;)
The Commentariat -- April 20, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Senate on Wednesday passed the first broad energy bill since the George W. Bush administration, a bipartisan measure to better align the nation's oil, gas and electricity infrastructure with the changing ways that power is produced in the United States. The bill, approved 85 to 12, united Republicans and Democrats around a traditionally divisive issue -- energy policy -- largely by avoiding the hot-button topics of climate change and oil and gas exploration that have thwarted other measures." -- CW
Elisha Anderson, et al., of the Detroit Free Press: "A judge in Flint authorized charges today against three officials involved in the Flint water crisis, the first time criminal charges have been brought against government officials in the public health calamity. Multiple charges were filed by Michigan's attorney general against Mike Glasgow, 40, of Flint, the city's laboratory and water quality supervisor; Mike Prysby, 53, of Bath, a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality official; and Stephen Busch, 40, of DeWitt, the suspended Lansing district coordinator for the DEQ's Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance.... The charges include felonies of misconduct in office, conspiracy related to tampering with evidence. They carry maximum penalties of up to five years in prison and up to four years in prison, respectively." -- CW
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for American families whose loved ones were killed by terrorism to collect nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets, but not without a warning from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. that the court was squandering its power. The justices ruled 6 to 2 that Congress had not violated the separation of powers by passing a bill that made it easier to collect the money for those whose family members were killed in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran." -- CW
Rick Hasen has more on the Supreme Court's unanimous decision on the Arizona election law. -- CW
Harriet Tubman Gets the Twenty. Old Hickory Gets the Boot. Washington Post: The U.S. Treasury has decided to keep Alexander Hamilton on the front of the new $10 bill, after encountering fierce opposition to its plans to replace the founding father with a woman.... The Treasury will feature the portrait of African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, which now features former president Andrew Jackson, officials said." -- Akhilleus
*****
Presidential Race
With one percent reporting, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders in the New York primary 60 percent to 40 percent. With 32 percent reporting, Clinton is maintaining her 60-40 lead. At 9:46 pm ET, CNN called the race for Clinton. The AP also called the race for Clinton.
With less than one percent of precincts reporting, the AP has called the New York primary race for Donald Trump. Trump has nearly 69 percent of the vote, trailed by John Kasich with about 18 percent & Ted Cruz with 13.6 percent. With 50 percent reporting, Trump has 62.4 percent of the vote, Kasich 23.6 percent & Cruz 14 percent.
Julie Pace of the AP: "Hillary Clinton emerged from New York's presidential primary closer to clinching the Democratic nomination and becoming the first woman to reach that milestone. Republican Donald Trump strengthened his own path to the general election with a commanding victory, but has little room for error in the states ahead." -- CW
John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... when all is said and done, it may well turn out that the 2016 general-election campaign began in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday night." -- CW
Charles Pierce: "Since it looks like we're going to have the whole Bernie Sandham Clinders business at least through the Oregon primary -- and probably all the way through California at the beginning of June -- I'd like to take the opportunity to establish some First Principles for both sides in the obviously vain hope that they'll listen." -- CW
Patrick Healy & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump wrested back control of the Republican presidential race on Tuesday with a commanding victory in the New York primary, while Hillary Clinton dealt a severe blow to Senator Bernie Sanders as she won her adopted home state with powerful support from women and blacks.... [Trump's victory] speech sounded more presidential than any other he has given on an election night...." -- CW
Here's a rough transcript of Hillary Clinton's victory speech, via Vox. -- CW
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: Hillary "Clinton has had dramatic highs and crushing lows in her political career and in this campaign. But since she first ran for office 16 years ago, New York has always been the state that loved her back, and on Tuesday it delivered one of her biggest boosts yet toward becoming the first woman to capture the Democratic Party's nomination for president." CW: Actually not the state, but the city. Take a look at the map. Upstate is mostly Bernie-green.
