dagblog - Comments for "Exclusive: Biden wants a new stimulus 'a hell of a lot bigger' than $2 trillion"

And no success goes

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 06:27:00 +0000

And no success goes unpunished (for a woman). From Ryan Cooper/The Week mid-2015, setting the tone:

The capstone came in May, when Hillary Clinton started openly boasting about her superior support from white voters.

The effort was not so blatant as George H.W. Bush's Willie Horton ad, but the attempt to play on racist attitudes through constant repetition and association was unmistakable — in addition to playing into right-wing conspiracy theories that Obama is a secret Muslim who was born in Africa. It's likely why in West Virginia — a state so racist that some guy in a Texas prison got 40 percent of the Democratic primary vote in 2012 — Clinton won a smashing victory.

Hard to believe Hillary regularly polled as the most popular woman in the world back in 2011, 2012, 2013 days - yes, including even Republicans.

...

Does the Hillary Clinton of 2008 sound like someone who's genuinely committed to the cause of racial justice? If she has changed her views, now would be a good time to explain.

But that's tame compared to James Rucker Huffpost:

Speaking in West Virginia (a state that is 94% white), Bill Clinton said: “Florida won, and won anyway, because of people like you, in places like this. So don’t let anybody tell you she can’t win. They want you to vote in low numbers, so she doesn’t get ahead in the popular vote. If you vote in high numbers, we’re gonna roll through this thing.”

Discussing this clip on MSNBC, David Shuster asks Pat Buchanan (who is notorious for pushing white supremacist ideas into the mainstream): “Hey Pat, when he says ‘people like you,’ and he’s in West Virginia, what is he talking about?” Buchanan: “You mean that’s directed at me? … He’s talking about – frankly – he’s talking about the white working class, the silent majority, the middle Americans.”

Governor Ed Rendell, a Clinton supporter and surrogate, said: "You've got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate."

By May, after most observers had already concluded that Barack Obama had clinched the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton was still trying to undermine his candidacy by arguing that he wasn’t getting enough support from white voters. She put that argument in the most explicit terms yet: “There was just an AP article posted that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans is weakening again, and how the, you know, whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me … I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.” Clinton’s comments not only made the case that a Black candidate could not appeal to white voters; they also played on nasty stereotypes about Black people and other people of color by equating “white Americans” with “hard-working Americans.”

Even after being widely criticized for these comments, Hillary Clinton continued to make the argument a few days later to voters in West Virginia. “I’m winning Catholic voters, and Hispanic voters, and blue collar workers, and seniors, the kind of people that Senator McCain will be fighting for in the general election. Now, some call you swing voters, I call you Americans.” Did you notice which group of voters was missing from Clinton’s list?

The Clinton strategy in West Virginia appears to have paid off. Clinton won West Virginia, and 21% of the voters were white people who said race was a factor in their voting, with that group supporting Clinton overwhelmingly, 84% to 9%.

Rucker doesn't stop there:

Media Outlets and Political Leaders Called Clinton Out

This pattern did not go unnoticed at the time. While many who might have otherwise spoken out likely limited their criticism – not wanting to anger a powerful political dynasty – many prominent Democratic and Black commentators and politicians did call it out.

When Hillary Clinton attacked Obama for having weak support among white people in May 2008, her comments were denounced in no uncertain terms by many prominent Democrats and media commentators. Here is a sampling:

The New York Times (which also endorsed both Clinton’s 2008 and 2016 campaigns):

“Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake — for herself, her party and for the nation — if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing racial undertones … We endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and we know that she has a major contribution to make. But instead of discussing her strong ideas, Mrs. Clinton claimed in an interview with USA Today that she would be the better nominee because a recent poll showed that “Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again.” She added: “There’s a pattern emerging here.” Yes, there is a pattern — a familiar and unpleasant one. It is up to Mrs. Clinton to change it if she hopes to have any shot at winning the nomination or preserving her integrity and her influence if she loses.”

From an article in Black Star News:

"Racists should decide the Democratic nomination," Issac J. Bailey wrote Friday in the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News. "Sen. Hillary Clinton didn't use those words in an interview with USA Today, but she came close."

On Salon.com, Joe Conason asked "Was Hillary channeling George Wallace? Hillary's reckless exploitation of racial division could split the Democratic Party over race — a tragic legacy for the Clintons."

