East Bay Young Democrats » Republicans

Good Deeds

Roobs — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:59:41 +0000

As the saying goes, no good deed goes unpunished. The recent passage of financial reform by Congress marks Obama’s fourth major legislative victory in only two years: Stimulus, Education Reform, Health Care, Financial Reform. President Obama, from a historical perspective, has presided over one of the most productive legislative periods in history. So why isn’t he getting any credit for them?

The Republican’s have called for a repeal of almost every piece of legislation passed by Democrats, which is, of course, no surprise. But what about the Democrats own Progressive base? As Chuck Todd says, why does each major legislative victory for Obama seem to push his poll numbers down and not create any political capital? Progressive leaders continue to speak out against many legislations, arguing that they usually don’t go far enough. Are Progressives expecting too much from Obama? Is Obama letting Progressives down? Is there a fight between the Democratic Party’s more moderate establishment wing against it’s left leaning base?

Chuck Todd fills in for Chris Matthews on today’s edition of Hardball and talks politics with Jonathon Alter from Politico and Katrina Vanden Heuvel from The Nation Magazine:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As Chuck Todd says its never too early to talk about the 2012 presidential election and who will be the GOP nominee to run against Obama. Chuck Todd talks with Jonathon Martin of Politico and the always animated Chris Cillizza from The Washington Post on this topic next:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Is the Party Over??

Roobs — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:59:47 +0000

If politics was a bar (lets be honest, we are all drinking) then Prop 14 would be the equivalent of the bartender yelling “last call!”

Prop 14 establishes an open primary in California. Essentially, it will be like having two general elections. The first general election is a “qualifying round” where only the top 2 candidates with the most votes in each race will face off in the November general election, regardless of party affiliation. So potentially two Democrats or two Republicans could battle it out in a November election for the their respective seats.

Check out this MSNBC video on the passage of Prop 14.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Interestingly enough, both the Democratic and Republican Parties both staunchly opposed this proposition and for good reason. Sure, it weakens the major parties and they have self-preservation to think about (especially the Republicans), but also because its really just a bad idea.

You all of a sudden have two general elections to run. Running campaigns in California is expensive and when you have to talk to everyone in the state, the numbers add up really fast. Primary elections are usually cheaper because they only target their party affiliates. But now they will have to do the entire state twice.

Now, some people think this may be a good thing because it will force candidates to moderate themselves to appeal to all of California, thus, becoming more democratic. But people are really only thinking of the big ticket races and don’t see how this is actually wholly undemocratic because it actually encourages deal making and a smaller candidate field.

Votes are a finite resource. There are only so-many votes in California to fight over and when you have everyone and their mother fighting for votes in an open primary, you essentially shrink everyone’s piece of the pie. You then end up with situations where there top 2 vote getters in a race only represent a small percentage of the entirety of the region or district. Now that youre thinking about that, think about this…

Picture a place like Orange County. We all know the OC is filled with Republican voters. Many more Republicans than Democrats. But in a place like this under this system, an election involving the OC in its district could easily end up going Democrat. Sure, as Democrats we would love to see this, but think about how un-democratic this is. If there were five candidates in a race, 2 Dems and 3 GOPs and votes were distributed roughly evenly among their party affiliates, you would end up with a situation where the top 2 vote getters in orange county are actually the 2 Democrats. Then in the November general election, the people of Orange County, a very heavily GOP county, would have no choice but to vote for either one of the 2 Democrats or not vote at all.

Do you see where i’m going with this? Better order another drink because the bar is closing.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!

Roobs — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:19:01 +0000

There’s a lot of money being thrown around this election season. Not just by Mega-Bucks Whitman who has already thrown $59 million of her own money into her campaign for governor of our fair state, but by others across the country. In this little excerpt from MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown”, we get a brief look at both Connecticut (where they rank candidates by the size of their yachts) and California, where Meg Whitman is reported to spend $150 million of her own money by campaigns end!

Here in California, we can’t let someone like Meg Whitman try to buy us off. And thankfully, as mentioned in the clip below, we have a tradition of not being fooled by all that money. If Meg Whitman really cared, she could have run her campaign on donations and wrote a $59 million check to CalTrain, who is facing real problems and risking to close service entirely. I’m just saying…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If you want to help stop Meg Whitman in her campaign to buy California, join EBYD and support Jerry Brown for Governor!

Colin Powell Says DADT Should Be Repealed!

Roobs — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:04:20 +0000

Colin Powell today joined Admiral Mullin to oppose Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and call for its repeal! Check out this video from tonight’s Hardball with Chris Matthews as he interviews a Republican and Democratic strategist on the issue.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Should Dems Be Worried?

Roobs — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:45:37 +0000

Its no secret that i am a big fan of Hardball with Chris Matthews. Nevertheless, i was catching up on the show from last night when i saw this opening segment on the atmosphere in the Democratic Party following the recent high profile retirements.

I thought about whether or not i should post an opinion blog about what i saw, given that i do have opinions (obviously). But i decided to leave it as a question to readers.

Should Democrats be worried going in to 2010 campaign season? What does this mean for Dems running in California in moderate and conservative areas? Check out these videos: The first one has Chris Matthews talking with Democratic and Republican strategists and the second is a segment called “The Politics Fix”.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy