{"id":130487,"date":"2016-04-25T01:19:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T07:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/25\/politics-and-strange-bedfellows.html"},"modified":"2016-05-02T22:00:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T04:00:44","slug":"politics-and-strange-bedfellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/25\/politics-and-strange-bedfellows.html","title":{"rendered":"Politics and Strange Bedfellows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kasich and Cruz have agreed to try and beat Trump in a few states by not competing with each other, with an eye toward throwing the nominating convention into a second, third, and fourth ballot, keeping the nomination away from Trump (and, one assumes, giving it to one of them).<\/p>\n

It's been fascinating watching this year's GOP nomination process, just to see a return to bare-knuckled politicking, bitter alliances, and rules-lawyering in a way that the relatively sedate nominations of decades have never allowed to surface. It used to be that TV networks covered the major conventions live, but that faded away a long while back for partial evening coverage of keynote speeches. But I suspect we're going to see a lot<\/i> more convention coverage this year, should Trump be short of the needed pledged delegates to win on the first round.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, this is an appalling power squabble over what should be a democratic process. On the other hand, it's all grinding down the likelihood of the GOP winning the White House in November, which, frankly, I am happy to see. <\/p>\n

Still, the stakes (said White House) are so high that it's deeply disturbing to think that any of these three could actually get the nomination, though it's highly likely that one of them will (no bets from me as to which). Trump is a blustering narcissist. Cruz is a smug theocrat. Kasich is merely an arch-conservative in moderate's clothing. I think Cruz is the worst of the lot, but that's damning the others with faint praise. I have reservations over both Clinton and Sanders, but I'd vote for Bozo the Clown over these three.<\/p>\n

(The Dems have their own rules squabbles, to be sure, but those should be settled by the convention, most likely in Clinton's favor. The biggest danger at this point that I see is if significant proportion of the Dem loser's supporters won't turn out in November, and give whatever Republican is nominated the election. That would be a profound political tragedy, giving new meaning to cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.)<\/p>\n

Will Kasich and Cruz manage to snatch victory from Trump? Will their alliance of convenience last even through the contests they've agreed on? It all has a Game of Thrones<\/i> vibe to it; if only it were just a TV show, and not something that could affect our nation's future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nTed Cruz and John Kasich Team Up to Stop Donald Trump – The Atlantic<\/a><\/span>
\nThe Texas senator and the Ohio governor team up against the Republican front-runner in three upcoming states.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kasich and Cruz have agreed to try and beat Trump in a few states by not competing with each other, with an eye toward throwing the nominating convention into a second, third, and fourth ballot, keeping the nomination away from Trump (and, one assumes, giving it to one of them). It's been fascinating watching this … Continue reading “Politics and Strange Bedfellows”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,532],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-elections-2016"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130004,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/01\/nate-silver-on-the-chance-of-a-trump-election-8.html","url_meta":{"origin":130487,"position":0},"title":"Nate Silver on the chance of a Trump election","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Mar-16 5:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Executive Summary: Things are screwy right now, who who the hell knows?And he's right, for a variety of correct reasons. Things will triangulate further as primary season progresses, as the convention and nomination actually happen, as the Dems make their nomination (and the fall-out from that), and as the general\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130632,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/09\/forgive-me-a-little-political-schadenfreude-over-the-gop-infighting.html","url_meta":{"origin":130487,"position":1},"title":"Forgive me a little political schadenfreude over the GOP infighting","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 9-May-16 7:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"After decades of astonishing party discipline, watching the GOP apparently fall apart over this year's presidential election is both refreshing and amusing. It's also completely understandable, given how hard the party establishment has been blowing dog whistles against establishments in general for the past decade or three.Not that I doubt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129998,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/02\/primary-wins-losses-and-in-betweens-9.html","url_meta":{"origin":130487,"position":2},"title":"Primary Wins, Losses, and In-Betweens","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Mar-16 12:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"While I am not quite as given-up on our \"Useless Media\" as some, the Super Tuesday coverage was driving both +Margie Kleerup and me mad.(1) \"Winning\" a state doesn't mean what you think it means, Big Network Coverage Talking Heads; we don't have winner-take-all selections as in most general presidential\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":148676,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2020\/03\/05\/why-didnt-warren-win-the-democratic-nomination.html","url_meta":{"origin":130487,"position":3},"title":"Why didn’t Warren win the Democratic nomination?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Mar-20 8:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone's looking for a single, simple answer. There isn't one.","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2020"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2020","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2020"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/elizabeth-warren.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/elizabeth-warren.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/elizabeth-warren.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/elizabeth-warren.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":129861,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/17\/suddenly-a-political-convention-might-actually-mean-something-again.html","url_meta":{"origin":130487,"position":4},"title":"Suddenly, a political convention might actually mean something again","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Feb-16 2:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's still to early to bet on how the rest of the GOP primary season will go, but the major campaigns (and major SuperPACs) are all figuring out how things might go if the first balloting in Cleveland doesn't deliver a majority for any one candidate. They're also, in many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130737,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/23\/just-lie-back-close-your-eyes-and-think-of-reagan.html","url_meta":{"origin":130487,"position":5},"title":""Just lie back, close your eyes, and think of Reagan"","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-May-16 9:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) was one of the most vehement and outspoken opponents of Donald Trump during the primary season, even after he dropped out of the nomination fight.\u201cHe\u2019s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot.\u201d\u201cHe doesn\u2019t represent my party. He doesn\u2019t represent the values that the men and women who wear\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130561,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130487\/revisions\/130561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}