Thursday Open Thread

Filed in National by on April 7, 2011

Welcome to your Thursday open thread. Yesterday was a great day for Democrats! Kloppenburg won the Wisconsin proxy battle, Glenn Beck got fired and Republicans praised their suicide pact known as the Ryan budget. Can today be as great?

Should we start taking a Trump candidacy seriously? He is getting a lot of attention. Pawlenty, Romney, et al. must be feeling heartburn right now – turning the primary into a birtherfest will only serve to make the whole party look crazy.

But a new poll released tonight from NBC and the Wall Street Journal shows that Republican primary voters are taking Trump’s run very seriously. In the NBC/WSJ poll, Trump is in a statistical dead heat for first place with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mark Huckabee. Among Tea Party members, he’s doing even better. From NBC’s Mark Murray:

“You’re fired” isn’t a message Republican primary voters and Tea Party supporters are telling real-estate mogul Donald Trump, at least not yet.

According to the latest national NBC/WSJ poll, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the hypothetical 2012 GOP pack with support from 21 percent of Republican primary voters — followed by Trump and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 17 percent each, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 11 percent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at 10 percent. […]

Strikingly, Trump — who has received a considerable amount of attention for incorrectly stating that President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. — finishes first among Tea Party supporters (at 20 percent), followed by Romney (17 percent), Huckabee (14 percent), Palin (12 percent) and Gingrich (9 percent).

I guess I’m still having trouble believing Trump is serious. Does Trump really believe he can handle the scrutiny that comes with a presidential run?

In a CNN poll released March 23, Trump came in fifth in a hypothetical GOP primary, collecting only 10 percent of the vote. That poll, however, was conducted from March 18-20, as Trump’s embrace of the birther issue was just beginning. In just two weeks, he has nearly doubled his support.

Do you remember the story of the Michigan Assistant AG who was obsessed with the student body president of the University of Michigan?. He wrote bizarre posts accusing the student of promoting a radical homosexual agenda. He’s now being sued.

University of Michigan student body president Chris Armstrong has filed a lawsuit against former Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell, who was fired in November of last year for a series of blog posts that targeted Armstrong for being gay.

The suit was filed on Friday in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, and asks for more than $25,000 in damages for “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, invasion of privacy, and stalking.”

The suit was filed on Friday in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, and asks for more than $25,000 in damages for “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, invasion of privacy, and stalking.”

Good luck to Mr. Armstrong but I doubt it will stop Shirvell’s obsession.

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Comments (11)

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  1. Von Cracker says:
    April 7, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    Trump? LoL. Guess he’s doing well with the tea assholes for the same reason Bill Maher quoted John Steinbeck…

    “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

  2. anon says:
    April 7, 2011 at 1:06 pm

    Coons, Carper, plus 14 other notorious conservadems send Boehner a letter asking him not to shut down the government.

    I don’t get it; it seems wholly unnecessary and ineffective. I guess they just want to stay on message that a shutdown will be Boehner’s fault.

    Dear Speaker Boehner,

    We recognize the difficult task you face in seeking a budget compromise for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011. While we all agree that Congress must address our long-term structural deficits, we also share a responsibility to govern, support the economy and provide critical services for the American people.

    Although we have had 13 straight months of private-sector job growth and added 1.8 million such jobs in that time, the U.S. economy is still fragile and too many Americans continue to struggle. The federal government and Congress should be single-mindedly focused on supporting economic development and job growth. But some members within your caucus continue to seek sustained confrontation and are interested in shutting down the government as a misguided sign that they are serious about debt reduction.

    However, a government shutdown at this time will only serve as a counterproductive attack on our economic recovery. Economists note that a suspension of services would have a measurably detrimental impact on our economic output, while business leaders warn about a shutdown’s impact on confidence in the U.S. economic recovery. A setback of this nature would prevent the growth we need to tangibly address our long-term fiscal imbalances. Knowing that a bipartisan deal is within reach to cut tens of billions of dollars from current funding levels, it would be irresponsible to shut down the government and punish our constituents solely to assert a political point.

    We know you understand the importance of this issue and share our desire to avoid shocks to our fragile economy that would inhibit job growth and hurt our fellow citizens. We stand ready to resolve this short-term funding debate in a common-sense way and work with you on tackling the even more daunting fiscal challenges our country must confront. The American people expect no less.

  3. Jason330 says:
    April 7, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    Dumb people and Republicans equate wealth with virtue. I’m not surprised that the guy who has turned his public persona into a Mr. Moneybags type cartoon character is wildly popular with the idiots who comprise the Tea Party wing of the GOP.

    “turning the primary into a birtherfest will only serve to make the whole party look crazy.” You mean crazier.

  4. MJ says:
    April 7, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    I just got notified that if the tebaggers in the House don’t reach out to work with the Senate to fund the government for the rest of the year, I will be furloughed.

  5. anon says:
    April 7, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    So… Anybody wish we had a do-over on letting the tax cuts for the rich expire when we had the chance?

  6. jason330 says:
    April 7, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    I’d set the clock back further and ask for a do over on the mid terms.

  7. heragain says:
    April 7, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    This is my favorite story.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-29/michelle-rhees-cheating-scandal-diane-ravitch-blasts-education-reform-star/#

    How are civil unions doing, today?

  8. PBaumbach says:
    April 7, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    BMiller57 is tweeting from the SB30 Senate hearing, as is CptRobespierre

    Venables is being a PITA, you know, himself.

  9. Cpt Robespierre says:
    April 7, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    Actually I’m not at the hearing. I’m just interpreting what’s happening based on Beth’s tweets and the Delaware Family Policy Council’s Facebook posts from the hearing. Given how much is just standard anti-equality talking points used in other states, I can generally figure out exactly what’s being said.

  10. PBaumbach says:
    April 7, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    SB30 roll call vote is about to begin!!!

  11. PSB says:
    April 7, 2011 at 5:14 pm

    #SB30 PASSES 13 YEAS, 6 NOS, 2 ABSENT

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