The Nice Hillary? Klobuchar Surprises In New Hampshire

Posted on February 12, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | February 12, 2020

If Hillary had been more personable, not the shrew we publicly know and loathe, could she have pulled off the 2016 general election?

Well, probably not. However, she could have made it closer in the Electoral College.

The same is likely true for the surprisingly ascending Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. The senator landed an upset in New Hampshire with a very legit third place. She is nice, in a know-it-all kindergarten teacher sort of way. Her accent is just short of the cast of “Fargo” and she looks better now than she did at the start of the process.

Klobuchar’s midwestern twang gives her the patina of sincerity and her moderate appeal plays especially to women.

MORE NEWS: Biden stuns New Hampshire voter by calling her a ‘lying, dog-faced pony soldier’

But when America is at peace and the economy is firing on all cylinders we hardly ever throw a president out of office. Plus, if she tried the cuddly Nurse Ratched routine on Donald Trump in a debate he’d have her for a snack.

So, that’s where she may go. But how did she get here?

Given the modern Democratic party’s tendency towards sexism, only her gender makes her competitive if she doesn’t have too many other negatives that a Democratic audience would take issue with. She doesn’t.

She, like the rest of the Dem field, makes a fetish out of getting Trump. Some of them though are still whining about impeachment. Not her. She has exited the wambulance and moved on to other matters, like trying to convince the middle class life is hard when they are undergoing one of the biggest economic booms in American history.

Klobuchar wants to go back to Obamacare, like Buttigieg, and that puts her at odds with Bernie and Liz on the issue. So far that duo have concentrated their fire on Pete regarding healthcare. But if Klobuchar does well enough in Nevada and South Carolina, not to mention Super Tuesday, she may well come in for a lock on their radar. In fact, Liz may try an end run on the female vote and hit her on not seeming, as opposed to being, feminist enough.

MORE NEWS: What if Biden drops out?

And oddly, Amy seems to have guy hands.

So we have a new player. An interesting one. And even though she would probably lose to the president, she needs to be taken seriously. The GOP “red tsunami” crowd should definitely take note. Lest their confirmation bias, play right into Dem hands. Again.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Tuesday Morning Recap: Buttigieg And Sanders In Dead Heat, Trump Secures Another Judge And Could Roger Stone Be Pardoned?

Posted on February 11, 2020 by LifeZette

By LifeZette Staff | February 11, 2020

The New Hampshire primary

Buttigieg and Sanders remain in a dead heat going into the New Hampshire today. A large turnout will favor Sanders. Buttigieg is counting on depressed college student turnout, in both senses of the phrase, and a moderate voter base. Biden has to finish in the top three or he is in serious trouble. Warren has to just not get completely clobbered. Our call is Sanders. Then it’s on for them to savage Mike Bloomberg.

Coronavirus update

World Health Organization officials traveling in China today called the coronavirus “a very grave threat to the rest of the world.” Over 100 have died there from the virus and 43,000 others have fallen ill from it round the world. 99% percent of the cases are in China. There have been no U.S. deaths as of yet. International monitors speculate China’s rudimentary socialized health system is not capable of handling the crisis. But national pride stops them from asking for significant outside help.

Trump secures another judge

The president gets another judge through the Senate. This time it’s the nomination of Judge Andrew Basher to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell got Basher his upcoming new job with a Monday 46-41 vote in favor. The official nod will be this afternoon.

Space war?

Two Russian satellites are tailing an American spy satellite, coming as close as 100 miles. In space, that’s nudging the guy next to you in the ribs. A U.S. Space Force ( so cool to write that) general says the Russian craft’s actions are “unusual and disturbing.” Not really, Just Vladimir Putin rattling his actually relatively puny sword a bit.

Could Roger Stone be pardoned?

President Trump is hinting he may pardon his former pal Roger Stone. In a tweet this morning he called Stone’s prosecution and upcoming sentencing “horrible and very unfair.”

Across the pond

Germany has been politically upended with the news that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand-picked heir apparent, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, has said no to moving into Merkel’s job. It’s like Mike Pence turning down the presidency after he won the 2024 GOP nomination for president. The Defense Minister made the move because she is upset that the political party of both she and Merkel, the Christian Democratic Union, allied with a hard core anti-immigration party, the AFD, in state elections.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Democratic Convention Headed Towards Mayhem

Posted on February 11, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | February 11, 2020

Have you seen the television series “Veep”? I haven’t.

But my college sophomore eldest daughter has seen it. She, who I programmed…er…um…cough…helped to raise well, tells me one of the last episodes is a hilarious rendition of a brokered convention.

