Rep. Issa (R) is encouraging members of the US military to refuse to carry out President Obama’s orders to close the the Gitmo prison facility.
No alternative or dark explanations are required when it comes to Republican desires to dictate the replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Control of the federal judiciary has been a transcendent goal of the conservative movement for two generations. And in the face of political and demographic change, the Republican Party has become increasingly dependent on the Supreme Court to entrench its political power through attacks on voting rights, unions, one person one vote and decisions like Citizens United, not to mention Bush v. Gore. So the stakes, on the merits, are vast. And yet the manner of the refusal to even entertain the nomination of a President with a year left in office is, as Lauren Fox notes in this story, simply a culmination of Republican efforts not simply to block Obama’s policies but to delegitimize, degrade and denigrate his presidency and the man himself.
Buried lede in the story about Cruz’s father saying that God sent a message to Cruz’s wife, Heidi, that Ted should run for president: even God doesn’t want to talk to Ted.
Shake-up in the Cruz campaign gives you the sense that Cruz creates a milieu of petty viciousness, dishonesty and casual malignity around himself.
The bogus kerfuffle over a supposed “gaffe” about women that John Kasich made this morning at a rally outside of DC was kicked off by a misleadingly edited video clip. Here’s what he really said.
In the last hundred years four Democratic presidents have been elected to a second term as president. Only two did so winning a majority of the popular vote in both elections – Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama.
Countless reasons why Trump’s frontrunner status is stunning, unexpected, earth-shaking and all the rest. But I can’t get past the fact that they guy who won New Hampshire and South Carolina openly and sneeringly bucked GOP orthodoxy on George W. Bush’s 9/11 record. I didn’t expect any Republican candidate to do that in my lifetime and win.
What’s the number of times one Republican has scored dominating victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina and then gone on to lose the nomination? Exactly. Never. And this isn’t some kind of special magic to one state or even group of states. Though it was disappointing against expectations, even the second place showing in Iowa confirms the general narrative. Yes, things could change. Nothing is certain in politics. But it’s time to dispense with any faith-based logic that disputes the fact that Donald Trump is now the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination. Overwhelming.
After a lot of fake drama at the top of the hour, the cable nets are projecting a Trump win in South Carolina. The focus in the initial coverage was “three-way race” and “top-tier candidates” but Trump won. Period. The silly notion of strong third place finishes and dominating second place showings and related pablum should not obscure that Trump just won in core Republican, white, Southern, religious South Carolina. So much for New York values.