Re: Mother should I run for president.
 

See if this persuades:

http://www.bloombergview.com/article...l-college-edge

If Democrats are in a bunch of urban districts with no Republicans, you could have a distribution where a GOP with minority support nonetheless gets majority support in a majority of districts.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Trump and Lady Di.

Re: Speaking of Satan....
 

Well done, sir. "Charming Hank" is a delightful fellow.

Re: By the way, which one's Pink?
 

I think that the problem was the lack of clarity in my post. I should have made it clearer that there is a great deal of hypocrisy in many of the Democratic leaders and members on this issue. I like to think that I am intellectually honest most of the time, but we all have blind spots, and it's a Not Bad thing to try to remind oneself about the possibility that one's position on an issue might be based upon a blind spot or defensive reaction.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

Wise words from Josh Barro in 2013:

Re: By the way, which one's Pink?
 

You are only feeding Hank's delusion that he's the only honest person on the Board (perhaps in the world).

Maybe you should go to a 12-step program and offer people vodka shots and meth. That's less destructive.

Re: Mother should I run for president.
 

He's identifying one particular factor among many. Another way of making his point is pretty straightforward, which is that there are a number of rural areas in purple states where Dems have been making headway - upstate NY and Pennsylvania are the places I focus most on.

But there is no reason to assume that "progress" is the result of inexorable and inevitable forces. From what I can see it's driven as much by issues as by demographic trends (where Dem hopes in Texas have a lot more to do with demographic patterns). We're gaining in Binghampton and Saratoga mainly because the old guard Rockefeller moderate Republicans are dying off and their children are realizing their views just aren't welcome in the Republican party.

But there are lots of other trends, and the right candidate and strategy on the Republican side can nullify the supposed gains. Who knows, maybe Trump can convince these people he's Rockefeller's true heir.

Re: Mother should I run for president.
 

Likewise if Rs are in a bunch of rural districts with very few Democrats.

Both happen.

Re: Speaking of Satan....
 

My apologies.

You're a tough one. On the one hand, beach-babe hippy artsy chick from Southern California kind of screams Bernie.

On the other hand, the no-nonsense upstate New Yorker in you has to be a Hillary fan.

But, Bernie will be out of it by the time you vote, so I guess Hill.

Re: Mother should I run for president.
 

Indeed, and that is why I said the Democrats have [present tense] a structural advantage, rather than saying that they always have had and always will have a structural lock on the presidency.

As for Congress, I think there are more overwhelmingly Democratic urban districts than there are overwhelmingly Republican rural districts, though you are undoubtedly correct that it could hypothetically be otherwise -- it's just that we live in an increasingly urban country. To your point, redistricting makes a difference. Pennsylvania has 13 Republicans and 5 Democrats, thanks to the 2010 redistricting.

Re: Mother should I run for president.
 

You consider NY a purple state? I know upstate is conservative (believe me, I know), but the state would never go Republican in a presidential election would it? I can't believe with the population disparity between NYC/downstate and upstate there could be any chance of that. But I'm pretty far removed from following NY politics (now that my mom doesn't have Pataki to complain about anymore)...

Re: Mother should I run for president.
 

I'm thinking the upstate congressional districts. State itself is solid blue, but the congressional districts upstate used to be red and now are trending blue.

Re: Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.
 

No, just that racist.

The ink is black, the page is white.
 

If I may put my Earnest Doogooder hat on (didn't I have a sock with that name at the other place?), I think that Hank is occasionally serious here and occasionally correct.

And as for me, I do know that I misunderstood or misinterpreted something serious that Hank said here a long time ago about race, and made an ass of myself. I also know that I sometimes assume that my point is clearer than it actually is in what I've posted. So, I went back to look at the back and forth, and decided that I was Not Clear.

At any rate, speaking of race, bravo to Chris Rock for creating the phrase "sorority racism" to describe people in Hollywood who are not too different from me (other than their bank accounts) and to Mark Ruffalo for pointing out that #OscarsSoWhite can be fixed by all of the liberals who control the film industry.

I'm sorry, did you say something?
 

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/0...uestion-219976

TM