.
In a purely rational race, it shouldn’t make a difference, but this is hardly a rational race. Michael Tesler, in the Washington Post:
… Clinton’s message about shattering the highest and hardest glass ceiling for all of the daughters in the country should have resonated with their parents. After all, a number of social science studies show that parents of daughters are more supportive of feminist positions than parents of only sons…
The analyses above combine the five biweekly YouGov/Economist surveys conducted since Joe Biden announced he would not run for president. Taken together, these data reveal a large effect of child’s sex on support for Hillary Clinton.
The first columns of the display, in fact, shows that parents of daughters are 14 percentage points more likely to support Hillary Clinton in the primaries than parents of only sons. The error bars in the figure suggest that the effect of having a daughter on support for Clinton is somewhere between 8 and 20 percentage points…
And Hillary Rodham Clinton, after all, has had skin in the civil rights game since back in the 1970s. Over the holiday dead-news break, the NYTimes ran a long article on “How Hillary Clinton Went Undercover to Examine Race in Education” :
DOTHAN, Ala. — On a humid summer day in 1972, Hillary Rodham walked into this town’s new private academy, a couple of cinder-block classrooms erected hurriedly amid fields of farmland, and pretended to be someone else.
Playing down her flat Chicago accent, she told the school’s guidance counselor that her husband had just taken a job in Dothan, that they were a churchgoing family and that they were looking for a school for their son.
The future Mrs. Clinton, then a 24-year-old law student, was working for Marian Wright Edelman, the civil rights activist and prominent advocate for children. Mrs. Edelman had sent her to Alabama to help prove that the Nixon administration was not enforcing the legal ban on granting tax-exempt status to so-called segregation academies, the estimated 200 private academies that sprang up in the South to cater to white families after a 1969 Supreme Court decision forced public schools to integrate.
Her mission was simple: Establish whether the Dothan school was discriminating based on race.
“It was dangerous, being outsiders in these rural areas, talking about segregation academies,” said Cynthia G. Brown, a longtime education advocate who did work similar to Mrs. Clinton’s…
“I went through my role-playing, asking questions about the curriculum and makeup of the student body,” Mrs. Clinton wrote in “Living History.” “I was assured that no black students would be enrolled.”…
Civil rights lawyers had had success in sending “testers” to investigate whether white and black couples received equal treatment in home rentals and purchases, as required by the Fair Housing Act, but going undercover to test private schools was less common and carried more risks…
“Hillary was not a derring-do type of person. It wasn’t her normal mode,” said Taylor Branch, the civil rights activist and author, who was a close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton at the time. “But,” he added, “you do these things when you’re young, and this was the era when young people did more of that than normal.”…
Mrs. Clinton spent part of that summer working on the issue of segregation academies, and only a couple of days in Dothan. But in many ways, her work on segregation academies best encapsulated her “commitment to pragmatism” in the struggle for equal rights, as her college adviser at Wellesley, Alan H. Schechter, described it.
Decades later, when young Black Lives Matter activists confronted Mrs. Clinton backstage at a New Hampshire campaign event on what she would do about racial injustice, she articulated the approach she had adopted that summer in Alabama.
“I don’t believe you change hearts,” she told them. “I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate.”…
Or, to use a truism often quoted at the time, “Get them by the balls, and their hearts and minds will follow.”
And she’s still out grinding away, per Buzzfeed — “Voter Sees The “Real Hillary”:
…[F]or Keith F. Thompson, meeting Clinton for the first time in the flesh — seeing her, talking with her, even starting to tear up with her — came as something of a revelation…
Thompson, a self-described “New Hampshire person” — namely, a “New Hampshire person who expects to meet each candidate twice and have dinner or something” — was already committed to her campaign at the time of the convention. But before that Saturday, he hadn’t met Clinton or even seen her speak. In 2008, his candidate was John Edwards. (He loved the “two Americas” bit.) When that collapsed, he “stayed out of the Clinton-Obama thing.” (“It was getting messy.”) This summer, when it came time to pick a candidate, after some going “back and forth,” Thompson landed on Clinton…
Instead of speeding through the meet-and-greet, she moved slowly and methodically from one person to the next. And when she reached his side of the room, instead of mentioning gun violence, Thompson clasped her hands and thanked her for something far more personal and painful. And instead of the “guarded” politician he anticipated, Clinton listened intently, she reached out and touched his arm, she welled up with tears.
In her campaign, Clinton has said the country must do more to help people like Thompson. He works part-time at a library and volunteers in politics — but Thompson also lives with and cares for his mother, who happened that day to be turning 84.
