Thursday Open Thread [7.21.16]
TPM: Gloomy Old Party: GOP Clings To Themes Of Threats, Violence, And Betrayal
The Republican convention kicked off not with a celebration of Donald Trump’s ascendency nor with a hopeful vision to quell the country’s growing unrest. Instead, the first night of the Republican convention painted a bleak picture of a country on edge, under threat from enemies both foreign and domestic, and with the specter of violence never far from the surface.
“There’s no next election. This is it. There’s no more time for us left to revive our great country,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said in his slashing speech to the convention. “No more time to repeat our mistakes of the Clinton/Obama years. Washington needs a complete turnaround, and Donald Trump is the agent of change, and he will be the leader of the change we need!” Monday night’s rhetoric fit right in with the controversial candidacy Trump had been mounting for months.
If Michelle Obama begins her speech next week with "Ever since my childhood in Slovenia…" it would be the greatest thing ever
— Brian Hiatt (@hiattb) July 19, 2016
The New York Times says Trump’s choice of Pence frees Clinton: “By choosing someone so conventional, Mr. Trump has made it easier for Mrs. Clinton to follow suit with an unadventurous pick of her own, like Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia or Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa. She could send Housing Secretary Julián Castro out to debate Mr. Pence without fearing a blowout. Or she could pick Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, who is from the reliably Democratic state of Maryland.”
“Mrs. Clinton still has internal Democratic Party politics to contend with, but Mr. Pence is a balm: He puts little if any added pressure on her.”
Bernie’s rather enthusiastic endorsement of Hillary also frees her too. Had Bernie still been a thorn in her side, she would have been forced to chose Warren. Warren is still my favorite choice, but I don’t see her as the likely nominee anymore.
It’s either Kaine or Perez. Or someone completely unexpected.
“It still comes down to a contest of ideas,” Paul Ryan says. About that: https://t.co/XVO2TfEcQD
— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) July 20, 2016
Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann say Trump is the result of the GOP’s three decade war on government: “Trumpism may have parallels in populist, nativist movements abroad, but it is also the culmination of a proud political party’s steady descent into a deeply destructive and dysfunctional state.”
“While that descent has been underway for a long time, it has accelerated its pace in recent years. We noted four years ago the dysfunction of the Republican Party, arguing that its obstructionism, anti-intellectualism, and attacks on American institutions were making responsible governance impossible. The rise of Trump completes the script, confirming our thesis in explicit fashion.”
Holy shit this is a real image pic.twitter.com/ShoA6D0bQT
— Tim (@prvcticeNYC) July 21, 2016
The New York Times says Trump’s inspiration is Nixon: “In an evening of severe speeches evoking the tone and themes of Nixon’s successful 1968 campaign, Mr. Trump’s allies and aides proudly portrayed him as the heir to the disgraced former president’s law-and-order message, his mastery of political self-reinvention and his rebukes of overreaching liberal government.
“It was a remarkable embrace — open and unhesitating — of Nixon’s polarizing campaign tactics, and of his overt appeals to Americans frightened by a chaotic stew of war, mass protests and racial unrest.”
“And it demonstrated that, wisely or mistakenly, Mr. Trump sees the path to victory this fall as the exploitation of the country’s anxieties about race, its fears of terrorism and its mood of disaffection, especially among white, working-class Americans.”
Think Progress on the last turn in MelaniaGate, where the Trump campaign thought they were ending the story, while revealing themselves as having been lying to America for three straight days, all the while opening up a can of worms:
In a statement released on Wednesday, a staff writer for Donald Trump’s corporation took responsibility for the portions of Monday’s speech by Melania Trump that were lifted from a speech by Michelle Obama in 2008. In addition to contradicting many of the myriad excuses Trump’s campaign had made on Monday, this admission may cause more headaches for the campaign.
