My “I could go either way with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House” thing is feeling less and less operative. She is in her element.
I mean…I get the dislike of her, I really do.
But man. When the shooting starts, I kinda want her on my side, and not vice-versa.
My feeling that the Dems need to get younger doesn’t extend to the Speaker’s office. I want the oldest, wiliest, most ruthless political operative in that office possible.
We’re supposed to hate her again why?
Women with power scares conservatives.
Just to be fair here, Pelosi and Schumer didn’t really pull some amazing move here.
They just let Trump talk, and he said dumb shit, because Trump will say stupid shit if you give him the chance.
Because Trump is dumb as shit.
God that felt like a “who’s on first”
Trump: I am going to shut down the government if we don’t address border security
Pelosi: We care about border security, put it to a vote
Schumer: So you are going to shut down the government then?
Trump: You shut it down last time Chuck
Pelosi: Put it up for a vote
Schumer: You said you will shut it down if you don’t get money for the wall
Trump: We don’t have to shut down the government, and I won’t put the proposal up for a vote
America: (dies)
It would be funny if it weren’t so awful.
Playing chicken with Trump is easy, because he doesn’t actually care and is a coward.
They did a bit more than let Trump talk, they (at least Pelosi) actually pushed back and made it obvious just how stupid his shit is. Which isn’t exactly amazing political savvy by any means, but it’s about the closest thing we’ve seen in the last two years.
Yeah, he’s not used to that at all, and you can tell. He never puts himself into situations where he can be talked back to. Even cabinet meetings are nothing more than a Dear Leader-type bootlicking event. Or he goes to the safety of his rallies where they’ll cheer anything he says.
Stepping back and letting the other guy slam his dick in the door can absolutely be the right move.
Discovered that the 1992 Election night coverage on NBC is on Youtube, so watched a bunch of that tonight. Fascinating stuff. I can remember that night pretty well; I was very, very cautiously optimistic, but my memory is that I was still worried for a good part of the night. Watching the coverage now, and even at the beginning of the broadcast, Brokaw and Gumbel are basically all but telling the audience “We’re going to have a new President by the end of the night,” before a single state was called. That gibes with the accounts given in books by Carville and Stephanopolous who both said that they saw mid-day exit polls and new they were going to get at least 350 electoral votes…and with Mary Matalin’s own recollection that they had to tell the Bushes that George might not get to 100 (he ended up winning close fights in Texas and Florida to give himself a respectable EV count in the 160s.)
Oh, here’s trivia for you. First state called that night? Georgia. For Clinton. Wow.
A couple of favorites from Bryant Gumbel:
“We certainly haven’t heard the last of David Williams a rising star in the party, but tonight it doesn’t look like his night in Kentucky.” Williams, a Republican in the state senate in Kentucky, would lose a primary bid to be the commonwealth’s attorney general a few years later, and never move his career past the state legislature.
Another gem: “Dale Bumpers has easily won reelection for his Arkansas senate seat against a little-known Baptist minister named Mike Huckabee, who has no political experience and doesn’t seem destined to get any.”
Strange, I have no recollection of that election night. I do remember the next day Clinton and Gore solemnly holding a press conference. (I hadn’t liked Clinton at all, not until he selected Gore as his VP that is.)
I used to watch Dale Bumpers making speeches in the Senate, year after year (vainly) trying to get rid of the Mining Act of 1872. He never succeeded. It’s mind blowing how much the political landscape has changed since then.
Edit: I just remembered this little anecdote. At the time I was taking classes (post-bachelor) in southwest NH and had a part time job driving people to and from Hartford Int’l Airport. Right after the election a young business woman from the Mid West dismissively snorted, “I hope you all enjoy your new President.” Betcha anything that woman is a trumpster now.
For some reason I thought this was the night that Brinkley ended his career by calling winner Bill Clinton a bore on national TV, but I checked and that was 1996.
I was in high school in 1992, and the one significant memory I have of that election is the small group of Young Democrats walking through the halls the next morning singing “We Are the Champions.” At the time, I thought it was an unseemly display of partisanship. Oh, how innocent those times.
On the Elizabeth Warren thing my perception of her was that her hobbyhorse is bashing corporations, and as someone on the center right that is something that puts me off. If she’d been primarily focussed on workers’ rights or healthcare I don’t think I would have that reaction.
Now, dig a bit deeper into what the CFPB actually does and it looks like it might be a very different story and they are doing great work, but low information center-right voters aren’t going to do that digging.
Maybe it doesn’t matter, if I was a US citizen I’d vote for a horse if it was running against Trump, so people with my views are not who you need to persuade.
American elections have very little to with policy or ideology. Generally it boils down to the state of the economy, the likability of the candidates and turning out voters. If the mid-terms are any indication (and the expected recession hits), I’m cautiously optimistic for 2020.
As for Warren, looks like she missed her window. Huge grain of salt and all that, but here’s a Move On (progressive, Democratic activists) straw poll. They endorsed Sanders in 2016. Beto leading the pack isn’t a surprise but I’m gobsmacked Biden is in second. :/
Beto O’Rourke: 15.6 percent
Joe Biden: 14.9 percent
Bernie Sanders: 13.1 percent
Kamala Harris: 10 percent
Elizabeth Warren: 6.4 percent
Sherrod Brown: 2.9 percent
Amy Klobuchar: 2.8 percent
Michael Bloomberg: 2.7 percent
Cory Booker: 2.6 percent
Well, duh, you can’t nominate a girl or a black guy or a jew, now, can you?
Pretty much everyone now remembers only fun VP Biden memes and not Biden’s actual policies. This works to his advantage in these kind of early polls - and possibly to his disadvantage in the Dem primaries, when the Dem base will suddenly be reminded by his opponents that Biden’s not just Obama’s lovable uncle; in terms of policy he’s to the right of Obama and 2016 Hillary.
Bernie coming in third in a MoveOn poll is interesting. Beto has clearly taken his place as the new shiny.
But we can nominate someone who isn’t even part of the party.
Kamala Harris is pretty high up that list.
I am disappointed by Klobuchar’s showing. But, it’s very early :)