Category: New Hampshire

The New Hype-Shire Primary UPDATE: Trump Wins, CNN and Haley Lose

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UPDATE 8:25 p.m. ET: Well, that didn’t take long — CNN called it a victory for Trump about 8:15, so that all their pro-Haley hype was just so much wasted airtime, I guess. And now on to South Carolina, where Nikki will lose again.

*** PREVIOUSLY ***

Today the TV in my office was tuned to CNN — I watch CNN, so you don’t have to — and it’s just incredible how they’ve been hyping up Nikki Haley ahead of the New Hampshire primary. If you knew nothing else except what CNN told you, you might believe (a) there’s actually a chance Haley will beat Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and (b) winning New Hampshire is part of how she’s going to do it. Well, start by forgetting about (a), because that ain’t happening. Go look at the Real Clear Politics average — nationally, Trump’s been leading the GOP primary field by a massive margin for months. It doesn’t matter whether you love Trump or hate Trump, the reality is that a majority of Republican voters want him to be the candidate, no matter what the media says and no matter how many Democratic prosecutors indict him. If Trump was sitting in a prison cell right this minute, he’d still win the Republican nomination. And I’d say there’s a pretty good chance he’ll also win the New Hampshire primary, which would basically kill the Nikki Haley campaign, because if she can’t win New Hampshire, where’s she going to win? Her home state of South Carolina, maybe?

Not likely. The latest polls show Trump leading by 30 points there. There is no “path to victory” for Haley, just like there was no “path to victory” for DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Chris Christie, or any of the other candidates who showed up in the TV debates that Trump didn’t even bother with, because why should he? He is basically running like an incumbent and, not to stoke anyone’s conspiracy theories, but c’mon, man — 81 million votes? Does anyone really believe that? How is it that Biden supposedly got elected in a nationwide landslide, yet he is less popular than syphilis?

OK, that was unfair. Nobody hates syphilis as much as voters hate Joe Biden. Joe’s approval ratings are a toxic dumpster fire, and yet there are people who think Biden could somehow beat Trump in a rematch. Why do they think that? Maybe they’re watching CNN, which is one of the few places where Joe is slightly more popular than syphilis.

Anyway, the polls will close in New Hampshire in a little while, and it probably won’t be long before I’ll be able to report that Trump has won in a landslide. Or maybe not. But either way, this “campaign” is almost over.

UPDATE 7:25 p.m. ET:

Less than 5% of the vote reported so far, and these numbers are certain to wobble a lot, but you see Trump’s still winning.

UPDATE 8 p.m. ET:

Still less than 20% of the vote counted, but the lead for Trump has remained steady around 8 or 9 points. If Haley gets over 40%, she’ll call that a “moral victory,” and the hype train will roll on.



 

‘Progressives’ Become Hitler Youth Targeting the ‘Zionist War Machine’

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Nineteen-year-old Calla Walsh was already notorious before Monday’s protest violent attack against a Jewish business in New Hampshire:

Protesters voicing support for Palestine were arrested in connection with vandalism Monday at Elbit Systems of America, a defense contractor in Merrimack, police said.
Three people were arrested on several charges, including riot.
Police before 8 a.m. were called to 220 Daniel Webster Highway for reports of protestors blocking the driveway and multiple people believed to be on the roof.
The fire department also was sent for a report of smoke coming from the roof.
Police found protesters blocking the driveway voicing support for Palestine, according to Merrimack police.
They eventually vacated the roadway and allowed officers to access the property.
Officers discovered the front of the building had been spray painted with red paint, windows had been smashed, and at least one of the main lobby doors had been locked shut via a bicycle anti-theft device, police said.
Officers also confirmed that at least three people accessed the roof. They were charged with riot, sabotage, criminal mischief, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
Arrested were Sophie Marika Ross, 22, of Housatonic, Mass.; Calla Mairead Walsh, 19, of Cambridge, Mass., and Bridget Irene Shergalis, 27 of Dayville, Conn., according to police
Police said the smoke was caused by an incendiary device similar to ones later located on one of the suspects. Officers on the roof found more spray painting, smashed skylights and damage to HVAC equipment.
The three were held on preventive detention and will be arraigned in the Hillsborough County Superior Court – South at 1 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.
The FBI is working to determine who else might have been involved.
Elbit Systems of America is a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd., which is headquartered in Haifa, Israel. . . .
Gov. Chris Sununu condemned the attack.
“The antisemitism, hate, and significant damage protesters brought to Elbit America’s campus this morning has no place in our state and will not be tolerated,” he said. “I am confident law enforcement will work to bring those responsible for this vile act of hate to swift justice. The people of New Hampshire stand with Israel and with Elbit Systems of America.”

