David Axelrod

Al Smith is known primarily as having been the first Roman Catholic presidential nominee (1928). He was also a 4-term governor of New York. He was defeated badly for the presidency in ’28, winning just 8 states— 6 from the Deep South + Massachusetts and Rhode Island, even losing New York. While Smith was losing New York, Franklin Roosevelt, an ally was winning the gubernatorial seat created by Smith’s run for president. Roosevelt was reelected in 1930 (in a landslide) that propelled him towards the 1932 presidential nomination.

Last night Marianne Williamson announced her presidential campaignThank God Gina Raimondo isn't running for president. Everyone else is.

We covered the Elizabeth Warren announcement-- and video-- on Monday morning. She's the first top-tier candidate to jump into the 2020 race.

The Democrats are calling for civility in the matter of the latest immigration enforcement flap. However, this is not without calculated motives.
The Los Angeles Times reported that several prominent Democrats, ranging from former Obama chief adviser David Axelrod (also a Clinton-era assistant) to no less than Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, are urging Democrat constituents and voters to walk back the extremely vitriolic calls to personal harassment given by California Representative Maxine Waters, as reported here.

If you thought Hillary and the Clintons and-- more importantly-- whatever hybrid vision of governance they stand for, was going away: surprise! She's back, reminding millions of people what's so horribly wrong with the Democratic Party as to make an Obama voter switch to Trump. She's says it was Comey and Putin and she's got a point but does that adequately explain why her approval ratings were so jaw-droppingly bad all through the election.

Liberal lawsuits, master debaters and the Voyager Golden Record + this day in history w/Mozilla Firefox and our song of the day by Merchandise on your Morning Monarchy for September 23, 2016.

Right-wing nut Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) made an interesting observation on Twitter yesterday. He reminded his 4,000 followers that Trump is a disaster and can't even poll above the Republican registration in California. He was referring to the new USC/L.A. Times poll that shows Hillary beating Trump in a head-to-head 59-28%.

Late Sunday night, Nebraska freshman Senator Ben Sasse, got into a Trumpf twitter tantrum starting here. It started out nicely enough, Sasse acknowledging that Herr had "struck a chord" with the American people and saying he'd bet Trumpf will be the next president. But... "we have questions about how you would govern.