May 20-23, 2015
May 20 00:06 DFL fight: Bakk vs. Thissen May 20 04:10 ABM's latest ad campaign May 20 10:33 Gov. Dayton: unbound = unhinged May 21 02:48 Bill and Hillary: birds of a feather May 22 00:07 Special session outline appears May 22 03:24 Ryan Winkler's resignation May 22 10:00 Jack Rogers and Ken Martin May 22 12:25 Hillary's campaign bubble May 23 01:00 Democrats: Rubio isn't Hispanic enough
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
DFL fight: Bakk vs. Thissen
At the end of each legislative session, each chamber's leaders issue statements on what did or didn't get accomplished. Predictably, there's quite a difference of opinion. Check Rep. Thissen's statement out:
House DFL Leader Paul Thissen released the following statement:
'I would grade this session an 'F.' House Republicans failed to pass a transportation bill when this was supposed to be the transportation session. They failed to freeze tuition for Minnesota's students despite our $2 billion budget surplus. They failed Greater Minnesota, ignoring broadband, oil train safety, and local property tax relief. They failed to get their job done on time, chaotically passing a jobs bill with no public input or debate. And they refused to negotiate with Governor Dayton, forcing a special session over their insistence on underfunding Minnesota's earliest learners.
What makes this session's failures so disappointing is the golden opportunity that Republicans have wasted- all to protect corporate special interests. With a growing economy and $2 billion surplus, we had the opportunity this session to provide greater economic security to hardworking families, fix our state's roads and bridges, make college more affordable for students, and take needed strides to ensure all of Minnesota's earliest learners have the chance to get ahead.
We should have done much better for hardworking Minnesotans, but Republican failed to deliver results.'
Compare that with Sen. Bakk's statement:
Saint Paul, Minn. - Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook) released the following statement regarding the end of the 2015 legislative session.
'Tonight the legislature passed the final components of a two-year budget to keep Minnesota moving forward. Protecting MinnesotaCare from elimination, $138 million for nursing homes, and important new investments in education were significant accomplishments for the DFL Senate.
The last five months, we have seen what divided government looks like. Many bills this session passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support. However, the challenge presented by divided government immobilized many promising, critical initiatives.
I, and many Minnesotans, am particularly disappointed we were unable pass a comprehensive transportation bill this session. I will work tirelessly to pass a comprehensive transportation bill with stable funding during the 2016 legislative session. I will also work to dedicate portions of the projected budget surplus to investment in education and property tax relief for all Minnesotans,' Bakk said.
Last Friday night on Almanac, Sen. Bakk's positive tone spoke volumes about how he felt about the budget he'd just negotiated with Speaker Daudt. He said "We didn't get everything we wanted but we got everything we need to keep Minnesota moving forward."
Thissen's statement sounds like the type of political statement that an out-of-touch Twin Cities Metrocrat would write, which is what it is.
Expanded broadband isn't a high priority for Greater Minnesota. Fixing Greater Minnesota's pothole-filed roads are their highest priority, followed by building the Sandpiper Pipeline project to free up railcar space. Greater Minnesota understands that oil train safety, as defined by the DFL, isn't the solution. Building pipelines is the solution, plus it kills 2 birds with one stone. First, pipelines are the safest way to get oil from Point A to Point B. Second, pipelines free up rail space for agricultural products.
Metrocrats like Thissen, though, don't approve of that because the environmental activist wing of the DFL don't approve of fossil fuels. The DFL's record proves that they do exactly what their special interest masters tell them to do.
Posted Wednesday, May 20, 2015 12:06 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 20-May-15 09:42 AM
Bakk got what he wanted on/for the Iron Range.
Need we look beyond that? Occham's razor.
ABM's latest ad campaign
ABM is launching another ad campaign , this time to push Gov. Dayton's universal pre-K initiative across the finish line. Predictably, ABM's latest campaign is filled with dishonesty:
'Minnesota Republicans - especially in the House - need to be held accountable for putting corporations ahead of working families' priorities,' says Alliance for a Better Minnesota Executive Director Joe Davis. 'The GOP repeatedly pushed for special treatment for big business, but shortchanged our schools.'
Here's how Catharine Richert dropped the hammer on ABM's BS:
Of course, this being politics, the story the Alliance for a Better Minnesota is trying to tell in its ads is more complicated than that. House Republicans and Senate Democrats agreed to put $400 million more into K-12 education. Dayton wants $150 million more than that to fund pre-kindergarten in public schools, and says he will veto the bill as a result.
