Tag: Primaries

Before The Debates

This week (Tomorrow to be exact) will be the Dem debates over two nights…..before they stand up infront of the caring public and answer questions from MSM pundits…let’s look at some things that probably will not be part of the debate process……….

Let’s start with Biden, the front runner for now…..thjis is the Centrist dream candidate…a corporate puppet gthat will do little to change their lot in society……

Don’t worry, billionaires: your standard of living won’t change under a Joe Biden administration. 

That’s the message the Democratic frontrunner delivered to donors Tuesday as he continued a fundraising trip in New York that saw him on Monday tell a room of wealthy Wall Streeters “you guys are great” and ask a Trump-loving supermarket magnate for support. 

In Biden’s comments Tuesday, the former vice president told a room of 100 of the New York financial elite, including bankers Robert Rubin and Roger Altman, both of whom worked in the Treasury Department under Democratic administrations, that he wasn’t their enemy. According to Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Epstein, Biden took pains to separate himself from the rest of the field in his comments.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/19/vowing-not-demonize-rich-biden-tells-billionaires-nothing-would-fundamentally-change
 
The other darling of the Centrists…..Mayor Pete. 

As best as I could determine, Mayor Pete was stalking a constituency of the middle ground, by uttering thoughtful clichés about the Rust Belt, the deficit, sexual equality, cops on the beat in South Bend, and the wars on terror—in which he was a deployed as an onward Christian soldier.

His dream is to survive long enough in the primaries so that as a last man standing he could offer himself as an alternative either to the Democratic Shining Path (Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders) or Joe Biden’s Walmart he’s-hopeless-but-he-can-win Amtrak centrism.

 
I agree that Mayor Pete is a lightweight, a Centrist, and just another candidate of doing business as normal…..
 
Biden and the Mayor are just a few of the candidates that Wall Street will be promoting……the others are Booker, Harris …this should tell the voter who will run the country if elected…..

Having already determined that two of the top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination—Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders—are completely unacceptable and must be stopped at all costs, Wall Street financiers have reportedly begun to narrow down their list of 2020 favorites as candidates’ fundraising efforts reach a “fevered peak” ahead of the June filing deadline.

As the New York Times reported on Sunday, “three candidates are generating most of the buzz” among powerful Wall Street donors: South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/17/everything-you-need-know-warren-and-sanders-not-option-wall-street-abuzz-over-biden

The only thing that got me to take a second look at Mayor Pete as a possibility…was what he had to say at the NYT Forum….

the New York Times published a Democratic presidential forum of video interviews, including the hot potato: “Do you think Israel meets international standards of human rights?” And even the Times seems a bit surprised by the result:

“we thought this question would gauge Democrats’ willingness to criticize Israel, and found few candidates who would do so.”

Yes, what is most striking about the candidates’ short responses is the extreme reluctance to say a word critical of Israel’s human rights abuses. The exceptions were Bernie Sanders (though not as critical as he was to the AJC); Rep. Seth Moulton, who kinda stands up for Betty McCollum’s bill that would strip funds from Israel over its detention and interrogation of children; Tulsi Gabbard; and– the surprise– South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who all but answers the question, No. Israel’s record is “problematic and moving in the wrong direction.”

https://mondoweiss.net/2019/06/buttigieg-klobuchar-excuses/

We probably will not see much of this forum for the Media wants Pete in this race and his criticism of Israel will rule him out.

My pick of the Dems as candidate is Tulsi Gabbard for she is the antiwar, true antiwar, candidate….the only thing about Tulsi that worries me is her stand on the War on Terror…..

ut there is one major flaw in Gabbard’s rhetoric and policy, the way she views the War on Terror. Her most well-known quote on it saying, “when it comes to the war against terrorists, I’m a hawk,” which she follows up with, “When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I’m a dove.”

One member of the audience at the town hall asked Gabbard about that quote and expressed his concern with it, wondering why she considers the war on terror and regime change wars so different. She answered, “When I say that I’m a hawk on this war on terror against groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, I believe that we have to be tough and defeat that threat in order to keep the American people safe. That’s a fact.”

The Flaw in Tulsi Gabbard’s Foreign Policy

Even with this questionable stance she is still my choice and I will be watching her and the others in the debates over the two nights.

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2020: Enough Already!

The 2020 election especially for the Dems is getting more confusing…..we now have 17 people running and are awaiting the decision from Joe Biden……

The field got bigger yesterday when 2 more came out of the shadows….

