Obama Endorses Hillary, First Campaign Appearance next week

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Following a private meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders announced that he is willing to work together with Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. "I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and create a government which represents all of us and not just the one percent," Sanders told reporters outside the White House. "I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure Donald Trump does not become President of the United States." The Vermont senator, however, stopped short of endorsing Clinton, telling reporters he had no intention of dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination just yet. About 20 minutes ago, both the Clinton campaign and the White House released the above Obama Endorsement Video and announced that the Obama-Clinton duo will have their first joint campaign appearance on June 15 in the Green Bay, Wisconsin area.
Delaware General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 9, 2016

Delaware General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 9, 2016

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Let’s start with (what I think is) the most interesting bill on today’s docket, and see what you think about it. HB 375 (Bolden) changes the date of Delaware’s primaries from September to the ‘fourth Tuesday in April’. I used to strongly support making the primaries earlier, thought September was too late, but now, I’m not so sure. I think that April is too early. The reason the April date has been chosen is because that’s the date of Delaware’s presidential primary. For now. But that date has floated around for years (remember when Delaware wanted to go head-to-head with New Hampshire?), and there is nothing to guarantee that won’t happen again. Especially since the rules of the respective parties at the national level can and generally do change every four years. Here’s what’s even worse, IMHO. With an April primary, the filing deadline would be pushed into late February. Meaning, assuming that an incumbent files and isn’t challenged, then announces that they won’t run after the primary date has passed, the party voters would be shut out of the nomination process. It would be done by the district committee and/or county party. It would circumvent democracy, much like Rebecca Walker did in the 9th RD by delaying her announcement until after the July filing deadline. Only it would be in February. I understand the mantra that campaigns are too long, and they are. However, this bill essentially makes campaign primaries shorter and general election campaigns longer. Except that, in many races, the primary election is the general election. Would we be better off if, say, the primary for US Congress and Mayor of Wilmington were decided in April? I think the advantage would invariably shift to the ‘established’ candidates at the expense of insurgent candidates. While I think that June would be a desirable alternative, legislators are not gonna support that with the current legislative calendar. As written, I think that the bill protects incumbents and the parties at the expense of challengers, so I don’t support it. But, what do YOU think?

Thursday Open Thread, June 9, 2016

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Ed Kilgore sees two conditions that would need to be present before the GOP resorts to the nuclear option of dumping Trump:
The first would be a widespread abandonment of Trump by the very party opinion-leaders who have been climbing aboard his bandwagon in the last few weeks — a mass exodus on the “off-ramp” Graham is talking about. The second and more important development would be a radical change in the rank-and-file sentiment — which was strongly evident long before Trump appeared to have nailed down the nomination — opposing any kind of “coup” against the primary results.
Yeah, dumping Trump won't work because they you will piss off all those voters who elected him the nominee in the first place. You need them to vote this fall to keep Republicans across the land in office. If they stay home: Boom. Democrats sweep everything. The Republicans are in a no win situation of their own making and I am getting the popcorn: