Archive for August, 2015

So… Sen. Chris Coons to decide his fate next Tuesday.

From Politico:

The drama could all be over soon. Delaware Sen. Chris Coons will announce his position on the Iran nuclear deal next Tuesday at the University of Delaware. We are assured he is still undecided, but his impending public announcement indicates there’s likely to be few, if any, Democrats that are still wavering when Congress comes back.

It is likely that the Coons vote won’t be a deciding one, as most Democrats in the Senate, save Schumer and Menedez, are not cowardly war hawks that love to fellate Dick Cheney. Chris Coons will decide whether to get down on his knees to join them or whether he will instead stand up for diplomacy. And Senator, while 2020 is five years away, we have long memories. If you vote for war, no matter what else you do, your legacy and career are forever destroyed. You could cure cancer, save Social Security, establish universal single payer healthcare, and provide a living wage to all Americans. But if you vote no on the Iran Deal, it all matters not.

Stay tuned. And once we have more details to when and where this UD Announcement is taking place, we will pass that on.

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A Day at the Office

It didn’t happen overnight. Something like this takes time. It takes years. Years and minutes. Thousands and thousands of minutes. Minute, minutia played out over the course of years. Minutia teased out into minutes. Scrolling minutia right to left. Accompanied by more minutia graphically displayed from top to bottom. Sponsored content of course. It’s all teased out into an endless string of so called events, one leading into the other into a cavalcade of disaster. Each one sirens a call for change. A reason that this time, this time it is a bridge to far. Now we have reached critical mass. It all is going to end badly. Here’s why this is his fault. Here is why too. An expert discusses it with another expert.

“This is it” he says to the glass. 25 stories up. His forehead is pressed against the glass. He can’t help but envision movie clips every time he does this. “I think I see my father” he mumbles to himself. He’s not even sure if that is the correct quote. He’s sure a remake is coming and he’ll be able to tell his kids he remembers when the original came out. As his dad did to him and said it was John Wayne and not Clit Eastwood. Clint dad, omg.

His life is an endless reel of thoughts he isn’t sure are his own. They are contrived from a life that has constantly absorbed media. Media in so many forms he doesn’t know what is and isn’t his own organic, original thought.

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The Christian Party

Finally, some conservatives are giving up the long con that they are not theocrats wishing to completely destroy the constitutional foundation on which this Republic was built. Some of them are leaving the Republican Party and forming their own Christian Party. Indeed, they already have a presidential candidate in Tennessee resident Darrell Trigg. His platform is as insane as you thought it would be….

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Tuesday Open Thread [8.25.15] — All Biden Edition

Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast gives his take on Vice President Biden possibly entering the race:

Game-changer is a hoary expression in this town, so forgive me, but that really would be one. I’d guess Biden would go instantly from his current 13 percent to at least twice that. His ego would have to adjust to having a running mate who is more beloved than he is and who draws crowds about four or five times the size of his. But even something short of an official alliance, a nudge-wink implication that Warren is somehow on team Biden, makes him a much more serious player. […] But what if he just decides the hell with it, I’m running? A Biden v. Clinton primary battle could be—and if Biden manages to win a couple of primaries, most certainly would be—far more acrimonious than the Clinton-Barack Obama fight of 2008

Tomasky’s column reads as one giant wish in some respects. No matter what happens, nothing can top the acrimony of 2008. But if Biden were to announce his candidacy and immediately announce that Elizabeth Warren is his running mate, then yes that would be a game changer. That would immediately destroy Bernie Sander’s campaign. The Bern would be over. And it might immediately destroy Clinton’s. It would be a brilliant move by Biden to co-opt Bernie’s poll numbers and support and adding it to his establishment level of support. If that were to happen, I might just be on board, and Biden-Warren would probably lead Hillary in the polls.

And once that happens, Biden doesn’t have to attack Hillary at all. And any Hillary attack on Biden would backfire spectacularly.

Tomasky says his reason that a Biden-Clinton primary would be nasty is because women (and Hillary) would be angry because they were told to wait in 2008 and now another old white guy is telling them again that there would be no woman president. I think a Biden-Warren ticket lessens that aspect. And without saying it, because you can never say it expressly, it would be implied that Biden would be a one term President and Warren, the real first woman President would run and win in 2020.