“I’m taking care of my mom,” Thompson told Clinton. “She has Alzheimer’s. I’m one of those people. I’m working part-time now, and… Thank you for speaking up for that.”…
“She took care of five children on her own. She took care of her dad and my grandmother. And now it’s my turn to take care of her. Day care for an elderly person is very expensive, and my part-time salary might be in the negative, just for the few hours I work.”
“… so I take her to work with me,” he told her.
It was at that point that Clinton, head back, got tears in her eyes. “Oh my gosh,” she said. Thompson started to cry, too. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,” he said.
“No, no, I’m so glad you did. Oh my gosh. Thank you, thank you.” She grabbed his shoulder. “Your story is so incredibly moving, and it’s also a story for so many people. That’s what I keep finding everywhere I go… stories about what’s happening in their lives.”
When he and Clinton parted ways, Thompson watched her move down the line — and do the same thing again. Next to him was a person whom Clinton had already met. “She followed up with her about her daughter, who has a seizure disorder, and she remembered,” he said. “I was just astonished. That blew me away.”
The whole experience left Thompson stunned. “Holy cow,” he said. “I get it. Women of her generation have to be guarded at times. And sometimes she defaults to that. That’s understandable. I just hope that more people get to see her the way she was with me.”…
Days later, Thompson was still posting about it on Facebook. “I cannot stress enough how empathetic and REAL Hillary Clinton was,” he wrote last week. “With real people, she is real. Real people are her strength… None of us would be comfortable with Jimmy Fallon or a network reporter.”
“We are more ourselves with other real people, and so is she.”
Baud
Thiese are a nice set of articles on Hillary. I know you are a strong supporter of hers, so good work putting these together.
Baud
@Baud:
Sigh. “These….”
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: What? AL isn’t on the Baudwagon?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
David Koch
5 weeks from today we’ll be discussing the NH results, also more importantly the Super Bowl which occurs 5 days later.
OzarkHillbilly
I gotta say, this as bad as the “Who do you want to have a beer with?” attitude of so many voters. This isn’t a popularity contest, we aren’t voting for the Prom King and Queen.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: She’s a tough nut to crack. I will continue to woo her, however.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: You’re up early.
Tommy
That chart IMHO only tells a little. There is a III at the end of my name. Back into the 1920s until just a few years ago we only birthed single male children in my family. Then my brother had a little girl, the first time a lady born into my family since 1905. I have to admit we were kind of a little stunned. I mean what the heck. Would we break her?
Now it is at this point I note the men in my family always marry up. The ladies they marry are always strong women. And Katie is just a rock star. Not sure there is a niece more loved than her.
Satby
it has always irked me that most of the negative opinions on Hillary I hear are rehashed of the smears she got from the VRWC back when she called them out during her husband’s first campaign for office. And the smears they used against her when she tried to put together the first health care reform plan. The right wing has gone after this woman, repeating smears that have become such conventional wisdom, that even folks who philosophically agree with her attack her as conniving and power-mad. She’s a better woman than I, because I would have just told the country to fuck off 20 years ago.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I saw that.
NotMax
I’m sure all these stories about what a caring, sharing person she is appearing one after another is purely coincidence.
In a pig’s eye.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy:
Nothing wrong with that, your family sounds as unoriginal as mine☺.
David Koch
Oil falls to 14 year low.
Oil continued its 6 month slide, falling below $35 a barrel for the first time since 2002.
Thanks Obama.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I fixed it pretty quickly, so you’re fast. I can’t type today to save my life. I fear that a typo will be the downfall of my administration.
amk
Overpolling much? Or are the pollsters being clevah? She is a strong woman and she has a strong base across the ages and the gender. None of this meaningless polls will matter come Nov 2017.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: The only thing to fear is fear of typos.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: What, are you getting tired of all the articles about what caring and sharing people all these candidates are, already? There’s a lot more coming. Just wait for the Ted Cruz ones. May I suggest reading on an empty stomach for those?
Tommy
I always wonder why they could not name me better. About the only thing I have is my name is Tommy. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked if my name was Thomas I’d be rich. My name is Tommy and I use it 24/7.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Most assuredly not attempting any sort of connection, but John McCain also is a III.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I was gonna say that I was pretty sure her but was already cracked and you needn’t worry about it, but you got embarrassed or something. :-)
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Having at one time labored in journalism for newspapers, radio and TV, have danced this mambo before. From the inside.
All that changes are the names.
BillinGlendaleCA
I’ve listened to tRump being interviewed on Joe of the Morning for 15 minutes; he’s said NOTHING.
