November 4, 2017

"After Clinton’s fainting spell, some Democratic insiders were abuzz with talk of replacing her — and Brazile says she was giving it considerable thought."

"The morning of Sept. 12, Brazile got a call from Biden’s chief of staff saying the vice president wanted to speak with her. She recalls thinking, 'Gee, I wonder what he wanted to talk to me about?' Jeff Weaver, campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), called, too, to set up a call with his boss, and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley sent her an email. Brazile also was paid a surprise visit in her DNC office by [senior Clinton campaign official Charlie] Baker, who, she writes, was dispatched by the Clinton campaign 'to make sure that Donna didn’t do anything crazy.' 'Again and again I thought about Joe Biden,' Brazile writes. But, she adds, 'No matter my doubts and my fears about the election and Hillary as a candidate, I could not make good on that threat to replace her.'"

And: "Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, 'I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.'"

From "Donna Brazile: I considered replacing Clinton with Biden as 2016 Democratic nominee" (WaPo).

Brazile seems to be saying that she had the power to dump the candidate and she would have used that power but for the fact that Hillary is a woman.

To say "I could not do this" to "all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her" is to show the downside of getting so deeply into identity politics. Hillary's campaign was about the excitement of getting a woman President, not the importance of Democratic Party policies and values. That message becomes nothing if Hillary isn't the candidate. And they couldn't start over, even by swapping in the well-known Vice President, Biden, because replacing the woman with a man was symbolically awful, especially after all the hopes and dreams were pinned on the (presumed) excitement of getting a woman President.

123 comments:

The Godfather said...

So now, instead of a successful male Presidential nominee, the Democrats have their first unsuccessful female Presidential nominee. Does Brazile think that's a plus?

Moneyrunner said...

That Brazile actually believed that she could replace Hillary is shocking.

tcrosse said...

That Brazile actually believed that she could replace Hillary and live is shocking.

David Begley said...

What would be the factual basis to dump Hillary? What Dem rule allowed that? One person removes the nominee? Delusional.

I saw Donna speak at the Nebraska State Bar Association convention a few years back. She asserted some relative of her callled her on Election Day when she was running the loser Gore’s campaign and the relative claimed she had to pay MONEY to vote. Liar.

Donna has zero credibility with me.

The real question is how did she rise so high with the Dems?

D 2 said...

Hey,it was sexist to consider that! I have it on the finest authority! Remember all the "well, I never!..." Well, I presume calls of Sexism will now be levied fully at Ms B, or, ....no wait, cards are bein pulled out:

And there it is! The ol "It's different when we do it" card. It never fails, Charlie Brown

Saint Croix said...

Brazile seems to be saying that she had the power to dump the candidate and she would have used that power but for the fact that Hillary is a woman.

She has the power to call a special meeting of the Democratic National Committee (a 447 person body). And they can replace a nominee. I read that here.

This is how the Democratic Party replaced Thomas Eagleton with Sargent Shriver as the VP candidate after the 1972 convention.

AllenS said...

I'm waiting for Hillary to respond to these accusations. Remember, Donna fed Hillary the questions that would be asked before a debate with red Sanders. Let the cat fight begin.

buwaya said...

That the senior people in the DNC took the fainting spell so seriously, while giving their MSM instructions to dismiss it so categorically, tells you all you have to know about the MSM. As if any intelligent person has missed it, even the Dem partisans, who are either on salary or living a lie at this point.

wwww said...

I "seriously contemplated" replacing Clinton as well. Too bad neither of us had the power to do that
-Julie Lapidos


Donna Brazile warned Robert Pattinson that Kristen Stewart was bad news.

Donna Brazile warned Robert Goizueta not to screw with the formula for Coca-Cola, but did he listen? Nooooooooo he did not.

Donna Brazile warned the Hindenburg builders that hydrogen is flammable and they should really use helium.

-Josh Barro

wwww said...


The Donna Brazile "Actually, I Have Amazing Political Instincts, And This is Definitely Not Revisionism" Power Hour is a lot of fun.

T Becket Adams

AllenS said...

Biden. Now there's a real winner. Touch a little, grab a little, tell a few jokes about immigrants. How could Trump beat that?

cubanbob said...

"Brazile writes that she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt most certain would win over enough working-class voters to defeat Republican Donald Trump. But then, she writes, 'I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.'"

Self-serving crap. They had nobody and they knew it.

buwaya said...

And I wonder what she is going to say about other things, such as Seth Rich.

These last few weeks have been like Christmas for paranoids, as everything is coming out as per their apprehensions.

I really DONT want to be right about everything. That is, in my case, a very ugly place to be. But it is the real world.

Humperdink said...

Bobo is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I have followed her rise to the top of the democrat dung heap and she does not come across as insightful.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Brazile is selling that book HARD!

I'm Full of Soup said...

Clinton was a very weak candidate physically too. Who can ever forget seeing Trump every weekend out campaigning even when everyone thought he had no chance of winning? During those weekend rallies, Trump regularly mocked Hillary for being at home,as she usually was on weekends, instead of out campaigning. Some voters got that and it helped Trump.

Michael K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael K said...

What Dem rule allowed that? One person removes the nominee?

Remember Torricelli ? That was the model.

"I will not be responsible for the loss of the Democratic majority of the United States Senate. I will not allow that to happen," Torricelli added.

Response was quick from Torricelli's Republican opponent Douglas Forrester.

"No one has the right to rewrite the laws simply because he is losing in the latest public opinion polls. My fellow New Jerseyians, I say enough is enough," Forrester said.

State and national Democratic leaders met with the freshman senator Sunday night to negotiate an end to his re-election campaign, Torricelli said.

On Monday, Torricelli notified Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Senate Majority Whip Harry Reid, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray and New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey that he was planning to withdraw.


Then:

See how easy that was ?

tcrosse said...

During those weekend rallies, Trump regularly mocked Hillary for being at home,as she usually was on weekends, instead of out campaigning.

Why should she campaign? Everybody knew she had it in the bag.

Rob said...

If Donna Brazile wants to do something useful, she should donate to the Smithsonian the stick that was up Al Gore’s ass diring the 2000 campaign.

Yancey Ward said...

Brazile is full of shit. She had no power to replace Clinton- only the full DNC committee had that power and you can pretty damned certain that less than 10 of the 400+ members would have voted to do so without Clinton's explicit request that it be done. I don't even believe Brazile when she claims to have even considered the idea.

buwaya said...

Biden + Booker would have worked much better electorally than Clinton + Kaine(who?), IMHO.

Not many people actually hate them. Biden is an affable fellow with a real talent for presenting that persona. Booker is black, glib and handsome. Neither has a national reputation for corruption or any wide-open scandals. Not that there arent things peeking out of their closets of course.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fabi said...

I doubt Brazile or anyone else thought of replacing Clinton after the now-confirmed fainting spell. Donna is just giving her the knife.

Mark said...

she considered a dozen combinations to replace the nominees and settled on Biden and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), the duo she felt . . .

This betrays the elitist, authoritarian, dictatorial mindset that not only are the masses ultimately irrelevant, not only are the Party delegates irrelevant, but that the Party leader (and perhaps the Politburo) have supreme power.

Not only was Hillary to be replaced -- ostensibly on legitimate grounds of health -- but to be replaced as well was Tim Kaine, who the convention delegates had voted on as their VP nominee, but for whom there were no legitimate grounds to remove him (being a complete and utter dimwit is not enough).

gspencer said...

"But then, she writes, 'I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.'"

"But what really, really made up my mind was that FedEx package I received with a single bullet in it. Nothing else, just this one bullet."

tcrosse said...

I doubt Brazile or anyone else thought of replacing Clinton after the now-confirmed fainting spell.

If somebody hadn't caught it on video, the 'fainting spell' would never have happened.

Unknown said...

"Hillary's campaign was about the excitement of getting a woman President, not the importance of Democratic Party policies and values."

True enough, and how is this any different than Obama's candidacy? Wasn't his election all about the excitement of getting a black President? Wouldn't Hillary have won the nomination in 2008 if, hypothetically, Obama had been white?

Gospace said...

Replace Hillary? The very thought she considered it is laughable. But, let's for example, say the Dem leadership had come to their senses and realized "Hey, she's a sick puppy." and replaced her. OK, there's justification they can present to the voters. Real justification. It won't mollify any rabid Hillary supporters who may now stay home, but maybe, just maybe, they'll pick up some other voters. Surely the Bernie Bros would go for it. Wait, would they? The party just took someone with NO, ZERO, not any votes in the primary and placed him at the head of the ticket. Most are going to sit on their hands, or the ones that voted explicitly against the ESTABLISHMENT are going to defect to Trump as the anti-establishment candidate. So they go ahead and replace Tim Kaine with Cory Booker. Why? Where's the justification for that? Is Kaine going to go quietly into the night? Not only that, but I suspect blacks would be severely insulted by the move. 8 years of the Lightbringer, and now you're going to put a token black as second string to old white guy? Isn't going to play well in Peoria.

It leaves one to wonder- does she have any knowledge of social media? I can see Trump's first tweet: They're replaced Crooked Hillary with Creepy Uncle Joe. Creepy Uncle Joe memes were already all over the internet. Along with knowledge he swims naked in front of female secret service agents. It would have been great if the Dems had done that. It would have been great for the Republicans.

Unknown said...

There isn't enough popcorn in the world to keep up with the Dems machine-gunning each other in the lifeboats.

YoungHegelian said...

The difference between replacing Torricelli/Eagleton as candidates and replacing HRC as the candidate mid-election is that Torricelli/Eagleton knew they were toast & honorably agreed to step down to aid the party.

