US Presidential Contenders

[Buster's Uncle]

Well-put.

[Buster's Uncle]

Bernie Sanders: ‘We intend to take the fight all the way to California’ — but not necessarily the convention
Yahoo News
Dylan Stableford  Senior editor  April 24, 2016



Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally in Providence, R.I., on Sunday. (Photo: Steven Senne/AP)



Following Bernie Sanders’ loss to Hillary Clinton in the New York primary last week, his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, vowed that the Vermont senator would take his fight to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July.

But on Sunday, Sanders would only look as far ahead as California’s Democratic primary on June 7.

“We intend to take the fight all the way to California,” Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” “so people throughout this country have a right to determine who they want as president and what kind of agenda they want for the Democratic Party.”

Sanders repeated the phrase when asked if he would support Clinton as the Democratic nominee in the fall, just as she supported Barack Obama in 2008.

“We’re not giving this thing up,” the self-described democratic socialist said. “We’re going all the way to California. But if she is the nominee, I would hope that she puts together the strongest progressive agenda that says, ‘Yes, we’re going to stand with the working families in this country. We are prepared to take on the fossil fuel industry and the drug companies Wall Street and the billionaire class.’ And if she has a candidate for vice president who is prepared to carry that mantle, prepared to engage in that fight, I think that would be a very good thing for her campaign.”

On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Sanders focused on the present.

“We are in this race. We are not writing our obituary. We’re in this race to California,” he said, before letting a tense change slip. “And we’re proud of the campaign we ran.”

On CBS’ “Face The Nation,” Sanders said it wouldn’t be fair to the Golden State to drop out before it got to vote.

“You can’t say to largest state in this country, ‘California, you can’t determine who the nominee will be or what the agenda will be,’” he said.

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sanders pointed to its 475 delegates as his “narrow path” to winning the Democratic nomination.

“I’m not going to tell you that it’s easy,” Sanders said. “What polls seem to be showing is that many of the states yet to come — including California, our largest state — we have a real shot to win. And I think, also, there are a lot of delegates out there who are looking at the general matchup, and what they’re seeing in polls is that Bernie Sanders is running a lot stronger against Donald T rump than is Hillary Clinton, because we can appeal to a lot of independents and people, not just the Democrats.”

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qcCfarlqEs" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qcCfarlqEs</a>

“So, I think we do have a path to victory,” Sanders continued. “I think we have come a very, very long way in the last year, and we’re going to fight for every last vote until the California and the D.C. primary.”

The Washington, D.C., primary is scheduled for June 14.

In an interview with Yahoo News last week, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook predicted she’ll have the magic number of delegates needed to secure the nomination by that date.

“I’m not concerned with the primary going until the end,” he said. “I think Hillary, by the end of the primary, by the time the states on June 7 and June 14 vote, it’ll be clear who the nominee is gonna be.”

[Buster's Uncle]

I never dared to dream he would go away on his own.

It's more like I have a persistent vision of a fascist America, with intermittent hope that Cruz can stop him...and then I realize it's merely the difference between a populist fascist and a theocratic fascist, and it makes me seriously consider the Oligarchy alternative.

Which leads to the entrenchment question- If we choose one of the above, which form of government are we least likely to get stuck with?  Defying and rejecting both the Clintons and Bushes would have been a turning point away from Oligarchy, but if we don't, we're boiler plating the bureaucracy old boy network. Sure, there's bound to be blowback to whoever ascends the thrown, but all of the Obama hate didn't stop his re-election.

All the next president has to do is choose a war. Then, they can seize more power and stifle dissent.

This fork in the road is the devil's own trident.

It strikes me to point out that Cruz is part of an organized movement - the Hog-Calling Contest at least would have to develop successors.  The tea party literally has a million of them already.

[Rusty Edge]

Yesterday I got to spend a few extra hours on Interstate 80 on account of an accident, which resulted in more exposure to news channels trying to know more about what was going on with the accident and political campaigns.

I used the f-word twice, which approximately equals my usage in the previous decade. Utter frustration with the political realities, and resignation to doom. The commentators don't seem to recognize simple concepts such as the differences between democracies and democratic republics, or majorities and pluralities. Or differences between rules, laws, and The Constitution.

With them misleading the public, it's no wonder we are where we are. Fornicated. Well, we get what we deserve because we choose who informs us and governs us.  We get to have a reality tv star president and a Max Headroom government. The press will regret their ways when The Trumpident "loosens up libel laws".

I thought Ohio and Wisconsin were examples of purple state sentiment, but apparently they are outliers.


I think that Hillary is blowing her opportunity to incorporate the Bernie Bunch. She could say Bernie was right, and so were the people who supported him. There should always be a place for youthful idealism in politics, because we can always strive to do better, and the Democratic Party should be it's voice, rather than the voice of investment banks. To that end I'm returning the money I took from Goldman Sachs, and I pledge to work to reverse Citizen's United by both Supreme Court nominations and by Constitutional Amendment. Because in the long run, without doing so the voice of the people will not prevail against the corrupting commercial interests.

