’t seeing any candidates who are running on the mushy “I can reach across the aisle and work with republicans” “uniter not a divider” position. Maybe there is still a constituency for that and it will stay home on election day, but I doubt it. I’d rather candidates of my party pander a little and tell me what they’d do if the other party didn’t exist. If Republicans can run as if they are going to destroy the Democratic party, I see very little reason to reward Democratic candidates who offer to work with them right now. They’ll have to figure something out, but I don’t think the candidate with the best bi-partisan cred is going far in either party right now.
Iowa Old Lady
Forgive me. I’m still stuck on yesterday’s hearing.
I’m struck by how well coordinated the Democrats were in their questioning. It looked to me like they’d divided major talking points to make sure they were all hit. They had video ready to roll, even having Andrea Mitchell’s correction of Pompeo set to go immediately after he had his turn to ask questions.
In contrast, the Republicans were all over the place. Did they do no coordination at all? Is it typical to coordinate?
Gin & Tonic
@Botsplainer: North of me, but outer band bullshit is bound to fuck up my outbound on Sunday.
My son is due to fly out of Mexico City Sunday afternoon (assuming he gets up there.) I’m guessing that won’t go well.
Peale
@Amir Khalid: I always get him confused with the sedate man who plays pipe organ music on American Public Radio.
Tommy
@Redshift: Oh I am going to work for her if i have to. Here is the crowd that came here for Obama.
https://outfoxingkarlrove.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/r-obama-st-louis-huge.jpg
St. Louis. I am not that emotional of a dude but I started to cry a little when I saw this crowd stepping off the Metro. I could not wrap my mind around there were this many people out for Obama. Something like 250,000 people.
randy khan
@BubbaDave: For what it’s worth, there was a long segment on the local news radio station this morning, interviewing a CBS reporter on the ground in Mexico about the storm and the preparations, and it was the lead on the CBS national radio newscast as well.
From the interview, it sounded like the Mexican government was doing a pretty good job – they literally have soldiers going door to door to get people out of their houses and into shelters. The reporter said that Mexico is relatively well prepared for storms because it gets hit from both the Atlantic and the Pacific, which makes sense, but there still are a lot of vulnerable locations and people.
Baud
@randy khan:
Glad to hear it’s not a Michael Brown situation down there.
NonyNony
@Brachiator:
Hey – do they have money in their campaign coffers (yes)? By Federal law are they required to only spend that money on Federal races (yes)? Will they be able to run again for President in four years (probably no)? Can they travel and dine out on other people’s money for a few months, get their egos stroked at campaign appearances, and feel out the market for their own grifting opportunities (yes)? Can they press the flesh with various conservative movers and shakers and scope out opportunities for thinktank and lobbying jobs on someone else’s dime (yes)?
Why wouldn’t they stay in the race? Hell just the free tour of the USA for a few months alone might be worth it.
(ETA: Graham is the exception to this, and Graham is only in the race because Rand Paul is in the race and he hates Rand Paul possibly more than he hates either Obama or Clinton. When Paul drops out, Graham will follow shortly behind.)
Debbie
@Iowa Old Lady:
Self-righteousness don’t need no stinkin’ help!
Redshift
@Iowa Old Lady: William Saletan went to the hearings about the Iran desk and was stunned to find the GOP reps completely unprepared despite having literally had months to do it.
Apparently this is what you get when you vote for people who are against the idea of governing. They have no interest in doing even the work necessary to oppose effectively, and since they don’t have anything they want to accomplish, they can’t even cooperate with each other.
Baud
@The Moar You Know:
Maybe we can recreate Jupiter’s Big Red Spot right here on Earth.
Ruckus
@Waldo:
They don’t think the job is nearly as hard as reality says it is, after all GWB did it and he took a shit ton of “family” time and look how well that worked out. And when you think about it, being the monarch in a representative democracy shouldn’t really be all that tough.
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: I think Dr. Jeff Masters on Weather Underground mentioned that a strong El Nino tends to weaken Atlantic hurricane activity while strengthening it in the Pacific. And we’ve got one of the strongest ever this year.
Kerry Reid
@MomSense: It’s not their fault. The Constitution says they can only give a black guy 3/5ths of the credit a white person gets. At best.
Tommy
@randy khan: I joked, and it isn’t a joke, that I lived once where we had a hurricane. I laughed the thing off. Oh it is just a storm. Then Andrew hit and it was kind of life or death. It was not a game. It was not funny.
srv
@Gimlet: It’s better Trump finishes off Jeb soon, so he can focus all his energies on ending the Clinton Dynasty.
