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The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Republicans don’t trust women.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

So many bastards, so little time.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / #VotersFirst (Against the Wall): Last Night in New Hampshire

#VotersFirst (Against the Wall): Last Night in New Hampshire

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New Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die Trying” state, proudly makes its living off parasitism — mostly of neighboring states, but the quadrennial Running of the Candidates is the jewel in its pinchbeck crown. The Tea Party shtkickers in Iowa and Roger Ailes’ greedy bobbleheads have been encroaching on the NooHampsterites’ natural right to first crack at the carcass; this indignity could not be allowed to endure. So a shambling hybrid was born, as explained by Yahoo News:

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Republicans here wanted very badly to preempt the first presidential debate on Fox News by holding a more regionally focused event, to drive home the importance of their status as an early primary state.

They succeeded in getting 14 of the 17 candidates to show up here Monday. But what took place on the campus of St. Anselms was so far removed from the substance of an actual debate that it wasn’t clear what voters in New Hampshire watching on local TV, or anyone else watching on C-SPAN, could have learned from the cattle-call of candidates…

… [B]ecause of rules put in place by the Republican National Committee to prevent GOP candidates from having to take part in too many debates that take up valuable preparation time and which, in the opinion of the RNC, create a dynamic of ongoing Republican-on-Republican criticism, the forum was fatally hamstrung. The candidates were not allowed to stand on stage next to each other. That would have been a debate. So instead, they sat in theater chairs in the front row of an auditorium watching one another slide quickly onto a bar stool while their names and a brief bios were read out over the loudspeaker. The audience sat silent, as instructed…

Mother Jones voted the winner’s ribbon to the guy who didn’t show up:

So this is what it looks like when Donald Trump stays home. The businessman and board game magnate, who is currently leading the Republican presidential field by a mile, skipped the first full candidate forum of the 2016 presidential race on Monday in New Hampshire. His official reason: the host newspaper, New Hampshire’s Union-Leader, had already signaled that it wasn’t interested in endorsing his campaign. But maybe he had an inkling of what we know for certain now—14 candidates racing against the clock to recite canned talking points makes for a total snoozefest.

The moderator, Jack Heath, deliberately steered clear of any Trump-related questions, which is a shame, because Trump, even in absentia, might have have at least forced the candidates to talk about something besides themselves. As it was, Monday’s forum, the first of three such Q&A sessions in early primary states and a dress rehearsal of sorts for the first GOP debate on Thursday, was like freshman orientation in a class of introverts. The candidates were provided the most generic of icebreaker questions (Carly Fiorina was asked for an example of a time she showed leadership), which they promptly segued away from, and pivoted to the boilerplate speeches they’ve already been delivering in Iowa and New Hampshire for months. Because it was a forum, not a debate, the candidates weren’t allowed to interact with each other. Save for Scott Walker noting that no one in his family had been president before, none of them even tried…

The Boston Globe didn’t quite call it Amateur Hour, but then we Massholes regard NH in the same light as dogs regards fleas…

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — A parade of Republican presidential hopefuls reached for ways to distinguish themselves in a historically large field Monday night, using the highest-profile presidential forum to date to land fresh zingers, test out a few jokes, and try to project a measure of national leadership ability…

… [A] scattershot debate format and a blizzard of issues prevented any of the 14 participants from really standing out. Former governor Jeb Bush of Florida appeared content to play it safe, as well as nice, praising the quality of his primary opponents. Lesser-known candidates knew they were being seen by many TV viewers for the first time and used their fleeting moments on stage to simply make a good impression.

Predictably, President Obama’s Affordable Care Act was a big target during the evening. Nearly everyone on the stage also spoke out against illegal immigration, at times using the coarse language that has caused the Republican Party problems among Hispanic voters, arguing that any effort to overhaul the nation’s laws must start with securing the borders…

Several senators remained back in Washington, caught in a debate over whether the Senate will take up a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. It created the odd scenario where the trio — Cruz, Rubio, and Paul — appeared on big-screen televisions on the stage…

The NYTimes cataloged “Uneven performances… ”

Jeb Bush stumbled through a familiar question about his brother and father, struggling for the right words as he cracked a joke about duking it out with anyone who questioned the legacy of his aging dad.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey awkwardly said aloud what many have been wondering about his candidacy: “Am I washed up?”

And Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina reached back to the 1990s to attack Hillary Rodham Clinton’s credibility by dredging up her husband’s dishonesty about a sexual affair…

After weeks of preparing for a smash-mouth debate with Donald J. Trump, 14 Republican candidates found themselves instead Trump-less but sandwiched into a constricting format on Monday night… Rather than making the other contenders look more presidential, however, the event, at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., seemed to shrink the candidates. Assembled in the front row, the Republicans gawked as each rival took his or her turn on stage, looking at times as if they were being forced to sit through a tedious school assembly….

The unusual format and repeated interruptions by timekeepers led to several painfully awkward moments. Former Gov. George Pataki of New York was mid-sentence — “By the way, Jack” — when the moderator cut him off. He reacted with surprise, stood up and walked off. At another point, a woman suddenly emerged from stage right with a folder in hand, beckoning Mr. Perry to leave. He sheepishly did so…

(Too bad, Dr. Carson, but you get a year’s supply of Turtle Wax as a consolation prize!)

Can’t have a political circus without media clowns, of course…

‘

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    uh huh

    uh huh

    Wouldn’t be a fall, if it weren’t a threat for a Government Shutdown

    ……………………………..

    GOP campaign against Planned Parenthood just getting started
    08/04/15 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen
    The Republican crusade against Planned Parenthood reached the Senate floor late yesterday afternoon, with a GOP bill to strip the health care organization of its federal funding. As expected, it failed at the hands of a Democratic filibuster, but an even more important fight is on the horizon.

    The roll call on the yesterday’s vote is online here. Note, one Republican broke ranks and opposed the measure (Illinois’ Mark Kirk), while two Democrats sided with the GOP majority (West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Indiana’s Joe Donnelly). The final tally was technically 53-46, but that came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell switched from “yea” to “nay” for procedural reasons.

    What arguably matters more at this point is what Republicans intend to do next. Politico reported overnight:
    Republicans are divided over whether they should use this fall’s government funding bill to attack Planned Parenthood – and risk a high-stakes shutdown fight – after Senate Democrats blocked a standalone bill to defund the organization on Monday evening.

