Trump saying he isn't going to use data to target voters is like an airline saying they aren't going to use radar to land their planes
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 11, 2016
Hillary has google's Eric Schmidt & Obama's targeted mailing list. Trump has red hats.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) May 11, 2016
Lots of Trump supporters responding to this tweet by decrying the necessity of radar, which is pretty perfect https://t.co/lAGIjV1rNL
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 12, 2016
Say what you will about Hillary Clinton, she’s willing to learn and to change. Her presumptuous challenger… not so much.
Trump has a mandate from the assholes to continue being the biggest asshole https://t.co/qShqzjr1iN
— Mitchell Hirsch (@mitchellhirsch) May 11, 2016
… Mr. Trump’s choices reflect an unusual conviction: He said he had a “mandate” from his supporters to run as a fiery populist outsider and to rely on his raucous rallies to build support through “word of mouth,” rather than to embrace a traditional, mellower and more inclusive approach that congressional Republicans will advocate in meetings with him on Thursday.
Mr. Trump’s strategy is replete with risks. Roughly 60 percent of Americans view him negatively, according to pollsters, who say more-of-the-same Trump is not likely to improve those numbers. While a majority of Republican primary voters said they were looking for a political outsider, Mr. Trump will face a majority of voters in November who prefer a candidate with political experience, according to primary exit polls and several national polls. Many Republicans think they will lose the presidency and seats in the House and Senate if he continues using language that offends women and some racial and religious groups…
… Patrick J. Buchanan, the conservative commentator and past presidential candidate, said Mr. Trump was rallying historic numbers of voters with a mix of conservative ideas and anti-establishment populism that evoked, among other politicians, Ross Perot and his magnetic appeal in the 1992 campaign. Mr. Perot lost, of course, but Mr. Buchanan said that Mr. Trump might stand a better chance…
David Winston, a Republican pollster who worked on Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign in 2012, said Mr. Trump was putting himself at a severe disadvantage in the general election.
“At this point, at a minimum, he’s at least 50 million voters short of what he’s going to need,” Mr. Winston said. “He has created an interesting dynamic in that, during the course of the campaign, he was basically calling those individuals names, which didn’t endear him to their supporters.”…
Request your "Lincoln Got This Party Started" shirt today! https://t.co/v3jsrBFyEO
— Republicans (@NRSC) May 11, 2016
The back of this T-Shirt says "Trump Shut This Party Down" https://t.co/93hs1drLTG
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 11, 2016
Villago Delenda Est
The stupid works GREAT in GOP primaries. But after the party is over in Cleveland, it’s time to break out the etch-a-sketch. Even the Marquis de Mittens knew that. Drumpf is not going to be “Presidential”. The GOP has not had derp in this quantity since 1992, when Pat Buchanan made a “red meat” speech in Houston that prompted Al Franken, from the Comedy Central booth high above the convention floor, to call the election for Bill Clinton.
amk
LOL. the pathetic nrsc’s lincoln peddling tweet got just 3 rt’s.
randy khan
I don’t know whether I believe Trump or not about not using data to target voters – it would be no surprise that he’s lying about it or that he would change his mind (and not tell anyone) once someone tells him how insane that is.
Mnemosyne
@randy khan:
I’m assuming the RNC is doing it without telling him. He strikes me as that kind of CEO.
Major Major Major Major
Hahahahaaahahah
Also the radar thing is too funny.
How’s everybody’s late evening?
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: the RNC’s data operation is a pathetic joke nowadays, so they may as well be doing nothing.
I mean, not literally, but it sucks.
TaMara (HFG)
That is one creepy t-shirt.
Happy birthday NotMax!
Villago Delenda Est
@Major Major Major Major: I’m sure the ORCA app will solve all their problems!
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@randy khan: I’ll take him at his word, this time. It fits both his ego as well as the lack of funding the Trump campaign is likely to be facing these next few months. He’s going to have to go the unorthodox route, he doesn’t have the money to do otherwise.
NotMax
Data?
We don’ need no es-stinkin’ data.
Mandate?
Grindr loves me!
;)
Le sigh.
amk
well, whaddayaknow. donald derp attracts rw loonies across the ponds too.
TaMara (HFG)
Those responses are priceless. I renew my call for Mr. Obama to come out and support breathing. Puleeeeezzzeee.
amk
@Villago Delenda Est: ah, orca. mittbot’s secret weapon.
NotMax
@TaMara (HFG)
Thank yous aplenty.
MikeBoyScout
A Trump led Republican ticket provides us the best opportunity in 52 years to make a clearly differentiated case.
Step one of GOTV is registering folks to vote.
Somebody near and/or dear to you is not registered to vote for the November election. You can change that.
If we all do our little bit we can win the whole kit and caboodle.
Yes.We.Can.
Please help.
Howard Beale IV
George Zimmerman is auctioning off his firearm that he used to kill Trayvon Martin.
Y’know. For the lulz.
CONGRATULATIONS!
BRINKS TRUCKS ON DEMAND will fix not knowing who the voters are, I am certain.
Mike J
Steeplejack
Getting to that point in the late evening when the pleasantly soporific background flow of old Law & Order episodes on Ion crashes into the wattle and buffalo-dung barrier that is Flashpoint. Ceiling Cat, give me strength to avert my eyes yet again!
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
I suppose he’d give up smart bombing ISIS, and just ride the bombs down like Major “King” Kong. YEEHAWW!
dmsilev
@Mike J: It’s certainly possible for Sanders to win in California, though I don’t think it’s the most probably outcome; he’s down by 10ish points in the polling aggregates and early voting started this week.
amk
cruz 2018!
