Thursday Open Thread [11.19.15]

NATIONAL—Public Policy Polling: Clinton 59, Sanders 26, O’Malley 7
NEW HAMPSHIRE—FOX News: Sanders 45, Clinton 44, O’Malley 5
ARIZONA—Behavior Research Center: Clinton 47, Sanders 19, O’Malley 2
FLORIDA—Florida Atlantic University: Clinton 66, Sanders 22, O’Malley 4
COLORADO—Quinnipiac : Clinton 55, Sanders 27, O’Malley 2
CONNECTICUT—Emerson College: Clinton 50, Sanders 31, O’Malley 9
NEW JERSEY—Fairleigh Dickinson Clinton 64, Sanders 27, O’Malley 2

NATIONAL—Public Policy Polling: Trump 26, Carson 19, Cruz 14, Rubio 13, Bush 5, Fiorina 4, Huckabee 4, Christie 3, Kasich 3, Paul 2, Graham 1, Pataki 1
NATIONAL—Bloomberg: Trump 24, Carson 20, Rubio 12, Cruz 9, Bush 6, Christie 4, Fiorina 3, Huckabee 3, Kasich 3, Paul 3, Graham 1, Patak1, Santorum 1
NEW HAMPSHIRE—FOX News: Trump 27, Rubio 13, Cruz 11, Carson 9, Bush 9, Kasich 7, Christie 6, Paul 3, Fiorina 3, Huckabee 1, Graham 1, Santorum 1
FLORIDA—Florida Atlantic University: Trump 36, Rubio 18, Carson 15, Cruz 10, Bush 9, Paul 4, Kasich 3, Fiorina 2
COLORADO—Quinnipiac : Carson 25, Rubio 19, Trump 17, Cruz 14, Fiorina 5, Paul 3, Bush 2, Kasich 1, Huckabee 1, Christie 1, Jindal 1
CONNECTICUT—Emerson College: Trump 25, Rubio 14, Bush 10, Kasich 10, Carson 9, Cruz 6, Paul 6, Fiorina 4, Christie 2
NEW JERSEY—Fairleigh Dickinson: Trump 31, Rubio 18, Carson 11, Christie 9, Cruz 6, Bush 5, Fiorina 5, Kasich 2, Paul 2, Huckabee 2, Santorum 1, Graham 1

First Read: “The past week suggests it probably can’t. In fact, it’s been about as bad of a week for American political leadership as we’ve seen since the government shutdown days of 2013.”

“Think about it: The House of Representatives is already voting on legislation — today — on additional certifications and background investigations for Syrian refugees. The question of whether to admit these refugees has turned into a huge political fight on the 2016 campaign trail and in state capitals across the country. President Obama has used two overseas news conferences to blast his critics at home. And Ted Cruz fired back at the president: ‘Mr. President, come back and insult me to my face.’ It’s been a mess.”

I agree. Civil War, and open partisan violence, is coming.

President Obama shared with Bill Simmons the most entertaining conspiracy theory that he’s ever read about himself.

Said Obama: “That military exercises we were doing in Texas were designed to begin martial law so that I could usurp the Constitution and stay in power longer. Anybody who thinks I could get away with telling Michelle I’m going to be president any longer than eight years does not know my wife.”

The whole interview is a must read.

Rick Klein says Bush is trying the serious approach: “Jeb Bush probably didn’t have national security policy in mind when he talked about his now-famous willingness to ‘lose the primary to win the general.’ But if this is a grown-up moment in politics post-Paris, Bush is vying to be in the right place at the right time. His call for ground troops in Syria avoids both the ‘bomb the s—‘ out of them rhetoric and the no-new-ground-war talking point that the brother of George W. Bush may be tempted to embrace. He has broken with his fellow candidates and most current GOP governors in not calling for an end to refugee migration with Syria. (Though his methods for identifying Christians first and foremost remain murky.)”

“The moment has not brought out the best of our political discourse, with calls for religious tests for refugees and one schoolyard taunting going on between President Obama and a few Republican candidates. But getting serious can still matter in this race — just maybe.”

Rick Klein forgets though that Bush is one of those who wants a religious tests for refugees. That automatically qualifies Bush as a bigot and an unserious candidate.

This is predictable: Dateline Kentucky:

BOONEVILLE — The 66 percent of Owsley County that gets health coverage through Medicaid now must reconcile itself with the 70 percent that voted for Republican Governor-elect Matt Bevin, who pledged to cut the state’s Medicaid program and close the state-run Kynect health insurance exchange.
Lisa Botner, 36, belongs to both camps. A Kynector — a state agent representing Kynect in the field — recently helped Botner sign up for a Wellcare Medicaid card for herself and her 7-year-old son. Without that, Botner said, she couldn’t afford the regular doctor’s visits and blood tests needed to keep her hyperthyroidism in check.

“If anything changed with our insurance to make it more expensive for us, that would be a big problem,” Botner, a community college student, said Friday at the Owsley County Public Library, where she works. “Just with the blood tests, you’re talking maybe $1,000 a year without insurance.”

Yet two weeks earlier, despite his much-discussed plans to repeal Kynect and toughen eligibility requirements for Medicaid, she voted for Bevin.

“I’m just a die-hard Republican,” she said.

I hope she suffers greatly. Indeed, since she likely voted for Bevin due to bigotry, the world will be a better place after she dies from a lack of health insurance.

George Takei has an awesome response to a bigoted cowardly mayor in Virginia.

Roanoke Mayor David A. Bowers cited the historical precedent of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “sequester” of Japanese “foreign nationals” after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in cutting assistance to Syrian refugees in his state. Bowers is a part of a growing and vocal contingent of American state and local lawmakers who want to stop all refugee migration into the U.S.

Takei responded to Bowers on Wednesday in a Facebook post, writing his “life’s mission” was to never again see prison camps in America.

“The internment (not a ‘sequester’) was not of Japanese ‘foreign nationals,’ but of Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens,” he wrote. “I was one of them, and my family and I spent 4 years in prison camps because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. It is my life’s mission to never let such a thing happen again in America.”

Takei, who is most well known for his time on the television series “Star Trek,” is currently helming a Broadway musical called “Allegiance” that is inspired by his family’s experience in World War II internment camps. He invited Bowers as his personal guest to the musical, which does eight performances a week at the Longacre Theater in Manhattan’s Theater District.

“Mayor Bowers, one of the reasons I am telling our story on Broadway eight times a week in Allegiance is because of people like you,” Takei wrote. “You who hold a position of authority and power, but you demonstrably have failed to learn the most basic of American civics or history lessons. So Mayor Bowers, I am officially inviting you to come see our show, as my personal guest. Perhaps you, too, will come away with more compassion and understanding.”

At The Upshot, Brendan Nyhan explains why “It’s Easy to Overestimate Effect of Paris Attacks on 2016 Race.”

Donald Trump told Yahoo News that he would increase surveillance of Muslims and consider a series of drastic measures to keep Americans safe.

Said Trump: “We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule. And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”

He wouldn’t rule out requiring Muslims to carry a form of special identification: “We’re going to have to — we’re going to have to look at a lot of things very closely. We’re going to have to look at the mosques. We’re going to have to look very, very carefully.”

Donald Trump. An Actual Nazi.