Here is the Sanders rally from last night. HRC better get her campaign in gear and start packing auditoriums and generating buzz or this is going to slip away from her again.
Election 2016
Webb’s In
This about sums up the Jim Webb announcement:
Confederate flag loving Democrats who don't want to do anything about climate change just got a candidate: Jim Webb announces he's in.
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) July 2, 2015
He announced in a poorly formatted blog post, further cementing his wingnut credentials.
Thursday Afternoon Open Thread
Just a reminder to keep Thor in Thursday:
It’s been a shitty week, and I’m glad the productive portion of it is almost over. Do you have tomorrow off, if you’re in the USA? Any plans?
Just got a mobile news alert that Jim Webb has officially thrown his hat into the ring. (Rummages through desk.) Nope, not a single fuck to give.
Open thread!
Late Night Open Thread: Disappointing Nobody, Except Possibly His Long-Suffering Wife
Why run for President when you can be King? http://t.co/dNKSoafhuM
— Nick Martin (@nickmartin) July 1, 2015
Pete “The Mucker” King is upfront about his reasons: He’s already got “a good full-time job, talking on television about Homeland Security“; campaigning for president costs money he doesn’t have.
But, most importantly, he only suggested running in the first place because “Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, people like that” were getting entirely too much attention yapping about their ideas, and he didn’t want anyone “to get the wrong idea about what the Republican Party was really about.” Now, of course, Little Prince Rand and the Cruz-bot have done such a fine job of breaking their own ankles, Long Island’s own Mucker can rest on his laurels.
Ninety percent of all political calculation breaks down to questions of vanity or cupidity, but one should never overlook the rich seasonings of envy and vengeance…
Late Night Off-Peak Open Thread: ‘Big Chicken’ Christie Jumps on the Klown Kar
Jeb Lund, at the Guardian:
Chris Christie is now officially running for president – and what makes Chris Christie special is that he is running because he is running, and because what are you going to do about it? The animating purpose of Christie’s entire career is one regionally-accented hostile tautology: why is Chris Christie in the race? Indeed, why does Chris Christie do anything? Because f-you, that’s why…
But it is very difficult to conduct a campaign as the man who is a “solution” to “Washington” when you have multiple staffers under indictment, have inched close to threat of indictment yourself or are actually under indictment. Christie has the first two and may hit the trifecta – as may Scott Walker. (Rick Perry is under indictment, but he wears it well, because his demeanor is a man who seems unaware that he is under indictment, which is consistent with his theme of being unaware of most things.)…
The most dynamic and interesting thing Christie could do now would be to pivot left – bully his fellow Republicans for living in the past when it comes to Obamacare and same sex marriage, tell them to get real, get a life and get with the 21st Century. He could tell audiences that the other candidates could never win because they don’t get it, stomp across the stage like a conservative Howard Beale delivering a purple-state reckoning to every schoolyard joker trying to build a government in a sandbox instead of in the real world where bullies can kick them apart and deliver real life lessons. It would be mesmerizing.
But that’s completely unrealistic, because it would stop the end goals of the Chris-Christie-for-Chris-Christie train – the local to nowhere that stops at every ATM. That truth-teller schtick only pays the bills if you believe it, and the only people Christie has ever kicked the crap out of on his way up have been straw men and targets of opportunity. He doesn’t swing at big checkbooks or institutions, certainly nothing solid enough to bruise the glad hand. And, when this is all over, if no indictments hold, having outclassed dead-enders like Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, George Pataki, Bobby Jindal and a few others, he will be there at the top, with Donald Trump – brands to the last, available to speak for certain fees, never having sold out apart from that first fatal sale that embarked on a life that reached its soul terminus here…
Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:
…[N]ow that Chris Christie is out there tellin’ it like it is, taking his 30 percent approval rating in New Jersey out for a spin, it seems a waste of time to point out that Big Chicken’s candidacy is less popular than brucellosis in Iowa, and that, at the moment, he’s pushing in all his chips on New Hampshire, where he is currently edging out Dr. Ben Carson. (Also, in one poll, 55 percent of Republicans said they wouldn’t vote for him under any circumstances.)…
Nate Cohn, at the NYTimes, dutifully tinkertoys a potential “Path to Relevance“…
…[M]any candidates with little or no chance to win the nomination nonetheless play a big role in presidential primaries, and Mr. Christie could be one of them. He could drain votes from Jeb Bush, widening the opening for Marco Rubio or even improving Scott Walker’s odds to win both Iowa and New Hampshire…
If Mr. Christie’s campaign took off, it would mainly be at Mr. Bush’s expense. It is hard to see Mr. Bush winning Iowa, where the most conservative voters reign, which makes it all but necessary for him to win New Hampshire. A weaker Mr. Bush would give Mr. Rubio a better chance to win New Hampshire, which might be as important to his chances as it is to those of Mr. Bush. It would also give Mr. Walker a better chance of following a win in Iowa with a win of his own in New Hampshire.
But in all those situations, Mr. Christie probably goes back to New Jersey.