Morzer
I wonder if we should start a campaign to run Walter Sobchak for the GOP presidential nomination in 2020. At least that way they’d have a candidate who could say “Shut the fuck up, Donny!” and mean it.
Mike J
@dmsilev: Win or lose, I don’t really care. We’re in garbage time just waiting to finish the game. We know, they know it. What I’m happy about is that somebody on his team is thinking about how to beat Trump.
Redshift
Bwahahahaha!
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: their internals must show something I don’t know, cuz he ain’t winning california right now.
Morzer
@Mike J:
I’d be happier if they made it a longterm organization to rebuild the Democratic party at state and local level and stop writing off races and districts that need to see Democrats out there fighting for every vote. That’s been the biggest failure of the Obama years (and, for that matter, of the Clintons’ political careers).
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: Again, the California thing is secondary. They are at least acknowledging the campaign is over, and are looking at the post primary big picture.
Prescott Cactus
@Major Major Major Major:
Gut feeling ?
randy khan
By the way, I was at the Nationals-Tigers game tonight and saw Max Scherzer strike out 20 Tigers. In close to 50 years of going to baseball games, it’s by far the most significant milestone I’ve witnessed. A lot of fun, and nobody left until it was over.
Morzer
@randy khan:
My internal polling tells me there’s a joke to be had along the lines of Tiger Beatdown On The Potomac.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: I mean, that’s *good*, insofar as it’s better than the alternative…
Dog Dawg Damn
@Mnemosyne: Hilarious. He is definitely that stupid boss who thinks himself brilliant even as everyone covers for him.
Mai.naem.mobile
I’m going to say it again. I’m really.comcerned about Doofus Donald’s reaction to losing to Hillz. I seriously think he might commit suicide or do something stupid like that.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
That’s the problem with internals.
Unless the entrails are ultra-fresh they’re more liable to generate false readings.
Not to mention a distinct aroma.
cmorenc
1) If the 50 million votes Trump is allegedly short don’t bother to show up and the assholes who support him do, he can win. We should win this with either Hillary or Bernie, but the one way we can lose is enough of us slack off thinking it’s in the bag or else enough Bernie-istas think they’re too pure to vote for Hillary if she’s the nominee rather than Bernie
2) key difference between Perot and Trump is that Perot was basically a decent guy who wanted to do right for the country (irrespective of whether he actually would have been a good President or not – perhaps not), whereas Trump is a narcissistic asshole who will screw over those in the white working class who think he’s their kind of populist maverick.
gwangung
@Morzer: Oh, hell yes. Get that started and keep it going in the off term elections, and Sanders has left a mighty legacy…a bigger one than if he won the presidency.
Morzer
Charlie Pierce is not convinced by what he’s seen of the Clinton campaign so far:
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a44750/hillary-clinton-anti-trump-candidate/
Prescott Cactus
@randy khan: Save the ticket stub and write yourself a note and paperclip it onto it. Clemens did it 1986 and I was working in a neighboring state and felt “part of it”.
You were there. Savor it.
Morzer
@gwangung:
If I were Clinton H, I’d be offering Sanders the job of creating the biggest, baddest Democratic local/state vote-getting organization the US has ever seen, staffed by the best and brightest people he can find, with access to every mailing list of significance the Democratic party has ever possessed. I’d make clear that this was a key part of political strategy going forward and I’d commit to significant parts of Sanders’ program being incorporated into the Democratic party platform.
Yutsano
@Howard Beale IV: Jesus fucking Christ on a unicycle. I REALLY wanted that to be fake.
Morzer
@Howard Beale IV:
I really wonder whether human nature can get much lower than this.
Prescott Cactus
@randy khan: 20 K’s in 20 seconds from MLB
Villago Delenda Est
@Morzer: It can, as was seen in Europe from 1942-1945, and in Rwanda in 1994. But it’s yet another low in this country.
mdblanche
Mitt Romney, comedian.
Morzer
@mdblanche:
Mitt Romney liked the word chutzpah. He had a vague sense that it was some sort of exotic sauce made by the right sort of ethnic persons.
chopper
yeah I love the guys responding that airlines don’t use radar to land planes. cause that big spinning antenna on top of the control tower is actually used to call domino’s when the guys get hungry.
Dog Dawg Damn
Trump’s Silent Majority is a lot like the Holy Roman Empire.
Not Silent.
Not a Majority.
Morzer
On the subject of Trump’s finances, the Atlantic has a pretty nice rundown (apologies if anyone has already cited it):
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/what-is-trump-trying-to-hide-in-his-tax-returns/482253/
Frankensteinbeck
@Morzer:
Man. When Pierce is off the mark, he is WAY off the mark. This isn’t a grandmaster chess match. Trump isn’t playing a strategy, allowing his audience to do something. He’s being himself. It appeals to a certain kind of person. Hillary isn’t hitting Sanders that hard because she hasn’t had to, and it’s Politics 101 to pee inside the tent as little as possible. And since Trump isn’t playing friggin’ chess, she doesn’t have to super stealth jujitsu him. The primaries aren’t over. She’s maintaining a mostly positive tone to unite her party, and taking the occasional light swipe at her opponent. None of this is deep and there’s no hidden meaning. There doesn’t have to be. There wouldn’t be any point.
@Mike J:
Even if I think they’re optimistic, I don’t want to insult these Sanders activists. They recognize what’s really important here, and are entitled to have faith in their candidate. The writing of Sanders’ lost is carved into the wall in giant letters now, and their priorities – kicking Trump’s ass – I support one hundred percent.