TRANSLATION: ABM omitted the part about Republicans and Democrats, specifically, Kurt Daudt and Tom Bakk, agreed to this budget last Friday. ABM's ad campaign doesn't mention that the DFL Senate voted down Gov. Dayton's proposal 2 weeks ago. I've written repeatedly about Dayton's unwillingness to accept a bipartisan rejection.
Education experts like Art Rolnick, a former member of the Federal Reserve of Minneapolis, have criticized Gov. Dayton's plan :
Rolnick, now a policy fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, has made researching early childhood education a big part of his life's work. He argues that the earlier kids start a good education, the better off they will be in life. But he doesn't back the governor's universal preschool plan for 4-year-olds.
"It's not cost effective," Rolnick said. "There's a much better way of doing this." Rolnick prefers an existing scholarship program that pays for needy children to attend Head Start, a child care facility or a public school program that meets quality standards. He said Dayton's plan is misguided because it would subsidize early education for all kids rather than target low-income children who need early education the most and are the least likely to have access to it.
Gov. Dayton's had the entire session to build support for his plan. That clearly hasn't happened. Th is article highlights why Gov. Dayton's proposal likely won't pass:
Some school districts indicated to the House Education Finance Committee that they don't have space to add "basically an entire new grade in our public school system," its chair, Rep. Jenifer Loon, an Eden Prairie Republican, told us.
There's concern about facilities, equipment and transportation, she said. "There may be money the governor is proposing per pupil, but there's no money there to help districts if they have to build classrooms," for example. "That's a huge cost that would largely fall on local property taxpayers."
That's a gigantic property tax increase waiting to happen. Then there's this:
"The high return to the public is in investing in our most at-risk children," Rolnick said. In the study that made him a national leader in the fields of child development and social policy, "we got an 18 percent inflation-adjusted return when you invest in our most at-risk kids."
Such findings, it's been suggested, run counter to committing a broad stream of resources to serve all children.
Plus, says Rolnick, we now have evidence from St. Paul's Promise Neighborhood that a key approach -- an emphasis on preschool scholarships -- is closing the achievement gap between white students and their peers of color.
This is documented, indisputable proof of what works. Dr. Rolnick wants to solve a problem. Gov. Dayton wants to pay off a political ally. I'll pick solutions to difficult problems over paying off political allies with terrible policies every time.
Posted Wednesday, May 20, 2015 4:10 AM
No comments.
Gov. Dayton: unbound = unhinged
When Gov. Dayton said that he wasn't running for office again, he said that he was finally "unbound." What he really meant is that he's finally unhinged. Insisting that the legislature pass Education Minnesota's universal pre-K program appears to have turned Gov. Dayton into a walking diatribe machine. Doug Grow has noticed that Gov. Dayton's plan is risky :
Dayton's veto vow comes despite the fact that the Legislature has had little time to digest this major education initiative. And he's making the vow despite the fact that it's not just Republican legislators who are saying 'no,' but many school administrators, who are cool to an idea that would not only be very costly but has raised other questions about its value. Even early-childhood advocates question whether a 'one-size-fits-all' public school pre-K program is good policy.
Now, even Bakk is calling Dayton's veto pledge 'risky." The obvious risk is to school districts, which are saying that even with the additional $400 million included in the current deal, they will have to cut programs and lay off staff. Without that $400 million infusion, there will be cuts deeply felt by every school district in the state.
That means there will be political fallout. If the veto happens, there could also be chaos. Administration officials say a veto could mean a shutdown of the Minnesota Department of Education, which would halt teacher licensing and, of course, mean no added funds to the formula going out to cash-strapped districts.
When Gov. Dayton travels the state campaigning for his pre-K plan, he will be met with lots of resistance, much of it from past allies. This won't turn out well. Unfortunately for him, that isn't his only problem :
A long-time teacher and state representative wants Gov. Mark Dayton to apologize for saying some Republican lawmakers 'hate the public schools.'
Dayton's remark came during a Tuesday news conference he called to discuss his plans to veto a education funding bill that passed the House and Senate Monday. The $400 million in new spending isn't enough for Dayton and he's frustrated it also omits his top priority of universal preschool.
Gov. Dayton will lose the state's voters if he continues with these over-the-top diatribes. It's one thing to be critical. It's another to be unhinged. Right now, Gov. Dayton has jumped across the line from being critical to being unhinged to the point of being totally disrespectful. He isn't just saying Republicans are wrong. He's essentially accusing Republicans of being evil and mean-spirited.
