Open Thread

Nate Cohn notes that Hillary Clinton currently “commands a staggering 60 percent of the primary vote, an unprecedented figure for a non–vice presidential candidate and one of the highest levels…

As George W. Bush is disgustingly lauded today by the other living Presidents, including President Obama, during the opening of his presidential museum (it's not a library, its a museum with exhibits and displays, so everyone stop calling it a library) in Dallas, a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds just 35% of Americans view Bush favorably, versus 44% who view him negatively. That negative number has improved for W, probably because people don't care about him anymore. Meanwhile, here is Barbara Bush on her favorite son's possible run for the Presidency in 2016:

Appearing in an interview Thursday on NBC's "Today" show, Mrs. Bush was asked how she felt about Jeb, the former governor of Florida, seeking the presidency in 2016. Mrs. Bush replied, quote, "We've had enough Bushes." She went on to say she thought there were many worthy candidates, telling anchor Matt Lauer, "There are people out there" who are qualified. Mrs. Bush, who had a reputation for bluntness when her husband George H.W. Bush was president, spoke from the site of the presidential library.

Mrs. Bush, I couldn't agree with you more. But I wouldn't expect much from Jeb on Mother's Day.

Tennessee State Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) joked on his personal blog about "assault pressure cookers" in the wake of last week's bombing in Boston, the Tennessean reports.

"Under a headline that referred to U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, one of the leading proponents of gun control, Campfield cataloged the dangerous features on a pressure cooker, including a 'muzzle break thingy,' 'tactical grip' and 'evil, black' color." When asked about his comments he refused to apologize and said liberal commentators should be calling for "crock pot control" if they were consistent with their calls for gun control after last year's Sandy Hook school shooting.

I am starting to wonder if all Republicans are sociopathic assholes. Hey asshole, bombs are already illegal.

Of course we all know that our Democratic congressional delegation has for a long time assumed that Delaware was a more conservative state, or at least its residents possessed a more conservative politics, and hence there was a need always for a Democratic candidate to always always moderate their message and move to the right (and this applies more so to Carper and Carney, and less so to Coons). And now we have statistical proof of this phenomena. David Broockman and Christopher Skovron looked at legislators’s perceptions of their constituents and compare to estimates of the the actual issue attitudes of people living in their districts.

There is a striking conservative bias in politicians’ perceptions, particularly among conservatives: conservative politicians systematically believe their constituents are more conservative than they actually are by over 20 percentage points, while liberal politicians also typically overestimate their constituents’ conservatism by several percentage points. A follow-up survey demonstrates that politicians appear to learn nothing from democratic campaigns or elections that leads them to correct these shortcomings. [...] These findings suggest a substantial conservative bias in American political representation and bleak prospects for constituency control of politicians when voters’ collective preferences are less than unambiguous.

Those results are actually somewhat heartening since they either involved terrorists who were not American citizens or whose citizenship was left unclear. I can see the argument that noncitizen terrorists do not have constitutional rights and are enemy combatants. But citizens? Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev is an American citizen. Yes, he is a terrorist too, but he is an American too. Just as Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer, but also an American citizen. Just as Eric Rudolph was a right wing bomber, but he was also an American citizen. So since he is an American citizen, he has constitutional rights. That means Tsarnaev has his 5th Amendment rights and 6th Amendment rights, which are, respectively....

And what the hell is going on with NCCo staff? David Grimaldi has a fight in Pastabilities and NCCo Chief responds out of his jurisdiction:

“I did respond into the city,” Setting said. “That was just to make sure that everything was being done in the proper manner.” Setting referred other questions to Grimaldi.

Are all NCCo residents treated to NCCPD oversight when they are misbehaving in Wilmington enough for the WPD to be called in? This sure looks like special rules are in place for NCCo staff to misbehave with impunity.

45 Pathetic Cowards. Let's see if any Delaware Democrats or Republicans in the Delaware Senate join them. 1. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 2. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) 3. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) 4. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) 5. Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) 6. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) 7. Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) 8. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) 9. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) 10. Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) 11. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) 12. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) 13. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) 14. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) 15. Sen. Michael Crapo (R-ID) 16. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 17. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) 18. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) 19. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) 20. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) 21. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) 22. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) 23. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) 24. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) 25. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) 26. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) 27. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) 28. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) 29. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) 30. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) 31. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 32. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) 33. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) 34. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) 35. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) 36. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) 37. Sen. James Risch (R-ID) 38. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) 39. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 40. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) 41. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 42. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) 43. Sen. John Thune (R-SD) 44. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) 45. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Unusual Hillary Speculation -- Could Hillary Clinton Be America’s Thatcher? This is from Margaret Carlson and this piece is something of a mess -- largely faulting Hillary for being married to Bill Clinton. Both Hillary and Bill have more than their fair share of issues, but Hillary does have accomplishments, not the least of which is making sure that she was pulling other women up the ladder with her and fighting for women's issues around the world. Thatcher cared not one whit about other women or the rights or well-being of anyone else, for that matter.

The news is focused on the Boston Marathon bombing, and for so much ink being spilled, there is precious little new information. So 2 bombs, 3 people dead, more than 150 sent to the hospital with injuries. There's no one in custody yet, law enforcement of all kinds are at the scene and working to ID the bomber and apparently they are getting tons of tips. And right on cue, the right wingnuts are spinning up their conspiracy theories -- this one claiming that the bombing is meant to frame the tea party and expand the TSA. Just so you can be certain that there is a national tragedy, the Westboro RatBastards have already pledged to picket funerals from this.

Tomorrow, the bipartisan "Gang of Eight," which includes Senators Dick Durbin (D), Chuck Schumer (D), John McCain (R), Lindsay Graham (R), Jeff Flake (R), Marco Rubio (R), Robert Menendez (D) and Michael Bennet (D) is set to unveil a proposal that would represent the most far-reaching overhaul of immigration laws since 1986. Come inside for the details of the bill from the Washington Examiner....

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) reported his campaign fund earned $75,637 from interest and investments during the first quarter of 2013, according to Political Moneyline. That doesn't seem legal to me,…

Vice President Joe Biden "faces a situation unique in the annals of modern American politics," the New York Times reports.

"He is the vice president, the highest-ranking member of his party interested in running for president, yet he is not the heir apparent. While every sitting vice president who sought it in the last half-century captured his party's nomination, Mr. Biden would start as the underdog if he ran against Mrs. Clinton, the former secretary of state."

Which is why he won't run if she does. Hillary and Joe are also good friends, which I think makes the decision not to run easier, not harder.