Anyone who makes it that far is going to be bought and sold. The whole system is awash in money, lobbyists and interest groups.
https://theweek.com/joe-biden/1013532/the-trouble-with-running-against-the-maga-king The trouble with running against the 'MAGA King' by Samuel Goldman 12:06 PM There's a memorable scene in the Coen Brother film O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) where the fictional Mississippi governor Pappy O'Daniel (inspired by the real Texas politician W. Lee O'Daniel) confronts assistants running his campaign for re-election. Facing a surging opponent, O'Daniel demands new ideas to turn the race around. When his dimwitted son suggests "people like that reform, maybe we should get us some," the governor explodes. "Reform, you soft-headed sumb---h? How we gonna run reform when we're the damn incumbent?" Democrats find themselves in a comparable situation today. Facing dim prospects in the upcoming midterm elections, President Biden has tried to redirect attention from his own record to Donald Trump. "This is not your father's Republican Party. This is a MAGA party," he said at a press conference last week. In a speech on Wednesday, he described Trump as "the great MAGA king." To be fair, the president doesn't have a lot of cards to play. With low approval and the economy, crime, and immigration among voters' top concerns, it's hard for Biden to depict his administration as a success. In a post defending the MAGA gambit, Timothy Noah argues that Biden's "low numbers are seriously unfair," citing the relative success of U.S. policy on Ukraine and some favorable economic data. The problem is that these issues are either low salience or counterbalanced by other factors, above all, rampant inflation. More generally, appeals to negative partisanship are more successful for challengers than incumbents. For most voters, the risks of a shift in power are speculative. The difficulties associated with the status quo, by contrast, are very real. That includes problems for which the president has little direct responsibility. It may not be altogether fair to blame Biden for the shortage of baby formula, to cite just one vivid example. But that's how politics works, no matter who occupies the White House. Voters' habit of turning against the president explains why the incumbent party has faced major losses almost every midterm election since the Civil War. Over the last three decades, the president's party experienced huge losses in 1994, 2010, and 2018. The main recent exception is 2002, when Republicans gained seats in both Houses of Congress in the wake of 9/11. But Democrats made up for it in 2006, when they regained the majority in both chambers. Beyond the historical pattern, Terry MacAuliffe's failed bid for governor of Virginia last year shows the specific limitation of a Trump-focused campaign in a race where Trump is not actually on the ballot. To many voters, appeals to the legitimacy of elections or denunciations of the Jan. 6 riots are too abstract and retrospective to matter very much. It's possible that Democrats will gain some benefits from the apparently doomed precedent of Roe v. Wade, which a majority of the public supports in principle. But the most passionate supporters of abortion have long since become loyal Democrats. And the party's maximalist strategy on the issue seems more likely to thrill progressive activists than to attract moderates who view abortion as a generally bad thing that is tragically justified in certain cases. It's understandable that Biden is trying to whip up antipathy against Trump and MAGA, then. It's just not very likely to help. After half a century in politics, Biden knows that he's in the same tough spot as Pappy O'Daniel, but he and his party are out of ideas. Maybe he should try endorsing The Soggy Bottom Boys.
Putting aside if Bernie Sanders would be a good president policy wise. Unless I am mistaken he was not. If there could be more men and women like that it would help.
Agree. I think everyone should get a single 6 year term. After that, you need to get back to work. That way you aren't trying to money grab for your re-election campaign day 1. That and get rid of lobbying. That's just legalized bribery.
I noticed you said closest which shows you are slanting things and I have to think you are talking Diesel or premium, because just got up to 4.00 where I live and Houston is always cheaper. You have to be a new adult to think this is the most brutal economic conditions you have ever witnessed. You want to tell us how Biden is affecting rents or how can gov get rents to go down?
let's just agree to disagree, and it might not fire up the base, but it sure does not turn them off, and the younger voters have been asking for a little fight. Biden can't afford to be above the fray, and it killed Obama in the midterms.
Man it sure seems like Republicans are trying to talk themselves into thinking it's all doom and gloom for Democrats. They seem to think that using the word MAGA automatically means trump, and it's not like Trump died or will not be in influential in this race. Hell, he could run again. Are we supposed to believe that everybody just forgot about Trump and his MAGA crowd?
Well hopefully the next candidate changes their minds. We already know Trump isn't the answer to getting us on the right track, unless it's a track straight into an abyss of deceit and lies oozing with QAnon kooks, right wing radicals, and hate spewing traitors to democracy.
