National

If history is a trusted guide, a Republican will win the White House in 2016. Here is the operative tea leaf - the deficit. Between 2009 and 2013, President Barack…

Republican Peter Wehner:

The message being sent to voters is this: The Republican Party is led by people who are profoundly uncomfortable with the changing (and inevitable) demographic nature of our nation. The GOP is longing to return to the past and is fearful of the future. It is a party that is characterized by resentments and grievances, by distress and dismay, by the belief that America is irredeemably corrupt and past the point of no return. “The American dream is dead,” in the emphatic words of Mr. Trump. This is all quite troubling to those of us who are Republicans and find these attitudes repellant.

Chris Cillizza:

Sure, appealing to white voters with a message that things aren't as good as they used to be -- the boiled-down appeal that Trump represents -- might work in a Republican primary. But, there is NO mystery or debate that the changing demographic face of the country makes an appeal to the "old ways" an almost-certain electoral loser.

The Musical Chairs continue. The battle is joined. Last week, State Senator Bryan Townsend announced his candidacy after John Carney announced his bid for Governor. Now, we have State Representative Bryon Short announcing his run. His statement:

“Too many politicians in Washington have focused on tearing each other down rather than working together to solve the problems we face. They have failed to address the shrinking middle class, to fortify our workforce in the face of global economic pressure, to reform an education system that prepares our children to be productive citizens, to ensure the promise of a social security system that serves to sustain our nation’s elderly, or to promote basic equality under the law.” “As a small business owner, I understand that our economy is much different than it once was. And as a husband and father, I understand all too well the struggles facing families and the middle class. I want to stand with people who also face these challenges. People like my two daughters, McKinley and Rowan, who will soon be competing for their first jobs out of college. People who want to provide for their family and their future. And people who just want a level playing field and a fair shot at a long, healthy and productive life.” “With your voice and your support we can work toward building a future where the middle class thrives again. A future where our education system serves its students. A future where my girls are paid the same as their male counterparts. A future full of promise and opportunity. A future where Washington once again, works for the people.”

Learning that Sneaky Pete gave his insider cronies a 16% raise is soooo not shocking.

...So it’s disheartening – make that infuriating – to learn that the bosses Delawareans have hired for our state government, the Democratic and Republican leaders of the General Assembly, are spreading scarce state dollars around among members of their political staffs, while keeping a tight rein on the salaries of those who keep us safe, nurse our sick, pave our roads, and do the other jobs that help make Delaware special.

In a speech delivered in 2012, Ben Carson said the big bang theory was part of the “fairy tales” pushed by “high-faluting scientists” as a story of creation, BuzzFeed News reports. He also said he believed the theory of evolution was encouraged by the devil. Said Carson: “I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what is scientifically, politically correct. Amazingly, there are a significant number of scientists who do not believe it but they’re afraid to say anything.” Can we revoke his medical license? If I were a former patient of his, I would be worried about his work on my brain. I mean, either Dr. Ben Carson is the most cynical bastard ever to run for President, since as a neurosurgeon has cannot possibly believe what he is saying, or... he is dumb as fucking shit.

Certain to explode some right wing heads. In the Welcoming Ceremony at the White House, Pope Francis introduced himself as "the son of an immigrant family," and noting that America "was largely built by such families." But he focused more on climate issues:

Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution. Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation. When it comes to the care of our “common home”, we are living at a critical moment of history. We still have time to make the changes needed to bring about “a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change” (Laudato Si’, 13). Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part of this group of the excluded which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities and our societies. To use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note and now is the time to honor it.

Oh Dear.  I just used four exclamation points and "F%$cking" in a headline... What on earth is going on? It is a legally speaking, a settled question.  Our constitution forbids…

Ed Kilgore thinks this will be a very perilous week for Republicans.

There’s really only one way to say it: the week of September 21, 2015 could be unpleasant for a Republican Party struggling to find its way in the runup to a big, high-stakes election. […] Over the weekend Trump batted away criticism over his silence in the face of a supporter who loudly insisted in the candidate’s presence that the president is a Muslim born outside the United States (an assertion an alarming percentage of Republicans believe against all evidence). Trump says it’s not his job to defend the hated Obama. Carson is in the spotlight for insisting against the rather explicit language of the U.S. Constitution that there should in fact be a “religious test” for the presidency, barring Muslims. Meanwhile, Fiorina is being besieged by the facts she ignored in her debate presentation—especially with respect to the Planned Parenthood videos she discussed to the delight of Christian Right voters—and by the long-overdue MSM scrutiny of her arguably catastrophic record as CEO of HP, her primary credential for high office (see Jeffrey Sonnenberg’s refutation of her debate remarks about him and her HP tenure). But even as the three zero-experience front-runners lose friends and alienate people, it’s not like the rest of the field is moving on up. One early favorite, Scott Walker, is by all accounts in desperate condition, and having decided to drop everything else to go try to shore up his horrendous standing in Iowa, made a poor impression on his first post-CNN-debate public appearance there. Off the campaign trail, congressional Republicans are snarled in separate yet equally dangerous internal disputes over the extent to which they will court a government shutdown to express unhappiness with the Iran Nuclear Deal—which they strangely consider a big political winner for themselves—and to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Budget wizard Stan Collender has now raised his estimate of the odds of a government shutdown to 75%. It’s a particularly bad sign that Republicans are already resorting to the tired and notably ineffective tactic ofarguing that it’s Obama who would be shutting down the government by rejecting GOP demands. If that’s not enough for you, keep in mind the Pope is coming to town this week, and whatever comfort conservatives take from his inevitable condemnation of legalized abortion, he is certain to bring a message on climate change and corporate greed that will make conservative Catholics go a little crazy.

Three things: 1) This guy really is an evil piece of shit. 2) Prop Joe and Pandora will get no more points from this loser. 3) Who will inherit his 10 supporters? Via the NYT:

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has concluded he no longer has a path to the Republican presidential nomination and plans to drop out of the 2016 campaign, according to three Republicans familiar with his decision, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mr. Walker called a news conference in Madison at 6 p.m. Eastern time.