Il Douché and His Discontents: The 2016 Primary Voting Thread, Part 4

if her record isn't already seen as sufficient

That's the thing--in a whole bunch of ways that make her so distrusted by the left-wing of her own party, including her friendship with Kissinger, she's already sent those signals. I don't see how praising Nancy Reagan would add much to that. But in the middle of a much-tougher-than-expected nomination slog against Sanders, it causes all sorts of trouble for her. And it's such a colossal error--the maximum error possible--it's hard to fathom that it was premeditated.

she coulda just said "the Just Say No campaign created a helluva lotta fun video games"

And again, I totally understand why people are infuriated. I'm just trying to figure out if what she said was something more than confusion.

As the established anti-establishment candidate, Sanders doesn't need to defend his positions. As a triangulating politician who has only been elected to one office but has been playing the campaign game for decades, Clinton does, but thus far defense has proved her weakest ability. She doesn't do a terribly good job defending people and things she supports, let alone her changing or evolving positions, and is seemingly so used to mainstream passive acceptance of certain keywords, beliefs and persons (like Kissinger) that when she's called out on it she kind of struggles. It's such a disconnect that the oldest guy in the room seems to have the best bead on what young people care about, and Clinton remains kind of clueless, or at least awkward, which throws off whatever game she's ever had. But then, if she'd been as consistent as Sanders, she wouldn't have to constantly juggle this jumble of contradictions and evolving positions/allegiances. You'd have to be a superhero campaigner to keep all the hypocrisy straight. My biggest fear of her vs. Trump is when he inevitably calls her out with a series of "you were there, too" or "you had dinner with the guy" or "I donated to your campaign because we believe the same things."

at the cost of infuriating lots and lots of Democratic voters

The fact that she was oblivious to this makes me think that it was an impromptu statement, not something she or her staff considered beforehand. But it can be off-the-cuff and still be intentional and political. She knew that voters were watching, and it would be foolish of her not to treat an interview at Nancy Reagan's funeral as a political performance. I think she got lazy and didn't think that the particular claims she made would matter that much, as long as the general tone was nice and flattering.

All of that I agree with--political performance, yes.

at Dubya's funeral is she going to say he provoked a conversation on disaster relief

"She does like him but why else remind voters in a debate with Bernie Sanders? It won't woo any of his supporters."

It won't woo anyone! I think she's genuinely oblivious to the effect some of these statements have.

(xpost) First debate against Trump, she'll thank him for opening up a national dialogue on Mexican rapists.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/13/donald-trump-says-bernie-sanders-should-be-careful-or-hell-send-supporters-to-his-events/?tid=sm_tw

the "I took down your license plate number" of the political season

I never watch Chuck Todd's goon show but Alex Castellanos and Hugh Hewitt didn't deny that the Reagan administration let HIV victims die, which surprised me.

golden oldie, via Greenwald

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/8741148/Dick-Cheney-heaps-praise-on-Hillary-Clinton.html

I drove by a street of Trump supporters yesterday (it was actually just two people) and the # of supportive honks was infuriating.

I am going back that way today and am tempted to deface a few of the signs.

@NBCNewsPR
JUST IN: Trump tells @MeetThePress' @ChuckTodd he's going to look into paying for legal fees for the man who threw the sucker punch on Sat

@ggreenwald
I wonder if any of Trump's supporters will view this as encouragement & support for that behavior?

Trump was trying to paint the guy as an overtly passionate supporter that got caught up in the moment.

funny how that works

let's just remember what H Rap Brown said about violence and cherry pie, and enjoy our throwback blood-in-the-gutters campaign.

@jeremyscahill
At this rate, a brokered GOP convention could result in Hillary Clinton getting the nomination. #ShesWithReagan

On the other hand, going back to what I said on Clinton, the phrase "low-key advocacy" sounds like work might have gone into it.

"by ignoring the late Rock Hudson's pleas for help, Nancy ensured that everybody would be talking about the Reagan administration and AIDS in the same sentence for years to come"

what political acumen!

It may or may not be an unfair assessment, but based on her phrasing I find it plausible that she would go beyond flattery and deliberately identify a stain on the Reagans' legacy and disingenuously try to rehabilitate it. Almost like it would be worth extra credit.