It’s a 21st-century Kristallnacht, and the perpetrators are “voicing support for Palestine,” to borrow the media’s euphemistic language. At least WMUR-TV did some actual reporting:

The protesters in front of the building identified themselves to News 9 as a group called Palestine Action U.S. They posted a photo on social media stating that their goal is to dismantle Elbit Systems and what they referred to as the “Zionist war machine.”
“We’re a direct-action network targeting Elbit Systems, their U.S. chapter specifically,” said Fergie Chambers, of Palestine Action U.S. “They are Israel’s largest weapons supplier. Eighty-five percent of the drones being used in Gaza right now are produced by this company. This location here in Merrimack, New Hampshire, produces display systems for fighter jets.”

Say hello to James “Fergie” Chambers:

The 38-year-old cop-hater is the decadent heir of a media fortune, “the first-born son of James Cox Chambers, the co-owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks with a net worth of $5.65 billion.” What happened to him? Well, his grandmother was good friends with Jane Fonda back in the day. And as for the notorious Calla Walsh . . .

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Calla Walsh in 2020

When she was in high school, Walsh became an organizer for the reelection campaign of Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who faced a Democratic primary challenge from Joe Kennedy III. Somehow — it’s rather mysterious — Walsh and other left-wing youth were persuaded that Markey was a “progressive” hero (when, in fact, he’s a nondescript party hack) and believed that the young Kennedy was some kind of “right wing” menace. If anything, Calla Walsh’s role as a teenage leader of the “Markeyverse” illustrates just how naïve young leftists can be, but since then, she’s gone on to become a fixture in radical activism. And by “radical activism,” of course, I mean, Iran-sponsored Jew-hating:

In December 2022, a coalition of 28 organizations asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement over its extensive links to terrorist groups. Of particular concern was the BDS movement’s links to a mysterious “Mapping Project” that published an apparent hit list of targets linked to the U.S. government, Israel, and the Jewish community.
An investigative report by the Zachor Legal Institute exposed the Mapping Project’s links to supporters of terrorists, the BDS movement and, in all likelihood, the government of Iran.
The Mapping Project’s content makes it clear that its anonymous creators’ intention is to inspire violent attacks on the listed sites. The project’s website states, “Our goal in pursuing this collective mapping was to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so we can dismantle them. Every entity has an address, every network can be disrupted.” . . .
The project openly supports Palestinian terrorists, putting to rest any notion that the Mapping Project is merely a provocative academic exercise. “Glory to the martyrs! Free Palestine from the River to the Sea! Free All Political Prisoners!” the website proclaims in a statement expressing solidarity with Palestinian terrorists seeking the destruction of Israel. . . .
The identities of the project’s creators remain murky. However, one name has been reportedly linked to the project: Calla Walsh, a member of BDS Boston, Democratic Socialists of America and, as of April 2022, Office Manager for Massachusetts Peace Action. An investigation by the Canary Mission found four tweets by Walsh that idolized the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group.
Walsh says she’s simply a promoter of the Mapping Project and denies having worked on it. However, Al-Jazeera reported that she “participated” in it and, in an apparent slip of the tongue, referred to the project as “we” in a tweet. She’s also implied that she knows the authors of the project who, she says, “have been working on it for years.” . . .
The common denominator among the groups that appear closest to the Mapping Project is support for the Iran-backed PFLP terrorist group.
The first PFLP connection comes through BDS Boston, whose Twitter account was the first to report the project’s debut. As mentioned, BDS Boston member Calla Walsh posts pro-PFLP material. . . .

So, they’re making a list of Jews, and putting them on a map, and they’re doing this while supporting an Iran-backed terrorist group. Move along. Nothing to see here. Just “young people who are taking an interest in peace and social justice,” as Jamie Raskin might say.



