Whiplash! Or, Smart Diplomacy In Action

Apparently someone in the Administration was a bit too eager to announce some good news:

Turkey Says No Deal Yet on U.S. Use of Bases in ISIS Fight

ISTANBUL — A day after American officials said Turkey had agreed to allow its air bases for operations against the Islamic State, which they described as a deal that represented a breakthrough in tense negotiations, Turkish officials on Monday said there was no deal yet, and that talks were still underway.

The Turkish comments represented another miscommunication between the United States and its longtime ally Turkey, as President Obama pushes to strengthen an international coalition against the militants that control a large area of both Syria and Iraq, by securing a greater role for Turkey.

This is from yesterday's AP:

Turkey Says U.S. Can Use Bases Near Syria To Fight ISIS

AREQUIPA, Peru (AP) — Turkey will let U.S. and coalition forces use its bases, including a key installation within 100 miles of the Syrian border, for operations against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, American defense officials said Sunday.

But progress in negotiations with Turkey — including Ankara's agreement to train several thousand Syrian moderate rebels — may not be enough to stop the massacre of civilians in Syria's border town of Kobani, where intense fighting continues.

The Obama administration had been pressing Ankara to play a larger role against the extremists, who have taken control of large swaths of Syria and Iraq, including territory on Turkey's border, and sent refugees fleeing into Turkey.

 

Comments

[DrJ]

First!

[RickB]

Turkey failed to adhere to proper protocol...

[MarkO]

I get the bronze.

[DrJ]

Speaking of medals, jimmyk, have you any opinion on Tirole's Nobel in Economics? Is it merited?

[NKreBootDeux]

Erdogan and his MB pals play Obummer/Kerry like fiddles. It's easier than Lucy puling away the football. Just pathetic.

[AliceH]

et tu, DrJ?

*sigh*

[DrJ]

AliceH, we all need to be infantile every now and again.

[RickB]

For JOM Love lovers.

That's not an "internal" AFAICT. Mia at 49% means she's headed for Congress unless she trips and falls in a well.

[Old Lurker]

Great headline in WSJ:

"Global Slowdown Threatens Recovery"

[Miss Marple]

Lunchtime reading:

I Hate the Ernest Hemingway Burger

http://www.theburgernerd.com/ernest-hemingway-burger/

[Extraneus]

Richard Fernandez, noting that "the news has hijacked the news cycle."

Time Waits For No One

To appreciate how much this hurts it’s important to remember that the media’s greatest power is its ability to set the public agenda. Ever since 1968 it has jealously guarded the power to both determine what the public talks about (the agenda) and how it is discussed (framing). Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) is complaining that they can’t do that in these elections because ISIS, Ebola, Ukraine, etc. are taking over the headlines in the way that disease is overrunning West Africa.

By this time in the election cycle, the public should have been awash with stories about how a poor, minimum wage worker at Walmart has lost her health insurance due to corporate greed and why that greed has is leading America closer to single payer. Everyone should now be focusing on how the resurgent economy would be trending on Twitter were it not for the sabotage of conservative news outlets — paid for by the Koch brothers.

Instead what is trending are stories like ‘War against Isis: US strategy in tatters as militants march on‘ or ‘Despite airstrikes, ISIS forces draw nearer to Baghdad‘. Or ‘Texas health worker becomes first person to contract Ebola in U.S.‘

[RickB]

OL,

They should have gone with "World Economy Breaches Protocol - Recovery at Risk". They could have included quotes from Treasury Secretary 'Jackass' Lew's admonitions to the EUtopians on the necessity of printing and borrowing in order to keep Tinkerbelle alive.

We need to fund some NIH studies on the OPM Famine's relationship to the sharp increase in general stupidity.

[Man Tran on old iPhone]

For our fearless leader, TM, is a lecture on blood testing posted in the comments over at WUWT. Although most of it is over my head, he blows holes in the standard testing for diabetes and other factors that are tied into diet.

The back story was how often the settled science is wrong.

LUN

[Frau Miezekatze]

Dr.Jot - from Miss Marple's burger story:
"Supposedly Hemingway had a soft spot for cats."

[anonamom]

Man Tran, the only settled science in regard to health that I accept is to eat real food, move outdoors, get enough sleep, and moderate alcohol is a good thing. Maybe line bones up again if they break.

The rest is subject to change.

