What happens if Hillary Clinton stalls or stumbles?

At this point, with the Republicans in chaos and Bernie Sanders' insurgency her only significant Democratic opposition, Hillary Clinton should be dominating the polls. That she's not must be scaring the bejesus out of the Democratic establishment. But what are they going to do about it? It's not like they have a deep bench. They don't want Elizabeth Warren or Sanders, though either of them would be electoral gold in November. Joe Biden is older than dirt and goofier than a Shmoo. Andrew Cuomo gives cynicism a bad name and has not been seasoned by a previous national run. The idea of drafting Al Gore is fantastical, as is the thought that they'd find Jim Webb or Martin O'Malley fit to run (who's Lincoln Chafee, again?). That the party kingmakers should have seen this coming is beside the point. What are they going to about it now?

Here's the breakdown:
Bush leads Clinton 41-36 in Colorado; 42-36 in Iowa; and 42-39 in Virginia.
Walker leads Clinton 47-38 in Colorado; 45-37 in Iowa; and 43-40 in Virginia.
Rubio leads Clinton 46-38 in Colorado; 44-36 in Iowa; and 43-41 in Virginia.

These are all states Obama won both times and they are essential components of a Democratic victory next year. "Trustworthiness," or lack thereof, seems to be what's doing Clinton in, and there's little about her halting, content-less campaign so far to indicate she can overcome people's distrust and dislike. Instead of trying to protect Clinton in the primaries, the Democrats should designate a substitute now or face having her drag the rest of the party's congressional and state candidates down with her when she whiffs in November 2016.

The rest of the story: Hillary Clinton is trailing the 3 strongest Republican candidates in 3 key swing states by Brett LoGiurato (Business Insider).

Reading list: Why Liberals Have to Be Radicals by Robert Kuttner: The reforms needed to restore the country's shared prosperity are to the left of all the candidates, including Sanders.

Addendum: I am asked what I have against former Senator Jim Webb. I don't have any particular issues with Webb that I don't have with any likely Democratic nominee; but I think the party poohbahs would regard him as a minor candidate, too independent, too unseasoned, too Southern, too identified with the military to please the party base, and probably a little too difficult to brand plausibly as a progressive (despite the fact that he voted with the party most of the time that he was in the Senate), something any Democratic Party nominee will have to pretend to be in 2016.

A night to remember on Playboy After Dark

Accompanied by the Count Basie Septet, Annie Ross sings "Twisted," with her lyrics set to a Wardell Gray tune. Then Ross, Dave Lambert & Jon Hendricks draw the great Joe Williams into a definitive version of the classic "Everyday I Have The Blues."

The best of many great recordings by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross: The Hottest New Group in Jazz (Columbia/Legacy 1996; remastered).
Also unbeatable: Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings (Verve 1956).

"Centrist:"

The results of a major poll commissioned by the Progressive Change Institute in January underscore the need to change the way we label political policies. PCI solicited ideas online through an open submission process -- more than 2,600 specific proposals were submitted -- and then let people vote on them; more than a million did. A national poll was then conducted; here are proposals that received more than 70% support:

Allow Government to Negotiate Drug Prices (79%)
Give Students the Same Low Interest Rates as Big Banks (78%)
Universal Pre-Kindergarten (77%)
Fair Trade that Protect Workers, the Environment, and Jobs (75%)
End Tax Loopholes for Corporations that Ship Jobs Overseas (74%)
End Gerrymandering (73%)
Let Homeowners Pay Down Mortgage With 401k (72%)
Debt-Free College at All Public Universities (71%)
Infrastructure Jobs Program — $400 Billion / Year (71%)
Require NSA to Get Warrants (71%)
Disclose Corporate Spending on Politics/Lobbying (71%)
Medicare Buy-In for All (71%)
Close Offshore Corporate Tax Loopholes (70%)
Green New Deal — Millions Of Clean-Energy Jobs (70%) Full Employment Act (70%)
Expand Social Security Benefits (70%)

It doesn't need to be pointed out that these results are in line with Bernie Sanders’ politics and not with Hillary Clinton's. For example, the infrastructure jobs program (a key element of Sanders’ platform) had 91% support from Democrats, 61% from independents and even 55% support from Republicans, compared to only 28% opposed.

Who's the centrist?

The Dark And Racist History Of Why Cocaine Is Illegal

Zooey and Andria Green, who are seven and eight respectively, only look innocent. With their baby faces and cunning, they managed to lure patrons to their illicit enterprise: a lemonade stand outside their home in Overton, Texas.

The girls were in business for about an hour in June, selling popcorn and lemonade to raise money for a Father’s Day gift, before local police shut the operation down. Not only were they hawking without a $150 “peddler’s permit,” but also the state requires a formal kitchen inspection and a permit to sell anything that might spoil if stored at the wrong temperature.