If it actually happens in July in Milwaukee, it won’t be so funny for the Democrats.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a brokered convention, it means no candidate gets to the convention with enough delegates to win on the first ballot. Then, the back stabbing begins.

MORE NEWS: What if Biden drops out?

Since it’s up close and personal retail politics, it gets vicious and easily melodramatic.

In other words, everybody from candidates, to the press, to staffers, start acting like telenovela villains. The resultant grudges are not exactly conducive to a united party going into the fall.

At a brokered melee it’s not “listen to my ideas.” The time for that is well past. It’s pushing a state party chairman into a corner and saying, “This can go one of two ways. Either you get a bridge named after you or I make sure your spouse learns about the male stripper on your staff. You know, the one you share hotel rooms with to ‘economize.’ Your call.”

Anybody from the front runners to the also rans, to the unknown compromise candidates, can walk away with the nomination. The 1924 Democratic convention in NYC went for 103 ballots over 16 days. The compromise candidate won.

The 1940 GOP convention in Philadelphia went 6 ballots and the dark horse guy won after the galleries went bonkers for him. The 1976 GOP convention in Kansas City almost went to a second ballot, but Ford edged out Reagan in the first. Not even close to a brokered convention since then.

Why is this year different?

The Democrats are so abnormally diffused by ideology and faction, even for them, that one candidate may not be able to unite everyone under their tent by July. The party establishment is behind Pete, Joe, and maybe Amy. The hard left wants Bernie or Liz. Then there’s Mike. And if Hillary gets in?

MORE NEWS: Biden stuns New Hampshire voter by calling her a ‘lying, dog-faced pony soldier’

Their attitude towards each other is best typified by paraphrasing Tom Wolfe in “Back to Blood.” When a character is explaining the collective attitudes of South Florida Latins towards each other he says, “One thing you gotta remember. Here, everybody hates everybody.”

That also may be the reigning ethos in Milwaukee in July. At least, we hope it is.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Buttigieg Hit By New Hampshire Feminists

Posted on February 7, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | February 7, 2020

Pity Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

He goes out of his way to be as PC as is humanly possible and he still can’t please the assorted fever swamps of the left. I mean, what more can he do?

Granted, he abused their sensibilities by serving his nation in uniform, does not support the complete socialization of American healthcare, and may actually have working cognitive abilities, as he was a Rhodes Scholar.

But on the other hand to progressives he’s fashionably gay, his dad was a Marxist professor, he supports partial birth abortion, he thinks climate change is a real thing, and generally toes most of the rest of the ridiculous leftist line.

And, as was the smart move, he saw how well he was doing in Iowa and declared victory. That got him what momentum there was to be had out of the caucus disaster.

However, some women who are Warren and Klobuchar pawns are going after him for “white male privilege” for calling himself an Iowa winner.

They think this was quite presumptuous on his part and thus nasty toxic male behavior. Not really, they just want to beat him in New Hampshire and will do or say anything to do it.

Here’s one of the coddled feminist mouthpieces, former Democratic NH House Speaker Terie Norelli, playing the victim card, “I think that’s just a symptom of white male privilege, right? You guys don’t even realize what’s happening, because you are privileged to be able to walk through this world in the way that you do. And so whether it’s gender privilege, or skin color privilege, or wealth privilege, and I think people who have privilege generally, are often not even aware of it and certainly are generally not willing to give it up.”

Yeah Terie, politicians like you have no privilege at all, right?

Noted social commentator and American Greatness writer Elizabeth Fortunato puts it this way, “Buttigieg’s pandering vexes feminists and he forces to the surface the sibling rivalries on the progressive left.”

She nails it.

To the radical feminist left he may be a liberal gay guy who they agree with 80% of the time. But more importantly, he’s still a guy. Thus they can tag him as a serial toxic oppressor of all of harpydom only worthy of disdain, calumny, and electoral loss.

Sorry Pete. Gals can be tough, huh?

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Latest Democratic Excuse For Iowa Debacle Is… It’s Trump’s Fault

Posted on February 7, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | February 6, 2020

Apparently, according to the Democrats, President Trump is all seeing and all knowing. Because that would be the only way he could be held responsible for the complete catastrophe that was the Iowa Democratic caucuses.

But because blaming the president has become an autonomic function for Democrats, some of them are putting out a fantasy retelling of the Iowa mishap that blames Donald Trump for the assisted suicide that was the Democratic Party contest.

It reminds me of the reaction pals of mine had to the film “The DaVinci Code.” I had relatively recently converted to Roman Catholicism and rather gullible friends took the fun but silly fiction as close to fact in regards to the Vatican.

In the movie, Paul Bettany plays an albino Vatican assassin named Silas who goes about killing enemies of the honchos of the RC Church. When certain associates asked how I could join a faith that probably had albino hit men, I gave them the same response I have to the possibility that the president remotely wrecked the Democratic Iowa caucuses.

