Attention conservation notice (thanks, Cosma Shalizi): What follows is some political naval gazing, a trip down memory lane to scan the GOP primary just gone by. The TL:DR — what a craptastic effort by all concerned. If you’ve nothing better to do, read on, and snark at will in the comments.
Not to aggrandize one of our more feeble trolls, but something that personage produced in a comment yesterday caught my eye. Donald Trump, we were told, more than once, is INVINCIBLE (sic on the caps and bold).
What convinced our troll of this fact?
That the Gauleiter of Midtown Manhattan had defeated “the deepest primary field in history” (quoted from memory).
Well, a ruby in a dungheap is still a gem, and that remark caught my attention. So, in a waltz down memory lane, I went to look up that deep field, here in the order in which they formally entered the campaign:
Ted Cruz. Jeb Bush. Ben Carson. Chris Christie. Carly Fiorina. Jim Gilmore. Lindsey Graham. Mike Huckabee. Bobby Jindal. John Kasich. George Pataki. Rand Paul. Rick Perry. Marco Rubio. Rick “don’t Google me” Santorum. Donald Trump, and Scott Walker.
Let’s review:
Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul*: first term senators of no accomplishment.
Carly Fiorina: a failed business tycoon whose sole claim to fame is her near-destruction of one of the most respected corporations in tech.
Ben Carson: a neurosurgeon who calls to mind the old joke: “What’s the difference between God and a surgeon?” “God knows he’s not a doctor.”
Jim Gilmore: Jim Gilmore.
George Pataki: George Pataki.
Rick Santorum: where to begin? Lost his last election by 30 points or more; hasn’t improved on extended acquaintence.
Chris Christie: not yet indicted.
Rick Perry: smart boy glasses didn’t work.
Bobby Jindal: Kenneth the office boy left the governor’s mansion in Louisiana as the single most potent unifier in state history: everyone, Democrat, Republican, Martian, loathed this incompetent poseur.
Mike Huckabee: book salesman masquerading as Torquemada.
Scott Walker: goggle-eyed homunculus almost instantly revealed as a small-time grifter utterly unsuited for the big time.
That leaves four: Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, John Kasich and the ferret-headed swindler himself.
Jeb?, Graham and Kasich had at least recognizably plausible credentials to mount a presidential bid. Jeb, of course, was burdened with the worst name in politics, a record in Florida that mostly consisted of having the good sense to preside during a housing boom and to get out before the crash, and an easily torpedoed post-government high-class business-grift career. Worst of all of course, he turned out to have zero talent as an actual working politician.
Lindsey Graham was always a “message” candidate. Yes, he’s a senator with actual legislative experience, and on paper he’s at least plausible. But at no time did he actually capture the interest of a significant faction of the party. It’s conceivable, at least, that if the Republican field had been the same size as the Democrats — five at the most — he might have had a chance to move from being McCain’s mini-me to some more plausible shot at the nomination, but if I were the Emperor of all the Indies, I’d be farting through silk, and that hasn’t happened either.
John Kasich, as a lot of commentators pointed out, was the most plausible “conventional” candidate on a paint by numbers sort of analysis: federal experience, re-elected as governor of a large, diverse and swing state, actual policy knowledge. (All bad policy, of course, but at least he understands the task.) For all that’s wrong with him on his actual merits, I can’t deny that at the start of the campaign season, he actually appeared to be someone who could say “I’m running for president” with a straight face.
Hence the obvious response to “INVINCIBLE!” This was the political analogue to a boxing undercard of stiffs, tomato-cans, punchers with slow feet, cuteys better at dancing than fighting and so on. These were the bouts you arrange so as not to undermine the confidence of a still-raw devotee of the Sweet Science. They were, as it turned out, palookas.
IOW: A well-stocked bench does not equal a strong bench, and it’s worth thinking about that a little as we move on to the general. The Republican party is in a dominant position in state governments and in Congress. Despite that, it has a dearth of those who can plausibly put themselves forward as national leaders. And it’s not getting better with the up-and-comers. Sasse? Cotton? Ernst? New Mexico’s Martinez, in a party now led by an anti-Latino bigot…and so on.
Or think on the surrogates the two nominees-presumptive can bring to bear on the campaign at hand. As lots have noted, Hillary gets POTUS, FLOTUS, Uncle Joe, Senator Professor Warren, and some guy named Bill as her starting five. Combover Caligula (thanks Betty!)? Chris Christie. Somebody. Somebody else. Somebody’s twin nephews. Or, if we take his former rivals expressions of support seriously: Christie, Rubio, and I don’t know, maybe a couple more.
I’m not writing this to gloat or to suggest that the election is over. It’s not. Trump is many things, but what makes him dangerous is that he has a dedicated, too-large base of support he knows exactly how to motivate. We let our guard down, he and they win; the country and the world loses.
But that phrase “a deep bench” still needs examination. The 2016 Republican primary is, as our troll suggests, a measure of the state of the party. There’s no doubt it commands power. What’s striking, though, is how thoroughly mediocre are those who wield it.
Which is, of course, why they must be destroyed, their cities sacked, and their fields sown with salt.
Factio Grandaeva Delenda Est.
*Via commenter Richard Grant, “Rand Paul, whose latest accomplishment was blocking The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act…”
Image: Hieronymus Bosch, Ship of Fools, c. 1494-1510.
rikyrah
yep
Dmbeaster
GOP primary, a deep bench with no starters
Villago Delenda Est
Rick Perry is the one with the glasses that didn’t work to make him seem smarter, because there is nothing you can do with stupid that profound.
Aaron E. Baker
I think that should be Factio Grandaeva.
germy
I wandered over to Elizabeth Warren’s twitter account and was appalled to see the replies she gets:
https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/740220477176696832
Appalled but not surprised.
Villago Delenda Est
@Dmbeaster: Hell, a deep bench with fourth rate bench warmers.
Corner Stone
Run, turtle, run!
Corner Stone
Go get ’em, Harry!
dmsilev
Every time the feral troll refers to Trumo as INVINCIBLE, the Black Knight from Monty Python comes to mind.
Also, though it’s for a different word, ‘You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
germy
Wasn’t Carson a bookseller as well? Wasn’t his campaign one long book tour?
Richard Grant
No comment on Rand Paul, whose latest accomplishment was blocking The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act?
Roger Moore
Which is obviously not true. Just in Genesis, God acts as an anesthesiologist, a surgeon, and a fertility specialist.
gene108
Don’t you mean ‘refudiation’, as in to ‘refudiate’?
