Sunday, September 13, 2015

Miscellaneous Of The Week

I have a new theory. "Electability" has not yet become an issue in the Democratic presidential race because no one in the Republican clown car, least of front runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson, seem electable. How would the Democratic race be different if John Kasich and Marco Rubio were leading?

People looking at electability can look at the UK. In their parliamentary system, the nomination process works in reverse of ours: the new leader of the out party is chosen AFTER, not before, the general election. Labour just elected Jeremy Corbin as leader, and he sounds like basically the Bernie Sanders of England (no, not Bernie's brother, he's a Green). The test of Corbin's electability, though, doesn't come till May 2020.

Speaking of Sanders, Some Dude US Senate candidate Tom Fiegen is rebranding himself on social media - basically all he has in his zero dollar campaign - as the "Bernie Sanders Democrat" in the race.
Leading?

Not only does this disregard the fact that Sanders himself is not technically a Democrat, it needlessly alienates the chunk of the Democratic June primary electorate that's supporting other presidential candidates. Rule 1 in primaries is focus on your race and stay out of the other contests, but Fiegen probably figures he has nothing to lose.

Hillary Clinton wins the Paul Deaton primary. Interesting, because the Sage of Solon seemed to be seriously considering Jim Webb for a while.
With Fiorina bumped up to the varsity debate, Rick Perry out, and Jim Gilmore excluded for irrelevance, the Kiddie Table debate is down to just Jindal, Graham. Pataki and Santorum - which not only makes it even less relevant, it actually diminishes the participants.

Tweet of the week:
Better yet: This was across the street from my office.

Even better better yet: Look why stopped by our office Friday.



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1 comment:

  1. Big Grove Walker4:01 AM

    Thanks for the mention. Even though 1,096 candidates filed with the FEC for president, it came down to Hillary, who, more than any other candidate, is working for delegates in Iowa. I'm not sure what Jim Webb is doing. I met Craig Crawford and Joe Stanley in Clinton and they seemed clueless about campaigning in Iowa. Crawford talked about helping his parents in Florida, which is a topic more for the Don Imus show than an Iowa political event. To my knowledge they have zero infrastructure in Iowa. Webb seems to spend his time as a talking head in DC and NYC, trading on his candidacy, and chasing the elusive Scots-Irish vote. I'd talk policy, but ZOMG there are issues there, literally and figuratively. This is a contest for president of the United States, not the local VFW hall.
    Paul Deaton

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