Monthly Archives: May 2016

Smart White Ladies Don’t Like Donald Trump

On the one hand, well, duh. On the other hand, if educated white women continue to abandon Donald Trump as this Post article shows they have so far, fuggedaboudit. The potential for the 2016 election to widen America’s racial voting chasm even further is nothing new. But Washington Post-ABC News polls have also identified a related dynamic: White Americans are splintering along education and… Read more »

Not So Happy Memorial Day From A National Security Contrarian

Back a thousand or so years ago, you may be surprised to know that my undergraduate degree was a weird amalgam of Russian history, US-Soviet relations, and the 1980s version of security studies - unlike the 21st century version, we didn’t do terrorism or torture, and believe it or not, we were encouraged to question military spending priorities. I was… Read more »

Hillary Needs To Make Her Infrastructure Pledge A Central Campaign Theme

As if she heard my conversations with some area political junkies (I’ve been telling people Clinton should do this for a few weeks now), Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton pledged to introduce a $275 billion infrastructure plan to Congress in her first 100 days of being president. This is a very smart move. Most importantly, it lets voters know one her… Read more »

Bernie Sanders Wants Barney Frank and Dan Malloy off the Democratic Convention Committee

The Bernie Sanders campaign’s legal team has written a letter to the Democratic National Committee asking to have Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy and former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank disqualified from their positions as Platform Committee Co-Chair and Rules Committee Co-Chair, respectively, because the two have been “aggressive attack surrogates” for the Clinton Campaign. The letter went on to say their… Read more »

Begun, The 2016 Veto Wars Have

Governor Larry Hogan flung down his gauntlet to the General Assembly today, vetoing five bills passed during the 2016 legislative session. Gov. Larry Hogan announced the veto of five bills as part of his final decision on nearly 100 bills passed in the 2016 General Assembly session. Among the rejected measures is legislation mandating increases in the amount of electricity generated… Read more »

Van Hollen Hires Pat Murray To Run General Election Campaign 

Chris Van Hollen, fresh off his strong primary win over Donna Edwards last month, has hired Pat Murray, currently the executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party, to manage his general election campaign. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Democratic nominee for Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski’s open Senate seat, has hired the director of the state’s Democratic Party to lead his campaign…. Read more »

BREAKING: Republicans Hate Gays & Lesbians

Not really news, I know, but here’s some crystal clear evidence, for anyone who still needs some at this late date. So last week House Republicans held a vote on a pro-LGBT amendment open so leadership could twist arms and get six GOP members to switch their vote. The amendment failed 212-213. Mind you, the amendment was to prohibit federal… Read more »

Election 2016: Don’t Panic About the Polls…..Yet

With the republican primary wrapped up and the democratic primary about to be over in a couple of weeks, we are entering the purgatory period between the declaration of presumptive nominees and the national conventions later in the summer. And given our media’s insatiable need to blow a narrative out of proportion, something has to fill the void. Right on… Read more »

O’Malley For DNC Chair?

Yes, please. This would be a marvelous idea. As the political vultures circle around the incumbent, a longtime backer and financier of former Gov. Martin O’Malley is touting him as the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee. John P. Coale, whose $500,000 loan helped put O’Malley over the top in his 2006 race against Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., tweeted his… Read more »

The Real World Impact Of Voter ID Laws

A pair of articles from the Washington Post today show why Republicans should be so proud of their efforts to combat the nonexistent threat of voter fraud with laws that require documents that 11% of American citizens don’t have. And - quel surprise! - the affected voters tend to vote Democratic: the elderly, blacks, Hispanics, and the poor. Cue Claude… Read more »