Tag: election

Poor (name-ID, really) numbers for Democrats in Michigan right now.

Interesting numbers here:

If the November 2016 general election were held today, Bush would lose Michigan to Clinton by 9 percentage points, 46 percent to 37 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus-minus 4 percentage points.

Clinton’s margin over Paul and Rubio in head-to-head matchups were both just under 4 percentage points and within the poll’s margin of error. She led Paul 44.5 percent to 40.7 percent and Rubio 42.4 percent to 38.7 percent.

Mind you, this is mostly name recognition, which is probably bad news for Bush. Still, Hillary Clinton having these kinds of numbers when facing off of relative unknowns (who are, mind you, even now becoming more known) suggests that Hillary is having name recognition bad news of her very own, too.  I know, I know: how sad, yes?

Via

Resign yourself to not having Barack Obama to kick around very much anymore.

This is basically what happened:

President Barack Obama wanted Congress to pass a variety of trade-related proposals, and he didn’t want to have to rely on Republican votes in order to see that happen. He lobbied his fellow Democrats in favor of trade, and he lobbied them hard. In the end, it wasn’t enough. On Friday, the president endured a stern censure from the very members of the party for whom he once served as a savior. Barack Obama’s presidency is all but over. It’s Hillary Clinton’s party now, but she does not seem inclined to lead it so much as to emerge as its supervisor by default and through a process of attrition. She is not in a hurry to rush that process, and there is no alternative Democratic leader waiting in the wings. Inadvertently, what House Democrats did on Friday was to decapitate their own party.

Continue reading Resign yourself to not having Barack Obama to kick around very much anymore.

Quote of the Day, I Am Not Worried That The Democrats Have No One To Aim At Yet edition.

Quite the contrary, really.  Anyway, what makes this quote particularly entertaining is that your average Democratic operative has very possibly never been in a Super Walmart in his or her life, and so has no idea what Brad Todd is talking about:

‪“More quality candidates and a deeper field is always better,” says Brad Todd, a Republican communications operative who is working for a political action committee supporting Bobby Jindal, adding that there is no imperative to settle on a nominee quickly. “We have the selection you’d expect from a Super Walmart, and on the Democratic side it’s a Moscow grocery.”

Although I understand that Moscow’s groceries improved, once the Commies went away.  Then again, pretty much everything improves when the Commies go away.  Something about how Communism kind of sucks.

John Kerry, v2.0. …Not that they really wanted v1.0, either.

I kind of agree, kind of disagree.

The more one watches the coverage of Mrs Clinton, the more it becomes apparent that it won’t be the serious scandals – the Benghazis or the private email account – that will matter. Rather, the much greater danger is that she could become a joke.

Unlike Barack Obama’s early days, Mrs Clinton isn’t viewed as “off limits” to the entertainment and media worlds. And unlike her husband, former president Bill Clinton, Mrs Clinton must get elected in a world where conservative websites and citizen journalists with camera phones are ubiquitous.

Continue reading John Kerry, v2.0. …Not that they really wanted v1.0, either.

So, Gov. Rick Snyder (R, Michigan) is thinking of jumping into the 2016 fray.

Ed Morrissey has the details. On Gov. Rick Snyder’s actual prospects I’m… shrugging.  He’s a successful two-term governor in a swing state who has a solid conservative win (right-to-work) under his belt.  But we’ve got a lot of those right now, if you know what I mean?

And that’s the real story, isn’t it?  In 2012 that description would have – did – propel a candidate instantly to the top of the list.  In 2016 it’s – well, Snyder’s record is something to be proud of, but it’s nothing too special.  I really, really enjoy having a candidate pool this deep.  It gives us a margin for error.

Moe Lane

PS: Kind of significant that there’s no shortage of successful Republican politicians deciding that the political situation is worth a little speculative activity. We had a certain lack of that in 2012, alas.

Hillary Clinton to go the Max Headroom campaign strategy route. No, really.

