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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Political Strategy Notes

At Politico Burgess Everett’s “Democrats resist total retaliation in Supreme Court fight” includes an update on emerging Republican and Democratic strategies regarding senate action on President Obama’s nominee to fill Scalia’s seat.
Here’s a good collection of earlier Mitch McConnell quotes explaining why it’s wrong to obstruct Supreme Court nominations for purely political purposes.
In “Why Obama is vetting Nevada’s Republican governor for the Supreme Court,” at Vox, Matthew Yglesias explores the political chess behind the Sandoval trial balloon: “…Floating Sandoval’s name in the press as a way to bait Republicans into batting it down could be a savvy strategy for Democrats to underscore exactly how rigid the GOP is being about the confirmation battle.” On the other hand, adds Yglesias, “filling the seat with a moderate Republican might actually be worse from the standpoint of labor unions who are currently looking forward to a tie on the Friedrichs case.” Thus far, Democrats have been far too willing to overlook the economic views of Republican nominees to the high court.
Julia Hirschfeld Davis and David M. Herszenhorn report at The New York Times that “Mr. Obama predicted that Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, and other Republicans would not be able to sustain their refusal to acknowledge or act on his nominee, adding that in his private conversations with some of them on the matter, it was clear to him that they were not comfortable with that stance. He added, “I think it will be very difficult for Mr. McConnell to explain, if the public concludes that this person is very well qualified, that the Senate should stand in the way simply for political reasons.”
GOP message guru Frank Luntz tweets “This race is Trump’s to lose. Unless he has a meltdown in one of the remaining 5 debates.
But NYT’s Alexander Burns still sees five ways Trump could blow it in the weeks and months ahead.
Meanwhile Republicans Mitt Romney and George Will have suggested that Trump’s tax issues could sink his candidacy. “Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is,” says Romney, “or he hasn’t been paying taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasn’t been giving money to vets or to the disabled like he’s been telling us he’s been doing,” Adding to the delicious irony of Romney dissing Trump’s personal tax-paying, Trump responds by calling Romney “goofy.”
Meanwhile, “Nearly 20% of Trump Fans Think Freeing the Slaves Was a Bad Idea,” reports Daniel White at Time magazine. More on the bigotry of sizable percentages of Trump voters here.
There are good reasons “Why Democrats (probably) shouldn’t worry about record Republican primary turnout” thus far in the caucuses and primaries, explains Jeff Stein at Vox.

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