JustOneMinute

Schadenfreude Alert!

One of the pleasures of the campaign season is the vicious backbiting articles performing vivisections of faltering campaigns.

Kamala Harris gets a turn in the dunk tank. It does not sound as if she is an effective leader and manager:

How Kamala Harris’s Campaign Unraveled

Ms. Harris is the only 2020 Democrat who has fallen hard out of the top tier of candidates. She has proved to be an uneven campaigner who changes her message and tactics to little effect and has a staff torn into factions.

Why the long faces?

Many of her own advisers are now pointing a finger directly at Ms. Harris. In interviews several of them criticized her for going on the offensive against rivals, only to retreat, and for not firmly choosing a side in the party’s ideological feud between liberals and moderates. She also created an organization with a campaign chairwoman, Maya Harris, who goes unchallenged in part because she is Ms. Harris’s sister, and a manager, Mr. Rodriguez, who could not be replaced without likely triggering the resignations of the candidate’s consulting team. Even at this late date, aides said it’s unclear who’s in charge of the campaign.

Her one shining moment was in an early debate when she turned to Biden and explained that he opposed forced busing in the 70s but she was a beneficiary of voluntary busing, so his position gave her the sadz.

Yeah, it didn't actually make any sense, as folks eventually realized when she declined to support forced busing today.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Turkey Day!

Panic On The Left Bank

An ongoing series from the Times, which one day will be gathered for their readership as "Why We Lost":

Democrats Increasingly Vocal in Calling ‘Medicare for All’ a Political Liability

Party leaders are describing the health care proposal that appeals to the party’s left as a risky bet that could neutralize one of the Democrats’ prime issues in 2020.

What Next With Gallagher And The Navy SEALs?

The Navy Secretary is now out. Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher's status seems to be unclear, although a Pentagon spokesman said on Sunday that Gallagher would keep his Trident pin and retain his SEAL status.

David French (a former JAG officer) looked at this in July and thought Gallagher's acquittal on the main charges was correct.

As to the wisdom of Trump exerting his power as Commander-in-Chief and disrupting the normal system of military justice, I don't know. I don't normally think of the military as overcome with PC, nor is Trump a model of calm, judicious reflection. 

I suspect people have opinions.

Trench Warfare

Last week's impeachment hearing were a thrill ride for the talking heads of MSNBC but did the polls move?

We will know more next week when polls pick up the late week hearings but so far the trench warfare continues. From FiveThirtyEight:

We seem to be stuck on a track where the House votes to impeach Trump to placate their base and the Senate votes to acquit ti placate theirs. 

Not The Bombshell I Was Waiting For

The NY Times sneak previews the long awaited IG report investigating the investigators. If we can believe the Times - IF! - there will not be fireworks:

Russia Inquiry Review Is Said to Criticize F.B.I. but Rebuff Claims of Biased Acts

A watchdog report will portray the pursuit of a wiretap of an ex-Trump adviser as sloppy, but it also debunks some accusations by Trump allies of F.B.I. wrongdoing.

WASHINGTON — A highly anticipated report by the Justice Department’s inspector general is expected to sharply criticize lower-level F.B.I. officials as well as bureau leaders involved in the early stages of the Trump-Russia investigation, but to absolve the top ranks of abusing their powers out of bias against President Trump, according to people briefed on a draft.

However!

More broadly, Mr. Horowitz’s report, to be made public on Dec. 9, portrays the overall effort to seek the wiretap order and its renewals as sloppy and unprofessional, according to the people familiar with it. He will also sharply criticize as careless one of the F.B.I. case agents in New York handling the matter and say that the bureau and the Justice Department displayed poor coordination during the investigation, they said.

At the same time, however, the report debunks a series of conspiracy theories and insinuations about the F.B.I. that Mr. Trump and his allies have put forward over the past two years, the people said, though they cautioned that the report is not complete. The New York Times has not reviewed the draft, which could contain other significant findings.

Hmm. Their source may well be a Resistance figure providing a generous gloss on this. I guess we see soon enough.

The Walls Are Closing In On Trump

The Times finally runs the "John Dean moment" story they probably outlined months ago. Still waiting for a smoking gun, but I know they are ready with that headline as well.

Definitely a tipping point.

Buttigieg Coming Up Roses

The Centrists Strike Back! Mayor Pete surges to the lead in a tiny, statistically unpersuasive New Hampshire poll. This follows his more convincing lead in a recent Iowa poll.

All very exciting as we roar into tonight's Democratic debate in Atlanta aired on MSNBC (9 PM ET).

Here is a fun Fight Night preview. As the latest front-runner, Buttigieg needs to watch his six. Actually, he should watch his one through twelve.

Hmm...

Team Trump coming up short in LA. And Buttigieg ascendant in Iowa. That poll is interesting because it clearly is part of the story behind Warren's shift to "Medicare For All, Someday".

Saturday Night Lights

Baylor- Oklahoma!

Taylor Testimony Damaging

Taylor testimony damaging, or so says Fox News' Chris Wallace.

Must See TV?

The public impeachment hearings begin tomorrow.

The battle lines are drawn. Is there anyone left likely to change their mind?

Sunday Afternoon

Away we go, finally.

We'll Never Have Paris

Jonathan Adler, one of The Few, The Proud, the Green Right-wingers, describes a market-oriented agenda to grapple with climate change. He has a companion piece in the LA Times.

This triggers a flashback to my post last August, when Politico and the NY Times were describing an emergence of Green Republicans.

South of the Border

This is appalling:

9 Members of Mormon Family in Mexico Are Killed in Ambush

Six children were among the victims in a massacre attributed to organized crime, relatives said. Other children were rescued, some of whom hid along a roadside.

 

 

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

Here we go again. I actually think the beginning of the end of Elizabeth Warren's campaign's end will be marked as yesterday with the release of her progressive fan fiction on Medicare For All.

Paul Krugman has the funniest reaction - serious libs pulled this together, the numbers sort of add up, this will never make it through Congress anyway, so lets talk about something else. Uh huh. I think Biden and Buttigieg will be happy to talk about this. Time will tell.

DO LET ME ADD: Among her revenue raisers is a proposal to adopt a mark-to-market on capital gains for the 1 percenters. She thinks that will raise $2 trillion, which ain't hay. Presumably she is getting a cue from Sen. Wyden, the ranking Dem on the Senate Finance Committee. As a longshot, maybe the Minuteman got results! (Yeah, yeah, this got booed off here and it hardly makes me want to back Warren, but the idea is coming on like a freight train. President Buttigieg will be looking for sock-the-rich revenue ideas, especially Constitutional ones. Of course, that might mean we're safe until 2025...

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

Here we go again. I actually think the beginning of the end of Elizabeth Warren's campaign's end will be marked as yesterday.

Paul Krugman has the funniest reaction - serious libs pulled this together, the numbers sort of add up, this will never make it through Congress anyway, so lets talk about something else. Uh huh. I think Biden and Buttigieg will be happy to talk about this. Time will tell.

DO LET ME ADD: Among her revenue raisers is a proposal to adopt a mark-to-market on capital gains for the 1 percenters. She thinks that will raise $2 trillion, which ain't hay. Presumably she is getting a cue from Sen. Wyden, the ranking Dem on the Senate Finance Committee. As a longshot, maybe the Minuteman got results! (Yeah, yeah, this got booed off here and it hardly makes me want to back Warren, but the idea is coming on like a freight train. President Buttigieg will be looking for sock-the-rich revenue ideas, especially Constitutional ones. Of course, that might mean we're safe until 2025...

She Had A Plan

Elizabeth Warren releases her Medicare For All fan fiction.

She will hold down costs by paying current Medicare reimbursement rates, in a fantasy taken seriously by on one.

NY Times:

Would ‘Medicare for All’ Save Billions or Cost Billions?

...

In our current system, doctors, hospitals and other health care providers are paid by a number of insurers, and those insurers all pay them slightly different prices. In general, private insurance pays medical providers more than Medicare does. Under a Medicare for all system, Medicare would pick up all the bills. Paying the same prices that Medicare pays now would mean an effective pay cut for medical providers who currently see a lot of patients with private insurance.

For a Medicare for all system to save money, it needs to reduce the health care industry’s income somewhat. But if rates are too low, hospitals already facing financial difficulties could be put out of business.

Politico:

Medicare for All' backers find biggest foe in their own backyard

Hospitals threaten to derail big and small Democratic plans for coverage expansion.

On the revenue side Sen. Warren proposes a spate of new taxes and a level of IRS enforcement and taxpayer compliance that seems unprecedented (in a "Gee, how come nobody ever thought of THAT?" kind of way) - she hopes to raise compliance from 84% to 92%, which is great. Why not 95% like in the UK?

Left unmentioned: the rest of her plan includes having government office workers check under the cushions of every sofa in Federal offices for spare change. Another revenue source is money left by the Tooth Fairy.

This will work.

No it won't. Politico again with Obama alums rehashing their battle scars and guessing Warren has no chance with this.