    On one side is presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who’s pushing Republicans to do everything within their power to strip the organization of federal support after Monday’s bill failed to clear a filibuster, 53-46. But a group of veteran Republican legislators is urging a more cautious approach, and reminding GOP colleagues that just two years ago their fight to defund Obamacare via a government funding bill produced a disastrous shutdown without making a dent on the Affordable Care Act.
    The prospect of a shutdown over Planned Parenthood is quite real. Indeed, the dominant, far-right voices in the party speak as if they practically have no choice – the recently released, deceptively edited attack videos targeting the health care organization have so enraged the far-right that the GOP has already effectively committed itself to an angry confrontation.

    But some in the Republican leadership seem to realize it’s a confrontation that the party can’t win.

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/gop-campaign-against-planned-parenthood-just-getting-started

  2. 2.

    Chris

    Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey awkwardly said aloud what many have been wondering about his candidacy: “Am I washed up?”

    Yes. SATSQ.

    And Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina reached back to the 1990s to attack Hillary Rodham Clinton’s credibility by dredging up her husband’s dishonesty about a sexual affair


    When a man cheats on a woman, clearly it’s the woman who was cheated on that that reflects badly on.

  3. 3.

    GregB

    Your incessant trashing of New Hampshire is a real big turnoff to long time readers who live in New Hampshire.

  4. 4.

    Chris

    Ted Cruz on charge billions will go to Iran to fund murder of Americans, Europeans and Israelis

    That doesn’t seem to bother anybody when it’s the Saudis who are under discussion.

  5. 5.

    john not mccain

    Because of course nothing resonates with women voters like a holding a woman responsible for her husband’s lie.

  6. 6.

    JohnPM

    Anne, thank you for this post. I am grateful you put all this together in one place so I can click on any links I like. God knows I wasn’t going to watch the forum!

  7. 7.

    raven

    @GregB: Oh whatever, fuckers rail on about “The South” in general and Georgia all the time. Fuck it and drive on.

  8. 8.

    schrodinger's cat

    I wonder how much traction Republicans would get if the MSM was not so much in tank for them. i know they would always have some support but not as much as they have now. Most people don’t pay that much attention to politics as BJers do.

  9. 9.

    germy shoemangler

    from the nytimes:

    
what voters got from Monday night’s candidate forum in Manchester, N.H., was a lightning round of questions with hurried responses and awkward interruptions, a necessity when trying to cram 14 speakers into two hours of television.

    The candidates were interviewed one at a time, while others looked on from the front row. And in that sense, the camera’s cutaway shots provided one hallmark of an actual debate: the indifference and disdain of rivals rolling their eyes, smirking or, in Rick Perry’s case, picking his nails.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    @Chris:

    Ted Cruz on charge billions will go to Iran to fund murder of Americans, Europeans and Israelis

    That doesn’t seem to bother anybody when it’s the Saudis who are under discussion.

    Tell me about it. It is the Saudis who funded and continue to fund Wahhabism.

  13. 13.

    Botsplainer

    I despise the attitudes of the two early primary states. Neither of them come even close to approximating the demographic layers of American society as a whole – they’re whiter, more exurban and rural, less Catholic and more Christian than the country. As a result, the rightward candidates that prevail skew further right than the bulk of conservatism actually hews to. Problem being, of course, that even conservatives who are relatively sane on an individual basis will go along with the nutters because liberals.

    Kill the importance of the early primaries, and the Overton window drifts leftward.

  14. 14.

    beltane

    @GregB: Being that NH went for Obama twice, it is a bit silly. Still, trashing people from Massachusetts-I won’t use the particular word-is a way of life here in VT/NH/ME so I wouldn’t take it too personally.

  15. 15.

    Another Holocene Human

    Well, I, for one, approve of the New Hampshire bashing.

    Parasitical? Absolutely. Can’t handle their own business? Epic. Full of themselves? Always.

    -a confirmed Masshole

  16. 16.

    JMV Pyro

    I’ve got a friend who attended this thing on a lark with her mother.

    Apparently they’re all even more contemptible in person. Each of them oozing their own brand of sleaze.

  17. 17.

    Another Holocene Human

    @beltane: When a friend of mine from Massachusetts (rather outspoken liberal, and atheist, so you would have thought he’d fit in) was in NH for a couple of years for work, one of his coworkers pulled him aside one day and said, “You know what, Dave? Your problem is that you’re not enough of an asshole.”

  18. 18.

    Another Holocene Human

    New Hampshire’s state parks are really beautiful in the summer.

    There, I said one nice thing.

  19. 19.

    beltane

    @Botsplainer: Lunatics have been winning Republican primaries in just about every state-think of Christine O’Donnell in Delaware-and much of the USA is quite a bit more conservative than either NH or IA. The whiteness of the states does make them less representative of the country, but this is really only a factor in the Democratic primary as GOP primary voters are overwhelmingly white no matter what the state. New Hampshire is particularly unique in being one of the most secular states in the country, which actually does serve to moderate the Republican field to the extent such a thing is possible these days.

  20. 20.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Botsplainer: OTOH, Obama winning that first Iowa caucus was essential to his successful campaign, and the demos proved that white Dems would vote for a Black candidate.

    I think the Iowa caucus is still important for the GOP as a weedout because the joke candidates can’t muster anything at caucus, but their picks have leaned too far right and I think their relevance is slipping.

    NH is important because we often have these media darling candidates that claim they can take the East Coast from New England to Florida and when they faceplant in NH it’s all over but the shouting.

    What sucks is that the Western half of the US gets forgotten during POTUS races.

    Time to amend the Constitution. (like that’ll happen)

  21. 21.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: Please let them shut down the government for this foolishness and then get slammed for it next November. That would be perfect. Goes to show that when they are in charge, nothing gets done. Also goes to show that whenever a Democratic President is in charge, Republicans shut down the government repeatedly for stupid reasons.

    Secretary Clinton should start advertising against Republicans on the threat of a shutdown.

