From this morning’s Politico:
Hillary Clinton’s team is moving to shore up an area where she urgently needs help — the campaign has hired Bernie Sanders’ director of student organizing to serve as her national campus and student organizing director, a Clinton official confirmed to POLITICO.
Kunoor Ojha is the Clinton campaign’s first major hire from the Sanders campaign, and her move to a role where she will work with the state teams to mobilize young voters represents a significant step in the former secretary of state’s outreach to the Vermont senator’s most ardent backers.
The party unifies when a bunch of people who were doing a good job on the Sanders campaign get good jobs on the Clinton campaign.
I remember in 2008 as the Democratic primary was winding down that a bunch of Clinton operatives got jobs on the Obama team.
I remember in 2004 that the digital/internet/blog outreach folks from the Dean and Clark campaigns got scooped up by the Kerry/Edwards team.
Echoing Doug, just chill……
Felanius Kootea
That hire is simply brilliant!
gwangung
Good move. Heartily approve.
Baud
I need work.
Baud
In all seriousness, we can argue until the cows come home. Time, and thus the campaign, are marching on.
chopper
long as clinton is hiring the non-insane guys from sanders’ campaign, rock on.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
If the Clinton campaign can find a job for Jane Sanders then everything will fall into place.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@chopper: Disregard my previous comment :-).
Ben
There’s a lot of hurt feelings on Reddit, that’s for sure.
Major Major Major Major
Yep. This is how it works. I’m not super worried about the dead-enders, I never really was (maybe for a second), but at least not intellectually because I remember 2008.
That said, they’re still annoying as fuck and I will mock them as necessary.
Doug R
I hear Jill Stein is looking for a job
dollared
Bingo. Focus on the real enemy.
Major Major Major Major
@dollared: I can focus on the real enemy and still get my kicks making fun of dumb people. They’re not mutually exclusive.
Ben
Looks like the comments about the judge didn’t hurt Trump one bit. His poll numbers are unmoved
Face it, he can say anything and get away with it. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Jeffro
Saw the news on Twitter yesterday and posted about it (twice) here – why is Politico that far behind the news cycle? Maybe there was some footage of Trump’s empty podium that needed reporting? Sheesh Politico!!
Hey GOP, we Dems are unifying faster than you ever thought possible, while your guy’s scandals and ways-to-be-unappealing-to-most grow by the hour. No, no, please don’t switch him out for someone who knows what he’s doing – we’re all good here.
Ben
@shomi:
What’s wrong with Snowden? He raises real concerns over the extent of the US survelliance state–one that Hillary endorses along with her drone strikes via cell phone (which, again, show massive unconcern with brown bodies on the receiving end of our Freedom Missiles).
Can’t we have a candidate who questions whether the US needs to be involved in using flying death robots around the world to kill brown people?
Baud
@shomi: The front page there got so much better when they removed /r/politics.
Technocrat
@Ben:
They’ve taken an emotional pounding over the last few days. It’s a good thing bitter frustration is massless, or we’d be looking at a spontaneous black hole.
Baud
OT. Gawker had filed Chapter 11.
Trollhattan
A Friday gift to our critter-loving Juicers.
Baud
@shomi: That’s only if you sign in. I almost never do. I’m just a lurker there.
Amir Khalid
@Ben:
It seems that in your already very polarised electorate, people have made up their minds whether to be for or against him.
Jeffro
@Ben:
Yeah, well he certainly represents the majority of the GOP well, especially in regards to Cleek’s Law.
Give it a little time for Sanders folks to quit telling pollsters “none of the above”. Trump’s numbers will stay flat or tick down a bit, while Clinton’s start to come up. I think Chris Hayes said earlier today he expected Clinton to lead by ‘just above the margin of error’ for most of the campaign. That’s as good an analysis as any this far out.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Technocrat:
I read a couple of Sanders reddit threads before the New York primary – if it wasn’t clear to most of them then how misplaced their faith in Bernie was, then there was really no hope for them. There was so much anguished pleas for the campaign – Jeff Weaver, in particular – to give them more money and guidance on how to GOTV, and lamenting the campaign’s unresponsiveness, I couldn’t help but feel bad for their poor misguided souls. There were several already aware that there was no ground operation in California, their firewall, all while the campaign was reporting raking in 30 and 40 mill a month. Really, Bernie hasn’t been worthy of the kinds of adulation he’s getting, which for the life of me I will never understand the appeal.
germy
@Ben:
You’re right. But I also notice more negative stories about him being highlighted on the MSM; places like the network evening news programs. Coincidentally this happened right around the time he upped his attacks on the MSM.
