Month: October 2015

Clinton is a Political Reality TV star too

by digby

I wrote about Politics as reality TV for Salon this morning:

It’s obvious by now that Donald Trump and Ben Carson are not old fashioned political candidates. They are Reality TV stars. But it’s not fair to say they are the first. George W. Bush had his own star power, much of it a thinly constructed cowboy image that was given life by a terrible tragedy and unnecessary war. And no one can deny that President Obama’s first campaign had all the trappings of a major worldwide popular cultural event like Live Aid or maybe the Pope’s recent visit. But after watching last week’s Benghazi hearings, it’s clear that Hillary Clinton is a star as well. It might even be the case that she and her husband were the ones who first ushered in the political Reality TV era and remain its biggest stars.

Despite the fact that Trump literally hosted a very successful TV show for years, rather than “The Apprentice” where the winner is determined by one final arbiter, Trump’s presidential campaign is actually an American Idol type of competition where everything depends upon this week’s audience vote deciding if you continue on to the next round. His schtick is entirely based upon where he is in the polls and the more he stays on top the more he talks about being on top. He does sprinkle his stump speech with some riffs about Mexicans and “doing great deals with China and Japan” and how we’ll have “victories coming out of our ears” but really the speech is about how great he’s doing and how great he is, which is proved by the fact that he is number one. If the polls change and he loses ground anywhere but Iowa (where Huckabee and Santorum are previous winners, so it’s not surprising a thrice divorced city slicker would slip up there) we could see the sort of meltdown that happens when an “Idol” singer has a couple of bad performances and loses the audience forever.

Carson is the star of a much older type of reality show: the old-time Christian hour. He’s not a fire and brimstone type like Jerry Falwell or Jimmy Swaggart. But if you listen to him carefully, his intonation and body language are very much like the preacher who once ran for president and still runs one of the biggest Christian media companies in the world. It’s a calm, measured, confident recitation of gibberish and gobbledygook delivered with such conviction that you know he really believes what he says and says what he believes, even though it makes no sense. There is clearly a huge audience for this type of television star.

Bush was, as I noted, a fake cowboy who even created a western set for his TV show down in Crawford where he spent most of his presidency pretending that he was a tough hombre who wasn’t going to let some tin-horned terrorist tell him what to do. It was a huge hit for a while but after the first couple of seasons they lost the thread of the storyline and people turned away. Obama’s great pop cultural event of 2008 was a hugely successful worldwide TV special which was repeated to lower ratings at various times throughout his presidency. His loyal fans always watched, however, to sing along with the familiar tunes. (They’ll be singing them their whole lives.) Obama’s enemies created a competing horror show that kept them breathlessly engaged, but it never got the really big ratings.

But nobody comes close to Bill and Hillary Clinton — they are the stars of the nation’s longest running TV soap opera. They were the prom king and queen of 1960s youth politics and by the 80s, when their show was a small franchise on a tiny cable network, this husband and wife team already had the necessary elements of prime time politics in age of infotainment. By the time they got to Washington, their plot was set. Their show has heroes and villains and ups and downs and intrigue and sex and laughs and thrills. It is always a wild emotional ride and nobody ever knows how the season is going to end. Still, the heroes always prevail and the show always gets renewed. The audience often wishes it wouldn’t but they tune in anyway.

Politics is inherently dramatic, of course. It’s a big competition between opposing teams, a major sporting event with tons of emotional energy invested in who wins and who loses. And there have always been major events that draw the nation’s attention — tragedies, assassinations, wars, depressions. Homer and Shakespeare made tidy livings telling stories about them. But modern American political life is different. We have infotainment at least 16 hours a day. The internet goes 24/7. It’s a gigantic, gaping maw that must be fed with entertaining material or the audience will go elsewhere. Politicians must do more than simply react to dramatic events or make arguments and negotiate deals, they must be able to be star in an ongoing political spectacle.