[DrJ]

Frau,

He did. There are many polydactyl pussy cats in Key West that come from Hemmingway. See http://www.hemingwayhome.com/cats/ . One of ours is polydactyl too.

[Iggy]

--For JOM Love lovers.

That's not an "internal" AFAICT.--

I thought RickB was posting the scientific link from the UK Telegraph that I link below at first. :)

I hesitate to post it but it is a clinical and, to me anyway, a very interesting description of the female, ahem, "response".
I can't say it matched experience exactly but it was still really interesting.
YMMV.

[matt]

What's happening with Turkey is the same thing that happened to Obama's red line in the sand.

I truly believe the Turks want the Syrian Kurds exterminated. After all, it seems to be a Turkish tradition.

To position armor and troops right across the border and then prevaricate with the US and others seems the height of perfidy.

[Beasts of England]

@Extraneus: That story is being linked all over the blogosphere. I love it when the left's plans come together fall apart.

[Pagar]

I put this at the end of the last thread but IMO,
every JOMer should understand every politician who is listed as very close in the polls has to try to appeal to some of the people listed below.

I'm not sure what can be done to educate people willing to support a political party where the leaders of that party are willing to get up in court and swear that it is a hardship for their members to get a photo ID and get judges that agree.

I'm not sure how you educate people who have been told by judges that the only ID they need to be able to vote is a piece of paper that says occupant.

[NKreBootDeux]

Matt-- the Turkish pre-positioning. In hindsight, it's clear that those forces were meant to capture/kill fleeing Kurds, not deter ISIS.

[Danube on iPad]

I wish we had a Reaganite president, a Reaganite house, and 67 Reaganite senators. We don't, and we never will. There are areas in this country where the only Republican who can win a national oe statewide election is a RINO.

I don't think proper leadership can alter that circumstance significantly. Ronald Reagan was the most inspirational conservative leader of the 20th Century, but in four attempts he could not persuade the electorate to return a GOP house.

[Iggy]

I'll answer you on this thread too Pagar. :)

It might not be possible for the GOP to educate or lead these type of people to a better way of governing a country if they were to try.

But it is absolutely impossible to do so if they don't try.

Moreover there are many people in the persuadable middle who are not nearly so dense nor as attached to the Dems as those you describe. Shifting a mere ten percent of the populace from the persuadables to common sense limited government would transform the electorate for decades.
FDR didn't eliminate the GOP; he nudged just enough dopes in the middle to his side to create a problem the GOP is still digging out from under.
But he couldn't have done so by saying he was just like Coolidge or Hoover except a little more responsible and fussbudgety.

[Miss Marple]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ebola-patients-quarantined-nyc-hospital-sources-article-1.1972516?utm_content=buffer5c054&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw

Two from the same address, recently returned from Africa.

[Iggy]

It's not a one man job.
Reagan was one man trying to move the ice sheet party of the Bobs Dole and Michel to conservatism and his greatest mistake was selecting the Dolish GHW Bush to continue his legacy.

The change can only come from the grass roots up, including the grass roots of the idea men, not from a charismatic leader or from the party down.

[NKreBootDeux]

MissM-- be careful reading the NY Daily Ruse. It is a mouthpiece for Third World Progism to sell papers at $1.25 each.. heh!
Note the unserious content in that 'news' account-- 'add to hysteria' HazMat crew 'materialized' in LA. This thing will get far worse; Obamaniacs threatened most with political destruction.

[Frau Miezekatze]

ManTran - I watched the video but am not ready for the exam. I eat that stuff up.

[Danube on iPad]

The Texas nurse and her dog:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2791089/first-picture-devoted-texas-nurse-fighting-life-catching-ebola-treating-man-brought-dreaded-virus-america-beloved-dog-s-quarantine.html

Why do I get so much stuff exclusively from the UK Daily Mail?

[Danube on iPad]

"The change can only come from the grass roots up"

If it can, it will. I don't think it can.

[GMax]

New Poll out of NC. High Point Univ in Hit's neck of the woods finds this:

HIGH POINT, N.C., Oct. 13, 2014 – The HPU Poll finds that in North Carolina’s pivotal senate race, Sen. Kay Hagan and Speaker of the House Thom Tillis are tied at 40 percent each when N.C. likely voters were asked who they would vote for if the election were held today.

Tillis has closed the race and has all the momentum.