ETA: 15 minutes of word salad, with DEAL thrown in every 15 seconds.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: My name is Thomas, but to my older sisters I always was and to the one still living I always will be “Tommy”.
David Koch
U.S. car sales hit record high in 2015
Drivers in the United States bought more cars last year than ever before, a staggering turnaround for an auto industry fighting for its life half a decade ago.
17.5 million cars and trucks were sold last year compared to 10.4 million sales in 2009.
The record-setting year has squashed recession-era worries that the industry would never recover and given fuel to the Obama administration’s argument that the auto bailout helped carmakers survive.
Thanks Obama
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
The Art of the Shpiel.
David Koch
NY Daily News published brutal front page editorial calling GOP “The Party of Death”
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCa
re: ETA
Trump could get hospice patients to sign on the dotted line for time shares.
And that’s not a Good Thing.
Tommy
Not a bad name.
NotMax
@Tommy
Left a comment about getting somewhat up to speed on Huey Long in an earlier thread.
OzarkHillbilly
@David Koch:
They lie. Everyone knows that the Obama admin took over the US auto industry and now they are just cooking the books so they don’t have to admit what a FAILURE it has become.
BillinGlendaleCA
One thing I did get from listening to tRump, other than a headache, is that he only thinks in bilateral terms. When he talked about the Iran deal in particular, it was just us and Iran. There were other countries that were part of that deal and were a party to the sanctions. He just doesn’t seem to grasp that.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
So many shinies embraced and then hastily discarded.
Stories we’ll never see, #99,892 in a series:
Going back to re-interview the nutters pushing the Jade Helm conspiracy.
debbie
In Ohio, there were countywide meetings last night to pick delegates for the national convention in Philadelphia. Clinton has a 2 to 1 advantage over Sanders at this point, but listening to interviews with delegates in both camps, the Democratic convention will be more grown-up, determined assembly than the GOP’s. This can only help in November.
I’d bet Kay was at one of the meetings.
NotMax
@NotMax
My (very) bad.
That ought to have read @OzarkHillbilly.
David Koch
One of these is not like the others.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: They don’t matter.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: I had confused.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I know, that’s his simplistic thinking, it’s also wrong.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: I am awed by your Balloon Juice Fu. How’d you do dat???
Sam Miches
@OzarkHillbilly:
On the other side of the coin, you can choose to understand this piece as showing that liberals and progressives and people who have democratic and Democratic Party values are choosing to show their damned humanity to the voters. To wit, as well, our president letting his tears out yesterday. I want and need the politiciians on our side to demonstrate to the people in the mushy middle that we are presenting the choice of real people for our leaders, who empathize with other real people and their real problems.
YMMV and all that and no personal slight intended, but I think you are damned wrong to frame this exchange in the piece that way.
amk
@David Koch: I don’t see any difference.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: He’s not wrong. He’s going to make America great again no mater what you say. Whether you like it or not.
Kay
@debbie:
I went to one in a “bellweather” county (not my own) as a guest/observer- I’m not running as a delegate. I’m not playing any role because my husband is a lawyer and he’s going to be involved on the election process end. I’m not barred from doing anything- I still have civil rights (!)- but I want to stay out just on my own estimation of what’s “proper” or whatever. I just decided this 2 days ago and that’s what my gut says is the better choice.
Anyway, I can still watch and gossip and someone I trust told me Democrats are watching Trump’s numbers with Democrats. This guy is not a nervous nellie and he doesn’t much like me (I didn’t support this person when he ran as a delegate in ’12 and he won) so that kind of concerned me, that he would go out of his way to tell me.
It’s a horrible prospect, obviously, and it shouldn’t change anything anyone does- it’s not a reason to pander- but as you know Democrats have problems with white working class so there’s potential for bleeding there.
bystander
Don’t know if anyone noticed but John Cole III provided the Tweet of the Day as reported at the Great Orange Satan.
Figures.
Baud
@debbie:
What does that mean at this point?
That’s not good news for me. I need more campy irreverence among the electorate to have a chance.
debbie
@Kay:
The report I heard included the local head of the CWA (maybe Stark County?). I’m assuming he’s white working class and he was a solid Sanders supporter. He was sober and dispassionate (in a good way), nothing like the kind of Trump supporter I’ve ever seen.
I can’t believe Democratic Trump supporters won’t have seen the light by the primary, but dumber things have happened in this state.
debbie
@Baud:
I’ll take campy irreverence over blathering rabidity any day.
debbie
@Baud:
The 2 to 1 is the same as Clinton’s advantage over Obama at this point in 2008.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Heh, I see you’ve been taking your pain meds.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: And nudity, of course.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I was born naked.
