Friday Open Thread [4.8.16]

Friday Open Thread [4.8.16]

84 Comments
Bernie is deescalating. I suppose his internal polling showed that he was losing voters.
The conflict began when Hillary Clinton implied Sanders wasn't a real Democrat and hadn't "done his homework" on his pet issue: breaking up big banks. Based on headlines, Sanders took Clinton's remarks to mean she'd said he wasn't qualified to be president, and he shot back that maybe she wasn't qualified, either. Having successfully driven Sanders to a boiling point, Clinton then backed off, saying she'd take Sanders "over Donald Trump or Ted Cruz anytime." But the question remained: If Sanders thought Clinton so "unqualified," would he endorse her if she won the nomination in July? The answer, it seems, is yes. During an interview with CBS on Thursday evening, Sanders assured anchor Charlie Rose that he "thinks the idea of a Donald Trump or a Ted Cruz presidency would be an unmitigated disaster for this country." He went on, "I will do everything in my power and work as hard as I can to make sure that that does not happen. And if Secretary Clinton is the nominee, I will certainly support her."
Delaware Political Weekly: April 1-7, 2016

Delaware Political Weekly: April 1-7, 2016

40 Comments
That was a pretty weak non-denial denial, wasn’t it? The person who could shed light on it refuses, claiming that it is a confidential personnel matter. If nothing happened, if he never took those lists, then wouldn’t a simple ‘He did his job, he didn’t take the lists’ be justified? I also love the part about how the complainant was invited to come in, but didn’t. You live in Section 8 housing, you’re gonna head on up to Cop-land? Whole thing smells like a cover-up to me with ex-cops acting as the enforcers. Since Gordon is no stranger to ethical violations or even illegalities, and since everyone knows it, I don’t know whether it will impact him. But he clearly did a 180 on that tape when he found out who the alleged miscreant was. Will the primordial ooze flowing through county government flush him down into one of NCC’s sewers this time? It depends on whether his D opponent, Matthew Meyer, runs an effective and aggressive campaign. It’s also possible that if Barry Nahe, who has filed as an R for County Executive, turns out to be a non-ideological candidate running on the issues of transparency and competence, he could defeat the ethical black hole that is Gordon. Nahe has been Chief of Building Operations and Maintenance in NCC since 2008. As to Bethany Hall Long, I think it could damage her campaign for Lieutenant Governor. Even if it turns out that Dana Long did nothing wrong, she could unfairly wind up as collateral damage. She barely got a mulligan on the first one (the sign-stealing), but people may start seeing this as a pattern, even if there’s no pattern. It also places John Carney in a bit of a predicament. He’s made no secret internally that he would prefer to run on a ticket with BHL. If he no longer prefers to, her candidacy takes a huge hit. Does Carney want to risk having Gordon sewage all over him? I don’t think so. BTW, let me go back to the sign-stealing thing for a moment. Long didn’t just steal signs, he was a serial sign-stealer. Dana Long got caught b/c his opponents’ signs had gotten stolen so much that they got frustrated and essentially set him up on camera. I fully understand that. My signs were selectively stolen when I ran against Wayne Smith, and I fantasized about catching the thieves in the act. So, Dana Long doesn’t get a pass from me. As of now, we don’t know if Long did anything wrong and/or if BHL knew about anything he might have done wrong. Don’t know if people are in the mood to give her the benefit of the doubt this time.
Thursday Open Thread [4.7.16]

Thursday Open Thread [4.7.16]

