Tag Archive: John Kerry

In Democratic primary predictions, media have no clue

Pete Buttigieg campaign truck in front of Iowa Democratic presidential debate

When it comes to the Democratic presidential nomination, our mainstream media are quick to make snap judgments and predictions without much reflection. Currently, the media are overemphasizing the results of the outlier Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primaries, to declare Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, respectively, the front-runners, while simultaneously declaring Joe Biden‘s moderate candidacy dead in favor of either Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar or Mike Bloomberg. The media likely are wrong in these conclusions. At minimum, their declarations are premature and lacking in evidence. For perspective, let’s take a look at the 1992 and 2004 Democratic presidential nominations, since that’s the last two times the Democrats were running against an incumbent Republican president:

The Republican Party’s twisted masculinity

Republican U.S. Senate candidate and alleged child predator Roy Moore, dressed as a cowboy.

The latest revelations regarding Donald Trump‘s affair with and payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels don’t seem to be fazing Republicans. The reaction seems to be no more negative within the GOP than when Trump was caught on tape bragging to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush about sexually assaulting women. Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, even accused Trump of raping her, and some 19 women have also accused Trump of sexually assaulting or harassing them. This yawn from Republicans about Trump’s conduct toward women extends to many other Republican politicians as well. For example, U.S. Senator David Vitter was caught and admitted hiring prostitutes in 2007, and was re-elected in 2010. Likewise, Newt Gingrich has been a top Republican presidential contender and adviser for years, even though he is a serial adulterer who presented his first wife with divorce terms as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from cancer surgery. That these Republican men never seem to be punished by their supposedly “family values” base for sexual misconduct or mistreatment of women may be because the Republican Party thrives on a twisted notion of masculinity.

Bernie Sanders’ political revolution morphs into Fidel Castro’s revolution

Fidel Castro, whom the Republicans could make Bernie Sanders' running mate

Fidel Castro, whom the Republicans could make Bernie Sanders’ running mate

By all reasonable measurements, Bernie Sanders‘ promised “political revolution” has not happened. Probably the two best such measurements — Democratic primary voter turnout, and Sanders’ share of the black and Latino primary vote — vividly demonstrate this. Instead, however, another type of revolution was associated with Bernie Sanders this week: Fidel Castro‘s revolution in Cuba.