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Of course one schedules a big announcement at an opportune time to divert attention from everything else. Suddenly not turning in tax returns is old. “Why you bringing up that shit for, you creepy old loser?” Suddenly, Bain Capital’s fortunes made at the expense of working class heroes, is like last years Mason Jar-d green beans…..
But, did you know, (and it will get lost today for sure), did you know that NOT SINCE EISENHOWER, HAS THE STOCK MARKET EVER PERFORMED AS WELL AS IT HAS THIS PAST TERM OF PRESIDENT OBAMA?
Not during the Republican years of Richard Nixon
Not during the Republican years of Gerald Ford
Not during the Republican years of Ronald Reagan….
Not during the Republican years of George HW. Bush….
Not during the Republican years of George W. Bush……
HAVE WE EVER HAD A STOCK MARKET PERFORM THIS WELL!!!!!!
(ok, ok, in order just to be considered fair here…)
Not during the Democratic years of John F. Kennedy…
Not during the Democratic years of Lyndon Baines Johnson….
Not during the glorious years of Jimmy Carter….
Not during the most amazing years in American History, of William Jefferson Clinton……
Not since Eisenhower…
Let that sink in….. Not since Eisenhower…..
If this were the Philadelphia Eagles and we’d had three back to back Superbowl wins…..we’d be jumping up and down for joy… These results are absolutely awesome. Obama/Biden is really the best team we have seen in our lifetimes…..
Of course, you would never know it if all you listened to, was the Dallas Cowboy’s …..
You see guys…. That’s America today…. And you are listening only to the Dallas Cowboy’s Network……
So if you want to see all the good news that got buried by today’s Ryan grabbing headlines…… and it is definately worth it, I have a link for you here……..
Look through the collection and tell me, does Romney’s choice really matter? REALLY?
Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..
So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….
I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……
If you don’t know who Brian or John is, this post doesn’t matter to you..
Your are busy, 8:30 is early, and so in uncharacteristic fashion, I will be brief…
As a historian, or one who tries to learn from others mistakes, I have always found that there is always a tendency for victors to rest upon one’s laurels a tiny bit too long. Always. Their doing so, ultimately creates monster problems in the future, which rise up to destroy them.
We see this today. The Republican Party who was on top of the world November 3rd 2004, did not heed to call to change, and even today, there are still idiots calling for a more conservative party… Even today.
You may not remember or have even considered Daniello’s finest hour… or as I would like to say, why he was put on this planet…
But we see the evidence every day in our state legislature, in our ability to get things done despite what is now a $800 million dollar deficit.
That is the support this entire state has in our governor. Jack Markell..
Wait, you ask? What does Daniello have to do with Markell?
Everything, you will one day find out… Everything.
Avid fans of mine may remember my picking apart of Daniello two general assembly closing dates ago… (June 30, 2007) Grudgingly, I acknowledged his prediction of how a primary fight would render our party apart, was based very much on both reality and history….. He lived through such an event…
That did not happen this time. Unlike the Shipley-Daniello debacle which galvanized Republican leadership leading to a long reign of power, the Democratic party (save Minner) healed and a combined effort was put into embarrassing the Republican party…
Primarily, because of such…. we stomped the Republicans asses in November… We eradicated, wiped them out, destroyed their party, embarrassed them greatly, made jokes out of them, damaged their effectiveness, made mockery of their philosophy, and otherwise, caused them no end of pain… Metaphorically, we poured alcohol on their hemorrhoids.. yep, that is essentially what we’ve done…
It’s official. Daniello has gotten his revenge.
And that is why we should savor our victory, and move on.. The next battles will be on different terms. We cannot fight a new enemy who already has an awareness of how we work. Instead of waiting for the attack, and then responding with old tricks, exactly what the Republicans did in 2008, we need to carry on the attack of doing what is best for citizens, not speculators or investors…
That is why we need a new coach… Daniello’s expertise will always be available in the capacity of Offensive Coordinator. He will never support a Republican not named Castle over our own… But now, more than ever, we need someone who HAS to prove something… … We need someone who MUST BE successful, or will be thrown out on his ear. We need someone who we can remove quickly if he doesn’t deliver..