Yeah, Biden-Warren would be a game changer. Biden alone not so much.

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Senator Chris Coons Agrees with Dick Cheney on Iran

It is worth repeating. Dick Cheney, a guy who has been wrong about everything, a guy who still thinks the invasion of Iraq was a good idea, agrees with Senator Chris Coons the on the Iran nuclear deal. Former Vice President Dick Cheney plans to give a speech in September about the Iran nuclear deal […]

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Monday Open Thread [8.24.15]

Yesterday I posted David Atkin’s thoughts about Joe Biden not having anything to lose in running for the Presidency a third time, no matter what happens. Booman responded to that article, and he captures my thoughts on the subject rather well:

[A]ll things being equal, running for president and losing turns you into a sad character. You can easily become somewhat ridiculous and worthy of pity, and this can became your enduring legacy which wipes out all your previous accomplishments and successes. What do people think about when they discuss George McGovern or Walter Mondale or Michael Dukakis or Mitt Romney? Did their presidential bids do anything positive for Fred Thompson or Rudy Giuliani or Phil Gramm? Whether you win the nomination like Al Gore or lose it like Bill Bradley, what people remember is that you didn’t become the president.

Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey could be remembered as legendary senators and sitting vice-presidents, but they are instead remembered as complete, devastating failures for the left. […]

So, I don’t think we can say that Joe Biden has nothing to lose by making a run for the presidency. If he slips into retirement, he’ll be remembered with near-universal fondness. While he did suffer two humiliating defeats when he ran for president, that was largely erased when he was elected as vice-president. His Senate career was hugely successful and his popularity in his home state never waned.

If he makes a third run at the presidency and doesn’t win, that will muck up a posterity that’s looking pretty golden right now. It will also, to some degree, amount to a rejection of a third term for Obama, which will tarnish his legacy ever so slightly.

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From now to 2025.

I missed this hilarious and hopeful piece from Kevin Ohlandt of Exceptional Delaware when he posted it, but I just stumbled upon it and you have to read the whole thing. But I thought I would summarize the political musical chairs he envisions over the next ten years, and if they are possible.

Matt Denn is elected Governor in 2016 and he eliminates crime in all Delaware cities.

Former Governor Markell is indicted on charges of fraud and abuse.

Kimberly Williams is elected Governor in 2020.

Finding jobs for out of work Delawareans was Governor Williams first goal when she won the election of 2020 against William Manning (R) after she devastated former Senator David Sokola in the landslide 542,828-16 vote in the Democrat(ic) primary.

So Matt Denn only serves one term, voluntarily? Did another office open up for him? Hmmm

Wilmington is a thriving city. The problem of education is solved.

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Sunday Open Thread [8.23.15]

David Atkins doesn’t think Vice President Biden has anything to lose by running:

But from another perspective, it’s not as if Biden has much to lose by running, either. Having served two terms as Vice President after a career in the Senate, taking up a cabinet position like John Kerry has done might be in the cards for him, but Biden seems too simultaneously ambitious and affable for that. He has also seen his share of family grief and tragedy–more than most have in a lifetime. Retirement probably doesn’t seem like an attractive option. Most importantly, there are reports that his son Beau Biden reportedly wanted his father to run for President again, and attempting to fulfill his son’s wish would have to be an impulse too strong to deny absent a very good reason.

And that good reason doesn’t seem to exist. A Biden run wouldn’t necessarily hurt the Democratic Party’s fortunes. If the Clinton campaign is strong enough to withstand the challenge then Biden will have given it his all without regrets; if it isn’t strong enough, then that will be all the proof the Biden camp will have needed that Clinton wasn’t the best general election candidate. The biggest reason for Biden not to run is that the Clinton team might hold it against him afterward should she win office. But then again, so what? Would Joe Biden rather run his own foundation, or serve as a potential Clinton cabinet member in exchange for quashing his dreams? I can’t imagine avoiding punishment from camp Clinton is worth the price of a lifetime of regrets.

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