Sunday, April 23, 2017

2017 French Presidential First Round

Today's the big day. I imagine the supporters of the top four candidates in polls will stay put, if they go to the polls. Do supporters of the 5th and 6th candidates, clearly out of the running, change sides, and for whom? Mélenchon would stand to get a good chunk of Hamon's voters (the PS base), though the two pro-EU centrists could get some of those. Dupont-Aignan's supporters are anti-EU so they can choose between Le Pen or Mélenchon if that's their main issue. Mélenchon just needs a few more points to get into the runoff. He would stand to have more motivated voters, Big Mau ('momentum' in English) on his side, and a good shot at the undecideds.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

2020 US Democratic Presidential Hopefuls' Statement on Syria Air Strikes Scorecard

Clear disapproval of air strikes
1. tulsi gabbard
2. chris murphy
3. liz warren

Not approving them, vague statement, no clear acceptance of Assad’s culpability
4. cory booker

Muddled reluctance to approve air strikes
5. julian castro
6. mark cuban
7. kirsten gillibrand

Approval of air strikes, further action needs congressional approval
8. jeff merkley
9. bernie sanders
10. chris coons
11. al franken
12. joe manchin
13. tammy duckworth

Approval of air strikes
14. martin o’malley
15. sherrod brown

Enthusiastic approval of air strikes
16. amy klobuchar
17. john kerry
18. bob casey

Enthusiastic approval of air strikes before they happened, calling Putin “worse than Hitler," inept candidacy and response to legitimate ethical and legal questions making Trump president
19. hillary clinton