Can a Democratic Win the Presidency After Two Terms of Obama?

Just seeing this posed in the MSM is not good for the Democrats. Not good at all.

From Mark Barabak, at LAT, "Big obstacles await both parties in 2016 race for president":

Twelve months before the voting is set to begin, the 2016 presidential race is shaping up as a fiercely competitive contest driven by two overriding forces that — candidates aside — will go a long way toward deciding the next occupant of the White House.

Whoever Democrats nominate — Hillary Rodham Clinton being the heavy favorite — will face the inherently difficult task of winning the presidency for the party for the third time in a row. That has happened only once since Harry Truman was elected more than half a century ago: in 1988 when Republican George H.W. Bush succeeded President Reagan.

"People always choose, even if you have a popular president, the remedy [to] and not the replica of what they have," said David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist who twice helped Barack Obama win the White House.

At the same time, Republicans face another wide-open contest for their nomination — and, with it, a gravitational pull from the right flank of the party. That wing of the GOP is far more conservative than the country as a whole, potentially making the winner less appealing to a broader November electorate.

"The stark reality that Republicans face is that the nation is younger and it's more diverse ethnically," said Dick Wadhams, a Republican strategist in Colorado, a state expected to be among the hardest-fought in 2016. "We've got to have a Republican who can speak to that reality."

With each side facing hurdles, the bottom line is a presidential contest that could be the most competitive since at least 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in after weeks of legal jousting to break an effective tie and put Bush's son George W. in the White House...

Yeah, yeah.

Candidate quality goes without saying. In 2014, Republicans ran far superior candidates, confident "happy warriors," compared to the glum, morose and fearful Democrats who couldn't run away from Obama fast enough.

But keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Hillary Clinton Faces Uphill Fight for White, Rural Vote."

Dealth Toll Rises in Fiery Greek Ferry Disaster

What a nightmare.

At Telegraph UK, "Italy ferry: 'Up to 43 still missing' amid confusion over Norman Atlantic passenger list":

Death toll rises to 10 on fire-ravaged car ferry Norman Atlantic as evacuation operation finishes, but search continues into night as over 40 people on passenger list unaccounted for.

The death toll from the Italian ferry fire in the Adriatic climbed to 10 on Monda night as Italian officials conceded that more than 40 further people may still be missing from the vessel.

The Italian coast guard said in its latest update that 10 people had died and 407 people had been rescued after the fire broke out aboard the Norman Atlantic on Sunday morning as it sailed from Patras in Greece to Ancona in northern Italy.

Earlier on Monday Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, said everyone had been rescued from the ferry. But the respected Greek news outlet To Vima reported that as many as 38 passengers were still missing, forcing Italian transport ministry officials to concede on Monday night that up to 43 people were unaccounted for.

Maurizio Lupi, the Italian transport minister said at a news conference that, while the ship was officially carrying 478 people, including 56 crew, some of the rescued survivors had not been on the passenger list. “Predicting how many are missing seems premature,” he said.

The Italian navy was continuing to search for bodies around the stricken ferry, which remained in waters close to Albania, hours after nightfall.

PREVIOUSLY: "Passengers Plead to Be Saved from Burning Ferry."

Deborah Hersman on Missing AirAsia Flight 8501

Via CBS This Morning:



FLASHBACK: "Hey, Check Out NTSB's Smokin' Hottie Deborah Hersman."

Hillary Clinton Faces Uphill Fight for White, Rural Vote

Heh.

The MSM collectivists are simply obsessed with the GOP's alleged Hispanic problem, but as we saw in 2014, it's the Democrats who're facing the biggest demographic political hurdles. It's going to be extremely difficult for the Dems to win the White House in 2016, ironically so if Hillary Clinton wins the party's nomination. To put it matter-of-factly, she'll be an old white lady in a party coming off two terms of the left's so-called "rainbow" coalition of "the ascendant." It was Barack Obama who mobilized this coalition based on his diversity and radical Marxist pedigree. Clinton's got none of that, which is of course why leftists are jonesing for an Elizabeth Warren "populist" candidacy (more irony there, of course, with "Fauxcahontas").

