Archive for April, 2016

Saturday Open Thread [4.30.16]

Filed in National by on April 30, 2016 16 Comments
Saturday Open Thread [4.30.16]

John Sides: “The longest-running measure of American attitudes about the economy is the Index of Consumer Sentiment. Before I had looked at these data, I was sure I’d find that sentiment was only a bit more positive than it was when Obama took office. But in fact, the upward trend — with the exception of the drop during the 2011 debt ceiling crisis — is striking. This upward trend is also reflected in data from Pew and Gallup.”

“As of the first quarter of 2016, even with a slight downturn in the second and third quarters of 2015, consumer sentiment was as positive as it had been since the mid-2000s. It was also as positive as it had been in the mid-1980s during the recovery from the recession of 1981-1982. For example, the value of consumer sentiment at the end of 1983, as Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign was gearing up, was 91.6. In the first three months of 2015, it was almost exactly the same: 91.5.”

“In other words, consumer sentiment is as positive as it was at the beginning of the election year when Reagan argued that it was ‘Morning in America.’”

This is why Clinton is running a positive campaign embracing Obama and why it will work.

Continue Reading »

The Weekly Addresses

Filed in National by on April 30, 2016 0 Comments


In this week’s address, the President repeated his call for Republicans in the United States Senate to give Chief Judge Merrick Garland a fair hearing and a vote.


In his weekly message, Governor Markell talks about the benefits of homeownership and the effort to expand those opportunities through access to credit and financing assistance, financial literacy education, and partnerships among government, non-profits and the business community to drive accessible and affordable housing development statewide.

Continue Reading »

Saturday Daily Delawhere [4.30.2016]

Filed in National by on April 30, 2016 0 Comments
Saturday Daily Delawhere [4.30.2016]

P.S. DuPont Middle School, on 34th Street at the foot of Van Buren Street in Wilmington. Photo by xzmattzx.

Continue Reading »

Trump to court Sanders supporters

Filed in National by on April 29, 2016 55 Comments
Trump to court Sanders supporters

I’ve been called a purist. I’ve been ridiculed for cleaving to corny old nonsense like “values” and “integrity.” So I know where Clinton skeptics are coming from. But, I truly feel sorry for the nit wits, nutbags, and wild-eyed zealots who could be taken in by something like this.

Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is planning its next coup: vying for the votes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) supporters who say they won’t back Hillary Clinton in a general election.

“You have two candidates in Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders which have reignited a group of people who have been disenfranchised and disappointed with the way Washington, D.C. and career politicians have run the country,” campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told CNN on Friday.

Continue Reading »

Biking Lewes to Rehoboth (and vice versa) to take a small step, and giant leap forward

Filed in National by on April 29, 2016 10 Comments
Biking Lewes to Rehoboth (and vice versa) to take a small step, and giant leap forward

The Junction Breakwater Trail is a State treasure that currently comes to a crazy dead-end just shy of Rehoboth. Props to DelDot for getting this fixed. Source: DelDOT A map of the proposed trail entering Rehoboth, with routes going either down Church Street or through a planned development next to Shoal Harbor. Rehoboth Beach — […]

Continue Reading »

Delaware Political Weekly: April 22-28, 2016.

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on April 29, 2016 15 Comments
Delaware Political Weekly: April 22-28, 2016.

While the Trumpster talks about building a literal wall between the US and Mexico, Bryan Townsend is building a figurative electoral wall around the greater Newark area.  His campaign HQ is in Newark, the preponderance of his grassroots efforts so far have been in the greater Newark area, and all of these endorsements are from legislators who more or less are from that area.  It makes sense to me.  Shows that his grassroots campaign is paying off.  He now starts with a solid group of supporters largely based on geography.  That’s a nice chunk of voters who he can count on.  The question will become: To what extent can he expand and replicate that grassroots either throughout the state as a whole or in a more specific sense. A great start though.  Haven’t contributed to his campaign for, oh, three weeks or so.  Might be time to ante up again.

