Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[froot loops]

Going hard after Sanders can boomerang in the general election if his voters sit out. It is a conundrum. It is a little bit like the problem GOP candidates had in facing Trump. The big difference is there is better chance of Bernie Bros staying home.

Bloomberg is sitting around running spots in places you need to win to beat Trump in the general election. It is equal parts vanity campaign and compromise candidate campaign. There is an odd fascination with the brokered conventions that never happen.

[AlabamAlum]

[iam416]

The polling I've seen suggests Bernie Bros are likely to sit out at relatively high numbers regardless -- like 40%. Fuck him. Worry about beating PDJT after you beat Bernie.

A good D candidate should be Conor Lamb in policy. Go hard after the purple suburbs.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Helpful article on Iowa's dumbass caucus system

EDIT: Btw, there are significantly fewer states with caucuses than there used to be back in 2008 or even 2016.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...fect-who-wins/

[iam416]

What nonsense. Fuck Iowa.

I also perused the 538 PDJT numbers -- pretty interesting. Impeachment is really killing him.

[Dr. Strangelove]

What nonsense. Fuck Iowa.

I also perused the 538 PDJT numbers -- pretty interesting. Impeachment is really killing him.

Boost in enthusiasm among supporters like we talked about last week. Will be interesting to see if he maintains that boost after acquittal. The odds say no.

[Hannibal]

They need to go hard after Sanders, period. They need to portray him for what he is -- an absolutely committed socialist with a long history of praising actual communists and with a long history of siding with nearly anything socialist, including communist, over anything American.

That will absolutely never ever ever ever happen. The Left never ever punches to the Left. Ever

They might attack his electability, or they might attack him by saying that Sanders can't win because he is more succeptible to "smears", but they will absolutely never attack his ideology as being fundamentally wrong or bad. If you don't agree with me, then just look at the Democrats in this forum. They would all be perfectly fine with a 1960s radical, unapologetic Moscow honeymooner, being our President. Not one of them has expressed even the slightest worry about what that means for the country. They only worry about the image of the Democrat party and alienating moderate voters, not the actual policies.

[Hannibal]

What nonsense. Fuck Iowa.

I also perused the 538 PDJT numbers -- pretty interesting. Impeachment is really killing him.

On RCP the polls have flipped from pretty significant "impeach" to a slight "no". His approval ratings don't appear to be changing either. What do you mean by "killing"?

[Dr. Strangelove]

People in favor of acquittal slightly outnumber those favoring removal. But the number of people who think, at minimum, Trump did something wrong is well above those favoring acquittal. And the number of people who thought the Senate should call witnesses was somewhere in the 65-75% range depending on the pollster. So in the end the whole impeachment episode will probably be a wash and mostly forgotten by November.

[iam416]

On RCP the polls have flipped from pretty significant "impeach" to a slight "no". His approval ratings don't appear to be changing either. What do you mean by "killing"?

Facetious.

[iam416]

So in the end the whole impeachment episode will probably be a wash and mostly forgotten by November.

Correct.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Manufacturing index had its first positive month since last July, beating forecasts by a lot. But coronavirus scares could hamper the recovery just as it's getting started.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-manufacturing/u-s-manufacturing-activity-rebounds-in-january-ism-idUSKBN1ZX207

[Dr. Strangelove]

The Turkish and Syrian armies have directed attacked each other twice over the past 24 hours.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51354545

[CGVT]

Perfect description. Ha!

83749006_3325147514179507_4272223180719915008_n.jpg

[Dr. Strangelove]

VA fires the Deputy Secretary just 5 months on the job. No real explanation given

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/03/veterans-affairs-deputy-secretary-james-byrne-out-of-job.html