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2016 Democratic Primary Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 15, 2015 27 Comments
Last month we reported that the DNC was going into debt while the RNC was raising millions. In a new but related development, the cash poor Democrats want taxpayers to help pay for their national convention. Stephen Dinan reported at the Washington Times:
Struggling DNC craves tax dollars for convention Already struggling with finances, the Democratic Party has drafted a plan to have taxpayers help pay about $20 million for next summer’s nominating convention, reversing a change Congress approved just a year ago. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is also a congresswoman from Florida, has drafted a bill to restore money that both parties used to receive from the federal government to help defray the costs of running their quadrennial conventions.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 09, 2015 10 Comments
It's safe to say foreign policy and national security aren't Bernie Sanders' strong points. He doesn't want to talk about ISIS and terrorism, he wants to tell you how millionaires and billionaires are stealing money from the poor. As liberal Washington Post writer Chris Cillizza notes, that's a big problem:
Bernie Sanders doesn’t want to take questions about ISIS. That’s not good. Right on cue, a Sanders spokeswoman on Tuesday morning informed reporters that they shouldn't even ask questions about the Islamic State. We are re-upping this post from Monday, as it is now even more apropos.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 03, 2015 19 Comments
You would think someone who's proposed at least $1 trillion in new debt would be able to answer questions about how she plans to manage the $18 trillion already outstanding. Alas... Speaking in New Hampshire Thursday afternoon, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton was asked, "specifically, what will you do” about “our $18 trillion national debt?"

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 03, 2015 12 Comments
Judicial Watch has obtained new emails (available here) that reveal a bit more about Hillary Clinton's time at State than we knew before (or than she probably wants revealed). Judicial Watch reports:
Judicial Watch today released a new batch of emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton connected to the Benghazi attack. Included is an email chain showing that Clinton slept late the Saturday after the Benghazi attack and missed a meeting that her staff had been trying to set up about sensitive intelligence issues, including the Presidential Daily Brief, on a day she was to make a slew of phone calls to foreign leaders.
There was also an interesting detail in an email concerning Bowe Bergdahl's father's concern over "Crusader paradigm."
The documents contain an email passed to Clinton in the days following the Benghazi attack in which the father of alleged Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl anguishes over the “‘Crusade’ paradigm” which he says “will never be forgotten in this part of the world.”
You may remember Mr. Bergdahl from Obama's over-the-top, tin-eared, and inappropriate Rose Garden ceremony announcing the exchange of Bowe Bergdahl, who has since been charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, for five top Taliban leaders.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 01, 2015 7 Comments
Hillary Clinton met with all of the female Democrat senators Monday who happily endorsed her. Well, almost all the female Democrat senators. One rather important Massachusetts lawmaker was missing. Sam Frizell reports at Time:
Warren Absent From Clinton Fundraiser With Female Senators A meeting of female Democratic senators backing Hillary Clinton’s campaign Monday had one glaring omission, but no one mentioned it. In fact, some in the room seemed to suggest that it wasn’t happening. Thirteen of the 14 women from Congress’ upper chamber met for a fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Washington. Not joining them was Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has not yet endorsed Clinton’s campaign.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 30, 2015 6 Comments
One of the favorite opposition tactics of operatives on both sides of the aisle is to present the actions of a politician in an out-of-context format. It's effective; you want that first public reaction to your enemy's various foibles and power plays to sprout from a place of distrust. This is why, even in 2015 when we have candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz who, at least on the surface, don't give a damn what the opposition has to say, operatives are so careful to advise their clients about how this looks. It's not fair, but it's important. Hillary Clinton, by and large, has broken every rule in the book covering how this looks. The woman has spent a great deal of valuable campaign time defending her tenure as Secretary of State as it relates to the Benghazi attacks, defending her use of a private, unsecured email server, and defending the Clinton Foundation's financial practices, when she could have saved herself a lot of trouble if she would have bothered to care about public perception from the get-go. The Associated Press has obtained calendars used during Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State that show she opened her office to Democratic party fundraisers, former Clinton administration and campaign allies, and corporate donors to the family's Foundation. According to the AP, these meetings were "formally scheduled" and many of them occurred between Clinton and power players seeking to influence Obama Administration policy. What she did was not out of the ordinary, but it does fall into her pattern of doing exactly as she pleases while assuming a zero-consequences end game.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 26, 2015 7 Comments
Anyone observing the 2016 election cycle who also possesses a functioning brain stem (and I assure you, there are a great many people observing the 2016 election cycle who don't) knows that some candidates and comms shops excel at relating to voters, and some don't. Some attempts fail harder than others...but nobody---and I mean nobody---fails as hard as Hillary Clinton when it comes to offering proof of humanity. This Thanksgiving, Team Hillary updated their "Quick Question" YouTube series in a vainglorious attempt to convince voters that fun and family bonding is a thing that happens when an Arkansas football game is on TV. Legal Insurrection needs a "painful" tag, just for moments like this:

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 24, 2015 3 Comments
The Bernie Sanders campaign has launched a pointless attack on Hillary Clinton by calling her tax plans Republican Lite. This brings two thoughts to mind. First, the Sanders camp should have thought of this before he surrendered the nomination to Hillary by saying no one cares about her damn emails. Second, if you're so far left that Bernie Sanders seems reasonable, everyone is going to look like a Republican to you. John Wagner reported at the Washington Post:
Sanders camp calls Clinton tax proposals ‘Republican lite’ SAVANNAH, Ga. — A senior aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday characterized Hillary Clinton’s latest tax plans as “tentative half-steps that sound Republican-lite,” escalating the sparring between the Democratic presidential campaigns over their respective commitments to helping the middle class.

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 20, 2015 7 Comments
When asked about combating ISIS at the Democratic Party debate last Saturday, Hillary Clinton said "It cannot be an American fight." She took some heat for saying that, even from the left. After what must have been a furious few days of focus groups and word testing, she presented a plan to defeat ISIS in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday. CNN reports:
Hillary Clinton calls for U.S. to 'intensify and broaden' efforts to fight ISIS Hillary Clinton is calling for more allied planes, more airstrikes and a "broader target set" -- though no large-scale mobilization of U.S. ground troops -- to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. She urged Congress to approve a new authorization of the use of military force against ISIS, saying that doing so would signal "that the U.S. is committed to this fight. The time for delay is over. We should get this done."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 16, 2015 9 Comments
Brave souls who watched the CBS Democratic Party debate Saturday night were treated to a serious-minded, sober event in which the moderators asked fairly challenging questions. The responses were unsurprising, and should not change the direction of the primary in a significant way. However, the Republican Party will find a great deal of fodder for the presidential battle ahead. There were a few highlights lowlights that I think are worth featuring. When asked, I have always asserted that "black swan" events, or, those events that are not readily anticipated and make a significant impact, will be key in the 2016 outcome. The Paris attacks were the first of these "black swans".

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 15, 2015 10 Comments
In one of the weirdest moments from last night's Democratic primary debate, Hillary Clinton invoked the attacks of 9/11 to justify the financial support she has received from Wall Street. In an angry and defensive way, Hillary claimed that as a senator from New York, she worked with people on Wall Street to rebuild after the attacks. She also used the moment to play the gender card. Even liberals are scratching their heads over this. Slate reported:
Hillary Says It’s OK That She Takes Wall Street Money Because of Women and 9/11 Bernie Sanders pointed out (fairly) at Saturday night’s CBS Democratic presidential debate that Hillary Clinton raises a substantial amount of campaign money from Wall Street, while moderator (and Slate columnist) John Dickerson alluded to the millions of dollars in paid speeches that the former New York senator has given to major banks. Pressed on whether this would compromise her ability as president to properly regulate the financial industry, Clinton answered with a non sequitor, citing her female donors and alluding to 9/11:

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 15, 2015 16 Comments
The first 20 or so minutes of last night's Democrat debate was devoted to national security with an emphasis on the terror attacks in Paris. It was a subject that made everyone on stage visibly uncomfortable. Jenna Lifhits of the Washington Free Beacon:
Hillary Clinton refused to use the term “radical Islam” to describe groups like the Islamic State Saturday at the Democratic debate, despite having used the term “radical Islamic jihadist groups” four days prior. When moderator John Dickerson asked Clinton whether she agreed with Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R., Fla.) statement that the Paris attacks show “that we are at war with Radical Islam,” Clinton said she would use a term other than “Radical Islam.”