Kay
@debbie:
I live in a county where some of the people I worked with to kill Kasich’s union busting law voted for Kasich in the re-elect. Stranger things have happened! :)
They wouldn’t be watching numbers on the Democratic “base” and anyone who goes to a caucus in Ohio is the base of the base- they would be watching “generic Democratic registered voter”- our huge cadre of idiotic voters. I don’t know why these people do what they do.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sam Miches: I’m not denigrating the politicians for playing the game, I’m saying that voters who fall for this gambit, who WANT this gambit, are complete and utter idiots. One of the most oft heard complaints about Obama was that he did not show his emotions. Remember Luther?
And just like Obama, I find the whole desire for it to be idiotic and worthy of ridicule.
This said, I don’t think Obama had a raw onion in his podium or that Hillary was not touched by the man’s story, they are after all, human beings with all the same messy emotional baggage that the rest of us carry with us. AND I STILL DON”T GIVE A RAT”S ASS. I’m not voting based on whether somebody cries at the appropriate times or whether I want to sit down and watch a football game with them and I think anyone who does is an idiot.
Kay
@debbie:
My eldest son is a Clinton supporter and he was joking that I dropped out just when he needs to carry Ohio. He’s in Chicago and if Clinton doesn’t easily carry Illinois it’s a rout anyway so he’s a little peeved that he no longer lives in this state, although he couldn’t wait to get out of here- started plotting his escape in 7th grade- and literally left for college and never looked back :)
amk
@OzarkHillbilly: Yup. One would expect a nation’s leader to be vastly intellectually and emotionally superior to the ordinary citizen schmucks.
Baud
@amk: You guys are really discouraging me today.
magurakurin
@NotMax:
Because only one thing counts in this life: Get them to sign on the line which is dotted.
magurakurin
@debbie: Clinton won Ohio in 2008. But all things aside, this cycle is really nothing like 2008 at all. Regardless of who one likes as the nominee, this isn’t going to play out like 2008. Not even a little bit.
magurakurin
@amk:
Pretty sure Obama qualifies in that department. Hillary Clinton, too. Also, too…Baud.
Baud
@magurakurin: Thank you!
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: What you talkin’ ’bout? “Emotionally superior” is your middle name!
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Can’t help but notice you left out intellectualy superior.
OzarkHillbilly
My wife doesn’t understand why I spell “Olive Oyl” like I do.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: That goes without question.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s a good thing I have to go the doc soon, I can’t keep my metaphors separate.
Kay
@debbie:
I listened to a little of the Morning Joe interview with Trump and he’s nasty. The Morning Joe panel were raving about how he’s positioning himself for a general and such a “natural” but, boy, that immigration stuff he spouts is raw. He said several times that the US is a “dumping ground” for people coming over borders. I don’t pretend to know how someone who is 1st or 2nd gen Latino or Asian hears that, but my gut reaction was “cheap shot” and “slimy”.
The Morning Joe dopes didn’t react at all, of course- the “liberal” Mika didn’t bat an eye.
The first time I saw Palin speak at the convention I literally sat back in my chair- it was like a blast of nasty. I listened to all the raves about her from pundits but that first impression stuck. I got the same feeling with this- not a good person, Mr. Trump.
Satby
As a Baud supporter, I take a great deal of comfort in the graph above, it shows that parents of girls get how high the stakes are in this next election and how negatively a GOP win would impact the futures of their daughters. Because I have full confidence that Baud, Hillary, Bernie, and the other guy would appoint Supreme Court justices that protect women’s rights.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
The software people here should appreciate this (in a Dilbert sort of way):
Last night was the first night Hamilton had switched over to an online seat lottery system instead of the paper-at-the-door system they’ve been using.
Then this shows up on the show’s twtter feed:
This is the show that crashed the Public Theater’s phone system when they announced an extension. How did they not see this coming?
Satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Hope that goes well! Good luck.
magurakurin
Looking at John Cole’s tweets, I see that David Sirota is referring to Gary Gensler as “a Goldman Sachs guy.” Serious memory hole shit going on with Gensler among this crowd. He was a hero to them not long ago for his tough role as a regulator. He’s just another chump punk oligarch lover now. Fuck, this shit is getting old. I can’t wait to see the hoops they jump through when Warren endorses Clinton.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: He’s not making a good impression with the wife(immigrant from Korea) or the kid.
BillinGlendaleCA
@magurakurin: If I could only be as pure as David Sirota, my life would be complete.
OzarkHillbilly
@Satby: Meh. It’s all much ado about nothing,
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: For some reason or other my Spanish born wife feels the same.