There's no way in hell HRC & her coterie could have been talked into stepping down for the good of the party. The Virgin Mary could have appeared to HRC & told her to step down or face an eternity of hellfire, & she wouldn't have done it.

Removing an unwilling HRC as candidate would have precipitated something close to a civil war among Democrats. I have no doubt there would have been violence.

JohnJMac862 said...

So, Donna knows that she's done with the old guard of the Party. She's auditioning for Liz Warren or Bernie.

Serious question - has she ever not failed?

Mark said...

It would have been great for the Republicans.

And yet the Republican Establishment has been trying to do the exact same thing to the guy that did, in fact, get elected president. It is the exact same mentality of "F the voters, we're going to do what we want."

Sebastian said...

"replacing the woman with a man was symbolically awful" To women.

Of course, replacing a man with a woman is symbolically wonderful, as prog strategy in the sexual harassment witch hunt aims to show.

tcrosse said...

The Big Money guys, foreign and domestic, who bought Hillary would never have allowed their investment to be sidetracked.

YoungHegelian said...

As mentioned above, do you really think the press was unaware of all of this hullabaloo? But, oh no, it was the Trump campaign in chaos.

The press turns out to be every bit as bad as the most paranoid righty ever thought them to be. Maybe worse.

What a bunch of miserable, low-life, lying bastards they are!

cronus titan said...

Brazile paints a picture of a smug campaign built on an unearned sense of entitlement who were too inexperienced and arrogant to see a train wreck coming. Beyond colorful anecdotes, Brazile talks about the reliance on high tech and treating experienced operatives like dinosaurs, which is probably why they ignored the red flags and pleas from WI, MI and PA. There were plenty of stories of warnings from state Democratic leaders that were dismissed as hysterics in light of the great analytics in Brooklyn.

Brazile's book completely undermines Hillary's paranoid and conspiratorial version of events, and should be titled "What Really Happened."

Birches said...

That the senior people in the DNC took the fainting spell so seriously, while giving their MSM instructions to dismiss it so categorically, tells you all you have to know about the MSM. As if any intelligent person has missed it, even the Dem partisans, who are either on salary or living a lie at this point.

This is an important point.

CStanley said...

During those weekend rallies, Trump regularly mocked Hillary for being at home,as she usually was on weekends, instead of out campaigning.

I don't think she is physically vibrant or strong, but honestly with all of the intrigue that is coming out it makes me think that the main reason she wasn't put on the trail more is that she was hunkered down in the war room the whole time. Because of all of the malfeasance, she simply had to win and they had to work harder and harder to spin their webs. And let's face it, she was so ineffective as a retail politician that it hardly would have mattered if she'd visited more places.

CStanley said...

If somebody hadn't caught it on video, the 'fainting spell' would never have happened.

And if the Tuzla tarmac greeting hadn't been caught on video, the sniper fire would have happened.

buwaya said...

It is the nature of the paranoid of this sort to understand that the image of the world as officially described is fundamentally false, or at least to the extent that it matters to some substantial interest.

This comes from seeing enough of the difference between the truth as personally perceived and the official truth. Eventually the official truth becomes suspect in every case. This is a very disturbing realization, as it requires a complete distrust in all institutions, which in the modern world leads to great insecurity, so attached are we to official promises, at the least re pensions and investments and property rights, at the worst about the reliability of basic social stability and fundamental life-sustaining infrastructure.

In some ways it is better to be in the third world, where none of these things are taken for granted, but conversely the insecurity is taken into account, and unofficial "backup" failover systems, physical and social and mental, not dependent on official truths or promises, are in regular use.

Anyway, for a well-supported glimpse of necessary paranoia, have a look at Ron Unz' article from last year, reposted on his site - "American Pravda: The Legacy of Sidney Schanberg".
As Unz says, some stories are too big.

Part of the problem in describing the correct world-view required regarding modern US politics is that this story also is too big.

Big Mike said...

I’m sure there are procedures for replacing a nominee in the event of death. Replacing a nominee who is merely ill is something quite different and creates a steep and slippery slope. Replace a nominee with a terminal disease? Maybe. Replace a nominee with a bad case of the flu? Probably not. Where’s the line in between?

I don’t know what the DNC procedures are, but somehow I doubt the interim chairwoman has the power to (1) act unilaterally to choose the replacement nominee, (2) pick as the new nominee someone who did not campaign for the nomination, (3) select the new nominee’s running mate for him (or her), or (4) act without the existing nominee’s acquiescence.

YoungHegelian said...

@CStanley,

If somebody hadn't caught it on video, the 'fainting spell' would never have happened.

News of the secret meeting on the tarmac between Bill Clinton & AG Lynch would have never gotten out if one local reporter wouldn't have followed up on a tip from an airline worker that Bill Clinton was sitting in his plane at the airport for a long time for some strange reason.

Drago said...

Why do democrats insist on making black folks feel like slaves?

........

Oh, yeah, now I remember....

