201election

201election https://www.dailykos.com/news/201election News Community Action Copyright 2005 - Steal what you want Sun, 26 Jan 2020 03:17:17 +0000 Sun, 26 Jan 2020 03:17:17 +0000 Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) The DNC Was A Mess For Years & Donna Brazile Was A Big Part Of It - SHE Can "Go ToHell!" https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/11/5/1712834/-The-DNC-Was-A-Mess-For-Years-Donna-Brazile-Was-A-Big-Part-Of-It-SHE-Can-Go-ToHell (For the record: I supported Bernie in the primaries until it became apparent he wouldn’t win the nomination. While the simple and direct message he delivered resonated limiting it to virtually nothing but economic inequality wasn’t broad enough. The same is true of the tremendous grassroots movement he built — not broad enough. But it did have an impact and I truly believe Clinton took it to heart & more importantly would have worked hard to enact the platform our efforts at the Convention made into the most progressive one the Party has ever had. I took Bernie at his word when he said we should support and vote for Clinton, and remember that all through the primaries he said on her worst day she was infinitely better than anyone on the GOP side. And if you didn’t believe with all your heart she was infinitely better than Trump then you are a total dumbass. For fellow Sanders supporters — and perhaps even Bernie himself — who are seething right now, angrily saying “See — I TOLD you so” and vowing to never vote for or donate to any Democrat, or at least not to anyone who hasn’t personally gone to Bernie and kissed his ring and gotten his public seal of approval let me remind you, especially if you sat out last November in anger or voted for Jill Stein or wrote in Bernie’s name just how much damage has been inflicted both here in our country and to the entire world because Donald Trump is President. And with elections coming up in NJ and especially Virginia where redistricting in 2020 is unofficially on the ballot how much more damage can & in fact will happen just because your are pissed and feel vindicated in your anger. And to everyone, but especially fellow Sanders supporters who might be approving of what Brazile did with her book and who are angry that Bernie wasn’t the nominee I have a question: If you are soooo in love with Donna Brazile for sticking it to the establishment, and “exposing” what you believe is unfairness that denied Bernie the nomination then how do you feel about the fact that she thought about having Hillary replaced — but NOT with Bernie? That’s right. She wanted to replace him with Joe Biden with Cory Booker as VP. Two establishment guys! While Biden isn’t/wasn’t Bernie you might have been okay with his having beat out Bernie but Booker? If that doesn’t make you scream bloody murder then STFU. Bottom line, Brazile is not and was never a friend of Bernie or his supporters. If you read what I have to say in this diary I’ll bet you’d agree, even if you won’t admit it to others that she’s no friend to Progressives either given what she’s done.) I’ve made comments on some diaries but have held off diving deeply into this as I wanted to let things shake out a bit — until the Sunday talk shows. Even though Donna Brazile went on Tucker Carlson’s show of freaking FOX to hawk her book. Well, I’ve been watching MSNBC and saw a clip of her on ABC where in responding to those criticizing her in recent day she said they (which includes me) can “go to hell.” I saw another clip from that same interview and clearly whatever attempt she made to back-and-fill in that tweet to the effect “I didn’t say that” (to the claim Clinton took over the DNC in the fall of 2015) has been abandoned — she’s doubling down like Trump when he is caught in a lie. So allow me to unpack my thoughts, starting with the title of this diary. It was no secret in the runup to the 2016 election that the DNC was a mess. While not a topic of daily discussion it came up regularly that there were leadership problems starting with Debbie Wasserman Schultz. President Obama came in for his share of criticism for not being all that engaged with the DNC, and/or working to bring some of the talent and knowledge from his Organizing For America operation to them. One can only speculate as to why he resisted calls (especially after the debacle in 2014) to replace DWS. Keep in mind the DNC strategy was to have Congressional candidates “run away” from the President (something he publicly indicated was the wrong strategy) and we got hosed up & down the ballot. And those who didn’t run away as hard as they could didn’t fair as badly as those who did. So with 2016 looming and his legacy on the line it’s worth asking why he didn’t push for new leadership at the DNC. The answer I think goes to the heart of why so many (including me) felt the Party establishment and therefore the DNC felt Clinton was the inevitable nominee. And that DWS was Clinton’s preference Obama felt getting into the matter wasn’t worth the effort. At that point cleaning up the DNC mess seemed less important than ensuring a smooth primary season with a candidate not “bloodied” in intra-mural warfare as seemed likely on the GOP side. Books have and will continue to be written about that miscalculation, and what President Obama could and should have done r.e. Party building. It’s worth remembering however the level of opposition he had faced in Congress from the GOP from the get-go. I’m not sure we should give him a pass, but I do say we should factor that in when making judgements about where he focused his time and energy. So the DNC was left to its own devices, and since he’d won without them and assumed (like the rest of us) that Clinton would either rebuild it or use her own organization like he did that things would be okay one way or the other. But let’s get back to the fact the DNC had been a mess for years. More to the point, let’s take a closer look at Donna Brazile’s role there over time. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Brazile" target="_blank">en.wikipedia.org/…</a> Let’s start before 2011 when she became a VP and part of the senior leadership. Brazile worked on a number of Presidential campaigns, including two who eventually became the Democratic nominee. Every single one of them lost! We are talking about a twenty five year time frame here. Interestingly enough, the two successful Democratic (well, four if you want to be precise) campaigns between Ronald Reagan’s election and 2008 did NOT include Ms. Brazile as a part of the campaign staff. Let that sink in for a bit. If you’re old enough to have understood the dynamics of the 2000 campaign when Brazile made history as the first African American to run a Presidential campaign she (and Gore) came in for plenty of criticism even while the campaign was underway. Yes, Gore also won the popular vote (by roughly 500k votes) but many felt it wouldn’t have been as close as it was had the Gore campaign used Bill Clinton (who still enjoyed wide popularity) more. We will never know. What can be stated however is that Brazile was never really part of the Clinton (or later Obama) inner circle, or for that matter someone either paid much attention to. Keep that thought. Let’s jump to 2011. Let’s also assume that anyone with a couple of brain cells assumed Hillary Clinton would likely enter the 2016 race given her approval ratings back then. Many (including me) dreaded the prospect as it would mean despite her many qualifications there would be issues with her being the nominee. First is that like Gore she is a very warm and engaging person one-on-one and in small groups but comes across as “wooden” in large settings and on TV. It sucks, but that’s a big hurdle to overcome in the modern era when how someone comes across on TV plays such a significant role in how voter’s perceive a candidate. The second was that regardless of the approval ratings she’d built up as a Senator and as SecState we’d see every freaking (and almost all manufactured” scandal of the 1990s placed front and center. If there was ONE candidate who would galvanize the GOP to record levels, ONE candidate that would bring out conservatives to vote against no matter who they had put up it would have been Hillary Clinton. Sure enough that turned out to be true. But at that point I don’t think the DNC was actually planning for 2016 as there was still 2012 to contend with. Being from FL which is always a swing state surely didn’t hurt DWS’ bid to take over as DNC Chair when Tim Kaine left to run for the Senate. If you read the link, Brazile was already in a senior role at the DNC as noted below: <blockquote> For several weeks in the spring of 2011, she served as interim chair of the Democratic National Committee. As vice-chair of the DNC, she led the organization during the transition between outgoing chair <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Kaine">Tim Kaine</a>, who resigned to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Virginia,_2012">run for the U.S. Senate</a>, and his successor, Florida Congresswoman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Wasserman_Schultz">Debbie Wasserman Schultz</a>, who was not permitted to ascend to the post until at least fifteen days after being nominated on April 5, 2011.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Brazile#cite_note-18">[18]</a> Following Wasserman Schultz's installation as DNC chair, Brazile returned to her post as vice-chair. </blockquote> Did Brazile think she should have gotten the top job? It’s a fair question, because if she felt slighted it could make more recent matters easier to understand if not approve of. However, the head of her/our Party who also happened to be President didn’t exactly consider her part of his team and as I’ve noted her track record in campaigns wasn’t exactly stellar. Then (also from the link) this: <blockquote> As a delegate for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_National_Convention">Democratic National Convention</a>, Brazile consistently refrained from declaring her preferred Democratic presidential candidate. In an interview with political satirist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert_(character)">Stephen Colbert</a>, Brazile stated, "Look, I'm a woman, so I like Hillary. I'm black; I like Obama. But I'm also grumpy, so I like John McCain."