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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Political Strategy Notes

Bernie Sanders has some pointed advice for Democrats in his New York Times op-ed,  “Democrats Need to Wake Up,” including “The notion that Donald Trump could benefit from the same forces that gave the Leave proponents a majority in Britain should sound an alarm for the Democratic Party in the United States. Millions of American voters, like the Leave supporters, are understandably angry and frustrated by the economic forces that are destroying the middle class…In this pivotal moment, the Democratic Party and a new Democratic president need to make clear that we stand with those who are struggling and who have been left behind. We must create national and global economies that work for all, not just a handful of billionaires.”

Sam Stein reports on a strategy memo provided to HuffPo which indicates that “The RNC Plans to Turn Bernie Sanders Backers Against Hilary Clinton’s VP Pic.” Stein notes, “The goals, the memo says, are to “drive wedges between these top contenders and either Clinton and/or traditional Democrat constituencies, such as labor, environmentalists, and gun control advocates, and other traditional left-wing constituencies;” and “[w]here applicable, frame the choice as an insult to the large, deep base of Bernie Sanders supporters who are struggling with the notion of supporting Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democrat nominee.”

The Upshot’s Nate Silver explains why comparing pre-election polls to exit polls doesn’t work and notes that “pre-election polls always show Democrats doing better among white voters than the exit polls.”

American Bridge, the firm which did such an effective job of providing fodder for attack ads against Republican senate candidate Todd Aikin in Missouri in 2012 is on Trump’s  case in a big way, report Maggie Haberman and Ashley Parker in the New York Times. “In 2016, the group is taking every opportunity to do the same thing with Donald J. Trump. It is maintaining an archive of digital video footage, with 6,500 clips of Mr. Trump speaking or being mentioned, going back to the 1980s, and 17,000 hours of footage over all. It has also compiled more than 5,000 pages of research on the presumptive Republican nominee and has 25 trackers monitoring him.”

In their Wall St. Journal article, “Democrats Launch Push to Regain North Carolina,” Colleen McCain Nelson and Valerie Bauerlein preview President Obama’s joint appearance with Hillary Clnton in the swing state.

Thomas B. Edsall discusses “The Changing Face of Urban Power” in his NYT op-ed and explores an under-reported demographic development, “the migration of African-Americans from center cities to the suburbs.”

Maya Rao reports at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that Democratic “Party leaders are urging members to conduct similar sit-ins around the country as they try to sustain the flash of hard-core activism on the gun issue.” More protest against the enablers of gun violence would be good. But why limit it to sit-ins? Might it also be a good idea for gun safety advocates to picket the homes of the politicians who have taken the most money from the NRA?

Isn’t it pathetic when big media laps up spoon-fed tidbits from the Republicans’ Benghazi nothingburger? Erik Wemple nails the lapdogs and their GOP trainers, and dishes out this slam for Politico’s redolent role as their aggregate tipster: “…In his “Playbook” newsletter this morning, Politico’s Mike Allen alerted readers to a crop of pieces on the much-anticipated report of the House Select Committee on Benghazi: “….LOOK FOR embargoed scoops from Politico’s Rachael Bade, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, Fox’s Bret Baier and Catherine Herridge, and Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes…’Playbook,’ in other words, had the exclusive scoop on spoon-fed Benghazi non-scoops.”

As a friend puts it, “This is the best thing I’ve seen since Ramsay Bolton got eaten by his dogs last week on Game of Thrones.”

2 comments on “Political Strategy Notes

  1. TomL on

    I’ve often wondered why activists don’t picket a candidate’s church? Or an elected official’s church. Dubya called himself a Christion while he committeed crimes against humanity in ordering the Iraq invasion. Is there some kind of unspoken truce to leave churches alone? They often are centers of hypocracy.

    Reply

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