democrattotheend
democrattotheend's JournalGreg Sargent: Romney Likely to End Up at 47%
Rounded, of course, that would put the final tally at 51-47. Anticipating this moment, Markos Moulitsas has inaugurated the “Romney 47 percent watch.”
As Sargent said, talk about poetic justice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/poetic-justice-romney-likely-to-finish-at-47-percent/2012/11/20/8a84ad4e-3351-11e2-9cfa-e41bac906cc9_blog.html
Sen. Mark Warner Opts Against 2013 Gubernatorial Run In Virginia
"I loved being governor, but I have a different job now -- and it's here in the United States Senate," Warner said in a statement. "At times, it's been frustrating, but I believe this work is important for Virginia and for our country, and I intend to see it through."
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/sen-mark-warner-opts-against-2013-gubernatorial-run
This is good news...if Warner runs for re-election it will be MUCH easier to hold that seat in 2014.
Allen West Finally Concedes
Source: Palm Beach Post
Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West announced this morning that he won’t challenge Democrat Patrick Murphy’s narrow victory in their nationally watched battle for the Palm Beach-Treasure Coast congressional District 18 seat.
“While many questions remain unanswered, today I am announcing that I will take no further action to contest the outcome of this election,” West said in a statement released early this morning to The Palm Beach Post.
West later made his concession Fox-official by appearing briefly on Fox & Friends at about 6:15 a.m.
...
Until now, West has refused to concede, citing admitted errors by St. Lucie County in its initial tallying of more than 37,000 ballots from early voting. West finally succeeded in getting the county to conduct a full retabulation of its early ballots, but the recount failed to reduce Murphy’s margin to the 0.5 percent or closer that would push the race into a full recount of the entire district.
Read more: http://www.postonpolitics.com/2012/11/allen-west-concedes-congratulates-patrick-murphy/
Santa Monica may bar Nativity scenes in public areas, judge rules
Source: L.A. Times
In a closely watched case, a federal judge denies a church coalition's request that the court require the city to allow Nativity scenes in Palisades Park this year, as it has for nearly 60 years.
Santa Monica may bar Nativity and other seasonal displays in public spaces, a federal judge tentatively ruled Monday.
In a case that has drawn national attention, Judge Audrey B. Collins of U.S. District Court in Los Angeles denied a church coalition's request that the court require the city to allow Nativity scenes to be displayed in Palisades Park this year, as it has for nearly 60 years.
"The atheists won on this," said William J. Becker Jr., an attorney for the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, a coalition of 13 churches and the Santa Monica Police Officers Assn. Standing in front of TV news cameras outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, Becker predicted that the court on Dec. 3 would also grant the city's request that his group's lawsuit be dismissed.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nativity-atheists-20121120,0,1980006.story
Interesting case. We just studied the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses in con law and it's interesting how difficult it is to avoid violating one or the other. I guess this is probably in the permissible zone, where a municipality may but need not bar such displays in public. It will be interesting to see whether this holds up on appeal.
The Economist: Why a Benghazi Cover-Up Makes No Sense
"Back to the beginning: the underlying accusation about Benghazi is that the Obama administration deliberately mischaracterised the terrorist attack there as having grown out of a spontaneous demonstration because that would be less politically damaging. Such a cover-up would have made no sense because the attack would not have been less politically damaging had it grown out of a spontaneous demonstration. The attack on the Benghazi compound would not have been any less politically difficult for the administration if it had grown out of a riot, nor would any normal voter have expected it to be less politically damaging, nor would any normal campaign strategist have expected any normal voter to have expected it to be less politically damaging."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/11/susan-rice?fsrc=scn/ob
ABC News airs audio of Romney's "gift" comments and makes fun of him for only writing one speech
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/mitt-romney-comments-president-obamas-win-2012-election-17722041Apparently, he also said something (not recorded) the day after the election about us becoming an "entitled society."
He claims Bill Clinton told him that he (Clinton) thought he was going to win until Sandy happened. I hope that's not true but since we don't have any confirmation of Clinton saying it I will give him the benefit of the doubt.
I always thought that Romney was really a quasi-moderate who went to the right to win the GOP primary. But apparently not...now I am really relieved that he didn't win (not that I ever wanted him to, but I felt that I would be more upset about Obama losing than about Romney winning).
Democratic Solution to the Filibuster: Make Them Talk
The most persistent advice that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he gets from liberals he meets across the country is as simple as it is frustrating: "Make them actually filibuster!"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/democrats-filibuster-reform_n_2141382.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
I have been saying this for a while. Filibusters were designed to be a last resort, and should be reserved for occasions when a senator has such strong convictions that they are willing to talk until they collapse with no bathroom breaks.
The Senate changed the rules in the 1970's because talk-to-death filibusters were taking up too much time. But the unintended consequence was to make it so easy to filibuster that almost everything is now subject to one.
Romney Claims He Lost Because of Obama "Gifts"
Source: New York Times
A week after losing the presidential election to President Obama, Mitt Romney blamed his overwhelming electoral loss on what he said were big “gifts” that the president had bestowed on loyal Democratic constituencies — including young voters, African-Americans and Hispanics.
In a conference call on Wednesday afternoon with his national finance committee, Mr. Romney said that the president had followed the “old playbook” of wooing specific interest groups — “especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people,” Mr. Romney explained — with targeted gifts and initiatives.
Read more: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/romney-blames-loss-on-obamas-gifts-to-minorities-and-young-voters/
I was sort of feeling sorry for the guy, until I read this.
Where were you at this time last week?
Since it's been almost exactly a week since the networks projected President Obama's re-election, I figured it would be fun to share election night stories. Here's mine:
My boyfriend and I decided to watch the results in my apartment along with one of his friends. I had just gotten back to my apartment two days earlier, having been exiled for a week due to the lack of power and transportation after Sandy. Shortly after they called the election they showed the Empire State Building and we decided to go outside and see for ourselves. So we walked a few blocks until we had a good view, and we were going to go back home and drink champaign, but we heard people yelling in Washington Square Park, so we decided to go and yell with them. As more people gathered I started yelling "four more years" and a bunch of people joined with me. Then we went home and drank champaign, then decided to go to Times Square. It wasn't as crazy as it seems like it was earlier in the night, but watching the president's speech with the crowd there was still pretty awesome. This may be the only election I am in New York for, so I figured I had to experience it. The only thing I wish I had done that we didn't was go to Rockefeller Center to see the skating rink with the electoral map...somehow I wasn't aware of that. Oh well.
Amazingly, I was neither hungover or hoarse the next day, despite drinking almost three glasses of champaign and screaming my head off. I was pretty tired though.
Looks like Obama's got the hang of tough negotiating this time
A fundamental principle of negotiating is to start out asking for more than you expect to get. That was the big mistake he made in 2009-2010 with this stimulus and especially health care. Now that he knows what kind of opposition he is up against, it looks like he's gotten the message (I hope!):
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/11/13/obama_seeks_16_trillion_tax_increase.html
I don't subscribe to the Wall Street Journal so if anyone does a summary of the rest of the article would be appreciated.
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