Clever and not so clever politicking

I suppose we see Trump trying a Nixon trick in “flanking to the left”, while others dither.  It is a joke, the taking of credit for the “first step act”, but oddly he may be right that “only Trump coulda  passed it.”, in that Obama should have signed it but McConnell was following the dictates of Trump’s campaign from tough on crime to the Great Kardashian diplomacy..  The Nixon part of the equation comes in the question of just how one administers that progressive legislation you’re touting— what I always suspect the true lines behind the paradox in some parcels some people let with Nixon as the ironic last liberal presidency.

On the other way, this has the feel t it of George W Bush’s sotu bromides for wind energy… Solar energy… Disconnected from any policy, or in the main so, and seemingly scrubbed from encyclopedia articles, as though just read about a thing.

In the end, it is effective politics — though I suppose out of the other side of the mouth you pivot to the American carnage line.  I began reading the speech … The first several paragraphs rewrite history to where apparently he walked in at the start of his administration to… Urm… Mad max?… And now we have paradise on earth.  It’s unreadable, and I can’t bring myself to hear down on it.    I am curious on what he says on North Korea, which in the past I’ve wanted to give him an element of praise if not for the fact he hasn’t bothered to even stumble into a policy there he seemed to… we have this summary of what he’s presented at each sotu.

Oh great… Democracy Now has a debate between a former Bush speechwriter and a Jacobin writer on the viability of Bernie Sanders.  Hilarious in the Amy Goodman selective picking of congressional validator for the position of the show, and good on Frum to mention the 70s era sexual charger underground materials which will dry up that great suburban female gap with Trump.  It gets goofy again as the Jacobin man sells Bernie as aptly selling his socialism from the rich vein of Americana a la debs and thomas, who… You know, ran for president indeed and… Tapped out at six percent.  I guess the one thing Sanders has over Elizabeth Warren — he does appear aware that he’s talking beyond the most narrow twittery of the Democratic party primary electorate.

At the moment Trump has his highest approval ratings, and the Democratic field looks damned flat.  I suppose it is a “buttigieg, ready for your close up?” Moment.

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