The Neverending Thread for Political Shit

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

^^^The family has a lot of buffers, Senator.

I prefer to think of the Trumps less as the Corleones and more like a 21st century version of the Romanovs

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

when elected POTUS, I will execute any and all who utter the phrase "nothingburger"

[Cole Younger]

when elected POTUS, I will execute any and all who utter the phrase "nothingburger"

Man I freaking hate that term. And the people who use it think they sound cool.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

when elected POTUS, I will execute any and all who utter the phrase "nothingburger"

Man I freaking hate that term. And the people who use it think they sound cool.

I bet said people order their nothingburger extremely well-done and slathered in ketchup

If I had to do a shot for every time today I read the term, I would have been John Bonhamed before noon

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

when elected POTUS, I will execute any and all who utter the phrase "nothingburger"

[Flea]

The fun starts at 4 minutes...

[Iowan]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... ion-russia

Is the National Review "Fake News", Mr. President?

[Zip City]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... ion-russia

Is the National Review "Fake News", Mr. President?

Everything is fake news. He tweeted this morning that fake news was the source of the latest stuff with Donald Jr., despite the fact that DONALD JUNIOR WAS THE FUCKING SOURCE

[Iowan]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... ion-russia

Is the National Review "Fake News", Mr. President?

Everything is fake news. He tweeted this morning that fake news was the source of the latest stuff with Donald Jr., despite the fact that DONALD JUNIOR WAS THE FUCKING SOURCE

"To my 'son': YOU ARE FAKE NEWS"

[beantownbubba]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... ion-russia

Is the National Review "Fake News", Mr. President?

I loved this link on the side of the page: A picture of junior w/ the heading "Yes, there is such a thing as too dumb for government work."

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

I like how the Kinja sites call Don Jr "Not-Ivanka"

Yesterday i read this passage from Not-Ivanka's wife:

“I’m at this fashion show,” Vanessa Trump said, recalling their meeting in 2003. “Donald Trump comes up to me with his son: ‘Hi, I’m Donald Trump. I wanted to introduce you to my son Donald Trump Jr.'” The three engaged in a brief, awkward conversation. At intermission, the elder Trump again noticed a gorgeous girl nearby.” Donald comes back up to me again, ‘I don’t think you’ve met my son Donald Trump Jr.,'” Vanessa Trump recalled. She remembers responding, “Yeah, we just met, five minutes ago.” Six weeks later, at a birthday party at a New York restaurant, they were introduced a third time, this time by a mutual friend. Neither remembered the other. “We talked for an hour,” she recalled. Then suddenly, something clicked: Wait, you were at that fashion show. Wait, you’re “the one with the retarded dad!” Vanessa blurted out.

please note for the record that I am only the messenger here

[pearlbeer]

Aside from all of Junior's smoking guns...

Can anyone give me an explanation as to why Kush hasn't had his security clearances pulled? This, buy my count is the third Russian meeting he failed to disclose. He has repeatedly mis-represented himself on interactions with Russia. I'm sure everything will play out, but in the meantime, why in the FUCK have we not pulled his security clearances?

[Zip City]

Aside from all of Junior's smoking guns...

Can anyone give me an explanation as to why Kush hasn't had his security clearances pulled? This, buy my count is the third Russian meeting he failed to disclose. He has repeatedly mis-represented himself on interactions with Russia. I'm sure everything will play out, but in the meantime, why in the FUCK have we not pulled his security clearances?

Because everyone in Washington is complicit in this.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

You gotta be fucking kidding: Kid Rock hints at running for U.S. Senate

If I lived in Michigan I'd vote for ICP before Bob Ritchie- at least they KNOW they are clowns

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

ACLU Sues Arkansas Over Law That Could Require Rape Victims to Seek Rapists' Permission Before Abortion

[lotusamerica]

I just found this on my computer - written May 2015 and i have no idea what i was writing about or who i was writing to, maybe here? Anyway, not gloating or anything, I get more wrong than right. But what strikes me is how unsurprising it is how things have turned over the past 9 months now. Now what can we do about it? I admit, I'm not very hopeful...

