Tom Cotton & Tony Kornheiser

[Grizzlyfan]

None other than our very own Tom Cotton sitting in on the Tony Kornheiser podcast this morning.  Surrounded by a bunch of DC liberals it was interesting. 

[DeltaBoy]

LOL I bet that was interesting.

[Grizzlyfan]

I've listened to Kornheiser for quite a while and I will say that Cotton has received mentions a few times over the year.  Kornheiser has expressed some genuine fascination (if not quite admiration) for Cotton's biography.  Arkansas to Harvard to the Army to Iraq to the Senate.

The first few minutes of the podcast he allowed Cotton to expound on his background and then brought him in later for some politics talk.  It will be interesting to see if he becomes a regular.

[WaltKowalski]

Cotton may be President one day

[PorkSoda]

Cotton may be President one day

wonder how he will react when rogue members of congress write letters to foreign countries undermining his foreign policy?

[whosiskid]

Cotton may be President one day

Very unlikely. He has zero national constituency and it is hard to see how he could build one. Plus, I think it is going to be really tough for right wing candidates to get elected in the future. Trump is doing a lot to do something that 40 years of domination of US politics by right wing ideas failed to do: unify the left. It will hinge, to a degree, on whether the Democrats will move solidly to the Left or if the party structure will try to remain the-party-that-is-barely-to-the-left-of-the-GOP-but-miles-to-the-right-of-Eisenhower-and-Nixon. The American people are far to the left of the Democratic party, but they will do nothing to try and cease being the party of Wall Street and be the party of main street.

It is still possible for a Republican to get elected, but only under certain circumstances, such as:

The Democrats must have ignored the bottom 90% for decades
The Republicans must run a celebrity
The Democrats must run a spectacularly unpopular candidate who beats the Republican by only three million in popular votes
A foreign government with video tape proving the Republican candidate's fascination with Miss must engage in electronic espionage to help elect the candidate they plan on blackmailing
The FBI must manipulate the news cycle in weeks and months with a single issue against the Democratic candidate in order to gain vote for the Republican

Will the Democrats ever run a candidate as unpopular as Hillary again? Not likely.  Some of the rest might happen again, but no one will ever mistake Cotton for a celebrity.

Now, it is possible for Cotton to become the candidate of choice for many who supported Trump this time around, but I think this is the last hiccup of the far right. Unless . . . the Democratic National Committee refuses to become a party of the people again. The American people want someone to speak for an fight for them, and not just for the wealth. But there simply is no scenario where Tom Cotton lasting in the primaries for more than the first two or three primaries is imaginable. You might as well think of someone like Jeff Sessions becoming president. Arkansas is one of the few states that would elect someone as marginal as Cotton.

[ricepig]

Blah blah blah.........

[whosiskid]

wonder how he will react when rogue members of congress write letters to foreign countries undermining his foreign policy?

In my post I should have added that Cotton is also killing even the minuscule chance he might have had by backing Trump. His statement backing Trump on the traveling ban was probably his death knell as a national politician.

One other thing on the traveling ban: my bet is that the supreme court would overturn Trump on a 7-1 and maybe even 8-0 vote. Thomas is the only justice I can even remotely imagine voting to support Trump. Even Trump's own cabinet is failing to back him.

I think the big effect of all this will be to isolate Steve Bannon. Trump loves Bannon but apart from old Breitbart readers Bannon is not someone who has a base in Washington. Outside of Washington he is backed by billionaire Robert Mercer, but I doubt that Bannon will last very long. His views are simply toxic. I think GOP Congressional leaders, who are abandoning Trump on all of his policy issues, will eventually let Trump know: Its us or Bannon, and if you don't go with us, you'll never get a single piece of legislation passed. Nobody in Washington owes Bannon any favors.

[Cubbie08]

Very unlikely. He has zero national constituency and it is hard to see how he could build one. Plus, I think it is going to be really tough for right wing candidates to get elected in the future. Trump is doing a lot to do something that 40 years of domination of US politics by right wing ideas failed to do: unify the left. It will hinge, to a degree, on whether the Democrats will move solidly to the Left or if the party structure will try to remain the-party-that-is-barely-to-the-left-of-the-GOP-but-miles-to-the-right-of-Eisenhower-and-Nixon. The American people are far to the left of the Democratic party, but they will do nothing to try and cease being the party of Wall Street and be the party of main street.

It is still possible for a Republican to get elected, but only under certain circumstances, such as:

The Democrats must have ignored the bottom 90% for decades
The Republicans must run a celebrity
The Democrats must run a spectacularly unpopular candidate who beats the Republican by only three million in popular votes
A foreign government with video tape proving the Republican candidate's fascination with Miss must engage in electronic espionage to help elect the candidate they plan on blackmailing
The FBI must manipulate the news cycle in weeks and months with a single issue against the Democratic candidate in order to gain vote for the Republican

Will the Democrats ever run a candidate as unpopular as Hillary again? Not likely.  Some of the rest might happen again, but no one will ever mistake Cotton for a celebrity.

Now, it is possible for Cotton to become the candidate of choice for many who supported Trump this time around, but I think this is the last hiccup of the far right. Unless . . . the Democratic National Committee refuses to become a party of the people again. The American people want someone to speak for an fight for them, and not just for the wealth. But there simply is no scenario where Tom Cotton lasting in the primaries for more than the first two or three primaries is imaginable. You might as well think of someone like Jeff Sessions becoming president. Arkansas is one of the few states that would elect someone as marginal as Cotton.

Yeah, I seem to remember that back in 2008 lots of people said that Republicans will never be in power again. It swings back and forth, always has and always will.

[Biggus Piggus]

I hate traveling calls.