Drago said...

tcrosse: "If somebody hadn't caught it on video, the 'fainting spell' would never have happened."

Are you kidding?

It was caught on tape and the lefties/dems/media/lifelong republican allies still tried to convince us it never happened.

Bilwick said...

Oh . . . THAT fainting spell! The one we were assured was just a wingnut fantasy. Makes me want to take a second and closer look at the Arkancide Phenomenon.

GUS said...

Joe Biden: Do a little dance, make a little love, get down to night Joe Biden?

Michael said...

Cage match! Cage match! Donna Brazile v. Hillary.

tcrosse said...

Brazile is enough of an insider to know what you must do if you strike at the Queen. I wonder what kind of back-up she has ?

Owen said...

Buwaya: your comment at 4:18 is majorly good. Wise and sobering. Thanks. Are you cousin to Richard Fernandez ("Belmont Club")? There is something honest, unsparing, wide-gazing, about your and his remarks.

Oso Negro said...

@ Buwaya - yes, live long enough, pay attention, and eventually you want to be long in ammunition and wheat.

buwaya said...

Hi Owen,

No, I'm not related to Richard Fernandez ("wretchard", "Belmont Club"), or if we are it is very distantly. And I can only aspire to write as well.

Jersey Fled said...

What about the minor issue of getting 50 state election boards to put Biden/Booker on the ballot?

I seem to remember several instances of dead people remaining on the ballot due to technical issues and state laws.

Remember the Democrats had to get a stacked NJ Supreme Court to get Lautenberg on the ballot in place of Toricelli. Most to this day feel that the court "erred" in allowing this to happen.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I thought of Hillary, and all the women in the country who were so proud of and excited about her. I could not do this to them.'"

You mean dumb-as-shit fem-o-progs along with Hillarywood ivory tower elites who cannot think for themselves, excuse lies, corruption and money grubbing, and instead think with their vaginas.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I hope the GOP is smart enough to campaign against Hillary Clinton until she is dead. (or in jail)

quizbowla said...

It's actually really easy to replace a candidate in a presidential election: just direct the old nominee's pledged electors to vote for the new guy in the Electoral College. This is a point that Electoral College proponents point to in its favor.

gg6 said...

Such hogwash. Donna Brazile, a middling apparatchik at best - who wouldn't even exist in politics if she wasn't 'Black' and 'female'- trying to make some $$ and become the fake news "Princess For A Moment" by making some preposterous claim to being a potential Kingmaker. Please, give us all a break, La Donna, and Exeunt Stage Left!

buwaya said...

The latest re Brazile (see Drudge) is (by unavoidable implication) that she was convinced that the Seth Rich affair was indeed a political murder and that she was in fear for her own life.

So, yet more fodder for us paranoids.

This stuff continues to fall out, nugget by nugget, at a very rapid rate now.

Someday we will all be paranoids. It wont be such a nice world.

Sebastian said...

Do Dems ever not lie? Hill lied about her health, as she did about anything else. MSM lied about the health trouble. Now Brazile lies about what she thought she could do.

Big Mike said...

For a change I agree with ARM (comment at 3:03). Brazile is seriously flogging that book.

gg6 said...

Dickin'Bimbos@Home said...xxxxxxx
I just want to say to Althouse that if she ever she gives a 'Great Merit, Good Sense & Street Courage' award, she give it to: Dickin'Bimbos@Home
I am endlessly impressed with her/his/wtf? humor, insight and directness....which maybe simply means I agree with her/him/wtf almost all the time? Ha!

buwaya said...

Not directly related (but probably very related indeed) -

From Freerepublic via the Spectator twitter -

looks like there's been a large shakeup in Saudi today, amounts to an internal coup within the Royal family. One of those of the dozens arrested is Waleed ibn Talal - largest shareholder in Citygroup and major investor in Fox. And big anti-Trumper. From whom, I speculate, has come major anti Trump funding.

cronus titan said...

Brazile also insinuates that Clinton' campaign was marinated in progressive privilege. She describes over educated and self absorbed young white people barely able to disguise their disgust at having to deal with a Southern black woman.

The picture accompanying the Post story of Clinton campaign staffers showed about ten staffers, all in their 20s, most women, all lily white (though there was one in the deep background who appears darker), all urban hipsters. It was a powerful image to convey the idea that the Clinton campaign had no diversity or experience to draw upon, as well as showing people who likely never interacted with a Southern black woman, let alone taking a Southern black woman seriously.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I am glad Althouse provides a daily role model for the frightened pussies who comment here instead of fortifying their undisclosed location's defenses and supply chains like I ought be doing, knowing all the very bad despairingly horrible things I know.

My advice to all: don't be grateful for anything, just bitch and moan about others not doing enough to adjust the world more to your liking. And if you have a 2016 Maserati but some ass has a 2017, then you are a victim whose only recourse is whining online day and night to all who will hear about your views on just how things ought to be, knowing all the vast amount of things that you know.

rehajm said...

dumb-as-shit fem-o-progs

I'm stealing this without attribution.

