Wednesday Open Thread [12.17.14]

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Jason330 wrote about Senator Elizabeth Warren's speech on the Senate floor last week, and the punditry is still talking about it, and the possibility, despite her refusal, that she will run against Hillary Clinton for President. John Cassidy at The New Yorker:
Right now, the Democratic Party has three leaders: President Obama, who is term-limited; Clinton, the establishment successor-in-waiting; and Warren, whose role is difficult to define, but also increasingly difficult to ignore. Of the three, there’s no doubt who is conveying the most consistent message and generating the most enthusiasm among liberal activists: it’s Warren, with her populist crusade against Wall Street and moneyed interests. [...] The speech she delivered on the floor of the Senate on Friday evening has been viewed more than a quarter of a million times on YouTube. Also on Friday, more than three hundred people who worked on the Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012 signed a public letter urging Warren to enter the Presidential race. [...] In saying that she’s not running, Warren can continue to use her prominent position in the Senate to promote the causes she believes in. She can also wait to see if Clinton falters. If that doesn’t happen, Warren can eventually fall in line with the party establishment and help elect the first female President. But if Clinton does stumble badly, in Iowa or before, Warren would still have an opportunity to step in. With her name recognition and army of supporters nationwide, many of them young and tech-savvy, she could quickly raise money and put together an improvised campaign operation.
And we some good polling goodness, and some pretty horrible polling badness about Americans and torture.
This is going to be a LONNNG two years with Carper.

This is going to be a LONNNG two years with Carper.

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Maybe our Senior Senator has this bug up his ass because he knows he will be retiring in 2018, God willing. But Senator Carper has been most annoying over the last two months, screaming about bipartisanship to anyone who can hear him. He realized his career-long dream to create a non-contiguous and non-existent Delaware National Park this past Saturday. So now he is itching to get his actually good Postal Reform bill passed by this Congress. Indeed, there were some reports that he tried to get the Reform bill passed by adding it to the CROmibus bill that passed the Senate last Saturday. And now he is blaming the President Obama for not delaying his immigration action, because not delaying made the Republicans mad, and you cannot make Republicans mad, ever. Not in Bipartisan Land.
Finally.

Finally.

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It would appear that what began as an unexpected handshake between Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama back last year at Nelson Mandela's funeral may have turned into actual negotiations that resulted today in the release of an American prisoner in Cuba, and the start of talks between the two countries about the resumption of diplomatic relations.
The U.S. is starting talks with Cuba to normalize full diplomatic relations and open an embassy, according to U.S. officials. The expanded relationship would also open imports of Cuban cigars somewhat, according to a CNN report. U.S. President Obama, Cuba's Raul Castro plan to speak separately at noon ET about relations between the two countries. Obama plans to overhaul Cuba's policy while Cuba plans to free 53 political prisoners and to allow U.S. debit and credit cards, Dow Jones reported. This follows Cuba's release of American Alan Gross from a Cuban prison where he spent five years on espionage charges, NBC reported.