Amy Walter/Cook Political Report:
Can Democrats Count on Abortion Ballot Measures To Swing Key States in 2024?
The same Republican strategist I spoke with earlier agreed that Republicans can’t hide from this issue, but also argues that both their messaging and their messengers need to be better.
However, Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who was also involved in some of the 2023 Virginia legislative races, argues that “Republicans don’t have a messaging problem on abortion. They have a problem-problem on abortion.” Namely, after identifying Republicans as anti-abortion for the last few decades, voters are skeptical that they can trust them to be ‘reasonable’ on this issue.
Democratic strategist Joey Teitelbaum with GSG, a veteran of the Kansas and Ohio abortion fights, agrees, telling me that “as long as we [Democrats] are centering abortion in the conversation, they [voters] know that Democrats are on abortion rights’ side.”
“We don’t know the precise impact these [initiatives] will have on turnout in 2024,” Teitelbaum told me. “But what we do know is that there is energy on the side of abortion rights.”
Ronald Brownstein/The Atlantic:
The former president just revealed his plan to win a second term.
While the [press] release focused mostly on portraying former President Donald Trump as a threat to legal abortion, the most telling passage came when the Biden campaign urged the political press corps “to meet the moment and responsibly inform the electorate of what their lives might look like if the leading GOP candidate for president is allowed back in the White House.”
That sentence probably says as much as any internal strategy memo about how Biden’s team plans to win a second term, especially if the president faces a rematch with Trump. With that exhortation the campaign made clear that it wants Americans to focus as much on what Trump would do with power if he’s reelected as on what Biden has done in office.
Mileah Kromer/Politico:
Democrats Are Panicking About the Wrong Thing
Polls that show Joe Biden trailing other candidates aren’t worth much at this point. What voters are saying about the economy is what Democrats need to be alarmed about
The expressed economic anxiety is understandable even if not entirely rational. Voters hold these attitudes while the inflation rate has steadily decreased from its peak last summer, unemployment rates remain low with U.S. employers continuing to add jobs and many facets of Biden’s economic plan are popular. Even so, with prices of everyday goods and services stubbornly high, it might be enough to cost Biden his reelection.
Yet there are lessons to be drawn from the state level, even in solidly blue Maryland. During the first two years of the Biden administration, it was home to Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who was one of the nation’s most popular governors. One of Hogan’s first moves was to use executive power to cut tolls, notably to cross the heavily traveled Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and a series of fees in the summer of 2015. It seemed small-bore at the time. State Democratic leaders derided this move as short-sighted political showmanship that would harm the state’s budget.
Do things that visibly help and then keep touting it.
Paul Waldman/MSNBC:
Republicans’ views of the economy are completely detached from reality
It’s beyond doubt that partisanship plays a key role in what people tell pollsters about the economy.
Every day, more ink is spilled exploring this “disconnect,” this “mystery,” this “puzzle.” Many of the factors analysts suggest as they try to explain are perfectly reasonable, and probably contribute to dim views of the economy. But most of the time, the most obvious and important explanation is overlooked: The polling data doesn’t show that Americans think the economy stinks so much as it shows that Republicans say it stinks.
It’s hard to know whether Republicans actually believe this. But it’s beyond doubt that partisanship plays a key role in what people tell pollsters about the economy.
David Rothkopf/Daily Beast:
Dutch Far-Right Takeover Is a Terrifying Shock for Europe
Far-right extremist Geert Wilders’ stunning victory in the Netherlands is a beam of hope for the worst of Europe’s right-wing, and a jolt of fear for minorities and immigrants.
Wilders, a fixture in Dutch politics for a quarter-century, whose bigoted views were too extreme even for the country’s major right-wing party at the turn of this century, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, founded the Party for Freedom in 2006. Wilders has since espoused consistently vile views on Islam.
He has said “I don’t hate Muslims, I hate Islam.” He has called for a ban on the Koran. He has condemned the influx of Muslims from North Africa, the Arab world, and Turkey into Holland. (It is noted here for the record that Saint Nicholas was from what is today, Turkey.)
Wilders has, understandably, been constantly under attack for these views. He has been accused on several occasions of violating laws against hate speech. He was convicted in a 2016 trial but that verdict was later overturned.
Wilders, for the above reasons, as well as his support of right wing leaders like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, and Marine LePen—not to mention his puffy blondish haircut—has been called “the Dutch Donald Trump.”
Dublin riots: Further arrests in city centre on Friday night while McEntee comes under pressure – as it happened
Summary of Dublin Riots
- Minister for Justice Helen McEntee says Gardaí are trawling 6,000 hours of CCTV footage and “further arrests are certain”.
- Ms McEntee insists she will not resign after Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said she had no confidence in the Minister.
- Gardaí maintained a strong presence in Dublin city centre on Friday night where it was tense but calm. There have been a small number of arrests.
- Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the cost of the riots in Dublin will run into the “tens of millions” and those involved in the violent disorder on Thursday evening will face the full force of the law.
- He said the knife attack, in which four people were injured, and the subsequent rioting had brought “shame on Ireland”.
- He also said new laws would be brought in to allow gardaí “make better use” of CCTV footage as evidence and that new hate crime legislation would be introduced.
- Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the Dublin riots were organised and the Government would now order a review of intelligence gathering.
Sherrilyn Ifill/Washington Post:
Why are U.S. courts afraid of the 14th Amendment? Because it’s radical.
Judge Sarah B. Wallace’s decision that Trump engaged in insurrection but is nevertheless qualified to run for office is emblematic of the often outright resistance courts have shown to the 14th Amendment’s guarantees and protections. This instance applies to Section 3, which bars any participant in a rebellion against the government of the United States from holding public office. But almost from its inception, all the amendment’s radical provisions have inspired fear and timidity in jurists of every stripe…
The 14th Amendment has once again proved too bold for the judges empowered to interpret it. Political forces are at play again, this time fearful of a backlash if Trump is removed from the ballot. As this case makes its way through the appellate process and, most likely, to the Supreme Court, it should be understood in the context of how the timidity and unwillingness of judges to acquiesce to the judgment of the 14th Amendment’s framers effectively derailed our democracy’s promise after Reconstruction and until the mid-20th century. We must ensure that it does not do the same in the 21st.
Cliff Schecter with last part of Bob Cesca interview:
Greg Dworkin
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