A non-stop cacophony of contrived cackles....
President Obama is preparing to nominate Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio as his new secretary of housing and urban development, elevating one of his party’s Hispanic rising stars as part of a cabinet shuffle that has possible implications for the 2016 presidential race, Democrats informed about the plans said on Saturday. Mr. Castro, who has often been mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate for the Democrats, would take the place of Shaun Donovan, who would become director of the Office of Management and Budget.... Mr. Castro, 39, won national attention in 2012 as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention, and he and his twin brother, Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, have become popular speakers on the party’s fund-raising circuit. Mr. Obama and the Democrats have predicated their future electoral hopes on appealing to the country’s growing Hispanic population as House Republicans have blocked their efforts to overhaul the immigration system.Scott Conrad also saw this coming, writing in August 2013, Vice President Julian Castro?:
Ben Carson Moves Toward Presidential Run Ben Carson is warming to the idea of running for president. Since the famous brain surgeon retired last year from Johns Hopkins Hospital, he’s been speaking around the country to enthusiastic audiences. And they’ve affected his thinking about seeking national office. “Over the years, there have been many attempts to get me to throw my hat in the political arena,” Carson writes in his new book, One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future. “I have been offered support from around the country and tremendous financial resources if I decide to run for national office. But I have not felt the call to run.”Ramesh Ponnuru offered a counterpoint at Bloomberg News...
There's been much speculation over whether or not Elizabeth Warren will run for president. Some folks have also suggested that Joe Biden may run for president. Here's a new question: What if they ran together? CNN's Peter Hamby reports...
Will Hillary be treated like Sarah Palin was back in 2008, when Palin appeared with her own child Trig, and was accused of using him as a prop?
From the Legal Insurrection archives:
Assertive little girls are leaders to be celebrated. Assertive little boys are rapists to be medicated. #SnipsSnailsPuppydogTails #banbossy
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 11, 2014If we're going to stop labeling little girls "bossy", can we stop labeling little boys with finger guns "psychotic latent mass murderers"?
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 11, 2014
After the meetings, the exhausted team declared the day a success. Attendees had been excited; had pinned “Iowans Ready for Hillary” buttons to their lapels; had smiled wide watching video clips from Clinton speeches; had even, at one point, broke into spontaneous applause and cheering at her mention. “If we build it, she will come,” said one of the meeting’s organizers, Bonnie Campbell, a former Iowa attorney general and Clinton administration appointee.... Another frustration emerged during meetings. In spending time and resources on a candidate who isn’t even in the race yet, some said, Ready for Hillary stages a “total inversion” of the traditional primary, as state Rep. Jo Oldson put it. Iowa, Oldson said, likes its candidates to beg voters — not the other way around. “This is just a different twist on how Iowans view getting into presidential campaigns,” she said. “It’s Iowa asking her to run, rather than the candidate asking Iowa to elect her.”All this We Want You To Want Hillary stuff could backfire, as Michael Warren at The Weekly Standard points out, Hillary Supporters in Iowa: She Can't Be Seen As 'Ordained':
To catch a predator takes a village....
In a new memoir of his time as secretary of defense in the Obama administration, Gates writes: “Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. . . . The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.” Oomph. Just to jog your memory, Clinton announced that she opposed the Iraq surge being pushed by President George W. Bush in the days leading up to the announcement of her presidential bid. She instead proposed a freeze in troop levels in the country and advocated for a troop increase in Afghanistan.... At one level, Gates's allegation is not at all surprising. Politicians factor in politics when making decisions? Gasp! .... But, remember this is Hillary Clinton we are talking about. And, the criticism that has always haunted her is that everything she does is infused with politics -- that there is no core set of beliefs within her but rather just political calculation massed upon political calculation. Remember that she began slipping in the 2008 Democratic primary when her opponents seized on an overly political answer on giving drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants during a debate in late 2007.
You better at least get ready. There's a buzz being fed. Warren gave a speech to the AFL-CIO today, and the "draft Warren" talk is starting. https://twitter.com/greenhousenyt/status/376851270759243776 https://twitter.com/mikeconrad1/status/376851928593870848 https://twitter.com/Organize20/status/376852557068386304 There is no bigger or better demagogue in American politics. No one is as keyed into the politics of...
Don Surber returns to the blogosphere....
Larry Sabato came out with his rankings of presidential contenders today. I was going to write about the downgrade of Marco Rubio, but that's old news. More interesting is the rankings of Democrats. There is no "First Tier" other than Hillary. The drop from Hillary to Joe...
for President in 2016. He's our best, and maybe only, hope. At a minimum he will generate numerous quotables regarding his likely opponent, Hillary. If by some miracle he's the nominee, it will be a big f-ing deal when it comes to our chances of winning the White...
That seems to be how this thing is going to develop. Private citizen Hillary is just going about her private business, helping establish the pantsuit as cultural icon and just chilling. The rebranding thing is really hard work. All the while, hapless fall-guy John Kerry travels the...
We never have underestimated her...
I'm writing to you to express my deep disappointment in your company's decision to air a miniseries promoting former Secretary Hillary Clinton ahead of her likely candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. As an American company, you have every right to air programming of your choice. But as American citizens, certainly you recognize why many are astounded at your actions, which appear to be a major network's thinly-veiled attempt at putting a thumb on the scales of the 2016 presidential election.... There's ample cause for concern. Executives and employees of Com cast, NBC's parent company have been generous supporters of Democrats and Secretary Clinton. David Cohen, Comcast's EVP, raised over $1.4 million for President Obama's reelection efforts and hosted a fundraiser for the president. Comcast Corp. employees have donated $522,996 to the president and donated $161,640 to Secretary Clinton's previous campaigns.... Out of a sense of fairness and decency and in the interest of the political process and your company's reputation, I call on you to cancel this political ad masquerading as an unbiased production. If you have not agreed to pull this programming prior to the start of the RNC's Summer Meeting on August 14, I will seek a binding vote of the RNC stating that the committee will neither partner with you in 2016 primary debates nor sanction primary debates which you sponsor.According to Breitbart.com, a similar letter was sent to CNN. (Letter added below, h/t Andrew Kaczynski) The RNC also has started a petition drive aimed at liberal media pro-Hillary bias:
Two recent articles provided explanations as to why Mitt Romney failed to win the presidency. In The GOP and the City Edward Glaeser writes: After the presidential election in November, New York Times exit polls found that Republican candidate Mitt Romney had received only 29 percent of...
