Can Hillary Turn the Tide?

Hillary Clinton made clear what most have known for some time on Sunday: she will seek the presidency again in 2016.

Regardless of my own feelings on Clinton, she is the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic nomination. A lot can happen in 18 months, but in my eyes, she is also a slight favorite in the general election against whoever wins the Republican nomination.

But if Clinton wins, she confronts a political landscape structurally hostile to the Democratic Party and progressive change. This dynamic must change is she wants to achieve anything beyond the incremental and infrequent victories that Barack Obama has been limited to since the 2010 elections.

Scott Walker, Donors, and Foreign Policy

Scott Walker hasn’t even formally announced he is running yet, but he is already a formidable presidential candidate. It’s early, but he has eclipsed Jeb Bush in the polls as the Republican frontrunner.

It hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing though. Walker has made several eyebrow-raising remarks, seeming to compare ISIS terrorists with union activists and calling Ronald Reagan’s 1981 decision to fire the air traffic controllers “the most significant foreign policy decision of my lifetime.”

Running Commentary: House of Cards, season 3

Netflix released the third season of House of Cards yesterday. Just for fun, I thought I'd do a running commentary of my reactions to each episode along of the lines of what my friend Mark did for the most recent season of Orange is the New Black. It might a couple weeks to get through all 13 episodes (1-4 so far), but I'll get there. Don't read if you want to stay un-spoiled. 

I talked about the second season of the show on an episode of The M&M Report last year.

Kill the Filibuster or Block Everything

The silent filibuster was the bane of the liberal existence during the first two years of the Obama administration. 

Many expected that a Democratic landslide in 2008 would lead to federal action on a whole host of progressive priorities. While those two years did see an economic stimulus, health care reform, and financial regulation, all three required contentious partisan fights and huge expenditures of political capital. Legislation to address climate change, empower unions, and reform the immigration system was blocked altogether.

Reflections on the Bloodbath

The left is disturbingly familiar with failure. As the returns began to come in on Tuesday night and it became clear that Democrats would lose almost every major contested race, I knew immediately it would be one of those elections. The next month would be spent talking about why we lost, why we failed.

And there is no need to sugarcoat. It was a disaster. Democrats lost control of the Senate, lost more than a dozen House seats (at least), and lost every high-profile gubernatorial race and more. Come January, Republicans will govern Maryland, Massachusetts, and Illinois, which are traditionally among the bluest states in the country.

Midterms Stuff

I wrote something for the AU College Democrats blog about the midterm elections. With Democrats looking likely to have a tough night, I pointed out that it's worth focusing on the impact those elected tonight will have not just in the next Congress, but during the next presidential term, when policy change is more likely. For that reason, I think the elections in Colorado and Iowa are especially important.

As far as predictions, machines much smarter than me have you covered, but here are the fruits of playing out around with interactive tools for 20 minutes.

The Good Wife

I wrote about the Season 6 premiere of The Good Wife, a show I quite like, for the pop culture/entertainment blog of The Eagle. You can read it here.

Electoral Reform and a Democratic House

Nate Cohn detailed on Sunday the structural disadvantages Democrats face in winning back the House of Representatives in November. Republicans are all but certain not just to retain the House but expand their majority in contrast to the competitive Senate.

That Democrats will likely struggle in 2014 is not atypical. Historically the president’s party struggles in midterm elections. But the current composition of the Democratic coalition is such that it is uniquely unsuited to success in the House. Cohn explains:

On Impeachment

Why is everyone suddenly talking about impeachment?

The idea of impeaching President Obama is deeply unpopular with the American people. Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner has dismissed the possibility, calling it “a scam started by Democrats at the White House.”

Indeed Democrats have been mentioning impeachment quite a bit themselves. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has gone into into overdrive with fundraising e-mails raising the specter of impeachment. It is transparently using fear to motivate the party’s base to contribute (*).

The Underrated Piper Chapman

Jenji Kohan, the creator of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, has spoken in interviews about how main character Piper Chapman is in some senses a “Trojan horse.”

“You're not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women, and Latina women, and old women and criminals,” Kohan told Terry Gross on Fresh Air. “But if you take this white girl, this sort of fish out of water, and you follow her in, you can then expand your world and tell all of those other stories.”

(minor spoilers below)