democrats – Page 5

The Democrats heat up some leftovers for the 2016 Senate races.

Before we get into the meat of this story from the National Journal, let me just note that this – “One of the most underappreciated stories in recent years is the deterioration of the Democratic bench under President Obama’s tenure in office” – has always been properly appreciated by me. I noticed this issue a while back. Sorry, but I felt the need to establish that.

Moving on…

…less attention has been paid to how the shrinking number of Democratic officeholders in the House and in statewide offices is affecting the party’s Senate races. It’s awfully unusual to see how dependent Democrats are in relying on former losing candidates as their standard-bearers in 2016. Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold, Pennsylvania’s Joe Sestak, Indiana’s Baron Hill, and Ohio’s Ted Strickland all ran underwhelming campaigns in losing office in 2010—and are looking to return to politics six years later. Party officials are courting former Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina to make a comeback bid, despite mediocre favorability ratings and the fact that she lost a race just months ago that most had expected her to win. All told, more than half of the Democrats’ Senate challengers in 2016 are comeback candidates.

Continue reading The Democrats heat up some leftovers for the 2016 Senate races.

On Senate Democrats’ entertaining defiance against Barack Obama.

Somebody tell me again how brilliant Barack Obama is. No, seriously. I enjoy a good laugh, now and then.

In a lengthy phone call, Obama pressed his close friend Dick Durbin to help advance his fast-track bill, which would pave the way for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest trade accord in history.

[snip]

In the end, Obama’s schmoozing didn’t persuade Durbin. He opted instead to stick with Reid (D-Nev.), joining all but one Senate Democrat in a stunning rebuke that imperils a centerpiece of Obama’s second-term agenda. The vote does not kill the trade agreement — the Senate could reconsider the bill anytime — but it amounts to an embarrassing setback for the White House at a key time in the delicate, 12-nation TPP talks. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware was the only Democrat to back the White House.

Continue reading On Senate Democrats’ entertaining defiance against Barack Obama.

HA! Senate Democrats just road-blocked Barack Obama’s own trade deal!

Just goes to show: there ain’t no such thing as a moderate Democrat. They’ll always turn on you in the middle of a deal. I guess it’s just in their nature?

Senate Democrats handed President Obama a stinging rebuke on Tuesday, blocking consideration of legislation granting their own president “fast track” power to complete a major trade accord with 11 nations in the Pacific Rim.

The Senate vote on a procedural motion to begin debating the bill to give the president “trade promotion authority,” was 52 to 45 in favor, eight short of the 60 needed for passage. Republicans and pro-trade Democrats said they will try to negotiate a trade package that can clear that threshold.

Continue reading HA! Senate Democrats just road-blocked Barack Obama’s own trade deal!

Democratic grip on youth vote decays.

Everybody’s going to have an explanation for this:

…55 percent of those polled, which included likely voters from ages 18 to 29, preferred a Democrat to maintain control of the White House in 2016, compared to 40 percent who wanted a Republican. But that is a far cry from the 67 percent of millennials who voted for President Obama in 2012. The I.O.P. nationwide poll was conducted online by GfK March 18 to April 1 with a random sample of 3,034 adults aged 18 to 29. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Continue reading Democratic grip on youth vote decays.

More fallout in Boston from the slow-motion collapse of Big Wind.

Put not your faith in politically-subsidized energy projects:

The [Deval] Patrick [D, MA] administration’s $113 million New Bedford marine terminal, built as a Cape Wind construction staging area, has become a taxpayer-funded boondoggle now that the controversial offshore wind farm project is virtually dead in the water.

The South Coast Marine Commerce Terminal, which is still under construction and sits empty, is also running $10 million over budget and months behind schedule.

Baker administration officials are trying to lease out the terminal, but they now expect to fetch a lower return on the taxpayers’ investment after executives behind Cape Wind pulled out of a two-year deal to rent the 28-acre facility for $4.5 million.

Continue reading More fallout in Boston from the slow-motion collapse of Big Wind.

