It is hailing outside right now. My son is convinced it is coconuts falling from the sky. Should i readjust his ezpextations before i go to the gym to watxh the primary returns?
Open thread
by David Anderson| 259 Comments
This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Bring On The Meteor
It is hailing outside right now. My son is convinced it is coconuts falling from the sky. Should i readjust his ezpextations before i go to the gym to watxh the primary returns?
Open thread
This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?
Trump combines Long's cutthroat populism, Wallace's angry racism & McCarthy's flippant approach to truth. He's basically Demagogue Voltron.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 27, 2016
"I plan to support the nominee," says Speaker Ryan, after obliquely denouncing Trump for not denouncing the KKK. Fun times for GOP electeds.
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) March 1, 2016
Anyway, Trump will probably be the GOP nominee and possibly become President. No joke. If you care either way about this, you should vote.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 29, 2016
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One of the only two “functional” political parties we Americans permit ourselves…
Anything else going on, this evening?
Open Thread: Counting Down (Way, Way Down)Post + Comments (144)
by $8 blue check mistermix| 228 Comments
This post is in: Election 2016
CNN did a nationwide poll and Trump has 60% unfavorables. Also, everyone loves Bernie:
Sanders beats Trump by 12 points, Cruz by 17 points, and Rubio by 8. Clinton beats Trump by 8, and loses to Rubio by 3 and Cruz by 1.
If it’s true that Sanders scores so well in this poll because nobody has really gone negative on him, isn’t that also true for Trump? Rubio just started calling him out for having a small penis a few days ago, and Sanders and Clinton have made a few remarks, but he hasn’t endured anything like the treatment that Clinton has been getting for most of her political career. I can’t see that 60 going anywhere but up.
If Bloomberg becomes the Third Man, he hurts Clinton more than he hurts Trump, according to this poll. That’s because the anyone-but-Trump Republicans will pull for Clinton if they must, but someone else if they can.
This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Warren for Senate 2012
Per the NYTimes, “Donald Trump Finds Ally in Delegate Selection System, Much to G.O.P.’s Chagrin”:
… Hoping to avoid a repeat of the messy fight for the Republican nomination in 2012, the party drew up a calendar and delegate-selection rules intended to allow a front-runner to wrap things up quickly.
Now, with Republicans voting in 11 states on Tuesday, the worst fears of the party’s establishment are coming true: Donald J. Trump could all but seal his path to the nomination in a case of unintended consequences for the party leadership, which vehemently opposes him.
“Trump has significant advantages, and that’s the way the system is designed,” said Joshua T. Putnam, a political science lecturer at the University of Georgia with an expertise in delegate selection. “It’s right in line with what the folks designing these rules wanted. It’s just not the candidate they preferred.”
As the calendar flips, March brings a whirlwind of states voting on the same days and in quick succession. By the middle of the month, 58 percent of the total delegates will have been awarded, and Mr. Trump could be unstoppable in getting the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination.
With the exception of Texas, the home state of Senator Ted Cruz, recent polls show Mr. Trump leading in the so-called Super Tuesday states that vote this week, including Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts and Virginia. Though Texas has the most delegates of states voting on Tuesday, 155, they all award delegates proportionally, so that Mr. Cruz will most likely have to share the haul…
Meanwhile, on our “mostly harmless sane” side of the aisle, the people at the top have stayed about as civil as politics ever gets. Despite a fake NYTimes article “widely circulated on social media”, that includes my own senior senator, as reported in Politico:
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling it out in Massachusetts ahead of the March 1 primary here — and the state’s most important endorsement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, is still sitting on the sidelines of the debate, watching and waiting for her moment of maximum leverage.
Even as Clinton turns Massachusetts — a predominantly white, progressive New England state that should be tailor-made for Sanders — into a battleground Super Tuesday state, the campaign has been quietly respectful of Warren’s desire to remain neutral.
In part, that’s because the progressive standard-bearer — and the only member of the state’s congressional delegation who has not endorsed Clinton — is expected to play the role of peacemaker in the Democratic Party at some point in the months leading up to the convention, sources familiar with Warren’s thinking said.
