Donald Trump… not visiting the state that he, reportedly, fairs best in.

He may be the most talked about presidential candidate this year, but we checked his travel calendar and found that Donald Trump has no plans to visit West Virginia in the near future.

His receptive voting base…

“I’d like to see him come here, just to see what he has to say. I’d think it’d be pretty funny. The stuff he says on TV makes me laugh,” said Joshua Clemens, a West Virginia voter.
Others say a Trump visit could mean more interest in saving the coal industry, and keeping fossil fuels as a a major energy source.
Margaret Wilkinson, a West Virginia voter said, “What Donald Trump says, or whatever he does, I mean he’s looking in the best interest of everyone, I think.”

Hm.

But Mr. Trump’s lead is not equal among all G.O.P. groups, or across all parts of the country. His support follows a clear geographic pattern. He fares best in a broad swath of the country stretching from the Gulf Coast, up the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, to upstate New York.
Mr. Trump’s best state is West Virginia, followed by New York. Eight of Mr. Trump’s 10 best congressional districts are in New York, including several on Long Island. North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina follow.

West Virginia…

The 2004 Presidential Election Result
George W Bush — 56.1%
John Kerry — 43.2%

The 2008 Presidential Election Result
Barack Obama — 42.5%
John McCain — 55.6%

The 2012 Presidential Election Result
Barack Obama — 35.54%
Mitt Romney — 62.3%

The county map shows a starker story.

On Election Day, McCain won West Virginia by 13.09 points while losing nationwide. McCain did well throughout the state, losing only a handful of counties. While his margins were best in the more conservative northern part of the state, he also improved significantly in Southern West Virginia. This coal-mining, union-heavy region was one of the most heavily Democratic places in the nation; Logan County, for example, cast 72 percent of its ballot for Bill Clinton.^[21] In 2008, however, John McCain won the county by double digits.
On the other hand, Barack Obama did make gains in the area between Maryland and Virginia, counties which are a part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Obama also ran close in Central West Virginia (the counties around the capital Charleston).

2008 Democratic Primary (late in the cycle)

Hillary Clinton — 66.93%
Barack Obama — 25.77%

2012 Democratic Primary

Barack Obama — 59.3%
Keith Judd — 40.65%

Interestingly, Ron Wolfe, Jr. went on to best Keith Judd in Arkansas — being the protest contest who also isn’t a convicted felon — going to 41.6 percent.  I gather the map shows Trump Country.  (For whatever reason, wikipedia doesn’t show a similar one for West Virginia.)

Then we move into the Republican Primaries and see… some things get complicated.

John Kasich Really Wants to Win New Hampshire.

Not going to happen.  He did come in second, though, as the farthest figure to the left in this very right New Hampshire Republican electorate.  Following the tradition of John McCain, I suppose, except not coming in first.  Donald Trump, following the tradition of Pat Buchanan, comes in first.

It might also be possible to say Kasich follows in the tradition of Jon Huntsman, Jr — who received 17 percent of the vote.  And came in third.  On par with Kasich and his vote tally of just under 17 (as of right now).  Just that here… no one’s available to come in second.

Though… don’t tell Scott Adams Trump did anything but score a blow out.  Oops, though…

“Look for Rubio to have a surprisingly strong second-place showing in New Hampshire. And look for the most common explanations for that surprise to be his momentum from Iowa.” Adams predicts.

Late deciders breaking for Trump, Kasich in NH GOP race.

Okay.  Marco Rubio blew it.  And Chris Christie’s attempt to capitalize it by reminding voters how bad his debate performance shows him didn’t rebound to Christie, because… he’s Chris Christie.

On the Democratic side… there was a question once asked to, I believe it was Joe Trippi, at that point in time this started looking possible last year.  What will it mean to the Hillary Clinton campaign if Sanders won Iowa and then New Hampshire.  The answer — it means there will be a bad news cycle with some carping on “what’s wrong with Hillary” for a bit, then Hillary Clinton will go on and win the bulk of the remaining primaries and caucuses and be the nominee.

Though… Bill Clinton plays the part of the Bad Cop in some Good Cop Bad Cop routine.  But the basics look to be correct.

… Next stop.  South Carolina.  That’s… Trump and Clinton Country, right?  (The big state for Trump is West Virginia, apparently.  They believed him about the birth certificate.  See too the infamous Democratic Primary result 2012.)

A funny quoteth, so far as I remember, from — if I recall right — In These Times.  Or maybe it’s the Nation.  This in regards to the inevitable Hillary Clinton nomination…

Scratch a Bernie Sanders supporter and she will admit he’s not going to be elected president.

