“Iran is like the health care debate for Republicans. They’re filled with rage but not with ideas.”
— David Axelrod, quoted by the Washington Post.
The New York Times says that GOP is going to pass anti-gay legislation:
“Legislation granting protections for tax-exempt organizations and individuals objecting to same-sex marriage on religious or moral grounds is gathering momentum in the House. The bills, drafted by Representative Raúl R. Labrador, Republican of Idaho, and Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, already have 130 co-sponsors. On Thursday, the Republican Study Committee, the largest, most organized group of conservatives in the House, demanded a vote.”
“At the same time, wary Republican moderates have quietly drafted a novel alternative that would actually expand legal protections for gay men and lesbians. Their legislation would narrow the scope of protection offered to groups declining services to same-sex couples seeking to marry.”
It will be vetoed, and it will solidify into rock solid concrete the notion that the Republican Party is a party full of bigots and that all Republicans everywhere hate gays and lesbians. So please proceed, Republicans.
The New York Times again on how the economy will impact the 2016 election:
“They said they believed that unemployment would be the lowest it has been during an election since George W. Bush and Al Gore faced off in 2000, when it stood at 3.9 percent. The median forecast for the unemployment rate when voters go to the polls in November 2016 was 4.8 percent (which would be down from 5.3 percent last month). They saw only a 15 percent chance of a recession starting by next Election Day. Interest rates, inflation and gasoline prices should all be a bit higher than they are now, they said, while staying quite low by historical standards.”
“On its face, all of that points to an election with dynamics similar to 1988 or 2000, when the nominee of the incumbent party (George H. W. Bush in 1988 and Mr. Gore in 2000) could promise continued prosperity. That bodes well for the Democratic nominee, though as Mr. Gore’s loss despite winning the popular vote shows, even a favorable economy doesn’t assure victory, given the workings of the Electoral College.”
Al Gore also ran AWAY from the Clinton Presidency when he should have embraced it with both arms and legs, while at the same time, George W. Bush pretended that there was no difference between him and Gore (and given an assist by the evil Nader voters) with his “Compassionate Conservative” pitch. So that makes 2000 an outlier in my mind. In 2016, you are going to have Hillary Clinton embracing the Obama record, and the GOP candidate will do everything he can to run away from Obama and push an extremist and radical agenda. And that all benefits Hillary.
Pat Buchanan isn’t often correct. And he is a racist. But he is right about Iran:
But before the party commits to abrogating the Iran deal in 2017, the GOP should consider whether it would be committing suicide in 2016.
For even if Congress votes to deny Obama authority to lift U.S. sanctions on Iran, the U.S. will vote to lift sanctions in the U.N. Security Council. And Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, all parties to the deal, will also lift sanctions.
A Congressional vote to kill the Iran deal would thus leave the U.S. isolated, its government humiliated, unable to comply with the pledges its own secretary of state negotiated. Would Americans cheer the GOP for leaving the United States with egg all over its face?
And if Congress refuses to honor the agreement, but Iran complies with all its terms, who among our friends and allies would stand with an obdurate America then?
Israel would applaud, the Saudis perhaps, but who else?
And as foreign companies raced to Iran, and U.S. companies were told to stay out, what would GOP presidential candidates tell the business community?
Would the party campaign in 2016 on a pledge to get tough and impose new sanctions? “Coercive diplomacy,” The Wall Street Journal calls it.
If so, what more would they demand that Iran do? And what would they threaten Iran with, if she replied: We signed a deal. We will honor it. But we will make no new concessions under U.S. threat.
Would we bomb Iran? Would we go to war? Not only would Americans divide on any such action, the world would unite — against us.And would a Republican president really bomb an Iran that was scrupulously honoring the terms of the John Kerry deal? What would we bomb? All the known Iran nuclear facilities will be crawling with U.N. inspectors.
A new Monmouth University Poll in Iowa finds Scott Walker leading the GOP field with 22%, followed by Donald Trump at 13%, Ben Carson at 8%, Jeb Bush at 7%, Ted Cruz at 7%, Mike Huckabee at 6%, Marco Rubio at 5% and Rand Paul at 5%.
Well, we have our answer as to whether Donald Trump’s campaign is over and whether Republicans after he attacked prisoners of war and veterans. And the answer is no, the campaign is not over because Republicans enjoy attacks on the military. Trump has surged into a massive lead in the primary. A double digit lead. He is now far and away the frontrunner in this race. It’s goddamn beautiful.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Donald Trump surged into the lead for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with almost twice the support of his closest rival.
Trump leads with 24%, followed by Scott Walker at 13% and Jeb Bush at 12.