Jordan Weissmann of Slate: "Bernie Sanders lost his old block in Brooklyn." -- CW
Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "The Sanders campaign should be seen not as a failed gambit but as a road map to the future of the Democratic Party. If a candidate can combine Sanders's economic populism with the ability to articulate that message in the South, then the future will belong Sanders, and Clinton's triumph will be seen as the last gasp of the centrism that dominated the party in the long aftermath of Reaganism." -- CW
...Matthew Yglesias of Vox: "Bernie Sanders is (still) the future of the Democratic Party - Sanders is the overwhelming choice of young voters, scoring 67 percent of voters under 30 in New York even while losing overall amidst a set of election rules that were highly unfavorable to his cause." -- LT
This is what passes for a "more presidential" speech by Donald Trump:
... Isaac Chotiner of Slate: "Among a great many other things, this election has given us a good measure of just how far we've defined down presidential. Trump may indeed have been restrained on Tuesday night in celebrating his predictable but impressive win in the New York Republican primary, but he was certainly not presidential." -- CW
Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "... New York state's unofficial election-night results website has Donald Trump losing only one of New York's 27 congressional districts: The 12th, which covers parts of Brooklyn and Queens as well as the eastern side of Manhattan -- including the Fifth Avenue block that's home to Trump Tower, which is where Trump lives and where the Trump Organization is based." -- CW
Gabriel Sherman of New York on "how Paul Manafort took over the Trump campaign." -- CW
Ted Finds Out How Much New York Values Him. Nick Gass of Politico: "After weeks of racking up victory after victory in the delegate fight, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was left completely out in the cold Tuesday night in New York. As Donald Trump scored what is likely to be a near-sweep of his home-state's New York delegates with more than 60 percent of the popular vote..., Cruz received less than 15 percent overall, and only cracked 20 percent in two congressional districts." -- CW
That nice Sean Hannity got mad at that nice Ted Cruz. What a shame. -- CW
The New York Times' election results page is here.
New York state polls close at 9 pm ET Tuesday. New York Times reporters are liveblogging election-related events. ...
... Laura Bult of the New York Daily News: "A record-setting deluge of Primary Day voter complaints led Tuesday to the angry promise of a full-scale investigation into the city's long-bumbling Board of Election. The flood of gripes, running the gamut from locked doors to botched voter rolls, led irate city Controller Scott Stringer to announce an immediate probe of an incompetent agency.... Presidential primary voters in the five boroughs ran an obstacle course of ineptitude to cast their ballots: Broken machines, shuttered precincts and purged voter rolls. The most complaints came from Brooklyn, where entire sections of poll books listing the names of eligible voters were reported missing, according to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman." -- CW ...
... Laura Nahmias of Politico: New York City "Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that 'major reforms' are needed at the City's Board of Elections, amid widespread reports of voter purges and problems at polling sites during voting in New York State's presidential primary.... The Board of Elections confirmed that it had removed 126,000 Brooklyn Democrats from its voter rolls since last fall, in part because the Board was 'a little behind' in updating its voter registration records...." -- CW
Gail Collins & Arthur Brooks discuss the presidential race in "The Conversation." -- CW
Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders says Hillary Clinton shouldn't expect his supporters to automatically back her should she win the Democratic presidential nomination. 'It's a two-way street, the Clinton people are also going to have to listen to what these people are fighting for,' Sanders said during an interview on CNN's 'New Day.'" -- CW
The Last Oligarch. Will Bunch on philly.com on Hillary & Bill Clintons' ties to the super-wealthy. "... when Bill and Hillary Clinton found themselves in private life and making the real dough, the couple was involved in the creation of five Delaware corporations -- three related to the Clinton Foundation non-profit, one for Bill's 'consulting' fees, and one for a $5.5 million Hillary book advance. Why take advantage of the low tax rates and limited public-disclosure laws of the American Cayman Islands? I guess that's what Delaware offered.... Even if [Hillary] does win, you have to think that her era of oligarchic rule in winding down." -- CW
Garrison Keillor for NPR: "How did we wind up with these old people running for president?" CW: Thanks to exalto for the link. This morning I mistakenly removed exalto's link to Keillor's piece, thinking -- with some reason, albeit erroneous -- that exalto was a Calyban alias. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "Over the past several months, Donald J. Trump has crisscrossed the country making dozens of campaign stops..., often in his sleek Cessna jet.... The plane's registration is expired.... Dozens of those flights were made after Jan. 31, when the registration expired.... The F.A.A. warned Mr. Trump that the Cessna's registration was set to expire [& had expired].... It costs only $5 [to register the plane]...." CW: Luckily for Trump, he's Flying While White. If he were a black guy with an expired car registration, which costs more to renew, he could end up in jail -- or dead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
It's very close to my heart because I was down there, and I watched our police and our firemen down at 7-Eleven, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down, and I saw the greatest people I've ever seen in action. -- Donald Trump, April 18 ...