Cervantes
“George Pataki: smart boy glasses didn’t work.”
You mean former Gov. of Texas, not NY.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: Yes, for all practical purposes.
hovercraft
Tom I think you meant Rick Perry
Ocotillo
While it is enjoyable to chortle over the lack of depth on the dark side, I for one have been concerned about the lack of depth on our side. This go round, you had Hillary and Bernie, both of whom are no spring chickens but add to the mix, Uncle Joe and Elizabeth Warren our team sure looks long in the tooth. Where are the up and comers for Team Blue?
greennotGreen
Is “naval gazing” how we ended up with Ship of Fools?
Tom Levenson
@Aaron E. Baker: Fix’t. Thanks.
Tom Levenson
@greennotGreen: Ouch. I’m going to leave that typo in, as the accidental pun is worth it.
Downpuppy
The naval view made me notice : Only Col Graham has a service record, AFAIK
The Republican backups are really pretty powerful : Rupert Murdoch, the Kochs, and the entire patriarchy, all ready to mix motes & beams. Everything could change again in 2 weeks, except HA! Goodman, Paglia & Dowd. They never change.
Betty Cracker
Yeah — cosign the caveats, anything could happen, black swan event, yada-yada, but I like our chances too. The bottom line is that Trump is just too fucking embarrassing to be president. Shrub was a halfwit, and Reagan was a doddering simpleton, but even though the charms of both were completely lost on me, I could see how others might find their folksy shticks comforting. Trump is just a walking collection of personality disorders. Even though tens of millions of our fellow citizens are confirmed morons and assholes, I do not see the country as a whole electing a bullying, narcissistic braggart like Trump as president.
PS: I wish I’d made up Combover Caligula, but I heard it elsewhere first — I think an AL post.
Origuy
Arnold voted for Kasich, but of course he’s a RINO.
Olivia
Excellent!
Let’s not forget Ben Carson’s stunning portrait with Jesus.
Betty Cracker
@Ocotillo: I think we have up-and-comers who stayed out because they didn’t want to run against Hillary Clinton. Kirsten Gillibrand, for example. Also Amy Klobuchar. ETA: Forgot to mention Martin O’Malley (poor O’Malley — that’s a pattern. I could see him running again, though).
Tom Levenson
@Villago Delenda Est: @hovercraft: @Cervantes: Yup, yup, and yup. Brain bubbles. Now fixed.
hovercraft
You are selling him short, he has AWESOME surrogates, Palin, Jan Brewer, Batboy, Gingritch, Bobby Knight, and I’m barely scratching the surface here. I didn’t even mention the celebrities Nugent, Voight, Victoria Jackson, Alex Jones, and many many more. Be afraid be very afraid liberals they are coming to take the country back and make America great again.
? Martin
Actually, the problem is that Republicans (and to a lesser degree activist Democrats) are convinced that they are representative of more Americans than they really are. Trump is seen as invincible because Trump supporters believe they are in the majority based on how the primary went.
Trump has fewer than 12 million votes. Let’s be generous and say 15 million by the end. The 2012 GE was 125 million votes, so he’s pulling about 12% of likely voters. That’s far from a majority, but right now it probably feels like a majority because of the outsized attention. And that’s the problem with the primary system – most voters don’t participate.
schrodinger's cat
Ramping Up or whatever the R troll is calling himself today was pimping Jeb Bush not that long ago. So I would not take him or his predictions seriously.
hovercraft
@gene108:
No refutation as in to refute.
Tom Levenson
@Betty Cracker: Kamala Harris looks like someone with potential, assuming it all goes well for her today and in November. Sen. Duckworth has a nice ring, with the same November caveat. But it’s true that with the shellackings of 2010 and 2014, we’ve work to do to recruit, encourage and advance the next decade or so of Democratic leadership.
Petorado
What got lost in all the talk of “deep benches” is the fact that the Republicans have such a complete vacuum in leadership, hierarchy, talent, and vision, among other things, that every third rate opportunist affiliated with the party though they had as good a chance of snagging the nomination as anyone else. The “deep bench” theory is really an acknowledgement of weakness rather than a sign of strength.
Fr33d0m
The bench was deep in their own bubble. Consider that the establishment pick–some guy named Bush–entered the race without an answer to the single question that everyone knew he would be asked. He was unprepared to run from the word go because he thought people wanted GWB back and so thought he could just BS his way through the questions. He should have listened to mommy.
IMHO the question dies in fits of laughter when one says “Trump defeated a deep bench” because shallow defeated deep.
Betty Cracker
@hovercraft: When Governor BatBoy got cornered by the press yesterday and asked about Trump’s racist comments about the judge, he whimpered “I just want to talk about the tropical storm!” As Trump might put it: Sad!
Keith P.
The bench was wide, never deep.
? Martin
@Ocotillo: Off the top of my head, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand.
Miss Bianca
@Corner Stone:
You mean… like this?
Rand Careaga
Since Tom Cotton was mentioned, I hope that people will take a look at this piece in today’s NYT to get a sense of that senator’s particular flavor of loathsome spite.
Snarki, child of Loki
The GOP does have a ‘deep bench’; just not for the presidential contest.
The have an overwhelmingly deep bench for the Grift Olympics.
C. Isaac
@Keith P.:
It’s why Christie felt so comfortable with it.
JPL
This is from Reuters
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Republican leader McConnell says it’s time for Trump to stop attacking various minority groups
It was okay as long as Trump was going after the President, now it’s a little late.
GregB
The Republicans should have nominated the actual bench
rikyrah
@Villago Delenda Est:
those glasses always cracked me up
schrodinger's cat
Deep bench my foot, if you add 15 zeroes you still get a zero.
nonynony
And that message was “I’m running to have a voice that counterbalances Rand Paul, who I’m sure is going to be up to the tricks his Daddy was up to in 2012 and who’s foreign policy I despise”. I’m convinced that Graham wasn’t running to win, he was running to beat up on Rand Paul just in case Paul proved to have a core of cultists as loyal as his father had (turns out Trump had the cult this time around and Graham was as ineffective against Trump as anyone else was.)
Also widely hated by the base because he refused to hand them the red meat that they wanted, and from what I understand not well-liked within the Republican establishment either. Note that the establishment had the choice of Kasich or Rubio when Jeb! flamed out and they all turned to Rubio – a man who was elected as a Tea Party insurgent candidate – over the so-called “establishment” candidate Kasich.
Even had they rallied to Kasich’s side, he still would have lost. Because Ted Cruz was in there making sure that nobody else but him could make it a two-person race against Trump.
