New Lineup of Primary States? Yes, Please.

February 03, 2023 By: El Jefe Category: 2024 Election

Joe Biden has never been afraid of getting out in front of his party, or even his boss when he was VP.  After all, we have Biden to thank for dragging Obama over the line on marriage equality when it counted, and he’s also done it on assault weapons, troop support, healthcare, and other key issues.  He’s doing it again by shaking up the 2024 primary season, and that shake up is long past due.  The most controversial elements of the schedule is pushing South Carolina to the front, and relegating Iowa farther down the line.  New Hampshire would share the second night with Nevada.  Not surprisingly, Iowa and New Hampshire are pissed.

I happen to agree with Biden 100% in this change.  First let’s look at the obvious – diversity.  Iowa and NH are two of the whitest and most rural states in the US.  Iowa is 90% white.  NH is 87% white and packed with libertarian gun crazies.  After all, their state motto is Live Free or Die, which is not exactly comforting or consensus building.  Ignoring all other factors, the demographics alone disqualify these states as leaders, period. But it gets worse. In the last 12 primaries, Iowa chose a candidate who didn’t eventually win the nomination 4 times.  In 1976, in fact, Uncommitted beat Jimmy Carter by 10 points. In those same historic primaries, NH picked the wrong candidate 5 times.  To me, though, the death blow for Iowa happened in 2020 when it took them THREE WEEKS to announce the results, and that delay managed to pick…wait for it…Pete Buttigieg.  Biden placed fourth.  The Iowa caucuses can best be described with the words SHIT SHOW and have caused the state to lose all claims to being first in the primary/caucus season.

The rest of Biden’s plan is to push very important states to the front – South Carolina, then adding Nevada to the second week along with NH.  Those states will be followed by Georgia and then Michigan to round out the early states.  This plan makes a lot of sense as it brings demographic diversity, geographic diversity, and battleground states into the early results which will hopefully bring candidates with the broadest appeal to the front sooner.  This is a welcome change that has a number of advantages, not the least of which is motivating more people to participate.   I won’t be surprised, though, if the calcified leadership of the DNC kills it, once again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Iowa Now On the Bubble

February 02, 2021 By: El Jefe Category: 2024 Election, Democrats

The DNC is now considering what to do about Iowa in terms of where it sits in the order of presidential primaries, since it is traditionally first to go in the presidential race every 4 years.  My opinion?  Dump it.  The unmitigated shitshow of 2020’s caucuses should be the nail in the coffin of Number One Primary, but it goes beyond that.  Iowa voters are not predictive of a winner; its population is older, more rural, and generally less informed than many other states. As an aside, I even question the importance of New Hampshire, but whatever, let’s dump on Iowa tonight.  I’ve got an idea, how about we start out with Super Tuesday and just go from there?

There’s also other upsides to dumping Iowa; no more stupid steak fries, corn on the cob roasts, butter cow sculpture contests, and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on bus rentals going from VFW hall to VFW hall to press the flesh of octogenarians.  On top of that, the Iowa Dems can’t even manage implementing a Goddam iPad app, hence 2020’s disaster.  In short, fuck those hayseeds.  Go to the back of the line; sit down, shut up. Eat your corn.

Not that I’m opinionated.  Or worn out.  Or just sick of hearing about Iowa.  Rant over, good night.

That was Just Awful 2

August 01, 2019 By: El Jefe Category: 2020 Election

Last night, CNN persisted with their silly lightning round “debate” format encouraging 0% candidates to attack the few actual serious candidates.  Whoever thought that was a good idea was wrong, dead wrong, because it gave idiots like Bill De Blasio, who has ZERO chance of being nominated, an amplified voice to attack the front runner.  To illustrate the point, here is a chart I built that plots each candidate’s average national poll average from realclearpolitics.com against the minutes they talked during this round of debates as timed by the Washington Post.  To be clear, though, what’s illustrated here is total airtime, not the subject of that airtime.  For example, over HALF of Biden’s airtime was spent defending himself from attacks most of who are polling at less than 5% nationally.  The blue bars are national average poll percentage.  The orange bars are airtime spent in this round of debates.  Have a look:

This chart illustrates how goddam stupid the DNC is allowing 0% candidates on a national debate stage.  What it doesn’t illustrate, and it’s an important point, is that these 0% candidates used their time to attack…wait for it…Barack Obama.  It was shocking how, to get at Biden (and to be fair, Harris did it, too) these candidates attacked policies of the Obama administration.  The burning dumpster in the room, Donald Trump, was almost completely ignored while Joe Biden fought off withering attacks on his record of 50 years of public service.  The entire episode was shameful, set up by CNN as some silly cage match, and enabled by the incompetence of Tom Perez and the other leadership of the DNC.