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Brazile#cite_note-11">[11]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Brazile#cite_note-12">[12]</a> </blockquote> I can appreciate where she was coming from being both African American and a woman but it’s hardly a profile in political courage. Instead, it was a “Clintonesque” attempt to split hairs and keep her options open for down the road. Again, it’s a fair question as to whether that kept her from getting elevated to Chair the DNC when Kaine left the post. So in light of the past few days (and this morning) I think it’s not only possible, but even likely that Brazile had an ax or two to grind: <ul> <li>First, she was never part of the Clinton circle of advisors. In fact, she scorned them and their help when running Gore’s campaign.</li> <li>Second, she was never part of Obama’s circle of advisors. As I’ve noted, even after it was apparent he’d win the nomination she refused to step up on his behalf up to and during the convention.</li> <li>Keeping #s 1 & 2 in mind, she didn’t get to make some more history by becoming the first African American and Woman to become the Chair of the DNC.</li> </ul> Brazile WAS however still in a high level role at the DNC. She might not have been involved in the specific agreements that have been creating the uproar of the past few days, but she’s been a senior operative (and again let’s not forget she ran a Democratic campaign for President & has some knowledge of how coordination of strategy, money and staff between a campaign and the DNC works) long enough that she had to have known some of what was going on. More importantly, given her role with the DNC after 2000 (as the link notes “Brazile was appointed chair of the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute”) it’s fair to wonder just what the hell she ws doing during all those years when we were losing Congressional and State races all around the country. It’s fair to ask what her views were on the “50 State Strategy” Howard Dean adopted and pushed, and which was abandoned. More to the point of this diary, we’ve lamented and criticized (with much justification I might add) the feckless ineffectiveness of the DNC for many years, and Brazile wasn’t just some DNC member. She was a Vice-Chair! She was senior enough that both in 2011 and in 2016 she was tapped to step in on an interim basis! Bluntly put, if there were significant problems at the DNC (and there were) since she was in a high level role she was part of the problem. If there is a record out there of Brazile trumpeting the problems of the DNC, detailing them and what she thought should be done to fix them (and risking the ire of the head of the Party & others in the process), if she was playing a Bernie Sanders type role of trying to get the Democratic Party to alter message and tactics and engage heavily at the grassroots on “Main Street” instead of Wall Street then by all means take me to task. I truly would feel better if I was wrong about all this. Instead, I have come to the conclusion that Brazile realized that she not only no longer would have any meaningful role in the Democratic Party, but also that after being bounced from her pundit gig at CNN she faced a future of irrelevancy. And decided to lash out and (hopefully) make a boatload of money in the process by writing a book. Worse, she timed the release to just before a couple of crucial elections (especially in Virginia) when even Donald freaking Trump, when even Ted Baxter (for those of you in my age group) would know they would be devastating to the Democratic Party, which has been on a roll and starting to build real momentum for 2018. It looks to me like she feels scorned by the Democratic Party. More than once. And facing a career with few prospects decided to enact the harshest payback she could. She sold out, and decided to grab her “30 pieces of silver.” To the surprise of exactly no one from the moment Hillary Clinton left her post as SecState she started running for President. To the surprise of no one Clinton had a ton of folks in the Party establishment who supported her doing so. To the surprise of no one few people decided to even challenge Clinton for the nomination. To the surprise of no one Clinton was a heavy favorite even in the fall of 2015. I didn’t like the way the DNC so easily acquiesced to a debate schedule that ceded all the attention to the other side for so long (which helped Trump enormously as it turns out) but how many of us were actually surprised? Since even before the Inauguration various key people have been doing “autopsies” on what went on last year. IF Donna Brazile had something to say, she had far better venues to raise her points even if she was now on the outside looking in. And if she wanted to cash in with a book, she could have done so long before now. Instead she timed her book for a point in time when it would get massive attention. And which she had to know would cause huge damage to Democratic prospects this year. And next year as well. A book this spring, even with false but explosive allegations would have done damage but not as much. It also wouldn’t have made Brazile near as much money. It also wouldn’t have, as seems increasingly possible gotten her a new pundit gig — on Fox News. No, in my mind Donna Brazile is angry and bitter, and doing one helluva imitation of Donald Trump — lashing out at everyone else and assigning blame. And