... Dana Milbank: Looks like Donald Trump's plan to Make America Great Again revolves around product placement. -- CW
...Aaron Rupar of Think Progress: check out this product placement: "Forget Everything Donald Trump Said. His Real Message Was The Guy Standing Behind Him...2010 New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino,a real estate developer who rode the tea party wave to a surprising victory in that year's Republican primary, who is mostly remembered for a series of ridiculous and offensive things he said and did (during and before his campaign). -- LT
Matt Wilstein of The Daily Beast: "Speaking to Morning Joe on the morning of New York's primary, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) once again made it clear that he is no fan of Ted Cruz. (...) 'I hate Ted Cruz, and I think I'll take cyanide if he ever got the nomination." --safari
Daniel Marans of Huffington Post: "Are you kidding me, @TedCruz?" In an epic twitter response to Ted Cruz's whining about the 'significant sacrifice' he's made to run for President, Sen. Elizabeth Warren "lambasted Cruz for failing to support policies that would address the even greater stresses American families face due to economic circumstances not of their choosing." -- LT
** Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker explains the function of political parties to the presidential candidates. If, like some of the candidates, you're not sure how parties are designed to function, read Gopnik. -- CW
Stephen Colbert interviews the Stealth Candidate who is definitely not running for president but just happened to show up on the late-nite show circuit:
Other News & Views
AP: "President Barack Obama opened a brief trip to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday with a one-on-one meeting with King Salman in Riyadh. The visit for a Persian Gulf summit comes against the backdrop of increasingly strained U.S. relations with the Saudis, who remain deeply opposed to his outreach to Iran and skeptical of his approach to Syria." -- CW ...
... Michael Shear of the New York Times: President Obama arrived [in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia] Wednesday morning, barely a day after publicly expressing support for the long-delayed release of congressional documents that concluded Saudi officials in the United States might have played a role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." -- CW
Rachel Bade of Politico: "House Democratic leaders on Tuesday morning blasted GOP leaders for the collapse of a Puerto Rico rescue package last week amid Republican infighting, accusing the GOP of putting conservatives ahead of the Caribbean Island's needs. In a series of morning press conferences, top Democrats knocked the GOP for failing to negotiate with them on the measure, which is intended to prevent Puerto Rico from defaulting on hundreds of millions in debt." -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)
** Sam Hanenel of the AP: "A unanimous Supreme Court says an Arizona commission did not violate the principle of one-person, one-vote when it redrew the state's legislative districts in a way that created some with more residents than others. The justices on Wednesday rejected a challenge from a group of Republican voters who claimed the state's Independent Redistricting Commission illegally packed GOP voters into some districts while leaving other Democratic-leaning districts with smaller populations." CW: This story is up only on the WashPo site, so you'll have to read it there. ...
... The reporters at ScotusBlog discuss the decision, way down the livefeed. -- CW
Marshall Fitz in Medium: "The media largely concluded that the Justices are likely to deadlock in a 4-4 tie [in U.S. v. TX immigration case].... But the analysis is flawed because it exaggerates the significance of the questions raised by the Justices and, more importantly, ignores the weight of the legal arguments presented by the Solicitor General...." Via Paul Waldman -- CW ...
