Who else do they have?

Despite the fact that Marco Rubio did his best Wall-E imitation in last Saturday's republican debate in New Hampshire, I really have to wonder who else the republican establishment is going to rally behind.  Considering that they hate Trump and Cruz, that leaves Chris Christie, who is too much of an asshole to ever get elected President, John Kasich, who probably bores his own family, and Jeb! Bush, who has proven to be a miracle worker in that his campaign has been so inept he's made his big brother look like FDR.

I still think it's more likely that either Trump or Cruz win the republican nomination, but it's hard to see that if republicans go for the establishment candidate again this year how it can he anyone other than Rubio.

He may be a lightweight, but it's not as if Mitt Romney or John McCain could have given Plato a run for his money intellectually.

Peace,
emaycee

Oh me oh my oh, it's the Governor of Ohio

Ohio Governor John Kasich became the umpteenth republican to join the race to be their party's nominee for the Presidency in 2016 touting his ability to beat Democrats in a right-leaning swing state, though how this would translate into his beating Democrats in blue states or other swing states he didn't say.

Kasich faces an uphill struggle as he's polling around 1% and isn't well known outside of political geeks and the good folks of the state of Ohio.  There are those who think Kasich may be the best candidate republicans have (considering the field, that's really not saying that much) because he's somewhat moderate (Kasich accepted Obamacare's Medicaid expansion) and often talks about our duty to help the poor.  Unfortunately for Kasich, Think Progress was right there to remind us that Kasich ran in 2010 as a Tea Party candidate and is your typical conservative, and Digby was also there to tell us that if Donald Trump had chosen not to run. Kasich would be the front runner for the biggest nutjob in the race.

Combine that with Ohio's lackluster economy under Kasich's command, and you have yourself another bozo who will not be the next President of the United States..

Alas, Kasich is probably the last major republican to announce for the Presidency, depriving us all of the opportunity to say to ourselves, "Ooh, another republican candidate--wonder how incompetent this dipshit is?"

Good times.

Peace,
emaycee

Getting better all the time

For a while there, between the chained CPI bullshit that President Obama has bought into, Democrats voting to cut food stamps,  not being able to get enough Democrats to sign on to filibuster reform, and the general failure of our party to do much of anything that supports working families, I was beginning to think 2014 was shaping up to be as disastrous electorally as was 2010.

But lo and behold, up to the plate stepped the republican party--the gift that keeps on giving.

Following their disaster in Texas with its misinformed choice haters, special sessions to pass what cannot pass in the regular session, and flat out cheating to pass historically harsh restrictions to abortion, the geniuses next used an end around in Ohio by passing more historically harsh restrictions to abortion by using budget gimmicks, and then had the good sense to have Gov. John Kasich sign the bill surrounded by nothing but old white men (Kasich is also giving our own Gov. Gutless, Rick Snyder, a run for his money for the most gutless governor in the nation by signing the bill and then running and tucking tail rather than answer any questions regarding it).  For good measure, republicans in North Carolina also tried an end around by inserting historically harsh abortion restrictions into a bill on Sharia law, since the two have so much in common, and Wisconsin's Scott Walker this week became the umpteenth republican leader to think that the U.S. Government has no right to keep guns out of the hands of psychopaths but every right to stick medical instruments into womens' vaginas.

Apparently the sole guideline for being a republican consultant is to have no brain whatsoever.  Because nothing helps win elections by pissing off even more voters who historically vote in the biggest numbers and against your party.  Thanks, guys!

Not to worry, though, as they also have a brilliant plan for the Presidency in 2016.  It's to paint Hillary Clinton as old.

Man, mocking the only voting bloc--seniors--that votes for you is some kind of strategy.

Peace,
emaycee

Be careful what you wish

Digby had a recent post in which she hoped that Hillary Clinton wouldn't run for President in 2016, because a) Digby would like the chance to vote for a Progressive female in the primaries, and b) because of the sexist nastiness sure to arise from the republican ranks over another Clinton heading for the White House.

While I share her sentiment for the former (it'd be nice to vote for a real Progessive, period, male or female), the latter seems a bit silly.  I'm sure that they could call her an atheist, a lesbian, and compare her to Eva Braun, but after the republican shenanigans over the first black President, it's not going to be any worse for the first female President.  The republican vitriol toward her sex might be equal in its fury, but, hey, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.  Not to mention that after all Hillary Clinton has been through (Lewinsky scandal, impeachment of her husband, republican spaceman conspiracy theories virtually daily), it's pretty obvious her shoulders can handle it.

The real question over Hillary Clinton's running for President should be whether or not she gives us the best chance to win.  2016 is a long way away, and other candidates might rise to the fore, but those pooh-poohing a Hillary bid need to take a serious looks at what happened in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Ohio (three solid blue states and two swing states) where republican majorities in their respective statehouses plus a republican in the governorship has led to the passage of numerous anti-worker, anti-labor, anti-union, and anti-women measures despite a majority of those state's constituents being against them.  The odds of us winning back the U.S. House before 2020 (if then) are infintesimal, and we stand a chance (again) of losing the Senate in 2014.  Anyone want to imagine an America where Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House (other than some numb nut Antoinette)?  It's truly shudder inducing.