The statement was printed not on campaign letterhead, but on Trump Organization letterhead. In it, Meredith McIver identified herself not as a campaign staffer, but as “an in-house staff writer at the Trump Organization.” She notes that she offered her resignation “to Mr. Trump and the Trump family,” but makes no mention of offering to resign from the Trump campaign.
Lawrence M. Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center and former general counsel to the Federal Election Commission, told ThinkProgress that letter “raised all kinds of questions about whether this has been illegal support.”
“His company is not supposed to be supporting his campaign,” Noble explained, which would be an illegal corporate contribution. While campaign disclosures have indicated that Trump for President has been paying the Trump Organization for some staff time, which is permissible under campaign finance law, Noble observed that “the lines are becoming very blurred.”
New Hampshire state representative Al Baldasaro (R), an adviser to Donald Trump on veterans issues, said that Hillary Clinton should be put in a firing line and shot for treason, BuzzFeed reports.
Said Baldasaero: “She is a disgrace for the lies that she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi… This whole thing disgusts me, Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.”
The last time some Republican fool (Palin) put a crosshair on a Democratic politician (Gabby Giffords), that politician was shot in the head. I’d say Hillary is now at grave risk of being assassinated during this campaign.
I’d never thought I would be … proud… of Ted Cruz. He one upped Trump in dominance politics last night, refusing to endorse in a prime time speech and telling conservatives to vote their conscience instead of voting for Trump, ruining the night for VP nominee Mike Pence and Trump’s other son, Eric. He cast himself as the leader of the true conservative resistance while other Republican leaders, save John Kasich, cowered like cowards before the Fascist. He is now a leading contender for 2020, and will be able to say he was right.
SOURCE: The Trump camp knew this morning Cruz would not endorse and told Cruz's camp they'd orchestrate booing if he refused.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) July 21, 2016
From Daily Kos regarding this Erickson tweet:
In other words, the Trump campaign wilfully made tonight about party disunity. Remember, this isn’t a campaign afraid to make shit up, lie, and pretend up is down. Melania didn’t plagiarize! Yet rather than pretend Cruz endorsed and just say “that was the biggest endorsement. It was tremendous. The best!” They decided, in their fit of pique, to further inflame a civil war.
Again, conventions are supposed to market your party and candidate to the broader American electorate. Instead, Trump is using it to continue his intra-party civil war. Amazing!
“New Hampshire state representative Al Baldasaro (R), an adviser to Donald Trump on veterans issues, said that Hillary Clinton should be put in a firing line and shot for treason, BuzzFeed reports.”
An advisor on veteran’s issues should know that the “firing line” are the people doing the shooting.
In 2020 the Republicans won’t have their usual stabbed-in-the-back narrative about the establishment forcing a “not true conservative” candidate on them. There is no doubt Trump was chosen by the Republican rank and file. The base got their wish and it was Trump. What new narrative will they come up with?
I also expect the evangelical block to continue to lose influence, bad news for Cruz.
I think Clinton’s only choice remains Warren.
Tim Kaine would tie bank deregulation around her neck (more than it already is) be a totally uninspiring choice, and all she would get would be a slightly better chance at Virginia.
Vilsack….. qualified as he may be… his name is Vilsack and she is running against the Alpha Lambda Douche fraternity. If you think that wont matter this election cycle, you have WAY to high of an opinion of the electorate.
Remember how Presidents Gore and Kerry went with the safe bet. She talked about “going bold”… it’s time to prove it.
Tim Kaine is reportedly squishy on abortion rights, which undermines Clinton’s appeal to women on which she is staking her campaign. If it’s Kaine you’ll see the pragmatists turn to purists in a flash.
“If it’s Kaine you’ll see the pragmatists turn to purists in a flash.”
Um… no.
I have it on good, matrimonial authority that Secretary Vilsack is very intelligent and nice guy. Nice isn’t something at the top of the qualifications for a politician usually, but. He’s no Elizabeth Warren or Cory Booker but he’s s solid guy.
My wife and son met with him during their last visit to the White House for the Kids State Dinner. And yeah, farmers need some help, so do agricultural education programs and food insecurity is a big issue in this country. Not saying there’s not other things on the high priority list, but we gotta eat and farmers gotta farm.
I sure hope it isn’t Kaine…
Hillary surely knows she can do better.
Found this on The Facepage:
“I don’t care for Cruz as a candidate but I owe him a beer for this. Not a fancy beer and certainly not a future invite to go fishing, but a beer none the less.”
Pretty much sums it up for me.
“I think Clinton’s only choice remains Warren.”
Let it be Warren and we get an old fashioned “good vs. evil” throw down. Any other choice and we get the typical mincing, 50% plus 1, scaredy cat, DLC, playing to not lose rather than to win campaign Democrats are famous for.
I sure hope it isn’t Kaine, either. When it comes to banks, he’d be right at home in the Delaware congressional delegation. In fact, he’s Tom Carper w/o the shakes:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tim-kaine-clinton-vp_us_578fc8e3e4b0bdddc4d2c86c
Just what we need. A VP who wants to do battle with the progressive wing of the party. This choice will indeed say a lot about Hillary Clinton. Of course, the Big Dawg really likes him. Goldman Sachs uber alles, I guess.
There’s only one brave choice if Hillary wants a true explosion at the convention.
Given how the GOP has been so horribly bad at unifying, she might just do it for contrast…
And for those who again will laugh at me, I see it as a path to certain victory… a path that Hillary really can’t afford to ignore at this point.
Liberal Elite – Warren, right?
No… Sanders.
And she should drag him out at the last second as a total surprise.
Explosion… Right?
Well, wishful thinking. The meme about this being Obama’s 3rd term has been, IMHO, wrong from the beginning. It’s really Clinton’s third term, which I DON’T want. I hope against hope that she proves me wrong. She may half-ass it and go with Vilsack, who is better than Kaine. But if she doesn’t get someone who can speak to disaffected working class voters, she really could lose this thing.
As Michael Moore points out, we can laugh at this week’s shit show all we want. But if Trump can somehow galvanize enough disaffected voters in the midwest (OH, PA, WI, MI), he has a path to victory. Maybe enough voters view politics as a reality show already. Nobody’s a better reality TV performer than Trump.
@ES “But if she doesn’t get someone who can speak to disaffected working class voters, she really could lose this thing.”
Do you really think that Hillary and her advisors are ignorant of this?
Somehow, I just can’t believe that Hillary would risk it all on a bad VP choice.
Yes, LE, that would be an explosion.
ES, every time you say she will be Bill’s third term, you prove your sexism. It may be unconscious. But it is sexist. Knock it off.
Here’s what I know about Kaine. He supports TPP, he supports deregulation on the big banks. He’s ‘squishy’ on women’s issues. He’s reportedly (although, of course, those reports can be wrong) one of three finalists, along with Vilsack and that general.
Besides, what you and I may see as a bad VP choice is someone who the Big Dawg and the DLC fat cats would love to see on the ticket.
So, yes, I could very well see her select him or someone of his, wait for it, ilk.
DD: Seriously, for the last time, fuck you. Sexism my ass. Trade treaties that hurt America, cozy with corporations, using weasel words. That has nothing to do with sexism. You wanna shut down dissent based on labeling? Have at it.
I am seriously tired of your shit and especially your labeling. Keep it up and I’m done with this fucking blog.
How is it any less sexist to say it’s Obama’s third term? Last time I checked he was as male as Bill.
For obvious reasons, it’s impossible to compare her to past female presidents.
@DD “Yes, LE, that would be an explosion.”
They should do it as a skit.
1. She should start by getting ready to announce her VP choice
2. Bernie should take to the aisle and start yelling at her.
3. She notices and says “What Bernie? Someone get him a mic. Better yet, just come up here and have your say.”
4. He come up and yells at her saying she should be careful with her choice and and to also choose a progressive.
5. And she should answer that she was not careful because she chose him.