(H/T @charlescwcooke) This will set the tone for the Clinton candidacy: “A person familiar with the Clinton team’s plans confirmed that she will make the initial announcement [that she’s running for President] in a video on Sunday before heading to Iowa.”  Basically, the Clinton campaign has decided to do the bare minimum necessary to signal that she’s running for office, while at the same time giving the press the same mushroom treatment that Barack Obama pioneered.  No questions taken, no opportunities to see how the woman reacts under pressure*, and this may be the first time in history that a major political candidate deliberately attempts to avoid media coverage of her campaign rollout: Ed Morrissey argues here that Hillary wants the media to stay focused on Marco Rubio’s campaign announcement Monday, and not raise inconvenient questions about hers**. Continue reading Hillary Clinton to go the Max Headroom campaign strategy route. No, really.

Democrats: Save us, Lincoln Chafee, you’re ou… no, they’d probably prefer even Martin O’Malley.

Lincoln Chafee is the sort of candidate that runs when your party’s basic electoral strategy can be best described as ‘YOLO.’

(Via The Campaign Spot) How seriously should you take this Q-poll showing Hillary Clinton faring badly in battleground states?

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s lead is wilting against leading Republican presidential candidates in three critical swing states, Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, and she finds herself in a close race with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in each state, according to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released today. In head-to-head matchups, every Republican candidate effectively ties her in Colorado and almost all Republicans effectively tie her in Iowa.

…This seriously.

Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee on Thursday announced he will launch a presidential exploratory committee, a surprising move for the Democratic nomination by a veteran public servant who was not previously considered a potential contender… And he’s already indicated that hitting Hillary Clinton on her vote for the Iraq War — which he opposed — will be central to his rationale for running, introducing a foreign policy foil to Clinton’s cast of potential rivals.

Continue reading Democrats: Save us, Lincoln Chafee, you’re ou… no, they’d probably prefer even Martin O’Malley.

The Last Temptation of Russ Feingold.

Oh, poor Russ Feingold.  He must be so sorely, sorely tempted to run: “Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold’s departure from the State Department has political experts predicting a highly contested rematch of the 2010 race in which the Madison-area senator was defeated.” Russ Feingold, of course, lost to Ron Johnson in that race; and as Senator Johnson is at the top of most people’s Senators Most At-Risk lists it makes a good deal of sense that Feingold might want a rematch. I can’t imagine that losing in 2010 made Feingold feel good about himself, after all.  The man had (still has, I suppose) a carefully-constructed mental vision of himself as being a Servant of the People: that the People took the opportunity to remove him from service very probably eats at Mr. Feingold.  At least a little.

But there’s a solution, right? Russ Feingold runs for office again, beats Ron Johnson, and goes back to his old life.  And then everything will be good again and there will be pie.  No problems there, no problems at all… well. There’s a small problem. Continue reading The Last Temptation of Russ Feingold.

WSJ: Hillary Clinton suddenly planning to start campaigning in April.

How interesting: “Hillary Clinton and her close advisers are telling Democratic donors that she will enter the presidential race sooner than expected, likely in April, a move that would allay uncertainties within her party and allow her to rev up fundraising.”  Not least because such a move implies that there were unexpected and unanticipated problems along those lines.  Which probably everyone reading this could have told the Clinton campaign ahead of time, assuming that the Clinton campaign had had the mother-wit to ask anyone for real feedback.

The rest of the WSJ article is probably going to be filled with things that you already know, but this passage is still of note: “Mrs. Clinton, according to some close associates, doesn’t relish the campaign trail…” Really? Really? I find that a little hard to believe; because the only way that a candidate can overcome a visceral dislike of campaigning is to be so good at it that it doesn’t matter.  And Hillary Clinton, is, sad to say, not a very good campaigner.

Oh, the fun we will have. Yeah, I know that I said that in 2008 and 2012, too.  I also said it in 2004, and the only reason I didn’t say it in 2000 was because I was a lot less political back then.  That’s the thing about eight year cycles: they, well, cycle.

It’s gonna be a runoff in the Chicago Mayor’s election.

And if Rahm Emanuel’s 45.56% percentage holds up, it’s gonna be a gutter war.  Admittedly, it’s gonna be a gutter war between two Democrats, but that just makes it more fun. In those cases you can just throw the verbal grenades into the room and not worry about who you hit.

Seriously, I was expecting a 48% vote share for ol’ Rahmbo.  Admittedly, that was a gut call; equally admittedly, my gut can’t call Chicago elections.  Go figure…