... Brianne Gorod in the New Republic: "There were a lot of tough questions asked of both sides at oral argument [Monday] morning, but only one side [-- the administration's Solicitor General --] had good answers. While those answers may not tell us exactly where the Court will land, they do tell us where it should land. When the Court announces its decision later this year, that decision should, at long last, unfreeze DAPA." -- CW
States Pressured to Restore Planned Parenthood Funding<: Stephanie Armour in the WSJ: "The Obama administration on Tuesday warned states that halting Medicaid funding to organizations because they provide abortion services could put them in violation of federal law, putting pressure on states to restore funding stripped from Planned Parenthood Federation of America." Akhilleus: Confederate law breaking never ends. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest health insurer, said Tuesday that in 2017 it will exit most of the 34 states where it offers plans on the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges." -- CW
Yuri Kageyama of the AP: "Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the Japanese automaker tarnished by a massive recall-cover-up 15 years ago, owned up to another scandal Wednesday, saying employees had intentionally falsified fuel mileage test data for several vehicle models.... The models are all so-called 'minicars' with tiny engines whose main attraction is generally great mileage. They were produced from March 2013." -- CW
David Pierson of the Los Angeles Times: "Intel Corp. will slash 12,000 jobs, or about 11% of its workforce, to help offset declining PC sales and reposition the giant chipmaker as a firm focused on cloud computing and smart devices, the company said Tuesday." -- CW
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Donald Trump's campaign paid Breitbart News national security editor Sebastian Gorka $8,000 for 'policy consulting' last year, according to Federal Election Commission filings.... Earlier this year, Gorka was reportedly caught trying to go through security at Reagan Airport in February with a handgun. Gorka's wife Katharine Gorka is one of Ted Cruz's national security advisers. She also has written in the past for Breitbart...." CW: Three cheers for Breitbart's high journalistic standards.
Beyond the Beltway
** Paul Egan & Matthew Dolan of the Detroit Free Press: "Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette will announce criminal charges today in connection with his ongoing investigation of the Flint drinking water crisis, three sources familiar with the investigation told the Free Press on Tuesday.... Schuette, a Republican who is widely expected to run for governor in 2018, opened an investigation in January, tapping former Detroit FBI Director Andrew Arena and Royal Oak attorney Todd Flood to head the probe." CW: Hmmm, we may find ourselves using the word "scapegoat" quite a bit in the next few days. We'll see.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "In a Brooklyn courtroom packed with the relatives of his victim, Peter Liang, the former New York City police officer who fatally shot Akai Gurley while on patrol in a housing project stairwell, was sentenced on Tuesday to five years of probation, escaping a prison term in the divisive police misconduct case." -- CW
Kate Mather of the Los Angeles Times: "The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday found that officers were justified in shooting an unarmed man in Los Feliz last year who had a towel wrapped around one of his hands." -- CW
Eric Levitz of New York Magazine: "Supply-side economics has been about as good for the people of Kansas as human sacrifice was for the Mayans. (...) But, somehow, the job creators were displeased by Brownback's offering. (...) Thus, Republican dissidents are demanding tax hikes: Specifically, they want Brownback to repeal the tax exemption for farmers and business owners to raise more than $200 million in additional, annual revenue. The conservative-leaning think tank the Tax Foundation also encourages the exemption's repeal."--safari
Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "... it does seem like the secession movement is growing [in Texas], or at least organizing, and may have become too big for [Republican] party officials to ignore." -- CW
The God Loophole. Chistina Cauterucci of Slate: "These days, the phrase 'religious liberty' functions, more or less, as code for 'anti-LGBTQ.' But current fights over bathroom access and public accommodations aren't the first time religious freedom has been used to set up troubling legal frameworks. Take, for example, day care..... Nearly half of all child care facilities in Alabama -- that's more than 900 day cares -- claim religious affiliation, exempting them from inspections, employee training requirements, and mandatory staff-to-child ratios." --safari