Court-drawn House map could devastate Democratic chances in midterm elections "The new NY map proposed by court-appointed special master Jonathan Cervas leans into competitiveness," Dave Wasserman, a national elections analyst for Cook Political Report, tweeted. "Not unexpected, but this NY map is pretty bad news for Democrats. With so many competitive seats, it's not hard to envision a 16D-10R (or even 15D-11R) split on a great GOP night, which is a far cry from the 22D-4R rout Dems initially tried to gerrymander." Both parties have been eyeing redistricting in New York due to the narrow balance of power in the House. Republicans need to win five seats to reclaim the majority they lost in 2018. Democrats currently hold a 19-8 majority of the state's congressional seats, but the Empire State lost a seat due to slow population growth ahead of the most recent census. Now that the special master has released his proposal, the court will decide whether to enact the map or make adjustments. The court is expected to finalize the map by Friday.
Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is leading the PA Democratic Senate primary but has suffered a stroke. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/us/politics/john-fetterman-stroke.html Fetterman Recovering After Stroke Before His Senate Primary John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor who is running for the state’s Democratic Senate nomination, canceled events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, the front-runner for his state’s Democratic Senate nomination, said on Sunday that he had had a stroke on Friday and was recovering. “I had a stroke that was caused by a clot from my heart being in an A-fib rhythm for too long,” he said in a statement from Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital. “The amazing doctors here were able to quickly and completely remove the clot, reversing the stroke, they got my heart under control as well.” The incident has kept him off the campaign trail for the final weekend before Tuesday’s primary election in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate contests. It was unclear when he would return to in-person campaigning. “The good news is I’m feeling much better, and the doctors tell me I didn’t suffer any cognitive damage,” he said. “I’m well on my way to a full recovery.” “They’re keeping me here for now for observation, but I should be out of here sometime soon,” he added. Mr. Fetterman had been scheduled to host a meet-and-greet in Lancaster County, Pa., on Friday morning, but his spokesman, Joe Calvello, said at the time that the team decided to cancel the event because “John was not feeling well this morning so we are taking the necessary precautions.” The campaign canceled events across the state on Friday evening, Saturday morning and again on Sunday, but gave scant information about the state of Mr. Fetterman’s health over the weekend. Asked why the campaign waited days to share the news that a major Senate candidate had been hospitalized with a stroke, a matter of intense public interest, Mr. Calvello replied, “John’s condition was evolving in real time since Friday. We wanted to put out something once we had a clearer picture of his health.” In the statement and in a brief accompanying video, Mr. Fetterman said he had been feeling unwell and that his wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, had insisted he go to the hospital to get checked out. The development upended his ability to engage voters in-person during the most intense stretch of the race. Still, he has been leading his most prominent Democratic rival, Representative Conor Lamb, by double digits in sparse public polling. “I just found out on live TV that Lieutenant Governor Fetterman suffered a stroke,” Mr. Lamb wrote on Twitter. Referring to his wife, he continued, “Hayley and I are keeping John and his family in our prayers and wishing him a full and speedy recovery.” State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, a Senate candidate from Philadelphia, said his “prayers are with him and his family as he recovers from this stroke. I look forward to seeing him back on the campaign trail soon.” And Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor and Republican Senate candidate, said that he had “cared for atrial fibrillation patients and witnessed the miracles of modern medicine in the treatment of strokes.” “I am thankful that you received care so quickly,” he said. “My whole family is praying for your speedy recovery.” Throughout the campaign, Mr. Fetterman’s blunt-spoken liberal politics and penchant for wearing shorts and hoodies at public events appear to have resonated with much of the Democratic base. “If somebody thinks I’m smarter if I’m in a suit, so be it,” Mr. Fetterman said in an interview on Thursday after an event in York, his hometown, where he had given an energetic stump speech and worked a crowded bar. “I would rather have people know what they’re getting and this is who I am.” Senator Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat, had a stroke earlier this year and has spoken about his difficult path to recovery. It was not immediately clear what Mr. Fetterman’s rehabilitation process would look like. “The doctors have assured me that I’ll be able to get back on the trail, but first I need to take a minute, get some rest, and recover,” he said.
Madison Cawthorne has been defeated and conceded the primary for NC 11th District https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/17/politics/madison-cawthorn-chuck-edwards-north-carolina/index.html
PA Republican primary too close to call in the Senate between Dr. Oz and David McCormack. Kathy Barnette running a distant third. Lt. Gov. John Fettermen won easily over Rep. Connor Lamb. PA Republican primary won by State Senator Doug Mastriano who is a leading denier of that Trump lost the 2020 election. He will face State AG Josh Shapiro who ran unopposed. Abortion is likely to be the biggest issue for the general election.
With Beasley and Fetterman winning I think the Democrats have a soild chance at keeping Senate, they might not be favored because of the midterm momentum the GOP has but those are going to be very competitive races for the GOP (at least I think so) and races the GOP NEEDS to win in order to take the Senate.
I seriously think the Demos are gonna take a beating. They lack branding and marketing. They just not good at getting their message and accomplishments out Rocket River