If only…

The new excuse for the debacle is based around the completely uncorroborated report that evil Trump elves flooded phone lines reserved for Democratic precinct chairs with calls that praised the president. This then held up all results because the proper people could not get through to report their data.

Uh huh, sure.

Interestingly, they must have missed reports that the app used in the caucus voting was developed by former Clinton staffers and that the firm that owns the app has an executive that is the spouse of a top Buttigieg aide. News of that, of course, has sent the Sanders people into ballistic orbits of justified paranoia.

The very latest data on the Iowa misadventure is that Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez wants a mulligan and advocates doing the whole thing again.

He tweeted on Thursday, “Enough is enough. In light of the problems that have emerged in the implementation of the delegate selection plan and in order to assure public confidence in the results, I am calling on the Iowa Democratic Party to immediately begin a recanvass.”

Too little too late, Tom. The 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses will go down as yet more proof, as if any more was needed, that state and national Democrats are not up to successfully running a simple ballot contest, much less the United States of America.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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New Hampshire primary critical to the survival of several Democrat candidates

Posted on February 6, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | February 6, 2020

Like in any proper election analysis, the calls are the political equivalent of an NFL pregame show. You look at the teams, the players, the point spread, and the injured lists. Then you make your prediction.

So, here we go. Welcome to the New Hampshire playoffs.

In a straight primary where raw votes matter more than anything else Sanders has got to be the favorite. His kiddie brigade will help him there, as will his status as a fellow New Englander.

He beat the tar out of Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016 and went on to other big victories in the primary season. But now as then it doesn’t matter, as he gets the big nod no way no how as long as the Hillary types still run the party.

Pete Buttigieg will do well. New Hampshire loves a new outsider, like it took a shine to Sanders last time around. His perceived moderation will play well with the approximately 30% of New Hampshire Democrats who see themselves in the middle and his boyish mien will excite the old lady set.

He is riding a wave from Iowa and that should energize his donor base and his ground game.

Elizabeth Warren has a shot at coming in second. She is also from New England, appeals to the worst sort of females (and the Democrats sport those in hordes), and has been on the ground in the state for awhile. But the feeling in DC is she peaked too early and is now playing for a veep slot.

Joe Biden must take first or second place here or be at serious risk of losing the whole thing. With his pedigree and establishment support anything less than number two here is poison.

If he were to drop out that could set up a Hillary scenario and a Hillary-Bernie rematch. The GOP imagination and political palate salivate just thinking about it.

Also rans like Yang, Klobuchar, and Steyer have to finish in the top three or they will be out of the race soon. Well, granted, Steyer has the cash to stay in for a bit.

And speaking of cash, now gaining a higher profile due to massive ad buys and waiting for them all on Super Tuesday is Mike Bloomberg.

The plot thickens…

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Biden Takes Major Hit in Iowa

Posted on February 6, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | February 6, 2020

It wasn’t too long ago that some seasoned political analysts, including this one, thought Joe Biden had a good shot to win the Iowa Democratic caucuses.

Boy, were we wrong.

He not only lost but got relegated to fourth place behind Buttigieg, Sanders, and Warren.

This is a man who has been in the Senate since 1972, who has run for president before, and who was number two in the regime of a president wildly popular with Democrats. He was soundly beaten and made to look foolish by a kid mayor, a newish senator, and a virtual communist.

Why? Several reasons.

No oomph- His people in Iowa showed a remarkable lack of passion. The television shots showed them standing idly by while others were fighting for every single vote and delegate.
No youth appeal- In the college towns, and they are big Democratic centers in Iowa, he was almost shut out. The guy is verging on 80. The Democrats seems to love young anti-semites and socialists these days. Ergo…(anti-semitic socialists? Gee, what historically recent political movement combined those two traits?) an old labor-loving moderate is just not what they are looking for.
Where is Obama? – A lot of Biden’s problems would go away if his former boss endorsed him. But that’s not going to happen because the Obamas are keeping their powder dry for a future Michelle run and don’t want to get into any fights that would tick off other Democrats before they pull the trigger.
The guy is just weird- It’s the gaffes, the fabrications, the nuzzling, the obvious combover/hair work, and the odd intolerance for any other point of view in the Democratic Party.Combine this with an expectation he’d be butchered by Trump in the fall debates and it doesn’t make him attractive to Democrats.
They are looking for someone viable against a popular president who is riding a wave of exoneration and triumph. No one sees Biden as strong enough to fit that bill.