MomSense
@Iowa Old Lady:
Same here. The Republicans were so annoying but I think Westmoreland was the most irritating for me. He kept going on about how inadequate the security was without any self awareness that the clusterfuck “budgeting process” and failure to adequately fund security by the Republicans in Congress had anything at all to do with what happened.
How the hell is the State Department supposed to allocate resources for additional security when they don’t know how or when the next shutdown, budget freeze or cut will affect their department???
ETA He was so irritating because he had such a smug attitude as if he thought he was really outsmarting HRC and the audience with his intelligence. In fact he sounded like a doofus. Dubya had that same smug attitude. Good thing I didn’t have anything to throw at the tv other than yarn.
Redshift
There a woman near me at the rally with a crudely lettered sign on brown cardboard reading “American Dream Not Handouts.” There’s a guy behind me engaging her, and unsurprisingly, she sounds like a virulent racist. People on welfare are “taking advantage of this country” doncha know.
Gin & Tonic
@srv: dy·nas·ty
ˈdīnəstē
noun
a line of hereditary rulers of a country.
“the Tang dynasty”
Which of Bill’s (or Hill’s) ancestors were President?
Redshift
Nice soundtrack selections after yesterday’s hearing — “Shake It Off” and “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger.” :-)
Now the space is filling up.
amk
@Iowa Old Lady:
teh repubs yesterday
srv
@Gin & Tonic:
liberals, always cherry-picking.
benw
@Gin & Tonic: if we’re going to call the NE Patriots and SA Spurs dynasties, might as well call Billary one. Screw words and the specific things they used to mean.
DUNCAN/BRADY 2016
MomSense
@amk:
HA!
NonyNony
@Chris:
This is true, but I don’t think we’re in the middle of a realignment. The Democrats re-embrace of moderate socialism in the 21st century is a tiny corrective to the shifts made to get Clinton elected, not a huge change. The Republicans push ever rightward is just continuing what Nixon started. The types of people of who voted for Clinton and who voted for Obama aren’t all that different (nor are the types of people who voted for W in 2000 vs. who voted for McCain in 2008).
And that makes this all weird. The Republicans embraced a radical rejection of racial equality and social justice when the Democrats passed the Civil Rights Act. That was Nixon’s strategy – appeal to the racists to shore up the Chamber of Commerce anti-socialism agenda. That hasn’t changed. The Democrats embraced incrementalism and defense of gains made under FDR’s and Johnson’s administration in the face of Nixon’s successful strategy – that hasn’t changed either. What’s changing now are the population demographics, and I’m wondering if that means that it’s inevitable that the GOP eventually becomes an out and proud white nationalist party of the type we see in Europe, or if they’ll split, or if they will be forced to moderate themselves. Right now things don’t look good.
srv
Obama, once again, interfering with States Rights:
Fair Economist
Apparently the Jeb? campaign is reacting to the funding shortage by – cutting fundraising. He’s certainly a true Republican!
Punchy
@Gin & Tonic: Just buy him a parasail. Hurricane Patty will send him home pro bono.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: The difference from today is, Obama never won by anything like the Reagan/FDR level margin that you’d normally associate with a realignment. Yet the fact that he could get elected at all was a symptom of something big and slow happening under the surface.
Elizabelle
@Redshift: Great to hear the on the ground reports!
And somehow I don’t think the artists whose music is played will be asking Hillary Clinton’s campaign to cease and desist.
FlipYrWhig
@Redshift:
If you know any Republicans who aren’t rich, this is the core of their political being. “Stop the Democrats from wasting our hard-earned money on welfare for Those People.” There’s no talking to them; it’s what they believe, it’s what makes them them. Outvote them and laugh at them.
Brachiator
@NonyNony:
Yep. I and others have noted before that money has allowed people to hang around longer than in the past, but still. Despite the money and past track records, some of these jokers are not moving the needle on the popularity contest dial of the recent polling. They are little more than political zombies.
Poopyman
@Redshift: So why’d they have to close the roads from 7:00 until 3:00?
I’m asking for, ummm, 37,000 friends.
Elizabelle
@Redshift: You lucky dog. Looks like Andrea Greenspan is there too. She’s interviewing someone now near your rally.
Got a tomato or some rotting fruit or eggs near you?
Elizabelle
Ha ha. Andrea Greenspan just got drowned out by the National Anthem and went to a commercial.
She was buttonholing Jennifer Palmieri. “Biden was telling everyone he was a stronger general election candidate than Hillary Clinton. What say you about that?”