[Old Lurker]

Because more than half the grass is sucking nutrients from the rest of the lawn.

[NKreBootDeux]

I am feeling better about NC... the soccer/security moms seem to be turning sensible. What about Kansas?

[Danube on iPad]

There is a power in yew that is greater than any power that comes against yew.

[Old Lurker]

Just as soon as they rid the world of Ebola we will jump right on this.

"Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel addressed the Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas on Monday, unveiling a comprehensive plan on how the U.S. military will address the effects of climate change."

I guess NASA still runs the Outreach to Muslim job.

[GMax]

Any of you who were buying the ruse that Orman is an Independent, might want to see the Drudge story on George Soros holding a fundraiser for this mook...

[NKreBootDeux]

Kansas-- that was my question, are the voters getting the message that Orman is a Soros/prog stooge?

[Frau Miezekatze]

GMaz - Uncle Soros has done so well with his campaign for legalizing drugs that he can now work on his shadow cabinet. An Open Society is not what most think it is.

How about an ad that shows Orman's face morphing into Soros's? Ewwwww!

[NKreBootDeux]

Grimes is a Clintonista; if Grimes loses and one of Nunn or Hagan win, watch Fauxchaontas take on HildaBeast Big Time, on the claim that Clintonisataism goes no where with the ladies in red/purple states, but Full-on Progism does.

[NKreBootDeux]

The griping about grimes link: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119800/alison-lundergan-grimes-2014-senate-campaign-disaster

[Porchlight]

Hard to tell what's happening on the ground in Kansas, but I suspect it will be a drip, drip, drip of "Orman the liberal" stories until Roberts establishes a lead.

[Porchlight]

BTW Iowahawk has the best tweet on Wendy Davis and her stage full of wheelchairs:

https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/521697671615369216

Linking because it contains cusswords. :)

[NKreBootDeux]

BTW-- Krugman's 'successful prsidency' shite. unbelievably revealing. By any objective standard Obummerism has be calamitous for the nation, particularly the working classes. Why success then for Krugman? because Obummer has forced through Prog objectives. That's all that counts for the Progs... Power.. Political Power and impoverishing USA generally. They are enemies of the nation, they are not patriots. Thatshould be repeated constantly, so it reaches the persuadeables.

[NKreBootDeux]

Abortion Barbie-- well-- she has very nice legs in a skirt.

[rich@gmu]

Porch-

good grief.

that is a campaign in free fall.

[Sandy Daze]

also from the Daily Mail...

KIDS ! They do the darnedest things !

EXCLUSIVE: Feds order review of security at all facilities holding illegal immigrant children after two Guatemalan teens escape from Illinois detention center and carjack a 91-year-old Navy veteran

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2787029/EXCLUSIVE-Feds-order-review-security-facilities-holding-illegal-immigrant-children-two-Guatemalan-teens-walk-away-Illinois-detention-center-carjack-91-year-old-Navy-veteran.html#ixzz3G0dWrUeb

[Porchlight]

It's so stupid, rich, because she never had the slightest chance of winning. Now she's turning off whatever voters she might have had left.

But I welcome it, because light rail is on the ballot in Austin, and I want the lowest possible turnout in Travis County.

[Dave (in MA)]

All they need is for Biden to yell at them to stand up.

[NKreBootDeux]

The USA media being propaganda tools for the Dem/Progs is further proven that we read stories about the Guatemalen Thugs in the UK Daily Mail. The chart proves whart is going on here; the Mexican Gov't waives through these ethnic Indian central americans to make damn sure they don't settle in Mexico. The Mexican elites shipped their ethnic problem to the USA in the 80s-2000s, they'll be damned if they allow them in from CA.

[NKreBootDeux]

Dave@230-- heh... too funny.

[narciso]

rest assured, wrong way comey, says only a dozen are involved, and they know everyone,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2790819/american-suicide-bomber-not-surveillance-returned-stint-fighting-syria.html

the Turks have been training rebels, for three years, but they aren't marching toward Raqqua
but Damascus,

[Pagar]

I spent some time looking at those in Iowa who were seeking to represent the Republican party as the candidate for the Senate. IMO, Joni Ernst was the best candidate in the primary. IMO, she has tried to stay on the conservative side of the page but wasn't getting poll counts she needed. So she elected to move her positions more to the center.
I still think she is the best choice.