What happened to the GOP in the primary was a massive collective action problem. Working together they could have stopped Trump but they all expected him to flame out on his own and so concentrated on beating each other up instead.
Miss Bianca
@dmsilev: that’s the image I had too – in fact, I was almost convinced that that was what I was going to find when I clicked on the link to Tom’s post!
Served
@Tom Levenson:
Duckworth’s VA Whistleblower trial date begin set for August does not fill me with joy, but the Dems did release this solid hit on Mark Kirk today: https://trumporkirk.com
I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of similar hits in other races this year, especially where the Democratic candidate is a woman.
C. Isaac
@Villago Delenda Est:
As a Texan, I can confirm that his four figure haircut was smarter than the whole of the rest of him put together.
An empty suit that was mostly concerned about greasing the palms of himself and his own, and part of the lasting legacy of ineptitude that GW Bush and his administration left behind in this state before going on to do even worse things to the whole nation.
rikyrah
@JPL:
that’s an actual headline?
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Fester Addams
Still think his best work was during his “fresh look” period. I recall it fondly; how I laughed and laughed.
hovercraft
Deval Patrick, Antonio Villaraigosa, as mentioned above Harris and Gillebrand, I’m sure there are more out there biding their time. The mistake people make is that Obama was a first term senator who came out of ‘nowhere’ and won. So now everyone who is relatively young and becomes a senator is the next potential president. Obama made it look easy but it’s not. So far they’ve had Thune, Rubio, Cruz, Ernst, Cotton, and Sasse. Two of them already crashed and burnt, Thune is the Quayle, and if Ernst wants to ever get anywhere she actually has to learn stuff.
So yes they have a deep bench if all you count is youth and position, the problem as Trump if finding out is if you get the nomination you will be vetted.
Frankensteinbeck
You are being kind. I have never seen a shitstorm of fail like Jeb;.;
Which is why he went nowhere. The base wanted a proud racist, or at least a religious bigot. The bigwigs wanted an aristocrat. Kasich was presenting the John Huntsman ‘I pretend to be a moderate’ that hardly anybody wanted.
@Roger Moore:
Well, he had to. According to the apocrypha, he couldn’t make a woman out of clay like Adam. That would be equality, and Adam through a hissy fit until God made him a new wife that was just a subordinate piece of him. Good grief, man, Lilith liked to be *on top* during sex!
Iowa Old Lady
@? Martin: It’s even worse for down ballot candidates when, like Iowa, you separate the presidential part from the rest. Our primary is today. We’re voting for House candidates and a rival to Grassley. At 8:30 I was voter #4 in my precinct. A friend was #19 in his precinct at 11.
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker:
Like his hero who no longer talks about birth certificates.
nonynony
@JPL. @rikyrah: :
Better – not just the headline, but almost a direct quote:
He’s flat-out saying that the time and place for attacking various minority groups is during the primary – just like when you attack your competition. Now that you’ve won it, it’s time to put that stuff away and get “on message”.
Mitch McConnell is usually a more savvy operator than this when it comes to separating the loud parts and the quiet parts. Trump must really have him rattled.
JPL
@rikyrah: This is the link for Reuters Politics on twitter…
Shorter Mitch, please tone down your racism.
JPL
@nonynony: What are the odds that Trump is going to play nice? hmmm
smith
@nonynony:
Or won’t take his calls.
Brachiator
@dmsilev:
In the James Bond movie, Goldeneye, Alan Cumming plays a Russian hacker who shouts “I am invincible!” just before he is sprayed with some supercold liquid that freezes him solid.
? Martin
@hovercraft:
Chris Murphy on our side.
But the GOP bench is only deep when you look at regional elections. Sasse could get votes nationally, but Thune, Cruz, Ernst, and Cotton are going nowhere. Marco just turned out to be a shitty campaigner. Dems bench aren’t a bunch of bomb-throwers – they are people that, like Clinton, may struggle to win the activist left, but they’ll be attractive in a general national election.
RK
Remember when Trump made fun of a disabled reporter? Here’s an ad that will run in s several swing states during the Republican convention.
bemused
@Betty Cracker:
When a Republican presidential candidate is too fucking embarrassing, you know the GOP has really hit the skids.
? Martin
@nonynony:
There’s usually a certain degree of party loyalty you can count on that allows you to tells someone in private to take one for the team. Trump is an army of one. He’s not going to do a fucking thing for the team. The private conversations aren’t working and now the GOP is resorting to public conversations, and I safely predict that Trump will now publicly tell them to go fuck themselves.
Brachiator
@hovercraft:
Villaraigosa is a lightweight, no a flyweight, who should not be let anywhere near political power anymore. The others you mention are pretty good. California Lt Gov Gavin Newsom might also be considered, although he has a few issues that might muddy any jump to national politics.
? Martin
@bemused: Seeing reports today that voters are upset to have the poll worker mention out loud they are taking a Republican ballot. Even the voters are embarrassed to be associated with the party.
catclub
@Origuy: After he clinched in 2012, Romney won with 75-85% of the GOP primary vote. I wonder what percentage Trump will get. I saw some state where it looked more like 67%. Could be another indicator of not yet Trump.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
He could run, but I don’t think he’d get further than he has this year. From friends and family in Maryland, people who are or lean Democrat, they do not have a strongly positive opinion about him.
They feel a lot of what he proposed was always with an eye towards the next higher office, and he did not deal with the nitty-gritty of what it takes to manage a state.
They don’t hate him, but it’s a lot of “meh, he’s O.K. but not great”.
And if you don’t have a strong amount of support in your home state, you will have a tough time in a primary fight.
? Martin
@Brachiator: Agreed.
JCJ
Well, I think The Onion was quite accurate with this story from November 2012
http://www.theonion.com/video/after-obama-victory-shrieking-white-hot-sphere-of–30284
That White Hot Sphere of Pure Rage would have won the Republican nomination easily.
hovercraft
O/T Wouldn’t it be sad if the superdelegates did move over to the candidate they believe has the best chance of beating Trump ? From Bloomberg:
nonynony
@JPL:
Zero.
In fact, one thing that is going to hurt Trump a lot is the standard horse race polling that we get in every election. Where the press has a whole bunch of polls that on average show one side or the other dominating but the average never gets discussed or the fact that polls of the whole national electorate matter far less than polls of individual states also never gets discussed. Instead one outlier poll gets presented as showing a tight race and that becomes the focus. Trump has already expressed his disdain for the numbers game – I could see him just following the political press, looking to see who is “winning” and following along with whatever they say as his strategy. Even if his internal people are telling him their own polling shows something quite different. (Hell he just threw the person who was dealing with his surrogates under the bus the other day publicly – they’re all going to end up under that bus before the election is over).
