"I used to always hear Democrats saying, 'The election was all just Trump’s racist appeals,' but I actually went to the rallies in 2015."

"He would talk about bad trade deals. He promised to bring back Glass-Steagall, which is the bill regulating finance. He talked about health insurance. He was going to do a plan that actually would cover all Americans and wasn’t going to be like a rat’s maze. And if you compare the ads, his ads were overwhelmingly more policy-oriented than Clinton’s. She was really just attacking him as a bad guy and it didn’t work.

Said John Judis, quoted in "Where Have All the Democrats Gone? John Judis and Ruy Teixeira explain how liberals lost their way" (The Free Press)(transcript and audio)(Judis and Teixeira are political analysts). 

The "Honestly" podcast host asks: "So, you didn’t anticipate that the party that said, 'We are the party of Paul Ryan, we’re the party of tax cuts, we’re the party of Milton Friedman,' would actually start to sound more liberal on economic policy?"

"Look, to his credit, Donald Trump brought many new voters into our party, and we want them to stay. He’s a former president now..."

"... but the issues and values that held so many Republican voters and turned so many Democrats into Republicans, those issues and values still matter.... In a lot of manufacturing towns, and in other once-forgotten places, people know who’s speaking for them, and more than that, who’s listening to them. Like the Reagan Democrats of another time, these voters feel respected in our party, respected for the work they do, for their way of life, and for their love of country. I can’t think of any better evidence that the Republican Party has been doing at least a few things right. Having joined our ranks in the last five years, there is no reason these voters cannot go on adding their conviction and support to the conservative cause. All good-meaning people from every background should feel welcome in the forward-looking, inclusive, aspirational movement that we must be...."

From "Paul Ryan Reagan Library Speech Transcript May 27: Future of GOP" (Rev).

"Biden continually interrupts Ryan in a way I find incredibly annoying."

I'm rereading my live-blogging of the October 11, 2012 debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. It's making me view Trump's debate behavior in a different way. I hated the way Biden treated the very polite, earnest Midwesterner Ryan. Excerpts (with timestamps omitted):

Biden is being rude, laughing and mouthing words.... Biden mutters an interruption. When Biden is given a turn, he calls what Ryan said "malarky."... Ryan is speaking earnestly... and Biden is chuckling toothily, his body shaking like Santa Claus.... When Ryan speaks, Biden is laughing clownishly again. It looks just awful... Biden is acting as though he cannot physically tolerate Ryan having a turn to speak!... Biden continually interrupts Ryan in a way I find incredibly annoying.... While Ryan is talking... Biden sighs long and loud... Biden interrupts. Ryan says: "Mr. Vice President, I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think everyone will be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other." I love the politeness of "if we don't keep" — we — when Biden has been an interruption machine and Ryan has barely interrupted and only occasionally has talked over to keep from losing his turn. The moderator, Martha Raddatz has done nothing at all to control Biden.... The stress level is rising. Biden is so angry. Why is he yelling? Ryan needs nerves of steel not to lose his cool. I'm impressed that Ryan, when he gets his turn, is able to speak in an even, natural voice. It's hard to concentrate on the policy itself, because the emotional static is so strong... That debate was so annoying! Some of the CNN commentators are talking about how Biden did what he came to do, to fire up the Democrats. "This was not for the independents," says Van Jones. Okay, well, but independents were watching, and Biden was horribly rude. He created this disturbing atmosphere of anxiety.

Debating Trump, Biden got a big serving of what he dished out 8 years ago. Ryan did a fantastic job of maintaining his cool, staying substantive, and going high when Biden went low. And then he lost the election. I'm sure Biden would have been willing to do what he did in 2012 and be completely rude and irritating as hell once again, but he's 8 years older, and, more importantly, Donald Trump is not Paul Ryan. Trump is Trump, and Trump saw the ultra-polished and polite Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan go down to defeat.

"Why am I stopping? No one else stops. It's my Catholic school training."

Best line of the night — here's the debate transcript — from Joe Biden, near the end of 2 hours of all the candidates talking over each other and the moderators failing horribly to maintain any sort of order.

The moderator Gayle King responds, "Vice President Biden, you're a gentleman. Good home training. Thank you, sir." But Joe Biden doesn't want to be Gayle King's good little boy. He says, "Yeah, gentlemen don't get very well treated up here."