Moriah Balingit of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in Richmond has sided with a transgender high school student, saying that he can proceed with his lawsuit arguing that his school board's decision to ban him from the boy's bathroom is discriminatory." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Martin Weil of the Washington Post: "About 300 arrests were made Monday at the U.S. Capitol, bringing to more than 1,200 the total number of arrests made in connection with demonstrations that have been held there since April 11. The total is one of the largest in any protest here in years. The groups involved in the protests, which assembled under the names 'Democracy Spring' and 'Democracy Awakening,' said they are trying to persuade Congress to enact campaign spending reforms and to protect voting rights.... The Ben & Jerry's ice cream website said the company's cofounders, Jerry Greenfield and Ben Cohen, were among those arrested." -- CW
Julieta Chiquillo of the Dallas Morning News: "Whole Foods Market said Tuesday that it will take legal action against an Austin pastor who accused the store of writing a homophobic slur on a personalized cake.... The bakery employee who wrote the message [which Whole Foods say was not] on the cake is also a member of the LGBTQ community, according to Whole Foods." -- CW
Samantha Page of Think Progress: "Porter Ranch already experienced the largest recorded natural gas leak in U.S. history over the winter, when a leak at the [SoCalGas] Aliso Canyon Storage Facility spewed more than 97,000 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere...Over the weekend, the neighborhood was hit with another natural gas leak...[by] a third party company that [also] operates at the Aliso Canyon site." -- unwashed
Carimah Townes of Think Progress: Big Brother will fit in your pocket -'"Uber For Cops" Lets Anyone With A Smartphone Report 'Suspicious People' To The Police" -- LT
Way Beyond
Michael Weissenstein of the AP: "Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro delivered a valedictory speech Tuesday to the Communist Party that he put in power a half-century ago, telling party members he is nearing the end of his life and exhorting them to help his ideas survive." -- CW
Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "On Tuesday..., government warplanes attacked the ... marketplace [in the northwestern Syrian town of Maarat al-Noaman], killing dozens of people, according to residents and rescue workers. The attack confirmed the apparent unraveling of a fragile cease-fire agreement between Syrian government forces and some armed opposition groups. The attack in Maarat al-Noaman, and a similar one in the nearby town of Kafr Nabl, came several days after the start of a new insurgent offensive in a neighboring province, and a day after the main Syrian opposition group said it would no longer participate in diplomatic discussions in Geneva." -- CW
Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones: "Happy 4/20"! -- unwashed. Ah, the old days...hangin' out...passin' joints around...listenin' to Moby Grape on the HiFi...starin' at the Lava Lamp...
Katie Valentine of Think Progress: "The lower house of the Dutch parliament passed a motion recently that would ban the sales of non-electric cars in the country by 2025...[including] hybrids which wouldn't be allowed under the ban... The [Netherlands] opened the world's first solar road in 2014, a 230-foot stretch of bike path that's embedded with solar cells." -- unwashed
News Lede
Washington Post: "As many as 500 migrants seeking a better future in Europe may have drowned last week in the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and Italy, U.N. refugee officials said Wednesday. If true, the toll would make the incident one of the worst tragedies involving refugees and migrants over the last year." -- CW
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Reader Comments (12)
Thank you "Rose in Michigan" for where I might look for Governor Rick Snyder's stash of bottled water! Now the question is how might I tag that info to the citizens of Flint who can use that bottled water? I'm thinking Jean Valjean, Les Miserables, and a filched bottle of water here; what with Republicans and all.
Jared Bernstein in the WaPo gives you facts that prove that the supply-side Laffer theory does not work (i.e.,that it is false that cutting tax rates of upper incomes causes increased growth):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/04/20/a-graphical-assault-on-supply-side-tax-cuts/?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fcard
But, at the end of the article, he states that if facts mattered, this theory (which ALL GOP candidates tout - cut taxes to unleash the economy) would be long-dead.
So, Bernstein is just telling us something that has been proven for years. This is not news. And neither is it news that GOP voters continue to believe in the fairy tale.
How can the Democratic party weave these facts, and other similar ones (e.g., climate; infrastructure investment; education; etc.) into a persuasive narrative that D candidates can use to show voters that, if we are to "make this country great" we can do so only by paying attention to facts, and turning away from the snake-oil? Why is that hard? This kind of exposition is not so arcane that you can't easily present it to low-information voters.