First, from the great state of Colorado……(he will be 18 or 19 if he makes it through the surgery….depends on Biden and his decision)……

Sen. Michael Bennet has been expected to join the ever-growing 2020 presidential field, but the Colorado Democrat got some bad news that’s delaying a final answer on that. He has prostate cancer. He’ll be getting surgery to remove his prostate gland, the same surgery John Kerry survived in 2003, coming back on the campaign trail cancer-free to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. His doctors tell him the risk is low, and in a statement on Twitter, he says that thanks to early detection, his prognosis is good. So, he tells the Colorado Independent, he still plans to run for president—as long as he’s cancer-free. The surgery is scheduled soon after Congress begins its spring recess April 11.

“The idea was to announce [a presidential run] sometime in April,” Bennet says. “That was the plan. We hired some staff. We interviewed people for positions in New Hampshire and Iowa. And then I went for the physical. In my last physical, my PSA was high. They did a biopsy, and it was clear. But this time, it was not clear.” After much thought, the 54-year-old found that he still wanted to run if he could. As for his reasons for running, he says no one else in the Democratic field is talking about dysfunction in Congress: “I am shocked every day” by how little Congress gets done, he says. He’s also passionate about health care reform: “The idea that the richest county in the world hasn’t figured out how to have universal health care is beyond embarrassing. It’s devastating.”

And then the 17th member of the 2020 Democratic field……

Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan jumped into the 2020 presidential race on Thursday, portraying himself as a candidate who can bridge Democrats’ progressive and working class wings to win the White House, the AP reports. Ryan, 45, announced his primary bid on ABC’s The View. He plans a kickoff rally on Saturday in downtown Youngstown, where a big turnout by organized labor is expected. Ryan is the 17th Democrat to officially enter the race, per ABC. The congressman resisted being labeled a political centrist by the talk show’s hosts, who pointed out that he’s a recreational hunter with past backing from the National Rifle Association. In 2015, he reversed his past opposition to abortion in favor of abortion rights.

“I’m a progressive who knows how to talk to working class people, and I know how to get elected in working class districts, because, at the end of the day, the progressive agenda is what’s best for working families,” Ryan said. During an unsuccessful bid to replace Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader in 2016, Ryan criticized the party for supporting leadership that represents the US coasts at the expense of the middle of the country. Ryan represents the district formerly held by the late Democratic Rep. Jim Traficant, for whom he worked. The blue collar area swung strongly for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Bringing those voters back into the fold will be critical in 2020, said Mahoning County Democratic Chairman David Betras. Per Larry Sabato, the previous record for number of Democratic presidential candidates was 13 in 1976; the record for Republican presidential candidates is the 17 who ran in 2016.

For me Ryan is a bit too centrist….the feel good candidate that promises he can work with everyone……of the two I prefer Andrew Yang at least he gives specific economic policies not the talking points of the party.

We have enough candidates….please stop while we can……

Enough Already!

DCCC Acting Like The Authoritarian Pricks

The Congressional Dems are trying to stop anyone from primary challenge to their members……in other words they are protecting the old fart cowards from being held accountable…..

Progressives made clear they have no intention of backing down to the party establishment after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Friday threatened to cut off funds to firms and strategists that support primary challengers against incumbents.

“The DCCC can do anything it wants to try to prevent the next generation of Democrats from taking power. They will not succeed,” Sean McElwee—co-founder of Data for Progress, which is recruiting progressives to oust conservative Democrats—said in a statement.

The new policy was included in the DCCC’s list of vendor hiring standards, which state that the organization “will not conduct business with, nor recommend to any of its targeted campaigns, any consultant that works with an opponent of a sitting member of the House Democratic Caucus.”

According to National Journal, which first reported the policy change, “Democrats involved in crafting the standards intend for them to bolster members across the ideological spectrum, from the fiscally conservative Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas to the progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota—both of whom could be subject to contested primaries.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/22/progressives-refuse-back-down-dccc-moves-kneecap-primary-challengers
 
In other words the DCCC will decide who can run in the primaries….they want to take the people out of this decision and put forth the corporate owned toadies that we have had for the last 50 years.
 
I have a problem with any attempt, no matter what side of the aisle, that tries to eliminate the voter from making their choice of candidates…..this is a disastrous  attempt that cannot end well for the party….but they care not as long as the old farts are protected from a primary challenge.
 
Sounds like something of a “vanguard party” (anybody know what I mean?) leadership

The Coming Democratic Candidates

The long awaited 2020 election is speeding to a conclusion…..each month the events seem to speed up….after 700+ days of Trump all eyes look to the next election.

