Monday Reads: Party Nomination Races Beginning to Heat Up
Posted: September 21, 2015 Filed under: morning reads, Republican politics, U.S. Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jill Biden, Joe Biden, Muslims, religious tests, Scott Walker, US Constitution 27 Comments
Worlds Full of Lemons by Vitaly-Urzhumov
Good Morning!!
Following last week’s marathon “debate,” Republican presidential candidates have continued to spread hate everywhere they go.
Current front runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson are pushing hatred of Muslims, along with insinuations that we already have one in the White House.
Bloomberg Politics: Donald Trump on Muslims: ‘Are You Trying to Say We Don’t Have a Problem?’
Trump, the front runner for the 2016 Republican nomination, was asked on CNN’s State of the Union about his campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday. At the event, an audience member said President Barack Obama was a Muslim, that the U.S. has a problem with Muslims, and asked “when can we get rid of them?” At Thursday’s event and again on CNN, Trump did not criticize or correct the question.
“We could be politically correct if you want,” Trump said. “Are you trying to say we don’t have a problem?” ….
“We have radicals that are doing things,” he said. “It wasn’t people from Sweden that blew up the World Trade Center.”
On This Week, continued his anti-Muslim ranting. Bloomberg reports:
On ABC’s “This Week” broadcast, Trump again referred to “a worldwide problem” with Muslims, according to a transcript provided by the network.
“You look around the world, it is a problem,” Trump said. “You know, the terrorism and everything else, it seems to be pretty much confined there.”
Trump also declined several times during the ABC interview to say that he believed Obama was born in the U.S.
Lovely. I guess Trump hasn’t noticed all the domestic terrorists here in the U.S. Dylann Roof, for example is no Muslim.
From the transcript of This Week, Jonathan Karl reports on a Trump appearance in Iowa at a high school homecoming.
KARL (voice-over): Trump didn’t challenge his supporter’s false claim about the president’s background….
KARL (voice-over): But Trump has no apologies. He recited his Twitter account for an Iowa crowd on Saturday.
TRUMP: So I started by saying, “Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don’t think so.”
Right?
KARL (voice-over): So is Donald Trump playing with fire? Or simply playing to his base?
A recent poll shows more than half of Trump’s supporters believe President Obama is Muslim and 28 percent of Republicans think the president wasn’t born in the U.S. Even Trump has admitted his conspiracy theories over the president’s birth are part of his appeal, as he told me two years ago.
KARL: You don’t acknowledge that you went overboard on this whole birther stuff?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Actually, I think it made me very popular, if you want to know the truth, OK? So I do think I know what I’m doing.
Yes, Trump is spreading hate, and he knows exactly what he’s doing.
And then there’s Ben Carson. The Guardian: Ben Carson says no Muslim should ever become US president.
The Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has said no Muslim should be president of the United States of America.
In an interview with NBC for broadcast on Sunday morning, the retired neurosurgeon said: “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”
Carson’s discussion with Meet the Press host Chuck Todd centered around controversy that arose this week when Donald Trump – the real-estate mogul keeping Carson in second place in the polls – failed to correct an audience member at a New Hampshire campaign rally who said President Obama was a Muslim.
The audience member also appeared to advocate the forcible removal of Muslims from the US….
In his NBC interview, Carson was asked: “So do you believe that Islam is consistent with the constitution?”
“No,” he said, “I don’t, I do not.”
Article VI of the US constitution states: “No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
The first amendment to the constitution begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”
What does Carson think about Muslims as Congresspeople?
Carson was also asked if he would consider voting for a Muslim candidate for Congress.
He said: “Congress is a different story, but it depends on who that Muslim is and what they’re policies are, just as it depends on what anybody else says, you know.”
Two members of Congress, both Democrats, are Muslim: Keith Ellison of Minnesota was elected to the House of Representatives in 2007 and André Carson of Indiana followed in 2008.
Fortunately, neither of these freaks is likely to be president or even see the inside of the White House anytime soon.
Fading presidential candidate Scott Walker’s hatred is focused on labor unions. From The American Prospect: A Desperate Scott Walker Brings Anti-Labor Crusade to National Stage.
Earlier this week, Republican presidential contender Scott Walker detailed how he would bring his anti-labor crusade to the federal level, unveiling an expansive plan that would eliminate the National Labor Relations Board, ban federal public sector unions, and make the United States a right-to-work country, among a host of other anti-worker policies he said would give “power to the people, not the union bosses.” ….
As recently as July, Walker was leading the polls in Iowa. He’s since plummeted to the bottom of the Iowa field with just 3 percent support. Worse yet, as he admitted after yesterday’s debate, his entire campaign is premised on winning the Iowa caucuses, which kick-off the contest for delegates. “I think we’re putting all our eggs in the basket of Iowa, we’re committed to Iowa, and I think that’ll help us make the case all throughout the country,” Walker told MSNBC .
With Walker following a similar downward spiral as the announcement of his anti-labor plan appears to be an attempt at to lock-down uneasy big-money donors who stand to benefit from gutting worker rights. Walker needs to ensure that he will remain funded well into the primary season.
“The way the system is now set up, to stay alive, you have to really convince your relatively few big donors to stay in the game,” says Larry Noble of the Campaign Legal Center. “[His plan] seems to be aimed at the donors, not the public.”
Hillary Clinton appeared on Face The Nation yesterday. Here’s the transcript of the interview. And here are the headlines in the corporate media.
Buzzfeed News: Hillary Clinton Calls For The U.S. To Take In 65,000 Syrian Refugees.
Hillary Clinton said Sunday the U.S. should commit to taking in 65,000 Syrian refugees next financial year, a significantly higher number than the 10,000 the Obama administration has announced it will accept.
“We’re facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II, and I think the United States has to do more, and I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000, to begin immediately to put into place the mechanisms for vetting the people that we would take in,” Clinton told Face the Nation moderator John Dickerson on Sunday….
Clinton said on Sunday that the U.S. should prioritize taking in the most vulnerable — including, she says, Christians and Yazidi women — before repeating her call for a global meeting to address the issue.
“I also want the United States to lead the world, and I’ve recommended at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly there be an international meeting called by the secretary general and literally get people to commit [to] putting money in, helping the frontline states like Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon who’ve absorbed a lot refugees, working with the EU and the European countries, but getting everybody to make a contribution,” Clinton said.
Real Clear Politics: Hillary Clinton: “I Cannot Imagine Anyone Being More Of An Outsider Than The First Woman President.”
In an interview with John Dickerson, moderator of CBS’s Face the Nation, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she can claim outsider status since she could possibly be the first female president.
“In politics this year, it looks like everything wants an outsider,” Dickerson said. “Now that puts you in a fix.”
“Tell us why this doesn’t put you in a fix,” Dickerson said to laughter from Clinton.
“I cannot imagine anyone being more of an outsider than the first woman president,” Clinton stated. “I mean, really, let’s think about that.”
CBS News: “I am a real person,” Hillary Clinton says.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was stumped Sunday when “Face the Nation” moderator John Dickerson asked her to name three words that describe “the real Hillary Clinton.”
“Just three? I can’t possibly do that!” Clinton said, throwing hear head back with laughter. “I mean, look, I am a real person with all the pluses and minuses that go along with being that. And I’ve been in the public eye for so long that I think, you know, it’s like the feature that you see in some magazines sometimes, ‘Real people actually go shopping,’ you know?”
On Dickerson’s question about voters wanting an outsider as president:
“I know you’re asking, ‘Do we want people who have never been elected to anything, who have no political experience, who have never made any hard choices in the public area?'” she told moderator John Dickerson. “Well, voters are going to have to decide that.”
She also addressed criticism that she is too deep inside the political system to help reorient the economy back toward the middle class.
“I have an economic policy that is centered on raising incomes, because I think what we inherited from the Bush administration, what President Obama had to deal with, had the potential of becoming a ‘Great Depression,’ not just a ‘Great Recession,'” Clinton said. “We have now recovered 13 million jobs after losing 800,000 a month when he came into office. So why would we go back to the same policies? Call them insider, call them tilted toward the rich, call them giving corporations a free pass to do whatever they want. I’m against that, I’ve always been against that.”
She added, “So you know, I’m not running for Bill’s third term, I’m not running for President Obama’s third term, but it would be foolish of me not to say, ‘You know, that worked better than what the Republicans offer.'”
Channel 10 News Tampa Bay: Hillary Clinton: I’m not preparing for Joe Biden.
Hillary Clinton said she and her team are not taking steps to prepare for a possible late entry into the Democratic presidential primary by Vice President Joe Biden.
“This is such a personal decision and the vice president has to sort this out,” Clinton said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “He’s been so open in talking about how difficult this time is for him and his family and he’s obviously considering what he wants to do including whether he wants to run.”
“I just have the greatest respect and affection for him and I think everybody just ought to give him the space to decide what’s best for his family,” she added.
Biden met with political advisers Monday at his residence in Washington, D.C. as part of his ongoing conversation with family, friends and staff over whether to jump into the 2016 presidential race.
Over the last few days, some Democratic donors have also calls for the vice president to mount a challenge to Clinton.
According to Chuck Todd and friends, Biden’s wife has given him her blessing to joint the presidential race.
Contrary to reports suggesting Vice President Joe Biden’s wife remains an obstacle to his potential presidential run, sources tell NBC News that Jill Biden is fully behind him for another bid.
Jill Biden, sources tell NBC’s Chuck Todd, is 100 percent on-board with a presidential run, despite reports indicating her hesitation is part of what’s keeping Biden from jumping into the race.
And that looks more likely by the day, as sources have indicated Biden’s been meeting with Democratic leaders during his travels around the nation over the past week to tell them he wants to do it and thinks there’s room for him to make a credible bid if he does.
The key question that’s still weighing on his mind as he decides whether to make another go of it: Does he have the emotional energy to give it his all, sources say.
Whatever. I still don’t think he’ll do it. Apparently he thinks he needs to make up his mind by October 1, so we won’t have to listen to the speculation much longer.
What else is happening? What stories are you following today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I believe that Biden will run. He just can’t resist. Right now he is exulting with the sympathy vote along with the urging of press corp who want “a race”. Anything to further tarnish the Hillary factor. Can’t stand him.
And Carly is firmly standing behind the “phantom video” even in the face of multiple fact checkers who have declared it “bogus”. So much for “facts”!
Chris Christie has called out the pope regarding global warming. Is urging the pope to stay out of “politics”. Unbelievable!
Walker looks like he will be joining the “loser brigade” along with Perry, Pataki, Jindahl and Santorum. Oh well!!!
This will leave Rubio, Cruz, and Bush to sit it out waiting for Trump and Carson to implode. What an array of idiots all vying for the low information and the ignorant who will be the ones to make the choice.
Then enter Biden who will almost guarantee a GOP win. He had his turn twice and blew it. No more “smilin’ Joe” for me. Too annoying for words.
If creepy Uncle Joe does run, he’ll have to deal with the Anita Hill debacle, his past plagarism scandal, and numerous gaffes past, present, and future. I can’t seem him beating Hillary.
The thing is that you and I may remember the Anita Hill hearings but a lot of people don’t. Just as it is up to the present day press to expose Trump and Fiorina for the liars that they are, it would be the duty of the press to do the same with Biden. More than likely they will not.
Biden has little love for the Clinton’s and the press is more than willing to exploit it. Good ole “Uncle Joe” will benefit from the press antipathy and more than likely never mention that thanks to Biden we now suffer from the fall out of Clarence Thomas.
Biden “jumping in” would further erode Hillary’s poll numbers because it would make one assume she is “weak”.
This would drive me away as it will become another replay of 2008.
Politico remembers.
Biden’s ‘Anita’ problem
You know I actually watched those stupid hearings and I just hated and I mean hated Joe Biden. There was no doubt that Thomas was not qualified to serve as a Supreme Court Justice for many reasons including his lack of moral character. This is what has been so baffling to me about the RW Christian movement is that they embrace every friggin’ bastard who seems to spit in the face of actual Christian values.
And I am talking about embracing Thomas not Biden.
the Clintons, Hillary and Bill
the Clintons’ daughter, Chelsea
Hillary Clinton’s reputation
What a great line, but pity Hillary has to remind people she is her own person. Not that a Bill Clinton 3rd term would be bad — however I continue to think Hillary will do better!
I agree! Many times I’ve had people to refeer to her as such and its just sad.
I am so hoping that she’ll win the GE in a landslide of epic proportions. Win back the House. Win back the Senate and have a real mandate to actually start fixing the problems this country so desperately needs to fix.
Hillary is always asked a strange group of questions. Who can sum themeselves up in three words?
This “outsider” thing is so ridiculous. It comes up in every campaign. People watch too many TV shows where someone pops in with no background and solves everything. The system does not go away; all those lobbyists do not disappear. One has to know how to navigate them. Bill Clinton had a learning curve ,and he was and is a very intelligent person who was a five-term governor. Obama had a learning curve in so many respects, and he liked to position himself as an outsider. I would prefer an insider who yet had good principles, both politically and personally. This is not the monarchy of the Middle Ages; you have to know how to deal with the forces which populate Washington. Specifically, any Democrat who is elected is going to have to be able to deal with the Republican Congress. Obama didn’t do that very well. And as far as the Republicans go, putting a businessperson in charge of the government is a dreadful idea, since the government is not run like a business.
I don’t know if Biden is going to run, but he would not be elected President, which is what Democrats should be most concerned about. The insane obsession among some Democrats with defeating Hillary, is the biggest threat to her and the country. Biden would seem inimical to what the so-called progressive wing says it wants; if his only positive attribute for them is that he is not Hillary, then they are the real problem. Because the only person who can beat the Republicans is Hillary; plus she has a better record as a liberal than Obama did when running; an she is unquestionably more liberal than Biden, the great friend of the banks and credit card companies. But then my mother, a lifelong Democrat along with my father, would often say that she thought that the Democratic Party had a “death wish.” By which she meant that it is almost as if they look for ways to lose elections, so they can feel proudly unhappy about it, and say, “see? That proves again that the country is totally screwed up. Back to playing video games and writing hopeless screeds.”
William, the problem is that even though we are surrounded by so much technology the rate of “low information voters” continues to grow. Without having a clue to our own history we are doomed.. That alone is representative of the Trump supporters or those who find no issue with Carly Fiorina’s “truthiness”.
How many people are convinced that Hillary is responsible for Benghazi? Or that she did something “illegal” with her e-mail account? Or that she is a lesbian, drug dealer, murderess? The answer is a lot of people believe this tripe just as those who embrace the notion that Obama is a Muslim, a communist, Kenyan born. No matter that none of these accusations are true but there are people who buy into the lies and they vote.
Just look at the erosion of the separation of church and state which is listed in the US Constitution, there are those who believe it is something to ignore because their own critical thinking has been frozen.
I have little faith in the overall sensibilities of the voting public. This is what scares me.
Pat, I agree that low information voting is a big problem; and the media both helps to create it and profits from it. Hillary should actually be elected with 80% of the vote, if people actually realized the global warming threat, and how she is the only person who can get elected to do something about it. And if people care about the safety net, or about middle class concerns, she is a slam-dunk winner. That she is not so far, is due to low and distorted information, as well as to this pernicious hatred of her and her husband by some very deluded people, too many of them Democrats.
But I am fairly confident that she will prevail. I would like her to win by enough that she could bring in enough Senate seats to take over Democratic control again; and at least some Congressional seats. The Democrats have such a wonderful opportunity to do this, if they would not waste their time trying to put up impediments to what they say is their own agenda.
Nice round up BB! I didn’t make it to the Hillary event today but did get a great laugh at Jindal who challenged her to debate Health Care prior to it. He’s probably in Iowa so it was just another attempt at relevance.
Why is he still running? It would seem that someone could step up to the plate and remind him that being zero percent in the race is actually zero percent.
No idea. I think he’s delusional.
Hillary has regained some momentum in the latest CNN/ORC National poll.
Clinton 42, Sanders 24, Biden 22, O’Malley 1, Webb 0, Chafee 0
If Biden is pulled from the poll Hillary picks up most of his voters. Keep on hammering away at “Sanders isn’t a Democrat” to Democratic voters, it begins to register with mature voters after a while.
I’m not worried about it, and I still don’t think Biden will run.
Some good news. Scott Walker has dropped out of the race.
We posted it within minutes! lol Here’s a fun addendu: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/09/fired-scott-walker-aide-tweeting-shitstorm-about-what-he-did-wrong
Bye, Scottie Boy! Don’t let those toilet paper rolls hit you on the way out.
I knew Walker never had a chance. Lousy candidate from Day One even with all that Koch Bros. money. Now the question is what will happen to Walker’s Super Pac? It has 20 million dollars to play with.
Walker bailed today
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/09/21/scott-walker-quits-2016-presidential-race/?smid=fb-share&_r=0
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/biden-anita-hill-women-senate-clarence-thomas-213864
Biden’s ‘Anita’ problem
If the vice president runs, Clinton and other opponents could use his treatment of Anita Hill to erode his support among women and blacks.
Damn right.
BB, thanks for this post. It certainly focuses a great deal of energy.
For what it’s worth, here’s a Prolix take — Biden is tired and tiring to the rest of us. He’s an asterisk that bears some relevance just because of the coincidental events leading him to being an asterisk. He does know his politics and he knows how deals are made. Deals are the reason he’s a passably relevant asterisk.
He has never been serious about running. He’s running defense for Hillary. Hillary needed to shred the email mishegas. A potential Biden run is the shiny thing to move the email off the media front burner.
Biden gets Secretary of State in Hillary’s first administration. Win, win. Biden knows he can’t win. Too many of us remember Anita Hill and those who don’t remember Anita Hill certainly realize Clarence “the Mute” Thomas is the worst, non-indicted, non-impeached Justice in the history of the Republic. Biden facilitated the Thomas ascension to the Supreme Court — he’s there because Biden, along with several others, had their balls draw up into their throats while indicting a woman for daring to believe the workplace ought be free of sexual harassment.
While it sounds as if it is a “West Wing” or “House of Cards” scenario — it well could be, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
I like the way you think.
Thank you Sue, but thinking gives me a couple of points I don’t deserve.