What is a Democrat?

24 Comments
I'm sure there will be a great deal of analysis around the question of what went wrong. Errors will be discussed. This or that group will be questioned. Villains will be identified. The staggering sums of money spent on negative ads in the Philadelphia media market will be traced back to the "Citizens United" decision. There will be, in short, a lot of forensics. For me, it comes down to Democrats not having a clear sense of who we are as a party, and why voters should vote for us. We've fallen into identifying ourselves, not as what we are, but as what we aren't. Democrats aren't racists. We aren't homophobes. We aren't religious bigots or xenophobic. We aren't misogynists. Those are all good things to not be, but we also aren't... good at politics. We haven't knitted those identifiers into a compelling case for Democratic governance. I'm old enough to remember when it was widely known and accepted that being a Democrat meant being on the side of the little guy. We've lost that brand identity. This election we ceded that ground to a wealthy charlatan. A one-dimensional cartoon version of a rich guy. I suppose the silver lining is that we can't fall lower than this. After the forensics will come the rebuilding. Eventually, I'll listen to the acceptance speeches of John Carney, and the other Delaware Democrats who won last night. I'll be searching to find some foundation for the rebuilding. Some acknowledgment that being a Democrat means being on the side of the little guy.
The November 8, 2016 Thread

The November 8, 2016 Thread

11 Comments
Emma Green at The Atlantic:
She’s ready. Hillary Clinton stood before a crowd of tens of thousands of people in Philadelphia on Monday night, sounding hoarse from her days of campaigning, wearing a bright red pantsuit as if to dare anyone to make fun it, the night before her historic election. She did not declare the race over, but the whole event felt breathtakingly close to a victory party. Clinton is ready to be off the campaign trail, and to be president of the United States.

General Assembly Predictions

7 Comments
The Democrats are not in jeopardy of losing the House. In fact, I predict they will pick up two seats, the 9th RD with Monique Johns in Jason330's Upset Special, and Bradley Connor in the 41st RD. That would give the Dems 27 seats again, and the Republicans will have 14 seats. As for the Senate...

If Clinton wins…?

47 Comments
...will that mean that she has been acquitted in the court of popular opinion, and Republicans will call off their Jihad against her? And having called off their Jihad, ...will that mean she will be free to "govern toward the center" and continue the consensus seeking/New Democrats/DLC/Third Way course charted by Bill Clinton and attempted by Obama? Those rhetorical questions are easy to answer.

My Final Prediction

8 Comments
Final Prediction A Latino blue wave sweeps Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Texas, though not quite enough yet to turn the Lone Star state blue. Texas will be a two to three point race, and a swing state from here on out. Hillary Clinton's ground operation wins North Carolina and Ohio, but is not quite enough to turn Iowa blue, probably because the state has just been trending extremely red since 2012. It is also the whitest state in the nation. There will be no congressional district splits in Maine or Nebraska, after all the attention placed on both. The final popular vote margin will be Hillary 51, Trump 43, Other 6. Dems will come very close to winning the House because of the blue Latino wave. They will win unexpected seats in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, California, Texas and Florida because of it. I am just not sure they will win enough to take the majority. Either way, Paul Ryan will have an ungovernable majority of maybe 5 seats. Dems will take the majority in the Senate after winning Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Florida, Missouri, Nevada and Arizona. That's a net pick up of 9 seats, for a 54-46 majority. In Delaware, no surprises on the Statewides: Carney, Blunt Rochester, Hall Long, Navarro all win. Meyer wins in New Castle County.
The November 7, 2016 Thread

The November 7, 2016 Thread

9 Comments
In case you have not read the New York Times inside story on the final week of the Trump campaign, it is a must read. We learn that Corey Lewandowski, CNN's pro-Trump "analyst", "still talk[s] to the candidate frequently," that Ivanka Trump "discouraged" the campaign from promoting her own ad for her father, fearing it would damage her own businesses (I hope she is bankrupt next year); that Trump's inner circle finally wrestled his phone and Twitter away from him; that Steve Bannon's pants literally caught fire while helping to write one of Trump's speeches (bringing new meaning to liar liar pants on fire); that Trump doesn't use a computer and, apparently, can't wrap his mind around the idea that other people do, so he "rails against the campaign’s expenditure of tens of millions on digital ads, skeptical that spots he never sees could have any effect;" that Trump's Gettysburg speech was supposed to be something more dignified and highbrow, but Trump "insisted" that he instead use the event to lash out at women accusing him of sexual assault; and that Trump does not do well with alone-time.
Aboard his gold-plated jumbo jet, the Republican nominee does not like to rest or be alone with his thoughts, insisting that aides stay up and keep talking to him. He prefers the soothing, whispery voice of his son-in-law. He requires constant assurance that his candidacy is on track. [...] And he is struggling to suppress his bottomless need for attention.
The article opens with the revelation that Donald Trump is not sleeping, and the end of the article says that Trump believes that he will win. The latter is probably because of the former. We also learn that Trump has fired his pollster and so all these late campaign moves, visits to Minnesota and Michigan are not because his campaign has numbers showing close races (as they have been lying about), but because his aides decided to literally play around with the 270towin electoral college simulation game to find different paths to 270. I'm serious. So all these Democrats here and elsewhere who have been so fearful of the Trump surge should perhaps change their sheets and buck up. He is who we thought he was.