  27. 27.

    rk

    Much as I dislike Trump, I have to admit he has more gravitas than this whole bunch put together. Trump is not boring to watch or listen to.True,it’s all about himself and most of what he says is nonsense, but it’s entertaining nonsense. He’s the republican equivalent of Obama. By that I mean he’s excited the base like Obama did, by sheer force of his personality. But being republicans they get excited by stupidity and hate. Like a true businessman Donald understands his customers and knows how to package the product.

  28. 28.

    japa21

    @rikyrah: Obviously, Kirk has woken up and seen he is in big trouble next year. I guarantee he will bring up this vote to show just how moderate he is.

    It won’t work. He’s toast.

  29. 29.

    beltane

    @JPL: There are no moderate Republicans any more, or at least not enough to make a difference. Whether the first primary is held in Mississippi or or Ohio or California, it is always possible for a raving lunatic to win because it is the raving lunatics who come out to vote.

  31. 31.

    Another Holocene Human

    I wondered if I was wrong to reference B’rer Rabbit you know … because … and I found this truly fascinating article about the 19th century reception of Uncle Remus. http://www.wrensnest.org/everything-youve-heard-about-uncle-remus-is-wrong-part-1/

    I know these legends are based on Ananzi (the trickster spider man) stories. We learned both as kids, but I remember that briar patch story better because there were briars in the woods where I played. And I used to chase bunnies.

    If I’m over the line please tell me.

  33. 33.

    ruemara

    Again, not saying that I don’t like to point and laugh too, but an article pointing out the literal architect of legal police murder who uses fake science to those same cops off the hook and no one is talking about it? No blogs, black Twitter is worried about Allure and Drake versus Meek. I’m kinda shocked. More about the damned dentist that slaughtered Cecil.

  34. 34.

    RaflW

    @rikyrah:

    a group of veteran Republican legislators is urging a more cautious approach, and reminding GOP colleagues that just two years ago their fight to defund Obamacare via a government funding bill produced a disastrous shutdown without making a dent on the Affordable Care Act.

    Face it, long-timers, you have no control over your party or your base. You could break out and vote with the Democrats on this. Politicians occasionally did this before 1/20/09. But you all lack even a shred of courage or integrity.

  35. 35.

    NobodySpecial

    @japa21: Yep. Democratic voters still won’t vote for him over Tammy Duckworth and Oberweis Goopers will be mad he voted for killing babbies. Bye, Mark, maybe next time. Not.

  36. 36.

    JMV Pyro

    @JPL: Kirk’s been running around scared since his election, desperately trying to come across as a moderate so he can stay in his seat. If all that just results in him getting slapped down by Joe “Deadbeat Dad” Walsh, the schadenfreude would be fantastic.

  38. 38.

    Paul in KY

    @ruemara: I said he was a vile POS (or something like that) in a thread yesterday. What more can we do?!?!? (snark there).

    Think it would be a topic for a thread of it’s own.

  39. 39.

    japa21

    @JMV Pyro: Joe Walsh could possibly beat Kirk, though I doubt it. Illinois GOP is not quite as crazy as some others states. It would be close though.

    Duckworth will take either to the cleaners.

  40. 40.

    Cervantes

    This is like watching the worst contestant in the Junior Miss Bakersfield Competition.

    What did those kids ever do to deserve such a comparison?

  41. 41.

    cmorenc

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Also goes to show that whenever a Democratic President is in charge, Republicans shut down the government repeatedly for stupid reasons.

    That’s because ever since the Reagan won in 1980, the partisan core of the GOP stubbornly rejects that ANY President from the Democratic party has any legitimate right to hold that office or exercise its powers. The same for ANY period when Democrats have a congressional majority. Recall that the very night of Obama’s inauguration in January 2009, a cabal of GOP leaders (McConnell, Gingrich et al) were meeting to conspire to be as obstructive and non-cooperative as possible at every turn with the new administration. The birther allegations against Obama were heavily infused with racism to be sure, but even more fundamentally than that, were simply the most convenient immediate nucleus around which to focus their underlying gut-level feeling that a Democratic president inherently lacks legitimate right to exercise the powers of that office, or to even hold it. If Hillary Clinton wins in 2016, she too will be regarded as illegitimate by the GOP core from the day she takes office, because she is allegedly guilty of criminal misconduct over a combination of Benghazi! and the emails on her private server. Should Biden or Sanders somehow wind up as the Dem nominee and winning, they’ll spin up some reason they are fundamentally illegitimate as well – the lack of any obvious material to work from at the moment won’t stop them from inventing some allegedly impeachable offense that also deserves a long sentence at Leavenworth.

  42. 42.

    boatboy_srq

    @RaflW: It’s darkly entertaining to watch the last hangers-on among the old GOP bewail what a mess their party has become. Almost anyone with half a brain has left the party over the last couple decades, and the “moderate Republican” is headed for extinction – yet the few remaining are too busy rearranging deck chairs to notice the water lapping their feet and too proud at having a chair to rearrange to throw it overboard and hang on.

  43. 43.

    Chris

    @rk:

    I’m not actually entirely sure what the word “gravitas” means – the media seems to use it as an unironic synonym for Very Serious (wasn’t it the word they used to describe Cheney?) But if you’re saying that Trump isn’t any less silly than the entire Republican candidate field that’s trying to exclude him, I agree.

  44. 44.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @cmorenc:

    That’s because ever since the Reagan won in 1980, the partisan core of the GOP stubbornly rejects that ANY President from the Democratic party has any legitimate right to hold that office or exercise its powers.

    I think they went crazy and lost their shit when Nixon resigned. They’ve been obsessed with evening the score ever since. Hunting for scandals, searching for impeachable offenses, this-gate, that-gate. They won’t be satisfied until a democratic president resigns in disgrace.

  45. 45.

    Chris

    @boatboy_srq:

    Almost anyone with half a brain has left the party over the last couple decades

    In 1964, the party ran a guy who wanted to resolve the Vietnam War with nuclear weapons.

    Then it went downhill.

  46. 46.

    Chris

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    this-gate, that-gate

    One of my friends is a fellow sci-fi nerd, who keeps wishing that there’d be some presidential scandal involving outer space, so they could call it “Star-gate.”

  47. 47.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kathleen: You’re right. They always go for the opposite of what President Obama advocates — like the petulant children they are.

  48. 48.

    Bobby B.