Sprezzatura said...

Is there some sorta rule re journalism such that after an anonymous source goes public, the previously anonymous quotes can now be attributed?

It'd be interesting to see how many (any?) of the contemporaneous jabber re ditching HRC for JRB weren't tied to Brazile.

Follow-up question, do the journos all talk amongst themselves re who they get anonymous stuff from? If so, they'd know when one individual is spilling all over the place. I'd assume Journos don't share, cause that'd give away scoop sources to competitors.

Only the big guy upstairs knows the intricacies of the info-web re leaking/reporting.

rehajm said...

This is where ARM would like to point out all the economic devastation Trump has caused.

Fritz said...

Donna Brazile is fat and ugly and speaks with an ebonics accent. It would be sexist not to mention this.

Gospace said...

YoungHegelian said...
The difference between replacing Torricelli/Eagleton as candidates and replacing HRC as the candidate mid-election is that Torricelli/Eagleton knew they were toast & honorably agreed to step down to aid the party.


Torricelli and any variation of the word honorable that doesn't begin with dis don't belong near each other. Everyone in NJ, including every Democrat who voted for him in the NJ Democrat primary, knew he was dirty and indictment and trial were going to happen. They voted for him anyway. As for:

Jersey Fled said...
Remember the Democrats had to get a stacked NJ Supreme Court to get Lautenberg on the ballot in place of Toricelli. Most to this day feel that the court "erred" in allowing this to happen.


They didn't err- they issued an opinion with the false justification that the people of New Jersey needed a "choice" on the ballot for who to vote for. The people of New Jersey had a choice. The Democrat Torricelli who the Democrats voted for in their closed primary knowing full well he was defective, the Republican, or any one of 5 or 6 minor party candidates also on the ballot, any one of which the Democrats could have thrown their support behind. Sort of like John Roberts declaring a "tax" a "penalty", or vice versa, playing Olympic linguistics to get the desired result. And eroding the rule of law.

Sprezzatura said...

Buw,

Wasn't that the dude who bailed out DJT?

Sprezzatura said...

Buw,

I mean other than his pops have folks buy millions of dollars of chips in casinos to hide the bailing.

buwaya said...

PB&J,

No idea. But the speculators are speculating that knowledge that something was up in Saudi may be behind why the Bushes went public with Trump dislike the other day.

In related news, the Prime Minister of Lebanon resigned and seeks sanctuary in Saudi, citing danger from Hezbollah.

Also may be related to revelations of Qatari and Iranian official policy re Al Qaeda in released Bin Laden docs and etc.

Mike said...

Baloney. There is no way they would have or could have replaced Clinton as the nominee. And didn't she say the Clintons had taken control of the DNC? Like .. yesterday?

Unknown said...

She sells the narrative "the apparatchik turned against the apparatus".

What is Donna Braziles chief skill? A willingness to say or do anything to win: particularly the first. She was someone's Susan Rice.

So after a lifetime of eating shit, she can now throw the shit at her feeders. What sport!

I'm waiting to find out which ghost wrote this book, and why?
(Obama got his Weathermen bomber friend to write his book).

But was she ever the stage manager - the Ben Rhodes?

Lets go to that article

> Brazile writes with particular disdain about Brandon Davis, a Mook protege who worked as a liaison between the DNC and the Clinton campaign. She describes him as a spy, saying he treated her like “a crazy, senile old auntie and couldn’t wait to tell all his friends the nutty things she said.”
> In staff meetings, Brazile recalls, “Brandon often rolled his eyes as if I was the stupidest woman he’d ever had to endure on his climb to the top. He openly scoffed at me, snorting sometimes when I made an observation.”

Heh-heh-heh! so telling.



Unknown said...

Maybe her book should have been titled

"Dinner for Schmucks - DNC from the inside out"

tim in vermont said...

To be honest Clinton might have done better had she campaigned less.

Sprezzatura said...

BTW DJT won in 16. 16 = 12+5-1. So DJT in 16 = D+12 J+5 T-1 = P O S.


Just sayin'

Sprezzatura said...

"To be honest Clinton might have done better had she campaigned less."

And, It woulda helped her to not have Russians advertising for DJT. Likewise, probably better if Comey hadn't gone public re a new investigation right when her poll numbers started to dive near election day.

Gospace said...

anti-de Sitter space said...
And, It woulda helped her to not have Russians advertising for DJT.


Boy, are you ever out of the loop.

FullMoon said...

buwaya said... [hush]​[hide comment]

PB&J,

No idea. But the speculators are speculating that knowledge that something was up in Saudi may be behind why the Bushes went public with Trump dislike the other day.


There is a book coming out:

“I don’t like him,” [George H.W.] Bush said in May 2016. “I don’t know much about him, but I know he’s a blowhard. And I’m not too excited about him being a leader.” Rather than being motivated by public service, Mr. Bush said Mr. Trump seemed to be driven by “a certain ego.”…

When Mr. Trump declared that “I’m my own adviser,” [George W.] Bush thought he did not understand the presidency. He also lamented Mr. Trump’s lack of humility. “As you know from looking at my family, it is a certain heritage, that’s what they expect, and we’re not seeing that” in Mr. Trump.

In 2009, less than two months after Obama was sworn in, Dubya had this to say about criticizing the new president:

“I’m not going to spend my time criticizing him. There are plenty of critics in the arena,” Bush said. “He deserves my silence.”…

“I love my country a lot more than I love politics,” Bush said. “I think it is essential that he be helped in office.”

Four years later he was still true to his word. Now he’s crapping on Trump. As a certain losing presidential nominee might say, what happened? It can’t be tactical. Granted, Dubya attacking Obama circa 2009 would have only helped the new guy given how unpopular Bush himself was at the time. But although he’s much more popular today, Bush attacking Trump only helps Trump too. It’s proof positive to populists that the Republican wing of the supposed single-party establishment really does hate POTUS and prefers a professorial liberal Democrat to a brawling Republican favorite of blue-collar voters.

Two possibilities for why the Bushes are speaking up, then. One: They see their own party drifting further towards populism and nationalism and they feel obliged to use what remaining popularity they have to try to steer it back towards the center. Bush not criticizing a Democratic successor is politics; Bush criticizing a Republican successor whom he thinks is wrecking the GOP is personal. They’re trying to signal to right-wing voters who are uncomfortable with Trump that they don’t need to go along with the crowd. To borrow a terribly worn cliche, it’s a fight for the soul of the Party of Lincoln and everyone’s a combatant.


https://hotair.com/archives/2017/11/04/dont-like-bush-41-43-rip-trump-new-book/

alan markus said...

From the article: Clinton ..... had taken on “the odor of failure.”

Wasn't there speculation that the bathroom delay during the debate had something to do with needing to have the bathroom to be alone with Huma for changing her Depends?

The campaign ..... headquarters felt like a sterile hospital ward where “someone had died.”

Or it could have smelled like a nursing home (see "odor of failure" above.

Sprezzatura said...

FullM,

IMHO, it's cool that you quoted Alpha. The commenters over there really enjoy attacking him.

alan markus said...

During one visit, she writes, she thought of a question former Democratic congressman Tony Coelho used to ask her about campaigns: “Are the kids having sex? Are they having fun? If not, let’s create something to get that going, or otherwise we’re not going to win.”

Re: "Are the kids having sex?"

Campaign must have been off-limits to Bill.

MikeR said...

"Brazile writes that she was haunted by the still-unsolved murder of DNC data staffer Seth Rich and feared for her own life"
Wait... I thought that was just Republican propaganda? Republicans and Brazile?

Fabi said...

Clinton and her surrogates spent $1.3 billion during the campaign. "Russia" spent $100 thousand. Lulz

Wilbur said...

Anyone paying attention realized 25 years ago that the Clintons are synonymous with the word "lie". Their whole life is a lie - the sham happy, supportive marriage, the daughter's parentage, the feminist who ran the boiler room shutting down erupting bimbos - everything.

Everything.

readering said...

I don't think Clinton could have been replaced without her consent. Even Eagleton withdrew of his own volition.

I would have been upset with Biden replacing Clinton because of age. Biden, Trump, Sanders, Bloomberg . . . all even older than Clinton. What a crazy political system we have.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I think this is really important to hear. If she could blow off Brazille that callously, who would she not have blown off?

The idiotic identity politics corporatist Democrats need to know how horrible she (and their faction) is.

As for Joe Biden, Jesus. Even putting him on as the VP pick might have helped. You still get your gynocratic she-president, but at least a VP who's not only familiar to Americans in the job/role, but has solid working class creds. The nobody Tim Kaine was just a corporatist little man butt-boy who performed the role of subservience to Lord Hills and her whatever agenda. No one will ever again hear from that loser in American politics. He's emblematic of a whole third to half of the party that needs to be wiped out.

I also thought her revelations of douchey Debbie Schultz's nauseating pink office were worth hearing. As well as the technocratic headquarters in Brooklyn. Who the fuck did these empty vessels think they were, exactly?

The Hill Faction. R.I.P. In Hell.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The DNC bubble was apparently as impermeable to reality as the right-wing bubble.

Good riddance. One down, one more to go.

wildswan said...

Donna Brazile is smart; if you grew up in the South you know who she is and how smart that means she is. When she rats, it is time to rat. Hillary is most likely over among the Dems - though I don't really see it myself aside from watching Donna Brazile move away from her.

Also it's interesting to hear Brazile talk about Millennials. They didn't disagree with her; they didn't see her at all. It's like Bill Clinton on election night at 8:15 trying to tell the Brooklyn campaign headquarters which was filled with Millennials that the election was lost. They couldn't understand his argument that the Florida panhandle was filled with retirees reflecting the sentiments of the Upper Midwest so that the wave in Florida meant that the Blue Wall would crack. They have a blind spot when it comes to historical causation. And maybe data analytics doesn't explain all that much without adding in historical causality - the shaping force among the data points.

It's simply amazing to see how little anything is understood these days. Trump - they don't know why. The NFL ratings collapse - they don't know why. Chicago shootings - over 4,000 a year for the last two years and they don't know why. The opioid epidemic - they don't know why. ISIS killers shouting ISIS slogans - they don't know if they are ISIS. Migration - a great idea. Calling men "toxic" - good thinking. All whites are racist so blacks need to safe-space [self-segregate] to feel safe. Segregation? Really???

I think I'm going to buy Donna Brazile's book and use it to try to understand the Democrats. Also to help push it past Hillary on the Amazon charts.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I think I'm going to buy Donna Brazile's book and use it to try to understand the Democrats.

Good luck. I don't even understand them. And the only Republican I ever remember voting for was McCain to keep W. off the primary ballot in 2000.

Sprezzatura said...

"Good luck. I don't even understand them. And the only Republican I ever remember voting for was McCain to keep W. off the primary ballot in 2000."

I still have a McCain yard sign from that.

n.n said...

From color to sex... diversity politics.

buwaya said...

Its remarkable how little one can understand if ones living depends on not understanding.

buwaya said...

I understand everyone perfectly.

Read Tom Wolfe (for the cliff notes on human nature) and you will understand too.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

That's nice, buwaya.

DO you have a portal to the Seventh Dimension, too?

buwaya said...

Yes actually.
Portals to all dimensions (or all the popular ones anyway) are normally available on ebay, made in China. The learning curve is a bit steep though.

Big Mike said...

All whites are racist so blacks need to safe-space [self-segregate] to feel safe. Segregation? Really???

Yes, really. Martin Luther King, Jr. died so that black people can segregate themselves. Sucks to have been around in 1968.

Unknown said...

David Cop-A-Feel tells us to read his lips, "Trump is crude you dummies!"

And Baby Bush, the man who presided over a collapse of the world economy, is back to tell us what it takes to win.

Heckuva job, Bushies!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

buwaya, can you figure out a use for high-pitched Filipinos other than as customer support operators for Amazon and other companies? Or if you could at least teach them better English?

It really gets annoying when the only person attending to your very legitimate consumer question is a robotic, high, singsong voice going, "yes, siiiiiiiiiir. Thank you, siiiiiiiiiiiir. It is my pleasure to have no fucking clue on how to answer your question or effectively address your concern, siiiiiiiiir! I'm just on the phone because it pays better than plowing the fields, siiiiiiiiiiiiiiir."

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

buwaya said...
Yes actually.
Portals to all dimensions


Portal, the game, is one of the few video games that held my attention long enough for me to complete it. That and Myst. I am not big on video games. One every decade and a half or so.

buwaya said...

Ritmo,
One of these days some nice lady from Batangas will be giving you your medication. You know what I mean. Now, she will be a good Christian, a forgiving sort from a forgiving culture, but you really ought to try to stay on her good side.
A word to the wise.

buwaya said...

Those Batanguenas, though sweet as can be, have a really scary fiery streak. And you never know where you will run into one.

buwaya said...

Less likely to be in the medical professions (though I know of some) are Warays. You do not want to piss off a Waray.

Check out Eartha Kitt on Warays. Its all true.

Mr. Fabulous said...

(World Famous Lurker says....)

ARM, since you enjoyed Portal and Myst, you might try "The Talos Principle". Current game available to download on Steam. More comparable to Portal than Myst, but not a Portal clone.

buwaya said...

Chinese mestizas however are very self controlled and will put up with anything, being as they know all about Chinese (and mestiza) mother in laws. They will bear their crosses (like you, if you persist in being unwise) with incredible patience.
Cory Aquino was a Chinese mestiza.

The question, in your case, is whether you can learn enough to tell.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Mr. Fabulous said...
you might try "The Talos Principle"


After Myst I thought there would be a real flowering of clever games for adults but this never happened, just endless first person shooters.

buwaya said...

There are a large number of good games for adults.
My long-time favorite is "Pacific War", Matrix Games.
Matrix has a very large selection of often very complex wargames of the staff-officer sort.
If thats not up your alley, there are strategy games like Sid Meyers "Railroad Tycoon", for which I think there is a current version. The boys had the last version, @8 years ago I think.
And daughter was playing with a space-engineering game, which looked very interesting - and its free - "Kerbal Space Program". Lots of games out there.

Mr. Fabulous said...

(World Famous Lurker says....)

Unfortunately, the market for well designed puzzle and logic games is smaller by far than the market for FPS games, for obvious reasons - a great many people go through life avoiding situations which require them to truly think. It's probably too much to expect them to select entertainment that requires logic, clear thinking, discovery and problem visualization.