Politics are TV entertainment and for it to be truly successful you need larger than life characters, celebrity politicians and pundits and journalists. This has never been more obvious than it is now with the Trump and Carson phenomenons. (Rick Perlstein made the point that Trump isn’t even a reality TV star so much as a World Wide Wrestling character.) It’s hard to imagine that either of these two shows will be able to maintain their entertainment value for the long term, and that’s important. Presidencies last longer than a TV season and you have to be able to build an audience and sustain it.

By that metric, Hillary Clinton is the biggest political star of all. Along with her husband, she has been in the harsh spotlight of national politics for 25 years, and has gone through more ups and downs, heartache and triumph than your average Telenovela heroine. She is hated by her enemies (yes, they are mostly Republicans) and adored by her fans. She is an object of fascination for virtually everyone. And it never seems to wane. Her relationship with the press is a riveting, if frustrating, game of cat and mouse and you never know which is the feline predator and which is the unfortunate rodent as it unfolds. And just when you think the game is done, it starts up again.

Now that she and her husband are grandparents, her marriage is no longer quite as titillating a preoccupation as it once was but you can imagine how the power angle will unfold should she win the presidency. The story lines pretty much write themselves. And needless to say, the villains in the Clinton Saga are among the most colorful we could hope for. From Newt Gingrich to Ken Starr to Roger Ailes to Trey Gowdy, even their names are Dickensian perfection. And they are very, very good at being what they are: foils. If you needed any proof of that, her appearance before the Benghazi committee last week should provide it.

read on ..There’s more. This isn’t all show, of course. There is real politics and real governance happening. But this is happening too and there’s no use denying it.

For better or worse, as the Benghazi hearings showed, Clinton can command the screen and the stage in ways that makes her opponents seem small. Perhaps, for this moment in our politics, that’s useful.

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Sanders hires Cesar Vargas, high-profile DREAMer activist, for Latino outreach

by Gaius Publius

In another smart move, Bernie Sanders has hired Cesar Vargas, one of the highest-profile and best-respected DREAM activists, to engage with him in Latino outreach.

It’s clear that whoever the Democratic nominee is, that person will have to win the Latino vote. It’s also clear that the way the Republican party is performing on immigration, the Democratic nominee will do quite well in the general election.

But what about the primary contest? There’s apparently a bit of a tussle among Latino activists about which candidate, Sanders or Clinton, is better for their community. Clinton, of course, has the implied or explicit endorsement of most of her party, including a number of prominent Latino politicians, like the Castro brothers — Julian Castro, former San Antonio mayor and current HUD Secretary, and Joaquín Castro, newly elected to the House of Representatives.

But Clinton has had her trouble, at least in the past (video at the link). She has since righted herself on the issue, staking out positions “to the left of President Obama.” But I wouldn’t count this part of the contest a foregone conclusion.

Cesar Vargas is one of the most prominent of the DREAM activists. Here’s the announcement, along with an indication of why he joined with Sanders, from Huffington Post:

Prominent Dreamer Joins Bernie Sanders Campaign

The undocumented activist has been critical of Hillary Clinton.

Cesar Vargas, a leading undocumented activist, joined Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign on Thursday, Vargas’ advocacy group announced — another sign the senator’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination is ramping up its efforts on immigration and the Latino vote.

Vargas is a co-founder of the Dream Action Coalition, which is led by young undocumented immigrants, or Dreamers. The group has been heavily critical of Republicans on immigration, but has also chastised President Barack Obama over deportations and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, one of Sanders’ opponents, over donations from private prison lobbyists

Dream Action Coalition has applauded Sanders for his efforts to ban government contracts for private prison companies, which also operate many immigrant detention centers.

As Huffington Post points out, Clinton has also hired an activist from United We Dream, and as noted above, her positions go beyond what Obama is doing. Still, the issue of lobbyist influence on other policies of concern to the Latino community is being raised, especially her support from (and of?) the prison-for-profit industry:

The organization did not endorse Sanders (I-Vt.) but praised him in statements Thursday. Dream Action Coalition co-director Carlos Vargas said Sanders “is a strong choice: he is great on immigration in general, stood with us on the border children and he wants to get the Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group and other corporations out of politics,” referring to two major private prison companies.