 

‘Joys of Progress’ Update

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Last month, I told you about former New Hampshire state legislator Barry Charles “Stacie-Marie” Laughton (“The Wonderful Joys of ‘Progress’”), a Democrat who had been charged with child pornography in a case involving his/“her” ex-girlfriend, Lindsay Groves.

There was a flurry of interest in the case this past week because the Department of Justice has released documents in the federal cases against Laughton and Groves and, as WMUR-TV warns, “Details in this story may be disturbing.” You can go read that, but the most “disturbing” aspect of the case is that Groves worked at a child daycare center, and sent naked photos of the children to Laughton, and the federal affidavit quotes text messages between these two creeps, e.g.:

Not even going to transcribe that. Feel slimy just posting the screencap. Everything about this case is weird, including how they got caught:

On June 20, 2023, the Nashua Police Department (NPD) responded to a report that LAUGHTON had shown child sexual abuse images to other adults. One adult (hereinafter,
PERSON 2) reported that on June 20, 2023, LAUGHTON disclosed that her former intimate partner, Lindsay GROVES, sent LAUGHTON inappropriate images of children.
According to PERSON 2, LAUGHTON then showed PERSON 2 three images, which were on LAUGHTON’s phone in a text conversation with a contact titled “Lindsay.” Upon
viewing the three images, PERSON 2 recognized them as children and that each image depicted a separate child. PERSON 2 described each image as depicting children with
their genitals exposed.
The responding NPD officer interviewed another adult (hereinafter, PERSON 3), who reported that on June 16, 2023, LAUGHTON disclosed that GROVES sent her inappropriate images of children. LAUGHTON then sent PERSON 3 four images of nude children by text message, which PERSON 3 deleted. During the interview on June 20, 2023, PERSON 3 was able to recover the images to provide them to the responding NPD officer. The officer observed that the images were of naked children and also observed a text, purportedly from LAUGHTON, that read, “I don’t like that I have these but I wanted to show you the proof. I am not a kid pervert.”
NPD detectives conducted a voluntary interview with PERSON 3 on that same date, June 20, 2023, at the Nashua Police Department. During the interview, PERSON 3 showed the four images to the detectives.

So, Laughton showed these images to two different people, and actually sent them via text message to one of them, like, “Hey, want to see evidence of the federal felonies that I’m involved in?”

BTW, Libs of TikTok is probably incorrect in saying that O’Rourke and Swalwell “campaigned” for Laughton. Almost certainly, the photos were taken at some post-event “grip-and-grin” session following local Democratic Party events in New Hampshire, which as the traditional first primary state gets a steady parade of national political figures showing up for fundraisers, etc. Still, the fact is that Democrats in New Hampshire twice elected Laughton to office, despite his/“her” obvious craziness.



 

The Wonderful Joys of ‘Progress’

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“In our day, innovations march with so rapid a stride that they quite take away one’s breath. The fantastical project of yesterday, which was mentioned only to be ridiculed, is to-day the audacious reform, and will be to-morrow the accomplished fact.”
— R.L. Dabney, 1871

The person now known as Stacie Marie Laughton went by the name Barry Charles Laughton, Jr., when he was convicted in 2008 of credit card fraud. At the time, Laughton was living with his wife Lisa in Laconia, N.H. After serving four months of a 12-month sentence, Laughton evidently realized he was actually “she,” and also, a Democrat.

Innovations were indeed marching with a rapid stride, so that by 2012, Laughton had gone from the jailhouse to the statehouse, winning election as a state representative, New Hampshire’s first transgender lawmaker.