In any case, see the Wall Street Journal, "Uphill Fight: Interviews in Arkansas Suggest Leeriness of State’s Former First Lady" (via Memeorandum):

DEVALLS BLUFF, Ark.—White, working-class voters in eastern Arkansas for years backed Democratic candidates, among them Bill Clinton and outgoing Gov. Mike Beebe, but have moved sharply toward Republicans in recent elections.

Now, as the 2016 election takes shape, some of Hillary Clinton ’s allies are trumpeting her potential as a presidential candidate to bring these voters back to the Democratic Party and to run competitively in a handful of states, including Arkansas, that have spurned President Barack Obama .

But even here, where Mrs. Clinton was the state’s first lady, many voters say they view her with the same leeriness they do Mr. Obama and other national Democrats. That points to a significant question should Mrs. Clinton run: whether enough such voters can separate her from the national party many have grown to dislike.

“I’m mad at the Democratic Party, and I don’t see Hillary changing that,” said Eddie Ciganek, a 61-year-old farmer who serves on Prairie County’s governing board and who has voted Democrat at times. “Her thinking isn’t going to be very far off from President Obama’s thinking, and I don’t think they’re moving the country in the right direction.”

Occasional Democratic voter Johnny Watkins, 64, wearing a light-blue work shirt after finishing his shift at the county landfill, said of Mrs. Clinton: “I don’t think she has any concerns about us.”

Working-class voters have long been a bedrock of Democratic support, and the party continues to do well with voters from lower-income households overall, according to exit polls.

But white, more rural voters in the South and elsewhere have been fleeing the party. Just five years ago, Arkansas Democrats held both Senate seats, three out of four House seats, the governor’s office and control of both chambers of the state legislature. The election in November of Republicans Tom Cotton to the U.S. Senate and Asa Hutchinson to the governor’s office will leave the Democratic Party without a single federal or statewide officeholder in Arkansas, a state that Bill Clinton carried twice by at least 17 percentage points.

Mrs. Clinton’s allies are confident she can attract white voters who have turned away from her party, particularly women. Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who worked on her 2008 campaign, said she “demonstrated a significant ability to not only win votes from working-class white women but to connect with them on a personal level.”

After a rocky start in that campaign, Mrs. Clinton cast herself as a scrappy underdog and union ally while topping Mr. Obama in more than 20 states in Democratic primaries in places such as Pennsylvania and Ohio that have many white, working-class voters...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Why the Democrats Got Crushed — Totally Freakin' Crushed! — And Why They Have No 2016 Lock."

Heidi Klum Christmas in St. Barts

At Egotastic!, "Heidi Klum on Christmas Caribbean Bikini Making the Sexy Vacation!"

PREVIOUSLY: "Heidi Klum's Sharper Image Too Sexy for Vegas!"

Special Offers in Home & Garden, Kitchen & Housewares

At Amazon, Shop Amazon Home - New Year, New You - Organize Your Kitchen

Open Season on Cops: One Suspect Still at Large After Officers Ambushed in South Los Angeles

The continuing cataclysm of the left's all-out war on law enforcement.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Uneasiness among L.A. police as 2 officers say they were shot at":

The search for a second suspect in an "ambush" on Los Angeles police was called off early Monday, and red and yellow caution tape barred entrance to the scene of the shooting.

"We don't know what precipitated the shooting," LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman told the Los Angeles Times, but "everyone's keenly aware of what happened in New York," and there is a "sense of uneasiness."

Sunday night around 9:20 p.m., two officers in a single patrol car were responding to a call and driving southbound on Hoover Street near 62nd Place. They saw a muzzle flash -- the visible blast from a gun -- and determined they were being fired at, Neiman said.

Neither officer was hurt, and they returned fire, officials said.

Police called a citywide tactical alert and launched a massive search. One person of interest was detained for questioning, but another man remained at large.

"It was an ambush," Deputy Chief Bob Green said. "They were fired upon without any prior contact with the suspects."

Neiman said, "It's very clear that the officers were in a black-and-white police car. The people who shot at these officers knew they were the police."