Jamelle Bouie, at Slate, uses Christie to explain why one should “Never Wait to Run for President“:
… Christie’s prospects have changed sharply from three years ago. Then, Christie was the strongest commodity in the Republican Party. Uncompromising and pugnacious, he fought pitched battles against public sector unions before Scott Walker had ever touched the national stage… By early 2011, top Republican donors were begging Christie to enter the race. They wanted a credible and exciting alternative to the milquetoast Mitt Romney and his lackluster challengers. Christie refused…
Late Night Off-Peak Open Thread: ‘Big Chicken’ Christie Jumps on the Klown KarPost + Comments (37)
Open Thread: Little Prince Paul Seeks Support From Fellow Free-Thinkers
Rand Paul takes a well-deserved rest from pretending he's not a Confederate http://t.co/lBVDTCqvpG
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) June 30, 2015
Cliven Bundy attending @RandPaul rally in Mesquite. After photo was taken Paul met privately with Bundy.#lvrj pic.twitter.com/bwIzhthec7
— Jeff scheid (@Jlscheid) June 30, 2015
Cliven Bundy: I met privately with Rand Paul for 45 minutes http://t.co/z8MU0hHzzg
— POLITICO (@politico) June 30, 2015
.@RandPaul "I would either sell or turn over all the land management to the state." in Mesquite. @BenBotkin1 #lvrj pic.twitter.com/7zGR2ZBAoP
— Jeff scheid (@Jlscheid) June 30, 2015
*bangs wooden spoon on pot and walks around kitchen* it's just a coiiiiiincidennnnnce http://t.co/YqqTgyg6fK https://t.co/00y32M7N4m
— Big Sexy Jeb! Lund (@Mobute) June 30, 2015
Can you imagine a Dem candidate sitting down to meet with a heavily armed nutjob who doesn't recognize the US gov? http://t.co/IfBQ9rVwcx
— Joshua Holland (@JoshuaHol) June 30, 2015
Sovereign citizen rebuttal: “Sure, you lie-brals say ‘feudalist’ like that was a bad thing!!!… ”
Open Thread: Little Prince Paul Seeks Support From Fellow Free-ThinkersPost + Comments (166)
Jeb Bush, “Dogged”
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In the Washington Post, Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Tom Hamburger, “Jeb Bush dogged by decades of questions about business deals“:
…. Today, as he works toward his run at the White House, Bush touts his business experience as a strength that gives him the skills and savvy to serve as the nation’s chief executive. He has said he “worked my tail off” to succeed. As an announced candidate, Bush soon will be making financial disclosures that will reveal recent business successes and show a substantial increase in his wealth since he left office as Florida governor in 2007, individuals close to the candidate told The Post.
But records, lawsuits, interviews and newspaper accounts stretching back more than three decades present a picture of a man who, before he was elected Florida governor in 1998, often benefited from his family connections and repeatedly put himself in situations that raised questions about his judgment and exposed him to reputational risk…
Five of his business associates have been convicted of crimes; one remains an international fugitive on fraud charges. In each case, Bush said he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing and said some of the people he met as a businessman in Florida took advantage of his naiveté.
He has been involved in myriad business ventures dating back to the early 1980s, taking time out to run for governor three times, winning the first of two terms in 1998. He has brokered real estate deals in Florida, arranged bank loans in Venezuela, marketed industrial pumps in Thailand, wholesaled shoes in Panama, promoted a building-materials company to Mexican interests and advised transnational financial services firms. He sat on more than a half dozen corporate boards. Since leaving office in 2007, Bush’s income has soared from speeches, service on corporate boards, consulting and managing investments for others…
At first glance, Jeb Bush’s dual biography as a businessman-politician can be hard to reconcile. Bush the politician presents the image of a man who is appealing, well-disciplined, intelligent and moderate. Bush the businessman has sometimes lent his name and credibility to money-making ventures that involved dubious characters.
He and his friends have explained this seeming incongruity by saying that he has been the victim of people who took advantage of his good nature…
Bush’s business activities and missteps have been widely covered over the years, by the Miami Herald, the St. Petersburg (now Tampa Bay) Times, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones magazine and other publications, along with books by political scientists and journalists…
It’s the time-tested Bush Crime Family defense: Is it our fault that something about us makes people want to thrust wads of cash into our pockets? Can you blame us just because we’re too patrician to investigate why that nice man in the tailored mask asked us to hold the door of the public vault open? Isn’t it vaguely un-American to demand that Very Important People such as ourselves account for every grubby little cash transaction, as though we were peasants on an allowance from our betters?…
Or, as Paul Waldman says:
…[H]e did make his money the Bush way: by trading on his family name and the perception that because of who his father was (or later, because of who his brother was), he would have far-reaching influence that could help other people make money…
I’d be interested to hear the conservatives who are outraged by Hillary Clinton making millions in speaking fees explain how this kind of thing is completely different…
And “It’s OK if you’re a Republican” is not a defensible argument.