ABM's ad campaign will be a waste of money if Gov. Dayton can't control his temper.
Originally posted Wednesday, May 20, 2015, revised 24-May 10:53 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 20-May-15 01:20 PM
Gary:
Just to let you know a very important person in Hennepin County government has put out a message (it wasn't directed to support governor Dayton's prek bill) which mentioned the county is facing a problem with children who are facing an education failure (that is the spirit of the line in the message). Why doesn't Dayton and the democrats care about the current education failures let alone the future failures which is what the preK is aimed for.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by Gretchen Leisen at 20-May-15 03:36 PM
Who can be surprised by this news? Dayton has always been ignorant of basic economics, being born with a silver spoon in his mouth and no incentive to really apply himself to serious studies.
He also is a typical liberal Democrat who thinks that the state coffers are there to be used for his own pet projects regardless of their usefulness. In this case, his aim is to buy votes from those who will not have to pay out day care expenses from their own pockets.
Bill and Hillary: birds of a feather
A stunning document captured during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound didn't speak highly of Hillary Clinton. Here's what the world's greatest terrorist thought of Hillary and US foreign policy:
UBL: The Secretary of State declared that they are worried about the armed Muslims controlling the Muslim region. The West's position towards the Libyan revolution is a weak one. The western countries are weak and their international role is regressing.
You can practically hear UBL's rejoicing in the Obama administration's use of "smart power'. It's obvious that he wasn't afraid of Hillary's foreign policy, either.
Pacifist birds of a feather flock together.
Actually, these pacifist birds run a foundation together. Follow this link to watch ABC's interview of Osama bin Laden in 1998. At approximately the 3:50 mark, UBL calls the US military a "paper tiger."
Our people realize that, more than before, the American soldier is a paper tiger.
Because the military takes its orders from its commander-in-chief, they leave hotspots like Mogadishu if that's what the commander-in-chief orders them to do. That's what they were told to do by then-Defense Secretary Les Aspin. UBL thought that the US military were paper tigers because Bill Clinton lacked the will to fight. Does anyone seriously think that the US military couldn't have wiped out al-Qa'ida if they'd been given permission to wipe them out?
Bill Clinton once ordered troops into Bosnia. He explained that he was just trying to "level the battlefield." Bill Clinton didn't care about winning a war. That's why he went half-heartedly into a military confrontation.
Based on UBL's documents, he thought Hillary was as soft as her husband. He nailed it when he said that "the western countries are weak and their international role is regressing." Certainly, President Obama has abandoned the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, eastern Europe and north Africa. Let's remember that bin Laden was assassinated in 2011, years before ISIS was called the JV team. ISIS and al-Qa'ida knew that they could operate without consequences with Hillary as Secretary of State and President Obama as commander-in-chief.
With ISIS expanding and Iran destabilizing the Middle East, why shouldn't they hope for a Hillary administration? If she becomes president, they'll have the time to plan their next terrorist attack on the United States. They'll know that they can operate freely and openly.
Bill Clinton was seen by UBL as a paper tiger. Hillary was seen by UBL as a shrinking violet. If we want the terrorists to run rampant until they strike us again, all we have to do is elect Hillary.
Posted Thursday, May 21, 2015 2:51 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 21-May-15 08:21 AM
I am confused. Are you saying we should have stayed in Mogadishu? Why? For what benefit?
With more at stake the Gipper pulled troops from Lebanon after the barracks bombing, he was praised for it, and the world did not sink to ruin nor did the military budget suffer.
What is your point?
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 21-May-15 12:47 PM
Let's compare apples with apples. There was a full-fledged war happening in Mogadishu. We either should've ignored it completely or we should've done whatever it would've taken to win.
As for Beirut, that was Reagan's biggest mistake. He never should've deployed those troops.
The important point, though, is that nobody questioned whether Reagan was serious about defending the U.S. Nobody took Bill Clinton seriously as CinC, just like nobody takes Hillary seriously.
When he deployed troops to Bosnia, Bill Clinton said he was "just trying to level the playing field." There was a war going on. If you're going into a war, go in with enough to decisively win that war.
Otherwise, stay out.