Around 8:30 a.m. Monday, one of the officers involved in the shooting showed multiple investigators around the crime scene. Investigators surveyed the east side of Hoover Street, where bullet casings from the gunman's weapon lay, according to police. Minutes later, investigators huddled around a gutter on the west side of the street, where they removed a weapon that appeared to be a rifle.

The setting of the shooting is a South Los Angeles neighborhood with primarily single-family homes, a few churches and a nearby high school.

The incident came less than two weeks after two New York police officers were fatally shot in an ambush...

More.

Video at CBS News, "Massive search after suspects fire on LAPD patrol car."

And at Twitchy, "‘How bad is this going to get?’ Suspects open fire on LAPD officers; One remains at large."

Can Afghan Security Forces Beat Back Taliban Without Support of U.S. Airstrikes?

Notes from Obama's precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

At LAT, "U.S. airstrikes remain crucial to Afghan forces in Taliban battles":

For several days, Taliban fighters barricaded on a mountaintop lobbed rockets at the remote town of Sangar in the valley below. Residents fled while police holed up in their outposts and begged superiors for help.

At a sprawling base about 100 miles away, a contingent of Afghan army commandos prepared to board a helicopter to join the fight. But their commanders, worried that the insurgents would shoot down the aircraft, called the American military first.

U.S. Apache attack helicopters swept in and launched missiles at the Taliban posts, said Afghan officials involved in the late September incident. The firepower scattered the insurgents, clearing the way for the Afghan commandos to break the siege in the eastern province of Ghazni.

The U.S.-led coalition officially denies carrying out airstrikes in the battle 125 miles southwest of Kabul, saying international forces provided only aerial surveillance. Under former President Hamid Karzai, coalition airstrikes in populated areas were sharply restricted, although distressed Afghan commanders often requested help anyway.

In this case, several Afghan officials and military commanders say, an American air assault ensured that the district did not slip from government control in one of the largest clashes in months in a volatile province connecting Kabul with southern Afghanistan.

"The American helicopters hit two points high on the mountain where the Taliban were firing at us," said Gen. Haider Niqpai, commander of the Afghan army's 3rd Brigade, based in Ghazni. "That was the turning point."

Even as President Obama prepares to declare an end to U.S. combat in Afghanistan on Dec. 31, the accounts of the battle in Ghazni illustrate how crucial — and politically sensitive — the U.S. role remains in the fight against Taliban-led insurgents.

"In just a few days, our combat mission in Afghanistan will be over," Obama said in a Christmas Day address. "Our longest war will come to a responsible end."

The U.S. force in Afghanistan will shrink to about 10,800 in January under a pared-down mission focused on training and counter-terrorism. But under combat operations rules that Obama approved last month, U.S. commanders will still be authorized to conduct airstrikes to help Afghan troops who are suffering record casualties in ground skirmishes with a resilient Taliban.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said recently that U.S. forces would provide "limited combat enabler support" to Afghan troops starting in January.

The airstrikes would allow the smaller U.S. force to support their Afghan allies, who have minimal air capability, while exposing Americans to less danger than in ground fighting.

But airstrikes also carry the risk of additional civilian casualties, which stoke public anger, keeping the United States deeply enmeshed in a conflict that the White House promised to end.

More.

Also, "Afghanistan: U.S.-led coalition formally ends 13-year combat mission."

Self-Serving Lawmakers and Unions Get a Boost from Aggravating Racial Tensions

From Professor Glenn Reynolds, at USA Today, "Politicians benefit from American tribal warfare":

"What if I told you," asks a Matrix-themed photo-meme that has been circulating on Facebook, "that you can be against cops murdering citizens and citizens murdering cops at the same time?"

Judging by the past few weeks, this really is a Matrix-level revelation, obvious as it may seem. We have Americans protesting because of police shootings, and we have police turning their backs on New York City's Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio over lack of support after two police were assassinated by Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, a gunman from Baltimore who said he was seeking revenge for the choking death of cigarette-tax evader Eric Garner.