Satby
Ok, so since it’s an open thread, I just want to mention that I’m struggling with the whole “giving up my current life and moving” thing. Not to mention the “surrendering my underwater house” thing. I know lots of people commenting here have been through way worse, so if you have encouraging stories or thoughts to share send them to me at sbarrt at hotmail dot (you know). Or message me at my etsy site. I know it’s just things and stuff, but I feel like I’m going to be homeless (I’ll be renting, I know it’s not logical). Thanks.
Satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Still, hoping that things are mending apace. And that the wife’s patience continues to hold ?
SarahT
@David Koch: I’m officially in love with the Daily News – even been buying it at the newsstand. They’ve just been stellar lately (well, their front pages, anyway…).
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: 2008 was a three-way race, and Obama’s share in the polls plus John Edwards’ exceeded Clinton’s.
This time, she’s got absolute majority support. It still does look like Sanders is taking New Hampshire in a squeaker, and that could change the media narrative. But I don’t see how he gets the Southern states on Super Tuesday; that’s when appeal to minority Democrats becomes crucial, and he doesn’t have it, whereas Obama could beat or match Clinton there.
Kay
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Ugh. I cringe, not out of what he “should” say politically but because there seems to be no recognition of what you said- he is talking about peoples’ families. If not themselves as immigrants then their parents or grandparents.
To just not see that and check yourself, or worse, to keep repeating it because it juices your poll numbers- that’s just disgusting and mean-spirited behavior. The kind of bland expressions on the Morning Joe people? I guess they’re paid a lot to pretend this is something other than dirtbag smearing, but it’s not.
OzarkHillbilly
@Satby: She ain’t killed me yet. I think that means she still loves me, but every now and again she gives me this look that let’s me know she might reconsider.
msdc
@Kay: I can believe that a lot of voters who are registered as Democrats would vote for Trump – just like they voted for McCain, Bush, Dole, Bush, and Reagan. (Maybe not Romney, though.) The question is, how many people who cast a vote for Obama would then turn around and cast one for Trump? Maybe a few on the margins, but enough to swing a state?
gene108
@Kay:
I know Asians, who lean Republican, who want nothing to do with Trump. They realize that once Trump deports the Mexicans, they could be next.
The stupid thing about Trump’s comments is his grandfather was an immigrant. It’s not like his family came over on the Mayflower.
I am surprised no one has called him out on his “newness” to America.
MomSense
@Satby:
Change is hard even when we know we have to. Look for the things that you can do for yourself that are positive. Some days will be good–and some you just have to endure. I’ll be keeping you in my thoughts and sending good wishes to you.
The good news is that you will be able to give up your snow shovels.
Sending you a hug.
Satby
@Kay: sociopath or psychopath? Whichever one tRump is, they don’t actually consider other people human anyway. Completely lacking connection or empathy with fellow beings. So of course he doesn’t recognize (other than intellectually) that’s he’s talking about people and their family members. And if it’s nasty and harsh his attitude is that it sucks to be them.
Satby
@MomSense: I was thinking of you and knowing you’re going through a similar move, though hopefully without the negative financial implications. Thanks.
gene108
@Satby:
I am sort of wrestling with the idea of moving back to North Carolina to be closer to my mom. She’s in good shape, late 60’s, and still works full time, but at some point she will retire and decline.
There are a lot of emotions, I think, we put into the inanimate objects we acquire or places we have stayed,
I’ll probably have a hard time letting go, when it gets closer to making a decision to move or not.
Edit: I think it is normal for you to miss the things you have in Michigan.
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: His grandfather was a white immigrant. White by today’s standards, at least, which is all that matters.
The founder of VDARE, who made a big splash nattering about the menace of unchecked immigration back in the 1990s, is Peter Brimelow, who is an immigrant. But he’s a white guy from England, and his book ended with moaning about there would be no place in America for his blond-haired blue-eyed child. The racism really is that naked.
Satby
@gene108: My kids have been my rocks, and that you would move to be near your mom would probably make her happy to hear. Though raven and efgoldman and others might point out that late 60s probably means she has a decade or more of decent health and independence ahead of her. Hell, I’m only 60 and I figure I have 20 years to go before I start to seriously decline, but I have good genetic history going for me. I hope.
Edited to add: Thanks. I know it’s normal, but I usually shake off the blues much more quickly than I have been able to over this. Thank god I have the girls to keep me hopping and out of my own head too much.
ThresherK
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: As someone who has waited outside the Public Theater offices to get tickets to On The Town (with Lea DeLaria and Jesse Tyler Ferguson), I blame Obama.
Applejinx
@Matt McIrvin: Technically, she’s got Bernie Sanders’ support :)
…by which I mean he’s keeping it fair, they’re making debates about policy, and none of us are scorching the earth as all the Dem candidates are acceptable. Hillary’s a strong woman, smart as hell, capable, and fighting for the nomination with every political trick in the book, and she plays to win.
We ARE allowed to also be working for somebody else and prefer them to win, without demonizing her or downplaying how great it would be for women (and men) with daughters to be able to point to a woman President. Look how well that’s worked for black people in America ;P
I totally salute how hard Hillary Clinton is trying, though I am still going out and physically traveling to volunteer and work for Bernie (as I learned to do here on Balloon Juice). The win isn’t going to go to whoever made the most emotive arguments or dreamed biggest. It’s gonna be ‘the economy, stupid’ and you have to talk pretty crazy to deny that Bernie has a lot of good points regarding how rigged the economy is. If Elizabeth Warren was running and combining Bernie’s economic policies with Hillary’s being-a-strong-woman I’d be supporting her too, perhaps even more than Bernie if I thought she really meant it.
Since she isn’t, I’m going to politely decline to switch over to team Clinton. But I’m sure if I had a daughter I would have no choice, eh? No issues would matter anymore ;)
Nicole
As a feminist mom of a boy only child, the disparity between parents with only boys vs at least one girl depresses me. Gender equality is good for boys (and men), too.
rikyrah
Oregon militia leader Ammon Bundy battles big government, but perfectly OK with taking $530,000 in federal loan
The leader of the armed anti-government group occupying a remote
national wildlife preserve in Oregon wants the feds to mind their own
business — except when it comes to loaning him money.
Public records show Ammon Bundy took a $530,000 loan from the Small Business Administration in 2010 for his Arizona-based truck maintenance company, Valet Fleet Services.
The big-budget borrow cost taxpayers $22,419, according to federal
records. While Bundy sees green when it comes to the government’s loan program, he sees red regarding most federal laws.
Bundy, 40, said Tuesday he and the self-proclaimed patriots camping out at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge will go home when a plan is in place to turn over management of federal lands to locals.
Kay
@msdc:
It’s a complicated dynamic in Ohio because Republicans believe that they lost in ’12 because white working class didn’t come out for Romney. They absolutely require those voters, and they need big margins of them. So if you’re competitive, and I am, you more want to deny them what they need to win than somehow pander to those voters (which is a bad thing to do and wouldn’t work anyway).
People who are plugged in enough to go to caucuses don’t only look at the “plus Democrats” side- they look at the “minus Republicans” side of the equation. Half of this is denying the GOP the voters they need.
There isn’t a large Latino voting bloc in this state, either (although it’s growing) so there isn’t that “check” on worrying about losing Democrats. Ohio Democrats worry more about losing Democrats because they have to. I’m on a school committee and we look at demographics all the time, because they’re reported to the feds, and one of our members said Latino students had “doubled!” (in this over the top way). They “doubled” from 2% to 4% so it’s *technically* true but that’s the kind of “growth” I’m talking about- tiny group to slightly less tiny group.
rikyrah
Economic News:
The latest private payroll report from ADP showed a larger-than-expected increase in jobs during the month of December.
Private payrolls jumped by 257,000, way more than the 198,000 that was expected by economists.
Job gains were evenly spread across small, medium, and large businesses in December.
By industry, the largest number of jobs were added in the professional/business services sector and trade/transportation/utilities work.
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “Strong job growth shows no signs of abating. The only industry shedding jobs is energy. If this pace of job growth is sustained, which seems likely, the economy will be back to full employment by mid-year. This is a significant achievement, given that the last time the economy was at full employment was nearly a decade ago.”
PurpleGirl
@gene108: Trump’s first wife (Ivana) came from the Czech Republic and his third wife (Melania) is from Slovenia.
Betty Cracker
@Applejinx: You shouldn’t have to apologize for supporting the candidate you think would be best on the issues, and Clinton supporters — including parents of daughters — shouldn’t be made to feel like gender politics dupes for believing that it would be a huge fucking deal to elect the first woman president. I don’t know a single Clinton supporter who is voting for her solely because of her gender. It’s a staw…woman to imply otherwise. (I know you were being tongue in cheek, BTW.)
rikyrah
Rep. John Lewis to have Navy ship named after him
Jan 5, 2016 By Terry Shropshire, Managing Editor and Web Editor
Unlike many of his contemporaries from a bygone era, where the likes of Martin Luther King and the Kennedy brothers were given posthumous honors of varying kinds, legendary Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) will have a Navy ship named in his honor.
