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Obama emphasized that Biden will surround himself with great people that know how to run things. I have my reservations about Biden, but I do believe that. The Biden government will be far more functional and compotent than Trump's.
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If I whisper my wicked marching orders into the ether with no regard to where or how they may bear fruit, I am blameless should a broken spirit carry those orders out upon the innocent, for it was not my hand that took the action merely my lips which let slip their darkest wish. ~Daniel Devereaux 2011
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Comment
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If I whisper my wicked marching orders into the ether with no regard to where or how they may bear fruit, I am blameless should a broken spirit carry those orders out upon the innocent, for it was not my hand that took the action merely my lips which let slip their darkest wish. ~Daniel Devereaux 2011
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Comment
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hey nots, I think this will interest you
It’s Obvious Whom Joe Biden Should Pick as Vice President
He needs a running mate who strengthens the ticket in the areas where he is weakest. One person stands out."The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable." -NY Times
"For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts" - Joe BidenComment
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The man and his ego, me, me, me, me! He is making them put his name on the stimulus checks.
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Lol, it’s behind a paywall, but I can see who it’s about. Maybe she will have more staying power than other flavors-of-the-month Michael Avanetti, Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Gillum. All 3 hyped in here at one time or another. All 3 were exposed as frauds.
On a serious note, it seems like she isn’t going to be the nominee (at least according to Dem insiders speculation) For that I’m thankful.Comment
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Probably only disappointing to me but....
Without an in person convention this year, it’s going to be interesting who gets the nomination. Chaffee has good name recognition and is a pretty big opponent of our military adventurism. Sorry to see him drop out. I hope the Libertarian’s nominate someone better than that ‘look at me’ pretty boy Amash.Comment
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While I love me some third-party candidates...this is not the year!Probably only disappointing to me but....
Without an in person convention this year, it’s going to be interesting who gets the nomination. Chaffee has good name recognition and is a pretty big opponent of our military adventurism. Sorry to see him drop out. I hope the Libertarian’s nominate someone better than that ‘look at me’ pretty boy Amash."Looks like I picked a bad day to give up sniffing glue.
- Steven McCrosky (Lloyd Bridges) in Airplane
i have epiphanies like that all the time. for example i was watching a basketball game today and realized pom poms are like a pair of tits. there's 2 of them. they're round. they shake. women play with them. thus instead of having two, cheerleaders have four boobs.
- nullnor, speaking on immigration law in AZ.Comment
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If someone is predisposed to voting for Trump, Amash isn’t going to persuade them to change. Trump supporters seem to really dislike Amash (and with good reason).
FWIW, I am skeptical Amash gets the nomination. From what I’m told, there is some blowback to Republicans-turned-Libertarians representing the LP. I am of the belief that the LP nominee will be a lifelong Libertarian this year who will no doubt get 1% (or less) of the national vote. The embarrassment of Johnson last time has changed the calculus. At least I hope so.......Comment
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its not exactly riveting, but here you go:
It’s Obvious Whom Joe Biden Should Pick as Vice President
He needs a running mate who strengthens the ticket in the areas where he is weakest. One person stands out.
By Steve Phillips
April 14, 2020
Stacey Abrams can boost enthusiasm among voters that crosses racial, gender and age demographics — precisely the areas Joe Biden needs to bolster.
As Joe Biden formally begins his vice-presidential selection process, he needs to find a running mate who strengthens the Democratic ticket in the areas where he is weakest. The nomination contest has highlighted three sizable shortcomings that imperil his quest to defeat President Trump.
First, he has failed to generate nearly any interest, let alone meaningful support, among young people in the presidential primaries. Second, he has consistently lost the Latino vote. And third, he suffers from a well-documented enthusiasm gap that could undermine his candidacy in the same way that Hillary Clinton failed to generate voter excitement, resulting in a drop in voter turnout among key constituencies, particularly African-Americans, whose diminished motivation and engagement resulted in the collapse of the Democratic “Blue Wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Mr. Biden’s minuscule levels of support among voters 18 to 29 — the electoral engine of Bernie Sanders’s campaign — has been alarming. In Michigan, a state he won handily over Mr. Sanders, Mr. Biden still secured only 19 percent of the youth vote. Even in South Carolina, the place that transformed the Biden candidacy, he still lost the under-30 vote to Mr. Sanders by 17 points, a margin that was twice as bad as Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 deficit against the same opponent in the same state.
Of note — and what should be of great concern to the Biden team — is that this weakness with young voters transcends racial lines. A veritable rainbow coalition of young voters have regularly rejected the former vice president in state after state. In November, this weakness will loom large as Generation Z voters, those 18 to 24 years old, will make up twice the percentage of all voters that they did in 2016.
A second priority needs to be targeting Latinos, who are now the largest nonwhite group in America and whose swelling population numbers bolster Democratic prospects in emerging swing states like Arizona and Texas, as well as closely fought Florida. Even in the key Midwestern states, there are hundreds of thousands of Latino voters who could tip the balance in a close contest. In the presidential primaries, Mr. Biden has lost the Latino vote to Mr. Sanders in every state.
The Democrats’ biggest challenge lies in the lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Biden among voters, even those who generally support him. The enthusiasm problem is highly problematic across the board — recent polls show Mr. Trump’s supporters are far more enthusiastic than Mr. Biden’s — but it is acutely dangerous with African-Americans, the most reliably Democratic voters.