And that means that his bubble is going to be worse than Romney’s. Every dodgy Rassmussen or FOX News poll designed to drive the horse race narrative is going to be something that Trump holds up as showing he’s winning and so shouldn’t change course. Even if he was capable of changing course. Trump isn’t putting on a persona like so many politicians seem to be able to do – he’s just an asshole. Trying to get him to not be an asshole would be like re-routing the Mississippi River with a thimble and a toothpick – not something even the best campaign staff will be able to accomplish even if he admitted they needed to do something different and was trying.
Actually, Bob IS My Uncle
@JCJ:
It did.
Immanentize
That’s just wrong — Kenneth did not have a malicious bone in his head. Jindal has nothing but.
hovercraft
@Brachiator:
Agreed, my point is that everyone knew Hillary was going to run, so most people did not make any noises about running. They figured if anyone was going to challenge her it would be Biden. If FSM forbid she were to lose, there would be a bunch of people coming out of the woodwork.
cmorenc
Paul Ryan would have been a stronger candidate than most of those who did run. Paul Ryan is a fraudulent pretender as an intellectual politician with any sort of sound grasp on economic and budgetary policy – but the beltway media is smitten with him as a person to be taken seriously on these matters from a thoughtful conservative approach to these matters. He also cuts a much more prominent figure within the GOP than Kasich, with the benefit that at least until he accepted the House speakership (which he wouldn’t have done had he run for POTUS) and sooner or later became forced to make decisions the Tea Party crazies viewed as traitorous compromises, was acceptable to them at least as a compatible fellow-traveler. By contrast, Kasich was always viewed as an establishment squish by the dominant rabid right wing of the party, despite (or because of) his record as governor and senator from the key state of Ohio.
Yeah, hopefully Ryan could have been ripped apart during the GE along the lines Joe Biden took his ass apart into charred, dented pieces. Ryan still privately thinks of Ayn Rand as a prophet – the only way his perspective has really “evolved” from that is that he’s learned to push that deeper onto the back shelves, much further from public and media eyes. But the MSM’s treatment of Ryan as a “serious” man with a serious plan would have helped carry him along until the dems found the right way to convincingly tear the cover off his fraudulent ass to enough of the electorate.
EBT
More ferret slander I see.
nonynony
@? Martin:
Sure, but I actually would have expected McConnell to phrase it a bit differently. Something that sounded less like “it’s okay to bash minorities during the primary, but dial it back for the election” and more like “bashing minorities is not okay”. Or just not mention it at all. Blatantly pointing out that it’s okay to bash the minorities during the primary but there’s a time and a place for that and it’s over feels like McConnell is losing control of himself even as he’s sending a message to Trump.
gene108
@? Martin:
There’s a minimum expectation that a President do some actual governing. As much as Bush, Jr. was a rubber stamp on a Republican Congress, he also signed Sarbanes-Oxley into law as a response to financial fraud, for example. He also proposed his own initiatives, such as Medicare Part D and NCLB.
I cannot imagine any Republican, who has the ability to both appeal to the base and demonstrate an ability to actually govern existing, because when you govern you occasionally have to comprise “core conservative principles” to get something done, such was the case with Kasich and Medicare expansion.
The Senators can score points with the base, but they do not need to compromise and attempt to actually govern. McConnell has sort of turned the Republicans in the Senate into an anti-governing institution, sort of like anti-matter is to matter, wherein if the actually attempted to govern they would cancel out their very reason to exist and vaporize themselves into oblivion.
Mnemosyne
@? Martin:
Here in Burbank, there was a long line for the 3 Democratic booths and no wait for a Republican one.
Iowa Old Lady
@RK: That ad is powerful.
Reggie Mantle
@Betty Cracker:
Every time he runs, if he runs again, he’s going to be doing it with David Simon’s teeth in his leg. That dude HATES O’Malley.
nonynony
@cmorenc:
A failed Vice Presidential candidate whose most notable achievement when the campaign season started was that he’d provided a budget with no numbers in it and thought it should be taken seriously?
I can see running now from the position of Speaker of the House, though he’s probably the weakest Speaker of the House in modern history (and yeah – I’m counting Boehner in that group. Ryan is weaker). Even then he’s a laughable candidate when compared to Rubio, let alone Kasich. But last summer when campaigns were starting up? He would have been laughed off the stage.
geg6
@nonynony:
There is no doubt in my mind about this. Deadbeat Donnie has given away the game that he and his mentors spent forty years playing exclusively through dog whistles. He’s careening around the country, listening to no one and sucking up all the media oxygen that isn’t going to Hillary. He’s killing the prospects of many a Senate GOPer in purplish states and he’s making every single minority population in the country remember why they hate white guys. It’s unfuckingbelievable, to me and, I’m absolutely sure, him. He thought he’d cruise through the summer after the primary season in which someone like Jeb! is installed as the crown prince to thrash the Hildebeast in the fall, release his first book and bask in the media glow of the Village for his wisdom and savvy, which he made sure to humbly highlight in his tome.
Now, the dream is gone. Worst summer vacation ever.
Mike in NC
Drumpf invincible? From the idiot troll with 20 names, including the SuperPAC that pissed away $55M to promote the dumbest member of the Bush clan.
hovercraft
C. Isaac
@nonynony:
Plus he’s a Nickelback fan, and that right there destroys any vestige of credibility of him being able to make sound decisions.
El Caganer
@Corner Stone: Oh, I remember that one. “Mitch and The Donald: The Fable of the Tortoise and the Hair.”
Ramping Up
Wow, talk about flop sweat!
Yes, indeed, Trump is INVINCIBLE–remember how many statements/actions were supposed to be “the end” of his campaign? Mexicans, McCain, Megan Kelly, Muslim ban, etc etc…each one was supposed to be “it” but it only made him stronger. What’s more, it provided MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of dollars in free media coverage, and that strategy will continue on into the general!
Who has been dominating the news this week?
T-R-U-M-P!
There’s no such thing as bad publicity.
nonynony
@Mnemosyne: You guys get different booths for different parties? Interesting.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
I almost feel sorry for Lindsey Graham. Almost. The reason I say that is 1) he has stuck his ground and refused to endorse Deadbeat Donnie; 2) he really seems genuinely upset and distraught by what Trump says about his party and 3) he is the only one in the bunch with a sense of humor, even if it is currently gallows humor. At least, he strikes me as an actual thinking, feeling human being. I don’t agree with anything he thinks or feels, but he is recognizable as a not-complete-moron. Can’t say that about many GOPers, you know.