Very worth watching:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rachel-maddow-donald-trumps-violent-rhetoric-sparked-chicago-protest-20160312

It finally dawned on me that Trump actually makes a lot of sense if you choose to listen to his comments about protesters as autocritique delivered in the third person.

I was watching a Trump rally last night and getting a bit agitated until I realized it was Slap Shot

I feel like Clinton has spent the past week attempting to back up her statement that she isn't a natural politician.

An attempt to reach out to disengaged angry voters.

"See look guys, I say batshit things too!"

it's 6 AM and i'm a little bleary so i just kept scrolling that RS story and suddenly i was in the comments

the sad thing about being a bad politician is that the better a politician you are the less of a politician you seem (cf bill or obama) and the worse a politician you are the more of a politician you seem. it's not necessarily that hillary is a more cynical or despicable politician than many of the ppl beloved by america. she's just not as good at it.

p much the only person beloved by America in the last 40 years i can stomach is Dolly Parton

You could do worse, Morbs.

I made it through most of the Maddow, but man, her pathos was just so thick I couldn't take it. I mean, I certainly get it, but her preamble just kept pre-ambling. "We're going to let Trump's horrible statements speak for themselves, but first ... I'm going to talk about how horrible they are ... for several minutes." Which they are, but they are so infuriating they really didn't need so much of her setting them up. That said, I also couldn't finish watching, because the more I hear his voice and see him say these things, the more infuriated I get.

xp What about David Eckstein?

Country legend Dolly Parton responded to Kenny Rogers’ comments that likened her to current Republican presidential candidate frontrunner, Donald Trump, in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

“Does (Rogers) mean my hair or my money?” the singer said.

I made it through most of the Maddow, but man, her pathos was just so thick I couldn't take it

Why I can't watch her show. She also hasn't learned to improvise in front of the camera (Chris Hayes the only MSNBC anchor/commentator I can stand).

Just got in a FB debate with a dude who argued that protesters are instigating the violence to win sympathy.

Funny how these guys always hide behind "I gots a right to an opinion maaaan"

https://media.giphy.com/media/JtOYaMg8CKPGo/giphy.gif

We're going to let Trump's horrible statements speak for themselves, but first ... I'm going to talk about how horrible they are ... for several minutes." Which they are, but they are so infuriating they really didn't need so much of her setting them up

Idk, some people still don't seem to get how serious this is even after seeing the footage. There is some value in spelling things out

i usually agree about maddow but a few minutes of context is pretty important in this case i think, especially as the horserace media obediently repeats Tensions Running High! euphemisms

for one thing showing footage of ferguson and tamir rice puts all the praise of "the good old days" in some useful perspective

every time i see the footage of the cosplaying old guy shoving the black girl out of the rally the guy i end up looking at is the screaming one with the nazi haircut and the cop (maybe it's fire) tshirt

why does trump think it was bernie supporters at his rally? is it easier to threaten a jewish guy than a woman?

i'm trying to get caught up on everything but have had one of the worst fevers of my life. frankly i'd rather just pass out and die at the moment

attacking socialists is what fascists are for

well lets hope socialists don't exist just to be attacekd

i feel pretty good about bernie kids and the potential for a long-term many-local-fronts movement to regain some of the ground lost to goldwater's children over the past few decades, assuming authoritarian nationalism can be given a humiliating electoral defeat in november; otherwise i just hope they're doing pushups

what the left needs right now is some leadership to run grassroots candidates in every open election this november but if it's happening anywhere i don't see it

there is this guy who is running for PA Senate seat dem primary:
http://www.thenation.com/article/this-tattooed-head-shaven-straight-talking-mayor-wants-to-be-the-next-senator-from-pennsylvania/

idk maybe it's just my neighborhood but it seems like ppl are still pretty complacent about local politics. maybe it'll heat up closer to the election.

there's not gonna be much of it this cycle because people are excited about bernie. you remember how it was in 2008. obama won and disappeared into the white house, taking his momentum with him; bernie will not. this is forced optimism of course haha but conditions are not unfavorable to it.

i think you're right Mordy. here's an article about nobody wanting to run in PA: http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/02/public_outrage_over_budget_deb.html