[Frau Miezekatze]

Porch - my favorite comment: "Do these gimps make me look hot?"

[Danube on iPad]

How many Kansas voters know anything about George Soros?

[narciso]

Focusing on the important task at hand:

http://news.yahoo.com/gaza-reconstruction-conference-opens-cairo-082500507.html

are they providing the targeting info on ISIS.

[Pagar]

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/10/this-really-happened-wendy-davis-staffer-drags-disabled-man-across-stage-at-presser-video/

No further words needed.

[Typhus is partisan.]

Wooosh, into the void goes my comment about Orman.

[Porchlight]

That was my favorite, too, Frau. ;)

[jimmyk]

There are areas in this country where the only Republican who can win a national oe statewide election is a RINO.

Maybe. Let's not forget Reagan won Massachusetts. Twice. And New York. Yes, the electorate has shifted somewhat, but I think a strong candidate can win virtually anywhere. A weak mush-minded candidate without a clear message will have trouble whether conservative or moderate.

I don't buy the view that you go with the electorate you have. About 1/5 of the electorate will vote R or D if they find the candidate compelling. And that's true in just about every state in the union.

[rich@gmu]

Posted by: Porchlight | October 13, 2014 at 02:28 PM-

Get some pointers from Janet on the light rail problem. Wouldn't think Weird Austin would want to spoil their town, but there you go.

In re: Davis. Yikes!!! Could see the Dems wanting to supercharge their efforts to turn Texas, but they really did a pratfall in trying to elevate her. One would think with all the big money donors and Hollywood she has access to; she could make an ad that wouldn't be so offensive, and then compounding the problem, by doing such a tacky photo-op.

It is something I'd expect from the GOP.

[rich@gmu]

>>>How many Kansas voters know anything about George Soros?

Posted by: Danube on iPad | October 13, 2014 at 02:45 PM<<<

Probably not many, and for those that do, not many care. Which is odd seeing as how the Koch Bros (even with their funding of liberals as well) can get the 2 Minutes Hate treatment.

[narciso]

yes, she got a big buildup, remember the Vogue spread, but she turned out to be too obvious a strigoi

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/10/breaking-cornell-west-arrested-at-ferguson-mo-march/

unfortunately he will be released,

[NKreBootDeux]

jimmyk-- seriously, 1980-1984 was a different electorate, owing to mass immigration and the relentless culture war from Big Hollywood and Big Education. Reagan won because of 1980 Stagflation and Soviet Expansionism. GHWB would have probably won for the same reasons in 80. Those clearcut issues are no longer clear cut, and haven't been since 1990. To me it's a miracle most of the Reagan policy changes have stuck to a significant degree. That said, winning in '14 still means getting enough people to vote for you, and that makes politics the 'art of the possible'. That's one thing Krugman and I agree upon.

[They taze wheat stems out there, ya know.]

George or Johnathan? They fly over so, no, no one knows about them.

[MarkO]

Frau, Frau, you are naughty.

[NKreBootDeux]

why would anyone assume Kansas voters ar uninformed? Based on racial and economic demographics, personally I assume Kansas voters are highly informed relative to Blue Hell states.

[Old Lurker]

Agree with your 3:08 NK, also the electorate in 1980/84 included most of the Depression & WWII crowd who had actually lived through, you know, some actual world history.

Plus they knew how to read and write.

[rich@gmu]

ouch OL.

[rich@gmu]

Posted by: NKreBootDeux | October 13, 2014 at 03:11 PM-

to revise and extend my comment, since my writing skills are problematic. I don't think they are uninformed. I think that they do not care on the very narrow issue of Orman having a Soros hosted fundraiser.

[jimmyk]

I disagree, NK (and OL). At the time MA and NY were widely regarded as incorrigibly Democrat, with the exception of the occasional Casper Milquetoast Republican. If Bush could have won, then why didn't he win either state in 1988? Don't tell me the electorate had changed so much in 4 years.

[Captain Hate]

Reagan won because of 1980 Stagflation and Soviet Expansionism.

That's the type of GOPe thinking that has everybody looking at polls instead of anticipating the landslide; because they're not running for anything other than not being 404. Reagan ran an excellent campaign by standing for something other than "I'm not Carter". As a result voters had a clear choice instead of Pandering Jackhole #1 versus Pandering Jackhole #2 and voted overwhelmingly for somebody who unquestionably stood for something.

