I'd better get up to NH on the quick....

if I wanna catch Jeb Bush's "Doomsday Tour" from the sound of things, he may not last until Christmas. The Globe is reporting this morning that Jeb plans to spend more time in NH going forward, thats an open confession that the situation in Iowa is irretrievable, but then both his Dad and his Brother both Lost the New Hampshire Primary at various times in their presidential careers.... I used to think Jeb was the Man to Beat but he fatally brings nothing new to the table, more tax cuts more money worship and that relentless sense of entitlement that permeates his very being. And at the moment he is being beaten like a red headed stepchild by a loutish billionaire with a much bigger meaner sense of entitlement...Karma is a Muther Jeb. But he keeps running commercials and his polling is mired in the single digits soundly consigned with Cheap Acts, Huckabee, Gilmore or Santorum.... Sad. No really it's hilarious.

Chaffee is out

which leaves Martin O'Malley in the ahem "coveted" third tier position in the current democratic presidential sweepstakes. O'Malley is down to hanging on and hoping for a miracle at this point, some pundits out there think he is trolling for the Vice Presidential Nomination but since all three remaining candidates come from reasonably safe Blue States one is hard pressed to envision what electoral strength The Former Maryland Governor brings to the ticket. Nope O'Malley must conquer or perish right now my money is on perish...if Clinton had folded in front of the Benghazi Committee then maybe he'd get a chance...but likely Biden might've parachuted in as well. I like O'Malley and one of the things I like about him is having a cartoonishly obvious Irishman named "O'Malley" in the race. ;)

Jeb Bush is flying on fumes....

He is cutting back on paid staff in Iowa & NH, he is polling down the cheap acts everywhere and he is reduced to trotting out his still toxic brother the ex-president at fundraisers. The Bush Family Bully Mojo seems to have deserted Jeb Bush, he is finally up against someone in the person of Donald Trump with an even more Brutal Sense of Entitlement. Hence Jeb's lost and haunted look on the campaign trail, his fundraisers (the family's traditional secret weapon in any election cycle) seem to be deserting him, that has to be keeping him up at nights. I wonder where the money is going at this point, it certainly isn't wingnut tea partei money so it has to be leeching away to some other mainstream safe controllable conservative candidate. Wiser heads than mine will have to scrutinize the campaign finance filings for the answer. And there seems to be no end to this sh*tstorm, the conventional wisdom is that a few more governors and senators need to bail so that a solid "Anti-Trump" candidate can be hammered together...but what if Ben Carson bailed tomorrow? Do anyone really think his voters are gonna desert to Marco Rubio?? No Trump will be the beneficiary....so the whole bail and triumph scenario has serious consequences on the far right of the GOP Sweepstakes, which in part why I think Trump and Carson have hung tough so far, their numbers are just more favorable between them they've got about 40% locked up thats a solidly crazy and vengeful plurality that would happily vote for Roberto Farinacci if he promised to exile Barack Obama to the Phantom Zone.

Jim Webb Bails....

I'm not surprised, I never got the impression his heart was in it.... Up Until Now I sort of thought Webb was running for Secretary of Defense, but supposedly he is now making third party noises if you can believe it. Frankly I doubt anything will come of it if Webb couldn't raise the money as a democrat he will never acquire the Trumpian Cashola needed to make a credible 3rd Party Challenge Next Fall. Webb must think if he can tough it out until the NH Primary he can present himself to the nation as a principled conservative alternative to Donald Trump assuming The Donald stays in and wracks up significant primary wins. Thats about Webb's only credible third party scenario, he'd be sunk from the git go if Bush ever revived from his current swoon. Hell Jim Webb is sunk for lack of $$....this will yield two weeks of excited speculation (cu da press love 3rd partei insurgents)....then nothing.

Does someone wanna ring up the Boston Globe

and tell Joan Vennochi that contrary to her current column that the poverty rate in the USA dropped fifty percent over the balance of LBJ's term in office which was largely due to his comprehensive anti poverty programs. You could insist that an expanding GNP ate up that poverty sans Federal Intervention, I mean...you could but comparable economic prosperity under Eisenhower did not yield as great a drop in the poverty rate. So yeah The Great Society Worked....if you don't believe me read John E. Schwarz' "America's Hidden Success"if you want those numbers broken down in detail. I'd do it myself, but I'm on vacation and am under a Doctor's orders to drink brandy and cease bloviation on line....

Denny Hastert that lumbering

jobber who presided over Bill Clinton's impeachment back in 1998 as Speaker of the House, just pleaded guilty to paying hush money to a former student who accused him of molestation. This is the same Denny Hastert who sat there grinning as a host of GOP Congressman clouded the air of the US House calling Bill Clinton every name in the book including ironically "child molester". I mean yipes but did any of Bill Clinton's accusers have normal libidos? I mean save Monica Lewinsky (who clearly like all outed mistresses wanted to clear out quietly and quickly....)... Its a sad deviant role call of wingnut perviness to be sure....

