The Pocahontas / Fauxcahontas Factor

 image credit: watcherofweasels.org

Kimberley Strassel at the Wall Street Journal fills in some of the details behind Richard Cordray’s run for Ohio Governor ("Biggest Loser: Elizabeth Warren"):

For a decade Ms. [Elizabeth] Warren, 69, has been busy trying to remake Washington in her progressive image. Her role in creating a new financial regulatory apparatus gave her outsize influence over the bureaucracy. Her successful 2012 Senate bid gave her a megaphone to rail against “billionaires, bigots and Wall Street bankers”—and Donald Trump. The left begged her to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016 and rebrand the Democratic Party as a populist, progressive force. Ms. Warren demurred, leaving the field to Bernie Sanders.

She instead carefully designed this year’s midterms as her launchpad to the presidency. Ms. Warren seeded into key races several handpicked progressive protégés, in particular Richard Cordray, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (who ran for Ohio governor), and a former law student, Katie Porter (who ran in a California House district). Ms. Warren geared up a shadow war room, built ties with some 150 campaigns, directed millions of fundraising dollars to select candidates, and thereby earned chits. She dispersed staffers to early primary states and crisscrossed the country herself. A week ago she was dominating Ohio headlines at rallies for Mr. Cordray. If Mr. Trump was on the ballot nationally, Ms. Warren was on it in the Buckeye State.

The lead-up to Tuesday had already been brutal for her. Hoping to elbow her way back into the headlines after Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Ms. Warren chose in mid-October to release a five-minute video and piles of documentation aimed at proving she really is at least 1/1,024th Native American. The ridicule was ruthless, matched only by the anger Democrats directed at her for distracting from the election.

But Tuesday compounded the disaster. Ms. Porter—who campaigned in Orange County on single-payer health care, expanded Social Security and debt-free college—flamed out to two-term Rep. Mimi Walters. In Ohio, Mr. Cordray lost to Attorney General Mike DeWine.

Read the rest here.

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When the mask falls off

 image credit: alamy.com

Elizabeth Harrington at the Washington Free Beacon quoted failed gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray:

Losing Democratic politicians say they can finally tell the truth now that they are "freed from the constraints" of needing the support of their constituents.

"It occurred to me that I am now freed from the constraints of running for or holding public office," said Richard Cordray, failed coup-leader and losing candidate in the Ohio governor's race.

Cordray says now that he does not have to be accountable to voters, he can "speak more naturally" about what he really thinks about issues.

Full report is here. More masks will be slipping as we move past the midterms.

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The next two years: Surber's forecast

A.F. Branco cartoon credit: firearmlicense.org

The midterm election did not go as well as many of us had hoped. And looking forward, I found Don Surber’s take pretty realistic:

These Democrats don't care [e.g., about “infrastructure.]. . . .

All they care about is power. Lord Acton said power corrupts. Imagine now what happens when you give power to the already corrupted.

. . .

This is not a parlor game among good sports. Democrats selected Pelosi, Nadler, Schiff, and Waters as leaders because they are ruthless. They do not seek compromise. They do not want to work with President Trump or any Republican.

Under Obama, when they controlled Congress, they refused to work with Republicans on health care or the stimulus. They did not seek compromise.

. . .

The next two years will be rough. I hope the president appreciates the seriousness of the danger the House poses to the Republic.

Tea Party grandmas did not take over the House.

Bloodthirsty socialists did.

Surber's full blogpost is here.

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Today is Election Day

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President Trump is FINISHED, according to the media

T'was the Night Before Election Day, and our favorite blogger, Sundance, has posted a short video (just over 3 minutes) that proves that President Trump is FINISHED!  At least according to the ever-breathless media. It would be hilariously funny if it were not so deranged:

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DeWine vs Cordray

Kyle Morris at Breitbart weighs in on the Ohio race for Governor:

Former Sen. Mike DeWine finds himself as the GOP’s nominee for governor in Ohio, walking a fine line between the establishment ways of old in the era of President Donald Trump.

DeWine, interestingly, has not appeared on stage with Trump at any of the president’s rallies in the Buckeye state. However, he has courted Trump supporters at the periphery, perhaps one of the most awkward intra-GOP marriages between the economic nationalist Trump base and the old ways of the fading establishment in the first midterm election in Trump’s presidency.

The strength of the bond between two rival wings of the GOP will be put to the test on Tuesday as voters in the buckle of the nation’s rust belt decide if they want DeWine, or former Obama administration official and Democrat nominee Richard Cordray, to govern the state.

DeWine’s apparent unwillingness or inability to openly embrace the president in the same way GOP candidates in other races nationwide have done highlights the divide within the Republican party. DeWine, who currently serves as Ohio’s Attorney General, served in the United States Senate long before Trump upended the political landscape.

One of the comments at Breitbart refers to DeWine joining “Team Mailman” in 2010. Heh. Anyway, read the rest here. The race does look like a nail-biter between two awful candidates.

More on this tight race at Watchdog Ohio here.

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Setting the clock BACK

The details are wrong. It’s “Stonehenge” – one word. In the fall, we set our clocks BACK an hour, not forward. But the picture is funny enough for me to post to remind everyone to set their clocks BACK one hour this evening.

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