Morzer
@Frankensteinbeck:
I hope you are right, but I think Pierce has a point when he talks about how leaden-footed Clinton is as a campaigner. Her campaign this time around reminds me alarmingly of the pedestrian effort she put together in 2008.
seaboogie
@Morzer: Apparently he’s yesterday’s news and all out of the grifting dollars.
Frankensteinbeck
@Morzer:
We must be seeing a different campaign. She scooped up the voters she needed, has hit Sanders exactly proportionately, has avoided internal drama, has been confidently in the lead this whole time, and has had one eye focused on the general the whole time, as is appropriate when she damn near has the nomination in the bag.
Villago Delenda Est
@Morzer: She learned a lot from that B. Barry Bamz guy in 2008. For one thing, she now knows how to count delegates.
amk
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yup, unlike 2008, her 2016 campaign has been very disciplined so far. Does she ‘excite’ the mobs like the punk? No. Not needed.
Frankensteinbeck
@Villago Delenda Est:
The only argument I can see that she hasn’t done great would be if you think that Sanders should never have even put in a showing. I think that’s silly. He both represents part of what the Democratic Party wants, and with no incumbent you would naturally get a race going just by human nature. From the moment she won Iowa, everything has followed the clearly predicted track to her victory. Seems like she’s done great to me.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Villago Delenda Est: And prompted Molly Ivins to say “it sounded better in the original German”.
Morzer
@Frankensteinbeck:
I am happy for you that you possess such serene confidence, but I can’t share it. Clinton remains a pedestrian speaker and has alarmingly high unfavorables. This is not where you want to start a campaign, even against Trump.
gwangung
@Frankensteinbeck:
Well, yeah. They recognized the right issues; it’s just that the person they’re choosing is wrong. Those are the issues to fight about in the future.
Villago Delenda Est
@Morzer: Drumpf’s unfavorables are even higher, and Hillary’s unfavorables are with Drumpf voters.
gwangung
@Morzer: Relative to Trump, her unfavorables are BETTER.
And speaking ability is only a somewhat an important part of campaigning. Organization, management and getting out the vote are more important factors—and we’ve not seen anything that puts her at a disadvantage vis a vis Trump.
starscream
@Frankensteinbeck: I hope she spends the summer locking Trump in a strait jacket the way Obama did Romney.
I recently heard some of Donald’s interviews on Howard Stern I’d never heard before. It was absolutely disgusting. I bet there are hours of similar stuff out there.
Betty Cracker
@Howard Beale IV: What an absolute horror of a human being. From the news reports that surfaced around his several post-murder rage incidents, it sounds like Zimmerman is broke, unemployable and relying on the kindness of racist asshole gun nuts to get by. Maybe their largess is at an end, so he has to auction the murder weapon. He’ll come to a sticky end.
Morzer
@Villago Delenda Est:
You do realize that significant numbers of Democratic voters don’t regard her as honest? You may want to regard anyone who looks at Clinton sideways as a “Trump voter” – but that’s not what the polls are saying. I still think Clinton is the likely winner, but it wouldn’t take that much for her unfavorables to worsen and Trump’s to improve to parity. That should be terrifying Democrats – but instead some people are talking about landslide victories!
eemom
@Morzer:
Oh yes — because if there’s one thing Sanders has proven he can do, it’s the grunt work of ORGANIZING.
Haven’t seen you in a while. What are you, a zombie that rises from the crypt occasionally to provide comedy relief for your fellow brain dead?
James E Powell
@Frankensteinbeck:
Re: Pierce – Maybe when he looks at Hillary Clinton he sees Martha Coakley.
amk
@gwangung:
Yup, rest is all just noise.
Betty Cracker
I’m streaming old episodes of The French Chef, and the production values are charmingly amateurish. Child’s washer and dryer are in her kitchen, and she frequently uses them as extra counter space. Her cooking school patch is squarely on her right boob.
In one episode, someone knocks at the door while Child is in the middle of cooking something, and she says, “Oh, someone’s at the door! I’m not going to answer it, obviously!” LOL!
Morzer
@eemom:
How nice to see you again, Donny.
Morzer
@James E Powell:
Absit omen.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Prescott Cactus: Wishful thinkin’.
Villago Delenda Est
@Morzer: Citations needed. Rasmussen polls will be laughed out of the room.
Amir Khalid
@Morzer:
When a bear is chasing you and your friend, you don’t need to outrun the bear. You only need to outrun your friend. As far as their unfavourables are concerned, Hillary is outrunning Trump.
seaboogie
@Morzer: Stay away from the news for a while – maybe until the Cleveland convention – and then tune in. If Trump doesn’t stroke out before he gets the nom, it’s going to get really, really interesting. #nevertrump is for a reason. I think its going to be a crazy shitshow, and the Dem GOTV is going to look like an anthill you just knocked over…and yes – possibly landslide, but more importantly possibly turning the majority in the Senate. R’s are already talking approving Garland post-election. Will be interesting too to see what the non-Fox media do with this. Also, Obama campaigning for Hillary – think about that for a bit…
seaboogie
@Amir Khalid: I like that!
Morzer
@Villago Delenda Est:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-hits-wall-gop-critics-back-convention-fight/story?id=37474752
A fairly recent ABC/WaPo poll had only 58% of Democrats seeing Clinton as trustworthy.
I will say this again: I hope Clinton wins, assuming she’s the nominee, but I think she’s a flawed candidate at best and Democrats should not be overconfident, much less talking about landslides, even against Trump.