Loyalty often get’s in the way of making personel decisions in the real time that is required…
This is why clear thinking persons will support Brian.. Emotions, I know, make up a big part of us and to not support one who went to the line for us, will be hard… I’m choking up as I write this.
But if one uses this mantra: what will be best for the party; and forgets all that other bullshit being thrown at him, ….
Brian comes out on top.
First Nancy’s question: What do you think of the controversy over party leadership?
From Delaware Watch:
“Brian is particularly fond of the Sen. Paul Wellstone way of grass roots political organizing“
My answer:
Obvious.
I don’t want to take away from the job Danello has done. There is no Republican Party in Delaware. His achievement will be forever noted by history.
But as one can see, we must prepare for the future, not the past. Loyalty is great, until it starts to drag us down. It is time we move on.
Photo Courtesy of Northington 08
It is hard to run a Congressional campaign… sometimes things go wrong…
But sometimes one does things right, and that in itself, is an achievement worth celebrating…
Jerry Northington has run a good campaign from his own bootstraps… Not only is it good, but running without the “backing” of the state’s primary neutral Democratic party, he has emerged as one who has the potential to ruin Republican Mike Castle’s dream of his last election…
And that, is what this years Delaware election is all about…
I don’t need to preach to the choir about how Mike Castle has voted the Republican line… I don’t need to preach to the choir about how Mike Castle has voted for the war of oil; I don’t need to preach to the choir about how having a Republican in the extreme minority of the House (it will be entirely Democratic) will affect our slice of federal money; I don’t need to preach to the choir about how having a Congressional Republican from Delaware, puts growth in this state on ice. No…. you all know that already.
You also know that the challenges we will face in the next four years, here at home, 200 miles away in Washington, and across the world, will require a new path to be taken. They will require new ideas to inspire. They will require smart people for a change…. smart enough to work out the details….
And what impressed me about Jerry… was his intelligence…
(Now don’t get all hot and bothered if you support another candidate…I’m refusing to make comparisons…You can discuss it among yourselves if you wish…)
Intelligence… that IS a relative term…..Let me explain….I (cough, cough) have been called on occasion, by misguided people, “intelligent” at times for some of the posts I have written here…. But… I would not expect Dave or Hube to EVER utter such a compliment (except perhaps at my funeral) …. for based on what they represent….(making the assumption they are intelligent too)… my ideas appear bunk… 🙂 But, without them, the blogosphere would fall like a thud, cracking our asses wide open like a seesaw that someone has jumped off too quickly. The world needs some type of balance. We need those guys for constructive dialog, just as they need us….
So real intelligence is the understanding that even though we put the best argument for OUR side up for debate, we NEED another side to debate against, in order to get what we need done…..
I know… it is a big concept to grasp….(come back to it later, will you?) The big guys get it…. I think Clinton got it mid term… I actually heard Newt a year ago in New Hampshire, and I think he got it too. Despite our distaste now for Carper, I know he gets it… and the reason Castle has won so big so many times, is that he gets it…
So let me tell you about Jerry….
First if you haven’t, you should check out the Congressional Primary Debate here.… You should, really… For we are talking about our strategy to navigate this state over the next ten years….
Usually since the beginning of this nation, an outgoing administration has set in place, plans that self perpetuate over several years before they become obsolete.. This administration, however, has been so preoccupied with day to day dilemmas, that they are leaving us with no future plan and an empty treasury starting January 20th……
We need to choose someone smart.
Why? For what happens in Washington, for those of you that do not know, is that a lobbyist shows up at your door with a pre-written bill, he wants you to sponsor it, you horse trade, and then you set your staff on bringing it to the floor… The bills are never read by Congressmen, maybe only by two staffers, and the rest is all hype. To really change Washington, we need smart people to say, “wait a second, why are you billing us for this…?” Dumb people, oh dear, will just rubber stamp…..