I think we're very possibly in for another shift here in 18 months and an even stronger swing to the right than was seen in 2014. If the presidency, both houses of Congress, the Supreme court, most governorships and state legislatures and many appeals courts become controlled by one party, it could become a pretty different place quickly. I don't hear any messages from the left side that could rise to the level of being able to counter the tribal feeling I pick up on on the right, which has been able to combine the rich and much of the middle class in disdain for the poor, and split the poor into white vs. non-white to shave off many of them as well from thinking open-mindedly and creatively about what is happening, what it represents, and where it is heading. The left has played right into it by going along with many intrusive and oppressive policies and losing a bunch of people who are actually socially moderate or liberal but concerned about government overreach and overspending. In the UK, like in Australia, the social care elements have been chipped away and chipped away, and are at risk of disappearing largely because of really terrible messaging about what they actually do and its function in society. Unfortunately, I think the idea of communalism, that we're all in it together and a rising tide lifts all boats, is no longer a message that wins over anyone because most people no longer experience themselves primarily as a member of a shared, multicultural society, they experience themselves as a member of a particular subgroup. The left can finger wag all it wants about ethics and morals, common good and golden rules, but I just don't think it's a winning message anymore.

[Flea]

[beantownbubba]

The twists and turns in DC re healthcare and other ongoing legislative issues are intellectually interesting but really doesn't it all come down to horrible leadership? I never, ever would have guessed that Mitch McConnell could fuck up so badly and even now a part of me says that he must have something up his sleeve.

As attention starts to turn away from healthcare I'm starting to see hints that raising the debt ceiling is going to be a down to the wire issue yet again. How is this even remotely possible w/ one party control of the exec & legislative branches? Well, I guess the answer is no leadership, no guiding principles & no clue. This paralytic drift and the accompanying flailing about and directionless raging by Trump is a truly astonishing story that will only become clear and understandable (if at all) in retrospect.

[Tequila Cowboy]

The twists and turns in DC re healthcare and other ongoing legislative issues are intellectually interesting but really doesn't it all come down to horrible leadership? I never, ever would have guessed that Mitch McConnell could fuck up so badly and even now a part of me says that he must have something up his sleeve.

As attention starts to turn away from healthcare I'm starting to see hints that raising the debt ceiling is going to be a down to the wire issue yet again. How is this even remotely possible w/ one party control of the exec & legislative branches? Well, I guess the answer is no leadership, no guiding principles & no clue. This paralytic drift and the accompanying flailing about and directionless raging by Trump is a truly astonishing story that will only become clear and understandable (if at all) in retrospect.

Despite my deep and genuine loathing for the man McConnell is a brilliant tactician. I haven't changed my mind on that. The issue is that the GOP as a party is just about as fucked up as the Democrats are. They have better leaders, far better messaging and a lot ground troops given how many offices they hold nationwide but they're fractured in ways I don't think people realize. The health care bill has failed or stalled because of very different complaints from to disparate wings of the party. To find common ground was always a near impossibility, unless of course you counted on the resolve to get things done while choking back individual ideologies. That hasn't happened despite controlling all three branches of government. McConnell has tried to control that, and certainly in some ways he's far better at it than his House counterpart in Paul Ryan, but there is only so much he can do when you're talking about the very different viewpoints and political realities of say Jeff Flake versus Rand Paul.

[Cubfan06]

The twists and turns in DC re healthcare and other ongoing legislative issues are intellectually interesting but really doesn't it all come down to horrible leadership? I never, ever would have guessed that Mitch McConnell could fuck up so badly and even now a part of me says that he must have something up his sleeve.

As attention starts to turn away from healthcare I'm starting to see hints that raising the debt ceiling is going to be a down to the wire issue yet again. How is this even remotely possible w/ one party control of the exec & legislative branches? Well, I guess the answer is no leadership, no guiding principles & no clue. This paralytic drift and the accompanying flailing about and directionless raging by Trump is a truly astonishing story that will only become clear and understandable (if at all) in retrospect.

The lack of effective GOP leadership and the subsequent inability to get this key initiative of their agenda done is definitely astounding. IMHO, especially given the fact that the Dems are from my vantage point in shambles too. People like Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer are fine to be vocal leaders of the opposition right now, however I don't believe that either or anyone else currently in the forefront is a likeable enough, dynamic character to carry the torch in 2020. Biden would have won this election and he'd likely have enough popularity to do so in 2020, but he will also be 77 years old. So its hard to not think that ship has sailed.

I've seen Al Franken's name mentioned, however you run a huge risk of independent voter's not coming out for him.

Corey Booker seems like a solid candidate and might bring the minority voters back to the polls, but he may be a little wet behind the ears for such a run. He seems relatively likeable, which is a differentiation from the Dem's last candidate.

I could envision Hickenlooper bringing a decent balance for democratic populists, moderates, and independents. Is he dynamic enough to inspire the base in the primaries though?

I'm putting the cart far ahead of the horse, but it would be nice to see some strong leadership coming from the Democratic party in the coming months and years.

[Cubfan06]

The twists and turns in DC re healthcare and other ongoing legislative issues are intellectually interesting but really doesn't it all come down to horrible leadership? I never, ever would have guessed that Mitch McConnell could fuck up so badly and even now a part of me says that he must have something up his sleeve.

As attention starts to turn away from healthcare I'm starting to see hints that raising the debt ceiling is going to be a down to the wire issue yet again. How is this even remotely possible w/ one party control of the exec & legislative branches? Well, I guess the answer is no leadership, no guiding principles & no clue. This paralytic drift and the accompanying flailing about and directionless raging by Trump is a truly astonishing story that will only become clear and understandable (if at all) in retrospect.

Despite my deep and genuine loathing for the man McConnell is a brilliant tactician. I haven't changed my mind on that. The issue is that the GOP as a party is just about as fucked up as the Democrats are. They have better leaders, far better messaging and a lot ground troops given how many offices they hold nationwide but they're fractured in ways I don't think people realize. The health care bill has failed or stalled because of very different complaints from to disparate wings of the party. To find common ground was always a near impossibility, unless of course you counted on the resolve to get things done while choking back individual ideologies. That hasn't happened despite controlling all three branches of government. McConnell has tried to control that, and certainly in some ways he's far better at it than his House counterpart in Paul Ryan, but there is only so much he can do when you're talking about the very different viewpoints and political realities of say Jeff Flake versus Rand Paul.

Bingo. Nail-on-the-head. All of it.

I'd like to also add that both the broad and specific ideological differences in their party and the vast GOP figureheads(primary candidates) for those ideologies is what has left us with a Trump presidency. Without the over-saturation of those only slightly less crazy primary candidates, I don't believe that Trump would have stood a chance.

[Iowan]

The twists and turns in DC re healthcare and other ongoing legislative issues are intellectually interesting but really doesn't it all come down to horrible leadership? I never, ever would have guessed that Mitch McConnell could fuck up so badly and even now a part of me says that he must have something up his sleeve.

As attention starts to turn away from healthcare I'm starting to see hints that raising the debt ceiling is going to be a down to the wire issue yet again. How is this even remotely possible w/ one party control of the exec & legislative branches? Well, I guess the answer is no leadership, no guiding principles & no clue. This paralytic drift and the accompanying flailing about and directionless raging by Trump is a truly astonishing story that will only become clear and understandable (if at all) in retrospect.

The lack of effective GOP leadership and the subsequent inability to get this key initiative of their agenda done is definitely astounding. IMHO, especially given the fact that the Dems are from my vantage point in shambles too. People like Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer are fine to be vocal leaders of the opposition right now, however I don't believe that either or anyone else currently in the forefront is a likeable enough, dynamic character to carry the torch in 2020. Biden would have won this election and he'd likely have enough popularity to do so in 2020, but he will also be 77 years old. So its hard to not think that ship has sailed.

I've seen Al Franken's name mentioned, however you run a huge risk of independent voter's not coming out for him.

Corey Booker seems like a solid candidate and might bring the minority voters back to the polls, but he may be a little wet behind the ears for such a run. He seems relatively likeable, which is a differentiation from the Dem's last candidate.

I could envision Hickenlooper bringing a decent balance for democratic populists, moderates, and independents. Is he dynamic enough to inspire the base in the primaries though?

I'm putting the cart far ahead of the horse, but it would be nice to see some strong leadership coming from the Democratic party in the coming months and years.

I think Franken would do better with independents than the other names here.

He's a relatively popular Senator in a state that leans blue because 75% of it's population resides in one metro area. Minnesota is pretty conservative outside the inner ring of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro (Michelle Bachman represented the northern suburbs), and yet I've gotten the impression that Franken is at least tolerated around the rest of the state.