Morzer
@Amir Khalid:
Cute story, but all it takes is for you to slip once. Clinton strikes me as a politician with a considerable capacity for unforced errors and not much in the way of charisma. That’s a worrying blend in a candidate.
Amir Khalid
@seaboogie:
A corollary: don’t go hiking with Usain Bolt.
seaboogie
@Amir Khalid: Heh – not in bear country!
Morzer
@seaboogie:
Staying away from the news cuts both ways though – because the Trump news to date is what Clinton believers build much of their “certain victory!” case on. I’ll just point out that we saw months of certainty from everyone that “this time!” Donald Trump was finished. Having seen Gore and Kerry both lose and having read accounts of McGovern and Carter losing, I tend not to be optimistic that the “better” but less charismatic candidate will prevail.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
I like the shows that are a little loose around the edges. One current favorite is Rachel Khoo, who cooks in her apartment’s tiny kitchen (formerly in Paris, now in London) with beat-up cookware and realistically ordinary appliances. I know some of it is a deliberate “style” choice for the show, but it works.
And the master of the casual, laid-back style is Jacques Pépin. I’m always amazed at what he produces in a fairly realistic half hour without too much hassle (for him!).
. . . Just checked on YouTube, and there are full episodes of Khoo’s The Little Paris Kitchen and Kitchen Notebook: London available. And apparently she’s got a new series set in Melbourne. I saw the first two series on the Cooking Channel, but they don’t seem to be running now.
Amir Khalid
@Morzer:
Remember, The Donald is far more likely than Hillary to say stupid and offensive things. It hasn’t hurt him among the Republican party base, so far, but it is hurting him with the wider American electorate.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: This is key. The Drumpfenproles love The Donald’s racism and sexism. They’re not the majority of the electorate.
Hillary’s going to GOTV. The result will be catastrophe for the GOP.
Morzer
@Amir Khalid:
I hope you aren’t overestimating the electorate on those issues. I suspect that hatred of liberals and mistrust of Clinton can excuse a multitude of sins by a reality star running for president. It may come down to which of the candidates produces less enthusiasm in their base, because I don’t see much appetite for either Clinton or Trump among the unaligned/less frequent voters.
Amir Khalid
@Morzer:
One can’t be sure, of course — nothing is certain until it has happened — but as far as that is concerned, there’s plenty of reason to be confident in Hillary.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: I ran across Khoo several months ago while searching for a recipe on YouTube. I also like her show.
seaboogie
@Morzer: I’m not a “true believer” WRT Clinton, but I do believe she’d be a pretty competent President.
However, I also believe that there will be a realignment after the noms, and that some of the media will start to do their jobs. And also that (R) Senators not up for re-election will speak out against Trump. And that when Trump’s ego goes full-on running for President that his ego will remain unchecked as he campaigns with Nuremburg style rallies and late night twitter rants that something is going to shift pretty large, including massive disclosure and coverage of all of Trump’s financial and personal history. I think it will be worse for him than the drubbing Obama gave him at the WHCD a few years ago.
Morzer
@Amir Khalid:
I have a limited degree of confidence in demographics, which is what I think may save the day for the Democrats. I fear that the party will not learn the lesson it desperately needs to learn, which is that you cannot afford to neglect state/local politics out of a blithe confidence that your weak sauce version of liberalism will win people over just because the other side is crazy/evil/dumb.
seaboogie
@Morzer: I expect that at the Dem convention, Bernie Sanders will be raising one of Hillary’s hands high, and this guy will be raising the other.…
J R in WV
Interestin’ times we’re livin’ through, isn’t it?
Gonna try to go back to sleep. G’nite, all.
Emma
AAAAAAND my insomnia kicks in just in time for another round of “Hillary’s unfavorables,” “the party will not fight properly,” etcetera ad nauseam. “The party” is just another name for “us.” Find your local Democrats and get going!
Betty Cracker
@Morzer: Maybe the problem is that the Democrats lack a community-level organizing platform. Wingnuts have churches. Democrats used to have unions, but they’ve been declining for decades.
amk
@Morzer: All berniebots talking points then?
Steeplejack
Anybody got a line on a worthy cat shelter in the NoVA area? A friend of my brother’s wants to adopt a cat, and I’d like to steer him—quickly—to a good outfit.
Probably could even venture into D.C. or the near Maryland side.
Amir Khalid
@Morzer:
I think Hillary is an able and experienced enough politician to take on the Donald and beat him.
ruemara
No offense, but when Charles Pierce has run winning campaigns, I’ll listen to what he says about winning campaigns. He’s a sportswriter for pete’s sake, not a prophet. Right now, the HRC campaign is running HFA (this year’s OFA) training internships for organizers. IOW, she’s repeating the ’08 strategy, right down to the training of people (anyone, even a Bernie fan) to do the job. Instead of posting the screeds of those who know better by not doing, perhaps you can register someone to vote?
This isn’t a “She got this” post. This is a “fucking stop whining” post. Because it’s May and half of what you’re reading is from career curmudgeons who don’t make a buck telling you to either pitch in to help or sit down, because nothing is going on.
And if you believe that Bernie Sanders will father a new progressive community that’s active in all elections, deals with local seats with the same fervency it has the presidency and has a clear, steely-eyed progressive watch on a bold new future; I’d have to wonder why you didn’t notice his campaign couldn’t even figure out telling people to vote. Look, 30 years and he’s known for speechifying. Not acting. Not creating things. Just living anger that you can agree with. Let Sanders be Sanders. He’s not going to morph into a community organizer when he’s spent a lot of time not even building a community of friends in his workplace.