Comment 3 by Phillip Innes at 03-Oct-18 12:10 PM
Clinton's got us into NATO during the Bosnian conflict 1996; fox news 1996; cnn 1996 the clinger-cohen act 1996 now we have the reasearch parlimentarian www.crs.gov and bosnian muslims. And muslim obama sick of demonrats and government sponsored news sickening liars
Special session outline appears
In private conversations, I've told friends that the outlines for a budget deal are starting to appear. I said that before this article was published. Here's why I view the article as confirmation that a compromise is starting to appear:
One prominent advocate has clearly chosen the latter. 'I looked at the governor's veto letter and at the long list of things that did not get funded,' said Art Rolnick, the former Federal Reserve economist who did the original, groundbreaking research that showed an eye-popping return on investing tax dollars in early ed. 'I agree with him. It's pretty upsetting there's no money for the North Side Achievement Zone, no money for the Head Start waiting list. I think it's important that the governor is speaking out for early childhood education. I agree with him; with this surplus we should be investing a lot more.'
Rolnick said he was particularly encouraged to hear that Dayton was willing to be flexible about the way early childhood services are delivered. 'We need a governor with that kind of leadership.'
Early-ed advocates had been stuck between fearing that the special session that has now become inevitable could result in even less new education spending than the $400 million in the bill passed Monday, and throwing their weight behind a pre-K proposal they have described as impractical and overly one-size-fits-all. The idea that the governor might be willing to direct meaningful funding increases to multiple approaches to targeting pre-K resources seemed to provide a roadmap out of the impasse.
Republicans always included money for pre-K scholarships in their K-12 education budget bill. From the start, the Republican plan included funding for the Rolnick-favored scholarship plan. Gov. Dayton rejected that plan, saying that Republicans "hated education." 9 Republicans wrote this letter to Gov. to highlight their disgust with Gov. Dayton's over-the-top rhetoric:
In their letter, Republicans highlight the fact that the bill they passed and that Gov. Dayton vetoed included $60,000,000 "in new funding for proven early learning initiatives, including early education scholarships and school pre-K aid."
Gov. Dayton insisted on $173,000,000 for half-day pre-K and that it be done in public schools. I included the list of specific requirements Gov. Dayton put in his proposal in this post .
Gov. Dayton wasn't interested in flexibility then. In fact, the worst-kept secret at the Capitol was that Gov. Dayton and Sen. Bakk could "win" the PR fight if there was a shutdown.
While I give Dr. Rolnick credit for thinking up a positive solution for early learning, I won't hesitate in criticizing him for talking about Gov. Dayton's "leadership" during this brinksmanship. Gov. Dayton wasn't interested in being a statesman at that point.
Posted Friday, May 22, 2015 12:07 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 22-May-15 07:30 AM
Why a governor or president is able to veto legislation that is passed by both parties just because it doesn't fit their "agenda" is beyond me.
Comment 2 by walter hanson at 22-May-15 01:21 PM
Gary:
Silly question since I haven't heard about it in the news. Did Dayton veto the transportation bill because it had no gas tax increase?
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 3 by Gary Gross at 22-May-15 03:03 PM
Walter,
I haven't heard that he's done anything with that bill yet.
Comment 4 by walter hanson at 22-May-15 04:18 PM
Makes you wonder if he's going to drop that bombshell for MoveMn or whatever their name is.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Ryan Winkler's resignation
I'm jumping for joy over Ryan Winkler's impending resignation from the House of Representatives :
Fifth-term Rep. Ryan Winkler of Golden Valley said he will resign this summer and move to Brussels. The Harvard-educated lawyer said his wife, Jenny, landed a new executive position with an international hotel chain that is owned by a Minnesota company.
I'd like to personally thank Rep. Winkler's wife for removing that particular pain from my backside. I'm more than grateful.
In the Legislature, Winkler revels in jabbing Republicans with unrelenting, sharp-tongued rhetoric.
"I'm going to miss things like passing the minimum wage increase far more than I'm going to miss the back and forth in the Legislature," Winkler told The Associated Press, adding that his wife's opportunity was too big to pass up. "I'd rather have a great experience with my family than argue with Republicans all day."
That's understandable. In the legislature and committee, he frequently got his ass handed to him in debates. While Rep. Winkler was irreverent, he wasn't particularly smart. The difference showed up in June, 2013:
His penchant for a good zinger sometimes got the best of him. Winkler apologized in 2013, for a tweet criticizing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as "Uncle Thomas" that drew national attention and cries of racism. He said it wasn't intended to be racially derogatory.
I wrote this post to highlight Rep. Winkler's disgusting action. Here's what he initially tweeted:
Here's Rep. Winkler's 'apology':
'I did not understand 'Uncle Tom' as a racist term, and there seems to be some debate about it. I do apologize for it, however,' he said.
