Posted: March 3, 2016 | Author: dakinikat | Filed under: 2016 elections | Tags: Detroit Michigan, Fox News, live blog, Republican Debate |
Ladies and Gentlemen! Go find your Antacids!!!
It’s yet another ghastly hatefest that FoxNews calls the Republican Presidential Primary Debate. Live from Detroit! It’s the Xenophobia/Racism/Misogyny/White Male Anger Party!!!
There aren’t many left standing but I can’t imagine even trusting any of them to walk my dog or feed my cat, let alone run my country.
Carson bailed this week. The pundits believe that Rubio’s path to an outright victory has disappeared.
Marco Rubio’s path to the Republican nomination short of a contested convention has narrowed to nearly nothing as his campaign and allies reboot their strategy to prepare for months of guerrilla warfare to deny Donald Trump a clean, pre-convention victory.
The math for Rubio is daunting. After getting thoroughly routed on Super Tuesday, Rubio is in so deep a delegate hole that he would now need to win roughly two-thirds of all the remaining delegates to guarantee his nomination ahead of Cleveland, according to a POLITICO analysis.
That is an enormously difficult, if not impossible, climb for a candidate who has so far won only a single state, Minnesota, and especially one who is not predicting victory in any of the next dozen states and territories that cast ballots, until his home state of Florida votes on March 15.
“It’s fair to say that Rubio’s path to 1,237 is shot,” Dave Wasserman, an analyst with the Cook Political Report who closely tracks the delegate race, said of the threshold to secure the nomination.
“There’s virtually no chance for Marco Rubio to get to a majority prior to the convention,” said John Yob, who served as a top delegate strategist for Rick Santorum in 2012 and John McCain in 2008.
Even inside the Rubio orbit, there has been an acknowledgement that as long as Ted Cruz (and John Kasich) stay in the race, they have virtually zero mathematical chance of securing the nomination. Asked directly by Fox’s Megyn Kelly on Wednesday night if it was now “mathematically impossible” for him to be the nominee, Rubio dodged.
My thought is that Rubio was basically a VEEP and not much else. He’s not too bright and he really doesn’t appear to enjoy working at anything. However, he’s managed to totally cut himself off from that path having been replaced by the Chris Christie lapdog and Mr. Slave act. Rubio’s made far too many penis size jokes for that now and his Senate seat is as good as gone.
Romney is looking to block the Trump at the Convention.
Others are looking at a (GAG) dream unity ticket of Cruz and Rubio. This is the National Review and a Cruz advisor so please don’t go there without Peptobismal close by.
In the immediate wake of Super Tuesday, each has much to gain from such a deal. As the candidate currently with more delegates, Cruz would love to get enough support from Rubio’s delegates to secure the nomination. For Rubio, currently in third place, for whom holding his home state of Florida has now become a do-or-die situation, the idea of securing the vice presidency would be a valuable insurance policy. As a young man, he would have an inside track to the presidency in eight years. Our current immigration situation would likely be addressed by a Cruz-Rubio administration to the degree that the issue would no longer be any obstacle for him in 2024. The beauty of this arrangement is that the primary voters would be the ones to decide which candidate will be at the top of the ticket. And voters could freely vote for their favorite with much less concern that failing to rally around the other would be helping Trump. Let Ted compete with Trump in the states with electorates like Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Alaska. Let Marco compete with Trump in states with electorates like Florida and Minnesota.
Kasich seems to be holding out for Ohio and the rest of the Great Flyover to weigh in.
So, I’m voting on Saturday and phonebanking. I’m also planning to go see the Big Dawg tomorrow morning so I’m either live blogging that or going to be late with my impressions.
Meanwhile, grab the popcorn and the antacids! It’s FOX NEWS and Republicans! Yes, it’s another Trigger Warning cause this goes to (GAG) FOX news. The debate will be held in Detroit, Michigan.
If you don’t have the stomach for the TV,
you can watch on the internet.
The debate tonight will feature Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich. With only four candidates on the stage, this will be the smallest debate yet. The event begins at 9PM ET/6PM PT tonight on Fox News. Here’s how to watch it online:
If you do have a cable subscription, you can also watch on your Android oriOS mobile device with Fox News Go. Unfortunately, Fox isn’t offering a ton of options to watch online without cable, but if you can borrow a login from someone then you’ve got mobile covered.