Morzer
@amk:
Why yes, I personally engineered Clinton’s high unfavorables, forced her to be a mediocre public speaker and, as a bonus, came up with her bizarrely unappealing campaign symbol and slogan. I also stole Canada’s strategic maple reserve in order to trigger a crisis on the northern border and melted down the glaciers to put Florida underwater a little faster. I’d also like to include 80 counts of voluntarily deflating Tom Brady’s balls in order to please Roger Goodell and the NFL-Illuminati conspiracy. Last, but not least, I shot the sheriff. But, I didn’t shoot no deputy. So there’s that.
eemom
@Morzer:
Reliance on “trustworthiness” polls 6 months out? Wow, thanks Morzie….that is so totally the most important thing we should be focusing on right now.
IIRC, you’re an expat, right? Maybe you should just STFU, enjoy your better life in your new land, and leave us to reap what our horrifically flawed, barely better than Trump HRC has sowed.
amk
@Morzer: and your point is?
Morzer
@eemom:
So did you turn pro with that whole belly-button thing?
eemom
@amk:
His point is he’s an arrogant asshole who for God knows what reason is spewing Clinton hate in an election whose outcome has no effect on him. Nice work if you can get it.
Morzer
@eemom:
Too early for flapjacks?
Joel
@Morzer: the problem is that you need to convince people to run for these offices. In some districts that means threats and disruptions to your personal life, never mind low pay, long hours, and time away from family.
Morzer
@Joel:
Right – which is exactly why the Democratic party needs to put real effort into developing long-term structures and organization to support local/state candidacies, rather than just writing swathes of the country off and then acting all aggrieved when people don’t bother to vote or vote against them.
seaboogie
@Morzer: In which congressional district are you that is not served by the local Democratic establishment?
Morzer
@seaboogie:
I personally have been reasonably well served by the local Democratic establishment in my intermittent humble corner of the wilds of Massachusetts, although I will note that they did absolutely nothing to help one M. Coakley during her Senate race. Funnily enough, my intermittent humble corner of Seoul has just elected an insurgent from the new liberal-ish party that formed when the main opposition party split.
eemom
@Morzer:
So what are YOU doing to effectuate that….from your smug location in….South Korea, IIRC?
eemom
@Joel:
oh yes, Morzie the Seoul resident will be the first to sign up for that.
eemom
@Morzer:
Asshole
Morzer
@eemom:
Interesting. An attack dog that’s forgotten its dentures. Now that’s certainly something you don’t see every day.
seaboogie
@Morzer:
So, nothing like this....
BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom:
@Morzer:
Will you two get a room?
eemom
@Morzer:
Nighty-night, little sinking ship fleeing rat. Do PLZ come back and lecture us again about our poor sad election.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Necrophilia’s not my bag, baby.
seaboogie
@Morzer:
Your whiny, hand-wringing ass has lost all currency with your petty name-calling…
Morzer
@seaboogie:
I am talking about on the ground game, canvassing, get out the vote, help your candidate across the line stuff. My area was utterly inactive during Coakley’s campaign – which was a striking contrast to the way they usually did things. There’s a longer story to be told about that, but fairly senior local Democrats I knew told me after it was all over that “certain” influential people had decided that Coakley wasn’t the “right” candidate, so they weren’t going to do a thing for her. Maybe Coakley’s own flaws as a candidate would have doomed her anyway, but the local politics certainly didn’t help.
Morzer
@seaboogie:
I’ll try to live with the guilt.
raven
I love the smell of napalm in the morning. . .
Morzer
@raven:
These days it’s more like face-palm in the morning. Still, I’ve got a damn fine cup of coffee beside me and a beautiful evening in Seoul to look forward to, so, no worries.
seaboogie
@raven:
I think it smells more like vinegar – from the douche….
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: I got tear gassed in Seoul.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: I got to chase the Blue House Raiders over the mountains!
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I imagine that would put a damper on the relationship. Hopefully not a lasting one.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: A protest near the Blue House was why I got tear gassed.
Morzer
@raven:
Damn, raven, you are a living piece of history. When are you going to write your memoirs?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: I’ve been back twice since then.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: When he’s old.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
What were you protesting?
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
He could always write a memoir of his feathery youth and martial deeds. He may have done so already, for all I know.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: I wasn’t protesting anything, I was visiting Gyeongbokgung. The protest was next to the palace, south of the Blue House.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Did you visit Gyeongbokgung before the demolition of the Japanese Government-General Building? Have you seen the reconstructed Gwanghwamun?
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: The 31 NK commando’s got within a couple of blocks of the Blue House before a huge battle broke out. We swept the mountains south of Munsani (Paju now?) as there survivors tried to make it back north. Our batt killed three of them.
AxelFoley
@Morzer:
Why, when Bernie’s shown he can’t even run his own campaign competently? When he’s never accomplished anything in 25 years in D.C.?
Morzer
@AxelFoley:
Maybe because young people and other first time voters seem to find his message appealing and apparently find him trustworthy? Maybe it might be a good idea to tap into that by making him the head of the organization?
Applejinx
@ruemara:
But it’s not Bernie who’s gotta do it. Actually, ‘father’ isn’t a bad term: all he’s done is what comes naturally, which was fun for him, something he thought himself good at and which caused a bit of a sticky mess :D
And then what grows out of that might count as ‘his’ or even take his name, but it’s a whole other thing.