A glowing profile at Huffington Post quoted Laughton: “My hope is that now maybe we’ll see more people in the community running, maybe for alderman. . . . I want the community to feel inspired.” Unfortunately for him/“her,” Laughton had forgotten to consult the election laws of the state for which he/“she” proposed to make laws. Under New Hampshire law, a person convicted of a felony must complete their entire sentence (including probation, the payment of restitution, etc.) before being eligible to hold office, and Barry/“Stacie” had not done this. Perhaps he/“she” believed that the change of identity might conceal his/“her” criminal past, but a local newspaper reported the facts, and Laughton was forced to resign before taking office. Less than three years later, Laughton made headlines again — not in a good way:

Stacie Laughton, the state’s first openly transgender legislator, was arrested [March 12, 2015] by Nashua police after saying she is the person responsible for calling in a hoax bomb threat at a local hospital.
Laughton, who was elected to the House of Representatives and then withdrew her candidacy days later, turned herself in . . . on a warrant for the Feb. 27 incident after spending two weeks receiving treatment at a Vermont hospital for bipolar disorder.
Police charged her with a felony count of falsely reporting an explosive.
“I have had a mental illness my whole life, and I guess this was my worst break with it. I was untreated for a long time, and I didn’t have medication,” Laughton told the New Hampshire Union Leader, adding she is very remorseful for her actions.
Laughton said she was not in the right frame of mind when she called in a bomb threat to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center around 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 27. Laughton, who also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, described feelings of extreme impulsivity when she made the phone call.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, and it was totally out of character for me. I have put a lot behind me, and I never thought I would do this in a million years,” she said.
Laughton is expected to be charged with a felony for calling in a fake bomb threat, which prompted a systematic search of the hospital by local authorities and hospital security.
She fully admitted her involvement to police, who opted not to formally charge her until her stay at the Brattleboro Retreat, a mental health and addiction treatment facility in Vermont, was complete. Laughton maintains that she was not under the influence of anything at the time of the incident, says she is cooperating with police and is grateful that they allowed her to seek medical assistance before her arrest. . . .
“I never thought I would see the inside of a police station again,” Laughton said on Thursday before turning herself in. “I am extremely remorseful. I have been crying frequently, and I wish I had never done it.”

So, in addition to being transgender, Laughton is also bipolar and suffers from PTSD. “I have had a mental illness my whole life” — well, can’t all Democrats say the same thing? At any rate, “a judge reduced the charge to a misdemeanor and sentenced her to a six-month suspended jail term,” because Democrats never suffer serious consequences for their crimes. Just ask Hunter Biden. You might think the voters of New Hampshire would have had enough of Laughton, but you would be wrong. Despite the fact that he/“she” is mentally ill and has a criminal record, Laughton was elected to the state legislature again in 2020.

You may be shocked (but probably not) to learn that this was not the end of Laughton’s criminal career. In 2021, while serving in the legislature, Laughton was once again arrested for criminal charges:

State Rep. Stacie Laughton (D-Nashua) was arrested [July 27, 2021] on seven counts of penalty for false information, all misdemeanors. Police accuse Laughton of misuse of the state’s 911 texting system.
“From May 2021 to July 2021, officers from the Nashua Police Department’s Uniform Field Operations Bureau responded to (an apartment on) Elm Street on several occasions due to text messages being sent to the state of New Hampshire E-911 center from a telephone number associated with Laughton,” Capt. Matthew DiFava of the bureau. “On each occasion, it was determined there was no emergency by officers.”
After the seventh incident, police applied for an arrest warrant against Laughton, which was approved.
“This investigation is still ongoing and additional charges are expected,” DiFava added.

Despite this, Laughton was re-elected to the legislature in 2022, but a few weeks after election day, he/“she” was arrested on new charges:

State Rep. Stacie Marie Laughton, 38, was arrested by Nashua police on [Nov. 12, 2022] on a warrant out of Hudson on a violation of stalking order charge. She is being held in the Valley Street Jail in Manchester.
Limited information is available about the case. But Lt. Roger Lamarche, the second shift commander of the Hudson Police Department, confirmed the arrest and charge. Laughton was accused by police of communicating with the victim on social media on Nov. 8.
The protective order was filed against Laughton, who also serves as a city selectman, on July 25.
According to Lamarche, this was not the first time Laughton was arrested on charges for communicating with the victim. She was accused of stalking and harassment in late August and was arrested in early September.

