August 15, 2013

GOP Voter Suppression Is Underway in North Carolina

August 15, 2013August 15, 2013 Jon Ponder

Jim Crow is already on the march in North Carolina:

Within hours of Gov. Pat McCrory signing a Republican-backed bill this week making sweeping changes to the state’s voting laws, local elections boards in two college towns made moves that could make it harder for students to vote.

[…]

Gingrich Notes GOP Has No Alternative to Obamacare

August 15, 2013 Buck Banks

I will bet you, for most of you, you go home in the next two weeks when your members of Congress are home, and you look them in the eye and you say, ‘What is your positive replacement for Obamacare?’ They will have zero answer. … We are caught up right now in a culture, and you see it every single day, where as long as we are negative and as long as we are vicious and as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don’t have to learn anything. We have to do the homework.

— Newt Gingrich, reprimanding his fellow Republicans in unusually harsh terms, blaming GOP lawmakers for not developing alternatives to President Obama’s health care reform law, CNN reports.

Three Kinds of Republican Candidates in 2016

August 15, 2013 Buck Banks

Our most recent rating of Republican presidential contenders features a top tier of three notably different candidates: A Midwestern governor (Scott Walker) who is known best by the activists who will help decide the nomination; a leading national figure (Chris Christie) who has irked conservatives; and a firebrand senator (Rand Paul) with devoted supporters who would shake up the party’s platform and, perhaps, identity.

— Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

Rand Paul: We Can Get Rid of the Special Voting Provisions Now Because They Work

August 15, 2013August 15, 2013 Buck Banks

The interesting thing about voting patterns now is in this last election African-Americans voted at a higher percentage than whites in almost every one of the states that were under the special provisions of the federal government. So really, I don’t think there is objective evidence that we’re precluding African-Americans from voting any longer.

Day: August 15, 2013

GOP Voter Suppression Is Underway in North Carolina

Gingrich Notes GOP Has No Alternative to Obamacare

— Newt Gingrich, reprimanding his fellow Republicans in unusually harsh terms, blaming GOP lawmakers for not developing alternatives to President Obama’s health care reform law, CNN reports.

Three Kinds of Republican Candidates in 2016

— Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

Rand Paul: We Can Get Rid of the Special Voting Provisions Now Because They Work

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by WFPL.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”