Florida congresswoman and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an oligarch-friendly party hack who is adept at spouting faux-progressive rhetoric, is for the first time facing a strong primary challenge in her congressional district from a real progressive Tim Canova. His challenge has prompted an unusual action from president Obama, who normally does not get involved in primary races, and he endorsed her. But that seemed to have given a boost to Canova’s fundraising.
She appeared on The Daily Show to defend her performance.
(This clip aired on April 4, 2016. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Nightly Show outside the US, please see this earlier post. If the videos autoplay, please see here for a diagnosis and possible solutions.)
Obama, who normally does not get involved in primary races
By not getting involved, he shows his true colors: he doesn’t give a fuck as long as it’s a candidate approved by the oligarchy.
Oops, I plead the burgundian defense!
PS -- have a Coke and a Smile
Related breaking news here via Aussie ABC online :
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-06/republican-cruz-and-democrat-sanders-score-wins-in-wisconsin/7303584
Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic Wisconsin primary with Cruz winning the Republican contest.
@1. Marcus Ranum : Oh really? I don’t think that necessarily or actually follows. Maybe Obama is just happy with either person as I and many others are, maybe he thinks its not his choice to make, maybe a lot of other things.
Maybe Obama is just happy with either person as I and many others are
“Happy with either person” is kind of a way of saying “doesn’t care which” amirite?
Watched that live -- when Debbie Wasserman Schultz was asked about the undemocratic nature of the super-delegate system, she uhh … did what you might call responded … by making noises that were response-like in response.
The parties, Democrat and Republican, are private organizations designed to promote the party image and its selected candidates. On the down side they are not truly democratic organizations.
Primary voting is intended to have a role but it is not the final word. The degree to which straight democratic principles apply varied between parties and from year to year. Independent of party labels these two organizations can organize the primary contests under democratic, with the vote directly selecting the candidate, or republican, the vote selecting the delegates who select the candidate, organizing principles. Both parties decide on their rules, procedures, goals, vision, and principles every year.
On the up side, without the parties there would be no primaries and very little run-up to the election. There would be no mechanism for candidates within a party to face off and debate issues. I suppose we might end up with twenty candidates who label themselves according to their own light. Trump would be running on the “Make America Great ticket”, Ted Cruz on the “Make America a Theocracy ticket”. Each candidate would offer a two minute speech, a one page summary, and the people would select based on the information offered and their gut feeling from the variety of twenty offered. The whole thing would be a week long and a one-shot deal.
Not to say that there might not be advantages to a shorter process.
As it is we get to see the candidates under stress. We can observe how they run their own organization and how effective they are. It isn’t pretty. But it does have advantages.