Posted by Amy Miller on November 14, 2015 10 Comments
Earlier this week, fellow LI contributor Kemberlee Kaye remarked, "[o]nly a terrible party would hold a debate on a Saturday night." Too true. Tonight, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley will come together for a two hour debate at 9 pm EST---ensuring that almost no one will bear immediate witness to whatever insanity and moral inversion flows from the mouths of the three most high-profile Democrats in America. "Face the Nation" anchor John Dickerson will act as moderator for the CBS News-sponsored debate alongside CBS News Congressional Correspondent Nancy Cordes, KCCI anchor Kevin Cooney and the Des Moines Register's political columnist, Kathie Obradovich. Dickerson has a reputation for asking tough questions, but don't worry---he met privately with each campaign this week for a pre-debate "informational" huddle. Authenticity! You can watch the debate live here:

Posted by Amy Miller on November 05, 2015 11 Comments
Last summer, a young woman named Kate Steinle was murdered by an illegal immigrant named Francisco Sanchez. Sanchez had been previously detained and then released by San Francisco authorities under the city's "sanctuary" laws. After Sanchez's act of brutality hit the headlines, activists and conservatives in Congress sprang into action, drafting "Kate's Law," which would block cities that refuse to abide by federal immigration policies from receiving federal law enforcement funding. Democrats blocked passage of the bill in the Senate, but the fight rages on, and for good reason. Pro-illegal immigration activists are terrified of it. The MSM and White House did an excellent job keeping the administration's inaction on the issue out of the press, but that hasn't stopped the good guys from fighting back. Media Research Center reporter Dan Joseph took his team to a pro-amnesty rally in Boulder, Colorado, and started asking attendees if they had heard of Kate, or her namesake law. You can see what happened in the video below. At about the 1:38 mark, MRC finally finds a rally attendee who has at least heard of Kate's Law and is willing to say that illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes should not be allowed to remain the country. (Never fear---ten seconds later two women come together to blame the human condition for brutal murders, as opposed to the people who commit them.)

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 05, 2015 10 Comments
Bernie Sanders handed the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton on a silver platter when he said people were sick of hearing about her "damn" emails at the first Democratic Party debate. Hillary knew it then but Bernie is just figuring it out now. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published yesterday, Bernie got tough with Hillary Clinton, four weeks too late. Peter Nicholas reports:
Bernie Sanders Takes Gloves Off Against Hillary Clinton in Interview Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is drawing sharper distinctions with front-runner Hillary Clinton, casting her policy reversals over the years as a character issue that voters should take into account when they evaluate the Democratic field. Sen. Sanders of Vermont, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, also said the federal investigation of the security surrounding Mrs. Clinton’s private email account is appropriate.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 01, 2015 2 Comments
As much as I love electoral politics, every once in a while it's good to flip the switch, stop taking things so seriously, and enjoy a heartfelt laugh at the expense of the politicians working their tails off to convince me that I should support their campaigns. Let's not kid ourselves---this business is a circus, and we're in the stands with slurpees and big pretzels, waiting for the animals to eat each other. Fortunately, I'm not the only who likes to take out my mid-cycle high spirits on the candidates. The people at Bad Lip Reading took some highlights from the recent Democratic debate and did their worst with it. Watch:

Posted by Sarah Rumpf on October 29, 2015 22 Comments
When Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton had an event in South Florida earlier this month, he Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) sent a staffer armed with a video camera and a devastatingly damaging question: "Can you name her accomplishments?" On Wednesday, RPOF released a YouTube video showing Hillary supporters enthusiastically voicing their loyalty to her, but then stumbling when asked to name her top two accomplishments as either Secretary of State or when she represented New York in the Senate. "To be honest with you, I'm not too sure," says one supporter. "I couldn't tell you," says another. "Ummm, well, I'll be pretty honest with you, I didn't follow her very much when she was involved with those positions," says the third Hillary fan shown in the video compelled to "honest" about being unable to name any of her accomplishments. The very few specific answers were not incredibly helpful, with one supporter mentioning that while he felt she had improved women's rights in the Middle East, the "worst thing" she had done as Secretary of State was "Benghazi," while his friend smirks and agrees.
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