Good home training. Ridiculous. Biden was making a criticism — "Why am I stopping? No one else stops. It's my Catholic school training" — a justified criticism, and Gayle King understood or pretended to understand that to be supportive of her and justifying her bonding with Biden, like the 2 of them are well bred and polite, but he cut her off.

"Gentlemen don't get very well treated up here" — that's superficially polite, not telling King she's not doing her job, but the treatment in question is from the moderators.

He's saying: I have been polite and gracious, but you've presided over an event where rudeness wins. Catholic school may have taught me good behavior, but you, Gayle King, are teaching bad behavior.

By the way, it's interesting that King changed "Catholic school training" to "home training." She cleaned the religion out of it for him. She erased his Catholic identity. And if it's home training, the implication is domestication by a woman.

Now, a lot of people seem to think that Donald Trump is rude, and the Democratic candidates sometimes appeal to our desire for more politeness and niceness and harmony. So maybe Joe Biden got somewhere by embodying the gentleman, and maybe he's savvy enough to have done that on purpose. But Gayle King patted him on the head for it, and that hurt. Who thinks you can beat Donald Trump being the boy with "good home training"?

ADDED: Back in 2012, when VP Biden debated VP candidate Paul Ryan, Biden behaved like a jackass. I wrote at the time:

Biden is being rude, laughing and mouthing words. And Ryan is talking about serious national security matters. Biden mutters an interruption. When Biden is given a turn, he calls what Ryan said "malarky."

Yeah, he said "malarky."

"He took my really – believe it or not – congenial and gentle words and he made me sound like a tyrant."

Said Donald Trump, talking about Adam Schiff. Context (at RCP, with video (and it really is much better played as video, with all the emotive expression)):

"Can a woman beat Trump? Some Democrats wonder if it's worth the risk."

"Voters across multiple states said that they recognize the 'electability' question is often unfairly aimed at women running for office — but stressed what they said was a need to be realistic" (NBC).

"I can hardly think about it. It makes me sick thinking about how nasty this could get for a woman,” Marianne Mason said, clutching her stomach as she waited for Sen. Kamala Harris of California to arrive at a town hall event at the University of Iowa on a recent Wednesday night. "How are they supposed to rebut someone like Trump? I want to see a woman in the White House, I really do. But I just don’t know if it can happen against him."...

"I think against Trump any woman is going to have difficulty with electability, that’s just kind of a reality we have to contend with," said Emily Van Kirk, 22, at a West Des Moines campaign event with Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in March. “We need to make sure we are making an informed decision about who is actually going to be able to combat the things he says that are not only derogatory but just ignorant about women.”

Shirley Ehlers, a retiree from Perry, Iowa, who has been active in women’s political organizations in her community, agreed. “We have Trump for president, and that says a lot," Ehlers said. "That shows a disrespect in this country for women at a lot of different levels. I think we need to address that first before a woman can win."

Ridiculous. If you can't stand up to Trump, how are you going to stand up to Putin, Kim Jong-Un, and the rest of the world's bullies? To say women have to wait until Trump isn't the opponent is to say a woman should never be President.

ADDED: I don't know why these woman-doubters think Joe Biden is better equipped to take on Trump. He was very weak debating Paul Ryan in the VP debate in 2012. Here's my live-blog of that debate, preserving my perception of how pathetic Biden's performance was. He's 8 years older now. I don't understand why he's even asking to be considered adequate. His announcement of his candidacy, wafting dishonest racial bullshit, disqualified him from consideration, in my opinion. And that was tightly scripted and pre-recorded, so a lot of poor judgment and poor delivery could be hidden. Imagine him exposed on the debating stage. These people who think Biden is a safe choice must have a really abysmal opinion of the other candidates. Maybe they're already coming to terms with an inevitable Trump victory in 2020 and they're just aching to avoid the pain of a second-in-a-row failed female candidate.

ALSO: A woman can stand up to Trump in the same way a man would. Hillary Clinton wanted to use a special female privilege against Trump. She and her proponents worked hard at portraying him as offensively sexist for criticizing her, being disrespectful, and seeming physically intimidating. I think that's a mistake if you're asking for the role of President. The campaign is a test, and there can be no special treatment once you become President, so you shouldn't act like you need gender-based accommodations on the test.

"Trump's attack on Ryan seen as advance scapegoating."

The Hill headlines, based on the Trump tweet, "Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!"

