U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
It is said that voters vote with their hearts in the primaries and with their heads in the general election. However, the death of right wing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at age 79 might cut that process short. In particular, in the Democratic primaries, Scalia’s death may focus voters’ attention on using their heads and strategy, which may be more associated with Hillary Clinton, and less on Clinton’s aspirational competitor, Bernie Sanders. Here are several reasons why:
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Volunteers for Hillary Clinton in Des Moines, Iowa
Right now, it’s silly season in politics. The mainstream media, the presidential primary candidates and their campaigns are serving up small shiny objects, and the public is lapping them up. On the Democratic Party side, in the primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, these shiny objects range from coin tosses to speaking fees to the definition of a “progressive” to “Berniebros.” But hidden behind these superficial stories is some cold hard math involving delegates and demographics.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, Bernie Sanders, delegates, Democratic Party, Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton, Iowa Caucus, Nate Silver, Nevada Caucus, New Hampshire primary, South Carolina, Super Tuesday
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama after clinching 2008 Democratic presidential nomination
Last night, one week before the Iowa Caucus, CNN hosted a Town Hall event at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, featuring Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. The three candidates showed differences in their views and policies while answering questions from the audience of mostly undecided Democratic voters and from moderator Chris Cuomo. But perhaps more striking was the level of knowledge, substance and forcefulness each candidate exhibited on the issues.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, Affordable Care Act, Bernie Sanders, climate change, CNN, Democratic Party, Democratic primaries, Donald Trump, economy, healthcare, Hillary Clinton, ISIS, jobs, Martin O'Malley, President Barack Obama
Syrian refugee family arriving in Greece — not our enemy
In the wake of the recent Paris attacks, the long-running debate about what to call our terrorist enemies has been renewed. This language battle also has strong political overtones.
Those on the right seem to have no problem using broad terms, which can discredit the entire religion of Islam. Their current preferred terminology is “radical Islam.” For example, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio says “we are at war with radical Islam.” Likewise, fellow candidate Lindsey Graham says that “the whole world is a battlefield and radical Islam is everywhere.” Graham even said, after last January’s Charlie Hebdo attack in France, that “we’re in a religious war.”
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, Al Qaeda, Democrats, ISIS, Islam, Muslim, Paris attacks, Republicans, terrorism, terrorists, war on terror
Janet Jackson’s FCC “Nipplegate” moment
Under the U.S. Constitution, presidents have certain limited powers, but in the 21st Century, the president also controls a huge machinery of government. It’s almost impossible to come up with an exhaustive list of all the things presidents exercise authority over, but we’ve started such a list. We’ll be doing a series, with each post describing one or more categories where presidents are heavily involved. Please take a look at the series, and you will see the difference between having a Republican and a Democrat in the White House, and why the 2016 elections are therefore so crucial:
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Protesters disrupt Bernie Sanders event in Seattle, WA
Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton. A presidential race between two dynastic candidates, focused on sharp policy differences. That’s the campaign we were supposed to get. Instead, as of August 2015, we are getting the Entertainment Campaign featuring sideshow issues involving Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Maybe it’s the presidential campaign we should have expected.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter, cable news, CNN, Donald Trump, Fox News, GOP, GOP debate, Jon Stewart, media, Megyn Kelly, Republican Party, Republican primaries
Donald Trump, GOP destroyer
First it was Donald Trump destroying the Republican Party brand by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists,” denigrating John McCain‘s military service and calling a female professional who had to pump breast milk for her baby “disgusting.” But as Trump has surged in GOP polls and sucked all the air out of the room, other Republican presidential candidates have had to scramble for attention. Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham pulled stunts involving chain saws, fire and baseball bats. But Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie apparently have decided the best way to compete with Trump is to out-Trump Trump in making outrageous statements.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2012 elections, 2016 Elections, Bridgegate, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, GOP, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Morning Joe, MSNBC, Rand Paul, Republican Party
Tim Corrimal posing with a D.C. Democrat
The Tim Corrimal Show is a unique progressive political podcast that airs every Sunday evening at timcorrimal.com, as well as at other outlets listed below. Tim’s show distinguishes itself by (a) using plenty of humor; (b) shifting from topic to topic often at breakneck speed; and (c) inviting a stream of guests from social media. We caught up with Tim to ask him about his show, progressive media, the 2016 elections and more:
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U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
The “Run Warren Run” movement to draft U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren for president is over. The movement, spurred by MoveOn.org and Democracy For America, spanned six months, garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures, and even included ground operations in Iowa and New Hampshire. However, Warren insisted from the get-go that she did not want to run. To mark this shift, MoveOn.Org, Democracy For America and the Working Families Party held a conference call last night featuring Senator Warren. The message from Warren was that she is going to continue to fight hard for Americans from her Senate seat, but that she needs our help to do so.
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Leave a comment! Tags: 2016 Elections, Barack Obama, Democracy For America, Dodd-Frank, Elizabeth Warren, Fast Track, MoveOn.org, Senate, Social Security, student debt, TPP, trade, Wall Street, Working Families Party
The New York Times Building
Like it or not, the 2016 election cycle is in full swing. Numerous media outlets are well into covering the campaigns and candidates. These media organizations are also giving early clues as to the quality of their election coverage. If the last week is any indication, the New York Times has distinguished itself both for bias and inanity.
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