And, as blogger Eric Raymond notes, the response has been divided: "Because humans are excessively tribal, it's difficult now to call for justice against Eric Garner's murderers without being lumped in with the 'wrong side.' Nor will Garner's partisans, on the whole, have any truck with people who aren't interested in poisonously racializing the circumstances of his death."

This is a tragedy, but not a surprise. Tribalism is the default state of humanity: The tendency to defend our own tribe even when we think it's wrong, and to attack other tribes even when they're right, just because they're other. Societies that give in to the temptations of tribalism — which are always present — wind up spending a lot of their energy on internal strife, and are prone to disintegrate into spectacular factionalism and infighting, often to the point of self-destruction.

Societies that temper those tribal tendencies, replacing them with the mechanisms of civil society, do much better. But there is much opportunity for political empire-building in tribalism, and if the benefits of stoking tribal fires exceed the costs for political actors, then expect political actors to pour gasoline on even the smallest spark.

That's pretty much what's happened in the last few months, and the results haven't been good. In America, we have both a police culture that is too quick to escalate force, and an aggressive victim culture, embodied by the loathsome Al Sharpton, that seeks to portray every police use of force, at least against members of the wrong racial and ethnic groups, as excessive.

A healthy society would stigmatize, marginalize and shun the tribalizers...

Still more at the link.

Cassandra Fairbanks Eviscerated on Twitter!

Heh, you gotta love it!

Good. RT @CassandraRules SOMEONE JUST PLOWED THROUGH OUR LINE AND HIT PROTESTORS

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 28, 2014

HAHAHAHAHAHA! RT @CassandraRules Why aren't they looking for the dude who plowed people down?!?! #LAPD YOU ARE GUILTY pic.twitter.com/7MYBgktzJd

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 28, 2014

I love cops. RT @CassandraRules This cop just said "you can't be in the street, you're gonna get run over" #LAPD http://t.co/AIa7wD6wG1

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 28, 2014

@KurtSchlichter @CassandraRules Idiots who to pretend to be victims and hate the country that protects their freedom #GetYourAssOutOfTraffic

— Doug Hagin (@DaleyGator) December 28, 2014

Somebody should call the cops. RT @KurtSchlichter Good. RT @CassandraRules SOMEONE JUST PLOWED THROUGH OUR LINE AND HIT PROTESTORS

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 28, 2014

.@iowahawkblog Dude, check out @CassandraRules's TL. She did. And tweeted about it. It's the greatest thing ever was.

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 28, 2014

Group protesting police calls 911 for help from police. https://t.co/foqf21cwrA ht @RightGlockMom

— Razor (@hale_razor) December 28, 2014

I'm not saying I want anti-American shitbag protesters to get run over. I'm just saying I think it's absolutely hilarious when they do.

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 28, 2014

I think you should respect the driver's powerful protest against asswipery. STOP TRYING TO CRUSH DISSENT! @CassandraRules @iowahawkblog

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 28, 2014

@CassandraRules @sarahrstevenson @KurtSchlichter The Revolution needs better traffic control.

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) December 28, 2014

@CassandraRules And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why nobody cares about some protester who was run over. @KurtSchlichter

— DM (@idaho_expatriot) December 28, 2014

@CassandraRules 1.Block Traffic. 2.Burn US Flag. 3.Call cops names. 4.Whine about cops not searching for driver. #Idiots @KurtSchlichter

— DM (@idaho_expatriot) December 28, 2014

PREVIOUSLY: "Cassandra Fairbanks Not 'Plowed Down' on Hollywood Boulevard Last Night: But 'the night is young...'"

Blake Lively Talks About What the Holidays Mean to Her

The lovely Ms. Lively.

Passengers Plead to Be Saved from Burning Ferry

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Passengers plead to be saved from burning ferry off Greek island":

Desperate passengers pleaded via mobile phone to be saved from a burning ferry off the Greek island of Corfu on Sunday as rescuers battled gale-force winds to get to them.

But with gusts of up to 100 kilometers per hour making rescue difficult and dangerous, the crew has so far only managed to get 150 of the 478 people off the stricken “Norman Atlantic”, Greek officials said.