I am afraid to say that Mike Castle has become a rubber stamper,…. In his defense, if I had been there as long as he, as I got old I would probably evolve into the same… In the twilight years it just gets so hard to read reams of paper; the cocktail circuit is much more intriguing and fascinating…..
There comes a time, for an old general to retire…. His past victories though glorious, are meaningless if he leads us into one more battle that loses it all……..History is full of such generals who have stayed on a little bit too long…. The best way to preserve ones legacy, I think, is to walk away from it while it is still intact….
Jerry is tall enough to fill Mike Castle’s shoes… To be honest, he is the first Democratic candidate since Mike and Tom flipped, to do so…
In listening to Jerry, one gets the sense that we will do ok if he represents us… He is not harsh like the last candidate…. He is open and understands that he has been led down a miraculous path, one he could ever imagined would continue as far as it did…..
The only reason he is not yet considered a strong contender, is because so few people have gotten to know him… My sources and calculations show him winning on Tuesday… Soon more will learn how good a candidate he really is… We know he’s tough… His gentle toughness has got him this far… But what impressed me most, was that he is solidly balanced….He may not be the raving Liberal that some progressives want….
Unlike most previous candidates for that office, I sense he understands the need, that if America is to get better…. WE ALL HAVE TO GET BETTER AT THE SAME TIME… Conservatives too.
It’s time we had a smart person in Congress. And Jerry can, I believe, push a moderate form of Health Care that will cover all Americans, without busting the budget…. His focus will be on prevention… If a pill taken early costs $3 dollars and a surgery costs $30,000, preventive heath care makes sense…
My favorite line, and the one I think that pushed me to understand that this man has not only the smarts to represent Delaware, but the charm, confidence, and intelligence to make things happen ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE AISLE, was this one:
“Ladies, and gentlemen, I’m a veterinarian… My medical experience…is that;… taking care of sick animals… We have known in veterinarian science, that the cheapest, most cost-effective way to treat a large population of animals…. is through preventative health care… We have known that for 100 years….. Now if we have known that, and we can accomplish it for animals….why in hell’s name,… can’t we come to an agreement, to do it for Human beings?”
Yeah, I think,……… he’s the one.
At a recent debate between Markell and Carney, Markell made an attempt to pin the Minner and Senate Democrats actions upon Mr. Carney himself.
Carney responded by “I accept the challenge”.
That answer was not anticipated and as a surprise from the normal response, it gives us insight that perhaps Mr John Carney is more clever than his more recent past would allude.
Our ears are alert for more. Best guess is that squashing the Senate Dem’s attempt to scuttle Bluewater Wind, will go a long way to paving the way for Carney over his opponent Markell, who as treasurer, is forced to sit on the sidelines lobbing comments while a real battle takes place with Carney presiding.
I’m not going to talk about Dave. I am going to talk about myself and what I think.
There are few people out there who make a good candidate. Most candidates are shills whose campaign has been paid for by some interest or other. Once in, their primary responsibility is to represent those supporters.
During the campaigns they may speak of high minded principals; these are used to get your allegiance, so once in they can take care of those interests who showed them the money.
It is a symbiotic arrangement that is good for both the candidate and the investor, and sometimes, depending on the qualities of the candidate, it works well for those who are governed. And then again….. as we have seen recently, sometimes it does not.
The candidate’s support base could be anyone…Labor Unions, top ranked CEO’s, government workers, but whoever it is, once the candidate become elected, he may go his own way but he NEVER crosses those who put him there.
But occasionally rare in ones lifetime, a person steps out to run as his own man. He has ideas, and he sells them. If he is successful and enters the office, he then implements them.
People like that are hard to find. Biden did just that 35 years ago. It is time we find a new young person to do just that.
The field is growing daily. Spence, Lavelle, Burris are three names that come to mind. Spence is 7 years too late. He has held on the the speaker position longer than any other Delawarean, but as a candidate for governor, most non union people on the streets of our small towns will ask, who? It is unlikely that Spence wants to finish his illustrious record in the House, by being blamed for every Republican error that has happened anywhere in this country for the last 7 years. I doubt that Spence who is a great man, wants his legacy to be remembered as one of the lowest vote getting Republicans ever, over something he had no control over: the Iraqi War.
Spence’s counterpart, Lavelle, is even less known. Even before he runs, his stance on wind will kill any chance of him to be taken seriously. Although he has been around a while, he is still little known outside his district.
Ting, was damaged in the last election. His appeal as a vote getter, was tarnished by his insistence upon remaining a one issue candidate. And that issue was a “ho- hum” with the Delaware electorate last season.
Wharton, …..had an accident.
Wayne Smith, could be a highly effective spokesman for corporate Republican values. Quick on his feet, he could effectively duck and cover from the onslaught the progressives of the Democrat machine are sure to throw. But as an old soldier leading the fight within the trenches, he would need look over his shoulder lest word of his past political war crimes ever surface and become public……..
Copeland has the best name recognition and therefore the best shot. He too represents the party arm of the GOP. Although he could gain some notoriety on the street by mentioning his support for open government, he is extremely vulnerable because of his support for Delmarva. Mention that to prospective voters, and his support shrivels into the teens.
There is a Republican running who supports wind and open government besides Spence. He is still the pariah of Republican party leadership. Often dismissed by his party’s hacks, he has distinct name recognition among the average voter, and a solid platform of moderate values. Protack could do alright against anyone scrambling to maneuver out from under the Minner administration.
There is one other possibility. I mention him because if the line up on the D’s side goes south, even I could possibly vote for this guy, even though he swears allegiance to that political party which yet to fully understand tax policy.
But there is the better side of that candidate. There is this historical fact, that out of all of these candidates running, there was only one who could stay silent no longer, and despite admonishment from his own party leadership, he led the fight to remove one of his parties’ drunks from legislative hall.
Flat out, that is the type of leader Delaware needs: not someone who thinks it is his turn and all he has to do is show up on election day; not someone vain enough to consider his gubernatorial run to be the culmination of his life story; not some sacrificial lamb willing to bow down and take a personal hit for the party. Not someone whose negatives will make the word “Republican” synonymous with “joke.”
There is one Republican I know who thinks…. He thinks why we can’t have better schools. He thinks why we can’t have open and transparent government. He thinks why we can’t have less waste and spending. He thinks why we can’t have cheap and reliable source of energy. He thinks and that is what makes him different.
I will end with this observation. Were any of the other candidates from either side of the aisle to win, we would still have a continuation of the Minner administration’s way of doing things. After all, she came from the General Assembly herself. If one is familiar with only one way of doing things, one is automatically suspicious of everything new. Especially those candidates are beholden to someone who financially supports them and has no choice but do their bidding.
If Delaware is going to move forward quicker than our neighbors, then both parties need to field candidates of change. For if we have one candidate of change, and one promoting going backwards, we will change the medium between the two extremes, or as little as possible once the election is over. But if one party has to constantly scramble to outmaneuver the other which is bearing close on it heels, all citizens of this state benefit. Right now, Dave has support among all the opinion makers of this state. He earned that clout by being right on the issues, by addressing those of other persuasions to defend his views, and by doing what was right, no matter what the personal consequence may be.
Is he guaranteed to win? Who knows. But the GOP today stands for “Game Over Party”. Only something newly different from the losers who have lined up in the past, will reverse the Republicans shrinking base. Dave is a solid Republican with such a vision.
Only Dave seems to have the breadth of vision required to make the internal changes within the Republican party that could again resurrect Republican fortunes in this middle-of-the-road state. Daniello’s wrong. We are not a blue state because of our persuasion. We are blue because Republicans have fielded less viable candidates than their opposition. Mostly because party leadership is so out of touch with the electorate.
It’s time for voters to decide their candidates. They seem to have more common sense than the royalty that pervades the leadership of both parties.
Courtesy of Department of Defense
Delaware‘s blogosphere is awash in posting at this time. There are five basic themes.
Obviously the first is elections. The Primary election is gearing up for three weeks from tomorrow. Just three weeks. Rudy signs were the first to appear. Then I crossed my first Ron Paul sign last night. Obama organizer Brandon Hurlbut has contacted Delaware Liberal. The game is on. FSP is split between “Flip Flop” Romney, Fred “Flintstone” Thompson, and “Huckleberry Hound” Huckabee, depending which contributor is posting. (Anyone support Giuliani or McCain anymore?)
Ron Paul still remains the favorite of Republicans who do not go to meetings in undisclosed locations, although it looks like he has finally ticked Alan Coffey off a little. “Stop the war. Stop our nations slide. Grow our economy”. While the other Republicans jockey among themselves to determine which one of them is the cruelest when it becomes time to torture illegal aliens or terrorists more viciously, Ron Paul focuses on issues relative to most Americans. The media can say what they will…..When it comes to the effect of the media, America drowns them out as noise.
And just to prove I’m a hypocrite like everyone else……hat’s off to Shirley for leading off this mainstream media article… My take is bloggers lead. Media follows………..As Shirley says: does it really matter? Dem’s 23 out of 2025, Repub’s 18 out of 1191? While we act like good citizens, the real decisions are being made simultaneously in California, Texas, Illinois and New York. Since no candidate can meet and greet effectively in such a short time, this election will be decided by the ad gurus. Who’s ad resonates, wins the nomination.
In some of the best original analysis of the early elections, Duffy provides an interesting comparison and contrast between 4 of the leading candidates.
Take this test. What are the five things your candidate will do if he get elected. As an aside, I can tell you Ron Paul’s, Joe Biden’s, and creepy Tancredo’s, and those of “in the purse” Kucinich. But when it comes to the mainstream candidates, i am a little more fuzzy, and this was the longest lead-off time before the first caucus in history. Do the mainstream candidates even have a plan? Or are we voting for 18th Century values, preceded by a capital letters: Enthusiasm, Change, Experience, Security, Imperialism, Rusticism, Evangelism, 9/11? And in doing so making the assumption that the person behind them doesn’t really matter?
Locally breaking news of who is running this time. DWA (of course) provides titillating evidence that our state’s Vestal Virgin is taking on Joe Biden. Dave is for it, creating just enough gossip to take our minds off of what we should be concerning ourselves about.
Apparently Carney should be concerned with Jack’s 1.6 million. Soapbox Matt now on DWA has the comparison, and rebuts Carney’s reply to Markell’s huge war chest. (Ah John, you forgot about the bloggers, huh? So used to dealing with the News Journal who accepted what you said at face value?) Well done Matt.
As for the republican candidate for governor? His actions can only remind one of this line from William Blake: “The invisible worm that flies in the night.”
The second prevalent topic is our local General Assembly. It will be a week old this session on Tuesday. Happy Birthday. Starting off with a bang, the two topics that focus the heat, are the OOGA bill and the Wind controversy. Nancy tells us that this time….the Democrats are behind FOIA, at least publicly. Its a Democrat on the legislative committee who refuses the take the OOGA bill out of his drawer ….The stumbling block are those members of the Incumbent Party of Delaware affectionally known around these parts as the Adam’s Family. More concerned with their own than our welfare, they are and will continue to be that way until challenged in primaries throughout the state by real candidates not picked by party leadership. That of course applies to both Democrats and Republicans who have been returned to office without a challenge
Unrestrained Growth and Development seems to have surfaced as a Sussex issue. Of course it is too late to do anything about it in New Castle County, but Kent County, its nearest neighbor, has seen the enemy and “it is us.” Sussex has a chance to join them before it is too late. Tie developers up in knots. It works. Nancy carries two group’s attempts to teem up in a statewide effort for the support of home owner’s rights vs those of the road builders.
