Month: February 2016

As you may know, Donald Trump had himself a day yesterday. He repeatedly and pointedly refused to disavow the endorsements of David Duke and the KKK. Donald Trump's biggest fan in all media, Joe Scarborough says this is now disqualifying, whereas the other racist things the Donald has said up until now weren't apparently. In a column for the Washington Post today, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough asked if "this is how the party of Abraham Lincoln dies." Yes.

"The first question is why would Trump pretend to be so ignorant of American history that he refused to pass judgment on the Ku Klux Klan before receiving additional information?" he asked. "What kind of facts could possibly mitigate a century of sins committed by a violent hate group whose racist crimes terrorized Americans and placed a shameful blot on this nation’s history?" Trump has repeatedly bragged about having the "world's greatest memory" so it's hard to believe Trump doesn't know what the KKK stands for, he wrote. "The harsher reality is that the next GOP nominee will be a man who refused to condemn the Ku Klux Klan and one of its most infamous Grand Wizards when telling the ugly truth wouldn’t have cost him a single vote," Scarborough said.

Ezra Klein says that Hillary Clinton just showed us how she is going to run against Donald Trump:

Trump sets Clinton up for a much softer and unifying message than she'd be able to get away with against a candidate like Rubio, and you could see her previewing it in her South Carolina victory speech. "Despite what you hear," Clinton said, "we don't need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great. But we do need to make America whole again. Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers." Trump may be the only force in American politics able to make Clinton into a uniter and not a divider. The Clinton campaign has their hands full winning the Democratic primary. But if they had a vote in the Republican primary right now, they would be casting it for Trump.

All networks and the AP called it the second the polls closed. Exit polls show Hillary winning 84% of the African American voters, which makes up 67% of the primary vote in South Carolina. Hillary won across all age groups, young and old, though young voters (i.e voters under 30) made up only 13% of the vote in South Carolina, which is the lowest of all contests so far. Update: Wow. Updated exit poll has Clinton up 87-13 among black voters, up 53-47 among white voters. Implies a 75-25 victory for Clinton.

Donald Trump is now against the First Amendment protections for a free press: "We're going to open up those libel laws. So that when the New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or the Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected." Once more into the Fascist breach.

About 50 people attended, and give them credit. It can take a willing suspension of disbelief to back a Republican candidate for governor, considering there are 126,000 more Democratic than Republican voters and there has not been a Republican governor elected since 1988, while the voters went with a Democratic streak of Tom Carper, Ruth Ann Minner and Jack Markell. Bonini nevertheless told the crowd the race was winnable, arguing that Delaware is moving in the wrong direction and his campaign can put together a coalition of Republicans, unaffiliated voters and 30,000 to 50,000 persuadable Democrats to vote for him to try something different. "The here-and-now needs some serious change. We need to lower taxes across the board, we need to reform regulations, the things we always talk about. You know why we talk about those things? Because they've never not worked," Bonini said.

Except...They've never worked, and I'd love for Bonini to collect my standing $50.00 bet that that lowering taxes and cutting regulations has ever worked, but I know my $50.00 is more safe than a side of Broccoli on Colin's lunch plate.

We are at the point in the campaign where everyone decides that the nomination is going to the guy in front of the pack, and there is no need to antagonize that person who is going to be a big shot-caller in the party, so they drop out. Except they aren't. Trump isn't for obvious reasons. He is going to be the nominee. Cruz isn't because he is going to win Texas and if only Rubio would drop out, he'd have a clear shot at beating Trump. (Perhaps at the convention < - Best Case Scenario) Yes... I do think Cruz is narcissistic enough to blow up the GOP convention. It is the only thing I like about him. Rubio isn't because if only Cruz would drop out, he'd have a clear shot at Trump and although the primary voters don't like him, the billionaires who propped up Jeb! do. Kasich isn't because he is now running for the VP spot. Carson isn't because all these books aren't going to sell themselves. The revised standings will be revised in about 200 days when we get to the convention:

...he's got a large, overflowing even, Delaware leadership team. But the Delaware Presidential Primary is late this year: April 26. I am now taking bets on the fact that Kasich will not be in the race by then.