Clinton is cutting ads for Blanche Lincoln. That might secure the Democratic nomination for her, but I don't think it will rescue her in the general. But the Republican primary voter might do that.

there had to be over twenty people there!!!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEm0t_W_OTQ[/youtube]

A real protest is about to happen:

A national outpouring of opposition to Arizona's new immigration law was expected to draw more than a million people at May Day rallies from coast to coast.

The Saturday demonstrations include a pair in Manhattan at Foley Square and Union Square.

Attendance is expected to surge at the annual rallies because of the controversial immigration law in Arizona.

Protests were planned in more than 70 cities, with Los Angeles expected to host 100,000 demonstrators in the biggest rally.

In Chicago, a number of college students plan to "come out" as illegals.

And Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) will join in a civil disobedience protest outside the White House.

Rubio camp's take on the FL Senate race

Pretty interesting analysis. Nate Silver thinks it's right on the money. I can see a way for Crist to win--if he runs a great campaign, the economy improves, Rubio gets too tied to the far-right freak show and/or the corruption investigation nails him, and Meek proves to be as underwhelming a campaigner as most seem to consider him, and a bunch of less partisan validators (think Colin Powell, Jesse Ventura, et al) come to his aid--but the argument that "the first day Crist left the party will be his best" is certainly defensible.

I'm not sure what Republicans would have Crist do here? Just quit? To then do what? He was perceived as a successful (i would debate some things, but still) Republican governor who is really not all that moderate, but merely civil and not entirely partisan. There were whispers of the guy going into the national scene for the presidency. He was aligned with the former nominee of the party, for chrissakes.

Then he decided to support the stimulus bill and not rail against it. And, boom, Republicans turned their backs on him and he was dead to them. So, they DID basically force him out of their party, but he didn't want to quit the race. I don't see a problem with what he did. Dude wants to run for senate. It's not his fault his party left him hanging and ran a challenger. I see nothing wrong with primary competitors but when the other guy gets all the backing it just seems weird.
Also, he may be a dope, but he's no Joe Lieberman. He seems to actually want to be an independent. I doubt he wins, he'll have no money.

dajafi wrote:Rubio camp's take on the FL Senate race

Pretty interesting analysis. Nate Silver thinks it's right on the money. I can see a way for Crist to win--if he runs a great campaign, the economy improves, Rubio gets too tied to the far-right freak show and/or the corruption investigation nails him, and Meek proves to be as underwhelming a campaigner as most seem to consider him, and a bunch of less partisan validators (think Colin Powell, Jesse Ventura, et al) come to his aid--but the argument that "the first day Crist left the party will be his best" is certainly defensible.

If Meek stinks as a candidate he won't win the nomination.

I think the major problem for Meek is he's never been tested. Who knows how he runs a campaign, really? He seems like a fine enough Democrat but he hasn't exactly had any race, let alone one like this.

edit: reading further down that memo, this stood out:

Crist will now try to present himself as an outsider. One year ago he was the ultimate establishment insider. He will now try to present himself as above politics. But just days ago he took a poll to make that decision. He will now try to present himself as post-partisan. But two years ago he actively campaigned to be McCain’s running mate. And heaven help Barack Obama if Joe Biden ever decides to retire.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/28/rubio ... z0mip97Lm9

Isn't this what politicians do when making major decisions? They kind of want to know where the electorate is headed.

pacino wrote:I'm not sure what Republicans would have Crist do here? Just quit? To then do what? He was perceived as a successful (i would debate some things, but still) Republican governor who is really not all that moderate, but merely civil and not entirely partisan. There were whispers of the guy going into the national scene for the presidency. He was aligned with the former nominee of the party, for chrissakes.

Then he decided to support the stimulus bill and not rail against it. And, boom, Republicans turned their backs on him and he was dead to them. So, they DID basically force him out of their party, but he didn't want to quit the race. I don't see a problem with what he did. Dude wants to run for senate. It's not his fault his party left him hanging and ran a challenger. I see nothing wrong with primary competitors but when the other guy gets all the backing it just seems weird.
Also, he may be a dope, but he's no Joe Lieberman. He seems to actually want to be an independent. I doubt he wins, he'll have no money.

Is everyone who loses a primary forced out of the party?

He wants to run for Senate? Good for him. That doesn't entitle him to anything. The party didn't leave him hanging by running a challenger. We live in America, where these sorts of things are allowed. It turns out the party preferred to nominate someone who agreed with them on the issues.

More power to Crist. He can run as an independent, get 21% of the vote and go do something else with his life.

jerseyhoya wrote:

dajafi wrote:Rubio camp's take on the FL Senate race

Pretty interesting analysis. Nate Silver thinks it's right on the money. I can see a way for Crist to win--if he runs a great campaign, the economy improves, Rubio gets too tied to the far-right freak show and/or the corruption investigation nails him, and Meek proves to be as underwhelming a campaigner as most seem to consider him, and a bunch of less partisan validators (think Colin Powell, Jesse Ventura, et al) come to his aid--but the argument that "the first day Crist left the party will be his best" is certainly defensible.

If Meek stinks as a candidate he won't win the nomination.

He's got the party with him, and the other guy could stink worse. I wouldn't be surprised if Meek won the primary just by saying "billionaire who got rich off your foreclosures" enough times.

43% chance Specter physically attacks Sestak during this debate

Sestak is TERRIBLE

jerseyhoya wrote:

pacino wrote:I'm not sure what Republicans would have Crist do here? Just quit? To then do what? He was perceived as a successful (i would debate some things, but still) Republican governor who is really not all that moderate, but merely civil and not entirely partisan. There were whispers of the guy going into the national scene for the presidency. He was aligned with the former nominee of the party, for chrissakes.