The operative word here was “She” — as in, we’re battling the Patriarchy and will use she as a default person instead of he…  but here it stands out due to the nature of the campaigns.  A Bernie Sanders supporter/ primary voter is more likely to be male than female.  (So much so that we get things like this to explain female Sanders backers.)

It is thus amusing to see, as the campaign has developed, that the thematic break on Bernie Sanders backers is it’s a bunch of dudes.  Kathy Pollit for the Nation, as she puts her support behind Hillary Clinton (yes, despite things like this), bemoans all the “Bernie Bros” — evidently a meme out there.  And see here the wallop from the New York Times in comparing the backers of Bernie Sanders with those of Donald Trump — “Mad as Hell, Not Going to take it” — white males.

Which makes me wonder about this — I believe it was In These Times — when generically describing a Donald Trump supporter in this abstract.  Would they ever use the word “she”?  Or is there a percentage discrepancy out there or level of rhetorical vitriol that must be crossed which Sanders hasn’t and Trump has before we go ahead and shutter the pronouns back?

Incidentally, Paul Krugman, editorial writer for the New York Times, has a bit of a problem here on the Overton Window set by the front page…

There are still quite a few pundits determined to pretend that America’s two great parties are symmetric — equally unwilling to face reality, equally pushed into extreme positions by special interests and rabid partisans. It’s nonsense, of course. Planned Parenthood isn’t the same thing as the Koch brothers, nor is Bernie Sanders the moral equivalent of Ted Cruz. And there’s no Democratic counterpart whatsoever to Donald Trump.

Trump assumes the media is comparing Cruz with Sanders, when they’re not: it’s Trump and Sanders.  Everything’s more out of whack than Krugman is suggesting here.

This should ramp up the Donald Trump campaign!

And earlier this week, the billionaire real estate mogul picked up another high-profile endorsement when Scott Brown, the former Massachusetts senator and New Hampshire transplant, joined the Trump cabal.

Because they love him in New Hampshire.

This should ramp up the Chris Christie campaign!

Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman has hit the campaign trail with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in his quest for the presidency of the United States.

This is being played up by the media as a diss against Carly Fiorina.  Or, you know, it is to the extent that it’s being noticed by anyone anywhere.

This should ramp up the Marco Rubio campaign!

On twitter… TeamMarco?  Looking forward to joining @marthamaccallum on @FoxNews at 10:10am to talk about why we need to elect @marcorubio President #TeamMarco

Jeb Bush urges New Hampshire to “Reset” the Race.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who has staked his flagging presidential bid on a strong performance in this first-in-the-nation primary state, called Monday for New Hampshire voters to “reset” the race.

Reset!  Like with America and Russia?

“The reset has started as of tonight,” Bush said, adding, “Next Tuesday, we’re going to surprise the world.”

Chris Christie Unimpressed by Marco Rubio’s Iowa tally.

Some Republican might be impressed with Senator Marco Rubio’s strong third-place showing in the Iowa caucuses.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is not one of them.
“Why? Because he came in third after spending $5 million more than Ted Cruz?” Christie asked reporters Tuesday morning. “When I listened to Marco’s speech last night, you would have thought he would have won. Saying it doesn’t make it so. He has to come up here, he’s gotta compete, and he’s gonna come under the microscope, and it will be a very interesting week for him I assure you.”

Call me crazy.  It looks more impressive than Chris Christie’s.

Most interesting comment in this stupid video clip of John Kasich promising to “try” to reunite Pink Floyd for a couple songs (it has happened already) is… the finish of “We may be comfortably numb when we’re done with New Hampshire”.  Er?  Yeah.  Joking about your candidacy’s impending demise?

So you want to know the breakdown of who voted for Rand Paul?

12 People voted for Jim Gimore.  Sooo… let’s talk to one of them!

A total of 12 people voted for Republican presidential candidate Jim Gilmore in Monday night’s Iowa caucuses. That’s across the entire state. Twelve.
One of them is Troy Bishop. He lives in Des Moines, and he’s anything but disheartened by Gilmore’s dismal showing at the polls. He said the former Virginia governor actually did better than he expected.
“He exceeded expectations,” Bishop said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “I mean, look at some of the other candidates. Look at the money they spent. They got 3,000 votes. He didn’t spend any money and got 12.”

That’s Chris Christie logic.

The curious case of Carly Fiorina … fleeing Iowa before it all comes down.

Ben Carson … dealt a blow by crafty Ted Cruz.

Bottom line:  All of these candidates now need to follow the action of Mike Huckabee and call it a campaign…  It’s over.