Here's what I said then:
That's BS. Rep. Winkler graduated with a B.A. in history from Harvard University in 1998. If Rep. Winkler thinks that we'll buy the fact that he didn't learn about Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe's classic from 1852, he'd better think again.
Good riddance. Minnesota is getting rid of a first class jerk.
Posted Friday, May 22, 2015 3:24 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 22-May-15 07:26 AM
This Class A asshat should have been forced to resign by his party after the Uncle Tom incident but the DFL always stands behind their closeted racists. Now can we get the rest of the DFL to move with him?
Jack Rogers and Ken Martin
TEA Party Alliance president Jack Rogers is upset with House Republicans for not delivering on his demands for tax cuts:
'My heart is heavy with grief from the actions taken by the MN House Majority and some of the MN GOP Senators,' wrote Minnesota Tea Party Alliance president Jack Rogers on his Facebook page.
'Unfortunately, every house rep let us down in the final 48 hours,' commented Jake Duesenberg, the Tea Party's executive director. 'No tax cuts at all. Huge spending increases in public education and socialized health care.'
That's disappointing coming from a group that's supposed to know the Constitution. To expect tax cuts with a DFL majority in the Senate and a DFL governor is like expecting to buy winning lottery tickets each month. The odds are the same. Republicans passed tax cuts in the House. They were DOA when they arrived in the Senate. That's political reality.
It's also political reality that Republicans weren't going to win many battles when controlling one half of one of the two political branches. If Rogers and Duesenberg want some of these accomplishments, then they should work tirelessly to elect more Republican legislators and a Republican governor. Without that, Republicans can't enact their reform agenda.
While I'm disappointed with Mssrs. Rogers and Duesenberg, I'm not surprised that Paul Thissen and Ken Martin still won't tell the truth. Check out Ken Martin's whopper:
Said DFL Party Chair Ken Martin: 'Republicans refused to compromise and are more interested in providing tax giveaways to corporations than investing in education."
What is it that causes DFL politicians to reflexively lie? Does Alida Messenger implant a chip in these politicians' brains that forces them to lie profusely? Martin saying that "Republicans refused to compromise" is disgusting dishonesty. It's quickly disproven. Speaker Daudt and Sen. Bakk reached a budget agreement a week ago today. Of course, they kicked Gov. Dayton out of the room to finish the deal but they got it done.
Then there's Paul Thissen. Here's what Thissen said:
'House Republicans failed to finish the job,' DFL Minority Leader Paul Thissen said Wednesday. 'They refused to compromise with Gov. Dayton. They wanted to keep this money so they can give corporate tax cuts.'
There's those non-existent corporate tax cuts again. It's stunning how frequently the DFL lies about this . Last weekend, I contacted Greg Davids, the chair of the House Taxes Committee, about the House Tax Bill. Here's what he told me:
Eighty percent goes to individuals. Tax relief is for the middle class.... My tax bill is tax relief for the poor and middle class."
It's disappointing when people I agree with don't acknowledge political reality.
What's worse is when an entire political party proves itself incapable of telling the truth.
Posted Friday, May 22, 2015 10:00 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 22-May-15 11:35 AM
The DFL, no matter how wrong they are or how much they have to lie, get their message out to the low information voters and it works. Where are the GOP legislators to rebut these lies? They are nowhere to be found.
Hillary's campaign bubble
It's established fact that Hillary isn't good in settings where real people ask her important questions. That was determined last year during her God-awful book tour collapsed in infamy. That collapse guaranteed that Hillary wouldn't wage a real campaign if she didn't have to. That's why we shouldn't be surprise by this article :
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Here's how Hillary Clinton campaigned for president this week: She took a private 15-minute tour of a bike shop that had closed for her visit. She spoke to four small business owners chosen by her staff in front of an audience of 20, also chosen by her staff. She answered a few questions from the media following weeks of silence. And after a little more than an hour, Clinton was off, whisked away by aides and Secret Service agents, into a minivan and on to the next event.
Members of the public who wanted to go inside the building to support her, oppose her or merely ask a question of her were left outside on an unseasonably cool Iowa day. Most didn't bother showing up.
Rest assured of this: Hillary will lose Iowa if she doesn't campaign amongst real people that are allowed to ask real questions. What's most important is that she'll deserve that thumping if she continues campaigning inside the bunker. Anyone who isn't interested in representing all of America shouldn't be the next president.