So far we have 4 announced Democratic candidates for the presidency….and more in the wings waiting for the best time to announce….we are doing good we have 4 women, one Hispanic and counting (as they say…whoever “they” are)……

The fun thing is that the Dems in 2020 will look like the GOP field in 2016…crowded…and some good ideas will be lost in the rush to the front runner position.

But so far the field has many prospects and all have a track record to run on not like the GOP of old.

For fun the site fivethirtyeight.com has a list of the Dems and how they will be broken down…..I know it is early but it will be fun to see just how accurate the site is this time around.

So for the 2020 Democratic nomination, we’ve resolved to entertain multiple hypotheses about the contest simultaneously. Perhaps the party will decide, and so we should be looking at how much support each candidate has from party elites. Perhaps the candidate most dissimilar to Trump will win, and so we should be evaluating the candidates based on that criteria. Perhaps the primary is just so hard to forecast that you might as well look at the polling, crude as it might be. (It has more predictive power than you might think.)

We’ll see. But we nonetheless think that (despite its mixed success in 2016) the coalition-building model is also a useful tool, especially if we make a few tweaks to how we applied it four years ago.

Just as with the Republicans in 2016, the concept this time around involves considering five key groups of Democratic voters. Here are those groups:

  1. Party Loyalists
  2. The Left
  3. Millennials and Friends
  4. Black voters
  5. Hispanic voters (sometimes in combination with Asian voters)

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-5-key-constituencies-of-the-2020-democratic-primary/

The field keeps expanding and the diversity of the Party will be brought forward…….but is it really a diversified group?

The country wants “new” candidates….we are tired of the same promises and the same lies and the same inaction….we want “new blood” for DC….

A new USA Today national poll shockingly showed that Democratic voters and Democratic leaning independents overwhelmingly prefer “someone entirely new” to any of the current field of potential presidential candidates. This cannot be for lack of choices; there are potentially four times the number of candidates lining up at the starting gate as the most recent Democratic presidential primary.

Yes, this is one poll, but maybe we should refuse to dismiss voter feedback too easily.

Lots of woman announced and some waiting…..but what will this uptick in gender equality could mean to politics…..

Advocates for gender equality are reckoning with what one called a “wonderful challenge”—four or more women running for president in 2020, the AP reports. To many activists, that means a field more reflective of a party that counts women as a crucial voting bloc. But the prospect of multiple women in the race also presents obstacles, with no single candidate holding a claim to women’s votes to the degree Hillary Clinton did in 2016. The women’s vote, and groups that provide financial and grassroots support, could split. Looming over it all is persistent gender bias and the question of whether Americans are ready to elect a female president. “We do realize there’s still sexism in this country, and what we’re trying to do is change minds,” says EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock, whose group aids the campaigns of Democratic women supporting abortion rights.

In the early days of the Democratic primary, leaders of many advocacy organizations are thrilled that so many women are seeking the presidency, but are not backing any particular candidate. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren last month became the first woman to launch a presidential exploratory effort, joined shortly afterward by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota also are considering running. Among those candidates, Gillibrand is particularly vocal in invoking her gender as a driver of her campaign, while Warren’s campaign has emphasized economic inequity. So is gender still a problem for candidates? “Because there are so many women running, it doesn’t totally inoculate women from sexism, but it does provide some guardrails,” says a gender-equality activist.

Questions Asked….Waiting For Answers!

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Closing Thought–02Jul18

Think back to the campaigns of the 2016 silly season….if you were a Dem then you will remember the battle that was fought between the Clinton people and the Sanders people (I was in the later) if came down to the Dem convention as to the nominee would be and it basically came down to the “super delegates” and those delegates were lining up before the convention behind the high dollar Clinton camp…..of course we claimed that the process was fixed in favor of Clinton and her big dollar supporters……Bernie lost the bid and the “super delegates” were one reason and Bernie has been fighting against them ever since.

Well some good news for us Bernie supporters…..

In an important and long-overdue step toward making the Democratic Party more accountable to voters and less captive to the interests of establishment insiders, the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Rules and Bylaws arm voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to drastically curtail the influence of superdelegates by barring them from voting on the first ballot of the presidential nomination.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has long criticized the party’s superdelegate system as undemocratic, congratulated DNC chair Tom Perez and the Rules and Bylaws Committee for the move in a statement following the 27-1 vote, saying the “decision will ensure that delegates elected by voters in primaries and caucuses will have the primary role in selecting the Democratic Party’s nominee at the 2020 convention.”