As authorities are meant “to act to prevent an immediate and serious threat to human life or health,” the officers understandably had to move swiftly. -- The Economist

Is lemonade legal? Testing the limits of silliness in east Texas (The Economist)

Books: Gaza Unsilenced

During and after Israel's 2014 assault on Gaza, voices within and outside Gaza bore powerful witness to the Israeli attacks -- and to the effects of the crushing siege that continued to strangle Gaza's people long thereafter. Refaat Alareer and Laila El-Haddad are distinguished Palestinian writers and analysts from Gaza. In Gaza Unsilenced, they present reflections, analysis, and images -- their own, and those of other contributors -- that record the pain and resilience of Gaza's Palestinians and the solidarity they have received from the Palestinian diaspora and from others around the world. Contributors include: Ali Abunimah, Ramzi Baroud, Diana Buttu, Jonathan Cook, Belal Dabour, Richard Falk, Chris Hedges, Hatim Kanaaneh, Rashid Khalidi and Eman Mohammed.

Gaza Unsilenced, edited by Refaat Alareer and Laila El-Haddad (Just World Books).

GOP to raise standards for office holders.

The Republicans are worried that having too many candidates in the race for president will confuse voters. The party had planned to use the low standing in the polls of some contenders to exclude them from the debates. But polls, especially at such an early stage in a campaign, are notoriously inaccurate yardsticks.

Something more precise was needed.

Since there is no way to gauge hypocrisy, two other widely used and accepted methods of gauging suitability are being proposed: all candidates must submit to drug and IQ tests. Only contestants with IQs over 70 and measurable amounts of cannabis in their blood streams will be permitted to compete. In the event that none of the current aspirants can meet these standards -- not likely in the case of cannabis, the GOP will have time to recruit replacements.

Since all the candidates have supported the use of such determinations by employers, there is little doubt that they won't welcome the application of the same standards to their own jobs. If some do object, perhaps that can be considered as the missing hypocrisy test.

Finding the needle in the GOP haystack.

Republicans are worried that having too many candidates in the race for president will confuse voters. So the party is planning to use the low standing in the polls of some contenders to exclude them from the debates.

But polls, especially at such an early stage in a campaign, are notoriously inaccurate yardsticks. Something more precise is needed.

Since there is no way to gauge hypocrisy, two widely used and accepted methods of assessing suitability are being proposed: all candidates must submit to drug and IQ tests. Only contestants with IQs over 70 and measurable amounts of cannabis in their blood streams will be permitted to compete.

In the event that none of the current aspirants can meet these standards -- not likely in the case of cannabis, the GOP will have time to recruit replacements. Since all the candidates have supported the use of such determinations by employers, they will welcome the application of these standards to their own jobs.

If some do object, perhaps that can be added as the missing hypocrisy test.

Bernie Sanders on gun control

Sen. Sanders is considered by some liberals to be soft on gun control. This is from The Guardian:

“He also defended his record on gun control. Confronted with his past support for legislation regarded by activists as 'pro-gun', Sanders said his most recent grade from the NRA was a D- and added that he voted to ban semi-automatic assault weapons and in favor of instant background checks.

“'We have been yelling and screaming at each other about guns for decades with very little success,' he said.

“'I come from a state that has basically no gun control, but the people in my state understand pretty clearly that guns in Vermont are not the same thing as guns in Chicago or guns in Los Angeles.

“'In our state, guns are used for hunting. In Chicago, they are used by kids in gangs killing other kids, people shooting at police officers, shooting down innocent people.'

"Sanders said 99.9% of gun owners obeyed the law. He suggested the only way the US would see real action on guns was if it managed to reject extreme positions on both sides of the debate.

“'I think I can bring us to the middle,' he said.

“That might be difficult, however, when his own state’s gun-rights group does not support him.

“'We, in Vermont, consider him anti-gun,' Gun Owners of Vermont president Ed Cutler told Politico."

Where is Edmund Burke when you need him?

A rose by any other name...

Sen. Bernie Sanders' taking control of the word socialist -- saying: if affordable, universal health care is socialist, then I'm a socialist; if taxing the rich is socialist, then I'm a socialist; if tuition-free education is socialist, then I'm a socialist; if campaign finance reform is socialist, then I'm a socialist; if same-sex marriage is socialist, then I'm a socialist -- is working out just fine. He's making clear the distinction between his policies and programs and those of the neoliberals that have controlled the Democratic Party since the Reagan-Clinton era. "Socialism," as Sen. Sanders uses it, is the new New Deal. It's a rebranding in the political marketplace of tried and true ideas that have been neglected for a generation by the political class.

Loser then, loser now

Shades of 2008, the Clinton campaign is already slip-sliding into panic mode, dispatching bluedog Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri to the talk circuit to shout "Socialist, socialist!"

The thing is, Bernie Sanders' positions are too well-known to surprise and too centrist to cause panic. That Sanders embraces the title Social Democrat helps neutralize the term, too. The last time Clinton ran, her campaign used Barack Obama's middle name a lot and tried to tag him as a kind of associate Muslim; we know how that worked out.

Clinton herself would never stoop to such tactics, of course, but in this tightly controlled campaign, her surrogates will stay on message that Sanders is too far left to be elected president. What the Democrats can't seem to grasp is that Clinton is the one who is out of step both with the party base and with voters in general.

Bernie Sanders may never get to be president, but neither will Hillary Clinton. The Democratic Party kingfishes better hope that Joe Biden or some other mainstream heavyweight enters the fight before, from their perspective, it's too late.

Just saying.