Countdown to Extinction: The 2016 Presidential Election

[Karl Henning]

Waterboard them, I should think.

[drogulus]

     There Was no Republican Establishment After All

The fiction that Trump's exploitation of racial resentments is a shocking breach of Republican values has been fiercely asserted by Romney, Ryan, and the rest of the GOP Establishment for the obvious reason: A nearly all-white party, staring down the barrel of a looming minority-white America, can't compete in national elections unless it can claim to have retained its founding identity as the party of Lincoln. That's why there have been so many recent revisionist histories in conservative publications (not to mention a book by Joe Scarborough) attempting to sanitize the racial animus of the Goldwater-Nixon "Southern strategy" of a half-century ago. As voters went to the polls on Super Tuesday, March 1, Bret Stephens, a conservative columnist at the Journal who loathes Trump, captured the Establishment's panic that Trump might now be sabotaging that elaborate airbrushing effort. "It would be terrible to think the left was right about the right all these years," he wrote, and to discover that its "tendentious" accusations of "racial prejudice" were validated by Trump's success among the Republican electorate of 2016.

     

[drogulus]

[Brian]

I have a good friend (who sometimes lurks on GMG...hello!!) who describes himself as a "[Nelson] Rockefeller Republican." Which, I think, in this election cycle is basically a Hillary Clinton Republican?

[Todd]

I have a good friend (who sometimes lurks on GMG...hello!!) who describes himself as a "[Nelson] Rockefeller Republican." Which, I think, in this election cycle is basically a Hillary Clinton Republican?

Pretty close to it.

[Gurn Blanston]

I have a good friend (who sometimes lurks on GMG...hello!!) who describes himself as a "[Nelson] Rockefeller Republican." Which, I think, in this election cycle is basically a Hillary Clinton Republican?

Hadn't thought of it like that before, but that probably describes ME pretty well, too!

[Karl Henning]

TRUMP HELPS HILLARY SURVIVE A ROCKY YEAR

Today is the one-year anniversary of the official start of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, which she launched with a brief online video.

It was a revealing choice, as was her subsequent trip to Iowa in a blacked-out "Scooby van," including the seemingly furtive visit to an Ohio fast-food restaurant.

Keeping the candidate in the campaign equivalent of a hamster ball may have been about her team's desire for a cloistered Clinton and an avoidance of the sloppy mistakes of her first presidential run. But there was also a bigger consideration.

Clinton, who had unmistakably been preparing for a second run since the moment of her 2008 defeat, had toyed with the idea of a Jeb-esque protracted phony campaign, delaying the official launch – and official fundraising rules – until as late as July of last year.

But March blew a chill wind into Clinton's plan for conquest when it was revealed that the former secretary of state had engaged in some very dreggy electronic hygiene. Her efforts to put the matter to rest went, um, poorly.

The once and future frontrunner had a problem. She couldn't announce her run in the teeth of a scandalous gale, but neither could she afford to create any doubts in her party that she might be backing out because of her email woes. A viable rival might emerge. So she tried an announcement version of a "modified limited hang out."

It was not a hit, but it did achieve its apparent goals of crossing the legal threshold of candidacy while insulating the candidate from scrutiny and those pesky reporters. Team Clinton would try a do-over in June on New York's Roosevelt Island, but that only reinforced the thickness of the membrane around the candidate and campaign.

One year ago today, Clinton was broadly disliked, with real ethical concerns from her time as secretary of state and the proprietor of a heavy-handed and airless campaign. And she also looked quite inevitable.

And nothing seems to have changed...

Despite more scandals over the course of the year involving the Clinton's money-making machine, Benghazi, and the discovery of classified information on a private server, Clinton still remains the unquestionable Democratic frontrunner. Sen. Bernie Sanders still doesn't have a path to victory that doesn't involve the mass defection of his party's leadership.

But if we look a bit closer, some things have changed for Clinton.

At this time last year, Republicans were eagerly ticking off the days until the general election. With a strong primary field of contenders and another batch of Clinton scandals looming, the GOP figured Clinton would be easier to beat than they had once anticipated.

The debate among Republicans wasn't whether Clinton could be beaten, but rather about with whom they would trounce her. The reformist Midwestern governor? The charismatic Cuban-American senator? The time-tested scion of the old guard?

Nope.

Two months after Clinton's Scooby adventure, her fellow New Yorker and erstwhile friend Donald Trump declared his own candidacy on the GOP side. And what started out as a punch line or the threat of a third-party run would go on to take the dominant position in every national GOP primary poll by the end of the summer.