So they don’t care if he attacks minorities. They don’t care if he attacks Warren or Clinton. But when he goes after them… the gloves are off!
Chris
@Ben:
Well, the last Teflon President was thirty six years ago.
Poopyman
@Chris: Yes, but the last Teflon President was also “genteel” (aka “doddering”, but that would have been impolite to have mentioned). Trump …. well, Trump is Trump.
Miss Bianca
@Ben:
What do you do, just troll left-wing sites and mix up every other phrase you find into a tasty word salad? Are you an expert in foreign policy? Have some military experience? What’s your stance, fella? Are we supposed to refrain from all foreign engagements that involve military force? Even if it’s part of an international agreement? A treaty obligation? And if not, then what? “We can only authorize use of force against non-brown populations?”
Are we supposed to turn isolationist? And if we’re not supposed to do that, are we not supposed to use drones at all? Would you rather we put boots on the ground in every situation? You want to explain to some grieving family, “well, we could have used drones instead of troops, but you see, Ben has a moral objection to using flying death robots.”
I hope you’re getting paid to sound this idiotish, because son, doing it for free is just sad.
redshirt
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
New president of Liberty University!
germy
The Onion weighs in:
Mike J
@Jeffro:
Considering writing a twtterbot that sends definition of MoE to everyone who says inside|outside the margin of error.
Technocrat
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
I remember that. /r/SFP, in particular, was just a vast untapped reservoir of optimism and willingness. It’s like an asylum now. I’d honestly like to empathize, but I’ve never been that invested in any political candidate.
Major Major Major Major
@Miss Bianca: I think it’s BRINKS TRUCKS, ma’am.
redshirt
@Baud: It seems a like a disturbing precedent: A billionaire with a grudge can secretly fund lawsuits which aim to bankrupt a media group that has been critical of you in the past.
Now that the template it out there, what’s to stop any of the other wingnut billionaires from breaking any media that might be critical of them?
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: Give me a 120-character definition and I’ll have it up this afternoon.
Tom Levenson
@Ben: Alternatively.
Brachiator
@Baud: Interesting. The people behind Gawker may make out well on the deal.
nutella
@redshirt:
Ooooh, good idea. I’d love to see that school closed down and I understand Jane Sanders has mad skillz at school-killing.
redshirt
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Have you read r/enoughsandersspam?
It’s wonderful.
Cacti
OT:
Some small justice has been done in the Stanford rape case.
Brock Turner is banned for life by USA Swimming.
Anoniminous
@Ben:
June poll numbers are the epitome of unreliability.
Ben
New PPP poll, Clinton +1 in PA (!!!)
Ben
@Anoniminous:
You probably said that about May polls too. Are you going to say it in July? August? October?
This will be a very close race and probably come down to Reagan Dems in the rustbelt ( places like MI, PA, WI), Trump does especially well with them.
Technocrat
@Miss Bianca:
The problem is, you only have to answer those questions when you’re in power. When you’re speaking truth to power, you can simply assume that any answer is the wrong one. Because consequences.
redshirt
@Ben: OK, I’m revising earlier assessment.
Now in tracking mode.
Brachiator
@Ben:
Kinda reminds me of the steady appeal of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the California recall election. Granted, he did not say anything as outrageous or controversial as Trump, but after a certain point, his strongest supporters did not care about any negative info dug up about him.
Anoniminous
@Ben:
February national polls are the best you get until August:
Learn something
Poopyman
@germy: So. Now we know that Onion writers read Balloon Juice. Good to know. Do they troll here too? It’s fertile ground here.
b1narys3rf
Reddit has as far as I can tell only one subreddit that has actual mature discussion about politics (the appropriately named /r/politicaldiscussion); the rest are varying shitshows of Purity Pony butthurt or the 4chan residue with the latest “da j00z” memes about “God Emperor Trump”. /r/politics was taken over long ago by the people who say $hillary will truly be taken down by the FBI and DOJ tomorrow, no next week, no, just before the convention, no, when she’s about to get inaugurated, really, for real this time, and also she eats babies for breakfast. When I think about who their typical demographic is I want to double facepalm, brah.
burnspbesq
@Ben:
Remind us again about all the distinctions the law of war makes between remotely piloted aircraft and those with a pilot onboard.
Oh, yeah … THERE ARE NONE.
Just stop with the use of “drone” as a shibboleth, s’il vous plait. It’s both dumb and unprincipled.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: There’s the rub.
