Ron Brownstein

If she refuses to support Democratic policies, why should we care if she loses in 2020?On Thursday, CNN had Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson on for a brief interview. When asked a process question about how she can win, her response stuck with me. "My strategy is not strategy.

When Trump invited Chuck and Nancy Over to the White House so he could chop up some Adderall and snort it up, he no doubt already had in mind his frustrated drama-queen routine that would inevitably lead up to an excuse for declaring a national emergency. Yesterday Trump flew to McAllen, Texas to draw attention to new lie about a so-called "humanitarian crisis" at the southern border.

Last summer, as part of a discussion of some election themes, I suggested to this year's top political cartoonist in the country, Nancy Ohanian, to consider a graphic that depicts Trump as an albatross around the neck of the GOP. Above are a couple of her interpretations.

You know where there was no blue wave this cycle? Ohio-- not even a ripple. It was another status quo election in Ohio, as though nothing at all was going on in the country-- nothing at all. Just... same ole/same ole. All the incumbents in the gerrymandered congressional districts-- each one carefully designed to return incumbents-- were reelected. And in the one contest where there was no incumbent, the party stayed the same.

Yesterday Kaiser Health released their brand new tracking poll. Among registered voters. 50% said they will vote for a Democrat and 38% said they will vote for a Republican for Congress. In April it was 46% Democrat and 38% Republican. They also broke it out in 2 swing states, Florida and Nevada.

When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court redrew the gerrymandered congressional boundaries, it was of great help to Democrats in most-- but not all-- districts. PA-16 was the south central Pennsylvania district that included most of Lancaster County. Joe Pitts was the longtime anti-Choice fanatic who represented the area. When Pitts retired, Republican Lloyd Smucker beat garden variety Democrat Christina Hartman 168,669 (53.8%) to 134,586 (42.9%).

In a 5-4 ruling, a very right-wing Supreme Court reversed a series of lower court decisions to OK Turmpanzee's Muslim travel ban, claiming the ban is "squarely within the scope of Presidential authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act." Justice Sotomayor: "A reasonable observer would conclude that the proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus...

Gil Cisneros, the DCCC's 2018 mascot... and people wonder why California is looking dodgySix of the very best members of Congress-- plus many more-- declared their candidacies on the back on fantastic records as state legislators: Ted Lieu (CA), Pramila Jayapal (WA), Barbara Lee (CA), Jamie Raskin (MD), Mark Pocan (WI), Keith Ellison (MN).

Governor?9 or 10 years ago, Gavin Newsom, Mayor or ex-Mayor of San Francisco, invited a gaggle of Los Angeles political bloggers to meet him in a rented conference room of a fancy West Hollywood hotel. I had the impression everyone was impressed besides me-- and even I was a little impressed. He was really smart and was able to speak way more intelligently than most politicians can on every single subject every blogger threw at him.

Read any of that stuff about how most Democratic candidates don't want the Clintons campaigning for them?