“At the same time that Bernie is trying to chase them out of DC, Hillary is accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from GEO and CCA’s registered lobbyists,” he continued. “[O]ne day they will call in several hundred thousand dollars worth of favors and skew the discussion on immigration reform to keep their detention facilities full.”

The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those donations.

Keep questions about for prison-for-profit support in mind as this primary battle unfolds. Neither candidate looks to be going away soon, which gives them plenty of time to gain leverage on their issues.

Targeting Nevada

One of the earliest Democratic primaries is Nevada, Saturday, February 20, third in the nation and less than two weeks after the New Hampshire primary. With at best an iffy contest for both candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire, a strong showing in Nevada would help with momentum going into the Southern contests.

In addition, Nevada and the Southwest in general have large Latino communities, among whom a variety of issues, such as imprisonment, can be expected to be debated. Don’t forget that the notorious “papers please” law that Arizona passed, SB 1070, was heavily financed by the prison-for-profit industry.

Cesar Vargas is expected to be working for Sanders in Nevada. BuzzFeed:

Bernie Sanders continues to grow his Latino outreach staff, adding Cesar Vargas, a high-profile DREAMer activist who has fought for undocumented youth to be able to serve in the military and advocated for Obama’s executive actions on immigration last year.

Vargas, who will initially focus on Nevada, joins the growing Hispanic outreach team led by Arturo Carmona, who recently left advocacy organization Presente to serve in the role as well as the southwest political director.

Vargas, 31, will work to mobilize young voters, particularly in the Southwest, where Nevada is the third state on the Democratic nominating calendar.

A source with knowledge said Sanders’s campaign said they are excited about the hire because of Vargas place at the heart of the DREAMer movement, which will help build a bridge to young Hispanics.

Vargas, who has tried to become the first undocumented lawyer to practice in New York, joins Javier Gonzalez, who was named the Nevada state field director. Gonzalez previously worked in labor for the SEIU, on organizing efforts like the million people “negra marchas” — marches for immigration efforts — in 2006.

Reached for comment, Carmona said Gonzalez hire will help Sanders in Nevada.

“It’s a huge deal. Javier Gonzalez comes from a line of organizing that has amassed a number of political victories organizing Latinos, immigrants, janitors and undocumented immigrants,” he said of his work in California where they worked together.

BuzzFeed notes that while there’s a great deal of progressive enthusiasm, “Clinton’s operation in Nevada features experienced operatives who have been in place since April and were part of Obama’s successful 2012 efforts in the state.”

Name Recognition

One of the problems Sanders faces is name recognition. This is from Huffington Post again:

Sanders has said he is trying to increase his Latino outreach. An August Gallup poll found that only 25 percent of Latino voters were familiar with him, compared to 75 percent who were familiar with Clinton. …

“What we are trying very, very hard to do — you are going to see us moving very aggressively in that area — is introduce myself to the Latino community,” Sanders said at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual Public Policy Conference on Oct. 7. “I will fight for every vote I can get in the Latino community.”

I don’t doubt that. This is turning into the most interesting political campaigns of most of our lifetimes.

Blue America has endorsed Bernie Sanders in this contest. If you like, you can help Sanders here; adjust the split any way you wish at the link.

(A version of this piece appeared at Down With Tyranny. GP article archive here.)

GP

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No slip-up, Sherlock
by Tom Sullivan

While George W. Bush finger-paints in Crawford, TX, Tony Blair is still taking heat in England for the Iraq invasion. A six-year public inquiry into the affair is still unpublished. Only now, tentatively, has Blair admitted things have not gone as smoothly as Bush/Cheney promised (emphasis mine):

Only one of Tony Blair’s mea culpas in his CNN interview stands out as truly significant: his partial acknowledgment that without the Iraq war there would be no Islamic State (Isis).

Until now, Blair had refused to link the two, insisting instead in the lead-up to the war that sending western troops would deny jihadis an arena and prevent Saddam Hussein from using them as proxies in his standoff with the west.

