3.27.16: Super Zombies Control the Party Nominations

In this election cycle for both Democrats and Republicans it seems as though it is less about the electoral vote than it is about delegates, specifically what we'll call the super zombies.  As Ben Ginsberg explained, zombie delegates in the Republican party are ones beholden to no one, just as super delegates in the Democratic party.

These super zombies are going to get who they want in the general and it's pretty clear that on the Democratic side of things their choice is Hillary Clinton, despite what Bernie Sanders said in his interview of beginning to convince some of the super zombies to get on his side after he swept yesterday's caucuses in Hawaii, Alaska and Washington. He's not going to convince enough of them that's for sure because it's also clear that in the bigger states where primaries are held, not caucuses, - e.g. New York and California - Sec. Clinton fares much better than Senator Sanders.

However, if Senator Sanders wins the primary vote, why wouldn't the super zombies not support him because polls show that both he and Sec. Clinton beat Donald Trump in the general election. Here's the thing about the super zombies, in both parties they form their the establishment, center-right and center-left, but still center. So where in the Democratic party the electorate views them with scorn and cynicism - part of the problem.

In the Republican party, however, the super zombies are viewed by many as the saviors from political chaos and insanity that has manifested itself in the form of Donald Trump. If Mr. Trump doesn't have the required 1,237 delegates come the convention the super zombies will come in and throw their support behind another candidate, eat up all the Trump supporters and through them behind another candidate, saving the party from itself.

The problem is that these delegates like zombies, if they do that at the convention, have no plan for the "Now, what?" Mr. Trump's supporters as we've said previously are going to go with him, where ever he goes. Mr. Todd pointed out on today's program that Senator Cruz tweeted that Donald Trump is not a Republican, which leaves him an out on the 'supporting the nominee' pledge.

But however he justifies backing out of this pledge, as Hallie Jackson explained, it's a problem for Senator Cruz who prides himself as a man of his word, no matter how wrong those words are. And it is because of wrong words that Senator Cruz is wrong in thinking that the delegates have his back at the convention.

As much as Mr. Trump has disqualified himself to be president because as Andrea Mitchell explained he has no basic knowledge of foreign policy, stunning so, (See the referenced Trump interview with The Washington Post editorial board: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-met-with-donald-trump-electing-him-is-still-a-radical-risk/2016/03/21/bfbe5498-ef90-11e5-85a6-2132cf446d0a_story.html) Senator Cruz inspires little more confidence or competence with five words:  Patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods.

In the wake of the ISIS terror attacks in Brussels, that was exactly the wrong thing to say here in The United States primarily because it goes against the laws and principles on which the country exists, not that it matters during an election season that on the Republican side has gone way off the rails. Coupled with irresponsible statement was the sad descent of the 'political' discourse into talking about the candidates wives.

For Gov. John Kasich's part, we don't necessarily agree that a vote for him is a vote for Donald Trump, but we don't really disagree either. He surely is pulling votes away from Ted Cruz but just how many or enough? Either way, we like that John Kasich is staying in the race and staying on positive message as the 'told you so' candidate for the Republicans because when it's all said and done, he won't be the nominee but would have been the one to win.

For example, Gov. Kasich said in reaction to failures by the Belgian government leading up to the attacks, he offered that the NATO alliance needs to be reformed into not only a military alliance but a 'policing and intelligence' alliance.  We would agree to the extent that NATO should coordinate all the member intelligence, but we disagree with the policing aspect. Point being is that you can reasonably discuss and argue the merits of these points with John Kasich.

But if not him, then who?

At the top we mentioned that all super zombies (delegates) occupy the same space hovering around the center where you also find the Republican suburban women's vote, and as Andrea Mitchell pointed out, the Clinton campaign (she being the most 'moderate Republican/centrist Democrat' in the race) feels that it can capture it. She can, and she will if the Republican nominee is either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz (Criminally investigating Planned Parenthood is not popular with women.).


Panel: NBC News Campaign Reporting Team: Andrea Mitchell, Kristen Welker, Hallie Jackson, Katy Tur

One more thing...

Happy Easter! If you celebrate this most holy of Christian holidays then we wish you particularly well this weekend.

With that said, here's an informative (and short) article by Rollo Romig in The New Yorker on how Muslims view Jesus: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-muslims-view-easter

No matter what you believe, we'll leave you this week with an image I took yesterday, in which all can understand the sentiment. Again, Happy Easter.

click photo to enlarge

3.20.16: Donald Trump Is In The Race Until The End

Before we start...

