TPM Reader BB on the rise of Bloomberg and the impatience to go after Trump …
JoinJust wanted to respond to this, because it SO accurately describes my experience:
Quoting from this Editors’ Blog post: “Bloomberg’s ads ignore the entire primary process. They focus on Bloomberg himself and increasingly on bashing Donald Trump. I see them a lot on social media. They’re good. Even if you’re a Sanders supporter you’d think they’re good, even if you despise Bloomberg. For a lot of Democrats right now, watching the primaries unfold is highly dispiriting. Bloomberg is already running against Trump, running ads that land hard punches on Trump. If you’re a Democrat, the Democratic primary race is exhausting and demoralizing and the ads bashing Trump get you pumped – just because a lot of Democrats are so focused on driving Trump from office and want to get on to running against him.”
Usually I publish single emails. But in this case I asked for a follow up with TPM Reader LS …
Josh, your next-to-last paragraph REALLY speaks for me (except I’m not supporting Bloomberg, just FYI). I just DGAF, especially after the impeachment farce last week. All the debates and primaries seem like worthless folderol. For me, the primaries are over. I just want to get on with beating this cancer of a human being and ending his crime spree masquerading as an administration once and for all.
I replied …
JoinWe’ve now seen what appears to be the second example of the Department of Justice intervening to assist Trump associates facing sentencing. We appeared to see it with Mike Flynn, when prosecutors shifted gear and said they were okay with no jail time after Flynn attempted to tear up his guilty plea and publicly claim to be the target of a witch hunt. I don’t think we knew it directly in that case. It just seemed like the most logical conclusion.
Here though we appear to have DOJ leadership intervening out in the open to protect a friend of the President. And not just a friend of the President but a criminal who was convicted for crimes intended to keep the President out of legal trouble.
Not only has the DOJ created a special “process” by which Rudy Giuliani will pass his “dirt” aka manufactured evidence to the Justice Department, they’ve now assigned some of it the US Attorney in Pittsburgh. Josh Kovensky has an idea what it’s about.
Like many of you I’ve been keeping tabs on the news of the novel Coronavirus in China. I’ve been using the Times as my go to source. They have a good, regularly updated run-down that let’s you follow the key details in a quick read. But here’s a piece from three days ago that goes a bit deeper and looks at six factors that will determine the scope of the spread of the virus.
I’m used to these various Trump associates getting what seem like extremely light sentences for various sorts of perjury, obstruction and the like. (Of course, many of those pled out, which makes a huge difference.) But federal prosecutors have recommended seven to nine years in prison for Roger Stone. Stone was convicted on multiple counts of obstruction, false statements and witness tampering.
Two important new polls have come out this afternoon. They’re clarifying on a number of grounds. The first is that President Trump’s rise in the polls is at best overstated. Quinnipiac puts him at 43% approval, on the high side for that poll but the same as their previous three polls back into December. Monmouth has him at 44%. Their previous three polls had him at 43%. Just moments ago Yougov released a new batch of polls which put Trump at 41%, basically where he’s been since forever. (I put more stock in Quinnipiac and Monmouth but it’s another important data point.) Take this all together and they suggest Trump is in a relatively strong position based on where he’s been over the last three years. But there’s little evidence here of some game-changing move. Certainly nothing like the 49% Gallup found last week, which remains a distant outlier.
From TPM Reader EC …
JoinAn ex Bernie supporters perspective.
A little background:I lived in Vermont for over 25 years.
My wife is a Vermonter and my 2 kids where born there.
I love and miss Vermont (not the weather).I would imagine I have voted for Bernie more than almost anyone not living in Vermont including for Mayor, 8 Congressional races and once for Senate.
I made calls, knocked on doors and catered fundraisers, most memorably an event at Ben Cohen’s house for Bernie & Max Cleland. I think during the 2002 cycle.
Win or lose I’m very concerned about Bernie.
From TPM Reader JB …
JoinWith all due respect to Reader EW, all I can say is “Really?”
I don’t know what country he/she is in, but this well-described set of policy preferences put into perspective of other nations and their leaders is never going to come up in an American Presidential election. These kinds of conversations happen amongst those who are interested in politics, read a lot, and have enough gumption to go deep. That is not the American public.
Vermonter and TPM Reader EW begs to disagree
JoinI think the coverage of Bernie is not just unfair, but dead wrong. I don’t just mean Bret Stephens who is lying when he compares Bernie’s socialism to the Soviet Union. The model has always been, for Bernie, the Nordics and next door neighbor Canada and others. His proposals actually put him to the right of government policies in those countries and others including New Zealand, the Netherlands and others. He is not more left wing than the leaders of most European Social Democratic parties. Even parties to the right of Social Democrats support universal health care systems state controlled or managed.