Blair would only admit there were “elements of truth” in claims that the Iraq invasion gave rise to ISIL, now in control of swaths of Iraq and Syria, just the opposite of a key public goal of the Iraq invasion:

“Of course, you can’t say that those of us who removed (former Iraqi dictator) Saddam (Hussein) in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015,” Blair told U.S. network CNN.

Critics say the U.S. decision to disband Saddam Hussein’s army after the invasion created a huge security vacuum exploited by al Qaeda, which was eventually replaced by Islamic State.

Der Spiegel examined in detail in April how Paul Bremer’s disbanding the Iraqi army contributed the rise of the Islamic State (IS). For those who missed it, the Guardian provided a condensed version on Sunday:

Perhaps even more directly relevant to Sunni grievances and the rise of Isis, was the US-run prison system, which started with rampant abuses at Abu Ghraib and evolved into mass detention, albeit of both major sects. Sunni jihadis said the prison system was their most effective organising tool.

A senior Isis commander has told the Guardian that without the Camp Bucca facility in southern Iraq, in which he and most of the senior leadership were at one point detained, there would be no Isis today. “It made it all, it built our ideology,” he told the Guardian last December, “We could never have all got together like this in Baghdad, or anywhere else,” he said. “It would have been impossibly dangerous. Here, we were not only safe, but we were only a few hundred metres away from the entire al-Qaida leadership.”

The Guardian’s Martin Chulov quotes a Baghdad resident’s reaction to Blair’s admission as “so obvious it’s surprising he bothered to speak.” Furthermore, “It really isn’t possible to come to any other conclusion. Without the invasion, we would not have Isis. It’s crystal clear.”

While Blair struggles to explain the mess he helped make in Iraq, George W. Bush makes a mess of painting the way he served as president, in “high-amateur” mode.

The non-partisan, upstanding NRA

by digby

Make no mistake, anti-gunners are “calling for forcible disarmament…” #2A https://t.co/Ou0AIpdu3R

— NRA (@NRA) October 20, 2015

Here’s the article to which they link:

This is where the survivors of the Democrat rebellion will meet their end.

I merely hope that we get to the 2016 elections. 

The radical left is getting much louder, much more shrill, and much more insistent in their desire to use force to get their way and impose their ideas on the American people.

If they try such a radical path it would end poorly and quickly.

The military and local law enforcement agencies in the United States that the radical left has been trashing in public since the Vietnam War until now will not take part in any plot to disarm American citizens.

Soldiers, Marines and sheriffs may even defect to actively resist any federal officers from a pool of just over 100,000 who would take on the suicidal task of taking on the military, local police, and a hundred righteously-angry million gun owners, led by over a thousand angry Green Berets that warned President Obama in 2013 not push his luck.

Who is left to carrying out these confiscatory fantasies but the radicals themselves?

Are Cornell University Art Professor Carl Ostendarp or Coppin State writing instructor D. Watkins going to going on raiding parties? Are comedian Amy Schumer and her Senator-cousin Chuck going to kick in doors? Somehow, I don’t see President Mom Jeans picking up a breaching ram and leading by example.

I’m glad that these totalitarians are finally showing their true colors to their fellow Americans, as it will assure a crushing defeat of their anti-American ideals at the ballot box. Perhaps then sane Democrats like Jim Webb can pick up the remains of the Democrat Party and either return it to something President Kennedy would have respected, or start something new.

Of course, we’ve got to get the elections, and these radicals are pushing hard for action, now, and they’re proving with every passing day that reason and constitutionality are the least of their concerns.

We do not want a civil war against the radical left wing of the Democrat Party, but let it be made abundantly clear that if they start one, they will be utterly destroyed by armed free citizens, as the Founders intended.

This is fantasy about killing Democrats. Explicitly. By a bunch of paranoid freaks who are armed to the teeth.

Using President Kennedy to sell this fantasy, a man who was shot in the head, was a particularly clever touch, I thought.