Wouldn’t it appear that Laughton is a habitual offender? And given Laughton’s admission of having “mental illness my whole life,” wouldn’t you think the taxpayers of New Hampshire would be better served by sending Laughton to a state mental hospital, rather than to the state legislature? And now there’s more news about Laughton:

The arrest Thursday of a former state representative from Derry, New Hampshire, is connected to a woman from Hudson who is accused of taking explicit photos of children in her care at a child care facility in Massachusetts, sources told News 9 Investigates.
Sources did not explain the exact connection between Lindsay Groves, 38, of Hudson, and Stacie Laughton, 39, of Derry.
Groves is facing state charges in New Hampshire and federal charges in Massachusetts. She is in preventative detention after she waived her arraignment in Nashua.
Groves is charged in New Hampshire with four counts of possession of child sex abuse images. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts is also charging her with one count of sexual exploitation of children and one count of distribution of child pornography.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Groves worked at Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, where she allegedly used the children’s bathroom breaks to take nude photos of them in a private bathroom and text them to a person she was in a relationship with.
The pictures included four photos of children who appear to be 3 to 5 years old.
Officials said there were more than 2,500 text messages sent between Groves and a former partner talking about transferring the photos.
Groves wasn’t in the New Hampshire courtroom as she waived her arraignment, and the prosecution and defense agreed that she be held without bail. Groves’ parents were in the courtroom in Nashua and said she’s innocent. . . .
Groves is scheduled to be back in court in New Hampshire on Aug 30. She will appear in federal court in Boston on a future date.
Nashua police on Thursday evening announced the arrest of Laughton on four counts of distribution of child sexual abuse images.
Investigators said they spoke to people on Tuesday who indicated Laughton had distributed sexually explicit images of children.
Laughton was arrested on Thursday and was expected to appear in court on Friday for an arraignment.

Documents in the federal case against Groves do not identify Laughton, but you can read between the lines:

An employee of a Tyngsboro day care faces federal child exploitation and pornography charges after she allegedly took nude photos of children at the day care and then shared the images with a person she had previously been in an intimate relationship with. . . .
The alleged photographs were taken between May 2022 and June of this year.
An affidavit filed in federal court by a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security states the investigation began on June 20, when the Nashua Police Department was contacted about a woman who was allegedly showing pornographic images of children to other adults.
According to the affidavit, the woman allegedly disclosed to one adult that she had obtained the images from Groves.
The affidavit states on June 20, the Nashua Police interviewed the woman, who is not identified in the charging documents. The woman confirmed she had formerly been in an intimate relationship with Groves and allegedly admitted that Groves had sent her sexually explicit images of children.
The following morning, police executed a search warrant at Groves’ home in Hudson. At that time, the affidavit states Groves told police that her former intimate partner had requested she take photos of nude children at the day care for her “sexual gratification.”

Wow, this is bad — even by Democrat standards.

Does the community feel “inspired” yet?



 

 

Red Wave Hits New Hampshire?

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This would almost certainly flip the Senate to GOP control:

New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate Gen. Don Bolduc has taken the lead for the first time over Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) in New Hampshire’s Senate race, a Tuesday Saint Anselm poll revealed.
Forty-eight percent of voters selected Gen. Bolduc, while Hassan only garnered 47 percent, well below the coveted 50 percent threshold for an incumbent. Three percent were unsure.
The poll surveyed 1,541 New Hampshire likely voters from October 28-29 with a 2.5 margin of error.
Campaign spokeswoman Kate Constantini told Breitbart News the result of the polls shows the Bolduc campaign’s grassroots initiatives are producing results.
“This result is not surprising since General Bolduc has spent this entire campaign speaking directly with New Hampshire voters about the important issues facing our country,” Constantini said. “Momentum is hard to get and even harder to stop, and we are taking nothing for granted this last week of the campaign.”
Gen. Bolduc has clawed his way into the one-point lead, a gain of 12 points in just six weeks, when Hassan had an 11 point lead. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll four weeks ago showed Hassan with a nine point lead (50-41 percent) over Gen. Bolduc.
That lead was cut to seven points (52-45 percent) in an October 12 AARP poll. Both polls showed Hassan with majority support.
On October 21, a Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll showed Gen. Bolduc had tied the race (45-45 percent) with seven percent undecided.
During the campaign, Gen. Bolduc has highlighted four issues: inflation, gas prices, crime, and open borders. According to third quarter fundraising totals, Bolduc has been outspent by $9 million dollars.