    Reminds me of a comedy movie where Marshall Efron as a porno director, defends his chicken-on-horse scene: “Do you know how much work went into creating that 12 seconds of cinematic magic?!”
    How long could you get all that GOPstock to stand still and behave?

  49. 49.

    RSA

    @beltane:

    Still, trashing people from Massachusetts-I won’t use the particular word-is a way of life here in VT/NH/ME so I wouldn’t take it too personally.

    But that’s different–Massachusetts deserves it.

    Kidding. I have lived (and enjoyed living) in Massachusetts, California, and the South-but-not-the-deep-South (NC). Even Texas had its high points.

  51. 51.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Kathleen:

    I think President Obama should say that shutting down the government is a great idea.

    Obama should tell them inhaling and exhaling is a good idea. Then we could watch them turn purple and die.

  52. 52.

    Germy Shoemangler

    They won’t be satisfied until a democratic president resigns in disgrace.

    And they thought they were so close, so close with Bill Clinton.

    But he disappointed them all. He wouldn’t play their game. And now Hillary is in their face. Of course they’re pissed.

  53. 53.

    MomSense

    @ruemara:

    I read one article about that cop trainer/expert witness/pseudo scientist/psychologist and it is really disturbing especially since it seems he has been training police officers all around the country. I don’t know why we aren’t discussing this. I’ve only seen it highlighted at theobamadiary.com

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    daveweigel ‏@ daveweigel 2h2 hours ago
    How come the July 31 Marist polls w strong Hillary v GOP leads haven’t gotten the buzz of the bad Q polls?

  55. 55.

    Paul in KY

    @Germy Shoemangler: In hindsight, I wish he had resigned. Having Gore run as already-Pres. might have been the thing that put him over on Chimpy McBatshit. Even if he ran the same not-so-great campaign, with droopy-dog as VP candidate.

  56. 56.

    boatboy_srq

    @Chris: It’s 2015 and the only thing that has not actually been said about ISIS or Iran is “nuclear”. Distinction/difference.

  57. 57.

    Botsplainer

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    I think they went crazy and lost their shit when Nixon resigned. They’ve been obsessed with evening the score ever since. Hunting for scandals, searching for impeachable offenses, this-gate, that-gate. They won’t be satisfied until a democratic president resigns in disgrace.

    I have a Grand Unifying Theory of Everything that explains the right wing and the media post Watergate.

    1. The boomers weren’t liberal as a whole – only about a third were, but that third, concentrated in the cities as they were, were very loud and due to their numbers alone, were influential.

    2. There really was a silent majority, and that silent majority sided with Nixon, and resented the fact that the media exposed the dirty laundry, and collectively lost their shit over it. Had Nixon not resigned, they’d have been fine with it. Hell, you could replay the 1972 election in 1976 and Nixon would still win a landslide against McGovern.

    3. The sniveling little Nixon Administration shitbags that didn’t get pulled into legal jeopardy over Watergate (because they were junior underlings) brooded, schemed and manipulated revenge over the next 40 years. The current state of conservatism is the culmination of their work.

  59. 59.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Paul in KY:

    In hindsight, I wish he had resigned. Having Gore run as already-Pres. might have been the thing that put him over on Chimpy McBatshit. Even if he ran the same not-so-great campaign, with droopy-dog as VP candidate.

    That’s an interesting scenario. I’m always playing the “what if” game myself, so I’m amazed I didn’t think of it first.

    I always imagine a scenario where a democrat beats Reagan in 1980. But that’s my own obsession. Maybe others here share it.

  60. 60.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I wondered if I was wrong to reference B’rer Rabbit you know 
 because 
 and I found this truly fascinating article about the 19th century reception of Uncle Remus.

    I’ve always been fascinated with Joel Chandler Harris. A white man, a newspaper reporter, who made a comfortable living out of transcribing old African and Native American folklore. He had good ears and he was a quick typist. The people he listened to never made a penny.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Chandler_Harris

  62. 62.

    Botsplainer

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    I always imagine a scenario where a democrat beats Reagan in 1980. But that’s my own obsession. Maybe others here share it.

    One of three things (maybe more than one) has to happen.

    1. The attempted hostage rescue is successful to some degree.
    2. The hosage rescue is never attempted.
    3. Ted Kennedy doesn’t run a reckless vanity candidacy attacking Carter from the left.

  63. 63.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Aaron Blake ‏@ AaronBlakeWP 2h2 hours ago
    Americans oppose cutting off federal funding for Planned Parenthood 49-39, per Monmouth

    Tweety reviewed some poll results last night, and all but said “are you fucking kidding me!” when he read that PP had higher approval than either rmajor party, the three branches of gov’t and the NRA.

    It also said that while the Dems have about a ten percent higher overall approval, the GOP scores higher on the economy and foreign policy. I really hope the Dems are gonna go heavy on “remember 2008?”

  67. 67.

    Chris

    @Botsplainer:

    The sniveling little Nixon Administration shitbags that didn’t get pulled into legal jeopardy over Watergate (because they were junior underlings) brooded, schemed and manipulated revenge over the next 40 years.

    You’d pretty much have to charge the entire Republican Party under RICO to wash out the stink at this point.

  68. 68.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Botsplainer:

    3. The sniveling little Nixon Administration shitbags that didn’t get pulled into legal jeopardy over Watergate (because they were junior underlings) brooded, schemed and manipulated revenge over the next 40 years. The current state of conservatism is the culmination of their work.

    I remember when Carter was elected. I was thrilled because it was the first time I’d voted, and my guy won. There was a general feeling that the bad guys had lost, and were vanquished, and now someone completely unlike Nixon was running things. I remember watching SNL and seeing Dan Akroyd (as Carter) talking down a panicked LSD user. I was with a group of friends watching that episode live, and we were quietly thrilled, laughing our asses off.

    Fast forward. Years later, when Bush got in, I had a sick feeling when I saw all the young Nixon staff were running things (Cheney, Rumsfeld)… all the junior ratfuckers of the Nixon admin. were back in charge.

  69. 69.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Visited the fine Northeast, NH specifically, last summer.

    Worst food ever.

    Main industries seem to be tourism and oxycontin/meth sales.

    Wouldn’t want to be there in the winter.

    You can keep it.

  72. 72.

    shell

    @GregB: Hey, if Betty can put up with all the cracks about Florida…..
    *********************

    Iv’e never understood New Hampshires lock as the first primary state. Didn’t some states a few years back try to change their primary dates to the same as NH, and NH screamed bloody murder?