given her role at the DNC for so long, blaming everyone but herself. And instead of nursing grudges for not being elevated to the top spot, for being left out of the Obama an Clinton campaigns settling scores. Like Trump, if she can’t have what she wanted then she will make so no one else gets anything at all. In this case she’s decided that the Democratic Party I’m sure she once loved didn’t love her back enough. So she’s given it a double middle-finger, turned around and as she walked away threw a match over her shoulder into the trail of napalm she left in her wake. And then started appearing on TV to keep throwing matches to keep it lit. (Author’s Note: in response to a repeated accusation of misogyny, and to be fair to the individual who made it quite vulgar in general I’ve altered the last part of the last sentence. Even though I’ve written equally vulgar things about one Donald J. Trump and other — white btw — guys here and on other forums.) And she tells US to “go to hell?” I wish I did believe in God, and heaven & hell so that when I say SHE should go to hell, when I say God DAMN you Donna Brazile it would carry a weight that a person of faith like her could fully appreciate and be insulted by. rss@dailykos.com (dsnottselliott) 201election DemocraticParty DNC DonnaBrazile Progressives Purity _1712834 Sun, 05 Nov 2017 17:18:54 +0000 VA-Gov: Hillary Clinton Is Back To Help Raise Money For Ralph Northam (D) To Beat Ed Gillespie (R) https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/9/27/1702294/-VA-Gov-Hillary-Clinton-Is-Back-To-Help-Raise-Money-For-Ralph-Northam-D-To-Beat-Ed-Gillespie-R <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/hillary-clinton-to-raise-money-for-northam-in-va-governors-race/2017/09/27/5d8b62a4-a3ce-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html?utm_term=.1a5110e4de73" target="_blank">I’m all for it</a>: <blockquote> Hillary Clinton will headline a fundraiser for Virginia Democrat Ralph Northam next month as he makes a final push against Republican rival Ed Gillespie. Northam will hold the fundraiser with Clinton in New York on Oct. 4, as first reported by the Associated Press. The Northam campaign confirmed the report but declined to comment further. Northam, who is Virginia’s lieutenant governor, is locked in what <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/poll-northam-leads-in-virginia-governors-race-k-12-education-tops-voter-concerns/2017/09/24/40a3dc9c-a14a-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html?utm_term=.064f0a042e58">polls say is a close contest</a> with Gillespie, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, ahead of the Nov. 7 election. The Democrat had a significant lead in fundraising as of the last <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/democrat-has-twice-as-much-cash-in-va-governors-race-recovering-from-costly-primary/2017/09/16/65c543be-9a45-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html?utm_term=.e331beb5a1c6">campaign finance</a> disclosure filing. Northam had $5.6 million in cash on hand to Gillespie’s $2.6 million as of Aug. 31, according to filings earlier this month. Back in June, Northam’s reserves had been depleted by a tough primary battle, but Gillespie was flush with cash and got out of the gate early with TV ads. Northam has been catching up in recent weeks. The race has garnered national attention as a proxy for partisan battles in Washington, with Northam attempting to tie Gillespie to President Trump, who remains deeply unpopular in much of Virginia. The state was the only one in the South that went for Clinton in last fall’s presidential election, by a healthy 5-point margin. </blockquote> Barack Obama will also be hitting the campaign trail for Northam soon. Details to come. In the mean time, let’s give Northam and the entire Democratic ticket a boost by donating and getting involved and donating to their campaigns: <a href="http://ralphnortham.com/" target="_blank" title="">Ralph Northam for Governor</a> <a href="https://www.timkaine.com/" target="_blank">Tim Kaine for U.S. Senate</a> <a href="http://www.fairfaxforlg.com/" target="_blank" title="">Justin Fairfax for Lt. Governor</a> <a href="http://herringforag.com/" target="_blank" title="">Mark Herring for Attorney General</a> <a href="http://vademocrats.org/" target="_blank" title="">Virginia Democratic Party</a> rss@dailykos.com (poopdogcomedy) 2017 201election Democrats DonaldTrump EdGillespie Election Election2017 GOPRepublicans GOTV HillaryClinton Populists Progressives RalphNortham Resistance TeaParty VAGov Virginia Vote Vote2017 _1702294 Thu, 28 Sep 2017 03:39:16 +0000 who will win the 2016 presidential election ? ? ? ? https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/17/1583445/-who-will-win-the-2016-presidential-election who will win the 2016 presidential election . . . . . . . world not accepting leader trump :) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbq38rA6bBo" title="">Video link for trump and bitch Girls</a> rss@dailykos.com (harsha) 2016 201election Clinton Community Democrats DonaldTrump Election Election2016 followrecommended Hillary HillaryClinton Recommended Republicans SexualAssault trump _1583445 Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:57:39 +0000