3742

The “if you didn’t want me to steal it, why’d you leave you door unlocked” argument doesn’t hold much water. But I agree that Wasserman-Schultz is in the bag for Hillary and it’s starting to look really bad.

3743

If so, it’s incredible clumsy and almost certainly not driven by Clinton. I wouldn’t be surprised if Clinton’s campaign pushed for restoring access. Sanders currently has near zero chance to get the nomination. She doesn’t benefit, at all, from a public fight on this.

3744

If anything the GOP is going to use it against her. “We told you she can’t keep secrets, computers, private email, Benghazi, et al.”

3745

Interesting piece in The Federalist. Why Trump Leads and How He Will Fail. Long read with a lot of military jargon in the beginning. IMO worth it.

3746

So Fox’s poll has Trump’s lead increasing by a ton.

Yadda, yadda, polls, landlines, whatever, that’s still fucking disturbing.

3747

Isn’t this more the DNC’s fault than the Clinton Campaign’s?

3748

You’re talking about facts again. ;)

And don’t forget, the GOP already paints Hilary as “The Democratic Party” along with Obama, to the point that they tie the names directly together every single time they mention one of them. If the DNC fucks up, so does Hilary, because she is the living embodiment of the Democratic Party to the GOP and really has been since the 90’s.

3749

And he has access again.

3750

Kasich isn’t going to be the nominee, but he just won the internet by putting up this site:
http://trump-putin2016.com

3751

I know you like Kasich, but I don’t think this plays particularly well. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect from a snarky political blog, or the Daily Show.

A presidential candidate should project power and confidence, not snark… snark makes you look weak.

3752

But it doesn’t really matter. Kasich is far too reasonable for the Republicans to pick at this point, I think.

And to me, bigotry makes you look weak.

3753

And yet the current leader of the GOP does nothing else.

Good on Kasich for calling it what it is.

3754

Interesting piece, but I think it ascribes too much credit for Trump just being the egotistical loudmouth Trump that he’s always been. I see Trump as leveraging the GOP id, as in Forbidden Planet’s Monsters from the id. He plays to the conspiracy theory side of the GOP that shows up in the underground emails, which most other candidates have been conditioned to stick with dog-whistle political allusions, and he’s grabbed that base - which was brilliant, and he was uniquely qualified to do so as an outsider. Much of that is intentional, but a lot of it is also his bombastic personality, which dovetails with the GOP base’s id.

I think this is why the statistical punditry doesn’t think too much of Trump’s chances - it gives him a fairly hard ceiling as well as creates a profile of a candidate whose appeal won’t survive serious voter scrutiny (or at least isn’t expected to). Can he break out of that? I don’t really think it’s in him, but maybe it is - though it would require a dramatic, planned pivot at some point, which could seriously cost him that base he has built.

He should be able to win Iowa if he doesn’t completely flub the ground game, but the next few primaries will probably be very telling.

3755

If we’re talking about white power movements, I would say yes. Those tend to be a pretty sorry lot. With Trump… we may not like what he’s saying, but I don’t think it makes him look weak. Quite the opposite in my opinion, hence the whole cuck meme that’s emerged on right wing forums.

They can’t intervene overtly in the race. That would be a breach of protocol.

For what it’s worth. I think the moderate or establishment position on Russia is risable. We have people, like Kasich and Christie, that want to setup no-fly zones and shoot down Russian aircraft. Thirty years ago, that kind of thinking would have gotten you laughed out of the room. We’d risk nuclear war to protect Syrian Jihadis?

When did we go insane?

To express such an opinion should automatically disqualify you from office.

And these people are considered reasonable, moderate even.

I don’t when we became so hostile to Russia, perhaps it’s the legacy of people like Brzezinski and Albright. But it clouds our vision. It’s not 1979, and we need to let go of our cold war mindset. The Russians certainly have, so why can’t we?

3756

This is a really good point. Even if one assumes it’s polemic, not policy, it’s damn terrifying.

I know I say this fairly frequently, but where the hell did the sane conservatives go? Yeah, a lot of them are ending up as “Independents,” I guess, but that doesn’t help re-establish a sane conservative party (cue usual riffs about the Dems being center-right). Bloody hell, I want to have interesting choices in the general election again. I’m tired of voting for whoever doesn’t have an R after their name. That’s bullshit and will not end well.

3757

Kaisch has a sense of humor, pity it hasn’t come across during the debates.

3758

Let’s not forget that last voting season, Gingrich was the big poll leader, Ron Paul was leading in Iowa. Perry was the big poll leader at one point. In 2007 Guiliani was the leader at 34% and many felt a shoo-in for the nomination, with Fred Thompson on his heels with about 23%.

One difference this time: the media didn’t give Gingrich and Guiliani the kind of every day, all day attention that they are giving Trump. Hell, at one point Trump said he didn’t need to spend money on advertising because the media was giving it to him every day for free.

Here in Iowa, I’m hearing and seeing a lot of ads from Cruz (who just looks like an actor playing the role of the slimy evil corrupt politician on some TV show or movie,) some for Rubio, some for Bush, and on the Dem side, a good number for Sanders. I think a few for Hillary. I don’t really recall any ads at all on radio or TV for Trump. Not a one. but I think he’s right, he is shown on TV every day and night saying what he says, interviews with followers saying why they like him; why pay for any ads?

3759

The more I hear from Kasich, the more I like him. I also think he’s the most qualified candidate from either party in this election. I don’t agree with him on many issues, but he does seem to be one of the last unicorns (i.e., pragmatic, moderate republicans).

The “punch Russia in the nose” bit I put down to desperation. I don’t believe he really wants to start WWIII over freaking Syria.

3760

He’s pragmatic, not moderate. It’s just that the pragmatism overrides his views and he lives in a moderate state (actually quite a polarized state, but blended together it would be called moderate).

3761

I concede your point, if only because I have redefined what I consider ‘moderate’ when it comes to the GOP. The line is now “does not consider Swift’s A Modest Proposal a serious policy option.”