The words written about how and why Trump managed to eat the GOP nominating process are so numerous that their pixels might overwhelm even the data vaults at the NSA. The tyranny of multiplicity? The dislocation of millions of Americans by technological change? The ripeness of the issue of illegal immigration? And the failure of the existing Republican order to deliver on lavish promises? Yep, yep, yep and yep.

But whatever the reasons for his rise, Trump has been a boon to Clinton. Here we're not talking about surveys on the still-far-off general election that show Trump going down in a Hoover-sized landslide.

The immediate benefits to Clinton of Trumpism are that what should have been a damaging primary-election season has been substantially ignored. Rather than talking about Clinton scandals, restive liberals, Clinton's record or anything else, she has mostly been able to roll along in her Habitrail.

Who wants to talk about that dusty old server when you've got an outrage industry banking the furnaces of umbrage until they are white hot? And that means further opportunity for Clinton, who can jump in the news cycle from time to time by flaying Trump and his party.

Trump even takes the heat off of Clinton on the Democrat's undemocratic nominating process. Clinton's party is far more controlling than Republicans when it comes to the actual seating of delegates, but Sanders' complaints are buried under a pile of Trump accusations of corruption, illegality and misconduct.

Trump's supporters may be right that in the general election, he will break her down like a church table after a picnic. But so far, he has been the best part of her very rough year.

[Pro-GOP group America Rising is taking a victory lap for getting more than 1 million views with its online clip of Clinton's troubles navigating the New York subway system.]

[Karl Henning]

What's our view? This is overthinking. Trump's not executing a clever plan to extricate himself from the race without appearing to quit. He's doing what he's always done: being Trump.

[Brian]

Hillary said in an interview that she carries hot sauce in her purse, and Donald responded that she was "pandering" to African-Americans and that "she carries hot sauce like I carry hot sauce." He's wrong again, of course. Hillary is a known spice lover and chomps raw jalapenos before speeches. That same article claims she stocked the '90s White House with 100 kinds of hot sauce.

[Karl Henning]

Ah, well

[(poco) Sforzando]

Not only can't two of his children vote in today's primary, but from today's NY Times:

"Over the past several months, Donald J. Trump has crisscrossed the country making dozens of campaign stops in places like Sioux City, Iowa, and Jackson, Miss., often in his sleek Cessna jet. There is just one hitch: The plane's registration is expired.

"Records kept with the Federal Aviation Administration show the aircraft's registration lapsed on Jan. 31. Laura J. Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, confirmed that the plane's registration was not in good standing and said the owner had not renewed it.

"The F.A.A. warned Mr. Trump that the Cessna's registration was set to expire, records show.

"On Dec. 1, DJT Operations CX L.L.C., the limited liability company owned by Mr. Trump that operates the Cessna, received a 'final notice' from the F.A.A., according to records reviewed by The Times. 'The aircraft's registration and airworthiness certificates no longer support the aircraft's operation,' the agency wrote."

He's so organized.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Forty minutes before the polls close in NY, a detailed and scathing analysis of Sanders's inadequacies:

https://medium.com/@robinalperstein/on-becoming-anti-bernie-ee87943ae699#.617u27w3o

[North Star]

Forty minutes before the polls close in NY, a detailed and scathing analysis of Sanders's inadequacies:

https://medium.com/@robinalperstein/on-becoming-anti-bernie-ee87943ae699#.617u27w3o

Yeah, I bet she was thrilled by Sanders...
http://www.beckerglynn.com/robin-l-alperstein/

[(poco) Sforzando]

Yeah, I bet she was thrilled by Sanders...
http://www.beckerglynn.com/robin-l-alperstein/

And your point is?

[snyprrr]

This Thread is in the weeds


C'mon people, get the lead out!!


I refuse to acknowledge this corrupt system by voting for any of these choices which I didn't ask for. Andrew Jackson- get off the 20 and into my car NOOOW!!

[Karl Henning]

I saw you selling artisanal banana chips at the Hillary rally in Chautauqua, you aren't fooling me.

[drogulus]

This Thread is in the weeds

     How many different ways are there to say that after a brief illness Hillary will wake up and declare herself a goddess?

[Madiel]

I refuse to acknowledge this corrupt system by voting for any of these choices which I didn't ask for.

The winners will be decided by those who decide to turn up, and the result will be binding on you whether you asked for it or not.

[Florestan]

The winners will be decided by those who decide to turn up, and the result will be binding on you whether you asked for it or not.

One of democracy´s greatest flaws: turnout tyranny. 

[Madiel]

One of democracy´s greatest flaws: turnout tyranny. 

Next you'll be telling me that it's not fair that employment requires attendance.