Historian Rick Shenkman talks with Bill Moyers: How our stone- age brain gets in the way of smart politics, (Audio and transcript)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/bill_moyers_how_our_stone-age_brain_gets_in_the_way_of_smart_20160418
Look closely at the picture featured in the video above of Trump's acceptance speech and you will see, standing to the right of Trump, that nasty man I mentioned yesterday: Carl Paladino––cozy company with the Donald dynasty.
Obama interview with Charlie Rose: Obama maintained his stance beautifully––would not let ole Charlie talk over, interject, or show how smart he is even once. Obama talked about 9/11 families possible suing the Saudi's––bad idea overall. Once we sue other countries they in turn can sue us and "lord knows, we have out footprints everywhere."
Love what Cecile Richards said about Cruz: "A woman voting for Ted Cruz is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders."
@PD Pepe: Ha! Cecile Richards certainly has mama Ann's talent for the bon mot.
Marie
Well kids, it's official.
I am announcing my fervent hope that the Cru half of the dreaded Crump monster will win out.
Why? First, I don't see Sen. Snake-in-da-shithole doing much in a general (unless....oh god...let's not even go there...), but more interestingly, if he leaves The Quicken Arena wearing the tinfoil, propeller topped crown, I'll be online before Confederate delegates can cash their Cruz Campaign "thank you" checks, to purchase a front row seat to watch Peter King (R-douche nozzle) drink cyanide.
Now if only we can convince half a dozen or so other Confederate law breakers to take the Histoxic Hypoxia challenge.
When Frauds Try to Get Real
(pssst....it's pretty ugly)
The Sean Hannity hissy fit over Ted Cruz's (minor) obfuscation to his question about delegate finagling is hie-larious. Mostly because, for once, Hannity tries to pretend he's a real journalist asking serious questions, something he practically never does (or has to do). And boy, does he suck at it. I didn't listen to the exchange but from the transcript it's pretty clear that when Hannity is accusing Cruz of getting angry at his questions, it's Hannity who seems to be losing it, sputtering, clearly distressed, and incapable of handling a simple follow up in a calm, professional, and rational manner.
It's like the scene in "Toy Story" where Buzz Lightyear finds out that he's not a Space Ranger but a child's toy.
Poor Seanie. He's not a real newsman after all! Just one of Roger's toys. Where are those hankies?
Mildly interesting article in the Atlantic about the coming vice president sweepstakes amidst this year of Confederates living stupidly. Until I come across this nugget:
"...later this week, the Bipartisan Policy Center plans to release a set of recommendations for the vice-presidential selection process...'There’s a lot of homework that has to be done, and that needs to be done before the convention,' said Charlie Black, a former McCain adviser who helped with the bipartisan report."
Ohhh-kaaayy. A guy who advised John McCain is warning how important it is to do "a lot of homework" before choosing a nominee. You mean like Sarah (I Don't Read Anything) Palin?
Guess we'll have to chalk that comment up to hard won wisdom. Those Confederates...always learning.
Charles Black, by the by, is a former partner in the political consultancy, Black, Manafort and Stone, the second partner of which is now running Herr Drumpf's bid to become Chancellor of the Reichstag. Small woild, ain't it?
@Akhilleus: I think there's a better chance Ted would beat Hillary than Trump would. For one thing, Cruz is a lot smarter than Trump. He'd whack Hillary in the presidential debates. He's a pro at that. But that's not the main reason.
Remember those pix of Paul Ryan pumping iron I thought were so funny? They could win Ryan the election if he were the nominee. Voters want a vital all-American-type as president. All Cruz has to do is a couple of pushups & suddenly he'll look like a buff guy & Hillary will look like the mean old lady down the streets who scares the neighborhood kids. Trump can't play the youth card. Cruz can. He will. And it's a winner.