So it’s not just one poll — there is a trend of polls showing that the race has shifted toward Bolduc since late September, and this picture of increasing GOP momentum is a nationwide phenomenon. Democrats got a summer poll bump from the Supreme Court abortion decision, but that began fading in September and, over the course of October, the signs of an approaching “red wave” began to multiply. Crucially, Democrats started shifting resources away from defending House seats in districts that Biden had won in 2020 by a few points, toward districts where Biden had won by eight, nine, 10 points. In other words, the Democrats’ own internal polling shows a shift from D to R on a scale similar to the way Virginia flipped last year. Real Clear Politics now projects Bolduc winning in New Hampshire, and FiveThirtyEight is now projecting a GOP Senate majority, based mainly on Adam Laxalt’s strong Senate race in Nevada.

We’re planning a special Election Night edition of The Other Podcast, starting next Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET and running until 1 a.m. The outcome in New Hampshire will be one of the earliest indicators of how the night is shaping up, but I anticipate that nearly every key Senate race will be deemed “too close to call” by the media until midnight or later. Because you’ve got to wait on those mysterious 2 a.m. ballot dumps, am I right?

OK, sorry, didn’t mean to stoke your paranoia — and possibly incite political violence — by suggesting that Democrats might steal the election again, but we all know that Democrats will always cheat enough to win any close election, which means that in order for Republicans to win, they must beat “the margin of theft.” If it’s not close, they can’t steal it.

I am not an “election denier.” I am an election realist.




 

Elizabeth Warren Is Doomed, and Feminists Can’t Understand Why (And a BONUS Bidenfreude Update)

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Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren placed fourth in yesterday’s New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary with less than 10% of the vote, as she was eclipsed by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who more than doubled Warren’s vote total. Dana Pico at First Street Journal called attention to feminist Amanda Marcotte’s “hot take” on Warren. “If Warren was a man, this would be over already,” Marcotte wrote Tuesday:

Warren is a rock star. Crowds love her and she tends to get bigger cheers than anyone, even Sanders. She always takes her analysis to the next level, but manages to explain complex topics without dissembling. The ideas that sound radical in Bernie’s mouth (probably by design, to be fair) sound like common sense coming from Warren. She’s probably the single most popular candidate in the field, with people talking about her positively, even if they support someone else.
It’s clear, however, after months of cable news seeding the idea that the public is too sexist to elect a woman, that voters aren’t backing her. This created a weird dynamic in New Hampshire, where Warren drew big crowds, often due in large part to political tourists from other states who came to see the hottest act in town, not because she was actually rallying local voters here. So because of sexism, the most popular politician in the field will probably falter in the actual primary.

Not to put too fine a point on it, this is crazy.

Marcotte credits “cable news” with creating the (false) belief “that the public is too sexist to elect a woman,” which scarcely explains why Klobuchar (who, last time I checked, was also a woman) should have zoomed up from obscurity to finish third in New Hampshire.

Of course, to her devoted admirers, Warren is a “rock star,” but you know who’s an even bigger rock star? President Trump, who consistently draws overflow crowds to gigantic rallies in sports arenas. The fact that Marcotte can’t put this in a realistic perspective — she is incapable of viewing Warren objectively — is testimony to the solipsistic nature of the feminist worldview. Staunch conservative that I am, my profession as a journalist requires me to summon the mental focus necessary to step back from my personal prejudice, to think about what the political spectacle looks like to, say, a housewife in the Philly suburbs or a truck driver in Michigan. Like most other observers, I underestimated the strength of Trump’s populist appeal in 2016, but unlike feminists, my miscalculation wasn’t due to an ax-grinding personal bias.

Here is what Amanda Marcotte can’t understand: Elizabeth Warren is not losing because of cable news creating a sexist narrative. Elizabeth Warren is losing because she’s a transparent phony. When Trump calls her “Pocahontas,” this is not merely a personal insult, it’s a reminder that Warren falsified her own identity, claiming Native American ancestry in order to get affirmative action status in hiring at Harvard.