Palmieri was patient. Did not go to “but he’s not in the race, is he? Moot point, would you say, Mrs. Greenspan?”
Bobby Thomson
@Fair Economist: cutting
taxesfundraising should explode revenues!Brachiator
@Redshift:
Really??
Very cool. Hope it is enjoyable and enlightening.
Amir Khalid
@srv:
What happened here is that a state agency conspired to break federal law.
Mark B.
@benw: Spurs can’t be a dynasty, they’ve never won two consecutive championships.
Gregg Popovich has just been named head coach of the US Olympic team, starting after the 2016 Olympics.
gwangung
@rikyrah: You know it always takes a white person to validate what POCs have done.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
All true, but there was also the two decades he spent writing for U. S. News and World Report. Plus in his younger days he worked for Democrats. I remember that as a young lawyer in 1972, he went from door to door canvassing voters for George McGovern.
Cervantes
@Felonius Monk:
Technically, anything in the Bill of Rights is a civil right.
(Not a necessary condition but a sufficient one.)
mclaren
@Chris:
No. At some point, every bad thing in America will eventually be traced back to Ronald Reagan. I’m convinced that scientific research will discover that Reagan created mosquitoes. It will be revealed that Reagan created scrapple. It will be revealed that Reagan is responsible for cholesterol, warts, body odor, and gingivitis.
mclaren
@Brachiator:
Said it before and I’ll say it again:
I tuned into the new TV show FEAR THE LIVING DEAD only to discover that I was watching the Republican presidential debate. [rim shot]
mclaren
@NonyNony:
This sounds exactly right. And quite insightful.
The two issues that baffle me are: 1) if what you’re saying is correct (and I think it is), why are Republicans overwhelming winning the state elections? If a demographic shift explains why the Repubs are in trouble, why are they only in trouble at the federal level and not on the state level?
2) It is well known from population psychology that fanatical cults tend to become more fanatical when their cult beliefs get publicly disproven, because the members who aren’t totally committed to the cult leave and only the true believers remain. I predicted this about the Republican party years ago, and it has come true. So clearly the Repubs are going to become even more extreme as their election chances drop. (The form this takes is the omnipresent claim by movement conservatives that “We lost that election because we nominated a squish, and THIS TIME we need to nominate someone who is genuinely and deeply conservative.”) What form does this take when we now have conservatives calling for selling poor people who are in debt into slavery (Huckabee) and blowing up immigrants in caves in Mexico before they can cross the border into America (Carson)?
The levels of extremism the Republican party will soon reach make me shudder.
Cervantes
@Chris:
It was only technically that Reagan ended that last official attempt at metrification. As often happened in (that stage of) his life, he was just doing what he was told to do.
The real culprit was Frank Mankiewicz, a Democrat, long-time aide to Bobby Kennedy and George McGovern, and item on Nixon’s “enemies list.” Mankiewicz had a long-standing animus towards the metric system — bizarre as that may seem — and found an ally or two in Reagan’s White House. Together they had Reagan cancel the relevant Congressional initiative (I don’t recall the name of the official Board that had been set up in the Ford years).
J R in WV
@peach flavored shampoo:
And all that tropical moisture is pointed directly at Texas, where they already have flash flooding that has killed people and ruined thousands of homes.
Oops, flooding in Texas, how common was that back before climate change?
Or, what climate change, we get those 230 mph storms all da time…
randy khan
@Tommy: I’ve been in a couple of bad tropical storms – not even hurricane level, although close in one case – and they were scary enough for me, thank you. I can’t even imagine a Cat 5.
J R in WV
@Cervantes:
US News and World Report was and is a famous right-wing pseudo-news rag, much like that Union-Leader in Manchester.
Not as obvious as Faux News, but still the same objectives. And Barone is a famous right-wing nut case, under the covers. He hates liberal causes, whatever he did as a young man, and will do what he can to make the least progressive Democratic positions look like Cambodiian Communism, with death camps for all wealthy Republicans.
Cervantes
@J R in WV:
Good thing I kept my personal views out of that comment: your response provides enough opinion for the two of us!
And not totally unjustified opinion, at that.
Thanks.
Heliopause
That’s too bad. Why not a goofy guy as President? Maybe he’d be less likely to bomb, invade, and terrorize the rest of the world than the other candidates.
Tommy
@randy khan: It was a very scary thing. I thought it was a joke. Not something to worry about. Then it happened. Lived through it. I can’t really put to words what a Cat 5 is like. It is not something you want to live through I can tell you that.