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Dispatch from Bizarroworld

by digby

Latest polling from AP:

Republican voters view Donald Trump as their strongest general election candidate, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that highlights the sharp contrast between the party’s voters and its top professionals regarding the billionaire businessman’s ultimate political strength.

Seven in 10 Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters say Trump could win in November 2016 if he is nominated, and that’s the most who say so of any candidate. By comparison, 6 in 10 say the same for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who, like Trump, has tapped into the powerful wave of antiestablishment anger defining the early phases of the 2016 contest.

“It’s the lifelong establishment politicians on both sides that rub me the wrong way,” said registered Republican Joe Selig, a 60-year-old carpenter from Vallejo, California. “I think Trump is more electable. He’s strong. We need strength these days.”

Trump and Carson are considered among the least electable general election candidates by the Republican Party’s professionals, those who are in the business of helping candidates run campaigns and win elections.

I think one of the most interesting characteristics of the average right winger is their absolute assurance that a majority of Americans think the way they do. I suppose some of that is understandable and that people of all political stripes think it to some degree. But they seem to be under the impression that there is really no opposition. So they’re shocked when they lose — and can’t believe it can possibly be fair.

They just refuse to accept this:

Experienced political strategists note that winning a general election and winning the Republican nomination are often very different tasks. The GOP’s most conservative voters — a group that is older and whiter than the nation as a whole — wield extraordinary influence in picking the nominee. Independents, moderate voters and minorities are far more important in general elections that draw many more people to the polls.

While Trump and Carson are popular in primary election polls, both have used divisive rhetoric in recent months that alienated some minorities. Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals during his announcement speech; while Carson said he would not support a Muslim presidential candidate.

“Republicans think (Democrat) Hillary (Rodham Clinton) is weaker than she is. They are wrong,” said GOP operative Katie Packer, who was deputy campaign manager for 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney. “They think we don’t need to win more women or more Hispanics to win. They’re wrong.”

I don’t know what will convince them. One of the main delusional conceits of the conservative movement is that the only reason they lose is because their candidates weren’t conservative enough. The movement leaders make a lot of money selling that line.

If Trump or Carson got the nomination and lost you can be absolutely sure that they would blame their iconoclasm for the loss — they will not say they should have gone with Jeb or Rubio. They’ll say they should have gone with the more doctrinaire Cruz or Jindal. I can’t imagine how they’re going to extricate their people from this cycle.

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Sunday Funnies

by digby

Well first, there was this:

The quiet car is no place for a loud-mouthed governor.

Chris Christie was reportedly kicked out of an Amtrak train car Sunday for yelling on his cell phone in one of the train service’s “quiet cars.”

The Garden State governor, known for his blunt and at times loud style, was spotted by fellow passengers in the quiet car on a 9:55 a.m. Amtrak train traveling from Washington, D.C. to New York, according to Gawker.

The struggling 2016 candidate “got on last minute yelling at his two Secret Service agents I think because of a seat mix-up, sat down and immediately started making phone calls on the quiet car,” passenger Alexander Mann told Gawker.

Christie appeared to be in the midst of an intense conversation and was heard repeating phrases including “this is frickin’ ridiculous” and “seriously?” according to Mann.

“After about 10 minutes the conductor asked him to stop or go to another car. He got up and walked out again yelling at his secret service. He was drinking a McDonald’s strawberry smoothie,” Mann told Gawker.

If you want a rude, insulting asshole for president why would you vote for this low rent jerk when you could have The Donald?

McFadden:

What Maureen Dowd has wrought

by digby

I’m not going to discuss her stale, recycled, sexist rant from this morning. She’s just speaking for the legion of her fellow anti-feminist Villagers who think they are successfully hiding their primitive adolescent worldview (and aren’t). Her column is the “Amos and Andy” of sexist newspaper commentary and they’re all laughing like it’s 1947.

But if you want to see how this plays out in the broader culture, take a look at this.

How hilarious.

