Archive for April, 2015
The Creation of the Clinton vs the Progressives Narrative
It is fascinating to watch and of course Mark Halperin would be at the tip of the spear of this bullshit. According to him and his interlocutor here, Hillary Clinton is “terrified of the left”. Setting up this narrative of Clinton vs “The Left” is all about demonizing “The Left” and its ideas in a way that Halperin would never do for the Tea Party — who are demonstrably dangerous. Which might be why he feels that he can do this — there’s no downside to him for taking sides against “The Left”. He won’t be the only one, of course, but this is the first I’ve seen of this narrative in the wild this cycle.
Saturday Open Thread [4.18.15]
![Saturday Open Thread [4.18.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Black_-240x180.png "Saturday Open Thread [4.18.15]")
Also of note is that the partisan polarization occurs even though Americans aren’t all that split on policies or ideology. Their partisanship is more tribal than anything — the result of an ill-informed electorate. “In order to have an understanding of the ideology of your party and the opposing party you have to have a lot of information,” and “that’s something that just doesn’t happen for the majority of the electorate,” said Westwood. “However, most people understand their side is good and the opposing side is bad, so it’s much easier for them to form these emotional opinions of political parties.”
This leads to a grim conclusion: The problem with politics isn’t Washington but the electorate. Members of Congress, most of whom come from safely gerrymandered districts, are behaving in a perfectly rational way when they avoid cooperation with the other party and instead try to build support within their own tribe.
It’s the Fox News problem. Back in the day, there was a balanced media that punished extremism. But for 20 years now, there has been one channel dedicated to ideological news. That has led to having half the electorate being ill informed and rejecting any compromise, because their news anchors rejected reality and any compromise by not punishing extremism. So now you have a political party that rejects reality and compromise and does not punish extremism. The electorate is part of it, but Milbank has to look at HOW the electorate got uninformed.
The Weekly Addresses
President Obama speaks about his commitment to combatting the threat of climate change and to keeping ourselves and future generations safe.
Governor Markell celebrates volunteerism in the First State during the annual Week of Service.
Friday Open Thread [4.17.15]
![Friday Open Thread [4.17.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/obama-hugs-hillary-240x180.jpg "Friday Open Thread [4.17.15]")
Nancy LeTourneau on the dynamics between Hillary and Obama as we come up to 2016, because, if you haven’t already noticed, Obama is no lame duck and he will not leave the stage until his time is up, and Hillary is not running from him, she is running towards him.
The modern-day precedent has typically been set by presidents who found themselves embroiled in scandals during their second term – which contributed to their lame-duckness (Reagan with Iran/Contra, Clinton with impeachment and Bush with Iraq/financial crisis). The dynamics will be very different this time around.
And so it should come as no surprise that – as Chozick, Haberman and Martin point out – Hillary Clinton has decided to run on President Obama’s record rather than triangulate between he and Republicans.
Rather than run from Mr. Obama, she intends to turn to him as one of her campaign’s most important allies and advocates — second only, perhaps, to her husband, the other president whose record will hover over her bid…
Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said that she “is proud of what was accomplished, both as President Obama’s partner on critical issues of national security, and on the progress made on the domestic front” and that “a campaign would be about laying out her own vision for tackling our toughest challenges.”
Given the current political dynamics, that is a very good move.
I’ll Just Drop This Here
On Thursday, the House voted to repeal the estate tax which would… increase the deficit by $269 billion over a decade.
DL Approval Ratings: KWS: The Democratic Tom Wagner.
62% strongly disapprove of Insurance Commissoner Karen Weldin Stewart’s job performance. An additional 19% somewhat disapprove, giving us an overall disapproval score of 81%. This is no surprise. Delaware Liberal readers have never warmed to the elected official who puts the Insurance in Insurance Commissioner. That is what happens when you succeed a true consumer advocate in Matt Denn and then go on to coddle insurance companies. 14% approve of her job performance.
So finally, we have a poll on New Castle County Excecutive Tom Gordon. I have included Mr. Gordon for the first time, because I find it likely that the man may just be our next Governor. Let’s face it: Beau Biden is not going to run. So that means we will get a primary between Carney and Gordon (which will be a proxy war between Carper and Biden), and in that race, I have to put my money on Gordon. So let’s find out what our readers think of the job he is doing this time as County Executive.
Thursday Open Thread [4.16.15]
![Thursday Open Thread [4.16.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Light_.Blue_-240x180.png "Thursday Open Thread [4.16.15]")
A new Bloomberg poll finds Americans “are becoming more optimistic about the country’s economic prospects by several different measures. President Obama’s handling of the economy is being seen more positively than negatively for the first time in more than five years, 49% to 46% — his best number in this poll since September 2009.” But the survey “also reveals that about three-fourths of Democrats and independents, along with a majority of Republicans, say the gap is growing between the rich and everyone else — and a majority of women want the government to intervene to shrink it.”
This is horribly bad news for Republicans.
College Remedial Courses And The State Test
Even though I know there are unique and deserving circumstances, I can’t help but wonder how kids needing remedial courses are even accepted into college, especially University of Delaware which touts itself as highly selective. Okay, I don’t really wonder. Remedial courses are a cash cow for colleges so I understand why they offer them. Having parents/students pay for non-credit courses makes achieving a degree take longer than four years which adds another semester, or two, in tuition and room and board fees… Cha-Ching!
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes (Plus One Anti-Fave): March, 2015
Quality over quantity this month. Or maybe I get more jaded as the year goes on. Good stuff’s still really good, though. Unless you’re Jason330…
DL Approval Ratings: Simpler Neutralizes Opinion
So for the first time ever, Delaware Liberal readers are neutral or have no opinion on someone or something. 50% said that they were either neutral, had no opinion, or didn’t know enough about Republican Treasurer Ken Simpler to have an opinion on him one way or the other. And that is logical, since Treasurer Simpler has not done anything yet publicly, nor has he been the typical annoying and grating Republican. 35% approve whatever it is that Simpler is doing, 24% do so strongly. 15% disapprove.
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