During both of these most recent debates circular firing squads I followed several debate threads.  Almost every one of those threads, which were of DEMOCRATS, had a number of “Sleepy Joe” and “sleepy old white man” comments that were surprising.  And what was shocking were that many of those making those comments supported Warren or Sanders.  Let’s look at some of the ages of some well known people:

Bernie Sanders – 77
Joe Biden – 76
Elizabeth Warren – 70
Charlie Watts – 78
Mick Jagger – 76
Keith Richards – 75
Ronnie Woods – 72

I saw the last four guys outperform most 20 year olds onstage last Saturday.  So let’s be fair here.  If you’re a Bernie or Warren supporter, attacking Biden for his age is hypocritical and a Trump talking point.

But I digress from slamming the DNC and CNN for yet another disastrous night for Democrats that HURT not helped them mount an offense against the worst president in US history.  It’s long past time for the DNC to stop being stupid, get 75% of those people off the stage so we can have a serious discussion about the future of our nation and strengthening actual candidates so they can aim their fire where it should be aimed, Donald Trump, not each other.

Democratic Party Votes to Reinstate…Democracy

August 26, 2018 By: El Jefe Category: 2016 Election, Democrats, Hillary

Until 1968, Democratic Party bosses picked its candidates.  In 1968, Eugene McCarthy, who had won the most primaries, was pushed aside when party bosses picked Humphrey.  As we all know, Nixon beat Humphrey, which began our long national nightmare which ended in scandal and Nixon’s resignation in 1974.  In 1970, the party became democratic by giving the votes to the rank and file, but in 1972, the party nominated McGovern, who was slaughtered in 49 states by Nixon.  That’s when party bosses seized power again by inventing superdelegates, who had an outsized role in selecting candidates.  That outsized role was used to the extreme in 2016, which resulted in the second long national nightmare, the Trump era.  That happened when Hillary erected a huge wall of money and used that money to vacuum up almost all super delegates before the primaries even started in 2016, she abused Democratic Party rules to destroy the fundamental principle of our country – democracy.

Since the 2016 electoral disaster, the left side of the party has been at war with party leaders to get rid of superdelegates.  This weekend, they won a major battle when the DNC voted to reform the superdelegate system.  That reform took away the vote of superdelegates in the first vote in a contested convention. What that means is that if a candidate has enough votes to win the nomination without the superdelegates, they can vote.  If it hasn’t been decided yet, they have to wait on the sidelines on the first ballot.  This change, while not pure reform, is huge.  No longer can another candidate, like Hillary, use the party structure to suppress the vote of the rank and file before the primaries even start.  Because of this reform, party bosses like Donna Brazile, who had opposed the change are not happy.  Leaders like Karen Carter Peterson of Louisiana were outraged that their power to destroy democracy was being taken away.  Addressing the rules committee she said, “Are you telling me that I’m going to go to a convention, after my 30 years of blood sweat and tears for this party, that you’re going to take away my right?”  Well, Karen, if you mean your right to force your will over the voters, the answer is that you’re goddam right we’re taking away your right.  You abused that right, so now the people have taken that privilege away from you.  Welcome to democracy.

How do you like ‘dem apples?

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

 

Proposed DNC Rule Aimed at Sanders; Ignores Superdelegates & Corruption

June 12, 2018 By: El Jefe Category: 2016 Election, 2020 Election, Democrats

Friday, the DNC Rules and Bylaws committee proposed a rules change for the 2020 campaign.  The new rule is directed straight at Bernie Sanders:

The new rule specifically requires that someone running for president must declare in writing his or herself as a member of the Democratic party and that they will run and serve as a Democrat.  Easy, right?  Not so fast.  The two party system in the US is cemented in place by statute, creating an almost impenetrable wall to outsiders.  Party primaries are paid for by the taxpayers, and getting on the ballot in all the states as an independent presidential candidate is virtually impossible.  Because of this, the only realistic path to the presidency is as insurgency in one of the two entrenched  political parties.  You saw that in spades in 2016 where Trump used his television persona to hijack the GOP and Sanders’ grass roots campaign almost uprooted Hillary’s coronation.