Quote of the Day, ‘Monolith’ Actually Is The Best Word For Black Voting Patterns, Alas edition.

I dunno whether April Reign of Ebony is raising a warning flag here, or just spitting into the wind.

Some potential Black Democratic voters have indicated that, while they will support Hillary Clinton should she become the eventual nominee in 2016, it will not be with the same fervor as they did for President Obama, in part because of a sense of bad blood experienced during the 2008 campaign. Indeed, many Blacks are saying that Hillary Clinton is not their first choice to receive the Democratic nomination in 2016 and that they will be anxiously waiting to see whom else enters the race. These sentiments must not go unchecked by Hillary for America because Black voters, while not a monolith, are a large constituency that must be courted by Democrats to win the presidency. There is a sense of entitlement that Hillary Clinton has not earned within the Black community, allowing her supporters to mistakenly take Black votes for granted. Hillary Clinton will have to earn our support and our votes just as any other candidate does.

Continue reading Quote of the Day, ‘Monolith’ Actually Is The Best Word For Black Voting Patterns, Alas edition.

They got nowhere else to go.

Megan McArdle is bemused: “I remain mystified by the certainties about [Hillary Clinton’s] prospects.” And Megan had a good list of why those prospects aren’t as good as they appear, starting with Sec. Clinton’s age and ending with the way that both the Democratic party and Barack Obama are going to be drags on her campaigning*. However, I don’t think that it’s really that confusing about why the Left’s pundits remain bullish on Clinton:

Continue reading They got nowhere else to go.

Lame Duck Barack Obama wants House Democrats to join him on bad Iran deal.

Oh, my. “House Democrats on the fence about the White House’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran will be asked next week to close ranks and get behind the president.” (H/T: Instapundit)In case nobody’s ever mentioned this: one of the jobs of the executive branch is to try to minimize the number of times that it has to potentially embarrass fellow-party members from the legislative branch like this. I mean, I understand that it’s sometimes necessary – read, ‘convenient.’ Or possibly even ‘fun’ – for the President to give Congress the shaft like this, same side or no. But Barack Obama already got his Big One with Obamacare. That fumble-fingered rolling disaster on stilts is still blighting Democratic careers. President Obama shouldn’t be greedy like this.

Full points, though, for Obama finding something that could still hurt Congressional Democrats. I would have figured that that well would be dryer than a San Joaquin Valley farm after the deep ecologists were done diverting all the water. Guess I underestimated our President’s dioxin-like powers when it comes to blighting Democratic hopes…

Moe Lane

This is why the Democratic Establishment is still desperate to run Hillary Clinton.

One chart is all you need. From NBC’s 2012 exit polls:

	Dem % ’12	GOP % ’12	% Total
White men	35	62	34
White women	42	56	38
Black men	87	11	5
Black women	96	3	8
Latino men	65	33	5
Latino women	76	23	6
All other races	66	31	5

Continue reading This is why the Democratic Establishment is still desperate to run Hillary Clinton.

Reminder: Democrats still lust after taking away people’s ammunition.

(H/T: Instapundit) They just realize that the most recent attempt ended poorly.

ATF Director Todd Jones, who is resigning at the end of the month, angered Democrats last week when he backed down from a controversial plan to ban certain types of armor-piercing ammunition for AR-15 rifles amid pressure from Republicans and gun rights groups.

The bullet ban was handled “sloppily,” Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) said Friday, but he is hoping to revive the plan under the new ATF director.

…which would be an excellent reason to hold off on a new BATFE director until Barack Obama can find one that thinks that the US Constitution needs to be followed instead of evaded. Which will probably be ‘never,’ but that’s fine: BATFE is one of those unholy amalgamations of various programs that have been epoxied together and called a bureau. Break it up into its constituent parts, hand over the relevant ones to other agencies, and let the carcass of the rest bloat in the sun, is what I say.

Continue reading Reminder: Democrats still lust after taking away people’s ammunition.