The feeling I get is that the Democratic machine’s got far too rusty and is only interested in collecting money because that’s all any establishment political machinery even does anymore, Dem or R. What I need in things like midterms is information, information about what the hell is going on in my community. The wingnut watercooler system (hah, that’s an old reference, for all that ‘water’ will never go out of style) has been geared to preloading voters with ballot initiatives and how to vote: I haven’t seen a thing on the left that’s comparable, and I’ve wanted a cheatsheet so that I could go and vote and know what the hell things meant.
Given that Mark Zuckerberg is down with tilting things against the wingnuts, maybe some of the digital-age mechanisms could serve this purpose. Right now what I see is mostly ‘that one guy on Facebook still posting Bernie-or-bust rhetoric from anybody BUT Bernie (or Rachel M, or Elizabeth Warren, etc)’ but since the issue is getting information to an overstressed and burnt-out electorate (working at stuff like on-call minimum wage stuff where you’re 24/7 available for 39-hour workweeks or less, that sort of exploitation), maybe something can arise which will be (a) trusted, (b) serving a purpose beyond strictly acquiring campaign donations, and (c) on top of current events.
We’ll need it, because I think Clinton can get a landslide victory with some help, BUT I don’t think that will position Clinton to govern the way we’d like. I think it’s a setup for her to be largely undirected in office and that the Democratic voterbase are looking for an excuse to swat the annoying orange bug on the R side and then go back to sleep as they always do. And we can’t afford that. The old days are dead.
I mean, if some of the most exasperating Hilbots are prepared to go back to sleep if we promise a landslide for Queen Hillary, by all means please do so, since all you care about is what team jersey gets the gold. I will absolutely help deliver that victory, and have been actively trying to soften up Bernie dead-enders, because I see that as practical tactics for holding our ground.
But if you think just ‘Democrat’ is enough you’re not paying attention and it’d be nice if some of that crew won really big and then sat back expecting their job was done for the next four years, same as ever. The political reality’s rendered that world increasingly irrelevant. Hell, Bernie could’ve won and then both parties would be headed by outsiders with the traditional rank and file throwing grit in the gears and dragging their feet. I prefer that to describe just the Republicans, but when we give Hillary the victory I guarantee it will be taken as an excuse to play ‘Washington DC Big Corrupt Government’ and the Left, Right and the MSM will unite in bitching about Hillary.
And if there isn’t a coherent Left delivering political victories, the whole thing will turn into a shitshow and a Cruz/Palin win for 2020 (or possibly Trump if he survives).
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: The answer is yes to both. The old national assembly building was still there in 1989. I’ve got pictures of the inside of the building(Seoul – From the Archives).
ETA: Those pictures were taken in 1989 and 1998.
amk
@Applejinx: The wingnut water cooler system (good one) works because they are not apathetic? One thing dem voters of all ages could learn from the rwers is the value they place on their votes, regardless of repeated failures from their party establishment.
Morzer
@Applejinx:
That’s a brave attempt at constructive, long-term thinking – but you are talking to a community where the loudest, dumbest voices are very focused on playing short-term tribal games. They’d rather lose and keep their purity intact than admit that politics requires compromise and occasional agreement to differ. Good luck!
Gimlet
@Morzer:
They’d rather lose and keep their purity intact than admit that politics requires compromise and occasional agreement to differ. Good luck!
Like Mitch McConnell and the vacant SC position. Obama compromises and ….
Gimlet
George Zimmerman is selling the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, during a 2012 confrontation in Sanford, Florida.
Zimmerman wrote in the auction description of the Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm handgun that he plans to use some of the money to “fight BLM violence against Law Enforcement officers, ensure the demise of Angela Correy’s [sic] persecution career and Hillary Clinton’s anti-firearm rhetoric.”
Angela Corey is the Republican state attorney who charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder in the Martin shooting.
Many have expressed interest in owning and displaying the firearm including The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. This is a piece of American History.
Mr. Mack
Hate all the petty name calling, but I do want to chime in on one of Morzers’ points…I live near Nashville. The Dem party here does an adequate job in Nashville, but the do absolutely nothing in rural counties where we continue to lose elections. The thing is, the demographics of these rural areas is changing, almost daily. Transplants are arriving at a brisk pace, and there is no democratic infrastructure to be found. But, reliably, there will be a GOP booth at every community function this year. They have meetings and everything. Drives me crazy.
Aimai
@Frankensteinbeck: could not sgree more. Charlie pierce is just another in a long line of pants pissing democratic hysterics (mens division) who just cant see that donald trump has a ceiling to his voters. He cant lose his gollowers, but he cant win any of hers.
Matt McIrvin
@Aimai: Pundits insisted that Trump had a ceiling in the Republican primary, that it was 27% or 40% or something and that it would doom him, for the past nine months in the face of rising poll numbers. Trump has no automatic ceiling of any sort, and shouldn’t be treated as if he does.
amk
@Matt McIrvin: Until the last few primaries, his ceiling was 40%. Once the other fireflies died off, naturally it rose to 50 to 75%.
Chyron HR
@Morzer:
Now stay tuned for parts 50-100 in Morzer’s ongoing series about why he hates that whore who stole the nomination from Bernie.
msdc
@Morzer:
I would do this as well. And then I would hand-pick a second in command who would actually do all the work that Sanders has thus far failed to do in his thirty years in politics.
JMG
@Morzer: 1. Rules of Democratic party insure a long, drawn out campaign. Under Republican rules, Bernie would’ve dropped out already.