This rule seeks to stifle competition for the nomination, all while DNC political operatives are loudly denying that fact, which is as obvious to normal people as a hillbilly at a Newport garden party.  Even while these operatives are all sniffy that outsiders understand their actual intent, Sanders supporters aren’t happy.  Mark Lonabaugh, a senior Sanders advisor, call the new resolution “stunning”.

Someday, establishment Dems will have to face the fact that they are way out of step with their constituents.  The Sanders phenomenon should have shaken these pillars of the party to the core, but it didn’t.  They are ignoring, at their own peril, the 13 million voters, many first time voters, who went for the tottering old candidate from Vermont instead of the tottering old candidate from New York, Chicago, Arkansas (pick your accent).  He brought a message of social justice, equity, and fairness that the Dems abandoned in the 1990s.  And it appears that, rather than learning from that experience, the DNC is trying to keep it from happening again by further rigging the rules in favor of the establishment.

Oh, and one last thing – While the DNC specifically designed a rule to keep out insurgents, there are no adopted rule changes to eliminate or significantly reduce the influence of superdelegates, and no rule that prevents a presidential candidate from controlling the national party until AFTER they are nominated.  It appears the Democratic party is the LEAST democratic organization in US politics, and that should piss you off.

 

UPDATE 2: Buckle Up, Kids, You Ain’t Going to Like this Ride

November 03, 2017 By: El Jefe Category: Hillary

UPDATED FOR COMMENTS ABOUT BERNIE NOT BEING A DEMOCRAT:

Note: My usual warning…If you are a strong Hillary supporter, and believe her political loss in 2016 was purely the result of misogynist pigs denying her her birthright, please, please, please DON’T read this.  You will hate it, guaranteed.  However, if you want a little inconvenient truth, buckle up.  This one is a bumpy ride, but there is something to learn here…

Remember how all you Hillary supporters dismissed everyone who criticized her during the 2016 election?  Remember the way you unfriended people like me on social media and labeled us misogynist pigs who were being too hard on her?  Remember insulting Bernie supporters and libeling him at every opportunity?  Well, I do, and I have something to say about that and more.

Yesterday, Donna Brazile, who is a really good person, above board, honest, and a loyal Democrat published an excerpt from her new book, Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House.  The excerpt described what she discovered when she took over the DNC after Debbie Wasserman Schultz was ousted during the Democratic Convention in the summer of 2016.  Her revelations about the state of the DNC is nothing short of shocking, but even worse, virtually all of the fears anti-Hillary folks had about how the nomination process was run were well founded. Hillary and her operatives HAD taken over the DNC and then proceeded to destroy every reform that had been implemented by Howard Dean and President Obama.

After Brazile took over the party, she first discovered that it had been deep in debt since the 2012 election and had been starved for cash since.  Worse, in September, she found the smoking gun.  She unearthed a document known as the Joint Fund-Raising Agreement between the DNC, the Hillary Victory Fund, and Hillary for America.  The document, negotiated between Robby Mook, Hillary’s campaign manager and the DNC,  handed FULL CONTROL of the DNC over to Hillary’s campaign office in August of 2015.  You read that correctly.  Hillary took full control of the DNC FIVE MONTHS before the primaries even started.  The DNC could do nothing without Hillary’s approval, including fund raising, staff hiring decisions, even press releases.

And file this under It Gets Even Worse; the money laundering charge that was asserted by Politico in May of 2016 was true.  We’ll let Brazile describe it herself –

“Individuals who had maxed out their $2,700 contribution limit to the campaign could write an additional check for $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund—that figure represented $10,000 to each of the 32 states’ parties who were part of the Victory Fund agreement—$320,000—and $33,400 to the DNC. The money would be deposited in the states first, and transferred to the DNC shortly after that. Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn.”