We're still a few years away from the supermajority status current demographic trends are showing, but if republicans can wreak the havoc they have in the individual states in two years, one can only guess how much harm they can do to women's rights and working class Americans in four.

Hillary Clinton probably wouldn't be my first choice either, but if she gives us the best chance to win in 2016, I'll happily pull the lever for her while biding my time for the Presidential election when a true Liberal can win.

Peace,
emaycee

Workers of the world, rejoice!

A big victory for working men and women last night--SB5, the Ohio bill which stripped public workers of their collective bargaining rights was soundly rejected by voters.  Why is this important?

Because this is your wages without unions:

Any questions?

Peace,
emaycee

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

I'm not really paying much attention to Republican Idol, 2012--only Romney, Pawlenty, and Huntsman have a chance to be the next President, and Pawlenty and Huntsman's chances are about as slim right now as Popeye's true love, Olive Oyl.

A list:  George W. Bush.  Rick Snyder.  Rick Scott.  John Kasich.  Scott Walker. 

After the talent show is over, after the republican candidates have finished tripping all over themselves to see who can out bat shit insane the others to please the republican base, the republican nominee will surely begin the campaign with a deke to the center:  the compassionate conservative, the business leader conservative, the individualistic conservative. 

Democrats need to quash this right out of the gate by making big blow-up pictures of those on the aforementioned list and delineating their agendas below their names.  There is no such animal as the moderate republican. 

Turning to republicans in times of trouble is about as effective as pouring gasoline on a fire to douse it.  Woe unto any other than the 30% who are too far gone to save who dare to think the republican Kool-Aid isn't spiked once again.

Peace,
emaycee

Reasons to be cheerful, Part II

Week one:  old Nolan tells us why we should take the notion of Rep. Thaddeus McCotter running for President seriously (side note:  no, we shouldn't.  McCotter has the same chance of being President in 2012--important distinction--as I do:  zero).

Week two:  old Nolan tells us why Mitt Romney can win the state of Michigan in the 2012 Presidential elections (side note:  barring an economic collapse, no he can't.  Thank you, Gov. Snyder!).

You have to love the panic these two pieces show:  in the first, republicans are still looking for their saviour; in the second, they're trying to explain away the likely nominee's positions which they're going to have a tough time selling to their base, let alone a majority of American voters (is it just me or is Mitt looking more and more like the republican version of John Kerry everyday?).

And those two don't even take into consideration the electoral map for 2012.  It's hard to imagine the republicans taking back the White House without picking up at least a couple of the following states:  Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately for the republican nominee, all five have extremely unpopular republican governors right now and it's hard to imagine much is going to change in their numbers between now and November 2012--they campaigned as middle of the road and turned out to be radical right.  I can see the Obama ads now:  "You don't like this bullshit in your own state and now you're going to give the keys to the White House to these bozos?  Fat fucking chance!"   And the republicans won't even be able to spin it as a union orchestrated conspiracy to keep the rich from getting richer--that lie has already failed in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

And did I mention that Obama got Osama?

Now if we could just get the President to have the backs of the poor and the middle class, we'd really have something....

Peace,
emaycee

Reasons to be cheerful, Part 1

The We Are One campaign in Ohio has collected over 700,000 signatures to overturn the union-busting bill SB 5.  The campaign needs 231,000 signatures to force a referendum in November, and they have collected over three times that many--as I read earlier, signature gathering campaigns usually shoot for 140% of the necessary signatures to cover up for errors.

Short version:  This will be on the ballot in November, until then, the law cannot go into effect, and since the voters of Ohio are overwhelmingly against the law, it will be overturned in November and never go into effect.

Woo-hoo!  A win for the little guys....

Peace,
emaycee

Juggling lit TNT

This is what happens when you give republicans unlimited power--seems the lawmakers in Ohio have passed (though the bill has not been signed yet by Gov. Kasich) a bill that will allow people to carry guns into bars (I know, what with all their economic problems, this was a problem many Ohioans were waking up and wondering about every morning) joining Tennessee, Arizona, Georgia, and Virginia which have already passed similar bills.

When, do you suppose, will these states pass laws that allow smokers to keep puffing away while they're pumping gas into their cars?

Idiots, all.

Peace,
emaycee

I'm dyin' here...

So I've spent the last week preparing to write a piece about what a disaster President Obama has been...and then I went and read this piece by Mark Morford where he spells out all of Obama's failures, what a disappointment he's been to Liberals...and how many thousands of times better he is than the alternative.  Morford mentions mostly the republican's potential candidates for 2012 as to why Liberals will still flock to Obama a year from this November, but I think Gov. Kasich in Ohio, Gov. Walker in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott in Florida, and our very own Gov. Snyder here in Michigan--not to mention the Boehner led republican U.S. House--will help just as much.  So much for my piece!

It may be "...moral and political relativism, writ large" as Morford states.  I'm not nearly as eloquent:  the difference between President Obama and the republicans is the difference between making love and getting kicked in the testicles.

For all of our disappointment, I'd be willing to bet Liberals will be President Obama's staunchest defenders as we roll up to the election....

Peace,
emaycee