The Hill writes:

Now, as the House majority appears to be slipping away from Republicans, Trump is suddenly lashing out at the Speaker.

It's not as though the chance of winning has suddenly slipped away. We used to hear about the "Blue Wave," as if a big loss in the House were inevitable. The future is hazier now, the majority isn't "slipping away." The elections seem to be drifting toward something more like a tie, so I don't see the sense of saying Trump is "suddenly" reacting to a loss he sees coming. And Trump seems to be the last guy in the world to lurch into pessimism about an impending election.

Trump's political team has pointed to the high number of GOP retirements and poor fundraising totals among sleepy incumbents as the main source of the party’s troubles in the House. In the third quarter, 110 Democratic challengers outraised their Republican opponents.

GOP strategists said it was incredibly unhelpful to attack Ryan, which is further inflaming Republican tensions and knocking the party off message in the final stretch before the critical midterm elections.

They also maintain it will be impossible for the president to escape blame, given that he has urged his supporters to envision him on the ballot this fall.

I don't know which Republicans talk to The Hill, but it looks like these are people who don't want the immigration issue at the forefront, which used to be just about all Republicans, didn't it? So their pitch to The Hill is that losing the House — which they are resigned about — will be Trump's fault, and his effort to push a big, powerful issue is only designed to shift the blame. I think it's more that he's built a big beautiful win-win for himself: Either his campaign choices worked or they failed because Republicans didn't align themselves strongly enough with him. And Republicans will be stuck with Trump's choice of issues whichever way the House goes. And we're already well into the 2020 campaign.

"Republicans have erased the Democratic advantage on the generic congressional ballot in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll..."

"Fully 39 percent of registered voters say they would support the GOP candidate for Congress in their district, while 38 percent would back the Democratic candidate.... And while House Democrats have pledged to yoke GOP candidates to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the poll suggests that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will be a more effective foil for Republicans than Ryan will be for Democrats.Voters are split on their perceptions of Ryan: 36 percent view him favorably, and 40 percent have an unfavorable opinion. But Pelosi’s numbers are more negative: Only 28 percent of voters have a favorable impression of her, while nearly half, 49 percent, view her unfavorably."

Politico reports.

Wisconsin snark.

Washington, DC may be frozen from a ‘bomb cyclone,’ but in Wisconsin, this is perfectly good working weather. pic.twitter.com/uSFzmL4qmy

— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) January 4, 2018

I'm seeing that because it was retweeted by one of my Senators, the other guy in the photograph, Ron Johnson.

Apparently these 2 men are getting together in a hallway in Washington, communing in some sort of Wisconsin way. Ryan, I take it, thinks he's low-key and amiable, but he's really saying these East Coasters are weather hysterics.

It's basically where I was coming from in my post yesterday, "After reading the news in the morning, I'm often surprised, when I go outside, at how warm the cold feels" ("It's quite absurd, the hysteria the news media wants us to come down with").

"There are two members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, right now, who... have engaged in sexual harassment."

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said in testimony before the House Administration Committee.

AND: From WaPo:

After a stunning hearing Tuesday morning where lawmakers acknowledged sexual harassment is a pervasive problem on Capitol Hill, Ryan released a statement saying that the hearing was “another important step in our efforts to combat sexual harassment and ensure a safe workplace.”

“Going forward, the House will adopt a policy of mandatory anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training for all Members and staff. Our goal is not only to raise awareness, but also make abundantly clear that harassment in any form has no place in this institution,” Ryan said in the statement.

In the news: Women going where they don't belong.

1. "Republican leaders 'visibly annoyed' after Ivanka Trump enters Oval Office during debt ceiling talks" (Washington Examiner).

According to a Democratic aide, the conversation over spending ended when Ivanka Trump entered the room to say hello. "The meeting careened off topic," the aide said. "Republican leaders were visibly annoyed by Ivanka's presence."

A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., rejected the idea that GOP lawmakers were annoyed by Ivanka Trump's presence. "This is false," said Ryan spokeswoman AshLee strong.

2. "Democrats dread Hillary's book tour" (Politico).

