National

New York Times: “He defeated her in a grueling Democratic nomination battle. Then she pursued his agenda across the world as secretary of state. Now, the delicate relationship between Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Obama is about to get even more complicated.” “For months, Mrs. Clinton and her team have pored over Mr. Obama’s poll ratings, policies and constituencies, seeking to solve a central riddle for the campaign she is about to begin: How can she run for president as her own person, without criticizing the sitting president she served — while her Republican opponents will be working to demonize them both?” Dan Balz: “Her every step will be analyzed for signs of change or continuity. Has she learned from her loss to then-candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries? If so, what? Does she act entitled or hungry? Has she shifted on foreign policy issues since she was Obama’s secretary of state?” On Twitter, Hillary has been quite glowing about the President's accomplishments, especially in the areas of Equality and Obamacare. She may go more hawkish on ISIS, but she will term it as doing more. I think she knows that it will hurt her on the left flank to create too much distance between herself and her former boss. That was the lesson of 2000, and the Clintons then thought Gore should have used them much more. She will not now agree with Al Gore on being her own candidate.

A new Bloomberg National poll finds that 72% of Democrats and independents said it would be a good thing for the Democratic Party if Hillary Clinton were to face a “serious” challenger for the presidential nomination. Well, it seems that she will have at least three challengers. Whether they are serious depends on three things: 1) Hillary's performance; 2) the voters; and 3) the challengers themselves. Remember, Hillary is riding high in the polls not because of some accident. The Democratic base overwhelmingly wants her to be their nominee, while, contrarily, they want a serious challenge for her. This is probably because a serious contested and drawn out battle between Obama and Clinton in 2008 strengthen Obama and prepared him for McCain in the fall. Well, there is no Obama on the scene, and the conditions are not there for an Obama to emerge this time to challenge Clinton.

Roger Simon: "There is a poison pill inside the Republican Party and if its presidential hopefuls keep swallowing it, they are going to choke off their chances for the White House. The religious right has managed to convince some potential candidates that it is extremely powerful. It has convinced the more gullible ones that they must grovel, kowtow and genuflect before it. This is nonsense. As I have written before, the religious right has not gotten the nominee it has wanted since Ronald Reagan. It is a paper tiger. And by taking the poison pill that the religious right offers, the potential candidates risk alienating the rest of the nation." But that's not what the right wing is saying. They are telling this frightened cowards of candidates that they cannot ever hope to win without them. On Monday, Iowa’s Steve Deace was talking to the Family Leader’s Bob Vander Plaats about the necessity of opposing marriage equality. Vander Plaats, who has previously said that “You cannot run away from the heart of God and expect God to bless the country,” told Deace that Republicans are hurting their election chances by not standing firmly enough against gay rights. Vander Plaats insisted of Republicans that “They’ll never win again without this base.” Has the base not been with the GOP in 2008 and 2012? The religious right loved Sarah Palin and they turned out for her, and she and they got destroyed in a massive landslide for Barack Obama. The religious right was with Mitt Romney because they wanted to get rid of Obama in 2012. They all believed, seriously believed, that Romney would win and they were devastated when he did not. I always love this instantly revisionist denial that Republicans and conservatives go through when they lose. I guarantee you that when GOP Nominee Ted Cruz loses 49 states to Hillary, the religious right will say he was not conservative enough and that is why he did not win.

Sussex County's former Clerk of the Peace, George Parrish, is running for state insurance commissioner as a Republican. The last we heard of this theocratic idiot was when he announced that he would perform civil union ceremonies even though he believed they were discriminatory towards heterosexuals somehow. Here is what he said back then:

“As I have reviewed all my legal options, administrative options and political options, I have determined that I took an oath in support of the Constitution and the rule of law should prevail,” said Parish, who lives in Long Neck. “It’s because of that and because if I were to resign, liberal Gov. Jack Markell would have the opportunity to appoint a potential liberal to succeed me and that’s unacceptable to George Parish because Sussex County voters should be the source of deciding and electing the next clerk of the peace of Sussex County." [...] Parish favors a constitutional amendment that would define marriage in Delaware as between a man and a woman. [...] He believes Delaware’s new law is discriminatory against heterosexuals.

So now the 74 year old former Clerk of Peace wants to be Insurance Commissioner. Hey, I want a change at that position too. I just don't want an old bigot who likely opposes Obamacare to be that change.

Pew Research did some ... well research into the political leanings of our country and guess what? We are a center left nation. Dare I say it? A liberal nation. Pew Research found that more demographic groups lean Democratic than Republican, and more Americans lean towards supporting Democrats. We also reveal inside that Rand Paul is not a libertarian, he just plays one on TV. And we learn that "Benjamin Netanyahu" is Hebrew for "George W. Bush."

Education is the third rail of Delaware politics. You touch it, you die. How else do you explain the overwhelmingly negative opinion of Governor Markell's job performance among Delaware Liberal readers. 42% strongly disapprove. Another 28% somewhat disapprove. That's a total of 70% disapproving of your job performance, which only 29% approve. Governor Markell and his aides can take solace in the fact that this is not a scientific poll at all.

Now that Rand Paul has announced that he is running for President, I'd like to hurry up and agree with him on a couple of things before he walks back these comments. In 2009 I agreed with Paul when he said that Dick Cheney wanted to invade Iraq to benefit his former employer, Halliburton. On the basic criminality of drone strikes, I agree with him on that. When he told Bloomberg News that Iran is not a threat, I agree with that observation.