I think one of the biggest opportunities for the GOP is to be more labor-friendly. They appeal strongly to "working class" people and could easily lure the union crowds to their side with an economic policy that actually helps the middle class. Also, I think Hillary's election (which now seems inevitable) will be similar to Obama's disappointing era: moderate but promising the moon to the liberal base that elected them.
Ok kids, listen up: At 11 a.m., Obama will nominate a Supreme Court Justice. My money is on Sri Srinivasan, DC Court of Appeals judge whom was confirmed by unanimous decision by the Senate in 2013. From what I've read, he's pretty moderate. But it's a brilliant pick on the part of Obama, and timed perfectly. Last night, every candidate spoke of their love of the Constitution. Cruz in particular is a strict constructionist and said so. So now, in accordance with the Constitution, Obama will make his nomination. McConnell, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee has publicly said he will not meet with any nominee and will not put a nominee on the floor for confirmation. That sound you'll hear at 11 am is the hammer coming down. The Republicans have really put themselves in a bad position. A majority of all Americans believe that a nominee should be appointed. The rhetoric they have enunciated is that they will not even consider a nominee. If you think things are crazy now, we're just at the outskirts of LooneyTown. As Republican Senators up for re-election watch their jobs potentially go down the drain, a third portion of the RNC will form and further rip the party apart. It is amazing that 2 years ago we were talking about the midterms and how the RNC was gaining momentum. That momentum just ground to a screeching halt.
As weird as this whole race has been? With the four candidates that appear to be in play? All KINDS of epic stuff could happen. It wasn't that long ago that hanging chads in Florida and the Supreme Court got involved in deciding a presidential election that nobody saw coming. As Joaquin Andujar once said, "I can some that up in one word. Jooneverno." He's young and will serve out as Senator until December or whatever. I doubt he's done in Politics.
If the Republicans reject any nominees by Obama they will have to contend with whoever is nominated by the next president, which could be either Trump or Clinton. I wonder how much bravado they have left.
And that's why one of the few areas I agree with Trump and Hillary on is their understanding of having to be flexible. When you draw lines in the sand, you limit yourself, and it usually blows up in your face. The timing on this is brilliant on the part of Obama, because he's outside the so-called 'Thurman' rule, which isn't in the Constitution, by the way, and this issue, assuming the RNC continues with their stand, is just going to do damage day after day. Trump has no motivation to take any position other than 'delay' - as he's stated, but the Senators up for re-election are going to get hurt. So you'll have the presumptive nominee saying delay, you'll have the RNC leadership saying delay (and not liking Trump or Cruz) and then the party members in the Senate pressuring to get the nomination confirmed or denied because they're going to get killed in their re-election bids. The RNC must be kicking themselves for not going to the candidates prior to the debate held on the day Scalia died and telling the candidates to shut up about it, and say they need more time to think about it. Once they all put themselves on the record, they put the RNC on the record and well, now you have this ongoing explosion. EDIT: Merrick Garland (also from the DC Court of Appeals) will be the nominee. There were 23 no votes at his confirmation hearing previously. Interesting, to say the least.
The GOP leadership is completely out of touch with what the publics concerns are, and the portion I bolded above hits the nail on the head. The Koch brothers must be having aneurysms right about now. They backed Carly Fiona at one point, and have heavily supported Rubio. Trump must throwing their machinations into chaos, and he is not, by any stretch, someone they would favor for the presidential nomination.
Can anyone explain exactly why Kasich is still in this? I realize the GOP doesn't want Trump, but Kasich still in the running does absolutely nothing to further the cause of defeating Trump. I would venture to say it actually hurt's the chances of Cruz to a greater degree. He's so far behind he doesn't stand a chance, he really hasn't made a good showing in any primary including his own state. Yes he won Ohio, but when you're the current governor and only win by a narrow margin, that's not a good sign. The way I see it playing out is Cruz gets votes from Cruz supporters + the I hate Trump crowd, Trump gets votes from Trump supporters + the I hate Cruz crowd. Kasich gets the Fuck All These Guys vote, and who's going to waste their time to go vote for someone who has no chance?
Brokered convention. He did what he needed to do. He won Ohio which can possibly keep Trump from winning 50% of the delegates.
I see it a bit differently. Kasich is the only guy left that the 'establishment' likes. We're only in March, and a lot can happen. For instance (and in no way am I hoping for this) what if Trump passed away? The establishment will want Kasich hanging around just in case. Now the probability is that he has no chance, but the landscape can change very quickly. I wonder if Romney is kicking himself for forcing that rule down the throats of the RNC at the last election, because that rule makes it such that Trump, the guy he hates, will probably get the nomination even at a brokered convention.
Further proof, as if you needed it, of the batshit insanity of Best Korea: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-court-sentences-u-student-15-years-035920352.html And now for the requisite Blaming The Victim: To all you wacky college students out there - stay the fuck out of North Korea. Do you know who takes a group tour of North Korea? No one with a fucking brain in their heads, that's who.
I saw an article about his arrest a couple weeks ago because the kid was from my alma mater. North Korea may be a bunch of clowns when it comes to pitting their nation against other nations, but on the individual level, I would take them every bit as seriously as a cobra. No way would I climb into a cage with one.
If you don't know the story of the USS Pueblo, it's an interesting read: http://www.usspueblo.org/index.html In 1968 North Korea captured a US Navy intel ship in international waters and proceeded to torture its crew for 11 months. The US response was embarrassingly weak. In a show of technical superiority of the time though, we had photos of the ship from A-12 (~SR71) flights within 5 days.
The election is getting weirder and weirder. There have been numerous articles today that the GOP hierarchy is actually discussing running an independent candidate if Trump gets the nomination, basically splitting the vote and giving the Democratic candidate the presidency. Kind of like a scorpion stinging itself to death. I've never seen a party ever run commercials that say basically "Vote for any of our candidates except this one." This is new territory. It should be interesting, to say the least, to see how this turns out. On the other side, I witnessed something very interesting while watching returns online Tuesday night. Bernie supporters were very distraught and telling their stories of their hopes and dreams of a Bernie presidency and how they were still donating to his campaign even though they couldn't afford it. I had never noticed it before, but many of these people see Bernie as a lottery ticket. They think if he wins, their school debt will disappear. *Poof* It's gone and they get a clean slate. The next 8 months are fixing to be a wild ride.
I'm not sure if that's what Bernie supporters really think. I'm sure some of them do but I also think they are so fucking tired of Hillary Clinton. And they are tired of being called sexist for not liking her. If you look at the way Hillary speaks, it's all about her and what she wants to do. And she's starting to steal Bernie's talking points trying to blow kisses at his supporters to get them to vote for her. Bernie's tone is way different and he makes it obvious that this is bigger than him. I think he gives people hope, whether it's warranted or not.
Yeah, I think every candidate has these people. Kind of like how some Trump supporters think an illegal immigrant will never get in again. Remember when Obama got elected? On the RMMB someone posted a video after the election of people saying things like they were never going to have to worry about paying for gas or rent again. What the fucking fuck? Bernie supporters are bitter because Hillary basically jumped on so many of his talking points after he started making headway, and then all her supporters somehow forgot that wasn't originally her stance. The 'you're sexist' if you don't support her shit was so ridiculous, but not really unexpected. Kind of like how if you criticize Obama for something he fucks up it's 'racist'. There's a lot of reasons Bernie supporters are mad, and I won't go through them so I don't cross the line too much, but I think the main one was that Bernie had an excellent track record as far as being on the right side of the issues historically whereas Hillary's record is spotty at best. More importantly his supporters think he is honest and Hillary is a liar and a shill. That's the perception among the base at least.
Speaking of WTF...did y'all see that the California KKK endorsed Hillary? http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...n-endorses-hillary-clinton-for-president.html So many little twists and turns to this election. (And yes, I do understand this is just their dimwitted attempt at reverse psychology. They're idiots, it's the best they could come up with.)
I really wish these people would shut up about how some lunatic supports x candidate as if it actually means anything. Granted, Trump should have responded immediately when it happened to him, but it really doesn't mean anything. I'm sure it's not going to impact anyone who was considering voting for that candidate anyway, but it's just annoying. I wonder how long fox is going to run with this.
It wasn't just Fox. even HuffPo ran it. KKK Leader Endorses Hillary Clinton In Off Chance She’s Undercover Hitler http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-kkk_us_56e7373ae4b0b25c918304f2 But yeah, it's fucking stupid and anyone with an inkling of sense knows that.