Then he decided to support the stimulus bill and not rail against it. And, boom, Republicans turned their backs on him and he was dead to them. So, they DID basically force him out of their party, but he didn't want to quit the race. I don't see a problem with what he did. Dude wants to run for senate. It's not his fault his party left him hanging and ran a challenger. I see nothing wrong with primary competitors but when the other guy gets all the backing it just seems weird.
Also, he may be a dope, but he's no Joe Lieberman. He seems to actually want to be an independent. I doubt he wins, he'll have no money.

Is everyone who loses a primary forced out of the party?

He wants to run for Senate? Good for him. That doesn't entitle him to anything. The party didn't leave him hanging by running a challenger. We live in America, where these sorts of things are allowed. It turns out the party preferred to nominate someone who agreed with them on the issues.

More power to Crist. He can run as an independent, get 21% of the vote and go do something else with his life.

My point is they don't even seem to know what he is. The dude looks like a tried and true conservative except he supported the President one time and he pro choice. Other than those two things, the guy has done more for conservatives in Florida than meets the eye because of the appearance that he's somehow a moderate. He's not and I feel like the Republicans tossed this aside because of short-term anger over him being for a federal bill which would bring tons of money to his state. Oh, and he doesn't want to pollute the environment, but I wouldn't subscribe liberal or conservative to that concept. Is the environment really a political position? I tend to think not.

He coulda been somebody on the national scene, potentially bring in moderates into the party, and now, POOF. Seems shortsighted, is all.

I don't think you know who Charlie Crist is if you think he's a tried and true conservative.

Is anyone else watching this debate? Why isn't Sestak answering this question?

Then what is he? It seems like the stuff he's not 'conservative' about are BS items that have been made issues over time and somehow become political.


Question for you JH. Are you a conservative?

what channel is that debate on

I think it's on CBS

Oh, and I think people underestimate the positives of running moderates for president or governor or whatever. They are usually more appealing to the general electorate and they still nominate party-line people to become judges, to fill out their cabinet,etc Look how well it went in Virginia...he appeared to run as though he were a moderate and then BOOM, he lays the smack down on all the liburrls once he gets in office.

hmm, i have to go to another room to watch it. oh well, can't make one-liners in this thread while i watch


one last thing: I think of Bob Casey. Democrats went with him and liberals weren't too happy with it. He handily won and now basically has a seat locked for however long he wants. The man has voted as a liberal on everything except choice. And really, that issue is settled, so what does it matter? The only thing at this point that matters is stopping restriction of it. Every other issue, Casey seems to line up with the Democratic Party line. And liberals didn't want him in there because they thought he was too moderate. How shortsighted, in my view (and thus why I voted for him in the primary and then for senate).

This is what worries me.

Bennett looks likely to lose [his] primary. And the main example of his perfidy? Cooperating with a Democratic senator to develop a market-driven universal health-care proposal that would've covered every American with private insurance and abolished Medicaid.

Bennett isn't a liberal. He's not even a moderate. But he's a legislator: He's willing to work with the other side to get things done. And he's paying for it now.

The result of this isn't just that Bob Bennett might lose his seat. It's that other legislators will stop legislating. It's that all Bennett's friends will see what happened to their old colleague and go pale. It's that compromise will become too dangerous to seriously contemplate, and so the possibility for compromise will become even more remote.

At some point, maybe this is a good thing. If compromise is impossible, better that we just get some loons into the Senate and admit the institution's modern composition and lift the strictures on majority action. But let's at least call this what it is: Bennett is not in trouble because he is a liberal. He's in trouble because he's a legislator. If the Republican Party kicks him out, then that is as clear and final a statement that they have no interest in good-faith cooperation as you could ask for.

Discount the last sentence as excessive, and I won't disagree--there's no "clear and final statement" unless the Mayans wind up being right--but this is representative of a really serious problem.

Lindsay Graham was willing to do business on climate change, sort of, and maybe will be so again on immigration at some point. Corker seemed like he was acting in good faith on financial regulatory reform. Then you've got Brown, a probable two-year Senator, the retiring Voinovich, and the Maine women, all of whom might engage in good faith on this or that routine item or relatively minor legislation and even vote for something on the merits. After those five or six, you're left with about 35 Republican Senators who might as well be Jim DeMint clones.

After this election they'll have 45 to 50. Castle and Kirk seem likely to be moderates in the Brown mode. But Rubio, Toomey and this dingbat Lowden, all of whom will be much more loudly cheered by the Limbaugh crowd, will pull the caucus in the other direction, calling even the most moderate proposal from the Obama administration or Democrats in Congress socialistic or fascistic or cannibalistic or whatever the slur of the day is. How is the legislature supposed to do business. And what's to stop the Democrats from digging themselves in just as deeply if and when they go back into the minority?

Good point. Working with the other side has become a bad thing and something to be shown to voters as how someone 'sold out'. I admit I fell into this with Joe Lieberman, but it's because he basically did change parties in regards to out and out opposition to Democratic Party ideas in global affairs.

pacino wrote:Good point. Working with the other side has become a bad thing and something to be shown to voters as how someone 'sold out'. I admit I fell into this with Joe Lieberman, but it's because he basically did change parties in regards to out and out opposition to Democratic Party ideas in global affairs.

With Lieberman, what was so offensive was his willingness to echo hardcore Republican talking points and memes, and the flat-out dishonesty. To be fair, he hasn't done as much of that since Obama took office--though his killing the Medicare for 55 year olds basically just because some of us thought it was a good idea was pretty egregious.

Ironically (or maybe not), the Republican who was closest in his willingness to flip the bird to his own party and give aid and comfort to Democrats was McCain, up until sometime in late 2004.