The New American Politics thread

[Flash Walken]

I really never thought Hillary would ever make it, but you could be right, Itse, things are conspiring in her favour.

[Vulcan]

I'm not so sure this is a very winnable election for the Republicans. From what I remember Clinton out polls all the possible Republican candidates. Things can change but right now Clinton is the front runner.

Out of all of the seven head-to-head GOP match-ups with Clinton tested, Bush fares the best, trailing her by just 13 points. She takes 54% support to his 41% support.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/28/politi...op-field-poll/

[Flash Walken]

More like bloody confirmation process, with Warren leading an emboldened band of progressives who have little governing muscle but can gum up the nomination process. This is the Warren way.

It happened before with Larry Summers, Obama's pick to lead the Federal Reserve. He drew the ire of Warren and other Democrats and subsequently pulled his name from consideration. (Warren wanted Janet Yellen at the Federal Reserve, and she got Janet Yellen.)

These are the fights that progressives lost in 2008, when Obama picked a slew of Clinton-era financial advisers. And it remains one of the biggest sore spots for progressives, driving a sense of buyer's remorse that makes Warren's rhetoric such a draw for them.

Warren's November op-ed on Weiss, titled "Enough is Enough: The President's Latest Wall Street Nominee," sums up the progressive view. Now because of Warren's focused fight, progressives are notching small victories, dooming Obama's hand-picked financial advisers who they see as soft on regulation and too cozy with Wall Street.

With these moves, Warren is showing how she will be a player in 2016 and beyond. There aren't any signs she will run, and there is also little evidence that she could outflank Hillary Clinton with the Obama coalition. But she will be a hard-liner on financial issues, vetting Clinton's campaign picks, just as she did with Weiss and Summers.

It's not hard to see Warren making herself into a kind of shadow financial adviser for Clinton. Her tacit stamp of approval would inform not only her rhetoric but who Clinton surrounds herself with. (Obama is surely thinking about a Warren-proof nominee for the Treasury post).

Because Warren has shown that even when she's on your side, there is no end to the tough questions:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...s/?tid=rssfeed

[Azure]

Remarkable what one person can do if they're not bought and paid for by big business.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Azure

Remarkable what one person can do if they're not bought and paid for by big business.

Just give her time, I'm sure someone will find her price

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Just give her time, I'm sure someone will find her price

Not if she stays where shes at. If she has bigger goals, like POTUS, she has to get campaign funding, and we all know that comes with a lot of strings attached.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Azure

3rd party breakthrough will have to happen in the House first.

Very much this. It's also not that out of the question, since to begin with you only really need a few to create the storyline that there is a 3rd party.

Of course the GOP and Democrats would probably work together to crush them immediately...

[driveway]

I'm pretty left wing on almost every issue and I really, really like Warren, but I want her to stay in the Senate. I think she's invaluable to liberal americans in that position.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

I really never thought Hillary would ever make it, but you could be right, Itse, things are conspiring in her favour.

Really? She polled so (so!) close to Obama in 08 I've always thought she was the frontrunner. Barring a new Repub candidate with Obama like rise, she'll win. Jeb? No. Mitt? No. Cruz? No.The only Republican that stood a chance was Christie and he did way to much damage to himself with Bridgegate etc.

The US is going to get their first woman President right after they have their first Black President. Book it.

Not like it'll manage much, the Repubs will stonewall everything in the houses preferring to take down the country rather than work with the White House. Hillary will become ad much a villian as Obama did.

[wittynickname]

This is a really, really great thing to read, honestly. Rarely these days does any part of the US government manage to make any improvements, but Holder made a great move here. Asset seizure is just completely ridiculous, so by limiting that seizure to things that should actually be taken--not just cash and other items that aren't a public safety issue--it takes money from police stations, yeah, but it should prevent innocent people from having money and possessions wrongly taken from them.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/invest...y.html?hpid=z1

“With this new policy, effective immediately, the Justice Department is taking an important step to prohibit federal agency adoptions of state and local seizures, except for public safety reasons,” Holder said in a statement.

Holder’s decision allows some limited exceptions, including illegal firearms, ammunition, explosives and property associated with child pornography, a small fraction of the total. This would eliminate virtually all cash and vehicle seizures made by local and state police from the program.

[Azure]

Holder sure has turned things around since the debacle he was involved in earlier in his term. Operation Fast and Furious or whatever it was called.

On that note, so has Obama. 3 big announcements lately. Paid sick leave, community college if you show intent on finishing, and working to make internet a Tier II utility. He's on a roll.

[Caged Great]

It's amazing what you can do when you just say F' it and decide to do things by yourself.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Caged Great

It's amazing what you can do when you just say F' it and decide to do things by yourself.

Yeah, at first Obama tried negotiating with the Republicans. That didn't work so he said screw it, we need to get this done we'll do it your way, well the Republicans wouldn't go for that either. So now Obama is just going ahead and doing it.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Azure

Holder sure has turned things around since the debacle he was involved in earlier in his term. Operation Fast and Furious or whatever it was called.

On that note, so has Obama. 3 big announcements lately. Paid sick leave, community college if you show intent on finishing, and working to make internet a Tier II utility. He's on a roll.

What does it mean by making internet a Tier II utility?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

What does it mean by making internet a Tier II utility?

Regulating internet service under Title II would mean reclassifying it as a utility, like water. This means that internet providers would just be pumping internet back and forth through pipes and not actually making any decisions about where the internet goes. For the most part, that's a controversial idea in the eyes of service providers alone. It means that they're losing some control over what they sell, and that they can't favor certain services to benefit their own business. Instead, providers would be stuck allowing consumers to use the internet as they want to, using whatever services they like without any penalty. If that sounds pretty great, it's because that's basically how the internet has worked up until now.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/10/7...ity-obama-says

Also, it would mean that smaller ISPs would get pole access and could more easily build out their networks instead of having to fight the idiots at Comcast and Verizon every step of the way.

[Itse]

wrong thread

[DuffMan]

Watching the SOTUA from Obama and I'm convinced he is just too smart and dark for the common Republican voter to understand. He just makes too much sense in regards to wages, wars, climate change, economy, Russia etc. iI's like he just wants the fairest treatment of Americans possible.

I can understand that Republican politicians are out for themselves and are going to be dicks, but voters who hate this guy are just ignorant, imo.

[Azure]

2 of the 18 things he pushed for in 2014 were passed.

It will get even worse this year.

[DuffMan]

Joni Ernst is an idiot.

Obama are bad, keystone good.

She sounds as dumb as Palin

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

Joni Ernst is an idiot.

Obama are bad, keystone good.

She sounds as dumb as Palin

I hate these types of speeches so much. It is so fake and forced.