“This is a major step forward in making the Democratic Party more open and transparent, and I applaud their action,” Sanders added.

http://theantimedia.com/bernie-sanders-democratic-party-superdelegates/

This is a small victory for candidates….but candidates also lost some of their appeal when they made sure that people like Bernie could not run again…..

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) adopted a new rule on Friday aimed at keeping outsider candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) from trying to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

The new rule, adopted by the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, requires all Democratic presidential candidates to be a member of the Democratic Party, Yahoo News reported.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/391459-dnc-panel-adopts-rule-requiring-candidates-to-run-serve-as-a-democrat

This is nothing but a way to make sure that the Democrats continue to be a party of wealth and cowardice…..what happened to the Dem Big Tent?  New ideas and candidates not wanted….in other words Clinton-esque candidates…..losers!

The Big Apple Is The Place To Be

Good God!  My internet is slower than my ex-wife!

Many people have said that they are disappointed in me because I have offered up anything on the NY primary taking place today……so I bow to my friends and readers…..

Things to watch tonight……..

Tuesday is primary day in New York, the biggest prize until California votes on June 7, and all five remaining campaigns went into overdrive Monday. Polls suggest big wins lie ahead for front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump—but there’s still plenty of room for surprises, and in this year’s races, every delegate counts. A roundup of coverage:

  • This is the first competitive GOP presidential primary in the state in 40 years, and the first in 24 years for Democrats, Politico reports in a look at how merely winning may not be enough for Clinton and Trump. To get all 95 delegates up for grabs, Trump needs at least 50% of the vote in every congressional district.
  • FiveThirtyEight takes a district-by-district look at the GOP primary and finds that Trump’s weakest spots could be Brooklyn, where Russian Jews favor Ted Cruz, and Manhattan, where a “ridiculously” well-educated group of voters could hand John Kasich a victory.
  • Politico has a list of districts to watch in both races, noting that around half of the state’s Democratic votes will be cast in New York City, but only around 15% of Republican ones.
  • The Washington Post reports on Monday’s “flurry of retail politicking” in New York City, with Clinton drinking “bubble tea” at Kung Fu Tea in Flushing while Trump rolled out a “diversity coalition” at Trump Tower.
  • Sanders, meanwhile, slammed both Clinton and corporate greed at an outdoor rally in Long Island City Monday night, the Hill reports. “It is an enormously important primary because there are a lot of delegates at stake,” he said. “Tomorrow, New York state can help take this country a giant step forward toward the political revolution.” The AP notes that if he fails to defy the polls and defeat Clinton, he faces “increasingly limited opportunities to change the trajectory of the race.”
  • Vox reports on a factor likely to hurt both Trump, who tends to benefit from high turnout, and Sanders, the choice of many independents: New York ranks a dismal 48th out of 50 states in voter turnout—and Tuesday’s primaries are closed. The deadline to register party affiliation was in October, which means two of Trump’s own children can’t vote for him.

There you have it…….now I feel like I need a shower and clean myself up.

So Ended Another “Tuesday”

Another round of delegate selection is done……and we are moving closer to the conventions and the rhetoric has become a blistering pace…..

Let’s start with the Dems for yesterday….who won what and who got what……

Hillary Clinton kept her delegate lead in the Democratic race intact Tuesday night with a big win in Arizona despite losing heavily to Bernie Sanders in two other states. With around 70% of votes in Arizona counted, she has 60% to 37% for Bernie Sanders, reports the Washington Post, which notes that there were long lines, delays, and voting glitches in parts of the state. The state’s 75 delegates are awarded proportionately. Sanders, meanwhile, is the projected winner of the Utah caucuses with a whopping 75% of the vote, which will give him most of the state’s 33 delegates, reports the Hill. He won by an an even bigger margin in the Idaho caucuses, with 78% of the vote giving him 17 delegates, leaving Hillary Clinton with six from the state.

“When we began this campaign, we were considered a fringe candidacy,” Sanders told supporters in California, per Politico. “Well, 10 months later we have now won 10 primaries and caucuses and unless I’m very mistaken, we’re gonna win a couple more tonight.”

Now how did the Repubs do last night?

Donald Trump inched closer to the GOP nomination with a massive victory in Arizona Tuesday night. With more than 80% of results in, he has 47% of the vote to 23% for Ted Cruz and 10% for John Kasich, according to Politico. Marco Rubio was still on the ballot and has 14.6% of the vote, leaving Kasich in fourth place in a three-man race. The state is winner-take-all, and its 58 delegates give Trump a total of 739, with 1,237 needed to win the nomination. But a long battle lies ahead: With most precincts in Utah reporting, Ted Cruz is the projected winner with 70% of the vote, well over the 50% needed to take all 40 delegates, the Washington Post reports. Kasich is second with around 17% and Trump is third with 14%.