Last Night's Debate...

is at first glance, bad news for Joe Biden. He needed a very serious "Hilary Meltdown" to justify entering the democratic presidential primaries as the "Savior of the Party". The Former Secretary of State, declined to give the Incumbent Veep his opportunity, she was serious, modest, well informed and on-message. That having been said, Bernie Sanders hasn't yet burst out of his liberal's liberal enclave, he took some hits on gun control that won't do him much damage over the short term. O'Malley, Chaffee & Webb all acquitted themselves well no one broke out though in any substantive way, the best that can be said is that Governor Martin O'Malley projected a comfortable vice presidential gravitas....but he he is a Northeastern Governor in a race dominated by Northeasterners and if Bernie or Hilary can't carry Maryland then they are too dumb for help. Overall everyone exuded a shocking amount of well informed sanity....which is a sharp contrast from the snarkfests that characterize the GOP Debates to date.

Cultural Note:

At All Costs Short of the Penitentiary or Our Immortal Souls the Colonial Theater MUST be saved from conversion into another Joyless Undergraduate Barracks. Emerson College has shuddered the famed venue and is "considering it's options" with regard to the property. I say it must stay a living breathing function theater! Boston is already a town vastly complacent about it's commitment to the arts and prone to useless lip service, meanwhile vital venues casually close for good with nothing on the horizon to replace them. Don't believe for a moment that just because the Hub is lousy with college students and nice tweed jacket liberal professors that the atmosphere is welcoming with respect to the Lively Arts, largely it is not. Mayor WaLSH is officially invited to Speak Up Soonest on this issue and if everyone wants to see a working model about how to turn a venue in an obscure spot into a thriving home for concerts, plays and films then you can do worse than to speak with Leland Stein who has kept the Regent Theater in Arlington up and running Against All The Odds. Someone has to stand athwart this insidious process of "De-Souling the City" and Howl HALT!!

The Fight to Succeed John Boehner has literally

come down to an ugly brutal brawl between doomsday preppers and snake handlers....as a democrat and a liberal it's fine family entertainment in every way....save the outcome, thats gonna be cringeworthy no joke. What I love is, the plaintive cries that are going up all over the Republic that House Ways & Means Chair Paul Ryan (also Romney's torpid veep candidate) HAS to step forward and run for House Speaker....to ahhh "Save moderate republicanism". HAR! Paul Ryan a moderate?? Thats a laugh, a better more devoted corporate looter cannot be found anyway in the District of Columbia...his moderate bona fides are entirely incidental and negative in scope he neither stockpiles K-Rations and ammunition and has never expressed his Love of Ghod by juggling rattlesnakes. But, the GOP is both desperate and entirely in delicious disarray I'm not sure in the end they'll be able to unite around anyone at all. Boehner may have to stay on for the next two years simply because his caucus cannot govern themselves let alone govern the nation. HAH!

What is it about Bill Weld?

That so mesmerizes the Boston Globe? Even twenty five years later?? The Capitol Section of the paper this week contains an open letter from Frank Phillips to Governor Baker detailing all the ways the incumbent can hold on to his current popularity. Fine fair enough, but the conclusion advised Baker to drive down to Canton Ma and inquire after the soul of Former Governor (wait for it...) William Weld Surpriiiise!!! Seriously, Weld has this weird power over Boomer Journalists, one and all they think they got high with Weld in College or something. Its a very bar-set-low credulous vibe....but Weld has always benefited from it, he got whipped by John Kerry, quit the Governorship cuz he was bored, fled to NYC, flirted with running for Governor of New York, got divorced, downed a LOT of Jack Daniels and then wandered back to Massachusetts. A record of triviality, whimsy, eccentricity & self indulgence but when it's Bill Weld the Boston Globe cannot get enough. I don't give a rat's ass about Charlie Baker and his sacred spreadsheets but if he really wants to be a good governor he can start by asking the simple question just what the hell has Bill Weld done for anyone else since leaving office?

Putin in Syria

I wish him the sweet unfettered joy of trying to set up a sustainable Alawite Syrian Enclave for his Pal President Assad, Russia clearly wants a big buy in back into Middle East Politics but believe me it won't come cheap if it comes at all. We will see how long Putin can hang in there once his troops start getting beheaded on Youtube and ISIS starts shifting it's sphere of action to Russia Proper.

Alex Beam does a bang up job

in his current Boston Globe column of concealing from his readership that the famed columnist hasn't mastered his cable remote and the TV is permanently stuck in "Cambodian Mode".... Insert "Three's Company" Gag Here for Pop Kultur Bumpage....

That having been said...

Working Class Xenophobia in this country does come from A Real Place at the end of the day. The USA has deunionized, deindustrialized, become casually atomized and now outsourcing to Manila is all the rage....is there any question that very real economic concerns are in play here? Granted a lot of that xenophobia comes thru a nationalist blustery filter, which of course is a cue for Good Liberals to Disdain It All which I think we do at our peril. Hate to indulge a cliche' but a little smidge of compromise is the only answer, liberals have to concede certain xenophobic streams have legitimacy, white working class inflictees have to concede prioritization economic concerns and therefore the need to enter a de facto coalition with almost anyone else than Donald Trump. Because while we are finally exiting the recession we are still hobbled by an unequal economy that will literally do anything and everything to forestall the practical redistribution of income.