Delaware Political Weekly: June 23-29, 2012

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We get press releases from candidates all the time, as do every other media outlet. It is exceedingly rare, however, that someone's campaign manager sends out a press release announcing that someone's campaign manager will be someone's campaign manager. And for good reason. Good campaign managers know that there is only one candidate and only one campaign manager, and that all the focus should be on the candidate. That, however, did not stop Ezra Temko from announcing that he, Ezra Temko, would be managing the campaign of Claudia Bock for State Representative in the 23rd RD. Perhaps fittingly, Temko spends at least the first 50% of the press release talking about himself, Ezra Temko, and his ongoing search for enlightenment.

Thursday Open Thread [6.28.12]

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Obamacare survives and it is a win for the good guys! Certainly Obamacare is not the end of the line, but am hoping that progressives will finally look at this as an opportunity to launch an effort to make Obamacare better. The AP-GfK took a poll recently that noted that if Obamacare was overturned, Americans did not want their government to give up on reining in health care costs and issues. To me, that looks like opportunity, for a public option, for single-payer -- as long as it gets closer to better control of costs and getting better outcomes for it. But it is time to step up and push for useful revisions to Obamacare before the wingnuts sell everybody on something stupid like buying cheap insurance (that really isn't insurance) from Texas.

Supreme Court ACA Watch Open Thread

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Today is supposed to be the last day of this Supreme Court session so all of the breathless press vamping waiting on the ACA decision officially turns into lots of breathless punditry sometime after 10AM today. I'm posting this thread for everyone to have a place to start posting your own prognostications and links to people who are doing a good job at discussing the issues involved.

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 28, 2012

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Four Senate grandstanders voted against the Budget Bill. Won't stop 'em from bragging to their constituents about what they're bringing home to the district. Hypocrites. The four nos: Bonini, Lawson, Katz, and Booth. Meaning that Booth voted against funding for his beloved Sussex Vo-Tech although, to be fair, there sure is some wasteful spending there. In this case, every penny being paid to double-dipper Joe Booth.

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 27, 2012

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The Senate defeated Rep. Longhurst's 'Fuck the Doomed' bill yesterday. 9 Y, 10 N, 2 Hiding in the Restroom. My guess is that the votes are there. Especially once Delmarva breaks out its/their checkbooks. Perhaps in the rest room. Legislators have been known to stake out 'wide stances' on issues like this, and don't object to manipulation. Joe Farley, Delmarva's 'Democratic' lobbyist, will be working OT to earn his blood money today. BTW, is this really the kind of bill that a supposed member of the House Democratic Caucus leadership team should be sponsoring? Betcha it passes. Hope it doesn't. Memo to Longhurst primary opponent James Burton: Make this a campaign issue. I'll even toss off the 'money' sentence for you..."What sort of Democrat would sponsor the terminating of life-saving utilities to seriously-ill patients?" You're welcome.

The Polling Report [6.27.12]

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So I have swung back to Jason330's line of thinking: frack Rasmussen and other Republican polls whose sole purpose for existing is to shape narrative rather than conduct scientific polls. They cannot ever be trusted. And if we are going to criticize people like Allen Loudell for trusting Rasmussen, then we cannot very well use their polls in our polling report. So Rasmussen and We Ask America are gone. I have also decided to do away with the "Toss up" category. We have tons of new polls. Come inside to check them out and here is our new map: DLMAP

Romney’s Bad Week Continues….

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When he finally gathered enough courage to take a stand after 12 hours of ducking the press and having his flunkies sound like automotons refusing to budge from talking points, he announced that is experiencing what you humans call "disappointment." He wants the Court to give more latitude, not less, to the states. The rest of his statements on the court's ruling had to do with President Obama's failure to pass an immigration reform law, even though an immigration reform law (the "Dream" Act) did actually receive majority votes in both chambers of Congresss before his own Republican Party filibustered it to death. Immigration is a horrible issue for Romney. His party, if it is to remain a competitive national party rather than a racist whites only Southern party in the generation, must attract Hispanics. But if he dares changes any of hardline anti-immigration and anti-Hispanic policies so he can appear moderate in the general election and appealing to Hispanics, he risks depressing racist White turnout, which is the base of his party. And he needs Bushian 2004 intensity of the party base to win this election. Any depression of the GOP base turnout will doom him to a landslide loss. Hence Romney's cowardly hiding yesterday. Hence his mealy mouthed response expressing "disappointment." Hence his Obama bashing.

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 26, 2012

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They will also leave Dover with yet another revenue source: more dollars via degenerate gamblers thanks to the so-called online gaming bill. This is a particularly odious example of the Delaware Way. Provisions have been put into the bill to ensure that the racinos and the mom-and-pop stores that sell the lottery tickets don't get screwed, but no such provision for the compulsive gamblers who will help fill the state's coffers. No fiscal note is even required for this bill, which makes little sense to me. Neither a projection of costs to implement the system, nor a revenues projection? Really?