Poopyman
@Mike J:
You remember that Twainism about never trying to teach a pig to sing?
Jeffro
By the way if we’re talking about unifying the party through jobs, i.e. giving jobs to Sanders supporters to get them on board, does anyone have some freelance work for Matt Taibbi? Holy cow is he ever obnoxious these days.
Trollhattan
@Cacti:
The bell may be tolling for lacrosse bro Judge Persky..
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben:
I have that one on vinyl.
boatboy_srq
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Could we arrange a leadership spot for her with AFA, FRC, ALEC, Heritage or Crossroads? I’m sure she has talents they need as badly as Burlington College did…
/snark
burnspbesq
@Trollhattan:
How many registered Santa Clara County voters?
boatboy_srq
@Cacti: BRAVO! Now his scholarship is worth squat. Maybe he’ll be expelled next.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Secretary Clinton is looking for a VP. Jump on it!!
Major Major Major Major
@Poopyman: But Twitter was basically designed to annoy pigs.
Ian
This is where you lost me. Why the F*** do you do that to yourself?
boatboy_srq
@Ben: The people who like him like what he said. And the people that don’t like what he said didn’t like him long before this.
Mike J
@Patricia Kayden: Cold Chai for veep!
https://twitter.com/hannahfc/status/741335433645314048/video/1
Jeffro
@shomi:
We’ve essentially been in ‘the general’ since mid-March as far as Trump is concerned – there’s been over two months of general-election, general-electorate polling going on. I’m not basing my comments on Trump swamping his GOP competitors, I’m basing it on the numbers that have been out since Cruz and Kaisch cashed it in. Trump’s been hovering around 39-40%. Clinton has been dragging because (imho) some Sanders supporters and some Establishment Rs haven’t yet come around to supporting her, but even still, she typically leads Trump by 3-4%.
I don’t really expect Trump’s numbers to get below the very high 30s (I’d be thrilled if they did, but these are Republicans we’re talking about. I do expect HRC’s numbers to climb as Sanders supporters get on board and perhaps a few Rs as well. I doubt Clinton can get above 53% overall in the general, but I’m not even going to worry about that. I’m all about the GOTV, especially to help deliver my swing-state’s EVs.
Chyron HR
@Ben:
Yes, you’re definitely totally 100% a person we’ve never had posting on this site before under 500 different names. My bad for thinking otherwise.
Feebog
@shomi:
Yeah, I gave ol’ Ben the benefit of the doubt in one of the earlier threads and actually replied to him seriously. No question now that he just concern trolling. Anyone who has 1. looked at the electoral map, 2. Seen the damage Trump has inflicted upon himself with Women and Latinos as reflected in polling over the past several months, 3. understands the basic demographic shift of the shrinking older white electorate and the emerging younger minority electorate, 4. sees the unfolding train wreck that is the Trump campaign itself knows that Hillary has a distinct, and likely very large advantage at this point.
Major Major Major Major
@Feebog: 5) Says “I’ve never seen anything like it!” while talking about Trump’s POLITICAL INVINCIBILITY!!1
Poopyman
@Major Major Major Major: Precisely! And a bot means you won’t be wasting any of your (er, MikeJ’s) time.
Iowa Old Lady
I’m not worried. I have faith that actually seeing Clinton in debates or big speeches will comfort those who are dismayed by the nomination. They may never be enthusiastic, but most of them will recognize that what they see does not match what they’ve heard.
And then there’s Trump.
Concern trolls are amusing, but that’s about it.
Trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
The SoS office will have that. And if a significant hunk of the Stanford student body were to register, it will jump a bit.
Brachiator
@Ben: Early poll numbers, especially in advance of the conventions, are a complete, total, utter, absolute waste of time.
ETA: In other words, no one should care much about what the numbers “say” this early on.
Trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
The original gatefuld? Epic, maaaan!
Miss Bianca
@redshirt: OK, now *that’s* funny. Sick, but funny.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Good on Bernie for helping make it happen and good on Hillary for realizing an area where she can improve.
Cacti
@Trollhattan:
I hope Papa Turner cries many bitter tears that Brock’s Olympic dreams are dead and buried.
After writing that odious letter about how unfair it was to have said dreams dashed over “20 minutes of action”.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major: Not sure it’s Brinks Trucks, but am quite convinced it’s some relation – spiritual, if not actual.
@Omnes Omnibus: OK, I laughed.
Major Major Major Major
@Poopyman: I wasn’t joking about putting one up. I just need a definition of MoE. I have code for this laying around.
Brachiator
@Trollhattan:
Not really. A nonbinding petition doesn’t mean much. And the noise making by the state Legislature is just playing to the crowd. As obnoxious as the judge’s decision is, there is, so far, no hint of judicial misconduct.
jl
Don’t know how to break this to the Bernie dead-enders, but Bernie’s college girlfriend is going to vote for Hillary if (edit: excuse me…. yeah yeah yeah… I meant now that… ) Sanders loses the nomination.
Bernie Sanders college girlfriend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfVFJeVkDzE
Patricia Kayden
@Doug R: As President.
@Iowa Old Lady: True. No reason to panic right now. Things are moving in the right direction.
The Golux
@Jeffro:
I think this is right. There are still quite a few undecideds, which I suspect are largely voters whose view of Hillary is distorted by the right wing smear apparatus, and when push comes to shove, they’ll choose “unappealing” much more than they’ll choose “horrifying”.
Patricia Kayden
@Mike J: LOL. Cute video. Feels as if the media is warming up to Secretary Clinton. I guess Trump calling them sleazy during that press conference has kind of cooled them on him a little.
JustRuss
@Cacti:
Normally I’d argue that doing time for one’s crime should be punishment enough, but since he’s expressed no remorse nor taken responsibility, and he put that poor woman through the hell of a rape trial, and got little more than a slap on the wrist, I hope this is just the beginning of the rain on Mr. Turner’s parade.
smith
@Trollhattan:
Not only that, jurors are starting to refuse to serve on juries where he is the presiding judge.
Reggie Mantle
@germy:
LOL. A perfect parody of what PUMA 2016 actually believes.
Ascap-scab
Question: If Trump is trolling everyone, as some have suggested, how much money would it cost Pubs to make Trump walk away at the convention so they could insert the Big X candidate? What is the over/under $ where Trump takes a dive? $50 million? $70? $100 million plus a guarantee the Trump U case gets dropped?
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
To note that Trump’s hard core of supporters are unwavering does not, by any means, indicate that the majority of voters will see things the same way. And in the case of Trump, the GOP leadership and the Republican punditocracy mess themselves with each new Trump outburst.
Miss Bianca
@Mike J: She looks positively giddy, that is so…dare I say it…CUTE!?
Kay
I refuse to say “What’s The Matter With Kansas” :)
I WILL say public education is just hanging out there as an issue and Democrats could own it, if they want.
Eric U.
@Major Major Major Major: Ben was doing pretty well there for a couple of hours, but now he’s revealed him self as the Brinks truck backing up guy. Concern trolling is an art that some people just cant master. Takes a lot of empathy for the intended victim’s point of view
Miss Bianca
@Kay: I hope they will!
les
@Kay:
He had to, state supreme court says schools have to shut down in July if the funding isn’t fixed. Brownback has also said tax increases can’t be part of the solution; and since he’s stolen…ah, “appropriated”…all the available money for all the other shortfalls he’s created, hard to see anything getting done. My daughter the newly graduated teacher is not happy at seeing her new job disappear in a month.
Trollhattan
@Brachiator:
We shall see. There are many types of pressure, only some are the statutory channels.
Major Major Major Major
@Eric U.: He had me for about three posts. But he pwned the last thread, so, I guess he got what he wanted.
Patricia Kayden
@Ascap-scab: How could anyone pay $$$ to get a civil suit against Trump U dropped? Doesn’t sound like a plausible course of action.
Not sure why Trump would consider $$$ to drop out of the race. He is already wealthy beyond the average American so I can’t see $$$ from the RNC or donors being a reason for him to drop out.
Republicans are stuck with him and will own every stupid thing he says from now through November. There doesn’t appear to be any escape hatch via which they can get rid of him now that he’s the presumptive nominee.
Aimai
@Miss Bianca: i think that video was hysterical! Adorbs. But a look at the twitter comments shows how nuts the anti hillary people are–if any of them are real.
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
The Democrat won in Louisiana (partly) by saying Jindal was gutting ed funding.
J.
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I hear vice president is available.
Miss Bianca
@Aimai: I decided I’m never reading Twitter comments on stuff that I like again, after that stomach-turning exercise of plowing through Jonathan Weisman’s a few weeks back.
Major Major Major Major
@Miss Bianca: Never read the comments anywhere but here ever!
rikyrah
@Ben:
No such thing as Reagan Democrats. They are Republicans
Mike in NC
This new poster Ben concern trolled his way into my troll filter.