Marie
Marie,
I try not to think of that. I do think Cruz would have a better chance than Trump in the general but I'm hoping (with every crossable digit crossed) that Cruz (even a youthful, buff Cruz) is even less likable than Trump. He's still a creepy weirdo. But if Cruz is the candidate, my great fear is that Hillary (no grand manifestation of likability herself) stumbles, the press descends on her and those "undecideds" throw up their hands and go for the Texas god boy.
Still and all, Cruz represents a much worse choice than Trump. Trump is mostly concerned with himself and his image of his own amazingness. Cruz is a true believer and wants nothing more than to remake his party as the American Taliban and America itself as his very own Afghanistan. I can't see a majority of voters choosing that fate.
I think (though am not 100% certain) that it's Hillary's to lose. But she's been there before, hasn't she?
Shit.
I saw a couple of articles today about Trump supporter Carl Paladino talking about getting the raccoons out of the attic. People are suggesting he is calling Obama a raccoon, which is a racist term for blacks. I got an email a month ago from a conservative relative that was an explanation about why people might like Trump even if they find him repulsive and it did not occur to me then that "raccoon" had a hidden meaning, but here is the analogy, which I feel sure is the source of what Paladino said today: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/04/20/3771129/carl-paladino-donald-trump-racial-slur-obama/
An interesting analogy:
You've been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately so you hire a guy. A pro. You don't care if the guy smells, you need those raccoons gone pronto and he's the guy to do it! You don't care if the guy swears, you don't care if he's an alcoholic, you don't care how many times he's been married, you don't care if he voted for Obama, you don't care if he has plumber's crack...you simply want those raccoons gone! You want your problem fixed! He's the guy. He's the best. Period.
That's why Trump. Yes he's a bit of an ass, yes he's an egomaniac, but you don't care. The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republican Party is two-faced & gutless, illegal's are everywhere. You want it all fixed! You don't care that Trump is crude, you don't care that he insults people, you don't care that he had been friendly with Hillary, you don't care that he has changed positions, you don't care that he's been married 3 times, you don't care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O'Donnell, you don't care that he doesn't know the name of some Muslin terrorist,...this country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegal's, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo and Hamid is a special group with special rights to a point where we don’t even recognize the country we were born and raised in; “AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED” and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want. You're sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, Republican Party, and sick of illegal's. You just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but doesn’t have lobbyist money holding him, he doesn’t have political correctness restraining him, all you know is that he has been very successful, a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he's also not a politician, he's not a cowardly politician. And he says he'll fix it.
You don't care if the guy has bad hair.
You just want those raccoons gone.
Out of your house.
Now!!
THIS MAY BE WHY HE LEADS THE POLLS.
@LT: Thanks for bringing Rupar's post to light. I couldn't think who that guy was when I watched Trump's speech. Rupar is right: forget what Trump said; look at the picture.
Trump gave Paladino a place of honor at his victory speech the same way he did Lewindowski a few weeks back: to thumb his nose as those "politically correct" wimps who don't think it's okay to manhandle women.
So Trump wasn't screaming bigoted remarks last night. Instead, he spoke softly & featured a Big Prick. Same difference.
If, like me, Trumpbots didn't get the visual metaphor, I'm sure they're spreading the word in Right Wing World. Showing off Paladino is a middle finger at the "political correctness" Trump derides. Nice iconography, Drumpf.
Marie
@LT: you got it, brother! Sounds just like Palin lovers talked back when––"she understands us middles", "She speaks our language," and so forth. Same with Paladino––he managed to get enough votes when he was running for governor to make him think he could actually become one. His followers knew all about his despicable porn, and racist emails , knew about his shady real estate deals, knew about his affair with a woman, getting her pregnant and lying about it, knew what a piece of shit this guy was and yet––there they were waving signs that said "Carl Country" and willing to make him their governor. Must have been another infestation of those pesky raccoons ––seems that will do the trick every time.
@AK: Damn you Akhilleus, you and your wonderful videos that I can not help myself from clicking on and then stay on and watch a whole mess of them. After soaring with Buzz Lightyear I listened–-twice–-to that gorgeous "When she Loved Me"––a beloved doll's remorse. Talk about needing hankies!