Continue Reading »

Mark your calendars: PDD’s Upcoming Candidate Forums for Congress and Insurance Commissioner

Filed in National by on April 29, 2016 1 Comment
Mark your calendars: PDD’s Upcoming Candidate Forums for Congress and Insurance Commissioner

This coming Wednesday, May 4, at 7 PM, the Progressive Democrats for Delaware are hosting a Congressional Candidates Forum at their regular monthly meeting at the Delaware Democratic Party HQ at 19 E. Commons Boulevard, 2nd Floor. All of the candidates, Sean Barney, Bryan Townsend, Mike Miller and Lisa Blunt Rochester, are expected to attend At their next meeting on June 1 at the same location and time, they will be hosting the first solo forum (I believe) for the Insurance Commissoner candidates: incumbent Karen Weldin Stewart, current NCCo Sheriff Trinidad Navarro, and 2012 candidate Paul Gallagher.

Continue Reading »

Friday Open Thread [4.29.16]

Filed in National by on April 29, 2016 7 Comments
Friday Open Thread [4.29.16]

Scott Lemieux says Hillary will govern like her last name is Sanders rather than Clinton:

Last week, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that voting rights will be restored for convicted felons who are no longer in prison. If his executive order is upheld, this will enfranchise more than 200,000 citizens of the state who have paid their debt to society and deserve a voice in their state government. It’s a bold, progressive action, exactly the kind of policy core Democratic voters are coming to expect from their leaders.

Before assuming office, McAuliffe seemed like the ultimate political hack.
This major progressive reform didn’t come out entirely of the blue, either. On his first day in office, McAuliffe signed an executive order banning discrimination against state employees based on sexual orientation. In an action that foreshadowed his enfranchisement of felons, McAuliffe removed questions about criminal history from government job applications. He has been limited by a Republican-controlled legislature—his valiant fight to accept the Medicaid expansion ultimately failed—but he’s been a solidly progressive governor.

What’s interesting about this is that before assuming office, McAuliffe seemed like the ultimate political hack. The Clinton crony and prodigious fundraiser seemed worth voting for only because the Republicans were running the odious former state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli against him.

Sound familiar?

Continue Reading »

Facts Are Always Lost on The Republicans

Filed in National by on April 29, 2016 6 Comments
Facts Are Always Lost on The Republicans

Donald Trump continues his “Throw Shit on The Wall and See if It Will Stick Tour”. This time it was in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

Continue Reading »

Friday Daily Delawhere [4.29.2016]

Filed in National by on April 29, 2016 0 Comments
Friday Daily Delawhere [4.29.2016]

The rose garden in Brandywine Park in Wilmington, across Van Buren Street from the cherry trees surrounding the Joesphine Fountain. Photo by xzmattzx.

Continue Reading »

DEGOP looking at the horizon and moving past the lunatics

Filed in National by on April 28, 2016 16 Comments
DEGOP looking at the horizon and moving past the lunatics

I don’t know these candidates, but knowing that it takes time to build up campaign chops, these youngsters (Chapman, Delcollo, and Spadola) appear to be recruited for this cycle and the next.

Continue Reading »

Cringe Inducing Senator Induces Cringes

Filed in National by on April 28, 2016 15 Comments

The News Journal thinks Carper’s song was sexist. I think he was his normal awkward self, although maybe even a little more uneasy around actual humans these days.

Continue Reading »

Your Primary Day Experience

Filed in National by on April 28, 2016 8 Comments
Your Primary Day Experience

Claire Snyder-Hall and the rest of the team at Common Cause Delaware want to hear your story if you had any difficulty voting at your polling place. I know that Nemski was asked for his ID before voting, and there is always some confusion regarding that procedure. It turns out that, while you are not required to show ID in Delaware, poll workers will ask for it, and if you do not have an ID or are unwilling to show it, you will be required to fill out a form before you can vote. I presume that this form has you swear under penalties of perjury that you are who you say you are.

Anyway, if you had a problem with your registration or your polling place, let Claire and Common Clause know.

Continue Reading »