[Miss Marple]

The reason Bush didn't win Massachusetts is that the former governor of Massachusetts was running against him.

[Jane]

Actually the election of 1980/84 included a huge chunk of baby boomers who were hippies 10-15 years earlier - like me. Reagan was the first republican I voted for. My first experience in politics was quitting school to work for McGovern, followed by focusing like a laser on Watergate.

So to go from far left to Reagan in 8 years is not impossible.

[jimmyk]

That doesn't explain why he lost NY too. And he lost both in 1992 as well.

[AliceH]

I supported, voted for, and used the networking light rail in STL. I'm not aware of anything that makes me question that support. It was a good route, and is not only superior to bus or taxi, but frequently better than car.

I think it probably loses money, but one of that is deficit shifted from a truly abysmal bus stem. Either that's an exception or I'm ignorant of the facts.

On the other hand, there's now trolley project underway along Delmar in University City on the west edge of STL (think Judy Garland in Meet me in STL). It would be leveraging the existing original tracks, but still... can't see a practical use for that!

[AliceH]

Plenty of autocorrects in my last. Do your best.

[NKreBootDeux]

Those are easy ones jimmyK:

1. white blue collar ethnics in 1980/84 were far more persuadable than current Third World immigrant voters, for the reasons OL noted;

2. In 1988, the affluent suburbs in mass and NYS were far more comfy than 1980, and the Soviet threat had been beaten by.. Reagan. After 8 years, those suburban voters were affluent and comfortable enough to think they were above it all, so making the self-congratulating Prog vote.. 'for the children' was easy. That affluent suburban vote pattern carries on to this day. Hopefully, it will trend the other way as the rich Progs see the dangers of 404 and DeBlasio.

[jimmyk]

It's easy to come up with ex post explanations for why Reagan won in MA and NY and practically everywhere else. The fact is that prior to his nomination the GOPe was panicking, and no one was saying he would win so easily. That's why he unfortunately picked Bush as his VP.

[Old Lurker]

You're not the problem, Rich. The LIV majority.

Jimmy, my snark about today's electorate compared to the 80's is actually consistent with your 3:19.

Even in 1988 they could tell the difference between a real conservative and a Compassionate Conservative with an endless DC resume.

[rich@gmu]

NK-

Reagan also appealed to the working class voters that Dems took for granted (it was the subject of a paper that some Dem operatives wrote in the late 80s or early 90s that Bill Clinton was able to use effectively). Obviously we can't run the clock back to 1980, but the GOP would probably get some mileage out of the paper (now if I could only find it).

Another big difference is the level of voter surveillance that the Dems can produce as opposed to the GOP now-a-days. Dems can spend less time trying to convince fence sitters to join the coalition and more time motivating those already in the coalition to vote (or, although this has been disclaimed, spending time trying to keep fence sitting GOPers away from the polls).

[narciso]

More to the point, is his tie to Bankster Gupta, which the Roberts campaign, finally put on the board, about a week ago,

the Dems understand this is political warfare, too many of the Top Men, think it's badminton,

[Old Lurker]

The LIV majority IS...

[Miss Marple]

jimmyk,

It's been a long time and I don't know who was on the Senate ballot in New York at that time, which might have pulled votes from Bush to Dukakis.

As far as 1992, by then the press had perfected the attacks on Bush and ran them without response, since by then the campaign had lost Lee Atwater. I remember them brining James Baker in the last few months, but it didn't help. You also had Quayle making controversial statements on purpose (at the behest of Bill Kristol who is always a troublemaker) and Perot causing trouble.

And the dems managed to nominate someone who seemed unthreatening and jovial, Clinton.

[Captain Hate]

Reagan also appealed to the working class voters that Dems took for granted (it was the subject of a paper that some Dem operatives wrote in the late 80s or early 90s that Bill Clinton was able to use effectively). Obviously we can't run the clock back to 1980, but the GOP would probably get some mileage out of the paper (now if I could only find it).

Yes and there was absolutely zero chance of Romney picking up any of the Reagan Democrats, which the geniuses who want him to run again overlook.

[narciso]

Moynihan, if memory serves, the Dems had hired Carville, that cycle, the GOP had no counter,

[rich@gmu]

or whatever, I was typing that NK before your 327 appeared.

