Category: Uncategorized

Yup, Joe Biden’s running.

The Iowa Democratic steak fry thing is one thing; this is quite another.

Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal told the [Des Moines] Register last month that during the Obama inauguration festivities in January, he was invited to a get-together in a tent on the lawn of the vice president’s home.

“I don’t know why, but there seemed to be an awful lot of people from Iowa there and an awful lot of people from New Hampshire there. I heard some folks who talked with a little bit of a southern drawl and I said, ‘Where are you guys from?’ and they said, ‘South Carolina,’” Gronstal said. “I’m not sure why people from all the early states were massively over-represented at a Joe Biden event.”

I assume that Gronstal is being sarcastic.  The good news for Hillary Clinton is that Joe Biden may wish to run, and will even run; but he’s going to be extremely old in 2016 for a President (even older than Reagan in his second term) and probably in poor health.  The bad news for Hillary Clinton is that Biden might still be a more attractive option to Democratic primary voters.  The excellent news is that either candidate will still be easily linked to a President whose approval ratings are stoutly reproducing the trajectory of George W Bush’s.

Moe Lane

PS: Actually, yes, that low an approval rating makes quite a bit of difference.  I should write up my Stupid Face theory of American politics sometime.

A largely link-free examination of the problem #obamacare supporters face.

Executive Summary: The Obama administration isn’t living up to even reasonable liberal expectations.

I’m not going to be arch; I figure that I’ll just say my piece, then move on.  The basic problem with publicly-funded health care programs is that the public has three expectations for it:

  • That it be comprehensive.  Give as many people access to it as possible.
  • That it be effective.  The health care provided must be worth the costs.
  • That it be cheap.  People don’t want to be beggared by health care costs.

Continue reading A largely link-free examination of the problem #obamacare supporters face.

Tweet of the Day, Here We Go Again edition.

Seriously, this is exasperating.

The ‘natural born’ bit in the US Constitution was put in there to keep us from having some charismatic European royal show up in a crisis in the early Republic, get elected President, and then turn the whole shebang into a monarchy all sneaky-like. It was not put in there to make the kids of immigrants ineligible for the Presidency, and frankly that’s what the entire birther thing seems to have evolved into at this point. Or, given that it’s involving Donald Freaking Trump trying to log-roll Ted Freaking Cruz, ‘devolved.’

Moe Lane

PS: Friendly reminder: this is private property, and the leaseholder is cranky on this particular subject.

New York Republicans take issue with NARAL NY disclosure carve-out.

The really short version: the state of New York has a law in place that requires donor transparency for nonprofit organizations. Last week NARAL Pro-Choice New York received a unique exemption for that policy – and I mean unique; the rules were determining exemptions got changed after NARAL got its exemption. Since then the NY GOP has actually managed to get upset about something done for/by the Democrats:

Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos is asking the state’s top ethics panel to rethink its decision to exempt NARAL Pro-Choice NY from having to disclose its financial donors.

Skelos, in a letter to Joint Commission on Public Ethics Chairman Daniel Horowitz, said the commission’s decision to exempt the abortion rights group was made behind closed doors and violated the spirit of the state’s Public Integrity Reform Act of 2011.

They’ve even got some press support for this one, for what it’s worth: unfortunately for the forces of anti-cronyism, New York State government is remarkably unconcerned about whether or not people get upset over the way that favorites at court are routinely given special consideration. And, forgive me for saying this, but: the way that the NY GOP routinely participates in such court shenanigans is one major reason why the New York State government feels free to act in such a manner. I humbly suggest that the NY GOP keep this in mind in the future.

Moe Lane (crosspost)