On Wednesday, the Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus will announce that the first ship of the next generation of fleet replenishment oilers (T-AO 205) will be named USNS John Lewis after the civil rights movement hero and current U.S. representative of Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District.
The naming ceremony will take place at 2pm in the Cannon House Office Building, Room 121.
MomSense
@Satby:
I’m worried I won’t be able to afford housing comparable to what I have now which is really small but super cute (sweat equity!). There is also the joy of trying to sell and all the cleaning and stress that entails.
Thoughtful Today
…
Gender support includes a living wage (currently 15$ an hour), unhindered medical access (no corporate insurance barriers), and a college education as a _human_ right (if you put in the time).
Hillary won’t fight for these equalizing policies.
The Democratic Party should.
gene108
@Satby:
Physical health wise, I think my mom would be OK. I think she would get bored very quickly, when she retires though and thus would start to feel lonelier not having people to interact with on a daily basis. That is what I am a bit more worried about.
msdc
@Kay: I can see how Ohio might be a state where the demographics favor Trump (if you buy the Sean Trende analysis of 2012, which struck me as a classic example of a losing side insisting that all they have to do is double down on the strategy that caused them to lose in the first place). But he would absolutely kill the GOP’s chances in the southwest, in Colorado, in Florida, and among college-educated voters in places like Virginia. Anywhere outside the rust belt, he costs the GOP more than he gains them.
This also assumes that the Dems don’t regain some of the white working class support they lost when Obama was heading the ticket, for… um… reasons.
GregB
@Kay:
I too was floored by Palin’s childish bile on her first introductory speech. Mean and bitter right out of the box.
I can only assume that a mirror image speech is being written for Nikki Hailey or Carley Fiorina.
Kay
@msdc:
I’m going to this lawyer’s event Friday and I call them “the Republican lawyers” (in my head, because that’s what they are) so I’ll see if they think Trump will pull wishy-washy Democrats. They’re Republican “leaders”- county chairs, judges, blah blah. They did an e-vite and I saw the guest list.
They’re not all that reliable- they kept telling me Obama was “toast” in 2012- but I’m just curious if this is what they’re telling themselves these days to soften the blow of facing the prospect of D. Trump :)
Applejinx
@Betty Cracker: It’s Balloon Juice, I’m snarking ;)
Actually, I think that making people feel like dupes is the worst possible vote-getting technique. Some of the troll contingent might bear that in mind (the paid ones, at least).
It does interest me that people are excited about this ‘first woman president’ thing when the first black president has seen the mainstreaming of Death Because Black. What with the gun nuts taking over the wildlife preserve it’s become downright ridiculous, the disparity there.
You could argue that the injustice has always been with us, and you’d be right. I think it’s become more brazen under the First Black President, though. I have no idea what that says as far as the best plan going forward. Do you push for maximum progress and just weather the backlash?
That’s why I’d rather have Warren: I very specifically want maximum progress on the economy or we’re all pretty ‘schlonged’.
Kay
@msdc:
I felt like there was truth to it with Romney (and this is horrible, but true) because it reminded me of the white working class enthusiasm for John Kerry, which was nonexistent. I was at a rally for Kerry and I just got this overwhelming feeling of “he is going to lose” looking at the people around me. He had this nice self-deprecating awareness that he wasn’t reaching them, almost apologetic, which is nice humility to see in such a famous person but (sadly) just made me feel worse. It was true and he knew it. That was my feeling. I credit him with not pretending to be something he’s not, which never works anyway.
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s so easy, what @NotMax did :-)
raven
@Kay: I went to one in Atlanta and I wore a Nam Vets hat and my jungle fatigue jacket. I was waiting in line and some jackass handler said “you can sit in the seats behind him, you look like a veteran”. I said “buster, I don’t LOOK like anything”! Douchebag staff fo sho!
Matt McIrvin
@msdc:
If Trump wins Romney’s states plus Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, he wins.
I admit Pennsylvania is a tall order.
edit: though he could also do it without Pennsylvania if he gets Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire. There Minnesota would probably be the toughest to get, but it seems to me that the upper Midwest has been trending vaguely rightward over the past few cycles.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
That is wonderful news. I’m a big fan of John Lewis, both professionally and personally. (If you want to see something really sweet, go to his Facebook page and scroll down just a little bit for a couple of pictures of him walking with his cats.) We worked with him quite a lot in my recent job, and he was always the epitome of warmth and graciousness — as well as having an excellent grasp of a huge range of issues. Congratulations to him for this honor.