From the NY Post:

Muriel Offerman, a North Carolina superdelegate who has not disclosed her choice, said, “That should not have been said. I think it drives a wedge, a racial wedge, and that’s not what the Democratic Party’s about.”

Here's US News getting into the act in 2008:

Why did Clinton score her biggest wins (including last night's win in West Virginia) in states with large populations of white, older, less-educated, and in many cases rural voters? Why is she, yet another Ivy League, effete, intellectual female, such a hit among the working class?

Could the answer be the chimera of race consciousness, if not racism? Race consciousness, certainly, among these voters is a much more formidable issue than it is among younger, better-educated, urban voters. She's winning the former. He's winning the latter.

Yes, by winning white votes, Hillary was showing what a racist she was. 2008, 2016. Biden never had to face this storm. A career of suck up to credit card companies and Delaware insurance? It's all good, unlike those 3 Goldman Sachs speeches.

The soft bigotry of low expectations - "Middle Class" Joe didn't have to run a real campaign this year, and we see again that women have to push uphill where the dudes get a pass. Look at all that tough press for Biden.

Cough (bullshit)

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 06:00:34 +0000

In reply to Sanders aide: Biden stronger

Cough (*bullshit*)

Analysis: Clinton crushes Obama across the board
Story Highlights
Clinton carries broad spectrum of West Virginia voters
As expected, biggest margins are at lower end of the socioeconomic ladder
But it is still tough for Clinton to diminish Obama's aura of inevitability
Obama's campaign travel plans show he's looking toward November

By Alan Silverleib
CNN

(CNN) -- After enduring a week of political obituaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign proved Tuesday that it still has some life.

Sen. Hillary Clinton says she is "more determined than ever to carry on this campaign."

As expected, Clinton trounced Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary. In the process, she underscored Obama's weakness with working-class white voters, a segment of the electorate that may prove pivotal in November.

Buoyed by her landslide margin, Clinton vowed to continue what has become a longshot campaign, telling supporters at a Charleston rally that she is "more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard."

Clinton's victory in West Virginia was decisive. She won men and women. She carried a majority of voters in every age group. She captured liberals, moderates and conservatives. She took a majority in every income bracket.

Clinton's largest margins, as expected, were registered among voters at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder. Among white voters without a college degree, Clinton defeated Obama by 50 points. Among white voters making less than $30,000 a year, Clinton's margin of victory was more than 60 points.

Older voters and white women -- part of Clinton's core constituency -- also rallied strongly to her beleaguered campaign. Voters 65 and older supported her by a 38-point margin. White women backed her by 51 points.

Clinton's proposal to suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax for the summer, an idea belittled by most economists and rejected by Obama as a political gimmick, proved to be a winner in West Virginia. Voters supported the gas tax suspension by an almost 2-to-1 ratio. Those voters who supported suspending the gas tax broke for Clinton, 74 to 19 percent.

One major warning sign for Democrats could be found in the percentage of Obama and Clinton supporters apparently unwilling to support the opposing candidate. Only 38 percent of Clinton's voters said they would vote for Obama in a general election matchup against presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain. A bare majority (54 percent) of Obama's voters said they would vote for Clinton against McCain.

Although Clinton registered an impressive margin of victory in West Virginia, there are serious questions as to whether her victory there will do much to diminish Obama's aura of inevitability.

The Illinois senator has benefited from a steady stream of superdelegate endorsements since his win in North Carolina last week. He is edging steadily closer to the 2,025-delegate threshold needed to claim the Democratic nomination.

The Clinton camp is nevertheless likely to seize upon the West Virginia results to press her argument to the dwindling pool of uncommitted superdelegates that she would be the stronger Democratic candidate against McCain in the fall.

Don't Miss
Clinton vows to push forward
Results by county
Obama takes superdelegate lead

Over the past week, Clinton has highlighted the fact that white, working-class West Virginia was once a Democratic stronghold. In fact, no Democrat has captured the White House without West Virginia since Woodrow Wilson won a second term in 1916. President Bush was able to win the socially conservative state twice largely on the basis of hot-button issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun control.

Similarly, it has been 48 years since a Democrat won without Kentucky, which holds its primary next week. The latest polling there shows Clinton leading Obama by more than 25 points. Kentucky has a number of similarities with West Virginia in terms of the overall demographic composition of its electorate.