“Maybe at the worst possible time, as we are fighting some of the most high-stakes policy and institutional battles we may ever see, at a time when we’re trying to bring the party together so we can all move the party forward — stronger, stronger together,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat who represents a Northern California district. “She’s got every right to tell her story. Who am I to say she shouldn’t, or how she should tell it? But it is difficult for some of us, even like myself who’ve supported her, to play out all these media cycles about the blame game, and the excuses... There is a collective groan... whenever there’s another news cycle about this.”...

“I’ve always been a looking forward kind of a guy,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), asked the same question on Wednesday. “I think I’ll leave it at that."....

“I look forward to going to every place where she appears,” Sen. John McCain of Arizona said sarcastically. McCain pointed out that he didn’t write a book after losing the 2008 presidential race....

3. This one tips the other way. A woman has her own ultra-special woman's room, and a man is invited in (BBC):

No-one is precisely sure how or why the women in Vigo’s family started weaving byssus [the razor-thin fibres growing from the tips of a highly endangered Mediterranean clam known as the noble pen shell, or pinna nobilis], but for more than 1,000 years, the intricate techniques, patterns and dying formulas of sea silk have been passed down through this astonishing thread of women – each of whom has guarded the secrets tightly before teaching them to their daughters, nieces or granddaughters.

After an invitation to visit Vigo’s one-room studio, I suddenly found myself face-to-face with the last surviving sea silk seamstress, watching her magically spin solidified clam spit into gold.

I slowly approached the small wooden table where Vigo worked, walking past a 200-year-old loom, glass jars filled with murky indigo and amber potions and a certificate confirming her highest order of knighthood from the Italian Republic cast aside on the floor.

“If you want to enter my world, I’ll show it to you,” she smiled. “But you’d have to stay here for a lifetime to understand it.”

"This Is What a Modern-Day Witch Hunt Looks Like."

By Jesse Singal (in New York Magazine). This is a remarkably detailed analysis of an attack on Rebecca Tuvel, a philosopher who published "In Defense of Transracialism" in the feminist-philosophy journal Hypatia. Excerpt from Singal's article:

There has simply been an explosive amount of misinformation circulating online about what is and isn’t in Tuvel’s article, which few of her most vociferous critics appear to have even skimmed, based on their inability to accurately describe its contents. Because the right has seized on Rachel Dolezal as a target of gleeful ridicule, and as a means of making opportunistic arguments against the reality of the trans identity, a bunch of academics who really should know better are attributing to Tuvel arguments she never made, simply because she connected those two subjects in an academic article.

Read the whole thing. It makes me want to read all these other things Jesse Singal has written. Like, "Here’s (More) Evidence Testosterone Makes Men Dumber."

As you can see [from the new study in Psychological Science], testosterone made the respondents significantly more likely to pick the answer that “felt” right but that wasn’t in fact correct. It didn’t seem to have an effect on their ability to solve arithmetic problems, which don’t have an answer that “feels” right and therefore don’t lend themselves to gut-impulse guessing.

Here's a Breitbart article about Jesse Singal: "Meet Precious Flower Jesse Singal: He Thinks You Are a ‘Hateful Idiot.’" It's really insanely intra-Breitbart:

[I]n response to Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos Tweeting out the article about Singal’s piece, Singal began to lose it. “Holy shit Breitbart responded to my beard blog post!!!!!!!!!!! These are some sensitive snowflakes,” Singal wrote....

That goes on and on about Singal going on and on.  Here's Singal's beard blog post (from 2015): "7 Breitbart Commenters Who Think Paul Ryan Might Be a Radical Muslim Because He Grew a Beard."

"Let me teach you about love, Jesus — tough love!... You need a sustainable pro-business model."

"And you need to give people freedom, Jesus, the freedom to suffer misery and poverty."

So said "Pious Paul of Ryan" in a conversation with Jesus, as imagined by Nicholas Kristof in the NYT.

ADDED: For comparison, here's Dostoyevsky's "Grand Inquisitor."

"Welcome to the dawn of a new unified Republican government" — said Paul Ryan, as he is chosen, once again, to serve as Speaker of the House.

"It feels really good to say that, actually. This will be a government focused on turning President-elect Trump’s victory into real progress for the American people. Our team is very excited, and we cannot wait to get to work."

"Donald Trump cancels Wisconsin rally just as Paul Ryan says he would campaign with him."

Ooh. Ouch.

The old "Shame!" chant breaks out at the Paul Ryan/Ron Johnson/Scott Walker rally in Elkhorn yesterday...

... where Donald Trump had been scheduled to appear.