He's a white looking (he's Jewish) guy from the Midwest. I don't know his past career as a comedian will be viewed, but I could think of a lot worse candidates.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

The twists and turns in DC re healthcare and other ongoing legislative issues are intellectually interesting but really doesn't it all come down to horrible leadership? I never, ever would have guessed that Mitch McConnell could fuck up so badly and even now a part of me says that he must have something up his sleeve.

As attention starts to turn away from healthcare I'm starting to see hints that raising the debt ceiling is going to be a down to the wire issue yet again. How is this even remotely possible w/ one party control of the exec & legislative branches? Well, I guess the answer is no leadership, no guiding principles & no clue. This paralytic drift and the accompanying flailing about and directionless raging by Trump is a truly astonishing story that will only become clear and understandable (if at all) in retrospect.

The lack of effective GOP leadership and the subsequent inability to get this key initiative of their agenda done is definitely astounding. IMHO, especially given the fact that the Dems are from my vantage point in shambles too. People like Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer are fine to be vocal leaders of the opposition right now, however I don't believe that either or anyone else currently in the forefront is a likeable enough, dynamic character to carry the torch in 2020. Biden would have won this election and he'd likely have enough popularity to do so in 2020, but he will also be 77 years old. So its hard to not think that ship has sailed.

I've seen Al Franken's name mentioned, however you run a huge risk of independent voter's not coming out for him.

Corey Booker seems like a solid candidate and might bring the minority voters back to the polls, but he may be a little wet behind the ears for such a run. He seems relatively likeable, which is a differentiation from the Dem's last candidate.

I could envision Hickenlooper bringing a decent balance for democratic populists, moderates, and independents. Is he dynamic enough to inspire the base in the primaries though?

I'm putting the cart far ahead of the horse, but it would be nice to see some strong leadership coming from the Democratic party in the coming months and years.

I think Franken would do better with independents than the other names here.

He's a relatively popular Senator in a state that leans blue because 75% of it's population resides in one metro area. Minnesota is pretty conservative outside the inner ring of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro (Michelle Bachman represented the northern suburbs), and yet I've gotten the impression that Franken is at least tolerated around the rest of the state.

He's a white looking (he's Jewish) guy from the Midwest. I don't know his past career as a comedian will be viewed, but I could think of a lot worse candidates.

Al Franken is Jewish?

[Mr. B]

The twists and turns in DC re healthcare and other ongoing legislative issues are intellectually interesting but really doesn't it all come down to horrible leadership? I never, ever would have guessed that Mitch McConnell could fuck up so badly and even now a part of me says that he must have something up his sleeve.

As attention starts to turn away from healthcare I'm starting to see hints that raising the debt ceiling is going to be a down to the wire issue yet again. How is this even remotely possible w/ one party control of the exec & legislative branches? Well, I guess the answer is no leadership, no guiding principles & no clue. This paralytic drift and the accompanying flailing about and directionless raging by Trump is a truly astonishing story that will only become clear and understandable (if at all) in retrospect.

The lack of effective GOP leadership and the subsequent inability to get this key initiative of their agenda done is definitely astounding. IMHO, especially given the fact that the Dems are from my vantage point in shambles too. People like Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer are fine to be vocal leaders of the opposition right now, however I don't believe that either or anyone else currently in the forefront is a likeable enough, dynamic character to carry the torch in 2020. Biden would have won this election and he'd likely have enough popularity to do so in 2020, but he will also be 77 years old. So its hard to not think that ship has sailed.

I've seen Al Franken's name mentioned, however you run a huge risk of independent voter's not coming out for him.

Corey Booker seems like a solid candidate and might bring the minority voters back to the polls, but he may be a little wet behind the ears for such a run. He seems relatively likeable, which is a differentiation from the Dem's last candidate.

I could envision Hickenlooper bringing a decent balance for democratic populists, moderates, and independents. Is he dynamic enough to inspire the base in the primaries though?

I'm putting the cart far ahead of the horse, but it would be nice to see some strong leadership coming from the Democratic party in the coming months and years.

I think Franken would do better with independents than the other names here.

He's a relatively popular Senator in a state that leans blue because 75% of it's population resides in one metro area. Minnesota is pretty conservative outside the inner ring of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro (Michelle Bachman represented the northern suburbs), and yet I've gotten the impression that Franken is at least tolerated around the rest of the state.

He's a white looking (he's Jewish) guy from the Midwest. I don't know his past career as a comedian will be viewed, but I could think of a lot worse candidates.

I think Franken would be a good candidate. And I'd love to see him debate Trump.

Some big democratic donors are apparently looking at Kamala Harris as a candidate. I don't know much about her, but I like what I have seen so far in her first 6 months in the Senate.

[Zip City]

The maddening thing about the failed Healthcare bill is that several of the GOP members who (would have) voted against it were opposing it because it didn't fuck the poor people ENOUGH.

[Tequila Cowboy]

I think Franken would be a good candidate. And I'd love to see him debate Trump.

Some big democratic donors are apparently looking at Kamala Harris as a candidate. I don't know much about her, but I like what I have seen so far in her first 6 months in the Senate.

Oh, Trump won't be President in 2020. I give him 18 to 24 months. I think he'll actually quit as opposed to being impeached but there is way too much smoke for there not to be fire.

As far as candidates go mostly I want a mess of them. 10 at least like the GOP does. No more anointing. Let the people decide.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Nothingburgers for Eight

soon to be for nine, you know Leonard Zelig had to be there

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Let the people decide.

[beantownbubba]

The twists and turns in DC re healthcare and other ongoing legislative issues are intellectually interesting but really doesn't it all come down to horrible leadership? I never, ever would have guessed that Mitch McConnell could fuck up so badly and even now a part of me says that he must have something up his sleeve.

As attention starts to turn away from healthcare I'm starting to see hints that raising the debt ceiling is going to be a down to the wire issue yet again. How is this even remotely possible w/ one party control of the exec & legislative branches? Well, I guess the answer is no leadership, no guiding principles & no clue. This paralytic drift and the accompanying flailing about and directionless raging by Trump is a truly astonishing story that will only become clear and understandable (if at all) in retrospect.

Despite my deep and genuine loathing for the man McConnell is a brilliant tactician. I haven't changed my mind on that. The issue is that the GOP as a party is just about as fucked up as the Democrats are. They have better leaders, far better messaging and a lot ground troops given how many offices they hold nationwide but they're fractured in ways I don't think people realize. The health care bill has failed or stalled because of very different complaints from to disparate wings of the party. To find common ground was always a near impossibility, unless of course you counted on the resolve to get things done while choking back individual ideologies. That hasn't happened despite controlling all three branches of government. McConnell has tried to control that, and certainly in some ways he's far better at it than his House counterpart in Paul Ryan, but there is only so much he can do when you're talking about the very different viewpoints and political realities of say Jeff Flake versus Rand Paul.

I think you're partly correct, TC, w/ 2 important caveats or limitations:

(a) The scenario that played out only became inevitable after the events of roughly January - March 2017 played out the way they did. Before that time things could have played out a lot of different ways; and

(b) A key factor that can't be overstated or ignored is that neither the House nor the Senate ever actually attempted to pass healthcare legislation. All they did was try to pass tax cuts for the wealthy legislation in the guise of "healthcare reform." This underlying cynicism and skullduggery explains a whole lot of why what happened, happened. It does not, however, explain why the GOP never attempted serious healthcare reform.

Back to point (a), and possibly explaining the last sentence of (b), remember the world as it was for the past 7 years. The GOP NEVER proposed alternative healthcare legislation. All they did was froth at the mouth and scream as loud as they could "REPEAL." The fact that they named it "Obamacare" in an attempt to denigrate and destroy the legislation is a big hint about how that came to be, but the important point is that (i) the Republicans NEVER promised "replace;" (ii) most (and I would bet we're talking north of 90%) of Republican legislators had NO IDEA why Obamacare was so bad, they only knew they were supposed to rabidly oppose it; and (iii) they spent exactly zero time trying to craft a replacement bill until well into 2017. For all practical purposes, the House bill was slapped together in 4 or 5 days by Paul Ryan and some cronies working in the dark, again w/ the prime motivation being tax cuts, not healthcare reform anyway.

It was TRUMP who first raised the idea/requirement of "replace." To my memory, he first did that in the pre-inaugural period of early January 2017, but for sure it wasn't raised in any serious way until after the November election. The Republicans never thought they would actually have to propose alternative legislation, they always thought it was just going to be a "simple matter" of repealing Obamacare. Trump caught them by surprise and put them in a box: Even Trump's supporters remembered that the pre-2009 healthcare system was not some kind of Eden and they responded very positively to the "replace" message.

So you had people w/out policies, principles, ideas or even an understanding of the problem crafting legislation w/ incredible speed in the dark, motivated primarily by the opportunity for a stealth tax cut. Gee, are we surprised they came up w/ the ultimate horse-by-committee, aka a camel? McConnell doubled down on this by acting way fast, in secrecy, w/out expertise, w/out a plan or guiding principles or policies and with even more determination to pass a tax cut. That the "healthcare legislation" that resulted could not find a majority was no surprise because nobody thought they were crafting healthcare legislation and virtually nobody who knows anything about healthcare was involved in the process.

Now imagine a world in which Republicans were serious about reforming healthcare. They would have had 7 years to have their best minds crafting ideologically consistent legislation that addressed serious problems in ways that at least many (probably not all) of the various constituencies could have bought into (and for you cynics, yes, just plain bought as well). In the relative peace behind the wall of noise, they could have acknowledged what was wrong circa 2007, acknowledged the parts of Obamacare that reflect Republican principles and policies, addressed weaknesses in arguably more market driven ways, accommodated Democratic concerns and, gasp!, perhaps a Democratic idea or two and perhaps (only perhaps because really who the fuck really knows what to do about it?) figured out a solution or at least a worthy short to medium term patch to runaway Medicaid costs. Needless to say, the plan would have been constructed w/out any intent to create a vehicle for stealth tax cuts. They could have presented a plan, or even a plan w/ several alternative "plug-ins" calmly, in the usual manner, sent it to the appropriate committees, held hearings w/ the confidence that comes from knowing that they weren't trying to scam everybody and that the plan would largely hold up, and probably achieved a bipartisan consensus.

Some of you will say that there is no bipartisan consensus possible on healthcare, but that's an argument for another day. The point for now is that there for a long time there was nothing inevitable about the current outcome and there actually was a chance, minuscule and naive as it may have been, to have accomplished something worthwhile.

PS I agree that McConnell plays in a different league than pretty much everyone else in Washington, which is why it's so surprising he ended up where he did and why I still wonder whether he's still playing a bigger, longer game than any of us understand.

Edited for grammar, clarity and the PS

[beantownbubba]

The lack of effective GOP leadership and the subsequent inability to get this key initiative of their agenda done is definitely astounding. IMHO, especially given the fact that the Dems are from my vantage point in shambles too. People like Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer are fine to be vocal leaders of the opposition right now, however I don't believe that either or anyone else currently in the forefront is a likeable enough, dynamic character to carry the torch in 2020. Biden would have won this election and he'd likely have enough popularity to do so in 2020, but he will also be 77 years old. So its hard to not think that ship has sailed.

I've seen Al Franken's name mentioned, however you run a huge risk of independent voter's not coming out for him.

Corey Booker seems like a solid candidate and might bring the minority voters back to the polls, but he may be a little wet behind the ears for such a run. He seems relatively likeable, which is a differentiation from the Dem's last candidate.

I could envision Hickenlooper bringing a decent balance for democratic populists, moderates, and independents. Is he dynamic enough to inspire the base in the primaries though?

I'm putting the cart far ahead of the horse, but it would be nice to see some strong leadership coming from the Democratic party in the coming months and years.

The leadership vacuum in the Democratic party is one of the saddest things I've seen in my political life. Hard to believe, harder to understand. The one positive is that a number of Democrats are at least aware that the Party has no coherent message, no attractive platform and nobody to lead the charge. At least they're talking about those things, but at the end of the day, garbage in garbage out and w/out effective, smart input it's pretty unlikely that the output will appeal to, much less galvanize, much of anybody beyond the participants. I will say for the millionth time that identity group politics does not make for a foundation for success. And I will say for close to the millionth time that neither Schumer, Pelosi nor Warren (nor, heaven forbid, either of the Clintons) is the right person to get from here to there. Not even close.

There is an argument that the election of Obama was the logical culmination of the Democratic Party of the last 50 years and that that Party has nowhere to go, requiring a major reconstruction, or maybe a complete demolition and rebuild, for a different world. I guess we'll find out (well, some of you, anyway) 50 years from now when one of our children or grandchildren write the definitive story and analysis of this period.