Moreover, Warren is losing because ordinary people (i.e., those who are not feminist fanatics) dislike her self-righteous persona. Politics is not merely about who advocates policies that are popular, it’s also about whose personality voters find most appealing. We may wish that this were not so, desiring politics to be an intellectual exercise, but that’s just the nature of the game, especially in terms of a national presidential campaign, where most people form their judgments of candidates based on television coverage. Many people (including some Republicans) dislike Donald Trump because he comes across on TV as an arrogant bully. People who know Trump personally might claim that Trump is really just a lovable teddy bear who wouldn’t hurt anybody, but his televised persona reminds many people of every blustering bully they ever knew.

If I, a conservative who voted for Trump and who plans to vote for him again in November, can acknowledge the perception problem that Trump faces in attempting to win over more moderate voters, why can’t Amanda Marcotte accept that Warren has a similar problem? Warren reminds me of certain middle-school teachers who couldn’t tolerate mischievous boys, sending me to the principal’s office whenever I made a wisecrack in class.

Amy Klobuchar, by contrast, seems like the nice kindergarten teacher who gave me punch and cookies. She is personally likable, even though she is a Democrat, and I would never vote for a Democrat. In that way, Klobuchar is quite Obama. A lot of white people who can’t stand the Jesse Jackson-style “civil rights” race-hustler politician found Obama much more likable, and so Obama won where Jesse never could have won.

Why isn’t Amanda Marcotte encouraged by Klobuchar’s success? One would think that the Minnesota senator’s popularity would give hope to feminists, but feminists like Marcotte aren’t pro-woman so much as they are anti-male. They want to send wisecracking mischievous boys to the principal’s office, long after we have finished middle school.

UPDATE: Jonathan Chait sticks the fork in Uncle Joe:

Biden has run for president three times. He has not yet managed to finish higher than fourth in any primary or caucus. Biden may, or may not, have been a good enough politician to win a presidential campaign in his prime. He is now well past his prime. . . .
If not for Biden, a mainstream liberal Democrat might well have begun to consolidate support of a party establishment that is not looking for a candidate who will embrace wildly unpopular policies and a wildly unpopular socialist label while emphasizing transformative economic change in the midst of the best economy in a generation. . . .
Biden’s campaigns in 1988 and 2008 ended in disaster for Biden. His 2020 campaign is going to end in a disaster for the whole party.

Hat-tip to Stephen Green at Instapundit, who calls this “a nice shot of schadenfreude in my coffee.” No, it’s Bidenfreude, and it’s delicious.




 

NEW HAMPSHIRE RESULTS

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Well, I suppose I might as well do one of these, since it’s the first time Democrats will vote in a situation where the party hacks can’t steal votes from Bernie. The polls in New Hampshire will close at 8 p.m. ET and . . . Wow, it must suck to be Joe Biden tonight.

 

UPDATE 8:10 p.m. ET: As I noted this morning, the possibility of a fifth-place finish for Joe Biden in New Hampshire could not be ruled out, and that’s how it seems to be shaping up. How can he continue his campaign after getting less than 10% of the vote in New Hampshire? Of course, the doddering old fool keeps talking about South Carolina, but I can’t imagine him doing so well there as to recover his “frontrunner” status. Biden was supposed to be Mister Electability, remember?

UPDATE 8:30 p.m. ET: Beside the Biden zombie campaign, you know who else is finished tonight? Elizabeth Warren. She’s heading for fourth place in her own backyard, losing to Amy Freaking Klobuchar, a nothingburger of Minnesota niceness. Warren was trying to be Hillary 2.0, selling what was supposed to be a new and improved version of The First Female President™ narrative. She finished third in Iowa and is now fourth in New Hampshire and where, pray tell, does she expect to actually win anything? So it looks like the feminist sisterhood is screwed, unless they can rally behind Klobuchar, who doesn’t strike me as the kind of Angry Bitch that feminists could be expected to support.