El Caganer
I was a bit startled seeing ‘skin in the game’ in a post about Hillary Clinton, as I just saw it in an article in The Nation that I read last night. It was an argument about why socialist feminists shouldn’t vote for her. A very negative article, and one that failed to mention that the number of self-identified socialists, feminist or not, is so small in this country as to safely be ignored. I don’t think that’s a good thing, but that’s the way it is.
http://www.thenation.com/article/why-this-socialist-feminist-is-not-voting-for-hillary/
catclub
@David Koch:
as priced in US dollars. How about in Canadian dollars or Euros? US dollar is super strong right now.
Ruckus
@Satby:
Conservatives always go after those who they fear the most, because they know those people can and will convince others that the conservative way screws them royally while liberal policies will give them opportunity. That’s all that most people ask for is opportunity. They will work hard to take advantage of that opportunity but when there is none they are screwed.
Kay
@raven:
I had a really nice experience with a Vietnam vet at an Obama rally. He’s an active Democrat, an electrician, and just an extremely nice person. He owns a lot of farmland with a pond and he lets kids roam all over it. He wore a Vietnam vet hat to the rally.
I was with him and his wife on a rope line and Obama shook his hand and gave him a coin of some kind- I don’t know what it is, you probably know- but he was just so touched by that. It was odd- Obama passed him the coin with the handshake, like a secret handshake :)
msdc
@Matt McIrvin: If Pennsylvania is a tall order (and I agree), then Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire are even taller – Obama won every one of them by greater margins. And that was with native sons Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney on the GOP ticket.
catclub
@gene108:
I just watched the POV feature on PBS. Ping Pong players in the 85+ class. The amazing one was the woman who
had had strokes and was in assisted living at 77 becoming a world champion in Table Tennis at 89.
msdc
@Kay: Interested to hear what they say, but yeah, people do have an amazing capacity to rationalize the inevitable.
catclub
@David Koch:
I am seeing that too. Bloomberg View has had articles pointing it out.
Hoodie
@Kay: I’ve always thought that one of his most appealing traits, as opposed to the kitsch of a GW Bush. Kerry in many ways embodies the best of the Boston/Harvard tradition, too bad he couldn’t be appreciated for what he is.
Matt McIrvin
@msdc: My impression of New Hampshire mostly comes from my travels just over the border to Rockingham County, which is wingnut land, probably the deepest-red part of the state and very much Donald Trump territory these days. (People imagine that NH has gotten bluer as a result of the southern part of the state becoming an extension of the Boston metro area, but that’s actually backwards; those Boston-area exurbanites are Republicans, and it’s the rest of the state that got bluer.)
So I think of NH as a place he could take. And then I remember the ocean of Romney lawn signs over there in 2012. Romney won the lawn sign election in a rout, I’ll tell you that. He lost New Hampshire.
Sly
No such thing. Never has been, never will be.
It is perhaps the highest conceit to think that (a) there is such a thing as the Politics of Pure Reason – a politics that has been decapitated from relationships of power between groups in any given social order – and (b) that any given political actor could conceivably practice it.
Well… Skynet definitely practices it, and we know how that turns out.
Heliopause
In a purely rational race voters would decide based on policy positions rather than identities and feelings.
Applejinx
@El Caganer:
Is this even true? Or is it made up? I don’t see a source there. It speaks rather sharply to what I consider relevant issues, but it’s so harsh that it sounds like it might be fake.
Thatcher was a strong woman too, but holy mother of God would I not want Margaret Thatcher as the US President right now…
El Caganer
@Applejinx: It does sound over the top – in fact, it sounds kind of like Ronald Reagan. Regardless, I think the author of the piece is fooling herself if she thinks that socialists are a potent enough force to have any influence on any candidate.
Sly
@Heliopause:
Voters base their policy positions on identities and feelings.
Raven on the Hill
I remember when we were all so happy that Obama won. I remember how, once he had won, he kept on prosecuting people over “national security” and how he bailed out the banks and not the public. And Clinton’s biggest campaign contributors are the banks, and she is proud of having ordered the assassination of Osama bin Laden.
Ah, man. This is the cheapest dodge of conservatives. They’re always compassionate before the election, and hardnosed after.
Is she a better man than any of the Republicans? For sure. Do I have the heart to work for — or even vote for — another liberal Republican? Only, I think, if the Presidential election in my blue state is in doubt.
Satby
@gene108: That’s a real concern, but lots of folks that age become very active in their communities, either volunteering or doing the lunch, art, museum type things they never felt they had time for. Or travelling, my retired neighbors even in this farming community go all over.
You’re a great person to be thinking ahead for your mom though!
Ruckus
@Satby:
Homeless isn’t so bad, it’s being totally without a roof that’s bad. Living in a van is better than no roof at all but not by much.