GOP: Kaine is too moderate

[Dan '82]

Whatever happened to Republicans attacking the Democrat by saying they are liberal extremists?  Now the GOP attacking the Democrat for not being liberal enough.

Quote:https://gop.com/what-they-are-saying-kai...gressives/


"Liberal Groups Were Teed Up To Criticize The Pick" Of Kaine
The Huffington Post: "(Clinton's) Choice Could Also Aggravate The Elizabeth Warren Wing Of The Democrat Party…" "Kaine may help Clinton carry that state, but her choice could also aggravate the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democrat Party, which sees the Virginian as a business-friendly centrist unlikely to champion their top financial reform goals." ( The Huffington Post, 7/22/16)
The Washington Post: "Liberal Groups Were Teed Up To Criticize The Pick" Of Kaine. "Even before Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.) was unveiled Friday as Hillary Clinton's running mate, liberal groups were teed up to criticize the pick." ( The Washington Post , 7/22/16)
Charles Chamberlain Of Democracy For America Said Kaine's Support For Wall Street Should Be "Disqualifying." "On Thursday, as speculation was mounting that Kaine would be Clinton's choice, Charles Chamberlain, executive director of the activist network Democracy for America, which backed Sanders in the primaries, said that it should be 'disqualifying' for any potential Democratic vice-presidential nominee to 'help banks dodge consumer protection standards.' That was based in part on a bipartisan letter that Kaine signed on Monday urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to 'carefully tailor its rulemaking' regarding community banks and credit unions so as not to 'unduly burden' these institutions with regulations aimed at commercial banks." (John Wagner, "Kaine's VP Pick Greeted By Blowback From Progressive Groups," The Washington Post , 7/22/16)
"On Friday, Norman Solomon, The Coordinator Of A Group Billing Itself As The Bernie Delegates Network, Called Kaine 'A Loyal Servant Of Oligarchy.'" (John Wagner, "Kaine's VP Pick Greeted By Blowback From Progressive Groups," The Washington Post , 7/22/16)

• "The Group Has Threatened To Protest During The Democratic Convention If Kaine Is The Pick." (John Wagner, "Kaine's VP Pick Greeted By Blowback From Progressive Groups," The Washington Post , 7/22/16)
  

The Washington Post Headline: "Kaine's VP Pick Greeted By Blowback From Progressive Groups" ( The Washington Post , 7/22/16)
Los Angeles Times Headline: "Progressive Groups Have Already Warned They Aren't Ready For Tim Kaine" ( Los Angeles Times , 7/22/16)
Politico: "Kaine's Selection Likely Won't Satisfy The Liberal Wing Of The Party…" "Kaine's selection likely won't satisfy the liberal wing of the party, which had pushed for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or another liberal stalwart to balance out Clinton." (Politico, 7/22/16)
Washington Examiner's Byron York: "MSNBC Debate: Kaine Is A Progressive. No, He's Not." (Twitter.com, 7/22/16)
Los Angeles Times : "Some Progressives And Former Backers Of (Sanders') Presidential Candidacy Signaled Their Dissatisfaction With The Choice Of Sen. Tim Kaine…" "Some progressives and former backers of Bernie Sanders' presidential candidacy signaled their dissatisfaction with the choice of Sen. Tim Kaine as Hillary Clinton's running mate before it was even announced." ( Los Angeles Times , 7/22/16)
Adam Green, Founder Of The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Questioned The Choice Of Kaine And Attacked His Support For TPP. "Adam Green, founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which was neutral in the primary but has ties to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, questioned the choice of a running mate who supports the Trans Pacific Partnership. 'It will be very ironic if voters go into election day thinking Donald Trump is better on the TPP issues than the Democratic Party,' he said." (Michael A. Memoli And Evan Halper, "Progressive Groups Have Already Warned They Aren't Ready For Tim Kaine," Los Angeles Times , 7/22/16)
Slate's Nora Caplan-Bricker Called Kaine's Selection "A Symbolic Kick In The Teeth For The Feminist Organizations That Faithfully Championed Hillary Over Bernie Throughout The Long Primary Season." "It's not just that Kaine, like all 47 veeps in our nation's history, is a white dude, not a 'first' who could have driven home just how historic Hillary's candidacy is. He's also, at least in his personal views, opposed to abortion due to his Catholic faith-a symbolic kick in the teeth for the feminist organizations that faithfully championed Hillary over Bernie throughout the long primary season." ( Slate, 7/22/16)

[playwrite]

The Kaine selection is a confident gutsy choice that has the potential to take down the GOP as a national political power.  It not only assures Virginia but puts North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona in play while bolstering the Dems in Florida, Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania - it even puts Texas into consideration!  And that's not just at the Presidential level but very important down-ticket races!

Yes, there's been the initial reaction from the Left that Kaine wasn't what they wanted, if not a slap in the fact to the Bernie supporters.  But think about it.  We know that 80% of the Bernie voters have made clear that they are voting for Clinton - both because they're on the Left and the election is, in reality, a binary choice and because Trump scares the shXt out of them.  Of the remaining 20%, the Dems are going to work hard to make the case, and they will get at least half of them,  Of the 10% that remains, most of them are pretty smart and will decide to vote for a Jill Stein but ONLY if they are in a state solidly behind the Blue Wall and their calculations show their vote will have no harmful effect.  That leaves those that will vote 3rd party or even Trump in critical states  - frankly, these people are far too stupid and/or too self-centered to give a moment's thought to (if Trump gets in, they'll be the first to suffer under his regime - got to appreciate the irony).

