Year: 2015

Amy Walter on why Hillary needs Obama: “Every presidential election is a response to the current president, even when the current president isn’t seeking re-election. If people don’t like the guy in the White House, it’s almost impossible for a member of his party to be elected to succeed him. Even when voters are happy with their incumbent president, it’s not always a guarantee of success for the party’s nominee. Voters are often looking for a change in style as much as substance (see: Bush v. Gore, 2000). This is why we should spend as much time checking in on President Obama’s job approval ratings as we do the polling data of the potential presidential candidates.” “The magic number for Obama – and ultimately Hillary’s chances – is somewhere around 47 percent. If Obama’s job approval rating is above that, a Democrat has a decent to a good chance of winning in 2016. Below that number, especially if Obama is in the 45 percent range or below, it will be hard for a Democrat to gain entry to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” President Obama's job approval is currently at 48%.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) slammed House Republicans who voted to cut funding for Amtrak a few hours after a deadly train accident in Philadelphia, TPM reports. Said Rendell: “Here, less than 12 hours after seven people died, these SOBs, and that’s all I can call them, these SOBs didn’t even have the decency to table the vote.”

Dear Governor Bush, Acknowledging that the invasion of Iraq was a bad idea doesn't "disrespect the troops." It respects the truth. Jason330

GOP Presidential hopefuls were asked who they thought where the greatest living President was. They all answered Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan died in June of 2004, eleven years ago. He is no longer living. Or so we thought. We have been joking about it for years, but maybe they really did reanimate the dead corpse of Ronald Reagan. The reality is they all have to say Reagan because the living Presidents currently stand at Carter, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama. They can't say Carter, Clinton and Obama. And if they say either Bush, it will look like a plug of Jebbie Bush, or self serving if you are Jebbie Bush.

During the last session of the General Assembly, the Senate passed the repeal of the Death Penalty 11-10, only to have House Judiciary Committee Chair Rebecca Walker bottle up the legislation in her committee, refusing to even consider the legislation table the legislation in committee. This year, repeal again passed the Senate in a close bipartisan vote, 11-9. But this time, at least the bill will get a public hearing may get a vote a vote. [DD: It seems my memory is faulty. Drew Volturo contacted me and said that the Repeal Bill did get a public hearing last session but it was tabled in committee due to lack of votes to release it.] The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Sean Lynn (D-Dover), is not optimistic about the bill's chances in committee, but he has a Plan B ready.

Claire Snyder-Hall would lose a Democratic primary to Tom Carper, but that's not the point. The Democratic Party needs the moral leadership of people like Snyder-Hall. I only hope that she isn't already mobbed-up in the corporatist shit hole so much that she'd regard a primary challenge to Tom Carper as an affront to propriety. Her work with Common Cause gives me hope to think that she is not. But if not to win, why run? That's a legitimate questions, Snyder-Hall knows as well as anybody that running is hard. But I think a primary challenge from the left could help bring the discussion of income inequality back home to Delaware. It could make Carper account for his Republican voting record, and put issues from the environment to women's health in play. Tom Carper's utter contempt for the party of Truman, Kennedy and FDR is well known, and on constant display. If he is not primaried, it could very well reveal our contempt for democracy.

Bernie August would lose a Democratic primary to Tom Carper, but that's not the point. The Democratic Party needs the moral leadership of the Green Party people who have left the Party in disgust. Do I blame them for leaving? Hell no! The Democratic Party, particularly the Delaware Democratic Party is a festering shit hole of corporatist functionaires. And yet the Democratic Party is the only viable counterweight to its own wrongheadedness. If not to win, why run? That's a legitimate questions, but I think a primary challenge from the left could help bring the discussion of income inequality back home to Delaware. It could make Carper account for his Republican voting record, and put issues from the environment to women's health in play. Tom Carper's utter contempt for the party of Truman, Kennedy and FDR is well known, and on constant display. If he is not primaried, it could very well reveal our contempt for democracy.