20 Comments
On Tuesday, 15% of Sanders voters decided they could not be bothered with voting for other Democrats down the ballot, including, most importantly, the Democratic Supreme Court candidate. This is why purist progressives can never form a coherent, effective and long lasting movement. Markos:
So there are lots of reasons why we lost that [Supreme Court race] that have nothing to do with Sanders’ supporters. Still, it is imperative that the Sanders movement figure out how to engage its supporters on the full ballot, particularly since it relies so heavily on independent politically alienated voters (around 20 percent of Sanders’ Wisconsin voters—easily his margin of victory since Hillary Clinton and Sanders split Democrats 50-50). The Occupy movement became mostly irrelevant because of its refusal to engage in electoral politics (compared to the tea party). To its credit, the Sanders movement is engaged electorally, but seemingly focused on a single personality. Sanders has undoubtedly activated a core group of people, one that could have incredible influence in our politics moving forward. But that will require broadening their portfolio of candidates so that their impact is felt up and down and in every corner of every ballot. Could you imagine Sanders supporters exerting the same level of fear into the hearts of Democratic incumbents as the tea party does to Republicans? That would be something we would all cheer.
The Sanderistas cannot be trusted to support anyone but Sanders. Every other candidate everywhere down the ballot is not as pure as Bernie or has done something to offend the sensitive sensibilities of purist progressives, and therefore no other candidate but Bernie is entitled to support. And that is why Bernie's talk of revolution is pure bullshit. For Bernie to succeed in office, he needs a progressive Congress. To get a progressive Congress, he needs all of his supporters everywhere to come out and support progressive candidates. But here is where progressives go off the rails: no one can ever agree on who is progressive. From my own experience at PDD, certain hardcore purists in that organization refused to support or endorse Bryan Townsend or Karen Peterson because they are not progressive enough. Therefore, the movement as a whole will always fail because when you build a coalition to elect down ballot members, not everyone is going to be pure or progressive enough. If you thin Democrats are weary of progressivism, that is why. It's not because they don't share the same opinion on policy. It's because progressives have a lousy track record of being a coalition ally. They are not there for you when you need them. Unions are good allies. They support down ballot. Progressives are not because they do not. If progressives want to become a growing and effective movement, they will cure their purism.

Clinton in panicked search for “Dean Scream” moment – Not finding it

9 Comments
Based on the histrionic responses to 1) a recent interview and 2) a Sanders stump speech, it is clear that the Clinton campaign is out of ideas and trying to create the kind of "media controversy" that Kerry deftly used to knock Howard Dean out of contention for the Democratic nomination. It all feels so made up and phony though, doesn't it? It is difficult for me to imagine it working. Difficult, but not impossible. On this very blog, we have contributors willing to go along with it, I can only imagine how many others in the national media will hear their dog whistle and respond in accordance with their classical conditioning.
Bernie Sanders can go fuck himself.

Bernie Sanders can go fuck himself.

107 Comments
So. Over the last 24 hours, Bernie Sanders and his campaign has decided to break their word and attack Hillary Clinton personally. First, the top Berniebro out there, Jeff Weaver, said yesterday that he sure hopes Secretary Clinton doesn't "destroy the Democratic party to satisfy the Secretary's ambitions to become the president of the United States." "We want to have a party that we can unify." Ok. Let's unpack that for a moment.
Some Things Can’t Be Unsaid

Some Things Can’t Be Unsaid

54 Comments
And this is one of them:
“She has been saying lately that she thinks I am quote unquote unqualified to be president. Well let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don’t believe that she is qualified if she is through her super PAC taking tens of million of dollars in special interest funds. I don’t think that you are qualified if you get $15 million from Wall Street through your super PAC. I don’t think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in Iraq. I don’t think you are qualified if you have supported virtually every disastrous trade agreement that has cost us millions of decent-paying jobs. I don’t think you are qualified if you supported the Panama Free Trade Agreement, something I very strongly opposed and which all of you know has allowed corporations and wealthy people all over the world to avoid paying their taxes to their countries."
I spent last night and this morning trying to find where Hillary Clinton said Bernie Sanders wasn't qualified to be President. I came up empty, but if anyone can show me where she actually said this... I'm really not sure what to say about Bernie's statement. I'm disappointed and concerned. There's no doubt Bernie had his first bad week on the campaign. It was also the first week he was actually treated like a serious candidate whose issues and words come under scrutiny. That's the way it works. Yeah, this outburst does have me questioning how he'd handle the general election. Sorry, but it does. I'm also worried. Is #FeeltheBern turning into #BernitDown?