electability

Dumping Sanders: A Provocation
 

When computers mimic the human mind by showing an ability to "learn" and then use that learning to solve problems... that's AI-- Artificial Intelligence. Today it goes beyond human speech recognition, military war-game simulations and autonomously operating cars and tracks to... predicting who's going to win the Iowa caucuses tomorrow. You don't need AI for that you say? You can check the Real Clear Politics polling average (which shows Bernie ahead with 23.8%, compared to Status Quo Joe's 20.2%, Mayo Pete's 15.8% and everyone else below the 15% needed to win any delegates).

Four Reflections on What Would Help Democrats Defeat Trump
 
 

One of the reasons why I don't like using RealClearPolitics' polling averages is because they include Rasmussen, a company known for delivering polling numbers their clients pay for. But even with a ridiculous Rasmussen poll included, the RealClearPolitics polling average for Trump's job approval shows that just 45.2% of the electorate approves of the job he's doing, as opposed to 52.3% who don't.

Biden is such a effing mess, that his latest bullshit just moved me to call him Biden-- which I’ve been avoiding since he announced his desperate end of life candidacy-- instead of the preferred Status Quo Joe. Just as Democrats are making some headway in getting Moscow Mitch to consider calling some witnesses for Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, Biden had to go give him and Trump the ammo they were waiting for to back away.

Remember what Chris Hayes said about looking at the 2020 candidates as the cycle kicked off? I saved the video to remind you. Let's use it as a quick lens to look at Status Quo Joe. Who will he fight for? What will he fight for? Well, who has he always fought for? His own career, his family, his family's lobbying clients, Big Banks, Wall Street, corporate America, the Military Industrial Complex Eisenhower warned us about. Can he be trusted to do what he says? According to PolitiFact, 84% of Trump's checked statement have been lies. No one can compete with that...

Thursday morning both the NY Times and Washington Post led their political coverage with stories datelined Prole, Iowa, an unincorporated community in Warren County, northeast of Indianola. In 2016, Trump beat Hillary in Warren County-- just south of Des Moines-- pretty badly, 14,773 (54.9%) to 10,371 (38.5%). Last year Kim Reynolds (R) beat Fred Hubbell (D) there 52.8% to 45.1% in the gubernatorial race.

When Glenn Thrush reported that Obama tried talking an increasingly less alert Biden out of jumping into the race for the Democratic nomination fearing his former VP could "damage his legacy," I wondered whose legacy that "his" referred to, Biden's or Obama's. "You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t," Obama told him.

The tape above is a much fairer look at who Joe Biden is and why he’s utterly unfit for the presidency than the one I would have made. But it’s undoubtably a lot more effective than the tape I would have made. I urge you to watch the whole 23 minutes of it, especially if you’re seriously thinking about supporting Biden— or if you know anyone who it. Biden is a potential catastrophe for the Democratic Party and for the U.S.A. It isn't just that Democrats could do better; it's that Democrats could hardly do worse.

Most Americans dislike-- or detest-- Donald Trump (57-39%) so it's not unreasonable to believe he will fail to be reelected next year, even though most sitting presidents are reelected. (In most of our lifetimes, only Jimmy Carter and George H.W.