TenuredVulture wrote:What Sanders has done is taken some basic values of the left, and distilled them into appealing platitudes. In this respect, he's doing something quite like Ronald Reagan did with conservatism back in the eighties. I don't know if Sanders will be as effective in governing on the off chance he actually wins, I don't know if he'll help the Dems capture the Senate, and I don't know if any other Dem out there can build on the rhetorical progress, but there's just such a huge appeal to statements like: "Nobody who works 40 hours should live in poverty" it should be obvious why he's doing so well.

Again, look at his Iowa ad--it's moving. It speaks to an patriotic and optimistic and even idealistic young person.

Another interesting parallel--Reagan was also an old man who had an unusual ability to connect with young, first time voters.

The New Dealer in me thinks its a disgrace that Appalachia votes Republican, but then people like pacino remind me about how uncomfortably racist and parochial that section of the country tends to be.

Gov. Paul LePage said Tuesday that “I had to go screaming at the top of my lungs about black dealers” and make other “outrageous comments” to force the Legislature to take the state’s drug crisis seriously.

momadance wrote:Ted Cruz just said the North Korea could launch a nuke from the satellite they just launched into space. NK apparently has nukes stashed in space. I shit you not. If you actually believe that, I suggest you seek professional help. Not only that, do the human race a favor and turn in your voter registration card. If you vote for Ted Cruz, you are dumber than dirt. Which is hard because dirt doesn't have an IQ, but your IQ is less than zero. How does that feel? You, my Cruz supporting friends, are morons.

Gimpy wrote:No wonder Cruz keeps saying amazingly ignorant things about military strategy- his national security advisor is hilariously unqualified.

Victoria Coates graduated college in the early 1990s. In a recent interview with Breitbart, she said that she "missed being a double-major in political science by one class credit." So close! She stayed in academia, gaining a Masters degree and then, in 1998, a PhD in Art History, in which her specialization was the Italian Renaissance. From 2010 to 2013, she was a "Consulting Curator" at the Cleveland Museum of Art, at which she was an expert for their show "Last Days of Pompeii." Her only book, which just came out, is a book called David's Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art.

She was the editor for Rumsfeld's book in 2007.

But working for Donald Rumsfeld was enough to get her a gig with Texan Rick Perry, her first as a "national security expert" when he took a run at the Presidency from late 2011 through the beginning of 2012.

From there she went on to a one-year position as "adjunct fellow" at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, the neo-con foundation in downtown DC set up in the wake of September 11. Even there, however, it is difficult to see what she actually did, or more importantly learned. The foundation did not publish any work she had written.

Indeed it appears she's only ever written five short articles in the past decade, and all of them were of little more substance than an op-ed: Two for the Weekly Standard, and three blog posts on the conservative blog Redstate, none of which were exactly rigorous scholarship.

drsmooth wrote:

Brantt wrote:Once Hillary defeats Bernie, there will be a lot of Bernie supporters who go to support Trump.

There is a lot of people who are like me.............Trump 1, Bernie 2. Or Bernie 1, Trump 2.

No sentient mammal is going to waste a vote on Turnip. He's a repulsive clown, an empty suit, a profoundly ill-informed adult, and a loser. And that's just drawing on 'conventional' Republicans' array of attitudes about him.

Turnip is loathed by a bigger % of the R party than his share of primary votes. His 30ish % in NH is less than "the college of establishment Rs" garnered.

In a general election, vs a cardboard cutout of Martin O'Malley, Turnip would perform worse than Goldwater.

drsmooth wrote:
No sentient mammal is going to waste a vote on Turnip.

TomatoPie wrote:

drsmooth wrote:
No sentient mammal is going to waste a vote on Turnip.

Absolutely correct.

Sadly, our election laws do not stipulate "sentient" as a voter qualification. What's scary is that a pro wrestler was elected governor of one state and an SNL comedian was elected to the US senate. How far are we away from electing pr0n actresses like Italy does?

Having said that, I remain encouraged that 2/3 of GOP primary voters oppose Dumb-old Chump (respecting our root veg brethern here). As the clown car empties out, someone should be able to make him a distant memory. I got $100 riding on it.

Brantt wrote:Didn't Mary Carey have a nice run in Cali?