The
Fox News Election HQ app for
Android and
iOS can’t stream the debate, but you can use it to grade the candidates as you follow along. At the end of the debate, it will give you a “debate scorecard” to show you which candidate you align with the most.
Here we go folks! It’s another LIVE BLOG with the Fascist Party of America!!!
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Posted: March 3, 2016 | Author: bostonboomer | Filed under: morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Bernie Sanders, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, wacky politics |
Good Morning!!
It’s another wacky news day in the battles for the major party presidential nominations. In the Republican race, Donald Trump basically has already won; and now that it’s too late, some GOP leaders are trying to stop him. Today it’s 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who plans to denounce Trump today in a speech in Utah.
The Washington Post: Mitt Romney: ‘Trump is a phony, a fraud’ who is ‘playing the American public for suckers.’
In a forceful, top-to-bottom indictment of Trump, Romney will call on fellow Republicans to reject the billionaire businessman’s candidacy in an election “that will have profound consequences for the Republican Party and more importantly, for the country.”
“Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud,” Romney will say, according to a speech prepared for delivery Thursday at the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics. “His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He’s playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat.” ….
Several of Romney’s friends, allies and former donors are involved in efforts to stop Trump, launching and funding super PACs airing ads against the businessman, in Florida, Ohio and elsewhere….
According to Romney’s Thursday remarks, Trump’s “domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgement to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill.”
Trump, Romney is expected to say, “relishes any poll that reflects what he thinks of himself. But polls are also saying that he will lose to Hillary Clinton.”
Naturally, Trump hit back. From the LA Times:
Trump, in turn, dismissed Romney as “a stiff” who “didn’t know what he was doing” as the party’s candidate in 2012 and blew a chance to beat President Obama. “People are energized by what I’m saying” in the campaign and turning out in remarkable numbers to vote, Trump told NBC’s “Today.”
In ratcheting up the rhetoric, Romney cast his lot with a growing chorus of anxious Republican leaders — people many Trump supporters view as establishment figures — in trying to slow the New York real estate mogul’s momentum.
But it was unclear what effect his words would have with voters deeply frustrated by their party’s leaders. Trump questioned whether the party rank and file would listen to “a failed candidate” for whom “nobody came out to vote.”
Unfortunately for the Republican “establishment,” the Koch brothers aren’t going to help them bring Trump down, according to a Reuters exclusive: Koch brothers will not use funds to try to block Trump nomination.
The Koch brothers, the most powerful conservative mega donors in the United States, will not use their $400 million political arsenal to try to block Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s path to the presidential nomination, a spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday.
The decision by the billionaire industrialists is another setback to Republican establishment efforts to derail the New York real estate mogul’s bid for the White House, and follows speculation the Kochs would soon launch a “Trump Intervention.”
“We have no plans to get involved in the primary,” said James Davis, spokesman for Freedom Partners, the Koch brothers’ political umbrella group. He would not elaborate on what the brothers’ strategy would be for the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama.
Three sources close to the Kochs said the brothers made the decision because they were concerned that spending millions of dollars attacking Trump would be money wasted, since they had not yet seen any attack on Trump stick.
The Koch brothers are also smarting from the millions of dollars they pumped into the failed 2012 Republican presidential bids of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, the sources said.
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders supporters are attacking Elizabeth Warren and threatening to primary her because she didn’t endorse their candidate before the Massachusetts primary.
TBogg at Raw Story: Elizabeth Warren fails to endorse Bernie and his fans freak the hell out on her Facebook page.
After Sanders of Vermont secured a primary win in the neighboring state of New Hampshire, progressives turned their starstruck eyes to Progressive Goddess Warren figuring she could seal the deal for Bernie in her home state primary with a Bernie endorsement.And then she didn’t. In fact, she stayed silent.
Cue Progressive Rageface
So they expressed their extreme dissatisfaction with Warren on her Facebook page on a perfectly anodyne post celebrating the appearance of the Fisk Jubilee Singers who performed “traditional spiritual and black American religious music” at Boston’s Symphony Hall back on Feb. 21.
Whatever, stupid singers. Facebook is made for ranting.
And rant they did, ripping into the implicit heresy of Warren’s failure to endorse Sanders by letting her know in no uncertain terms that they are really really really REALLY disappointed. And worse.
As in:
Your unwillingness to endorse Bernie prior to Super Tuesday indicates to me that your fear of pressure from Hillary friends on Capitol Hill “trumps” your commitment to the progressive cause. I have lost faith in you and the DNC.
Elizabeth – is there ANY reason on God’s green earth that you’re sitting quiet in the corner while Bernie is awaiting your endorsement? Am I missing something here???
Is she really part of the establishment? How can she, as a representative of the people, as a self proclaimed progressive, not publicly endorse Bernie Sanders? Do you think she owes Clinton some political favors? hmmmm.
Read more lovely examples of Bernie-discourse at the Raw Story link.
As if that wasn’t enough, yesterday a Sanders supporter from Chicago posted a petition on Change.org to have former U.S. President Bill Clinton arrested for . . . something. More than 80,000 angry Bernie fans have signed it so far.
The Boston Globe: Did Bill Clinton violate election rules in Mass.?
Bill Clinton’s presence inside a polling location in Boston on Super Tuesday raised concerns about whether the former president violated state rules on election campaigning.
While stumping for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton entered a polling station at the Holy Name Parish School’s gymnasium in West Roxbury early Tuesday.
It was there that he spoke with workers, bought a cup of coffee, and apparently took a photo with one woman, according to press pool reports.
A video clip showing Bill Clinton shaking hands with election clerks at Holy Name, alongside Mayor Martin J. Walsh, had some people on Twitter questioning the former president’s appearance indoors.
“Aren’t there rules about electioneering at the polling location?” one person wrote on Twitter, after seeing the video.
Hmmm . . . should the mayor be arrested too? He endorsed Hillary. Of course Secretary of State Maura Healy did too. Oh the unfairness of it all!
“He can go in, but he can’t approach voters,” Galvin said. “We just took the extra precaution of telling them because this is not a usual occurrence. You don’t usually get a president doing this.”
According to the Election Day Legal Summary on Galvin’s website, certain activities on Election Day are prohibited within polling locations and within 150 feet of polling places, including the “solicitation of votes for or against, or any other form of promotion or opposition of, any person or political party.”
Of course Bill wasn’t actively campaigning. He probably shouldn’t have done this, but he was accompanied by mayors in the places where it happened. Presumably, the mayors are the ones who brought Clinton inside. Maybe Bernie bros should make a citizens’ arrest. Or alternatively, maybe Sanders should just run a better campaign. Just a thought.
There’s another Republican debate tonight in Detroit, and we’ll of course have a live blog for discussion. The event begins at 9PM and will be hosted by Fox News. Moderators will be Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace.
More stories to check out, links only:
The Guardian: Donald Trump releases his healthcare plan in campaign statement.
The Washington Post: Pandemonium in the GOP: Some embrace Trump while others rush to stop him.
The New York Times: Debate Prep: Fact-Checking the GOP Candidates on Health Care.
Peter Beinart at The Atlantic: The Violence to Come: With Donald Trump on the brink of the GOP nomination, America is hurtling toward a schism unlike anything since the 1960s.
This is a great article by David Cay Johnston on Donald Trump’s income, wealth, and what might be in his tax returns: 9 Key Points About Trump’s Income Taxes (And Many More Questions).
Fortune: Why Donald Trump’s Tax Returns May Prove He’s Not That Rich.
Time: White House May Be Vetting Appeals Judge for Supreme Court Vacancy.
Christopher D. Benson at the Chicago Tribune: In ‘Spotlight,’ a lesson on covering race.
Shakesville: Hillary Sexism Watch Part Wev in an Endless Series.
Politico: Sanders campaign: What losses? There’s a unified message from the Vermont senator on down: They’ll fight on until the Democratic convention.
Ugly story out of Boston:
The Boston Globe: US to investigate racial allegations at Boston Latin and Family of student threatened with lynching wants consequences in the case.
What stories are you following today?
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Posted: March 1, 2016 | Author: dakinikat | Filed under: 2016 elections |
Good Evening!!!
We’re waiting for the results from the 12 Super Tuesday States!!
There are a diverse number of states weighing in today. There are caucus states and primary states. Several are election day for one party only.
The first Super Tuesday polls opened in the Commonwealth of Virginia at 06:00 am EST. Colorado doesn’t start it’s caucus process until 9 pm EST.
The Republicans probably have more at stake since they’re trying to stop the Trump phenomenon.
Senator Ted Cruz cannot afford to lose to Mr Trump in Texas, Mr Cruz’s home state, while a reverse for Mr Trump in Massachusetts, with its moderate voters, could break the property tycoon’s nationwide momentum.
Both Trump and Hillary are expected to do well today.
Democrats are voting in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Minnesota, as well as in the US territory of American Samoa.
Democrats abroad will also submit their votes. There is also a caucus in Colorado, but the vote then goes to a state convention.
Mrs Clinton is eyeing black voters in places like Alabama, Georgia and Virginia after taking eight out of 10 black votes in South Carolina.
On the campaign trail in Minneapolis on Tuesday, she accused her Republican rivals of “running their campaigns based on insults. It’s turned into a kind of one-upmanship on insulting”.
Bernie Sanders voted early in his home state of Vermont.
He told reporters that if turnout was high “we are going to do well. If not, we’re probably going to be struggling”.
But he pledged: “This is a campaign that is going to the Philadelphia convention in July.”
We’re beginning to see the end games of quite a few campaigns.
Here’s the complete schedule of state, with opening and closing times (EST) for each:
- Alabama, 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
- Alaska, 11 a.m. and midnight
- Arkansas, 8:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.
- Colorado, caucuses begin at 9 p.m.
- Georgia, 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
- Massachusetts, 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.
- Minnesota, caucuses begin at 8 p.m.
- Oklahoma, 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
- Tennessee, 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
- Texas, 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. or 9 p.m.
- Vermont, as early as 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Virginia, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Wyoming, various times for caucuses
- American Samoa, caucuses begin at 2 p.m.
The Rubio campaign isn’t feeling very chipper today and is setting expectations pretty low after claiming 2nd and 3rd place finishes were HUGE wins!
Marco Rubio’s top campaign adviser huddled with roughly 40 bundlers and K Streeters Tuesday morning to prepare them for a difficult primary election night—as well as to brief them on the campaign’s plan for what to do next.
Terry Sullivan told supporters at campaign headquarters that the Florida Republican could secure just 100 delegates from Super Tuesday states in one of the scenarios he laid out.
Sullivan’s prediction was part of his larger detailed powerpoint presentation going through different delegate counts for March, April and May. He told attendees that it would be mathematically impossible for Donald Trump to get to 1,237 delegate votes by the end of April, according to multiple attendees.
I’m not certain it’s even worthwhile to think about either Kasich or Carson. Each of the not Trump candidates are betting on their home states to bump them. However, they need dollars as well as some kind of bump.
The AP is forecasting that both Clinton and Trump will pull far away from their competition.
The disarray among Republicans comes as Clinton appears to be tightening her grip on the Democratic field. She scored a blowout victory over Bernie Sanders in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, a contest that underscored her strength with black voters.
Clinton’s campaign is hoping that support will continue in Tuesday’s contests in several Southern states with large African-American electorates.
She has increasingly turned her attention to Trump in recent days, casting herself as a civil alternative to the insults and bullying that have consumed the Republican race.
“What we can’t let happen is the scapegoating, the flaming, the finger pointing that is going on the Republican side,” she told voters in Springfield, Massachusetts. “It really undermines our fabric as a nation.”
Sanders, who has energized young voters with his call for a political revolution, was seeking to stay close to Clinton in the South and pick up victories in other states including Minnesota and his home state of Vermont. But Sanders faces tough questions about whether he can rally minorities who are core Democratic voters.
I’ll be watching and phonebanking from Second Vine Wine Bar just down the street from me with the New Orleans Louisiana Team. I’ll be checking in and out so please let us know what’s going on in your state and with your local coverage if you’re on the list! I know we’ve got Sky Dancers in most of these places!!! Get ready to break out the popcorn and confetti!!
Have a great Super Tuesday Evening!
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