Alabama Governor Bentley (R) floating plan to reopen DMVs in Alabama’s ‘black belt’ after voting rights outcry.
Please join us for a discussion with J. Dana Stuster, a counterterrorism expert and journalist, who will be joining us in the Hive at 2 PM Eastern (sub req). Dana is a policy analyst at the National Security Network, and he’s written about the Middle East for publications including The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and Defense One.
Tennessee legislature considering bill to shield Tennessee students from Islamic ‘indoctrination’.
Fascinating look at how Haiti became a critical wedge issue in the 1932 presidential election, allowing Republicans to keep African-American votes for FDR remarkably low. The story goes back to the US occupation of Haiti almost a century ago and how FDR, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, actually wrote the new Haitian constitution himself. Yes, FDR wrote the Haitian constitution! That fact and the US occupation itself came back to haunt him in 1932. Check it out – amazing chapter of 20th century history I was totally unaware of.
The Republican party Super PAC tasked with attacking Hillary Clinton is out with a new ad which it will show tonight during the CNN debate. It features video images of Ambassador Chris Stevens’ grave. As I noted last week, Kevin McCarthy had to go because he endangered a primary RNC asset – exploiting the deaths of these four Americans for political mileage.
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Late Update – 7:46 PM: Now just 40 to go!
Let’s face it: it can’t match the drama of a Republican debate. But the first Democratic presidential debate is less than three hours away. So join us here for live coverage of all the goings-on.
So here we are, at another CNN debate where the start and end times are kept secret. It’s awesome.
8:39 PM: Jeez, releasing the Don Lemon Kraken. Bold, scary move.
8:41 PM: I think the national anthem was a shoot-out to people with non-traditional pitch.
8:52 PM: So there are actually other people running for president on the Democratic side beside Hillary and Bernie.
8:57 PM: Have to say I think O’Malley’s opening was weakest so far. Chafee and Webb better and more resonant than I would have thought. Sanders suitably strong and burning.
8:59 PM: Staff here says Fox did better by going straight to questions. Agree it makes better TV. But I think giving each candidate a chance to make their case at first is better on the merits.
9:01 PM: Hillary is benefiting by how stupid Anderson Cooper’s are. Good lord. He’s like the perfect foil.
9:04 PM: Can think of a lot of highly relevant differences between Denmark and the US other than the fact that Denmark is small. Cooper is perfect foil.
9:07 PM: Cooper: Sure the issues. But what about labels?
9:15 PM: I’m trying to get a handle on what I think of how Anderson Cooper is handling this debate. My immediate take is that he’s stylistically being very, very aggressive. But the facts he hits people with, they seem to be able to dispatch pretty quickly – even when the candidates don’t have great arguments on the facts. Like he’s talking an aggressive game but he doesn’t seem that well prepared. Thoughts?
9:25 PM: Lincoln Chafee is so damn earnest and old line New Englandy and appealing. Not vote appealing – for me at least. But really appealing. And Hillary … wow, that was an inspired response (Obama made her Secretary of State). Without being aggressive at all, in political terms, she just made Chafee’s question go up in smoke.
9:29 PM: Asking staff to research whether Rick Perry handed his glasses off to Anderson Cooper after he got out of the race.
9:32 PM: Interesting that Webb signals opposition to Iran Deal.
9:33 PM: I’m not as much of a China hawk as Jim Webb but he’s very, very right about our myopia on the Middle East. There is more going in the world than the eastern Mediterranean and the Muslim Middle East.
9:41 PM: This debate is generally intelligent but also tepid – certainly in comparison to the Republican debates. There’s little anger or driving divisions between the candidates – or to the extent there are such divisions, they’re content to state them in parallel rather than forcing them into a headlong collision. I’m thinking here mainly of Jim Webb, who’s coming from his own very distinct and idiosyncratic viewpoint but also content to make his points without really disagreeing, except implicitly, with the others on the stage.
9:48 PM: “Sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”
9:50 PM: “Do you want to respond?” “No.”