Debate Wrapup

Ken AshfordDemocrats, Election 2016Leave a Comment

The point of any debate is to draw contrasts and attract new voters. Did anyone do that in last night’s first Democratic debate? Perhaps, but only with those who hadn’t decided up until now.  I don’t think Sanders swayed any Hillary voters and I don’t think Hillary swayed any Sanders voters. Still, it was a good debate in that it … Read More

A Tweet From 2009 Could Haunt Rubio

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Gun Control, IranLeave a Comment

I’ve always seen Marco Rubio as one of the few “serious” GOP candidates and one who could pose an actual challenge to HRC.  But this tweet of his from 2009 is very… uh… Carsonesque. What a dumb thing to tweet.  It originally was published in the midst of the June 2009 protests stemming from allegations of elections fraud and the violent … Read More

Democratic Debate Tonight — The Also-Rans

Ken AshfordDemocrats, Election 2016Leave a Comment

Five Democrats take the stage tonight for the first Democratic Presidential Candidate Debate on CNN, and all eyes will be on Hillary Rodham of Chicago and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Here are the other three: Martin O’Malley — former governor of Maryland National polling average: 1.0 percent Iowa: 4.0 percent New Hampshire: 1.7 percent O’Malley is the only life-long Democrat … Read More

Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Sweat Because She Is A Robot

Ken AshfordElection 2016Leave a Comment

Real interview: ANOTHER ROUND: In preparation for this interview, I watched a lot of your interviews, and I noticed you never sweat, like physically. I’ve done like a little bit of press and I get so hot — TV lights, stage lights. ANOTHER ROUND: I’m sweating now and I’m sitting still. ANOTHER ROUND: What is your deodorant situation? HILLARY CLINTON: … Read More

Fox News Moron Doubles Down With Dr. Carson: Stupid Jews Could Have Taken The Nazis

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Gun Control, History, Right Wing Punditry/Idiocy, Rightwing Extremism/ViolenceLeave a Comment

Yes, the European Jews were just a bunch of pants-wetting pansies back in the thirties: Dr. Ben Carson recently asserted that if guns had not been confiscated from Jews then Hitler would have had more trouble orchestrating the Holocaust. Jonathan Greenblatt, National Director of the Anti-Defamation Leauge, quickly objected, stating that there were few firearms available to Jews in Germany … Read More

Shut Down The Benghazi Committee

Ken AshfordCongress, Election 2016, Political Scandals, RepublicansLeave a Comment

The normally-unfriendly-to-Hillary New York Times has had enough of the Benghazi thing.  That’s pretty surprising since The New York Times has run one phony exclusive after another. First, her famous emails were illegal, except they’re not. Then they were contrary to regulations enacted, oops, 18 months after she left office. Next Hillary was the subject of an FBI criminal probe. … Read More

Chart Of The Day

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Grammerly is an app that, well, judges and fixes your grammer (in, say, Word documents). The folks at Grammerly went to 2016 Presidential candidates’ Facebook page, taking comments that were at least 15 words long and expressed either positive or neutral feelings about the candidate. Then, the app selected at least 180 of those comments to analyze for each candidate. Which … Read More

The Clinton Gun Plan And The Mental Health Factor Of Gun Control

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Gun Control, Mental HealthLeave a Comment

I was going to write a post about mental health and gun control, but I see that Hillary Clinton just came out with a plan, so I’m going to talk about that as well.  First, the Clinton plan: Fight for comprehensive background checks. Advocate for comprehensive federal background check legislation. Close the “Charleston Loophole.” Tighten the gun show and Internet … Read More

Eh, What Are You Gonna Do?

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Gun ControlLeave a Comment

The callousness of Jeb Bush is appalling.  Here’s that American can-do spirit: It’s interesting.  Maybe we should have students attend school in wombs — then the GOP might care if they die.  Because only deaths inside women matter to these people.

What Democrats Have Said All Along

Ken AshfordElection 2016, RepublicansLeave a Comment

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.” — Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the candidate to replace House Speaker John Boehner, to Sean Hannity on Tuesday Don’t think the Hillary Clinton campaign hasn’t jumped on this.  The House Majority Leader just … Read More

Worse Than Watergate

Ken AshfordElection 2016, Obama Opposition, Political ScandalsLeave a Comment

The Benghazi investigation has been the longest in special congressional investigative history: The House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks is now the longest congressional investigation in history, committee Democrats announced today. As of Monday, the House Select Committee on Benghazi, has been active for 72 weeks — surpassing the record previously held by the Watergate Committee in the 1970’s. Of course, … Read More

Trump Beginning To Lose Hard Right?

Ken AshfordElection 2016, War On ChristmasLeave a Comment

Moments ago at the conservative Value Voters summit (which met Rubio this morning to much applause), this happened: Trump booed at VVS when calls Marco Rubio a “clown.” Then he blasts Rubio for flip-flopping on immigration reform. — David Corn (@DavidCornDC) September 25, 2015 To be clear: Crowd booed Trump for referring to Rubio as ‘this clown.’ — Byron York … Read More

Walker Don’t Run

Ken AshfordElection 2016Leave a Comment

Scott Walker is out of the race.  This is pretty big news — bigger than Perry getting out. Last March, Nate Silver gave Walker a 26% chance of being the GOP nominee. Last June, Walker was the frontrunner in Iowa.  It was a crowded field then, too, but Walker had somewhere around 8%.  Now he is an asterisk, with less … Read More

Yet Another Post-Debate Analysis

Ken AshfordElection 2016, RepublicansLeave a Comment

Junior Varsity Debate:  Heard almost none of it, but my understanding is that Senator Graham did well and was folksy at times, even while predicting the end of the world as he is inclined to do. Varsity Debate:  I saw and/or heard most of it, although some was in during the replay. First of all, kudos to CNN.  It was, … Read More

GOP Debate #2 Thoughts

Ken AshfordElection 2016, RepublicansLeave a Comment

The second round of GOP debates are this evening. In related news, Facebook is coming out soon with a “dislike” button (bit not soon enough). Here are some random notes and thoughts:  The candidates in the junior varsity debate are Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum and George Pataki.  That starts at 6 pm.  No news will come out of it. … Read More