Tom Levenson
@Ramping Up: Thanks for stopping by!
Stick around.
Have a donut.
We’ll continue to study you through that one-way glass over there.
Chyron HR
@Ramping Up:
I almost feel sorry for Trump when even his most FANATICAL SUPPORTER openly admits that “Hillary will crush him” because he’s “an amateur”.
Tom Levenson
@geg6: Agreed. He’s wrong, not crazy.
piratedan
this has all been one great big misunderstanding… it’s never been bench… the word that was actually used was trench, the GOP has a deep trench and yes, it’s just about completely full of shit.
C. Isaac
@piratedan:
We could call it the Marianas of Manure.
Shell
And our illustrious Gov, Christie, is totally living up to Charlie Pierces nickname for him, The Big Chicken.
Paul in KY
@Ocotillo: Reposting this from down below where TriassicSands was getting squishy:
We (Mrs. Clinton, Pres. Obama, VP Biden, whomever her VP choice is, Sen. Warren, Sen. Reid, other professional spokesassasins) are going to not mince words either. They will hear lots of pointed, easy-to-understand truths about the Combover Caligula.
By the time the election happens, all his potential voters will know in their heart of hearts that everything he says is a lie & he has been lying to them the whole time.
cmorenc
@nonynony: I mean that Ryan would have had the advantage of a lot of favorable coverage by the MSM as a “serious” thoughtful Republican on budgetary issues, despite the fact that any more than very superficial analysis of his proposals and numbers reveals him as a blatant fraud. He wouldn’t be the first failed candidate for high office who later succeeded, despite fraudulent self-presentations – remember Richard Nixon and his “secret” plan to end the Vietnam War?
The Thin Black Duke
Meanwhile, sitting in a quiet room, Mitt Romney patiently waits for his phone to ring.
El Caganer
@Immanentize: To be fair, he’s got some smarmy piety, too.
Miss Bianca
@The Thin Black Duke: I think there’s a 27% chance that it might. Or would that be a 47% chance?
r€nato
oh I just love hearing that “deep bench” comment.
To continue the sports metaphor… a football team that has 17 candidates for QB does NOT have a deep bench. That is anything BUT a deep bench. It is a MEDIOCRE bench because there is no such thing as a team that has 17 QB candidates of first-string quality vying for the starter’s job.
A “deep bench” would mean two, maybe three strong contenders that are easily discerned from the pretenders.
If you have 17 players competing for QB… that’s little different from a cattle call.
As always, this is and was just more delusion from the right-wing, on par with the “skewed polls” delusional nonsense in 2012.
May the GOP continue to get high on its own supply of bullshit for years to come.
Mike in NC
@Ramping Up: Don’t trip over your clown shoes as you head down into mom’s basement. On second thought, break your neck.
Schlemazel Khan
@rikyrah:
Hence my nym change and offer to be Sec of Internal passification. I’d gladly finish the job W.T.Sherman started only this time it will be finished.
joel hanes
@Iowa Old Lady:
Thanks for voting.
I have been giving money to Mowrer, although I moved from Iowa to California some 35 years ago.
One of these days I’ll move back.
nonynony
@Chyron HR: Right To Rise isn’t Trump’s most fanatical supporter though. R2R is a troll who is here to poke liberals and get them to react to his inanity. He’s the UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH guy. It’s why he picked Jeb! as his starting candidate this cycle – because the conventional wisdom was that Jeb! was going to be the nominee and by starting out early on with the persona of a Jeb! supporter he could make variations of his “bookmark it Lieberals” post for months without having to do any work beyond copypasta.
He had to cycle from Jeb! to Rubio. Then to Cruz. Then to contested convention and Paul Ryan. And finally he settled into Trump support once it became obvious that he was the nominee. But now, finally, he can settle into the copypasta routine he’s been wanting to have since the start of this presidential campaign and can finally work on his ever important “getting people to acknowledge he exists”. Because of his Mommy/Daddy issues I would presume.
Don’t let your kids grow up to become Internet Trolls. Hug them and make sure you let them know that you care about them. Otherwise they may grow up to be the kind of person who can only find validation by going to places they aren’t wanted and posting incendiary baloney hoping that they might get some kind of human interaction with someone, even if that interaction is just someone calling them an idiot.
Corner Stone
@El Caganer:
Except in this one the Hair shows up at every press Q&A, the turtle is too slow to outrun him and there’s no finish line in sight.
nonynony
@cmorenc:
I don’t think it would have helped him, though – the Republicans this cycle wanted racist red meat far more than they wanted a “serious” thoughtful Republican.
El Caganer
@Ramping Up: MILLIONS AND MILLIONS? What are you, some sort of wingnut version of Carl Sagan?
Gelfling545
@Betty Cracker: O’Malley should get out there & get his face known. Some of the hard core Bernie fans of my acquaintance were just starting to get curious about him when he ended his campaign.
Trollhattan
@Ramping Up:
My laugh of the day, and it’s only just lunchtime. And how is the Penn State Athletics Department doing these days, anyway?
TaMara (HFG)
Every time I heard some talking head say that or read it here, I thought, please, the entire field was completely insane, just not insane enough to capture the hearts and minds of the average repu
licangnant voter.Lamh36
https://twitter.com/jackpmoore/status/740074838161686529
Trollhattan
@joel hanes:
Until my granny died in the early oughts I went back there to visit most years. The five-month winters absolutely ensure I entertain no thoughts of reestablishing my Iowa roots.
Schlemazel Khan
@Keith P.:
The bench has to be wide what with all those fat asses on it
The Thin Black Duke
@Lamh36: It’s reassuring to see that not every Hollywood celebrity is as clueless as Ms. Susan Saranwrap. Well played, Meryl!
bemused
@? Martin:
Oh wow, that’s sweet although I’m a bit surprised some are actually embarrassed.
Mnemosyne
@nonynony:
Primary election. The ballots are different, and I’m in an Inkavote county.
daves09
@Tom Levenson: Also from Ca., Gavin Newsom, probably the next governor.
Ramping Up
@Mike in NC:
Again with the fantasies. Creepy!
Betty Cracker
@Lamh36: And one of the Stupidest Man on the Internet’s associates had this to say about the fabulous Ms. Streep’s Trump skit:
First they came for the Oompa Loompas…
Jay B.