Wherever you are this morning Jeopardy girl, I tip my hat to you. #liberals #pansy #Jeopardy pic.twitter.com/u9uUrxpqjT

— Harry Chaconas (@HarryChaconas) October 24, 2015

The New York Times must be so proud.

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QOTD: Ben Carson Part II — Blast from the Past

by digby

From last May before anyone was paying attention:

Appearing on CNBC’s online series “Speakeasy with John Harwood,” Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson defended comparing President Barack Obama to a psychopath, accusing him of lying about the unemployment rate.

“Obama, you referred to him as a psychopath,” Harwood noted. “What did you mean by that?”

“I said he reminds you of a psychopath,” Carson corrected.

“And tell me how.”

“Because they tend to be extremely smooth, charming people, who can tell a lie to your face with complete — it looks like sincerity, even though they know it’s a lie,” Carson said.

“Do you think he’s a liar?” Harwood pressed.

“Well, I think he knows full well the unemployment rate is not 5.5 percent,” Carson replied. “He knows that. He knows that people who are not well-informed will swallow it hook, line and sinker, even though they’re sitting there in the city and can’t find a job.”

He’s so much nicer than Donald Trump.

Speaking of being a smooth liar …

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QOTD: Ben Carson Part I

by digby

On abortion rights:

“Think about this. During slavery — and I know that one of those words you’re not supposed to say — but I’m saying it. During slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave, anything that they chose to do. And what if the abolitionists had said, ‘You know, I don’t believe in slavery, I think it’s wrong. But you guys do whatever you want to do.’ Where would we be?

Rape or incest, I would not be for killing a baby because the baby came about in that way. And all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who are the result of rape or incest.”

Comparing slaves to fetuses is always really creepy. But evoking the image of rape and slavery is worse. Women were raped and used for “breeding.” But who cares about women being forced go through childbirth against their will. No big deal.

I know this man was a wonderful surgeon and is beloved by many people. He’s also kind of a monster.

Sham democracy and kangaroo elections
by Tom Sullivan

In 2008, there were financial bailouts for megabanks and foreclosures for homeowners. There was vulture capitalist Paul Singer seizing an Argentine naval vessel in a dispute over debt in 2012. There was the European Central Bank bringing Greece to heel this summer after voters in January elected Alexis Tsipras to end the “vicious cycle of austerity.” Coming Soon: TPP. There are probably other cases as well. If it was not clear already who is really running the planet, here is another clue.

In Portugal’s elections earlier this month, Socialists, Communists, and the Left Bloc had won enough seats to form a coalition government, displacing the center-right Forward Portugal Alliance (PAF). And then?

Elections in Portugal this week offered the latest sign that when an individual European nation’s voters challenge eurozone austerity policies, the monetary union — and the international creditors it represents — takes precedence.

Portugal’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, fueled an ongoing debate about the future of European democracy on Thursday when he reappointed an outgoing center-right prime minister despite election results that gave three left-leaning political parties the majority of seats in parliament.

Silva asked incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho to remain and to form a new government. Opposition Socialists threaten to bring down his government with an immediate vote of no confidence.

Writing for the Independent, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard sees where this is going:

Greece’s Syriza movement, Europe’s first radical-Left government in Europe since the Second World War, was crushed into submission for daring to confront eurozone ideology. Now the Portuguese Left is running into a variant of the same meat-grinder.

Europe’s socialists face a dilemma. They are at last waking up to the unpleasant truth that monetary union is an authoritarian Right-wing enterprise that has slipped its democratic leash, yet if they act on this insight in any way they risk being prevented from taking power.

That is a nicer way of saying that what you thought was government by consent of the governed is really more like your student government experience in high school. The principal has the power to overrule. It is a sham democracy. Where once people might have held business’ leash, now we wear the collar.

This may still be reversible if Americans lead. But right now it appears there is only enough indignation for pushing back in Europe. America is so besotted with bread and circuses that people cannot even muster enough indignation to get off the couch, vote, and find out just how short their leashes actually are.

Fielding Mellish: I object, your honor! This trial is a travesty. It’s a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.