[NKreBootDeux]

Standing for something? 1980 CPI= 14% and unemployment 7.5% (21.4% misery index). That made reagan's anti-Carter economic case incredibly easy. The Soviets were in Afghanistan and Poland and the Mullahs had the US Embassy staff-- Plus Desert One. That made reagan's foreign policy case very easy to make. Oh and gas prices had doubled in less than a year and cars got 12MPG, so even the employed were hurting. reagan was a wonderful salesman, but he had a very receptive electorate.

[Heh, I'd have never predicted that.]

Still researching but @ 1st glance, Tirole appears to be a fool about climate, energy and the environment.

[Inna crook't bizness.]

Yah, n, he's a crook, too.

[Old Lurker]

Jane, but even the former hippies in 1980 had been in college in the 60's and public schools before that, and they had been raised by parents who had lived through the 30s and 40s. Some of that soaked in and emerged from the drug fogs as real life landed on them. Their public schools in the 50s taught traditional western civilization history, actual US history, and even Civics, imagine that. Colleges in the sixties had not yet fallen off the cliff and as even the Academy of Science detailed a few years back, a degree in the late sixties was mostly the same amount and quality and rigor of education as the degrees of their parents and grandparents, at least at the top colleges (which is what they studied).

Not so today and any of those bases.

[Captain Hate]

As far as 1992, by then the press had perfected the attacks on Bush and ran them without response, since by then the campaign had lost Lee Atwater.

Poppy Bush wasn't exactly glib when it came to responding to things on the fly. The press had it in for Reagan too but he was too nimble for those dumbasses. The "I refuse to use my opponents youthful inexperience against him" (paraphrasing) was in response to a question aimed to make him look out of touch compared to Mondale. Not bad for an "amiable dunce" and surely better than Clark Clifford could have done.

[jimmyk]

Yes, it was Moynihan. I'm not sure why so many people want to run from the fact that the compassionate conservative milquetoast GHWB was a much weaker candidate even in the Northeast, which was his home base, than the scary right wing Reagan. All the ex post rationales don't convince me, in any case.

[NKreBootDeux]

In 1980-- Liz Holtzman beat Jake Javits in the NYS Dem primary, and D'Amato rode reagan's coatatils to win a close election.

[narciso]

what is French for blather:

http://idei.fr/doc/cv/tirole_en_2014.pdf

Clark Clifford, the front man for a cartel of Sheiks and shady bankers,

[NKreBootDeux]

D'Amato got a plurality to win, javits grabbed double digits... boy were there recriminations in Dem land over that. I voted for Javits, absentee.

[Captain Hate]

NK, for somebody who obsesses on polls as much as you do, you surely remember that until the first debate Reagan trailed Carter significantly despite every item you mentioned about the economy being true. Reagan was demonized more than Nixon by the press.

[Miss Marple]

jimmyk, Of course Bush was a weaker candidate than Reagan. Reagan was a once-in-a-lifetime candidate.

Many factors went into the elections of 1988 and 1992, as have been detailed here. If Bush hadn't run, who would you think would have been better?

[NKreBootDeux]

I don't obsess over polls, I evaluate polls. The MSMedia 1980 national polls up to the eve of election were wrong. The NYT, washPostCo, Time Inc, all got the polling wrong. There were echo chambers back then too. Worse even. I remember a classmate from Mass who worked in Tip O'Neil's office said that the 'in the know' Dems knew all along it was a blowout. I was shocked, because the NYT kept saying it would be a cliffhanger.

[narciso]

How about Jack Kemp, he was the major driver behind the tax reforms, 'Poppy' regained the initiative, because he went populist, and then blanc mange after he won,

for all the attacks on Reagan for Iran Contra, we are still dealing with that band of 'Iranian moderates' like Rouhani, nearly 30 years later, so who's learning curve is weak, again,

[Miss Marple]

Dow has dropped 218 points.

[RickB]

"So to go from far left to Reagan in 8 years is not impossible."

Jane,

It certainly isn't and Obola is giving Millenials the opportunity to learn what a steady diet of prog fodder does for your economic health. I regard the political situation today to be similar to 1930 - with Hoover's "just around the corner" starting to blow up. Obola may well get at least 10% of the Millenials to commit to the "I'll never vote for a Democrat again." state necessary to establish even more of a majority than Republicans now hold.