'I am troubled that so far in this caucus cycle she hasn't had any public town halls,' said Chris Schwartz, a liberal activist from Waterloo, as he stood outside the bike store hoping to talk to Clinton about trade. 'If she had a public town hall then we wouldn't be out here. We would much rather be in there engaging with her.'
Let's be blunt. This cycle, Hillary's highest priority has been to minimize her chances of making a gaffe. That's been an obvious decision on Hillary's part. The problem with doing that is that she isn't giving undecided voters a chance to get to like her.
That's plain foolish.
Hillary can't win this election with just a base vote, especially when a significant part of the Democrats' base, young people, are disinterested at best. When Obama brought young people out in droves in 2008, they thought he was hip, he was cool, he had a cult following. Remember this?
Young people came out in droves in 2008 because Barack Obama captured their imagination. Hillary isn't getting their attention in 2016. The Obama coalition isn't dead but it's dying a slow, painful death right in front of our eyes.
If Republicans nominate either Scott Walker or Marco Rubio, they'll defeat Hillary with votes to spare. Walker and Rubio are fantastic in that they attract young people and they're people with fresh ideas. Hillary's freshness ran out circa the time of her talking about the "vast right wing conspiracy." That's back when I was young.
Posted Friday, May 22, 2015 12:25 PM
No comments.
Democrats: Rubio isn't Hispanic enough
The Democratic playbook on Marco Rubio is thin. Their best argument against Sen. Rubio is that he isn't Hispanic enough :
So far, Democrats who have combed over Mr. Rubio's voting record in the Senate have seized on his opposition to legislation raising the minimum wage and to expanding college loan refinancing, trying to cast him as no different from other Republicans. The subtext: He may be Hispanic, but he is not on the side of Hispanics when it comes to the issues they care about.
That's incredibly defensive. If the Democrats' biggest criticism of Sen. Rubio is that he opposed raising the minimum wage, that will last about a week, if that, before Sen. Rubio starts talking about restoring the American Dream again. Let's remember that Democrats are frightened by Sen. Rubio's personal story:
WASHINGTON - They use words like 'historic' and 'charismatic,' phrases like 'great potential' and 'million-dollar smile.' They notice audience members moved to tears by an American-dream-come-true success story. When they look at the cold, hard political math, they get uneasy.
An incipient sense of anxiety is tugging at some Democrats - a feeling tersely captured in four words from a blog post written recently by a seasoned party strategist in Florida: ' Marco Rubio scares me .'
Sen. Rubio isn't flawless. His participation in the Gang of 8 immigration reform bill is a definite sticking point with Republicans. That might hurt Sen. Rubio's chances for winning the nomination. Still, that's nothing compared with the cloud of scandals that Hillary will have to defend in the general election.
Defending a policy misstep isn't difficult compared with convincing people that the series of disastrous decisions you're associated with (the Reset Button with Russia, pulling the troops out of Iraq, which led directly to ISIS claiming functional control of Anbar Province and not stepping up security in Benghazi, which led to the U.S. Ambassador to Libya getting assassinated) aren't proof that you're the worst Secretary of State in the last 75 years.
John Hinderaker has an other observation that Democrats should be worried about :
The one who should really scare them is Hillary Clinton, as her ineptitude as a candidate becomes more palpable with every passing day.
If Hillary hadn't been First Lady, she wouldn't get taken seriously as a presidential candidate. When she was First Lady, she was a disaster, starting with her bombing with HillaryCare, then including her "vast right wing conspiracy" statement. After that statement, she disappeared from the stage for over a month.
When she started her book tour, she committed one gaffe after another, which led to cancelling the majority of the tour. Initially, it was thought that the book tour would serve as Hillary's first step in her presidential coronation. Instead, it was cancelled because she botched things badly.
Posted Saturday, May 23, 2015 1:00 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 23-May-15 07:26 AM
Rubio isn't Hispanic enough, Fiorina won't be woman enough, and Carson won't be black enough. Same old, same old crap from the democrats and it always works because the GOP is piss poor about getting their message out and honestly, no one wants to hear that you have to work to get ahead in America anymore, they want it handed to them.
Sure there are still people out there that believe in the message (me, you, and a small minority of others) but when the democrats are able to start at the kindgarten level brainwashing the children with their message, we can't compete. Then when you have the ultra rich like the Clintons and Soros blowing smoke about how they care about the middle class and poor and those people lap it up like kittens at a saucer of milk, you know the GOP has lost them with their message.