  73. 73.

    Kay Eye

    OMG. The boys are wearing their RBFs. And we’ve been told that it’s only a girl thing.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Germy Shoemangler: Is today the anniversary of the resignation? Too tired to look.

    I was just a kid in the 70s, but I remember the feeling of seeing the Iran-Contra crew popping back up under Bush II: “John Poindexter, no that can’t be… Elliot Abrams what the FUCK!”. And now seeing the architects of the Iraq War having been mostly rehabliitated. But Al Gore is still a Beltway punch line.

  75. 75.

    shell

    Tweety reviewed some poll results last night, and all but said “are you fucking kidding me!” when he read that PP had higher approval

    Republicans are big on “listening to the American people” until they actually hear from the American people.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    today in not-terrorism (maybe)

    Josh Marshall ‏@ joshtpm 3h3 hours ago
    Hardly a surprise >> Authorities Investigating Fire At Louisiana Planned Parenthood

  78. 78.

    cmorenc

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Germy Shoemangler says:
    August 4, 2015 at 10:46 am
    @Paul in KY:
    In hindsight, I wish he had resigned. Having Gore run as already-Pres. might have been the thing that put him over on Chimpy McBatshit. Even if he ran the same not-so-great campaign, with droopy-dog as VP candidate.
    That’s an interesting scenario. I’m always playing the “what if” game myself, so I’m amazed I didn’t think of it first.

    I always imagine a scenario where a democrat beats Reagan in 1980. But that’s my own obsession. Maybe others here share it.

    AN EVEN BETTER WHAT-IF SCENARIO is if Gerald Ford had squeaked out the 1976 election against Jimmy Carter, because the economic stagflation afflicting the Carter era and the Iranian Hostage Crisis would almost certainly have occurred regardless of which of them were President during that era – and instead of the 1980 election bringing in the Reagan era, it would likely have brought in the Ted Kennedy era – and this country would have taken a vastly better course over the 35 years between then and now. There is one other HUGE positive to Ford having been President 1976-1980: he was a decent, sane man, whereas Reagan was at best, an actor playing that role convincingly enough to fool enough of the electorate to win office. For but one example, Ford appointed Stevens to SCOTUS, Reagan gave us Scalia. Ford never would have deliberately begun a Presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi (where three civil rights workers were infamously murdered in 1964) the way Reagan did as a gesture of solidarity to resentful southern racist white folk, who hadn’t quite yet been completely pried away from decades of yellow-dog voting for democrats despite the inroads Nixon had made with his “southern strategy”.

  79. 79.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    Emergency rooms better be on HIGH ALERT thurs. night, for those ‘GOP Debate Drinking Game/Alcohol Poisoning’ cases.

    It could get really, really ugly. The alcohol poisoning cases also, too.

  80. 80.

    Bokonon

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Why are they only posting the bad polls about Clinton? Because the media is still waiting for their sources in the GOP messaging machine to tell them what to say, and which memes to employ this week.

    Plus, negative stories about Hillary Clinton play better than positive ones. Drama!

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chris:

    I’m not actually entirely sure what the word “gravitas” means

    “sucks like a black hole”?

  84. 84.

    Chris

    @Botsplainer:

    There really was a silent majority, and that silent majority sided with Nixon, and resented the fact that the media exposed the dirty laundry, and collectively lost their shit over it.

    To my wasn’t-there eyes, it seems like this is the essence of the conservative backlash of the sixties, seventies and eighties – even more than racism or social conservatism per se.

    That liberal activists, reporters, et al spent the sixties and seventies shining a light on all the ugly things in society that they didn’t want to think about (white supremacy; other forms of discrimination, i.e. against women, gays, immigrants, etc; the plight of the poor, who even after the Progressive and New Deal eras still weren’t out of the woods; American war crimes in Vietnam; the reality of what the “free world” was really like in places like Greece, Iran, Chile). The people reporting all these things shattered the “silent majority”‘s self-image of a benevolent, idyllic America that totally lived up to all its values, and they hated them for it.

    Cue the Reagan era, which was all about “let’s forget about all these things, pretend they’re not true, and blame the people who want us to believe they’re true, because you know they just hate America.”

  85. 85.

    Fair Economist

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I’ve always thought it was tragic that people wanted to bury a great collection of African-American folks tales because of the 19th century (thus racist by modern standards) framing they’re in. But I never caught this killer bit, probably because I rarely read introductions:

    While scholars have widely divergent opinions of Harris, it seems like his reputation as a “plantation romancer” has been spun from one sentence fragment in the first Uncle Remus book’s introduction:

    “
a sympathetic supplement to Mrs. Stowe’s wonderful defense of slavery as it existed in the South.

    Of course, *we* are educated enough to know that Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, wrote one of the most influential *indictments* of slavery. So the slavery apologia of the framing story was intended from the get-go as satirical or ironic.

    Which makes all the attacks on the Uncle Remus book – um – meta-ironic?

  86. 86.

    Another Holocene Human

    @ruemara: How do we stop that? Where’s the good cop advocacy group saying “Hey, that’s bad policing”?

  87. 87.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Paul in KY: I thought so at the time, and again in 2000 when W was given the Residency. OTOH, I’ve come to see Bill’s POV in not letting the GOP win. He was right about that.

  88. 88.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Botsplainer: I disagree about #2. Now, I freely admit I wasn’t there. But when I read accounts of the time, I recall that Nixon’s tapes were very damaging, in part because the Silent Majority did not like foul language, and Nixon swore like a sailor. It shattered their image of “The President” and made him subject to being treated like a man and not an ideal. (Similar to the burlesquing or denuding of formerly high status people in a revolution before executing them.)

  89. 89.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Botsplainer:

    1. The attempted hostage rescue is successful to some degree.
    2. The hosage rescue is never attempted.
    3. Ted Kennedy doesn’t run a reckless vanity candidacy attacking Carter from the left.

    It’s got to be more than that to save Carter in 1980. The thing people don’t always remember about the Iran hostage crisis is that Carter’s job approval was in the toilet before it happened, and in the early days he actually got a brief crisis spike that took him up to above 50% approval. But even if the hostage rescue had succeeded, that would have faded, like the bumps that Kennedy and both Bushes got for international crises and wars.