Education, often on the back burner of liberal blogs, has been kept alive by those on the other side. The micro analysis of Red Clay School District as seen from inside the School Board meetings, should be a wake call to all across the state. So is DSU budget process, as covered by Nancy.If hired by the current administration and you are less than competent, you get shoved over the educational field…..Mike Mathews expounds upon and tags FSP’s coverage of the Charter School Controversy, courtesy of the DSEA. Hube keeps us informed of idiocy anywhere students are given more rights, security, and sympathy than those teachers there to teach them. Discipline is indeed lacking.
And finally there seems to be some concern about our economy. Duh? For some reason things do not seem as rosy as the administrations financial reports keep touting. Oh, no……you don’t suppose they are wrong again, as they were on WMD’s, Iranian Nukes? Relax. We certainly are not being mislead intentionally…..But no matter how bright the economy appears to bloom, its seeds of enrichment never seem to fall to the ground, creating new growth and benefits for those on that level. No one it touching Republican economics this season. That issues has been proven to have been nothing more than a pipe dream. A return to the earlier Clinton economic plan is sorely wished by all: rich and poor alike…….
The one thing that has been quietly brushed aside by all the hoopla occurring simultaneously throughout the state,……is the fact that Mike Castle votes with Bush 90% of the time. He seems to have received the greatest benefit from the wealth of opportunity bloggers these days at their fingertips……Compared to the heat he was feeling earlier, looking over the blogs of the last several weeks, one might erroneously conclude that he was doing a good job …………
Complacency is not in our nature.
Little has been mentioned about the real phenomena that occurred in Iowa. Those of us who seek to understand, are not put off by who won and who lost the horse race. They are interested in the mechanics of the horse race itself.
Iowa is not a primary, most particularly on the Democratic side. It is a contest in organization ability and how well your precent captains can convince and conjole. Even if you are underwhelmed by the numbers, in the caucus situation, should your spokesperson have more charisma in that room than the captains of your opponents, you stand to do well. Of course having caucus goers coming to support you helps alot.
So as the Des Moines Register says, the Obama/ Huckabee win is not the big surprise. After all every poll called that combination. What did surprise all pundits, was the turn out.
“The real shock of the night isn’t Obama winning. It isn’t Huckabee winning. It’s the unbelievable turnout on the Democratic side. Nobody was thinking above 150,000, wildest dream. It’s just astounding,” said David Redlawsk, a political science professor at the University of Iowa who backed Edwards.
Iowa Democratic officials reported 239,000 caucus attendees, which was nearly double the number of 2004. Attendance at the GOP caucuses was about 118,000, with some precincts still to report. That eclipsed the 87,666 total for 2000, the last year of contested caucuses on the Republican side.
Turnouts on both sides were up. Republicans launched 25.7%. Democrats on the other hand skyrocketed 91.2%, a truly amazing figure.
Details emerging from the Clinton camp show they were quite pleased with their effort.
Of the 80,000 Iowans the Clinton campaign identified as supporters, 72,000 showed up Thursday night. “That’s a super-human effort,” Crawford said Friday. “We thought if we did that we would win handily.” That was 30,000 more than the number that caucused for Democrat John Kerry in his 2004 caucus victory, Crawford said.
72,000 out of the 2004’s level of 125,000 should have been enough, one would think? However 119,000 caucus goers materialized out of thin air.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe agreed that the outcome came down to “record turnout and lots of independents and first-time voters.”
That would be 1190 buses driven in from Illinois.
Where other Democratic campaigns were working the traditional lists of party faithful, Obama’s campaign actively worked on independents, he said.
Obama’s power to gather fresh-faced activists proved to be unbeatable. “They grabbed their muskets and came out of their caves,” said Jerry Crawford, a Des Moines lawyer and one of Clinton’s closest Iowa confidantes.
This does seem to be a year when all bets are off. If Iowa is any indication, voters on both sides have repudiated their party’s leadership and decided to go with whoever has the least formal connection to the party hierarchy.
Locally, should that same sentiment carry here at home, that would lend support to the outside game, in this case Markell and Protack. Frustration from voters is at an all time high. It is time to quarantine the leadership of both political parties and continue our forward quest without them.
kavips 