I have to run now, but I'll be back to lay out what Kaine does to appeal to a lot of people that would have been more difficult for Clinton to capture without him or with another pick.

[Eric the Green]

I think Hillary had personal personality reasons for choosing Kaine; I heard that she thought Gore was too interfering. She likes things to run smooth and people around her who won't rock her boat too much. Warren might have been bothering her all the time with disagreements and her own agenda. Clinton and Kaine are very compatible with each other. But the VP pick is not necessarily any more important than cabinet and advisor choices. Trump left the moderate field open with HIS choice, so she is filling it. Let's see if she goes any further left than Obama and Bill Clinton did for those other positions, or whether she sinks back into their more neo-liberal type of picks.

[Anthony '58]

The Repubs are butt-hurt because this pretty much takes Virginia off the map of battleground states - and might even jeopardize Trump's chances is neighboring North Carolina, which is about to lose next winter's NBA All Star Game because of the anti-LGBT law they just adopted.

[The Wonkette]

(07-24-2016, 11:26 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: I think Hillary had personal personality reasons for choosing Kaine; I heard that she thought Gore was too interfering. She likes things to run smooth and people around her who won't rock her boat too much. Warren might have been bothering her all the time with disagreements and her own agenda. Clinton and Kaine are very compatible with each other. But the VP pick is not necessarily any more important than cabinet and advisor choices. Trump left the moderate field open with HIS choice, so she is filling it. Let's see if she goes any further left than Obama and Bill Clinton did for those other positions, or whether she sinks back into their more neo-liberal type of picks.

Clinton would have been foolish to pick Warren for this reason: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Baker. GOP governor picking Warren's replacement for the Senate. Same issue with Cory Booker.

[Anthony '58]

But the only reason Baker won is because he got to run against the Susan Lucci of Massachusetts politics: Martha Coakley.

[playwrite]

(07-24-2016, 03:35 PM)The Wonkette Wrote:

(07-24-2016, 11:26 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: I think Hillary had personal personality reasons for choosing Kaine; I heard that she thought Gore was too interfering. She likes things to run smooth and people around her who won't rock her boat too much. Warren might have been bothering her all the time with disagreements and her own agenda. Clinton and Kaine are very compatible with each other. But the VP pick is not necessarily any more important than cabinet and advisor choices. Trump left the moderate field open with HIS choice, so she is filling it. Let's see if she goes any further left than Obama and Bill Clinton did for those other positions, or whether she sinks back into their more neo-liberal type of picks.

Clinton would have been foolish to pick Warren for this reason:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Baker.  GOP governor picking Warren's replacement for the Senate.  Same issue with Cory Booker.

Correct, and on top of that Warren will be much more able to pursue her own agenda as Chair of Senate Finance.  Her dragging up Wall Street critters to hearings is going to make the Benghazi hearings look like camp fire singalongs. The same is true of Bernie Sanders.

And this time, there will not be a 1st-timer President in the White House telling them instead to play nice, be bipartisan and seek compromise; there will be a clear-eye, revengeful she-devil there and I mean that as a huge complement.

[David Horn]

(07-24-2016, 09:03 PM)playwrite Wrote:

(07-24-2016, 03:35 PM)The Wonkette Wrote:

(07-24-2016, 11:26 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: I think Hillary had personal personality reasons for choosing Kaine; I heard that she thought Gore was too interfering. She likes things to run smooth and people around her who won't rock her boat too much. Warren might have been bothering her all the time with disagreements and her own agenda. Clinton and Kaine are very compatible with each other. But the VP pick is not necessarily any more important than cabinet and advisor choices. Trump left the moderate field open with HIS choice, so she is filling it. Let's see if she goes any further left than Obama and Bill Clinton did for those other positions, or whether she sinks back into their more neo-liberal type of picks.

Clinton would have been foolish to pick Warren for this reason:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Baker.  GOP governor picking Warren's replacement for the Senate.  Same issue with Cory Booker.

Correct, and on top of that Warren will be much more able to pursue her own agenda as Chair of Senate Finance.  Her dragging up Wall Street critters to hearings is going to make the Benghazi hearings look like camp fire singalongs. The same is true of Bernie Sanders.

And this time, there will not be a 1st-timer President in the White House telling them instead to play nice, be bipartisan and seek compromise; there will be a clear-eye, revengeful she-devil there and I mean that as a huge complement.

You are way too optimistic on this.  Hillary triangulates in her sleep, just like Bill.  If she didn't, Michael Bloomberg would never have offered a helping hand.  I might feel different if I saw a full-court press to elect Dems to the House, but I don't.  Getting a Dem Senate is weak tea ... except for the SCOTUS of course, but the money bills originate in the House.  The TPers still seem destined to hold sway there. 

In other words, there will be no real movement, but Hillary will get the blame.  That seems ideal for the GOPpers, who don't want Trump, but don't want Hillary to succeed either.  Like everyone else, they want to win in 2020, when it really counts.

[Anthony '58]

Yeah, Michael Bloomberg - who got right on Lawrence O'Donnell's show in December of 2010 and said that the income tax should be replaced by a strict, per-person head tax!

I'm not one bit surprised that he would support a fellow neoliberal like Hillary.