@Chyron HR:
I think it’s more that his most FANATICAL SUPPORTER forgot to change back to his normal handle before posting.
philadelphialawyer
Seems a bit pat to me. The losers are all losers because they lost.
Well, yeah….
But they were, if not “deep,” no weaker than the average GOP bench. Governors and Senators. And formers of the same. What else would they be? Former governors of Texas and Florida (the two biggest GOP States, and the second and third biggest of all States), and sitting Senators from the same. These are not what one would expect of GOP presidential candidates? Cruz, I would add, was also Texas State AG, argued before the Supreme Court numerous times, and is a former SCOTUS clerk. Bush had all the money in the world, and most of the establishment support. Santorum, yeah, he lost his Senate bid by thirty points, but, more recently, as in 2012, he was the runner up to the GOP presidential nominee. Walker, you just dismiss, but he is the governor of a Blue (or swing) State, known for it progressivism, and he survived a pretty well run recall bid, even though he has rammed terrible, out and out, right wing legislation down the its throat. Christie is not going to be indicted, is also the sitting governor of a Blue State, and who also has some reactionary legislative success. Kasich you admit was a reasonable candidate.
As I see it, it was the typical GOP field…what passes for “moderates” in Bush, Kasitch, and Rubio–to play the role of McCain or Romney or Dole. “Movement” conservatives Cruz and Santorum. This year’s Herman Cain in Ben Carson. Union busting governors. This year’s Ron Paul in Rand Paul. And the rest to fill in every other conceivable niche. Even a pre existing candidate blocking Trump’s own “lane” (as it were!), ie Chris Christie in the loud mouthed, northeastern asshole slot.
Beating that not deep, but not shallow, field does not make Trump “invincible,” by any stretch. But it ain’t nothing, either. Trump, coming from nowhere, beat an average GOP group of candidates. That, by definition, means he has some strengths. As much as we all quite justifiably despise and fear him…….
hovercraft
Digby is concerned that our failed media experiment, could cost Hillary the election. I think that would only work if Trump was able to control himself. Right now he’s behaving unhinged. What does his lawsuit have to do with the American people in the firs place, its a personal matter.
Patrick Thompson
@Immanentize:
Kenneth with a beard?
Trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
If he had stopped right there, the Stupidest Man on the Internet [and/or minion] would have been CORRECT!
geg6
@gene108:
Hmmm, the people I know of from Maryland tell me the opposite. I’ve been hearing about how terrific he is for many years from them. But then, many of them are quite active in state government and the Maryland Dems and they may be a bit prejudiced in his favor because of that.
Ramping Up
Wow, gay liberal Glenn Grenwald calls Demcorat primaries corrupt beyond repair!
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker:
Obama did call Boehner a person of color, maybe he along with Drumpf are part of a new minority?
bemused
@RK:
I’m so glad to see this ad. I hope it gets widely aired. If it was just one thing that should turn anyone against Trump, it’s Trump mocking someone’s disability. I haven’t been around any Trump supporters that I know of recently but if anyone should announce their love for Trump around me, I will be sure to ask them how they could support someone who mocks the disabled. If they wouldn’t allow their own children to do that to others, how could they possibly think Trump is fit to be president.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ramping Up: Well, like his newly found hero, Teh Donald, Ralphing Up is doubling down on the stoopid.
Go Ralphing Up!
Patrick Thompson
@Shell:
I myself prefer “Governor Creosote.”
Trollhattan
@Patrick Thompson:
“I’ll have the lot.”
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker:
Well, when you consider what the Oompa Loompas looked like when I read the book back when I was a pup…maybe he has a point! (not much of one, but still)
hovercraft
@bemused:
I believe it’s running in FL,OH,VA, and NV
Trollhattan
@bemused:
Until Rush did his “Slutty slut is all slutty about being a slut” attack on Sandra Fluke, his most repellent act was mocking Michael J Fox. Trump’s operating on the same level; hey, could Rush become his running mate? That would be awesome.
Mnemosyne
@bemused:
A few weeks ago, someone here posted an essay by a disabled Bernie supporter who switched to Hillary in large part because of her platform on disability rights. And once she started working for Hillary’s campaign as a volunteer, she was blown away by how helpful and accommodating they were with the day-to-day volunteering stuff. So there is a divide to be pried open there, for sure.
bemused
@hovercraft:
That’s a good start but hopefully it will run in every state. I think it’s that good.
? Martin
Wherein I Tom Friedman the site again.
And guess what? That labor share of the national income started falling in the 60s, before NAFTA and before Reagan and before even the cultural revolution. And right now it’s fucking plummeting. Productivity is up, wage share from that is down. That won’t be backfilled with manufacturing jobs from Asia or Mexico or from mining more coal.
Though I regret having Larry Summers on my team.
Surreal American
@Mike in NC:
Wait, Neil Bush ran for president this year?
tarragon
@nonynony:
In my district in NY we had separate lines to get the primary ballot but common ballot readers. The D line was backed up out the door, one R grabbed a ballot in the time I was in line.
bemused
@Trollhattan:
I’ve never forgotten Rush mocking Fox, saying Fox was faking. Too disgusting for words. Rush and Trump deserve each other, peas in a pod.
WereBear
@Tom Levenson: I keep feeling that they are a performance artist: since no actual sentient being can say stuff like that with a straight face.
dmsilev
@Ramping Up: And the Speaker of the House just called Trump a racist.
hovercraft
@bemused:
It’s from Priorities USA which was Obama’s superpac and it still has a lot of the same people. They were very effective against Rmoney. They’ve already reserved over 100 million in airtime ( to get a discounted rate) so I’m sure they will be playing in all the swing states.
Shell
@dmsilev: But hes still going to vote for him
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
I’d be shocked if Trump had any disabled staffers on his campaign but then I thought of old white raging teaparty Foxbot people.
bemused
@hovercraft:
Fantastic.
Brachiator
Who does this most remind you of?
Anyone? Anyone?
In 2008, Sarah Palin refused to pay attention to her advisors, refused to study policy materials, and tried to smile and dazzle her way through the campaign. And she wasn’t the top of the ticket. It’s amazing that the Republicans are trying this stunt again, only this time with the Jester in the top spot. But in a way they have no choice. A certain core of the GOP base liked Palin and even today still see her as representing the best of American values.
Similarly, Trump has captured the hearts of a core of conservative voters who have lost patience with the mainstream Republican Party. It really doesn’t matter how deep or shallow the GOP bench was. All of them were considered and rejected by Republican voters. And now the GOP has to find a way to rein in the monster that they themselves largely created.
BTW, it will be interesting to see which Republican besides Pick Me! Pick Me! Chris Christie is crazy enough or desperate enough to want to be Trump’s VP pick?
And of course, today Pick Me! Pick Me! Christie is defending Trump’s First Amendment right to say something bigoted about a judge. He sure does grovel well:
Ramping Up
@dmsilev:
So? Racist doesn’t mean anything anymore. That’s the beauty of Trump being elected–the race card is forever neutralized. People will speak their mind without fear of being called raaaciissst anymore.
EriktheRed
So what is the name of this under-bridge dweller who called The Dumpster “INVINCIBLE”?
ETA; Oh. Apparently it’s this asshole right above me.
philadelphialawyer
@Brachiator:
“Similarly, Trump has captured the hearts of a core of conservative voters who have lost patience with the mainstream Republican Party. It really doesn’t matter how deep or shallow the GOP bench was. All of them were considered and rejected by Republican voters. And now the GOP has to find a way to rein in the monster that they themselves largely created.”
That is the point. Trump won. That means that his brand is what the GOP voters want. We, rather than the GOP–which is way too far gone– have to make sure it is not what the GE voters want and rein in that monster. Mocking Trump for beating a shallow bench is as much of a distraction as is overrating its depth. Or even focusing on it at all. This IS the new GOP….no more dog whistles…out and out thuggery and brownshirtism. That is why Trump won. He’s not a genius, but he is speaking for a non negligible group of people.
Chris
Yep.
I hated the Trump-bashing that went on in the context of the Republican primary largely because it was an easy way for the party to try to dump all its sins onto one (outsider-ish) candidate, and earn lots and lots of “moderate” and “serious” brownie points for no justification other than Not Being Donald Trump. The media, needless to say, went right along with all of it.
And doubly so because the very few times that Trump actually disagreed with the Republican candidate field, as often as not, he was the one who was correct. The fact that it took Donald fucking Trump to dare to say out loud the obvious fact that Iraq was a fuckup from end to end says a lot more about the rest of the Republican Party than it does about him.
TL/DR: yeah, Trump is a fucking mess, but it’s no excuse for ignoring the equally huge flaws in the rest of the field.
Back to read the comments…
Mike in NC
@EriktheRed: Short name: RtR
Long name: Pathetic Loser
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Ramping Up: You’re still living under the illusion that the GOP electorate and the U.S. electorate are one and the same. They are not. Trump’s “message” works for the GOP electorate but independents and Democrats hate it. As the GOP electorate is a minority of the U.S. electorate, this makes Trump eminently “vincible” in the general election.
BillinGlendaleCA
@nonynony: We use whats called ‘ink-a-vote’ here in LA country. The ballot is just a card with numbers on it and circles that get inked to indicate the vote. The card slides into the ‘ballot’ with the names and numbers on it and you use the ink pen to mark the card though holes next to the names on the ballot. That’s why you have different booths for different ballot types.
Ramping Up
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
The old rules are dead. Trump plays by his own rules. None of this heat and fury will affect him the slightest in the polls, book it.
Ramping Up
Trump +1 in Florida, even after all this heat from the media and flak for being politically incorrect. And this is from a Democrat pollster.
INVINCIBLE!
Chris
@Brachiator:
I was still reading conservative blogs at the time. They were convinced that Sarah Palin was a special snowflake, that she’s not the reason McCain lost but rather the reason he even did as well as he did, that everything that went wrong around her including that zillion-dollar shopping spree was something sprung on her by her elitist, RINO, DC-insider advisers, who’d been part of the Beltway so long they just didn’t realize what a gift they had in that authentic, folksy, heartlandy gal and how much more she could’ve done if she’d only been allowed to be herself.
Wish I could say I was surprised that they decided to repeat the process with Palin as president, but I’m not.
Mnemosyne
@Ramping Up:
Is this like how being called “sexist” doesn’t matter anymore, so it was A-OK for that judge in Palo Alto to give a rapist 6 months in jail after the guy was convicted of multiple felonies? People weren’t upset by that at all, you know.
Villago Delenda Est
@Shell: And therein lies his moral bankruptcy.
Trollhattan
Mark Kirk must be feeling some Duckworth heat.
“I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party,”
This, after formerly endorsing Donny. H/T LGM
Villago Delenda Est
@Ramping Up: He’s going to take your party down with him, idiot. I could not be happier.
rikyrah
@geg6:
LOVE your entire comment. Absolutely on point.
catclub
@Trollhattan:
Electoral Gold!
BillinGlendaleCA
…and I’m off to cast my vote for the Hillbeast.
Trollhattan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Enjoy, I did!
Ramping Up
@Villago Delenda Est:
Trump up one in Florida, even after you and your ilk shouting “racist!” :)
Corner Stone
@catclub:
I am awesomely reminded of when Tim Allen does his pig snorting sounds in his comedy routine…
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Ocotillo: Even more of an urgent question at the state and local level. Here in CA, our one qualified candidate for anything has been tapped to run for the US Senate – Kamala Harris. She’ll likely win. Which is good for the country. Not so good for CA.
I’m not real happy about this because I was hoping we’d keep her to replace Jerry Brown. Instead we will get pill-popping, spouse-humping Gavin Newsom, a man who I will never cast a vote for no matter who his opponent is. I already had to live with the guy running the town I was living in (San Francisco) and I’ll never subject myself to that again. He’s a Republican in everything but name – but you can add to that a vast helping of corruption, a fetishization for destroying public education and an absolute lack of impulse control combined with an ego larger than Donald Trump’s.
Where’s a governor I can vote for, much less anyone for any other option? Loretta Sanchez is about it. Villarigosa may be fatally compromised by some of his actions while running LA. We really don’t have anyone else, and that scares the shit out of me. I don’t want to see our version of Rauner get into office while running on Newsom’s pile of pills and hookers, because then we end up right back in the shitter where we were not even a decade ago.
Brachiator
@Trollhattan:
My, my, my, this is good.
So, now you’ve got Republicans agreeing with Hillary that Trump does not have suitable temperament to be president.
I wonder how the GOP is going to dance around this one.
This makes the GOP’s job much tougher going into their convention. They’ve got to get a wrangler to bring stray Republicans back into the fold. Or get the Donald to back down from his more noxious statements.
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA H AH HA
Chyron HR
@Ramping Up:
Trollhattan
@Chyron HR:
This 4-y.o. comment stash is like finding a month of unpublished “Far Sides.” Good times.
Origuy
Funny story. A friend who used to work the election (in CA) stopped in to chat with the workers when a woman comes in who is an NPP (No Party Preference) and says she just learned she could get a Democratic ballot. The workers looked at Esther since she had more experience than any of them. The woman had already cast a ballot by mail and was not even a resident of the same county.
I learned to my surprise that the ballot given to NPPs who request a Democratic ballot is different from the one given to registered Democrats. I haven’t been able to find out what the difference is. I’m guessing that it doesn’t include elected party officials. Anyone know?
scav
@Trollhattan: That windsock would notice chill winds.
Chris
@Trollhattan:
He was on the blog Sadly, No! all the way back in 2008 making identical predictions for McCain under a different name, too. Accusations of paid trolling are thrown around a lot, but that kind of persistence, plus the fact that his memes are all basically the same crap slightly reworked, plus the fact that he only ever seems to show up to discuss elections, lead me to think it’s true for once.
Brachiator
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I wondered what the local opinion of Newsom might be, and whether the taint of his past notoriety had faded. I recall when he was lauded as being strong, very strong for gay marriage. I am surprised at the charge that he is really a Republican. How do you do that and still get to be elected Jerry Brown’s Lt Governor?
The jury is still out on Sanchez, but I often thought of Villarigosa as the Southern California version of Newsom, only worse. What did him in more than anything else was when the LA Weekly followed his work schedule, from May 21 to August 1,
And any time he had left was spent having an affair with a local news anchor.
But there are some people to look out for. Maybe Janice Hahn, Sheila Kuehl (just off the top of my head), and others.
chopper
@Chyron HR:
TEE HEE HEE!
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
LOL, i had no idea ‘spray tan’ was a race. thanks for learnin’ us all about racism, white republicans!
El Caganer
@bemused: What makes you think they don’t allow their children to mock the disabled?
Brachiator
@Origuy:
Some offices, such as Assembly District, cannot be voted.
ETA: computer ate my first reply.
Jay B.
e@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Oh please, past Harris and Newsome, California has TONS of elected Democrats who are itching for higher office. Alex Padilla, John Chiang, Betty Yee — and those are just at the Secretary level. They have 39 out of 53 Congressional seats too — a guy like Adam Schiff or Becerra could move up once Feinstein retires. Plus they have a supermajority in Sacramento, which means every major political player there is a Democrat. And that’s ALSO not including the mayors of LA, SF, San Jose or Long Beach, to name a couple of cities. The bench is VERY deep here.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Origuy: Your friend would have gotten a provisional since she wasn’t registered in that county and had already voted. The Dem ballot given to NPPs in CA is exactly the same as the ones registered Dems get.
@chopper: Orange-Americans.
Trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Sanchez will be clobbered by Harris in November (not enough name recognition), although Republicans will probably back her (if subtly) because she’s considered more pro-bidnez. Chiang could make waves in the governor’s race, but his ability to gain widespread support has yet to be seen. I’m skeptical about Newsom because of his giant baggage cart. Nancy McFadden of Brown’s staff might be interesting if she’s interested in public office, very dynamic speaker.
Ascendancy to high office here seems to have no standard path, in part because Feinstein and Boxer have held office so long and because of term limits.
Feebog
Newsome does have a sketchy past. However, he seems to have settled in pretty well as Lt. Gov. Villarigosa was a complete and utter failure as Mayor of Los Angeles. And I speak as a life-long Angeleno. I would not be surprised if Loretta Sanchez took a shot at Governor if she loses to Harris, which is likely. We have some other folks who may step up as well. For sure Newsome will not have a cakewalk.
Woodrowfan
the Republican bench is deep. sort of like the Braves, the Reds, and the Twins have deep benches.
Brachiator
@Trollhattan:
Isn’t there still a “glass ceiling” with respect to an Asian American running for one of the top state offices (governor, Lt Governor, Attorney General)? Obviously, one could use a very broad definition and say that Kamala Harris qualifies as an Asian American.
dollared
@Tom Levenson: 180 comments, I admit I didn’t read them all. Did anyone get you on “naval” gazing? Isn’t that usually done with radar, if you’re gazing over the horizon?
Trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Don’t know about California, but the former governor of Washington, Gary Locke, at least demonstrates the possibility. (Went to my high school, so yay!)
sigaba
Saw this today (read in the voice of Mitch McConnel):
Sixteen bums, and who did we get?
A moron and a bigot we’d all like to forget
St. Peter sure won’t call me ’cause I’m a chump
I sold my soul to Donald Trump…
Corner Stone
@dollared: C’mon! This place is a pedant’s wet dream! Yes, they nailed him for it but in his les majeste decided to leave it as is.
Corner Stone
Brian Williams has to be hating himself about now. Buried as second or third banana on MSNBC.
And damn, taking shots from Maddow to boot. Yee-ouch.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Trollhattan: Also remember that Asians are 15% of the population of CA and are a growing percentage.
BillinGlendaleCA
@BillinGlendaleCA: FYWP, i can’t edit my comment. I voted AND got my haircut. The NPP might not contain the ballot for party central committee, I’ll ask the wife since she somehow got shifted to ‘decline to state’ when she requested a Korean sample ballot.
Jack the Second
You know the most hilarious thing about the problems the Republican establishment is having with Donald Trump?
In other threads, people talk about how Hillary Clinton is a smart candidate — she’ll keep her mouth shut and let her proxies make the attacks while she stays above it all.
Donald Trump was one of those proxies for the Republicans! They’d let him mouth off about birth certificates while waving off questions with a “he’s just a TV loudmouth” and a “but isn’t it interesting”.
And now he’s their candidate!
Tim C.
The really sad thing about looking at the old thread is it makes me miss General Stuck.
The Other Chuck
@geg6: 4) He’s still a Republican. So fuck him.
dollared
@Corner Stone: Thanks. It’s not like Tom Levenson knows how to write or anything…..
debbie
John Kasich cost Ohio taxpayers $13,600+ for each of the 161 delegates he received. I want a refund!
Corner Stone
@dollared: Ah, blogger’s make mistakes. No reason to call a blogger ethics panel over it!
SFAW
@Ramping Up:
Yeah, you go for it, Racist Hump, just as you did a few months ago.
Fucking mook.
SFAW
@Woodrowfan:
I think you misspelled “derp.”
SFAW
@Racist Hump:
As opposed to you and your ilk being racist.