This voting thing is getting boring…..no drama other than the stuff generated during the stump speeches….

I now return you to the sanity of daily life….

If You Vote Today

Another Tuesday and another set of primaries/caucuses.

If you live in these regions and are planning to let the country know your preference then there is stuff you may need to know……

The 2016 race moves westward Tuesday. Arizona and Utah will vote for their candidates of choice, while Idaho Democrats will caucus, reports the AP. (Ted Cruz previously took the latter state for Republicans.) It’ll be a late one, with Utah Republicans permitted to vote online until 1am EDT—and exact percentages really matter there. Here’s what to watch:

  • Donald Trump is expected to lose Utah, but the big question is by how much. If Cruz manages to secure at least 50% of the vote, he gets all 40 delegates. If he doesn’t, they’ll be handed out proportionally, which the New York Times sees as psychologically damaging to Cruz and yet another boost for Trump on his quest to secure 1,237 delegates.
  • But maybe Cruz can pull it off. Politico cites a survey released Saturday that gives Cruz 53% of the GOP vote.
  • The thorn in Cruz’s side: John Kasich, who the AP reports “hopes to play spoiler” and has been running an online ad that suggests Mitt Romney endorsed him. (Not so.) The aforementioned poll has Kasich at 29%, and Trump at 11%.
  • In fact, Politico reports Romney recorded a robocall Monday that puts it plainly to Utahans: “A vote for John Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump.”
  • Arizona, with its 58 delegates, is winner-take-all. The Hill notes it’s the biggest such state left.
  • Trump is expected to win it, though Politico notes polling has been light in the state. Interestingly, Marco Rubio, who dropped out March 15, could end up with a decent number of votes here: Arizona has a lengthy early-voting period, and it’s possible a majority of votes have already been cast.
  • On the Democratic side, the Hill notes that “Sanders has fared better in states with smaller percentages of minority voters—likely to be the case in Utah and Idaho.”
  • But all delegates are awarded proportionally, so a big win for Sanders in Arizona (75 delegates) would have more impact than Utah (33) or Idaho (23), notes the Hill. Still, “a string of sizable victories could blunt the pressure on him to withdraw from the race,” reports the Times.

If you live in the region then please go and exercise the right that you have left…..and let the people decide……

In closing……the Right or other mental midgets have gone batcrap crazy over the Obama Cuba trip and especially when he has been photographed standing in front of a COMMIE……..

What a posse of silly d/bags.

The Flame Flickers

The Dem race is looking all but won……

The results of yet another big Tuesday of voting are rolling in, and they’re proving to be good news for Hillary Clinton: She has won Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, and Illinois, reports the AP. In Florida, Clinton had been handily leading all the polls, and she was handed the state immediately after polls closed at 8pm Eastern. With 99% of the vote in, she has a sizable 64% of the vote, giving her 142 delegates to 62 for Bernie Sanders. Clinton is up by double digits over Bernie Sanders in Ohio and North Carolina as well, per NBC News, with the win in North Carolina allowing her to complete her sweep of the South.

In Illinois, the race was called when Clinton had 50.5% of the vote with 96% of results in, giving her 88 delegates to 64 for Sanders. In Missouri, with 99% of precincts in, Clinton is 0.2% ahead, making the race a virtual tie. Sanders was hoping to pull off another Michigan-level surprise in at least one of the five states voting on Tuesday, but he appears bound for disappointment. Vox notes all five states voting tonight award their Democratic delegates proportionally

As well for the Repubs…..

It’s a campaign-saving win for John Kasich and a campaign-ending loss for Marco Rubio. In the latter race, Donald Trump easily defeated the Florida senator in Rubio’s home state. The contest had been seen as do-or-die for Rubio, and it turned out to be die: He suspended his campaign in an evening address to supporters. Both CNN and the AP called the state as soon as the last polls closed at 8pm Eastern, with Trump up by nearly 20 points in the winner-take-all contest.

In the other big race, however, Kasich got a much-needed win in his own home state of Ohio. Kasich beat Trump by around 11%, and he received a rousing cheer from supporters when he promised, “I will not take a low road to the highest office in the land,” per Reuters. Trump, meanwhile, praised Rubio: “He’s tough, he’s smart, and he’s got a great future.” In the other three states voting Tuesday night, Trump racked up victories in Illinois and North Carolina, and he was leading a close race in Missouri with Ted Cruz. Earlier, he won the Northern Mariana Islands caucus with 73% of the vote.