Original Mike said...

How could the dems replace Hillary with anyone other than Kaine?

Qwinn said...

Talk about burying the lede. Her statements about Seth Rich and what she did in fear of her life would be front page for four months of it came out of the Trump, or any Republicans's camp.

Drago said...

TTR: "DO you have a portal to the Seventh Dimension, too?"

Nonsense. This discussion can be more than satisfied with a portal to the 2nd or 3rd dimension.

Although, I'm fairly certain that since the language of physics is mathematics that makes physics, like mathematics, literally white supremacy.

And don't get the lefties started on quarks! I mean, Top, Bottom, Strange, Charm, etc! If that isn't a white guy quirky racist naming convention, nothing is!

And according to the left, it is! As is everything. Literally everything! Thus does the left demonstrate reasoned nuance.

LOL

Yancey Ward said...

I highly recommend Wildswan's comment just above.

Yancey Ward said...

Cronus Titan,

You last sentence was hilarious. I wonder if Brazile considered making that the title. If this really is the beginning of an attempt to purge the Clintons, someone will probably use that title for a tell all about how and why she lost. Her husband might even do it.

Josephbleau said...

Donna is surely selling her book hard. Hillary never had to work to sell her books, they were purchased in mass by billionaires and corporations to get around campaign finance law.

Also, Linear Algebra is the portal to all dimensions.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

she was so ineffective as a retail politician that it hardly would have mattered if she'd visited more places.

Hardly anyone was showing up for her appearances anyway.

You see stuff in the press where some columnist or reporter tells you that in person, in a social setting, Hillary is gracious and charming and warm but for some reason she cannot convey that to a crowd in a public event. And then you see the anecdotes from the help about yelling at her Secret Service detail and treating them like shit (which is stupid, if somebodies job is to take a bullet for me, I'm going to try to make that person my best friend) and pitching a fit about a bomb sniffing dog being in the same room as her, and people being told not to look her in the eyes and not to speak to her unless she speaks to them first, and the obvious thought is that she is gracious and charming and warm to you is because she needs something from you.

A person's true character is always revealed in how they treat those beneath them on the social/economic ladder.

chickelit said...

...and pitching a fit about a bomb sniffing dog being in the same room as her,

The dog probably got curious about the strange odors said to emanate from her. Who alleged about the odors? John Podesta.

Nevermnd.

Mark said...

[Hillary] was so ineffective as a retail politician that it hardly would have mattered if she'd visited more places.

A major problem for her was that the more people were exposed to her, the more they disliked her. From the mere sound of her voice to the fraudulent, insincere content of what she said, every time she talked, people would go running away. You could see this in the polls. The more that Hillary was out there in the public consciousness, the lower her support. It was only when she stayed in the shadows, away from the public, such that she represented merely the idea of a woman president, that she got some traction.

BJM said...

Cyan released a new MYST-like game this year, Obduction, funded by their fan base on Kickstarter.

I backed it and though they were a year late in release due to issues with the Mac version for the DVD, they kept us entertained and updated, and I enjoyed playing it.

You can download it at Steam.

I think there is a huge market for non-FPS games, Big fish releases new Adventure/HO titles weekly, and some of their titles are very immersive.

BJM said...

Back on topic, I smell a rat...are we, and the Clinton's being played? It makes no sense for a loyal Dem soldier such as Brazile to attack and discredit Hillary, and even less for Hillary's people to counterattack Brazile with the Russian meme.

The tell for me is the Seth Rich/sniper excerpt Drudge was fed and tweeted yesterday. It is a classic Clinton playbook move... gin up a winger conspiracy plot diversion. However the more I consider the pieces played thus far, the less it feels like the Clintons...it's more sophisticated than their M.O.

Think about it; Brazile, who is now political poison, receives a handsome payoff in book sales, and once the controversy dies down, a cushy tenure at one of the Ivies for services rendered and whomever is running the diversion wrests control of the party from the Clintons. So who is pulling the strings?

Zach said...

Legal power is not the same as actual power. As Brazile would have discovered if she ever tried implementing this plan.

Clinton was the nominee. She won the primaries, she won the convention. She was physically capable of campaigning, and didn't want to quit. Trying to remove her would have started a fight much too large for Brazile to win. Her moral right to be the nominee was in practice much larger than Brazile's legal right to remove her.

Something to bear in mind when people think up Electoral College shenanigans or 25th Amendment bankshots. Removing a leader who doesn't want to go is just the first punch of a long fight. And if you can't win the fight, don't throw the punch.

tim in vermont said...

The most amazing thing about the whole campaign was how well my Hillary Clinton voodoo doll worked.

Caligula said...

One day as I was out walking I watched the early morning slot players through the casino windows in downtown Los Vegas. They were like zombies: vacant of expression, thousand-yard stare, just repetitively operating their machines as though they themselves were machines.

My only thought about what I saw was, "I had not known death had undone so many."