Finally, he’s yesterday’s news- Joe Biden harkens back to a relatively gentler time, if you could call the Clarence Thomas hearings gentle, when you fought like hell then went out for cocktails afterwards.His heyday was twenty years ago and earlier and modern socialist PC Democrats have little to nothing in common with him. That showed in Iowa. If it also does next Tuesday in New Hampshire he is in big trouble.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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GOP Tops Democrats in Fundraising Haul

Posted on January 31, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 31, 2020

The impeachment drama may be annoying in some ways and a national calamity in others. But it certainly hasn’t dulled the fundraising acumen of the president and the Republican National Committee.

They pulled off their best ever non-election year by smashing their former numbers for December.

The GOP raised $26.5 million in the last month of 2019. That’s a $6 million gain on their November number and their best December ever. The increase is likely caused by a backlash effect from the presidential impeachment.

In 2019 the Republicans and Trump together raised $463 million, with an end of the year cash on hand balance of $194 million and $0 debt. The RNC raised $241 million of that amount.

The Democrats were $6.5 million in debt as of November of 2019.

Democrat contenders for the top also raised steep amounts, by Dem standards, in the last quarter of 2019. Biden raised $22.7 million. That puts him below Buttigieg at $24.7 million. Warren only raised $21.2 million. She was bested by the party cash leader, Bernie Sanders, at $34.5 million. For socialists, Sanders’ minions seem to have found at least enough money to pay for his Quixotic run for the White House.

These numbers may seen like a lot to you. But as a former political campaign director I can tell you a modern national campaign can go through $100 million before the voting even starts. No? Look at Michael Bloomberg’s media purchases just up to this point, before the first voting starts in Iowa.

He has already well surpassed that mark.

What’s it spent on? Mostly media, logistics, and personnel. Television ad buys don’t come cheap in media markets like New Jersey that boast really only two markets, New York City and Philadelphia. Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago political ad prices, even sometimes the cable buys?

Fougedaboudit.

It also takes a small army of drivers, advance staff, stage crews, digital nerds, oppo jocks, pollsters, media lounge lizards, graying honchos, and a host of others to run a modern presidential campaign. And they all want to be fed, housed when on the road, flown or bused about in a timely manner, and paid semi-well.

In return they will usually work like dogs seven days a week without much sleep. They will run on caffeine and hate and their only solace is that somehow, some way, the coiffed idiot they have hitched their star to doesn’t politically auger into a mountain and they end up with a cushy staff job at some obscure DC federal agency.

These men and women are the true deciders of America’s political fate, because if they drop the ball their clients do too and history is changed.

Welcome to your republic.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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Boston Poll Puts Sanders on Top in New Hampshire

Posted on January 23, 2020 by LifeZette

By David Kamioner | January 23, 2020

Bernie Sanders is on a roll.

No, not a kaiser roll.

His political timing is hitting apogee at just the right time for the nation’s first Dem primary (Iowa is a caucus), as a Boston-based WBUR poll Thursday puts him at 29% in New Hampshire. That’s a strong lead over Buttigieg at 17%, Biden at 14%, and Warren at 13%. Everybody else is in single digits.

The poll was conducted by talking to 426 likely voters in the Granite State. The contest is in three weeks.

But Sanders is off the campaign trail until the impeachment trial of the president is over.

Will his lead hold until then?

However, he’s top dog now and is also having a great fundraising cycle. The recent kerfuffle with neighboring Massachusetts’s own Dem Senator Elizabeth Warren only seems to have helped as, incredibly, most appear to believe he never said it. Thus Warren, not him, has taken the hit even with women.

The guy is on a lucky streak.

In a stinging indictment of the American education system, Sanders is killing it with Dem voters under 30. The socialist is taking an absolute majority of 52% of these sad ignorant toddlers. On the other hand, Biden leads with voters over 60.

They vote.

One interesting thing about this poll. A full third of male Dem NH voters approve of the way President Trump has dealt with the economy.

If that were to hold for November and even half of those voters swing to the GOP, Trump would win there handily. He narrowly lost to Clinton in the state in 2016.

Yet another reason to applaud toxic masculinity. But Sanders’ good fortunes make life easier for Trump as well.

Regardless of the conformist bleatings of the kiddie set, who vote in low numbers anyway, a socialist with a pro-communist past is likely too far left for America and the president would romp to a reelection victory much like Nixon in 1972 or Reagan in 1984.

Dem pros know this, as does Hillary Clinton, and want to forestall that fate not only for electoral credibility but to prevent a crashed and burned Dem party from being bought at fire-sale political prices by the Obamas.

The duo would move in on the prostrate remains of the party like ravenous vultures at a rodent buffet in preparation for Michelle’s very probable statewide run in Illinois and then her eventual run for the White House.

This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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