2, Pierce is wrong. Candidates can’t be who they aren’t. Hillary Clinton, lighthearted insult comic, wouldn’t get very far. She’s a careful policy wonk, and that’s what she’s got to let people she who she is.
randy khan
@Prescott Cactus:
Thanks to modern technology, no ticket – I have a plastic card that I use for all of my games, but I do have my scorecard, with all 20 Ks in red.
On the post game show, though, there was a discussion of whether the Nats will send out a commemorative paper ticket, which they did for Jordan Zimmermann’s no-hitter a couple of years ago. That would be nice to have.
Mary
@Steeplejack: I have two cats and a dog out of these guys (and I’ve fostered a whole bunch more). http://www.homewardtrails.org
St. A
@Morzer: Being ‘terrified’ never helped anything. And ‘flat-footed’? What are your specifics on that?
randy khan
@Gimlet:
Besides how disgusting this is, the chance that the Smithsonian has asked for the gun is roughly 0%.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I think Democrats are taking him seriously here. I suspect it kind of reverts to the norm in a lot of states- 2 or 3 or 4 points either way. I’m curious which way the “Kasich base” goes in Ohio- moderate suburban Right-leaners. I think Trump has the wrong temperament for them- he’s too loud and self-promoting and they actually wouldn’t approve of the bankruptcies while he lives such a lavish lifestyle. Stiffing people you owe money is one thing, flaunting it is another. It’s greed- excess. He doesn’t pay his debts but he spends plenty on himself. They adored Kasich’s (phony) son-of-a-mailman humble brags.
different-church-lady
@Morzer: Charlie Pierce appears to be jumping a series of baby sharks, as he considers whether to go for the full-sized one.
JWR
@Aimai::My thoughts, exactly, when two years ago, during the border “crisis”, Pierce wrote the following:
Oh noes! Glenn Beck!1!! My response, had I bothered, would’ve been: “Careful, Mr. Pierce, your ‘Sully’ side is showing.” Dude’s a pants-wetter, par excellance.
Bobby Thomson
@Matt McIrvin:
FTFY. So far his outrageous asshole act has been a feature, not a bug. Like Sanders, he’s about to find out the hard way that not all voters are white guys.
different-church-lady
@Morzer:
One little problem: I see no evidence he has the skills to get votes for anyone who isn’t Bernie Sanders. Clinton already has a better ground game than he does — if he were better at it, he might have beat her.
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin:
40% is in fact what his ceiling was until everyone else dropped out.
Bobby Thomson
@Morzer:
You could probably run the 70 mm road show version of The Hateful Eight with that.
FEMA Camp Counselor
@Frankensteinbeck:
If I remember right, Pierce also spent a good chunk of 2012 freaking out about Romney. He’s one of those pundits who focuses a lot more on narrative and personality then the nuts and bolts of organizing, so he tends to go for the smelling salts until the last minute.
Bobby Thomson
@Morzer:
Good lord, why? Why would you offer such an important job – which, by the way, her campaign is already ramping up – to someone with no interest in it and no demonstrated competence, as shown by his drubbing in the primaries?
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I wonder about the self-promotion and the excess, I really do. Scott Walker tweets pictures of his brown bag lunch. That’s the sort of thing midwestern conservatives love :)
Farmers (well, landowners- they contract out the ‘farming’) are famous for it. They can own half the county, millions of dollars in “ground”, and they all poor-mouth.
different-church-lady
Go to 538, look at the “April Unfavorables” chart, and ask President Dukakis what he thinks of the situation.
different-church-lady
@FEMA Camp Counselor: The thing liberals need to remember about Pierce is he’s a stunt journalist. The appeal lies in his entertaining writing, not in his insights.
Because of his connection to the Boston Globe I knew of Pierce before the greater liberalsphere caught on. I enjoyed his cranky-middle-aged-man shtick because he does it well. But as soon as I started to see frequent links to him all over Left-Blogistan I knew we were going to arrive at this point.
Kay
@Bobby Thomson:
I don’t know but I think he’s talking about going forward- a lasting infrastructure, not a one-time shot in swing states.
Part of what happened (in Ohio anyway) is the state Party had Prez candidates coming in every 4 years with their ground operations so the state Party was able to glom onto that and they didn’t create anything resilient and long-term.
David Pepper, the state chair, has been all over the state talking about how they fell into this easy trap and how he’s changing direction- the state Party will build alongside a national campaign and coordinate, but they can’t rely on the national campaigns to replace longer-term goals.
Part of it is nat campaigns bring organizers in. These people don’t live here. When the national campaign is over they take everything they’ve learned from 9 months of meeting local people and head off to the next race in another state. They need to hire locally and cast a broader net. It doesn’t need to be a 22 year old college graduate from PA or NY or IL. it could be a 55 year old laid off local. That person sticks around. They live here.
different-church-lady
I don’t really know who David Winston is, but I think we now have a clue as to why Gingrich’s campaign flamed out so quickly. Obama got 65 million votes in 2012, Romney 60 million. If Winston somehow thinks Trump is only going to a sixth of that, he’s nuts.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
Old people are icky.
different-church-lady
@Applejinx:
Now, where do you suppose you got that feeling from?
jonas
@Morzer:
So far, so true. What Pierce misses here, however, is that this kind of bullshitting really only works on a particular segment of the conservative base. To be sure, that was good enough to propel him to the GOP nomination, but will it work in prime time? Trump *cannot* win relying only on the coalition of gun nuts, angry old white men, and sundry bigots (the ven diagram of which is largely a single circle) who have thus far lapped up his ridiculous act.