Seas were so violent that only 35 of those have so far been lifted from a lifeboat to a tanker that came to their aid, Greek Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said hours into the emergency.

He said seven merchant vessels have encircled the ferry in an attempt to shelter it from fierce Force 10 winds, as Greek and Italian firefighting vessels raced from their coasts.

Italian navy spokesman Riccardo Rizzotto said four helicopters were already at the scene and the ship’s captain had told coastguards that the ferry was now drifting towards the Albanian coast.

“The weather conditions are so bad we need an extraordinary level of support, which is effectively what is being put in place,” he said…

Search Resumes for AirAsia Flight 8501

At the Wall Street Journal, "Search for Missing AirAsia Flight 8501 Resumes: Disappearance of Plane Rekindles Fears After Flight From Indonesia to Singapore Goes Missing":

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Search teams scoured waters off Indonesia’s coast Monday after an AirAsia jetliner with 162 people on board vanished in a thicket of storm clouds the day before, kindling much of the same fear and anguish as the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 months earlier.

The plane, which had been bound for Singapore, lost contact with air-traffic control less than an hour after takeoff from Surabaya, Indonesia, early Sunday shortly after requesting to climb to a higher altitude to avoid bad weather, officials said.

Ships and aircraft were deployed from across Southeast Asia to hunt for the plane. But as night fell more than 10 hours later, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that no trace had been found. The search resumed at dawn Monday after Indonesian officials suspended it overnight.

As distraught family members of passengers gathered at airports in Surabaya and Singapore to await any information about loved ones, the scenes of grief were reminiscent of those just over nine months ago, when a Malaysia Airlines plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The fate of that plane remains a mystery...

Continue reading.

And at the New York Times, "Two Flights Missing, but Their Stories Are Not the Same."

America Needs to Crush the Enemy Within

From Jared Diamond, at LAT:

We Americans today are focused on the wrong threats to American democracy. We are obsessed with threats from overseas: from terrorists and Islamist extremists, and from other countries. But realistically, while terrorists and Islamists and other countries will continue to cause trouble for us, the chance of their ending American democracy is nil. The only real threat to American democracy comes from Americans themselves. If our politicians continue to yield to pressure from extremists not to compromise and remain mired in gridlock, the majority of decent Americans may in frustration come to view an authoritarian government as the only solution to political gridlock — as a lesser evil that has to be tolerated.

Interesting, but wrong.

The Madisonian system --- which favors so-called "gridlock" as a check on tyranny --- is what's preserving our freedom. It's the left that's "the enemy within." Rudy Giuliani said it again this morning: We haven't had this kind of radical anti-Americanism and anti-cop vigilantism since the 1960s. Leftists are emboldened. It's time to crush the f-kers.

Year-End Deals in Tech Accessories

At Amazon, Shop Amazon - Tech Accessories Year-End Deals

Sunday Rule 5 Roundup

Not sure how many fresh posts I can round up today, since I've been getting in some good Rule 5 blogging this weekend. But here goes.

At the Daley Gator, "THE DALEYBABE MEGAN YOUNG."

Now, over at Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a horrendous plastic water bottle causing the seas to rise, you may just be a Warmist."

From Ms. EBL, "Rams v. Seahawks Week 17, Rule 5 with bonus Marshawn Lynch."

And from Egotastic!, "Alyssa Barbara Big Bodacious Yum Yums in Lace Lingerie," and "Alyssa Barbara Hot in Sextastic Posing."

Now here's 90 Miles from Tyranny, "Morning Mistress."

At Soylent, "OverNighty in Leather."

More from Rio Norte Line, "Rule 5 – My Favorite Bond Girls – Monica Bellucci."

At Drunken Stepfather, "MILEY CYRUS POSTS ON INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY."

Still more from the Chive, "Red lipstick is always a nice touch (48 Photos)."

At Proof Positive, "Lackluster SF 49's vs 11-4 Cardinals."

Also at Knuckledragging, "So what’s the problem here?"

At First Street Journal, "From Around the Blogroll."

And at the Other McCain, "Are You Certain You Don’t Want to Consider Homeschooling Your Kids?"