That would validate them without promising free ponies. I don't think the republicans want to defend Super Pacs this election cycle. Not the debate they want.

Whatever, I figure Hillary isn't ready for [Sleezebag]. She's too busy alienating Sanders supporters instead of hugging them.

[Buster's Uncle]

I've said it a million times before and I'll say it a million times again: the biggest problem with Fox News is that it's a terrible excuse for journalism even by TV news standards, and all TV news sucks to begin with.  However, having said that, the open bias/slant is a problem beyond even grasping in magnitude - it was the beginning of the Right Reality Bubble, as typified by the imaginary Obama and Mitt Romney's advisors managing to not know they were going to lose/Karl Rove's astonishment at same.

The left, being the way the left is since Reagan, has only followed suit in a one-buttock fashion; NPR can at least claim to have been dedicated to liberal bias completely and before anyone else major, but is only radio - MSNBC has gone sorta halfway, a major error in a channel that wins for smart, thoughtful talking-head analysis -despite Al Sharpton- but compromised by open bias without even the courage to commit, typical of the modern mainstream left.

Which brings us to Mrs. Clinton - as my very conservative friend Rusty says, commit, darnit.  Embrace the liberal Sanders stuff, if that's what you privately believe in.  The sitting President is about as centrist as they come, and you know what the right imagines about him, so nothing to lose going left.  Even be the moderate you've always appeared to be, if that's what's in your heart - but commit.

And if you go left, for God's sake, recognize that central to Sander's appeal is something we've not seen on the left almost since I was potty-trained; the man has some dang fight in him.  We need a leader.  We need a leader who isn't the [girldog] of the neofascists that have run rampant for the last 30+ years, and gotten bolder and bolder and more brazen and un-American - FIGHT!  Roll up you sleeves, clench your fists, grow a pair and fight.  Whatever else Sanders would do right or wrong, were he to get in, you know he wouldn't roll over and pull an Obama on us, as you've done in the past as a Senator.  A lot of people LOVE that in Sanders - Democrats have a vast hunger for a fighter for once, even if they don't know it.

FIGHT!

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm seeing headlines that Cruz announced Carly Fiorina as his running mate. What? -you needed a woman they'd say was only picked for being a woman against Mrs. Clinton?  Did Sarah Palin chicken out or ask for too much money?  Was Michelle Bachman off her med this week and shot at the operatives who approached her to ask?  Did Elizabeth Dole drop dead and not tell anyone?

There are Republican women running around who are not lightweights with so many insurmountable negatives, Senator...

[Unorthodox]

I'm just seeing the "Lucifer in the flesh" headlines. 

Think I'd prefer Lucifer. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Has he announced for President?

[Unorthodox]

I don't have him on speed dial anymore or I'd ask. 

[Rusty Edge]

I'm seeing headlines that Cruz announced Carly Fiorina as his running mate. What? -you needed a woman they'd say was only picked for being a woman against Mrs. Clinton?  Did Sarah Palin chicken out or ask for too much money?  Was Michelle Bachman off her med this week and shot at the operatives who approached her to ask?  Did Elizabeth Dole drop dead and not tell anyone?

There are Republican women running around who are not lightweights with so many insurmountable negatives, Senator...

1) Cruz is invoking Saint Reagan, who announced PA Senator Richard Schweiker  as his running mate when he was trailing sitting President Ford in 1976. It was seen as a way to soften his right-wing wacko magnet image.

2) Carly is an articulate debater, and she is what [Sleezebag] can't stand- a strong woman. It's only a matter of time until [Sleezebag] unloads on her again, and more people see the True [Sleezebag].

3) Carly has done what none of the final 5 ever have- win a state-wide California Republican primary. No small feat.

4) They have a lot in common as rabid pro-Israel advocates, surviving family members  of  narcotic deaths, and being disliked and unendorsed by their peers.


So I can see where he's coming from. But like a lot of things to stop [Sleezebag], it probably should have been done about the time it turned into a 3 man race. When your only path to the nomination is an open convention, better to have an open VP slot for horse trading.

As a general election candidate, Carly lost her senate race, and CA is a blue state, so she brings nothing to the electoral college.

[Buster's Uncle]

Still a weak choice - and I thought the same thing about horse-trading at the convention.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm just seeing the "Lucifer in the flesh" headlines. 

Think I'd prefer Lucifer.

You know, I had seen that headline, but I had to see it again to get the reference.  Like a lot of Democrats, I'm rather fond of Boner now that he's gone.