Money from the lavish fundraisers Hillary was holding all over the country for the DNC was actually laundered from the states, then to the DNC, and then to her own campaign coffers.  The state parties got less than ONE HALF OF ONE PERCENT.  So all you suckers donating in Texas to rebuild the party were actually backdoor funding Hillary’s campaign.  The party sucked wind. As Brazile describes this shameful scheme, the operation wasn’t illegal, but it was certainly unethical.

So let’s recap.  The charge that Hillary controlled the party during the primaries is true.  She controlled the DNC from the summer of 2015, controlling the primaries, party strategy, fund raising, management, and all other aspects of the DNC’s operation. Her people ran it, including the moron who ignored the FBI’s warning that the DNC’s email system was compromised.  The board of the DNC was sidelined.  The primaries WERE RIGGED.  Debbie Wasserman Schultz was nothing more than a tool for Hillary’s campaign, since she was installed to get Hillary elected.  The entire DNC effort from 2015 on had one goal – getting Hillary elected.

This shameful corruption does more damage than even Brazile described; it not only “compromised the party’s integrity” as she said, this documented and incontrovertible evidence of corruption plays directly into the stereotype of the Clintons running right on the edge of ethics and even legality.  While Hillary spoke loudly about campaign finance reform, blah, blah, blah, she was doing exactly, no, precisely the opposite.

You wanna know what really pisses me off?  These revelations of Hillary’s behavior adds fuel to the “lock her up” fire. It’s going from a bonfire to a 10,000 acre blaze that’s going to rage for months. Trump is already playing with the matches, tweet raging this morning that the FBI should investigate her criminality.  Here we go.

Hey, Hillary folks – hate Trump?  Well, goddamit, go buy a mirror.  Hang it on the wall, and then look into it for a long time.  Thanks.  For nothing.

UPDATE:  Let’s summarize comments from our hardcore Hillary supporters:

  1. Nothing to see here.  Move along.
  2. So?  Doesn’t everybody do it?
  3. She won by 3 million votes!
  4. It wasn’t criminal, so it’s OK.
  5. Bernie’s not a Democrat and wouldn’t have won anyway.
  6. El Jefe is an asshole.
  7. Brazile is a LIAR!
  8. Nuh Uh!

First, I didn’t believe Bernie would win the general, but I voted for him in the Texas primary.  What’s more important, and most Clintonistas IGNORE, is that the wall of money Hillary had erected scared off really good candidates like Joe Biden.  No one can deny that if Biden had run he would have decisively won.

Second, I’m always amazed at the prevarication and excuses from Hillary supporters.  Since when is corruption OK?  Trump and other Republicans are excoriated for this kind of conduct.  When it’s a Clinton, its like, “What? That’s a problem?”  I personally find it shocking the lengths Clintonistas reach defending her Highness, no matter the scale of the offense.

I personally witnessed the lengths that Howard Dean went to in 2006 and 2008 to make it clear that the DNC supported ALL candidates and was diligently neutral in partisan races.  He steadfastly defended neutrality and honesty.  Hillary poured kerosene all over those principles and struck the match herself.  Those who dismiss this kind of conduct are nothing short of radical hypocrites, and are no better than the hypocrites on the other side.

So there.

UPDATE 2: Lets talk about Bernie not being a Democrat.

This is the stupidest argument forwarded by Clintonistas.  “Bernie’s not a Democrat!” “He should have run on his own!”  “He should have not been allowed to run!”  And other BS.  OK, let’s settle this – BERNIE RAN UNDER THE RULES OF THE DNC.  HE QUALIFIED UNDER THE RULES OF THE DNC.  Period, end of story.  YOU may not like it, but he ran under the rules and qualified for the primaries.  He had EVERY RIGHT to run, even though YOU want to deny him that right.  The laws of the United States are stacked against independent runs.  It’s virtually impossible for an independent to qualify in all 50 states.  The state governments even pay for the major party primaries.  An independent run is virtually impossible to pull off.  You may hate him, but Bernie ran under the only rules that allowed him to run, AND HE QUALIFIED.  Don’t like that?  Then get all 50 states to make it easier for independent runs.  Until then, get over yourself and stop making stupid, irrelevant arguments.