I trust Nike paid good money for this week’s “shoe” and massive product enfused placement issue of the Willamette Week?

Jeb Bush has an ace up his sleeve.
Lindsey Graham endorses him!  Rumored to be a closeted gay man… should bring out the closeted gay Republicans?
I mean… no wait.  The man who’s going to come through for Jeb is… George. W. Bush.
Cited as the most popular figure within the Republican Party.

Credited with… er… keeping America safe?

… Donald Trump discounts.

… a strange voice comes out against Donald Trump.

Funny thing about Ben Carson.

Though Carson held just one public event on Tuesday — appearing at a Des Moines church — I’ve been running into the onetime GOP frontrunner multiple times a day. He happens to be staying in the hotel room across the hall from me at a local Marriott.

This is the kind of story you have to file when your beat is the Ben Carson campaign.

The Chris Christie Beat gives you more coverage options…

Beleaguered New Jersey governor and presidential wannabe Chris Christie was challenged to a sumo wrestling match — technically, 10 matches — by a loincloth-wearing member of the militia occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge.

“I know mom gave us both girl names, but I wanna see who the real sissy is,” says Gneiting, who is not related to Christie. “Because you got out in front of the cameras the other day, and you talked about how you’d like the strong arm of the law disperse these good folks in Oregon … You know what I wanna see? I wanna see you come over here and disperse me, your older brother, in the dohyo,” he says, slapping his belly.

Well… Chris Christie got his wish.  Without a ten round bout.

Twitter debate between Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump?  Frankly, isn’t that pretty much this entire presidential election.

Jim Gilmore’s stature is rising, as you can see by his qualifying for the second debate.  BIG MO…

Mike Huckabee parodies Adele… to confusing results.
I think he’s channeling the 2008 presidential campaign of Mike Gravel?

Take that John Kasich!   A national conservative group intends to spend $1 million on ads in New Hampshire that refer to GOP 2016 contender Gov. John Kasich as an “Obama Republican.”  That should stop that John Kasich steam-roller right in its tracks.

The Ghost of Richard Nixon?

Local authorities in Manchester, N.H. say Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul ‘s headquarters was robbed between 11 p.m. Tuesday and 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, WMUR ABC News 9 reports.A campaign worker who opened the office Wednesday morning discovered the break-in. The back door to the office was visibly forced open.
Computers, iPads, articles and a stock of snacks were taken, officials told WMUR.
“These are tools that we use every day to manage our data, look up voter data and contact our supporters online,” Matt Chisholm, Paul’s New Hampshire communications director, told WMUR.

In other items… hm?

“I’m a well-known liberal and it just irked me beyond belief that my beloved song would be co-opted by Sen Rand Paul,” Sean Altman, who co-wrote the song for the PBS show in the 1990s, told POLITICO. “This song is my bread and butter. This is literally one of the ways I make my living because it is licensed frequently.”

San Altman known as a liberal?

538 believes roughly what I believe… Marco Rubio’s the Republican’s best chance of winning in November.

Rick Santorum defeated Dan Savage.  Not that it matters — his campaign is still sputtering to its conclusion.

National Review:  I suppose following up on the big “project” of claiming and reclaiming Popular Culture for Brand Movement Conservatism, the National Review features an article extolling the virtues of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

Okay?

Nation:  Katha Pollit’s pro-Hillary Clinton piece has a few curious lines… one, in blasting away at a Harpers article turned anti-Hillary Clinton book…

He ignores as well the curious fact that the person he regards as an enthusiastic tool of corporate capitalism and seller-out of other women (cf welfare reform) is regarded as a radical socialist feminist by much of the country.

No, don’t know what to do when one’s analysis of the reality of a politico clashes with the analysis of another… though it is worth mentioning that the conservative world-view would still stick in that “corporate capitalism” model somewhere in defining modern liberalism.

Beyond that within a couple of the quotes in the “Sexism Strikes again” sidebar, moving past Donald Trump’s vitrol and comparing the somewhat more literate sexist quote of Limbaugh against the dumbness of Hannity…

“Can we talk about Hillary’s wig?”  — Drudge
A take-off of commentary about (Republican front-runner) Trump’s hair.  I shrug.
“She’s great at being the victim.  You know this will enhance her victimology status.”  — Jeb Bush on that whole “schlong” gate.

First Lady Hillary Clinton was never more popular than under the crisis of Monica – Gate.  (Then again so was her husband.)

I suppose I’m in for a bit of that annoying “In partial / aggrivated defense of” clownish buffoonish politico figure under the coming Presidential bid of Clinton.