FlipYrWhig
@different-church-lady: Pierce is quick-witted, sarcastic and aggravated all the time and hence has a political worldview that lavishes praise on political figures who are quick-witted, sarcastic, and/or aggravated all the time. It’s like how the blogosphere fell in love with “framing,” because that’s the part of politics they think they can do.
different-church-lady
@FlipYrWhig:
That is a quite brilliant observation. No snark.
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
Tis’ the season for click-bait and concern trolling.
jonas
@different-church-lady: I think the gist of his comment was that several million people have voted for Trump in the primary, but it’s not clear how he’s going to get from there to the number needed to prevail in the GE. Sure, a lot of GOP voters will hold their noses and vote for him because Shillary. But in the GE, he’s going to need *every* GOP vote, plus peel a large number of women, independents, and minorities away from Clinton, to prevail. Shorter Winston: good luck with that.
The Sheriff Endorses Baud 2016
@Matt McIrvin:
His ceiling was 40% or thereabouts. But as the saying up thread goes, he wasn’t faster than the bear – he was just faster than everyone else in the primary.
msdc
@different-church-lady:
For certain values of “entertaining.”
@FlipYrWhig: Amen. See also “Overton Window, moving the.”
Kay
So I watched part of a clinton event in Illinois. She was in what looked like the Illinois statehouse and she told the group that she had gone on a fifth grade field trip to the statehouse “like all of you”. The whole room were nodding and smiling. That’s a growing- up-ordinary-public school thing they all share. “Democrats” will be squeamish about that sort of appeal- they don’t want to go into Real ‘Mericanisn” – but Trump really doesn’t have a lot in common with suburban Right-leaners and Clinton does. If she can pick them up she should.
The Other Chuck
Shirt like that needs some snark to go with it, but I don’t have much this morning.
How about a quote: “Nigger, nigger, nigger” — Lee Atwater
Applejinx
@different-church-lady: John Oliver interviewing the most effective Democratic fundraiser in Congress?
different-church-lady
@Applejinx: Ah. So you got it from a TV show. As opposed to actually being involved in a party. Got it.
NCSteve
The MSM’s stolid, willfully obtuse, determination to treat Trump’s nomination as if he was just another thing that happened in another presidential campaign and avoid giving anyone the slightest hint that it’s a national calamity that threatens the foundations of democracy itself is really starting to wear on me. But at least no one on the right will call them biased, amirite?
different-church-lady
@jonas: If we’re going by that metric, then Obama was “42 million voters short” of what he needed in 2008. It’s just a crazy way of looking at it.
ruemara
@Applejinx: Sanders. Isn’t. Building. Anything. But. His. Ego.
Does that make it clear for you? If you needed Bernie Sanders to galvanize you to change the world, well, sucks to be you.
Aimai
@Applejinx: nancy pelosi was one of the top fundraisers for years. She distributed that money liberally to get seats in congress and became the first woman speaker of the house EVER and also was instrumental in getting the ACA passed. A lot of money needs to get raised to get democrats into seats where slush funds of republican money can buy all the votes necessary for down ticket znd congressional races. Raising money and spending it are absolutely vital to modern politics and any party or party member who wont stoop to conwuer is doomed to failure.
Aimai
@Matt McIrvin: yes trump has a ceiling. He has a ceiling with AA voters, new immigrants, hispanics, muslims, and women. His ability to sucker a large proportion of allready moronic angry white males in his own party says nothing anout the general election. Not enough women, AA voters, or other important democratic constituencies can be flipped. There arent enough swing voters who ate seriously undecided between italian food or anthrax and tire rims to push trump over the top. This isnt complacency-its reality. His most jntense supporters dont get more than one vote. I will be working my butt off for clinton and all the down ballot races but trump is not going to get in.
Barbara
@Morzer: I have to say that I am finding Charlie Pierce to be fairly tedious these days, more of a contrarian for the sake of being contrarian, and yes, even ticking up my misogyny meter. An example of what I am referring to is lambasting Clinton for not “putting away Sanders” after he has spent the last four months criticizing her for not being more like Sanders. If he is going to be just another Goldilocks for whom Clinton is always too much this way except when she is too much that way, forget it, I will stop reading. It’s too predictable.
Barbara
@randy khan: That’s awesome. I would love to have been there, just because every time I see a great pitcher it gives me nice memories of my dad (for whom I also have a lot of not nice memories). He picked baseball games based on who was pitching and we saw a lot of low scoring hometown losses, but I also managed to see Juan Marichel, Tom Seaver (not only won but batted in the winning rbi), Fergie Jenkins, and so on.
feebog
@Barbara:
This. What exactly was Clinton supposed to do, pull out a .45 and blast away during a debate? In reality, she put Sanders away on March 15, when she swept 5 large mid-western states. Sanders was the walking dead after that, but Weaver and Devine have kept him propped up like the Bernie in the movie.
Elie
Thanks to everyone for helping me know a little more about Mr. Pierce. It is important for people to really understand who they are reading and I learned a lot. Whew! I will still read him, but with skepticism (Like we should all read everything I guess). This kind of information sharing is what makes BJ so good (IMHO)
Olivia
If they are going to put Hank Williams Jr. on the shirt, they should at least let him wear his hat.
Barbara
@feebog: I am not going to go back and look at what Charlie said in 2008, but I bet it was a variant of blaming Clinton for not dropping out sooner so the party could unite around Obama (it’s certainly what I wanted at the time). The point is, it always seems like it’s the responsibility of the female to make nice.