    It was the economy, and all the sort of flailing stuff Carter did as a response to general bad feelings, especially simultaneously firing four members of his Cabinet, which made him seem unserious and desperate.

  90. 90.

    gratuitous

    Okay, that picture of Gov. Christie: Does anyone else hear Carol Burnett singing, “I’m so glad we had this time together”? Just me? I’m old.

  93. 93.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Front page of the NOLA paper’s website today has Somerville MA mayor trash talking Bobby Jindal (after Jindal wished ill on “sanctuary city” mayors on Metro Boston media, Herald Radio whatever the fuck that is, because NH primary, of course).

    I think I read his approval rating in LA is only, er, 27%?

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Fair Economist: Well… even blackface minstrel shows were a bit more complex than you might think: they were adapting/plundering actual black culture as well as mocking it, and some practitioners were actual African-Americans who had to wear the burnt cork and play in the minstrel-show format to get on the stage.

    But it still doesn’t change the fact that the whole business was horribly insulting, and racist in effect even when it wasn’t in intent.

  97. 97.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Fair Economist: It’s interesting that in Mark Twain scholarship the consensus has always been that he was sending up ignorant attitudes of the world he came from (which encompassed the whole of the US not just the lower Mississippi, and later the whole industrialized world).

    I remember in Pudd’nhead Wilson he plays with the nature vs nurture argument, specifically with respect to African Americans, both with the two white babies but one is technically a Negro, and then with the way the children are raised. He allows the racist audience to read “Tom was a bad baby” as blood coming out, but is careful to describe why he is a bad baby–because he is never punished for anything he does! (While Chambers gets regular, swift, and harsh punishments until he becomes a self-effacing and timid adult.)

    As I think back on the book I think there are probably some aspects that would be considered fail-y today, such as the drawn from life, in dialect flirtation scenes, but that part above was very subversive.

    But Twain was also fortunate not to have his work immediately transformed into racist caricature.

    Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel was adapted into stage plays which became the more popular form of her work, and the plays were quite racist.

  98. 98.

    sukabi

    @ruemara: that one and the one about the fact that Bloomberg produced propaganda for Trump via the “focus group” not a peep… I don’t get it, as those are the stories that deserve to be dug into, exposed, and the folks responsible called out and questioned.

  99. 99.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Holocene Human: Huckleberry Finn is an interesting case: Jim is probably the most admirable character in the book, one of the very few people in the story who behaves like a mature adult, but in the last section of the book after Tom Sawyer shows up he kind of reverts to acting like a caricature. I’ve never been sure whether that is some kind of subversive commentary on corrosive social hierarchies, or just Twain getting lazy and kind of racist as he tried to bring in a crowd-pleasing character and wrap up the story. Maybe both.

  100. 100.

    Botsplainer

    @cmorenc:

    Ford never would have deliberately begun a Presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi (where three civil rights workers were infamously murdered in 1964) the way Reagan did as a gesture of solidarity to resentful southern racist white folk, who hadn’t quite yet been completely pried away from decades of yellow-dog voting for democrats despite the inroads Nixon had made with his “southern strategy”.

    Reagan did that a mere 16 years after it happened, all to assuage the butthurt feelings of white southerners. It would be equivalent to somebody going to Nuremburg in 1961 to announce that maybe the OKW was treated unfairly during the war crimes trials.

  101. 101.

    Another Holocene Human

    From the essay: “Signifying, in the definition given by Cochran, is dialogue that includes an “implicit content
which is potentially obscured by the surface content.” The technique hails from African American vernacular and folklore. ”

    Also what Twain does.

  102. 102.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’ve never been sure whether that is some kind of subversive commentary on corrosive social hierarchies

    In that society is there a way for Black man to act like a man with a white man around?

  104. 104.

    Fair Economist

    @Matt McIrvin:

    But it still doesn’t change the fact that the whole business was horribly insulting, and racist in effect even when it wasn’t in intent.

    Yes, I know that at the time blackface wasn’t always intended to be racist and sometimes it’s unacceptable because of changed mores, not because of ill original intent. But the point is that, based on the introduction, this is not a case of a not-so-racist-for-the-time book that’s unacceptable by modern standards. The framing story is an indictment of post-slavery plantation culture that’s being misinterpreted. Complaining it supports black subservience is as absurd as saying Harriet Beecher Stowe was pro-slavery.

  107. 107.

    Feebog

    I’ve always thought that if the rescue operation in Iran had been a success Carter would have been elected. I’m also quite certain that Reagan conducted secret negotiations with the Iranians to HO hold the hostages until after the election.

  108. 108.

    Another Holocene Human

    Okay, last Harris post, this blew me away:

    The founding and very existence of Uncle Remus’s Magazine, Harris continues, is to encourage “the obliteration of prejudice against the blacks, the demand for a square deal, and the uplifting of both races so that they can look justice in the face without blushing.” […]

    The magazine, begun in 1906 with his son Julian, quickly garnered a readership of over 250,000. Harris died two years later.

    Also, apparently he was illegitimate and spent his formative years working on a plantation as a manual laborer.

  109. 109.

    Ruckus

    @ruemara:
    It is a very important story. Actually a major story about how our police have become even more Orwellian. One man seemingly has changed the basis of law enforcement and protected that change in court. And unfortunately he’s done a bang up job at it. But the story just broke and maybe people are doing a little more work on it because it is such an important story. Are there more people involved? How much of this is racist and how much is authoritarian? Or is that a distinction/difference situation?
    I don’t think people are passing it by but it is a issue that should require a bit of study. As to why one person could cause this much pain to so many. As to why no one in the police seem to care that his concept is insane.

  110. 110.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I wonder how much traction Republicans would get if the MSM was not so much in tank for them

    Probably would not make any difference. The MSM is less important than it has ever been.

    And the MSM has never behaved any differently.

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    Have there been any postings about the Puerto Rico debt crisis? From the Guardian:

    Puerto Rico missed its first debt repayment on Monday, the first time the troubled US commonwealth has failed to pay its bills.

    The island paid just $628,000 toward a $58m debt due to creditors of its Public Finance Corporation. While the default was expected, it is likely to worsen the financial situation for the island as it struggles with debts estimated at $72bn.