What goes around comes around.

I remember the "Shame!" chant from the 2011 "uprising" — the Wisconsin protests — liberals opposing Scott Walker and his conservative legislature.

"House Speaker Paul Ryan, saying he was 'sickened' by Trump's comments, announced Friday night that the GOP presidential nominee would no longer attend a Republican event in Wisconsin..."

"... at which the two were slated to appear on Saturday. Trump's campaign said vice presidential nominee Mike Pence would represent him instead. Trump campaign advisers were huddling together in Trump Tower Friday night trying to figure out how to react."

How about withdrawing?

Why, it was only this morning that commenters on this blog were pushing for me and Meade to attend the rally tomorrow in Elkhorn. David Begley said:

Trump rally one hour from Althouse and Meade on Saturday. Wisconsin is critical for Trump and the Meadehouse endorsement is influential.

I joked:

So I could tip the nation, eh, Begley? After all this, it might depend on me.

Meade boosted my joke:

In a world... where Clinton corruption grew exponentially, there was one lady blogger...

David Begley leaned in:

Yes, Ann, selection of the next Leader of the Free World depends upon you and Wisconsin.

No pressure....

Trump endorsing Paul Ryan.

Yesterday in Green Bay...


That's from a WaPo article about the challenge Paul Ryan faces in the primary next week here in Wisconsin. Excerpt from the article:

As the national GOP rushes to protect Ryan from the wrath of Trump, stars from the conservative counter-establishment — former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, columnist Michelle Malkin, and author Phyllis Schlafly, among others — have continued to stoke the fury here, with the faint and fading hope that Nehlen could close the gap in the final days and score an upset similar to the one in 2014 that toppled then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

“I think Paul Ryan is soon to be ‘Cantored,’ as in Eric Cantor,” Palin predicted to CNN in May. Minutes after Trump’s endorsement of Ryan on Friday, she took to Facebook to buck up Nehlen’s base, writing, “Wisconsin, please vote for this man ‘of the people’ this Tuesday!”

"I think they’re acting like little brats. If Trump loses, I blame them — Paul Ryan, Scott Walker... all of the little baby boys that don’t want to support the official nominee."

Said one of the Wisconsinites who attended the Donald Trump rally in Green Bay last night.

Other quotes from attendees at the link, including: "Pull up your big boy pants and get with the program."

ADDED: Note the theme: Manhood. Everyone's manhood is at stake. America's manhood is at stake.

AND: Speaking of big boy pants, I was going to say there is no photograph of Donald Trump wearing shorts... but Google drags up this...



... which is possibly photoshopped. Photos can lie. But gaze upon that image and learn why a man who wants to be taken as a serious adult should stay out of shorts.

And yet, I suspect that was a tennis situation, and Trump's outfit is tennis as hell, so he's squarely within one of my men-in-shorts exceptions: engaged in a sport where shorts are the traditional attire. (So: tennis, basketball, biking, running, but not golf.)

ALSO: Just for balance, fun, and memories of the good old days:

"The Chair announces that Donald J. Trump, having received a majority of these votes entitled to be cast at the convention, has been selected as the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States."

Said Paul Ryan, just now, before slamming down the gavel.

And then he appoints the Escort Committee and lists 5 names — Donald Trump's 5 children.

UPDATE, about 10 minutes later: The nominating of Mike Pence for VP is also accomplished. 

UPDATE, 7:31: "And as First Lady, you viciously attacked the character of women who were sexually abused at the hands of your husband!" — Republican National Committee Co-Chair Sharon Day.

Update, 8:22: "Students of trivia will recall" that Paul Ryan was VP nominee 4 years ago, Paul Ryan says.

Update, 8:41: Christie invites the conventioneers to judge Hillary and they chant "Lock her up."

Update, 8:46: Christie just made me say out loud: "He would have been so much better as the VP. He's got so much more going on." That prosecutor vibe!

9:00: Tiffany, the outsider child, has her say. She's got a classic young woman style, like Miley Cyrus. She's followed by a Trump wine business lady, pushing the theory that Trump pushes women forward.

9:14: Donald Trump Jr. is doing a great job. Meade says "Like Bobby Kennedy" and that's what I was thinking.

9:45: Dr. Ben Carson was on fire, totally committed. Nice performance. A little weird, when he tied Hillary to Satan.... but other than that, nice job.