Open Thread for Thursday, August 15, 2013
If Hillary doesn’t run, the field of Democratic candidates will be larger than in 2008. From Politico:
“Democrats close to several of the politicians trekking out to the early states caution that these activities aren’t entirely, if at all, about furthering quietly held presidential ambitions. There are significant down-ballot races that party leaders care about, including an open-seat Senate race in Iowa. On a purely practical level, there are many, many state dinner speaking slots to fill, and somebody has to fill them.”
“Still, the small group of newer names and faces showing up on the campaign trail points to a developing dynamic within the Democratic Party: If Clinton doesn’t run, the group of contenders who rush in to fill the void could be as numerous as they are (relatively) obscure.”
With no Clinton, we will have the following candidates in my view: Vice President Biden, Maryland Governor O’Malley, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Minnesota Senator Amy Klochubar, New York Senator Kirsten Gilliband, Delaware Governor Jack Markell, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Former Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, Former Arizona Governor and Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Virginia Senator Mark Warner, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
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Newt Gingrich has a new role: telling the truth. It seems the former Speaker reprimanded his fellow Republicans in unusually harsh terms, blaming GOP lawmakers for developing “zero” alternatives to President Obama’s health care reform law.
Said Gingrich: “I will bet you, for most of you, you go home in the next two weeks when your members of Congress are home, and you look them in the eye and you say, ‘What is your positive replacement for Obamacare?’ They will have zero answer.”
He added: “We are caught up right now in a culture, and you see it every single day, where as long as we are negative and as long as we are vicious and as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don’t have to learn anything. We have to do the homework.”
He added that Republicans “have to get beyond being anti-Obama and we have to reconvince people that you can have hope in America.” It’s kinda hard to offer hope when you have been the party of hate for so long.
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I love Ezra Klein’s analogy here regarding the new demand that, instead of ransoming the budget (and force a government shutdown), the Republicans should hold hostage the debt ceiling in exchange for the repeal of Obamacare:
Since Boehner can’t just tell House Republicans that their party needs to let go of the whole stop-Obamacare thing until they win a few more elections, what will he tell them?
Apparently, he’s going to tell them to try using the debt ceiling: “Sources tell me the House GOP will probably avoid using a shutdown as leverage and instead use the debt limit and sequester fights as areas for potential legislative trades. Negotiations over increasing the debt limit have frequently been used to wring concessions out of the administration, so there may be movement in that direction: Delay Obamacare in exchange for an increased debt limit.”
Trading a government shutdown for a debt-ceiling breach is like trading the flu for septic shock. And Boehner knows it. Republicans will effectively be going to the White House and saying, “Delay the health-care law or we will single-handedly cause an unprecedented and unnecessary global financial crisis that everyone will clearly and correctly blame on us, destroying our party for years to come.”
It’s not a very persuasive ransom note to send. And Boehner knows it. It’s just something he’s saying to talk his party down from this tree. But come October, when they climb up into that higher, more dangerous, tree, he’s going to have to think of some new crazy promise to entice them down. Then, three months later, that promise will come back to bite him — and the rest of us. And eventually, someone’s going to make a mistake, and Boehner won’t manage to pull his people back from the brink at the last minute.
No, the only way this ends is with Boehner sacrificing his Speakership (or at least forming a coalition speakership with Pelosi with 21 or so sane Republicans). Boehner eventually will have to sacrifice his political career.
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Polling Goodness:
NORTH CAROLINA–GOVERNOR–APPROVAL RATING–Public Policy Polling: Due to signing all the far right legislation passed by Republicans in the State Legislature, Governor Pat McCrory (R)’s approval rating is now 39%, with 51% disapproving.
The famed Debt Ceiling Game has failed twice and yet the Republicans continue to act as if it was an almighty weapon to get what they want, even better their demands grow more outrageous every time the game Is played. If this was Dr.Who they would be stuck in a time loop, repeating the same segment of time over and over again, and that goes triple for “repealing” Obamacare. This is what the party has become and it’s beyond pathetic into insane.
Ironic how stupid Democrats trumpet the debt and deficit as a GOP Problem when Obama in his infinite stupidity denounced and rejected his own deficit commission and has sent and spent and spent. Jack Kennedy and Harry Truman could not make it in today’s whacked out Democrats.
Obamacare alternative? repeal it and let the failed President propose something less stupid.
Sorry, Idiot, but the fact is that the deficit is now 0.6 trillion and dropping fast, meaning that the debt is accumulating more slowly now than under Bush. Your bleats are the dying words of conservatism, a failed philosophy headed for the dustbin of history.
The last Democratic president left us with a surplus of a half trillion dollars. Who was the last Republican president to leave a surplus or even not leave with an increased deficit?