At Ode's, "Hooter's Stop ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

Guns and Bikinis, "Beautiful Young Babe."

At Postal Dogs (be sure to scroll down), "So, looks like Jeb is thinking about it."

Check By Other Means as well, "Backlit."

Crazy Uncle Bubba, "Selfie Sunday!"

A View from the Beach, "Rule 5 Saturday - Madame Secretary - Téa Leone."

Don't miss Average Bubba, "Rule 5 : The Pre-Christmas Post…"

And at PCP, "Flowing Curves of Beauty."

Drop your links in the comments if I've missed your Rule 5.

Until then...

Gov. Jerry Brown's Aggressive Prison Parole Agenda Backfires as More Parolees Return

And he's supposed to be "Governor Competence."

At LAT, "As more inmates are released from prison, more parolees return":

Randy Whittenburg was a "commendable" candidate for release from prison.

After 31 years behind bars for his role in a Los Angeles strong-arm robbery that ended in murder, Whittenburg had earned four vocational certificates; completed Bible study, anger management and 12-step programs; and accumulated a file of prison officials' praise. He was married and had detailed plans for success.

Eighteen months after he was paroled in 2011, the 47-year-old was jobless, separated from his wife and riding around L.A. on a bicycle, packing heat. When his girlfriend locked him out, he fired his gun into her apartment, hitting her.

"God gave you a second chance," she whispered to him from her hospital bed the next morning. A recorded phone line in the L.A. County Jail captured her incredulity. "Why would you do something like this?"

That troubling question is increasingly being repeated at parole hearings across California as the number of inmates with life sentences who are granted release skyrockets under Gov. Jerry Brown. Currently nearly 2,000 murderers, hit men and robbers who spent decades locked up and now range from middle-aged to elderly are trying to find their way. Most succeed, but each month a few more fail, returning to the drugs and crime that put them in prison and raising public safety concerns.

California is one of four states in which the governor has final authority over parole decisions. A Times analysis of parole records found that Brown has allowed parole for 1,963 inmates with life sentences — more inmates than four governors released in the 27 years before he was elected.

With the dramatic rise in parole, The Times also found a disturbing increase in revocations. Since 2011, at least 50 inmates with life sentences, including 33 paroled under Brown, returned to prison or jail, accused of drug use, domestic violence, theft, even attempted murder. A Stanford University study found that among 860 inmates with life sentences who were paroled from 1995 to 2010, five returned to prison with new felony charges.

The governor defended his parole decisions and said he is abiding by the law and his own belief in redemption. But both Brown and his appointed parole board director declined to comment on the number of inmates who have returned to prison...

Of course they "declined" to comment.

Democrats make the state less safe, and the idiot "progressive" voters keep returning them to office. Yeah, California's f-ked up like that.

Keep reading.

'The moment each day’s work ended, the entire squad ran wind sprints the width of the field, as orderly as Blue Angel pilots, while the Redskins looked on...'

That quote really struck me.

A great read, at the Washington Post, "Washington Redskins, burning out under magnifying glass."

And the team just lost its finale to Dallas, 44-17.

Weatherman Bill Ayers Tells Bill de Blasio to Be Proud of Supporting Marxist Terrorists

Here's a lovely flashback for you, via Twitter:

"Terrorist Bill Ayers tells Bill deBlasio to be Proud of Supporting Marxists http://t.co/rb0ctoH55I #TCOT pic.twitter.com/jJFr7wUGDv" @KfromLI

— God, Guns, & Freedom (@VitoBagofDonuts) December 23, 2014

RELATED: "Walter James Casper Slams NYPD in Solidarity with Murderous Left-Wing Anti-Cop Vigilantism."

No Frontloading for California in 2015

California will hold its presidential primary elections in June, doing away with the earlier (and separate) primaries for the presidential nominations we've seen in earlier years.

Mark Barabak reports, at the Los Angeles Times, "Feeling left out in the Golden State as presidential campaign heats up."

And that reminds me: It's time to start reading Josh Putnam's blog, Frontloading HQ.