Looking ahead to the final five primaries through June 3 (in Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana), Clinton will have to balance a number of political and financial calculations if she does remain in the race.

Though most senior Democrats are not openly pushing for her to withdraw, they have sent signals that she should not damage Obama's candidacy by launching new negative attacks. Clinton also needs to determine how much more debt she is willing to add to a campaign that is already more than $20 million in the red.

For his part, Obama is increasingly ignoring Clinton and looking ahead to the fall campaign. He spent part of Tuesday in Missouri, which is almost certain to be a crucial swing state in November. He will stump for votes Wednesday in Macomb County, Michigan, the original home of the blue-collar "Reagan Democrats" who have been so reluctant to embrace his candidacy.

Next week, Obama heads to the key general election state of Florida.

That short clip was from a 14

A Guy Called LULU — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 02:02:40 +0000

In reply to Sanders aide: Biden stronger

That short clip was from a 14 minute segment. Rocha was a frequent guest and a strong and effective convincing campaign operative for the Sanders campaign. The interview in this case is an obvious job application. He wants badly to continue as a consultant and operative in the Biden campaign. Fair enough. He is good at his job which is politics and nobody gets to be anywhere near pure in this election.

Joe tweets that "we" need to

artappraiser — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 01:26:43 +0000

In reply to Exclusive: Biden wants a new stimulus 'a hell of a lot bigger' than $2 trillion

Joe tweets that "we" need to do something about the May 1 rent:

With rent due in a few days and folks across the country worried they won't be able to make their payments, it's clear more needs to be done to provide relief. We need to freeze rent immediately for people who have lost their jobs and place a temporary ban on evictions.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 30, 2020

Sanders aide: Biden stronger

artappraiser — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 01:08:18 +0000

In reply to Exclusive: Biden wants a new stimulus 'a hell of a lot bigger' than $2 trillion

Sanders aide: Biden stronger with white, working-class men than Hillary Clinton

Short video with text @ TheHill.com, April 27, Chuck Rocha, a senior adviser to Sanders’s 2020 bid

I think Joe Biden could stand

rmrd0000 — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:12:40 +0000

In reply to Notable: @SenGillibrand asked

I think Joe Biden could stand in the middle of Manhattan and shoot Donald Trump and still get elected/snark

Notable: @SenGillibrand asked

artappraiser — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 23:59:14 +0000

In reply to Exclusive: Biden wants a new stimulus 'a hell of a lot bigger' than $2 trillion

Notable: @SenGillibrand asked today on a conference call about Tara Reade allegations of assault by @JoeBiden. She says, “I stand by Vice President Biden. He's devoted his life to supporting women and he has vehemently denied this allegation.” Per @JulieNBCNews
— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) April 28, 2020

contrast Trump not reading

artappraiser — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 10:56:14 +0000

In reply to On coronavirus/pandemic prep:

contrast Trump not reading his briefing books, @ WaPo piece today: President’s intelligence briefing book repeatedly cited virus threat in January and February

The daily report traced the virus’s spread around the globe and made clear that China was suppressing information. But the alarms appear to have failed to register with President Trump, who routinely skips reading the briefing.

By Greg Miller & Ellen Nakishima

On coronavirus/pandemic prep:

artappraiser — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 10:50:52 +0000

In reply to Exclusive: Biden wants a new stimulus 'a hell of a lot bigger' than $2 trillion

On coronavirus/pandemic prep:

Retweet the hell out of this one. Wow.

The Biden campaign is tearing Trump to shreds in a flood of incredibly on-point videos about what a complete failure Donald is. #TrumpsCOVIDfails #DemCast
pic.twitter.com/RHzwLNH3ms
— Nick Knudsen #DemCast (@DemWrite) April 20, 2020

Obama, 8 hrs. ago:

artappraiser — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 04:25:03 +0000

In reply to Exclusive: Biden wants a new stimulus 'a hell of a lot bigger' than $2 trillion

Obama, 8 hrs. ago:

In moments of crisis, we look out for one other. And we need leaders with empathy who will bring people together rather than drive them apart. @JoeBiden has the character and experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery. https://t.co/JkaBWYejKh
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 25, 2020