 

UPDATE 9:25 p.m. ET: Watching MSNBC tonight, and the anti-Trump network is in need of an intervention. They simply don’t want to deal with the reality: Bernie is winning, Biden is hopelessly doomed, and Warren probably won’t make it to Super Tuesday. Klobuchar did surprisingly well in New Hampshire, but she has neither the money nor the staff to campaign effectively for the Super Tuesday delegate bonanza. More to the point, there is no end in sight for this divided party, because multi-billionaire Mike Bloomberg has made a big play for Super Tuesday. Suppose, then, that Bloomberg is able to buy something around 10% of the vote on Super Tuesday. Assuming the Biden or Warren haven’t struck the tent by then, that will mean five candidates (Bloomberg, Biden, Warren, Buttigieg and Klobuchar) vying for the “Anybody But Bernie” vote. Even if Warren and Biden quit before Super Tuesday, however, there would still be three candidates trying to stop Sanders, who is good for 30% of the vote in just about any Democratic primary or caucus.

Meanwhile, both Andrew Yang and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett have ended their campaigns, having gotten exactly zero delegates — the same number as Biden and Warren so far, I hasten to add.

 

UPDATE 9:50 p.m. ET: Looking at the numbers now, you’re struck by how weak Warren and Biden performed. Neither of them broke 10% and this outcome just won’t do. You’re not a viable contender if you can’t make double digits in New Hampshire. Considering that Biden was the consensus front-runner, leading nearly every national poll and with near universal name recognition, how does he explain this debacle?

Fourth place in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire? Zero delegates?

Biden flew to South Carolina and gave another rambling semi-coherent speech, emphasizing the idea that black voters haven’t had any real influence in the results in the two early states, but so what? Does he expect black voters to stampede to the polls to save the old white man? Like they owe him something, and it’s time to pay up?

No sensible person would expect such a thing, and look at the calendar: We’re now about 10 days from the Feb. 22 Nevada caucuses (which Biden will lose), and the South Carolina primary isn’t until Feb. 29. Does anyone think Biden will recover enough momentum in the next 18 days to make his appeal to black voters in South Carolina more credible? Or would you guess, as I do, that most black voters are becoming disgusted with the choices offered to them in this primary campaign? Neither of the most promising black candidates (Kamala Harris and Cory Booker) even made it as far as Iowa, so why should black Democrats — offered a choice between five or six white candidates, none of them likely to beat Trump in November — get excited about voting for any of them?

 

UPDATE WEDNESDAY: Elizabeth Warren Is Doomed, and Feminists Can’t Understand Why.




 

Yes, Democrats Are Trying to Cheat Bernie Sanders Out of the Nomination Again

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Bernie Sanders got the most votes in the Iowa caucus, but somehow — it’s just so mysterious — Pete Buttigieg got more delegates.

Besides the actual vote-stealing, of course, Democrats are also deploying their powerful media allies to hype Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, as potential fallback establishment candidates, now that Joe Biden’s campaign is clearly approaching its Hindenburg-at-Lakehurst finale. Of course, the “Anybody But Bernie” narrative is being driven by Team Clinton, working behind the scenes to torpedo Sanders. Hillary cannot forgive Bernie for challenging her in 2016, so her allies and operatives are doing everything they can to make sure Bernie doesn’t win in 2020.

“In New Hampshire, Democratic Voters Are Paralyzed by Fear of Making the Wrong Choice” — well, here’s a hint: They’re all wrong. And speaking of wrong, let’s talk about Bill Kristol:

GOP-leaning independent voters in New Hampshire are receiving phone calls and texts from anti-Trump Republicans urging them to cross the aisle and vote in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, NHJournal has learned. The message is for these unaffiliated voters, who can vote in either party’s primary, to vote for a “responsible and electable” Democratic alternative to Donald Trump.
National #NeverTrump leader Bill Kristol, founder of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, confirmed to NHJournal that he is part of the effort, which involves tens of thousands of New Hampshire voter contacts and a six-figure budget.
“Yup. I’m happy to have joined with some others to help remind New Hampshire independents, who might be accustomed to voting in the Republican primary, that this year, they may be able to make more of a difference by voting for a responsible and electable candidate in the Democratic primary,” Kristol said.
The calls don’t mention any candidates by name or endorse any specific Democrats, instead making a case for supporting centrists in the all-important First in the Nation primary, as opposed to self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Yeah, with Team Clinton and the #NeverTrump crowd working together against him, Bernie Sanders is probably a shoo-in for the nomination. Kristol and the Clintons are a bunch of losers who deserve each other.