If Clinton wins enough delegates by the end of March to become the presumptive Democratic nominee, Warren is expected to negotiate hard before giving her support to Clinton. In doing so, she could play a critical role helping to bring young, enthusiastic Sanders supporters into her fold…
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Apart for stocking up on popcorn, and Pepto-Bismol, for this evening’s results-watching, what’s on the agenda for the day?
This post is in: Cruz-ifiction, Election 2016, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!, Assholes
Big reason why Cruz is struggling: reputation among GOP voters has collapsed in 7 weeks. https://t.co/r1ChGoEKIU pic.twitter.com/CTqY77BZPU
— Taniel (@Taniel) February 28, 2016
Sessions endorsement is an absolute kidney punch for Cruz. He frequently cites his team-up with Sessions on immigration.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) February 28, 2016
If Sessions thought Cruz could win, he wouldn't be making this endorsement. That's the message here.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) February 28, 2016
As he's done throughout the day, Cruz says he believes he and Trump will take a "big chunk" of delegates tomorrow + others won't come close.
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) March 1, 2016
According to the Texas Tribune, Cruz might not win his home state tomorrow, although of course he’s conceding nothing. Donald Trump is riding high, the GOP “Establishment” has chosen Rubio as its Official Not-Trump Candidate, but short of assassination Ted Cruz will never go away.
As a lazy blogger, I’d say he’s got too much invested in his old man’s phantasy of Ted Cruz, God-King come to save America from Satan and his liberal minions… not to mention the sweet grift available to any semi-plausible national candidate in this weird election cycle. Bloomberg Politics has a more pedestrian explanation of “Why Ted Cruz Probably Won’t Drop Out, No Matter What”:
Ted Cruz has had a disappointing few weeks since winning the Iowa GOP caucuses. He was outshone by John Kasich in New Hampshire. Then he lost South Carolina to Donald Trump, a state rich in the conservative evangelical voters who were supposed to be his ticket to the nomination, before placing third in Nevada’s caucuses. Cruz was overshadowed by Marco Rubio in Thursday’s debate. And talk is rife on cable news that he soon could, and probably should, drop out of the race.
But dropping out would violate the logic of Cruz’s whole political career. And anyone acquainted with his character and ambition should probably assume, as I do, that he won’t. Although his odds of winning the nomination are long, Cruz is bound to do what’s best for Cruz…
Read the whole thing, but: Ted’s in it for Ted, not ‘principle’ or ‘the good of the party’; he’s made so many enemies within that party he knows they won’t offer him any sweeteners if he does quit, but hanging in until the convention might give him leverage; worse comes to worst, a full-scale ‘practice’ run might be useful in the future…
… It’s very possible that, if he becomes the Republican nominee, Trump would get shellacked in November, setting off a period of anguished introspection for the party. Conservatives would vow never again to nominate a non-conservative for the highest office. “This is Ted Cruz’s ace card,” says Steele. “Going back to 1996, conservatives in the party have always felt that we’ve lost these presidential contests because we’ve not been true to the cause by nominating someone who will fight for the cause.”
For a large segment of the party, the savior would be obvious. And Cruz, having never wavered, would find himself right where he wanted to be, once he realized, in March 2016, that he wouldn’t be the 2016 Republican nominee: at the front of the pack to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2020.
Just in case you needed to feel any worse about the future of our battered republic.
This post is in: Election 2016, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Republican Stupidity
Lotsa people seem to be enjoying this. I don’t think it’s the best Oliver has ever done — too long, for one — but then, as an old lady who knew the backstory, I’m not his target audience, either.
What say you commentors?
Open Thread: ‘Make Donald DRUMPF Again!’Post + Comments (189)
This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Republican Venality, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?
UPDATE: 16 states now have new voting restrictions for 1st time in a pres election in 2016 https://t.co/oQ7LuIkVew pic.twitter.com/LjYxjeYpyJ
— Johnetta Elzie (@Nettaaaaaaaa) February 29, 2016
And a KKK approved front runner. Weird how things work out sometimes. https://t.co/4h3yij8m3k
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) February 29, 2016
Monday Afternoon Open Thread: Funny, Not FunnyPost + Comments (101)