    “This was a decision that reflects the serious concerns about the Commonwealth’s liquidity in combination with the balance of obligations to our creditors and the equally important obligations to the people of Puerto Rico,” the territory’s government development bank president, Melba Acosta Febo, said in a statement.

    And what the hell is this attempt to impose insane austerity and to kill its schools?

    Billionaire hedge fund managers have called on Puerto Rico to lay off teachers and close schools so that the island can pay them back the billions it owes.

    The hedge funds called for Puerto Rico to avoid financial default – and repay its debts – by collecting more taxes, selling $4bn worth of public buildings and drastically cutting public spending, particularly on education.

    The group of 34 hedge funds hired former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists to come up with a solution to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis after the island’s governor declared its $72bn debt “unpayable” – paving the way for bankruptcy.

    Have any Republicans or even Democrats spoken about this? Ah, I do see that Hillary, Sanders and a few other Democrats have urged some changes in the law to help Puerto Rico.

    http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/07/hillary-clinton-puerto-rico-bankruptcy-law-change-debt

  112. 112.

    Paul in KY

    @Germy Shoemangler: If Pres. Carter had not let the Shah in, he’d have won (IMO).

    Only other thing would have been either having the hostage rescue mission be a rousing success or exposing the Reagan campaign for dealing with the Iranians & made a great big scene over it.

  114. 114.

    Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey

    @GregB: At least nobody’s urging you to secede already.

    Carter was fated to be a one-termer regardless of how the hostage situation played out; he was simply unable to cope with all the shit raining down in the mid ’70s. I agree with the poster above that we’d have been better off if Ford had won in ’76, both because Democrats would not have to wear the stagflation albatross, and because Ford was a decent human being. Would that more Young Republicans had emulated him instead of Reagan.

    My dream scenario is still to have Trump, Jeb!, and Walker to split delegates going into the convention.

  115. 115.

    Cervantes

    @Botsplainer:

    I did not see it as a “reckless vanity candidacy.” Do you remember what the polls were saying at the time? (I’m talking about the Reagan v. Carter polls.)

  116. 116.

    Paul in KY

    @cmorenc: I’m not so sure that Sen. Kennedy ever really wanted to be Pres. Think his run against Pres. Carter in 1980 was more about bringing Carter down, due to pique or something like that.

  117. 117.

    Cervantes

    @Brachiator:

    And the MSM has never behaved any differently.

    Well, there was that one little story about a “third-rate burglary attempt” 


  118. 118.

    Paul in KY

    @Another Holocene Human: IMO, having President Gore in 2001 (and thus NOT having Cheney/his underling Bush) would mitigate any conceivable bad thing that Pres. Clinton came up with.

    I think my country vanished in the 2000 election.

  119. 119.

    Tree With Water

    @john not mccain: I never looked at it that way before, but you’re right. FDR may have welcomed the hatred of the republican party, whereas Hillary must thank god for it.

  123. 123.

    Cervantes

    @Paul in KY:

    I’m not so sure that Sen. Kennedy ever really wanted to be Pres. Think his run against Pres. Carter in 1980 was more about bringing Carter down, due to pique or something like that.

    Do you recall where you got those impressions? I wrote a couple of comments about his motivation recently, here and then here.

  125. 125.

    Paul in KY

    @Cervantes: Have always thought the Chappaquiddick thing was his try at making himself unelectable (back when he was the rising star of party, post his brother Bobby’s assassination).

    Then he didn’t really run in 1976, when that would have been the best time to (if he had wanted to be Pres.). Running against the sitting Pres of your own party is generally a fool’s errand, since almost no sitting Pres. is ever beat that way. So, IMO, his making a go of it in 1980 was more about savaging Pres. Carter’s prospects, than actually winning the nomination race..

  126. 126.

    RaflW

    @boatboy_srq: True, but they just abandon it in a party sense. They still mostly vote “R” once in the booth. The loss in party ID unfortunately hasn’t changed the voting habits – my 91 y.o. uncle is I think fairly typical in that, though I’m pretty confident he did not vote for Brownback for Gov – he’s an old school Republican, but he is not willfully crazy, and he will (a bit defensively) say he votes split ticket from time to time.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @Cervantes: RE: And the MSM has never behaved any differently.

    Well, there was that one little story about a “third-rate burglary attempt” 


    It’s funny. We are just a little past the anniversary of the most important of the Watergate stories, and even then, the Post staff realized that they were on to something out of the ordinary run of what the MSM usually delivers. From the Columbia School of Journalism archive:

    Woodward remembers that when Sussman finished editing the story–right on deadline, as usual–he put his pencil and his pipe down on his desk and told his ace reporter, “We’ve never had a story like this. Just never.” …

    Looking back at all the Post’s Watergate stories, Sussman says this one, the August 1 story, was the most significant because it showed more clearly than anything else that the Watergate burglars were a part of Nixon’s re-election campaign. It gave the lie to the campaign’s contention that the Watergate break-in was carried out by zealots operating independently–Gordon Liddy, chief among them–who were simply out of control. It set in motion the official inquiries that led to Nixon’s resignation.

    But where was the official newspaper of record, the New York Times? Sucking up to the Beltway elites:

    All these years later, Ben Bradlee still revels in the Post’s Watergate coverage, and especially that August 1 story. “We had street reporters,” he says. “Over at the New York Times, they had Max Frankel [the Washington bureau chief] and he spent most of the day talking on the phone with Henry Kissinger.”

    MSM business as usual.

    http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/j6075/edit/readings/watergate.html

    We’ve obviously had moments of glory from journalists. Some of the post Katrina reporting is another example. But the usual standard too often is lazy hackwork. And on top of everything, you have more people opting to get their mis-information from the Internet gossip channels such as Twitter and Facebook. Increasingly, the MSM is becoming the bĂȘte noire of an older generation.

  129. 129.

    Cervantes

    @Brachiator:

    Not sure what your point is. The article you cite also discusses instances when the Post had to catch up to Watergate coverage in the Times.

    But the usual standard too often is lazy hackwork.

    “Too often”? Sure.

  132. 132.

    RaflW

    @Brachiator: The hedge funders should be left holding the bag. They knew or should have known how to price the risk. That’s the damn point of capitalism (textbook, that is, not as practiced, which is really klepto-oligarchism).

  133. 133.

    Tree With Water

    @RaflW: That’s the GOP’s problem, that’s the party treading on thin ice. People like your grandfather can turn from being “a bit defensive” about that party to outright derisive in the blink of an eye. Most current reporting tends to pigeonhole the Trump phenomenon in terms of the GOP horse race, but the entire country has now had its curious eyeballs on the entire flea circus for weeks. Voters are in the process of drawing some very fundamental conclusions about that outfit, and I foresee a major political realignment occurring as a consequence.

  135. 135.

    Brachiator

    @Cervantes:

    Not sure what your point is. The article you cite also discusses instances when the Post had to catch up to Watergate coverage in the Times.

    What was your point in bringing up Watergate at all?

    There have been all kinds of studies about Watergate, and debating the role and the impact of the press. And the Washington Post was obviously not the only paper on the case. But there is this:

    There is no dispute that the Post led other media in the early coverage of Watergate. According to a quantitative analysis by University of Illinois professor Louis W. Liebovich, in the critical first six months after the break-in, the Post published some 200 news articles about Watergate, more than double the number of its nearest competitor, the New York Times. “Many of the Washington Post stories were carried on page one,” Liebovich found, play that occurred “only occasionally” in other newspapers after the initial publicity about the break-in died down. In addition, Post stories were more often investigative in nature and “revealed new details about covert activities directed by the White House,” while other news organizations “rarely carried their own enterprise stories.”

    Others soon caught up, including my hometown paper, the LA Times:

    The Los Angeles Times also dug up scoops “of the same caliber of Woodward and Bernstein,” says investigative reporter James Polk, then with the Washington Star, “but the L.A. Times wasn’t read in Washington” as widely as the Post and therefore didn’t have the same degree of influence. Harvard’s Kalb, who was then a correspondent in Washington for CBS News, credits Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee’s “gutsy front-page placement” of Watergate stories as “crucial because there is no paper in Washington like the Post. It is the heart and soul of journalism here… ‘Everyone would pick up the Post every morning and read the latest bombshell about Watergate.”

    And there is this:

    As a whole, most Washington journalists during Watergate were neither victims nor heroes; few challenged the Nixon White House’s version of events during the pivotal first months of the scandal.

    A lot of reporters happy to go with the flow, a few willing to go further. That’s pretty much the MSM anytime.

  136. 136.

    Chris

    @RaflW:

    More Christian than the United States as a whole.

    Less representative of the diversity within American Christianity as a whole.

    Least, that’s what I thought it meant.

  137. 137.

    Cervantes

    @Brachiator:

    What was your point in bringing up Watergate at all?

    Now you ask?! Anyhow, the point was surely not obscure.

    Someone said “I wonder how much traction Republicans would get if the MSM was not so much in tank for them.”

    Someone else (possibly you) replied that “the MSM has never behaved any differently.”

    I offered a significant counter-example.

  138. 138.

    Cervantes

    @Paul in KY:

    Think he was thinking about that too (at that time & before).

    In ’68 he did not run because to do so was literally unthinkable.

    In ’72 wounds were still raw — not only the assassinations but Mary Jo’s death as well — and, besides, his son was in a bad place.

    In ’76, as I said, he closed off the possibility because his mother needed him to close it off.

    That takes us to ’80.

  139. 139.

    Anne Laurie

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’ve never been sure whether that is some kind of subversive commentary on corrosive social hierarchies, or just Twain getting lazy and kind of racist as he tried to bring in a crowd-pleasing character and wrap up the story. Maybe both.

    Critic Ralph Wiley — who was African-American — had a theory that the post-Civil-War white backlash broke Mark Twain’s heart, and the weird final chapters of Huckleberry Finn were a reaction to that. Tom Sawyer, echt White Bourgeois Boy, can’t cope with the idea that Jim is a man (a better man than most of the ‘good’ white people) who deserves to be treated as a human; as the underage representative of the people in control, he forces Jim to act like a caricature and his “friend” Huck to flee civilization entirely.

  140. 140.

    Anne Laurie

    @Paul in KY:

    I’m not so sure that Sen. Kennedy ever really wanted to be Pres. Think his run against Pres. Carter in 1980 was more about bringing Carter down, due to pique or something like that.

    I thought at the time that Teddy seemed to be waiting for the next assassin to pop up. (Years later, in his autobiography, he said that he was — with good reason.) He challenged Carter because Jimmy succeeded in dumping Kennedy’s legislative plan for universal health coverage. During the Great ACA Wars, more than one person pointed out that President Obama’s “half a loaf” strategy was strongly influenced by Carter’s failure to adapt Kennedy’s proposals; he knew that American health care needed to be fixed, but he didn’t want to split the party the way it had been split in 1980.

  141. 141.

    Anne Laurie

    @Chris:

    More Christian than the United States as a whole.

    Less representative of the diversity within American Christianity as a whole.

    Jimmy Carter was, and is, an embarrassment by example to the vast Hypocrite wing of American Christianity. He actually tries to live by the rules in its Bible, not just mouth them for applause lines. The rationalists / atheists of my acquaintance found President Carter occasionally annoying, but the Christian “believers” hated every word out of his mouth.

  142. 142.

    Cervantes

    @Anne Laurie:

    He challenged Carter because Jimmy succeeded in dumping Kennedy’s legislative plan for universal health coverage.

    Almost exactly right. At an opportune moment, EMK offered Carter a deal: negotiate a universal-coverage plan with me and I will not challenge you for the nomination. Carter entered into the negotiation but withdrew when it had almost come to fruition.

    I know there was a lot of talk in the press — nowadays we call it a narrative — about EMK not really wanting the nomination but that was, well, let’s just say it was misleading.

  143. 143.

    Paul in KY

    @Cervantes: It might have been ‘subconsciously’ that he was also thinking about what seemed to happen to Kennedys that ran for/made Presidency. Made it easier (IMO) to agree with his mother.

  145. 145.

    Paul in KY

    @Cervantes: For whatever reason, in hindsight, he should not have challenged Pres. Carter. Only hurt Pres. Carter & re-election prospects (and that’s what he was trying to do).

    I think we can all agree that Pres. Carter’s 2nd term would have been much better than Pres. Reagan’s 1st (or 2nd).

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