The greatest potential risk is the same kind of overconfidence and complacency regarding black voters that doomed Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. She dominated among black voters in her primary contest against Mr. Sanders and consequently felt secure enough in her standing with African-Americans that she chose to present an all-white Democratic ticket. The results were cataclysmic, with black voter turnout falling off a cliff and dropping to a 16-year low, enabling Mr. Trump to prevail in critical Midwestern states that tipped the Electoral College.
There is no question that Mr. Biden will win an overwhelming percentage of those African-Americans who cast ballots. But more important, victory or defeat will depend on what percentage of eligible black voters actually turn out.
His search committee is likely to conduct polling designed to determine how particular demographic groups will respond to his potential political partners. At best, polling is predictive, offering educated guesses. However, the analysis need not be left to conjecture: Many of the possible picks have run in statewide elections, the data from which offer actual evidence of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the prospects.
All that Mr. Biden has said on the subject is that he intends to name a woman as his running mate.
Of the people most often mentioned as being on the vice-presidential short list, Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Senator Kamala Harris of California, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have all run in statewide elections in which exit polls were conducted. That data offers the chance for an apples-to-apples comparison of relative electoral strength with the key demographic groups needed to strengthen the Democratic ticket.
A close examination of the electoral track records of the possible partners shows that Ms. Abrams best offers what Mr. Biden most needs (to be clear, Ms. Abrams is on the board of the Center for American Progress, where I am a senior fellow, but board members, including Ms. Abrams, have no input on what fellows write). In terms of success with young people, Barack Obama’s political popularity is unquestioned, and therefore his support levels among that demographic offer a valuable measuring stick. Of the potential nominees, only Ms. Abrams outperformed Mr. Obama in her state, winning the 18-to-29-year-old vote in Georgia by nearly 30 points; Mr. Obama lost that group by three points. Only Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, another common name on potential V.P. lists, equaled Mr. Obama’s performance with young voters in her state. The other contenders for whom there is data underperformed Mr. Obama in their most recent competitive race by significant margins.
The available data on popularity among Latinos is more limited, but in the states that do offer such information — Georgia, California, Michigan and Nevada — Ms. Abrams secured the most Latino support, garnering 62 percent of her state’s Latino vote in 2018. Ms. Cortez Masto, who is herself Latina, was also very strong with that demographic.
It is in the realm of African-American voter enthusiasm that Ms. Abrams is without peer. Not only did she win 93 percent of the black vote in her race for governor — a higher percentage than any of the other potential vice-presidential picks won in their statewide races — but few candidates (if any) in the history of this country have increased black turnout in a statewide election to the extent that Ms. Abrams did in 2018. Black voter turnout jumped 40 percent in Georgia in 2018, an astounding level of strength that not only can bring the Midwestern states back into the Democratic fold but also has the potential to expand the map of competitive states to Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Texas.
Among the other contenders, a recent poll (by Data for Progress for the group Way to Win) found that Ms. Harris ran a close second to Ms. Abrams in terms of support among African-Americans.
Ultimately, Mr. Biden will make a pick based on comfort, fit and fitness for the office, and there is no shortage of talented women he can choose. If he wants to base his decision on the available evidence and proven success in areas where he has failed, then choosing Stacey Abrams is the smartest move."The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable." -NY Times
"For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts" - Joe BidenComment
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I think the net-net will lean toward more from Biden. Here's the logic - Amash is going to appeal to the narrow band of NeverTrump Republicans; based on writings and the limited polling that was done, those NeverTrumpers heavily voted for either no one or Hillary in 2016. It's logical they'd look for someone - hell, just about anyone - that would allow them to vote for neither Biden nor Trump.
That said, he'll steal some votes from more liberal minded GOPers and even some Dems who are so repulsed by Biden that they'd vote Trump without an alternative.
But the real calculus is whether he'd influence his home state of Michigan. If Amash is in it to screw over Trump, that's where he needs to focus. He'll have name recognition, good knowledge of the districts, and I suspect a staff person or three would help him out. Take his knowledge of the state, and add in some tailoring to hit issues where Trump would be hurt in Michigan, and Amash could well swing Michigan.I'm just here for the baseball.
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With rallies, other major events and possibly even the conventions likely 86'd for the remainder of this campaign for both sides, this will be one of the most bizarre presidential elections ever held. So with those likely gone, public opinion alone will likely dictate the winner, which means most minds are probably already made up.
What could change minds? The economy re-opening and bouncing back, which seems unlikely in the next few months, at least from a data perspective (Q2 and Q3 numbers coming out will dampen some expectations). The virus subsiding, which surely seems possible, but will that help our incumbent? Probably not, as the damage has already been done and the fallout (both economic and investigations into our poor response) is just beginning.
Unfortunately for our incumbent, his base, largely made up of blue collar sorts, are the ones hardest hit by the economic aspect of this. White collar folks can work from home, but factory workers surely cannot. How long will some factories need to be shut down? That's hard to say. With today's unemployment report out with 5.3m new claims, our unemployment rate is now likely at 15%. By November, what will this number be, and will it be anywhere near enough to help?Comment
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