Going forward you have to do your political calculus with the understanding that candidate Donald J. Trump will be in the race until the end. Either Republicans support him and award him the nomination to represent them in the general or they deny him the nomination at the convention and he most assuredly runs as a third-party candidate.

Republicans have to decide what is more important to them - winning an election at all costs or keeping your party's principles and philosophies in tact, hence 'saving it' from Donald Trump. Said candidate has one objective and that is to win the presidency. Mr. Trump wants the legitimacy of representing the Republican party in the race, not to mention their support, but it won't change his goal if they don't give it. The Atlantic's Molly Ball alluded to this ever so briefly at the end.

Now...

With that in mind, all the scenarios that senior Republican strategists Steve Schmidt (McCain campaign) and Stuart Stevens (Romney campaign) described respectively are moot. When Mr. Stevens answers that "yes, we can still stop Trump," we need clarification. Stop Trump from what exactly? Getting the nomination? Becoming the president? Mr. Stuart also explained that Mr. Trump is losing Romney voters but that is not going to be enough to swing the nomination away from Mr. Trump. It may, however, legitimize the formation of a third party.

Either way, down ticket races will be affected because if Mr. Trump is the party standard-bearer, that trouble for Republican senators up for re-election in purple states. Compounding this problem for these senators is the obstruction of President Obama's Supreme Court nominee from getting a hearing, orchestrated by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). One understands his cause of blocking the nomination, hoping for a Republican presidential win, but the risk is huge, and here's why.

First, in today's consecutive interviews with Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. McConnell, it's clear that they have both been hypocritical in their statements about SCOTUS nominees in a president's final year in office. The fact is that this is the luck (or unluck) of the draw with life-time appointments. There are going to be those odd times where the law is inconvenient, but it should still be followed, despite what Sen. McConnell tells you about history and principle.

Getting back to Senate elections, the obstruction of the Supreme Court could cost Sen. McConnell is majority leadership because he's asking senators like Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire to not only run away from the Republican candidate Donald Trump but you're also having them run away from the establishment because of the hard line on the Supreme Court position. Not good at all if you want to hold the majority in the Senate.

With Republican establishment heads spinning around in 360-rotations, a la Linda Blaire and all the chaos, discuss about the Democratic race went under the radar this week with the exception of the topic of Sec. Clinton's speaking style, which apparently receives derisive critiques from male pundits. The only conclusion to draw is that a discussion such as this can only benefit Mrs. Clinton. If male pundits access that Hillary Clinton is shrill and doesn't 'smile enough,' women especially ones over 60 like Joy-Ann Reid outlined would understandably be upset. They would say that  in her victory speech on Tuesday, she was speaking to a big cheering crowd necessitating the need to speak more loudly. In terms of temperament, they would describe it as ' determined.' These types of criticisms  aren't levied against other candidates, but then again, who says any part of politics is fair.


Panel: Jose Diaz-Balart, NBC News; Molly Ball, The Atlantic; Joy-Ann Reed, NBC News; Robert Costa, The Washington Post


One More Thing...

President Obama in Cuba. If he doesn't speak out strongly about political prisoners and dissidents in Cuba, American democracy, human rights today, then all the criticisms of the trip and him going become valid. If he does speak about those things, it will cement Obama's legacy with something history will view in a positive light.

3.13.16: Mr. Trump Showing In His Inner Hugo Chavez

In the wake of Friday's events in Chicago at a Trump rally, we're simply stunned by the comments we heard today not only from Donald Trump but what we didn't hear from John Kasich and Ted Cruz, the latter of whom said that he would in fact support Donald Trump if he's the Republican nominee because Hillary Clinton (and Bernie Sanders) would be a 'manifest disaster' to use his term. But this coming from a man who called the Republican Majority Leader a liar on the floor of Senate and President Obama a world-class demagogue.

In today's interview, Mr. Trump had the gall to rhetorically ask, "What have I said that's wrong?" while blaming 'professional disrupters' for the violence at his rallies. Hugh Hewlitt confirmed that there are in fact professional protesters, and we concur with Mr. Hewlitt (after ripping into him a few weeks back)! We googled it and we found one firm call Crowd on Demand based in Beverly Hills. We are surprised that the only professional protester firm you can hire wasn't in Chicago.  Again ridiculous, and we were coming to the conclusion that Mr. Hewlitt is not a thoughtful conservative. He seems stuck in his own echo chamber.