Reggie Mantle
Richard, thank you for trying. Sadly, PUMA 2016 is clearly in the majority here.
Mike J
@Mike in NC: A song for a rat.
WarMunchkin
@shomi: /r/politicaldiscussion and /r/neutralpolitics are what you may be looking for.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: “Ben” is RtR; that post about the PPP poll was what convinced me. It needed SHOCK POLL in bold, though.
Polls aren’t completely useless even at this stage of the game for gauging the state of the race, but individual polls are fairly useless; you have to aggregate them to see much of anything, and the shift from one individual poll to another from a different firm is especially meaningless.
Jeffro
@shomi:
Disagree – it started unofficially but clearly back in mid-March when Cruz and Kaisch gave up on the GOP side, and when it became clear that Clinton’s delegate lead was insurmountable. Both Trump and Clinton started focusing wholesale on each other at that point, and so did most of the country (the 5% following this closely, anyway).
Anyway, here we are and my predictions about the rest still stand. Most any GOP candidate (and Trump is probably about the most odious one they could have) appears to have a ‘floor’ in the very high 30%s. But he has damaged his numbers with women – including independent and GOP women – enough that he’s unlikely to get to 45% support once we finish this thing out. HRC on the other hand is already polling in the mid-40%s and that’s before Sanders folks come (mostly) onboard, along with those GOP & independent women.
Mike E
@Baud:
I think you look swell!
BillinGlendaleCA
Richard Mayhew@OP:
You are new here Richard, this is Balloon Juice; we must panic.
Trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Not to mention, they’re all daid!
BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: Actually most of the people called “Reagan Democrats” are dead.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Matt McIrvin: But…But… PPP is a Democrat poll!!!
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
Thanks for the heads up.
The race hasn’t even really started yet. No conventions, no VP choices. There is nothing significant about any poll, or any aggregation of polls this early on. The candidates and their strategists might be squeezing something out of the polls, but otherwise, any reference to the polls is little more than navel gazing wishful thinking.
martian
Did Bernie make statements against the use of drones? I thought he sounded clearly pro use of drones in the NYDN interview just, you know, hadn’t given it a lot of thought and would only want to use them on people he believed really, really deserved it.
I swear to Jeebus, people imagine all their favourite hobby horses hanging out happily together in the purity pony corral.
Uncle Cosmo
@Ascap-scab: I’ve been thinking along those lines myself.
IIUC, “STFU Donnie” has loaned his campaign a lot of money (that he may or may not have) with a view to recouping it with interest from Rethuglican coffers.
Suppose the GOP establishment made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, e.g.,
Failing that, their best shot (pun intended) at getting Drumpf off the ticket might be assassination. For maximum electoral effect, they’d need a Cuban hit-man with obvious African ancestry who came to the US when Castro emptied the jails, making the Donald a martyr at the hands of 3 groups that loathe him (AAs, Latinos, immirants), plus a Secret Service detachment willing to look the other way…& someone to reprise the Jack Ruby role of course… Not a trivial undertaking but within the realm of possibility.
(NB I am NOT implying the Thugs are depraved enough to orchestrate something like this–I am only saying that if they concluded that they had to remove Drumpf from the national ticket by any means necessary, law & morality be damned, this looks to me like the most workable alternative.)
Uncle Cosmo
@BillinGlendaleCA: The original ones, to be sure, but the DINO tradition lives on in areas like southeastern Baltimore County, MD, where Democrats outnumber Republicans but (unless I am very much mistaken) haven’t given a majority to a Democratic candidate for Governor since William Donald Schaefer‘s reelection in 1990, & probably not for a Democrat for President since JImmy Carter 40 years ago (or maybe even LBJ
There’s a reason for that, at least in the cited locale (which is where I grew up): MD’s system of closed primaries, along with the lack of credible GOP candidates at the local level, together mean that winners of the Democratic primary for local offices are all but assured victory in the general. Anyone who wants a say in who represents them in the Baltimore County Council or the MD state legislature needs to vote in the Democratic primary, which requires registration as a Democrat. No copulation with rodents involved, just mundane pragmatism.
Callisto
@Reggie Mantle:
My my, but you’re a petulant, spiteful one, aren’t you. I can only imagine how insufferable you would be had Bernie won.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: If Trump were, say, running 15 points up nationally against Hillary Clinton right now, instead of getting Romney 2012 numbers, I would personally be shitting a brick. It wouldn’t be an impossible situation but it would be an indication of problems.