National

Daniel Drezner on why Joe Biden isn't running: “The only political reason for a Biden candidacy was an imploding Hillary Clinton, and she’s not imploding." Tonight is DEBATE NIGHT! Finally, after enduring two evil and lengthy GOP debates where we discovered that how exactly the Republicans intend to wreak their terrible will on the nation, we get the adults. The reasonable and rational party. The party committed to social progress, equality, opportunity and the Constitution. The party that solves conflicts with diplomacy rather than immature saber rattling. The party that actually paid attention during science and social studies class. The party that believes that climate change is a problem created by man and can be alleviated by man. The party that is not racist, or sexist, or bigoted. The party that stands for the 99%. The Democratic Party. Meanwhile, Pew Research says Democrats have become more liberal: “The share of Democrats who describe their political views as liberal has increased over the past 15 years. In surveys conducted this year, 41% of Democrats describe themselves as liberal, 35% say they are moderates and 21% say they’re conservative. In 2000, 43% were moderate, 27% liberal and 24% conservative.” You know who gets credit for all this? Progressives and the Netroots. People like Markos Moulitsas and Jason Scott in the Howard Dean days who said "Damn straight I am a liberal."

The NJ names names and turns up the heat on Sneaky Pete.

Amid budget grief, big raises for Dover political aides Delaware lawmakers quietly awarded their top political aides in Legislative Hall thousands of dollars in raises earlier this year, even as they reduced or eliminated general pay increases for rank-and-file state employees, according to a review of payroll data by The News Journal.

House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, a Rehoboth Democrat who approved the raises, ducked questions from The News Journal, ignoring repeated requests for comment. "Pete is not available to comment about this," said Drew Volturo, a House Democratic spokesman.

Drew Volturo has been on the other side of this, so I'm not sure why he is going with this stonewalling approach. Maybe the Dem "leadership" has some broadside attack on teachers in he works that they plan to use to push this off the front page? It wouldn't surprise me.

I feel like a spectator this year. I just can't get excited about the Presidential election. Maybe it is because the GOP field is so utterly non-electable that the whole enterprise feels even more like kabuki theater than it normally does. Or... maybe it is because I like and I'm pretty comfortable with either Sanders or Clinton..? Who knows?

First Read says time is running out for Joe Biden:

“More than 10 weeks have passed since that Maureen Dowd column floated the possibility of a Biden run, but he continues to run — or stand — in place. Now, it’s very likely this was decision weekend for Biden, and either we’ll hear a firm ‘no’ from him in the next 48 to 72 hours, or we’ll see the building blocks of an active campaign (website, staff hires). But what is unsustainable is continued inaction, because it won’t be helping his party (if the Democratic nominee needs to raise $1 billion to compete in the general election in this Super PAC Era, Biden still hasn’t raised a cent); it won’t be helping Hillary Clinton (see the latest CBS poll, which shows her leading Bernie Sanders by 24 points without Biden, but by a smaller amount — 19 points — with him included in the contest); and despite experiencing his highest poll numbers during this limbo period, it won’t be helping Biden himself, either (if you want to compete in the early states, build an organization to win, and simply meet the upcoming filing deadlines, you’ve got to jump in ASAP).” “The 2016 train took off months ago. If Biden wants to catch up to his fellow Democrats, he’s got to hop on Air Force Two now. And if he’s not ready to make that move, he owes it to his party and its presidential frontrunner to end the limbo.”

Jonathan Chait says Republicans need Paul Ryan as their next speaker:

What actually separates the insurgents from the Establishment is not ideology but tactics. The insurgents refuse to accept the constitutional limits of their power, and believe that more frenzied assertions of their core beliefs, combined with a periodic willingness to shut down the government and threaten a currency default, can prevail over President Obama through force of will. The insurgents mistakenly interpret disagreements over means as disagreements over ends; when Republican leaders express reluctance to shut down the government over Obamacare or Planned Parenthood, the insurgents take this as actual support for those programs. What makes Ryan so perfectly suited to bridge this divide is that he perfectly combines ideological extremism with methodological pragmatism.

So Ryan's ideological bona fides are so strong that he and only he can convince restive and angry conservatives to delay ideological gratification until that 2017 when Republicans control the federal government and can descend America into the horror that comes from Republican policies. But Ryan still says no. LOL.