[Buster's Uncle]

Boehner calls Cruz 'Lucifer in the flesh'
CNN
By Tom LoBianco and Deirdre Walsh, Updated 8:00 AM ET, Fri April 29, 2016


Story highlights
Boehner said he was "texting buddies" with Donald T rump
He is also friends with former House colleague and fellow Ohioan John Kasich






Washington (CNN) — Former House Speaker John Boehner called Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh," in a withering interview at Stanford University published Thursday.

In it, he repeated many of the same attacks he used last month while calling on his successor, Paul Ryan, to seek the Republican nomination.

"Lucifer in the flesh," Boehner told Stanford's David Kennedy, a history professor emeritus, according to the Stanford Daily. "I have Democrat friends and Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life."

Boehner also said he was "texting buddies" with GOP presidential front-runner Donald T rump and friends with former House colleague and fellow Ohioan, John Kasich.

The account in the student newspaper is accurate, a source close to Boehner confirmed Thursday.

Cruz tweeted a response Thursday morning: "Tell me again who will stand up to Washington? T rump, who's Boehner's "texting and golfing buddy," or Carly & me?"

  Ted Cruz
‏                       @tedcruz

Tell me again who will stand up to Washington?  T rump, who's Boehner's "texting and golfing buddy," or Carly & me?
Retweets 1,895  Likes 2,143     7:23 AM - 28 Apr 2016

He later told reporters Boehner "allowed his inner T rump to come out."

"The interesting thing is I've never worked with John Boehner, I don't know the man," Cruz said. "Indeed, during the government shut down, I reached out to John Boehner, to work with him to get something meaningful done. He said, 'I have no interest in talking to you.' "

Boehner and Cruz clashed over the government shutdown and Obamacare fights from the time Cruz took his Senate seat in 2013 to when Boehner stepped down last fall.

Cruz continued: "When John Boehner calls me Lucifer, he is directing it at you. What Boehner is angry at is me standing with the American people."

Cruz has been arguing for months now that he is the candidate best positioned to unify the Republican Party ahead of the November battle. But his support among his many Senate and House colleagues has been tepid at best -- with a handful of senators only recently endorsing him.

Boehner's relationship with Cruz pre-dates their time in Congress together. Cruz was hired as part of Boehner's legal team, after he sued a Democratic congressman, Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state, for breaking wiretapping laws back in 1998.

The Ohio congressman was caught on a telephone phone call talking to then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich about ethics allegations against the speaker, and McDermott released the tape to the press. After years of litigation of arguing the release of the call by McDermott was unlawful, Boehner prevailed in the case.

Boehner also compared Cruz to the devil last month in a talk before financial industry lobbyists and executives in Florida. In the same March speech he urged Ryan to seek the nomination.

"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."

Ryan has adamantly ruled out accepting the Republican nomination. He also said Thursday he has "a much better relationship with Sen. Cruz" than Boehner.

"Look, my job is to help unify our party. It's to take all pieces of the conservative movement in the Republican Party and help stitch them together, especially after a primary," Ryan said at a news conference. "I have a very good relationship with both of these men and I'm going to keep it that way."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/28/politics/john-boehner-ted-cruz-lucifer-stanford/index.html?sr=fbCNN042816john-boehner-ted-cruz-lucifer-stanford0259PMVODtopLink&linkId=23952079

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc0ySOalpg8" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc0ySOalpg8</a>

[Rusty Edge]

You make that Carly is a weak choice thing sound like Cruz could have anybody he asked...

Sure, when hand if he's the nominee. Then it's a command. Before that it's an "I need your help" favor. Lots of Republicans blame Cruz and his "Let's shut down the government and force Obama to repeal Obamacare" scheme for making America mad at Washington and creating [Sleezebag] in the first place.
Carly is on of the few to endorse Cruz. Cruz has a small patch to pick from. 

***

Ryan is clearly not interested in running for president. He has had a taste of it. Enough to know whether he wants it or not. As he has clearly and repeatedly stated, if he wanted to run for president, he already would have.

True, he said he didn't want to be Speaker, but even when they dove out Boener, and the guy the Tea Party wanted for the job turned out to be a bust, and Ryan was the only Congressman the majority could agree upon, Ryan only agreed to take the job if they met his terms.

Speaker is too much of a job to do and run for president at the same time. Likewise, it's the speaker's duty to chair the convention. I don't think an ethical guy can do an honest job of chairing an open convention and fight for the nomination at the same time. It's a major conflict of interest, like trying to be both judge and prosecutor at a trial.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay, point - and she's not really all that much of a lightweight, though the crack about insurmountable negatives stands.  I wondered just last night if the thinking was that she could help deliver California or something - but she's to Silicon Valley as he is to the Senate, and I doubt she'll deliver anything; too easy to make hay out of what the people she's worked around think of her...

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Echo chamber or not, I think between my background in mass communications and yours as a local campaign worker, and all we agree and disagree on, combine to make us a fairly insightful political thinker, like two lobes of a brain that's got a wide POV and is smart at it.

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BTW - howdy, stranger!  It's sucked without you.