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2016 Republican Primary Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 11, 2016 13 Comments
You may remember the October 28, 2015 Republican Debate held by CNBC. Memory as in bad memory. The moderators were abysmal, but John Harwood stood out as the worst among them. National Review wrote at the time:
The emerging consensus from tonight’s CNBC debate is that the moderators were rude. John Harwood in particular distinguished himself by not just asking tough questions, but asking them in the most insulting possible way — interrupting candidates mid-reply, offering his own editorializing, and shouting down candidates attempting to defend themselves. Chris Christie seemed to capture the mood of the candidates and the crowd when — angry at Harwood’s hectoring — he finally said “even in New Jersey what you’re doing is rude.”
I wrote at the time, GOP needs to make an example of NBC News:

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 03, 2016 53 Comments
We reported yesterday on Joe Scarborough's statement that Republicans, conservatives and so-called right-wing bloggers had been contacting him to ask about Donald Trump's "mental health." Scarborough himself called Trump "unhinged." Joe took things a significant step farther on today's Morning Joe, saying that Republicans have been contacting him, asking themselves "is Donald Trump a sociopath?" Scarborough was careful to state "I didn't say this, but this is what everybody is saying." Scarborough dropped the s-word in the context of hammering Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W., over his lesser-of-two-evils support of Trump.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 26, 2016 54 Comments
A little levity to kick off your evening -- yesterday, the good folks of Bad Lip Reading released an abbreviated and hilarious rendition of Senator Cruz's controversial RNC speech. If you're not familiar with Bad Lip Reading, they dub over clips of all kinds (not just political) with nonsensical garble.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 21, 2016 32 Comments
Welcome to our live coverage of the final night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 7:10 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors. I'll be updating throughout the evening as the situation warrants. Full speeches can be found beneath the Twitter feeds as they're available.

The lineup:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 20, 2016 264 Comments
This is now one of my top five favorite moments in convention speeches. Senator Cruz was given a prime time slot in Wednesday's Republican National Convention lineup. Cruz didn't encourage convention goers and watchers to vote Trump, rather to vote their conscience. When delegates realized he wasn't going to explicitly endorse Donald Trump, they began booing and jeering. Then, Donald Trump made an entrance before Cruz had finished his speech. That moment in all its glorious awkwardness:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 20, 2016 64 Comments
Welcome to our live coverage of the third night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 7:30 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors. I'll be updating throughout the evening as the situation warrants. Full speeches can be found beneath the Twitter feeds as they're available.

The lineup:

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 20, 2016 27 Comments
Where does Rachel Maddow's feminist solidarity end? When a woman has the audacity to support a Republican . . . On MSNBC, commenting on tonight's RNC, Maddow twice mocked speaker Natalie Gulbis, a professional golfer, for her current modest world ranking of about 500. In doing so, Maddow ignored the fact that Gulbis is a former #6 on the LPGA money list, has won four professional tournaments and at one point placed in the top 10 in four consecutive major championships. If Tiger Woods spoke for Trump, I suppose Maddow would dismiss him as "the 628th golfer in the world" [his current ranking.]

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 19, 2016 49 Comments
Welcome to our live coverage of the the second night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 8:00 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors. I'll be updating throughout the evening as the situation warrants.

The lineup:

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 19, 2016 51 Comments
John Heilemann came up with a strange way to defend Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and to attack Melania Trump, for the plagiarism in speeches each of them gave. On today's Morning Joe, Heilemann argued that Biden and Obama's plagiarism wasn't as bad, because they ripped off fellow liberals: Neil Kinnock and Deval Patrick, respectively. In contrast, passages in Melania's speech came from a 2008 Michelle Obama speech. Per Heilemann, that made Melania, or the person who prepared those passages for her, a "moronic plagiarist." Heilemann omits one important thing: Melania is the wife of the candidate, for whom English is not even her second language. In contrast, at the time they gave their plagiarized speeches, Biden and Obama were presidential candidates themselves. They were almost certainly directly involved in the plagiarism.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 18, 2016 22 Comments
Welcome to our live coverage of the the first night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 8:00 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors.

The lineup:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 18, 2016 133 Comments
Chaos erupted on the Republican National Committee Floor Monday afternoon when a request for a roll call vote was denied by the party chair. The vote, which likely would've failed, would've unbound delegates, freeing them to vote their conscience. But the vote never happened. On the roll call vote's first introduction, the chair took a verbal vote, quickly decided the measure had failed, and attempted to move the convention forward. Delegates on the floor loudly protested. Well-known figures like Sen. Mike Lee and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli were involved in the floor fight. Meanwhile, the chairman and his compadres vacated the podium.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 15, 2016 57 Comments
The GOP handed the anti-Trump movement a defeat when they stopped an attempt to unbind delegates, which would allow them to "vote for any candidate they like." In fact, the voice vote for Trump was loud "the presiding officer did not need to call for an official count."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 15, 2016 76 Comments
With all the money, all the resources, and all the graphic design talent at their disposal, the Trump campaign, in conjunction with the RNC's joint fundraising committee, decided to roll with TP2016. T.P. Which, given how the 2016 cycle has gone, I suppose is par for the course. Shortly after Trump tweeted confirmation he'd selected Indiana's Governor Pence as his running mate, the new logo graced a fundraising email and was slapped across the internet for all to see (and mock). The logo is rather...suggestive. At least to many a politico and casual observer.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 15, 2016 10 Comments
It's on Twitter so it must be true. Using his Twitter account, Trump confirmed his selection of Pence as his Vice Presidential candidate Friday morning:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 14, 2016 21 Comments
Though the official announcement is not scheduled until tomorrow morning, Roll Call reports Donald Trump has selected Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate.
Gov. Mike Pence, R-Ind. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) Donald Trump is planning to announce that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is his choice for his vice presidential running mate, according to a Republican with direct knowledge of the decision.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 14, 2016 15 Comments
Joe Scarborough couldn't have been kinder as he slid the shiv into Mike Pence this morning. The opening segment of Morning Joe was devoted to the veepstakes, and Scarborough politely trashed Pence while making the case for Chris Christie. Scarborough went out of his way to praise Pence as an "able leader" and someone he likes. But he proceeded to say that Pence wasn't "ready for prime time." Joe broke out the deer-in-headlights metaphor and analogized Pence to previous running-mate "disasters." On the other hand, Joe argued that Christie is someone who has been on the national stage, capable of destroying Marco Rubio with one debate, and who is best equipped to prosecute the case against Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 13, 2016 31 Comments
John Heilemann, co-host of Bloomberg TV's With All Due Respect, surely leans left, but is generally a savvy political analyst in my book. But Heilemann went haywire with his prediction today. He suggested that violence in the streets of Cleveland would hurt Donald Trump's chances of being elected president. Really? If there are, as Heilemann said,"images of chaos and disorder" in the streets, wouldn't Americans tend to turn to Trump, who has cast himself as "the law and order candidate?" And violent anti-Trump protesters, whether or not they expressly say so, would be in essence urging people to support Hillary, not Trump. Are Americans likely to reward Hillary for the violent actions of her, at the very least, tacit supporters? Just as Trump's numbers went up when unruly protests shut down his rally in Chicago during the primaries, violence at the RNC would likely benefit Trump, in this Insurrectionist's opinion.
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