Year: 2016

This may be a very short running recurring feature. I doubt it makes it to "Item #2", but for now...Colin Bonini is MUCH better than John Carney in one area: civil forfeiture.

Last night I dreamt that Jeb Bush came up to me wearing a dodgy looking campaign swag style sweat shirt. White with some coffee drips down the front. He was…

A funny thing is happening to President Obama that bodes well for Hillary Clinton in the fall: he is becoming more popular. Libby Nelson:

As President Obama prepares to leave office, Americans are starting to like him a little more. The latest Gallup data on Obama's approval ratings found 50 percent of Americans approve of the job he's doing — the highest level since 2013. That's much better than Obama's average 46 percent approval during his seventh year in office, which ended January 19, and the 43 percent approval rating during his sixth. Obama is also much more popular than George W. Bush was at this point in his presidency, and nearly on par with Ronald Reagan during Reagan's final March in office.

Actually, that Gallup Tracking Poll that Libby cites is out of date. Gallup now finds 52% of Americans approve of the President's job performance, while 44% disapprove. And this is confirmed across all of the polls released this week. Rasmussen has Obama at 50-49. ABC News/Washington Post, 51-43. NBC News/Wall Street Journal, 49-46. CNN/ORC, 50-44. President Obama will go down in history as one of the best Presidents this country has ever had, and the best it has had since Roosevelt. And the American people, faced with the prospect of replacing him, are realizing that.

How can President Obama appoint a Supreme Court Justice and finish off the Republican Party, tearing out their lungs street fighter style? Easy. Register as a Republican. GOP Senators are openly saying that they'd confirm a pick at this point in the term of the Republican President, so call them on it. It would lay the coup de grâce on that punch-drunk staggering waste of space called the GOP and flip the court in the direction of sanity as if by magic. Of course, Obama would have to live and socialize among the worst bottom feeding drecks of humanity, but look at the payoff? Doesn't he love America? This is his opportunity to show it.

During a Thursday morning radio interview, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) candidly explained that Senate Republicans would take a different approach to a Supreme Court nominee if a Republican president were in office and replacing a conservative justice.

Arguing the affirmative stance is Celia: He is 77, and that is pretty old. Republicans are sending out some whipper snapper named Carl Pace to do jumping jacks or some…

Jonathan Chait says the best attack against Trump is one his Republicans can't and won't deliver, but the Democrats will:

Ted Cruz, true to his paranoia, has charged that mainstream news outlets are sitting on a series of explosive reports about Donald Trump’s history, planning — as a nefarious plot to help Hillary Clinton — to unleash them only after Trump has secured the nomination. The accusation is almost certainly false. (“Almost” being a necessary qualifier, since one can’t prove a negative.) At the same time, Cruz’s charge reflects a broader truth. There are cutting charges that might sever Trump from his loyal base that have not seen the light of day. The thing is, Cruz and his fellow anti-Trump conservatives are perfectly aware of what they are. They have chosen to holster those attacks for reasons entirely their own. [...] There’s a devastating response to Trump’s message: He’s not planning to be greedy for us; he’s planning to be greedy for himself. The centerpiece of Trump’s domestic program is a massive tax cut that would mainly benefit fellow rich people: The reason Republicans refuse to exploit this vulnerability is obvious — they all propose to do the same thing.

Not to mention that Trump will use his position to further enrich himself and his companies by pawning off all his wares on us. The official wine of the United States: Trump Wine. Public water? No. Trump Water. Steaks? Trump Steaks.

Well, Bernie got his first quality narrative changing shocking upset of a win in Michigan last night. All his prior wins could be discounted in one way or another: caucus states, states close to Vermont, states that were overly white and liberal electorates. Michigan is the first state that is nearly identical to the demographics of the nation as a whole where he won. Sure, it's a very narrow win, and sure, Hillary actually won the delegate count, both in Michigan and throughout the night, thus expanding her almost insurmountable lead, but a win is a win. And you need wins, especially the unexpected shocking upsets kind of wins to change narratives and momentum, and campaigns are all about narratives and momentum. So for the last two weeks, I have been crowing about Hillary's success, so Bernie supporters, feel free to crow here about his success last night. Hey, if Hillary had won Michigan, I would have been saying the race is over. Remember what Chris Bowers said yesterday, that Bernie needed to win Michigan. He did. Celebrate it if you feel that rash commonly referred to as the Bern. Tomorrow, we will begin to talk about whether this win changes the course of the race.