Mr. Trump takes no ownership of responsibility for the incendiary rhetoric - Mexicans as rapists, Islam hating America, etc. - that has caused the protests to form in the first place. Not to mention that on this very program this week he said that if Bernie Sanders' supporters came to more Trump rallies to try and disrupt them, he would call for his supporters to go after Bernie's. What?......... He then proclaimed that his rallies are peaceful. In Mr. Trump's view, there's only democracy for the people who support him, which isn't democracy at all! Mr. Trump even accused Chuck Todd of not loving the American flag as much as him when discussing an incident in.

People, this is Hugo Chavez type stuff.

For Ted Cruz, Reince Priebus, Chris Christie, Ben Carson and the rest of the crazy right-wingers who condone or (gasp) endorse Donald Trump, they should be ashamed of themselves for putting blind ambition ahead of country. Running a country is not the same as running a business and if you think it is, either your ego and wallet are so big that you think that's the way it should be or you're not informed enough on the matter to know the difference.

In a way, we hope that Donald Trump does get the nomination and it destroys the Republican party because we're so fed up with the denials, ignoring of facts, lies, obstruction and partisanship to the extent that it damages the country as a whole. As it is right now, the Republican party no longer functions as a public good. Winning at all costs is the only thing that matters instead of looking to do the one thing  explicit in the name of The United States of America, and that is to united people.

Short post this week, but we refuse to ruin the rest of our pleasant Sunday discussing the disgusting Donald Trump.


Panel: Alex Castellanos, Republican Strategist, Anne Gearan, The Washington Post, Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian; Hugh Hewlitt, conservative commentator


One more thing...

Ted Cruz won the Guam caucus.

3.6.16: For the Republican Base, Mitt Romney Is The Problem. A Self-Awareness Problem.

An election is a process, most times educational (good or bad), sometimes cathartic, at times shocking, and always repeating itself between a series of campaign peaks. Unlike previous election processes, this one as it concerns Republicans has turned wild and ugly... not to mention juvenile but that another story.

However, the next peak in the comes March 15 when Floridians and Ohioans respectively go to the polls and in the time until then, the Republican establishment is going to try desperately to repair a party, for which the conservative consensus is fractured.  In the role of chief mechanic for these repairs, the establishment has brought back Mitt Romney who delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump the candidate and the businessman, to which David Brooks said it was about time. However, we would agree with former Dick Cheney adviser Mary Matalin who said it was the wrong messenger at the wrong time. What seems to have not sunken in for Gov. Romney and the establishment is that the Republican base understands that they are trying to be 'reasoned' with but it's not going to work because of all the empty rhetoric they've been fed for so long with nothing to show for it. The base is aware of all this and is rejected it.

Mr. Romney doesn't have a good answer when it comes to why he was so enthusiastic four years ago to accept Donald Trump's endorsement while now he calls him a scam artist or whatever. Mr. Romney, you reap what you sew...

The Detroit Free Press' Stephen Henderson pointed out that the Trump candidacy is the product of unfulfilled rhetoric, in which many Republicans systematically used coded language that reeked of bigotry. Remember Sarah Palin shouting about 'taking our country back' in trying to deny President Obama re-election to a second term? This kind of bigoted dog-whistle has been going on for the last 40 years. And when Mary Matalin says that she wants to choke Stephan Henderson because she thinks it's not true, furthers the point.

[For all this talk today about inappropriate comments and staying away from them on "Meet The Press," they sure had their own share. Ms. Matalin's was just one. The other was when Chuck Todd referred to a David Brooks analogy as "Trump Goggles." This term referencing "beer goggles," a sophomoric sexist comment in itself, and by the look on Mr. Todd's face when he said it, he knew it.]

Ms. Matalin explained that conservatives don't see themselves as racists and bigots using coded language, to which we would suggest that they step outside themselves and take a serious look because it's no accident that the majority of the country perceives the Republican base (not the establishment) that way. That may not necessarily be fair, but that's the way it is, and nominating Donald Trump doesn't help that perception. The time for reasoning, and reason, is over.

Mr. Todd showed a clip of a Trump rally where he had everyone raise their right hand to make a pledge to vote for him. They didn't reference him by name, but you know they were making the Hitler reference.



Scary.

But really it just more silliness in Mr. Trump's ultimate reality role - presidential candidate.


Panel: Kelly O'Donnell, NBC News; Stephen Henderson, The Detroit Free Press; David Brooks, The New York Times; Mary Matalin, fmr. advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney