Vox Populi – 4-24-2015

What a week, President Obama and Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a truth off, our first female African American Attorney General had her nomination freed at last and was appointed and some of the early mudslinging against Hillary Clinton has started to stick a little. We’re chatting live about these and other events this week tonight at 7:00pm PDT right here on Vox Populi! Hope to see you then!

AdLib 7 days ago

Hey glenn!

AdLib 7 days ago

Well said!

AdLib 7 days ago

That’s a horse of a different color…black and blue.

AdLib 7 days ago

This week went well, how about you? This is exactly what I had been cautioning about Hillary, it’s a huge mistake for Dems to put all of their eggs on her basket.

AdLib 7 days ago

Hillary and Bill have led a very entangled and complicated life with politics and finance. Wall Street seems amused at her populist outbursts, they seem to be assured, maybe by Bill, that it’s all just a ploy to keep Progressives from getting into the primary.

AdLib 7 days ago

I think O’Malley will declare but I think his tactic of being seen as the top Dem Hillary basher is a mistake. He does need to take her on but if he looks too angry doing it, it will minimize him as a candidate.

AdLib 7 days ago

Make him look too calculated and petty. Whoever the candidate is who wants to be the alternative to Hillary, has to be confident and strong against Hillary but more affirmative about a vision than hammering Hillary.

AdLib 7 days ago

I’m not ready for Hillary, I expect to have a real primary first and in that pursuit, I’m less inclined to support her because that’s supporting a coronation.

AdLib 7 days ago

Hey Murph!

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – Who I’d like to see won’t run. Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, hey, I’ll take Al Franken!

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – Sure, I’m fine with O’Malley running, not sure that he has the charisma to beat Hillary as my suggestions might but happy to have him in the race.

AdLib 7 days ago

I can absolutely imagine that if Hillary has a cake walk to the GE, she’s tattooed with “scandals” that the GOP will have better luck sticking to her than stuck to Obama.

AdLib 7 days ago

The Clintons are drama magnets, Obama is no-drama Obama. And in a Presidential election, drama ain’t good.

AdLib 7 days ago

Hey Sabreen!

AdLib 7 days ago

Dems badly need a strong alternative to Hillary, to push his/her button in case of a Hillary meltdown.

AdLib 7 days ago

Imagine a badly wounded Hillary going into the GE against Scott Walker or Jeb Bush. Dems could lose and we’d be in for hell.

AdLib 7 days ago

Cool PPO, glad to have you here while you can be!

AdLib 7 days ago

ppo – Of course, it’s early but it’s an important reminder at this point that something severe could be uncovered on Hillary or Bill at the beginning of the GE or near election time and end up sabotaging Dem chances. We need a strong primary to shake out everything on Hillary and Bill that can be.

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – Walker’s polls are nosediving in WI because of all that. I think he’s a lot weaker candidate than the Kochs can imagine.

AdLib 7 days ago

ppo – I’d go the opposite route as well, Dems should list all the bills that would pass with a Repb in the WH, from privatizing SS and Medicare to killing Obamacare to increasing pollution and climate change and a SCOTUS that will rule hard right against the non-wealthy and minorities for a generation at least. Those fears are legit and Dems shouldn’t be afraid to hammer them.

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – What could be just as bad as uncovering new issues is just wallpapering her with scandals old and new and just creating a taint about her that’s enough for people to vote Repub just because they don’t want to deal with all the baggage.

AdLib 7 days ago

Sabreen – Completely agree! The Clintons should be the last ones that Dems should put all their hopes on. Anyone who remembers her 2008 run should know exactly why.

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – I advised in the midterm that Dems should run on national issues, as a team, saying what they will all accomplish for Americans if elected into power and what the Repubs will do if they gain complete power over Congress and the WH. Many voters will kneejerk elect their Congressperson but if they realize their vote is to bring about national impact, that could change things. And I feel confident GOTV will be alive and well for Dems in 2016.

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – Yes, I think a candidate who doesn’t attack the individual Repubs but what policies they stand for would be very successful. And facts and figures and simple Ross Perot charts could only help. Get Americnas to understand what’s at stake, what the reality is and the choice is much clearer.

AdLib 7 days ago

Sabreen – Very good point, scandals aside, there could be a health issue or, sorry to say, an accident of some kind that would require someone else to step up and if no one of substance has been campaigning in the primary, Dems would be caught flat footed and unprepeared to win.

AdLib 7 days ago

Sabreen – I don’t know that the Dems as a party actually develop Presidential candidates. Repubs try to do that but even for them, they have a few manufactured ones and many more unaligned ones. Dems struggled for many Presidential elections in the past trying to find Presidential candidates. Consider Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry, all were good men but weak candidates. And the Repub field shows how hard it is to find a good candidate even though they have over 20!

AdLib 7 days ago

I think the Castros hold great potential but they haven’t had the high enough public profile Obama had before running. Remember, Obama had captured Progressive Dems’ imagination as Warren does now. His run would be more like Warren running now. The Castros don’t have that cache yet.

AdLib 7 days ago

Sabreen – I think after having a President with the middle name of Hussein, Castro would be a breeze.

AdLib 7 days ago

Sabreen – I think those Purist Dems are like Tea Partiers, very loud but a minority of the party. Unlike the TP, they can’t get anyone elected though, they can just bitch and try to dissuade Dems from voting.

AdLib 7 days ago

Rubio looks and sounds like a small child in a man’s body, he doesn’t have the inteligence or gravitas to look Presidential against a solid Dem candidate.

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – Yep, but I think Purist Dems only have a chance at making any kind of a difference in off year elections. The stakes are too high in Presidential elections and their whining is drowned out by the threat of what Repubs could actually do.

AdLib 7 days ago

Sabreen, I agree with your sentiment but Bill Clinton was the last Dem President, ending his term in 2000.

AdLib 7 days ago

What Dems should remember is the hell they ived through under Reagan, Bush 1 and especially Bush 2! Any Dem would be better than any Repub.

AdLib 7 days ago

Sabreen – I would have to agree that most Americans are ignorant. No necessarily stupid but poorly informed about politics, how democracy works nowadays and prioritizing so they aren’t manipulated on hot button issues to actually vote against their own interests. A real lack of critical thinking…which I remember TX legislators wanted barred from being taught in schools.

AdLib 7 days ago

The good thing is that less people are getting their information from the MSM but the bad thing is that many still are and they are run by corporations that have one main goal that they share with Repubs, making the wealthy (themselves) wealthier at the expense of 99% of Americans.

AdLib 7 days ago

Sabreen – If one was to assume Americans made decisions by weighing what they’ve witnessed in recent years from both party’s actions and positions, then they would seem quite imbecelic. I wonder though if it’s more the case that they are apathetic and don’t care enough to pay attention and remember things as folks here do, they vote based on their habit and they only concentrate on what BS is being thrown about just before the election. I think most Americans are just socially irresponsible more than moronic.

AdLib 7 days ago

Whoops, Sabreen left so quickly! Night Sabreen wherever you are!

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – I would like to see Dems make the “ownership” of politicians by billionaires like the Kochs, a bad thing. Americans should be crossing candidates off their list based on whether they are owned by billionaires. That would swiftly cut the legs out from under the billionaires and their spending.

AdLib 7 days ago

Hey Murph, what happened?

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – We should make billionaires radioactive, any pol close to them should be rightly deemed corrupt and that would make candidates have to renounce their allegience to them and taking their money.

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – Well, glad you made it back!

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – I think this week has underlined the importance of a strong Dem primary with viable alternatives. Who knows what real or manufactured scandals will stick to Hillary and if we have no one ready to step in, Repubs will win.

AdLib 7 days ago

And as Sabreen mentioned, what if Hillary had a health issue or an accident, Dems can’t be left flailing around helplessly for a candidate. A strong alternative is needed.

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – Obama was unimaginable as a candidate at this point in the 2008 race, everyone knew it would be Hillary.

AdLib 7 days ago

glenn – I believe that someone can indeed rise up this time around. We just don’t know who that will be.

AdLib 7 days ago

Indeed!

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – I don’t think we’ll have another Obama, it will have to be a different type of person who captures the Dems’ confidence. Obama’s path was a fantastic path but few Presidents have come along like him before.

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – Many pols plan their Presidential run and 99% fail. There is an aspect to being the right person at the right time. After 8 years of Bush, the majority wanted someone young, someone who offered hope and a chance for bipartisanship. And, they were tired of war. That was the real issue that Hillary handed to Obama and allowed him to take her on, she voted for the iraq authorization for war and Obama didn’t. Take that one issue away from Obama and I think Hillary wins the Dem primary in 2008.

AdLib 7 days ago

Whoops, glenn left before I could say it but I’ll say it anyway, have a great weekend!

AdLib 7 days ago

Warren isn’t running, this isn’t the right time for her, to oppose Hillary in a primary. To destructive and divisive and she knows that. So who could it be? That’s a good question. My only answer is that nature abhors a vacuum. Remember in 1992, when Bush 1 had a 91% approval rating after the first Iraq War, no likely Dem candidates would run and there was this unknown, small southern state Governor who saw that as opportunity and jumped in. And he became President as his wife is trying to be.

AdLib 7 days ago

“too” destructive, that is.

AdLib 7 days ago

Maybe O’Malley can catch on. Maybe it will be someone else but there will be other candidates in the primary and once they’re on the same stage as Hillary and debating her, they will be seen as a peer and whoever does best will be seen as a solid alternative.

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – Yep but Obama didn’t have anything like that on his resume.

AdLib 7 days ago

A first term Senator who made a memorable national speech, those were Obama’s only credentials to a nation that didn’t know him well and was ready to elect Hillary.

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – He was only a first termer in the Senate, he didn’t have a lot of accomplishments and polls back then show he was a virtual unknown to most Americans (though many of us would never forget him after his DNC speech).

AdLib 7 days ago

Voters have to know the candidates and vote for them instead of others. Obama was well liked by Prog Dem insiders but I remember very clearly that Hillary was ahead of him and the rest of the Dem primary pack in December 2007 by a huge margin.

AdLib 7 days ago

Here’s a blast from the past: “Clinton’s lead over Obama has expanded to nearly 30 points in Gallup’s latest poll, conducted Oct. 12-14: 50% vs. 21%.”

AdLib 7 days ago

Obama needed several things to happen to open his path to the nom. One was Hillary’s sense of entitlement which allowed him to grab Iowa while she bathed in her hubris. Edwards blowing up was also necessary, he was pulling many of Obama’s voters away and keeping him far back. A number of other things including Bill’s going mental and racist and Hillary getting all royal and claiming she would go around the elections and win with Superdelagates.

AdLib 7 days ago

Exactly! That’s my point, the times make the man or woman and if someone who may not be at the top of our list right now jumps in, smart enough to know that as long as they are there, they have a chance to be the right person at the right time, that can happen.

AdLib 7 days ago

Clinton and Obama, our last two dem Presidents were both nationally unknown underdogs when they jumped in their races.

AdLib 7 days ago

As sad as it is to say, I don’t think that most Americans knew who Obama was back in 2007. Only because he ran, did people get introduced to him. That’s how it would have to be for an underdog candidate this time around.

AdLib 7 days ago

It’s interesting to project how that will end up for them. Will it end up as Clinton Fatigue or Republicans Whipping Up Scandals Fatigue. It’s actually a very easy answer for Hillary, let them be hateful and negative, if she counters with what she will do that’s positive and what they would do that’s negative, I think they’ll begin to look like the nasty haters they are and even though it’s Hillary, they will be seen as men bullying a woman to keep a woman from becoming President.

AdLib 7 days ago

I agree that Obama had many supporters but it was a fraction of the supporters and money that Hillary had behind her. Obama wouldn’t have won on that, he needed the strategy of going after the caucuses as he did, the turns of Fate that aided him (remember when the Rev Wright thing came out and Hillary and the Repubs were bashing him on it, it gave him the opportunity to make his speech on race which turned things around for him…he was almost knocked out at that time. The turn of events had a lot to do with his win.

AdLib 7 days ago

O’Malley is already going down that road to try and be her main opponent.

AdLib 7 days ago

That’s the thing about elections, they’re like sharply winding roads, you can never see what’s coming around the corner, usually the unexpected, and how it can change the fate of candidates. Knowing history, Dems need to be prepared for something knocking Hillary off her pedestal.

AdLib 7 days ago

Er…so does united front mean they oppose a healthy primary? That kind of thinking doomed Dems in the past. I do agree with solidarity but it can’t be manufactured, a leader has to encourage it and coronating Hillary won’t make that happen.

AdLib 7 days ago

That’s quite a doom and gloom scenario, I don’t buy it all but I know that this is what the plutocrats and Repubs would love to be the case and they’re working for it. That will not however convince Dems to oppose democracy in their primary, just the opposite.

AdLib 7 days ago

No question, the huge gobs of money will play a big role but GOTV for Dems is a counterweight…as is portraying the Billionaires and their pet pols for what they really are, enemies of democracy and the majority.

AdLib 7 days ago

Poor Bruce Jenner…he just can’t seem to figure out which way he should turn.

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – Instead of also opposing democracy (in their primary), Dems really should focus a campaign on exposing the evil of the Billionaire Class and how they are using their money and pet monkeys (Repub candidates) to take over our democracy. That would be a campaign that paid dividends for the Dems. Trying to squelch competition against Hillary though will be self-destructive, alienating many Dems including me.

AdLib 7 days ago

Murph – That’s not the case. Dems don’t win off year elections, to say that’s reflective of what turn out will be in 2016 isn’t accurate. Dems lost hugely in 2010 and Obama won decisively in 2012. That’s the pattern that repeats itself.

AdLib 7 days ago

We’ll have to wait, Hillary only announced less than a week ago.

AdLib 7 days ago

A positive blip? Dems won 1 million more votes than Repubs in the House but due to gerrymandering, Repubs only lost a few seats…but they did lose seats.

AdLib 7 days ago

State elections are all over the place, Repubs have poisoned the well in many ways but Governors are elected directly by voters and that can change the party. As for legislatures, the blue states are pretty solid in reflecting their population, red states aren’t and some purple states aren’t. It is a long haul fight but we don’t want to end up in a situation where the operation is successful but the patient (democracy) died.

AdLib 7 days ago

I don’t understand your point. In 2010, Repubs control of redistricting meant we’d have 10 years of their overrepresentation and Dems’ underrepresentation. That doesn’t make 2012 a blip anymore than 2008 was a blip. It just means that until at least 2022, that’s the way the game is slanted, Dems have to super-overachieve just to get power in the House. But…they can still win the Presidency and the Senate as always.

AdLib 7 days ago

Have a great weekend, see you then!

AdLib 7 days ago

Sounds good!

AdLib 7 days ago