Thursday Open Thread [3.24.16]

Thursday Open Thread [3.24.16]

Jonah Goldberg says the Republican Party is over: “Nominating Donald Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. Not nominating Trump will wreck the Republican Party as we know it. The sooner everyone recognizes this fact, the better.” “Denial has been Trump’s greatest ally. Republicans and commentators didn’t believe he would run. They didn’t believe he could be an attractive candidate to rational people, no matter how angry with “the establishment” voters said they were. They – which includes me – were wrong.” “Trump represents just the most pronounced of a spiderweb of ideological and demographic fault lines that are increasingly difficult to paper over. As Joel Kotkin put it in a column for the Orange County Register, the Republican Party now ‘consists of interest groups that so broadly dislike each other that they share little common ground.’ Put simply, and with the incessant and obtuse comparisons of Trump to Reagan notwithstanding, you cannot have a party that’s both Reaganite and Trumpish.”

Wednesday Open Thread [3.23.16]

Hillary Clinton won Arizona last night 58-40, while Bernie Sanders won Idaho and Utah by margins of 78-21 and 79-20, respectively. The blowout margins in Utah and Idaho means that Sanders, for the first time in a long time, gains in net delegates, closing the gap with Clinton by 6 delegates. On the night, Hillary wins at least 41 delegates in Arizona and 5 a piece in Idaho and Utah. Bernie gains 22 delegates in Arizona, and 18 and 17 in Utah and Idaho. Clinton still leads Sanders by over 300 delegates. Delegate.Count
Tuesday Open Thread [3.22.16]

Tuesday Open Thread [3.22.16]

Donald Trump met with the Washington Post editorial board yesterday and towards the end of the discussion was asked “would you use a battlefield nuclear weapon to take out ISIS?”
TRUMP: I don’t want to use, I don’t want to start the process of nuclear. Remember the one thing that everybody has said, I’m a counterpuncher. Rubio hit me. Bush hit me. When I said low energy, he’s a low-energy individual, he hit me first. I spent, by the way he spent 18 million dollars’ worth of negative ads on me. That’s putting [MUFFLED]… RYAN: This is about ISIS. You would not use a tactical nuclear weapon against ISIS? [CROSSTALK] TRUMP: I’ll tell you one thing, this is a very good looking group of people here. Could I just go around so I know who the hell I’m talking to?
This is disqualifying.
Monday Open Thread [3.21.16]

Monday Open Thread [3.21.16]

Peter Wehner on Donald Trump: The man the Founders feared:
“The reasons for the rise of Mr. Trump are undoubtedly complicated and will be studied for decades to come. That Mr. Trump’s rise has occurred in the Republican Party is painful for those of us who are Republicans. That more and more Republicans are making their own accommodation with or offering outright support for Mr. Trump — governors like Chris Christie and Rick Scott, the former candidate Ben Carson and the former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich — makes things even worse. Because we can no longer deny what Mr. Trump is and what he represents. The prospect of turning the party apparatus over to such a person is sickening.” “The founders, knowing history and human nature, took great care to devise a system that would prevent demagogues and those with authoritarian tendencies from rising up in America. That system has been extraordinarily successful. We have never before faced the prospect of a political strongman becoming president. Until now.”

Sunday Open Thread [3.20.16]

Stuart Stevens:
In 1980, Ronald Reagan won 56 percent of white voters and won a landslide victory of 44 states. In 2012, Mitt Romney won 59 percent of whites and lost with 24 states. But it’s a frequent talking point that white voter enthusiasm was higher for Reagan and turnout down for Romney. Not so. In 1980, 59 percent of whites voted and in 2012, 64 percent of whites voted. But still the myth survives that there are these masses of untapped white voters just waiting for the right candidate. Call it the Lost Tribes of the Amazon theory: If only you paddle far enough up the river and bang the drum loud enough, these previously hidden voters will gather to the river’s edge. The simple truth is that there simply aren’t enough white voters in the America of 2016 to win a national election without also getting a substantial share of the non-white vote. Romney won 17 percent of the non-white vote. Depending on white voter turnout, a Republican needs between 25 percent and 35 percent of the non-white vote to win.
A recent poll put Trump's support among whites at 49%, while only 19% among non-whites. If that holds, not only will Trump not win like Romney, it will be a worse loss. States that Romney won, like Indiana and North Carolina and Missouri, would be won by Clinton. Further, given the nature of the racist, bigoted and fascist Trump, he will spike turnout among nonwhites and Democrats of all races. That's where we get into landslide terrority, with Clinton winning Arizona and Texas, maybe even Arkansas and Mississippi. Don't believe me? Play with RCP's Demographic turnout tool. I did, giving Trump 49% of the white vote, reducing his Latino vote to 20% while keeping their turnout percentage at 2012 levels, which is all generous to Trump. And this is the landslide for Hillary it produces: Turnout map
Saturday Open Thread [3.19.16]

Saturday Open Thread [3.19.16]

The Cook Political Report says the House is in play: “So many assumptions have been wrong this cycle that it’s difficult to be definitive about another: that the House majority won’t be in play in 2016.” “Republicans are sitting on their largest majority since 1928 – 247 seats to 188 – meaning Democrats would need to pick up 30 seats, a daunting challenge given the GOP’s immense redistricting advantage and the vaporization of swing districts. But all cycle, Democrats have daydreamed about Republicans nominating an extremely polarizing presidential candidate, and suddenly it’s almost certain they will get their wish.”

The Weekly Addresses

In this week's address, the President discussed his decision to nominate Chief Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court of the United States. In his weekly message, Governor Markell highlights the success of Delaware’s Downtown Development District grant program in driving significant private investment in the state’s urban centers.