A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

18 December 2015

Paul’s sane foreign policy; Democratic debate; Dem data breach & peep

Rand Paul: the only sane foreign policy voice at the GOP debate. After I posted my reaction to the 15 December Republican presidential debate, Rep. Nick Schwaderer (R-Superior) Tweeted, “Good post. Paul may be an exception to some of the verses.” A fair point, and one underscored in The Atlantic yesterday by Conor Friedersdorf:

Paul has many flaws, like all his rivals.

But if you’re hoping for a nominee who champions civil liberties even in war time; opposes a proxy war with Russia; opposes “carpet-bombing,” war with Iran, or punishing innocent Muslims; and is temperamentally and ideologically unlikely to overreact to terrorism, then Paul is the GOP candidate for you. I realize that I am describing a collection of positions that may appeal more to centrist elites than large swaths of the GOP primary electorate. And yet I notice those elites are more favorably disposed to Bush, Rubio, and even Cruz than to Paul.

They should reconsider their opinion of Paul.

Having watched the Kentucky senator struggle in the polls, I’d started to hope that Kasich, who has good qualities, would gain traction. But with Kasich declaring his desire to lash out at a nuclear rival and launch a Persian Gulf-style invasion of Syria, during a debate in which Paul turned in the strongest performance of his career, Paul deserves to surge. There is no saner voice in the GOP primary debate about ISIS.

Rand Paul 2016: Because everyone else’s foreign policy is terrifying

Democratic National Committee connives for Clinton. The third Democratic debate is tomorrow evening at 1800 MST at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH, sponsored by ABC News, the New Hampshire Democratic Party, and the Manchester Union-Leader. ABC’s David Muir and Martha Raddatz will moderate. Politico has full details.

The last Saturday evening before Christmas is a strange time for a debate. The DNC will say it just worked out that way, but I strongly suspect the DNC wants to keep viewership down lest its unofficially anointed, Hillary Clinton, stumbles, and that damned liberal, Bernie Sanders, shines.

Sanders campaign stumbles over DNC voter data breach. The DNC’s voter database is outsourced to NGP-VAN, a data technology company that works for Democrats. All Democratic candidates use it. NGP-VAN is supposed to maintain a firewall between the campaigns, but apparently the firewall has dropped from time-to-time, creating a security breach. Campaigns that find the firewall down are supposed to report the problem and not look, but yesterday a staffer for Sanders gave in to curiosity and peeped at Hillary Clinton’s operation. The DNC suspended Sanders’ access to the vote file while the incident is investigated. Sanders rightly fired the peeper.

Normally, this would have been taken care of in-house. Why tell the world that NGP-VAN has security issues? I suspect no real damage was done, but the incident gave the pro-Clinton DNC an excuse to slap down Sanders for having the temerity to challenge Clinton for the nomination. DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wassermann Schultz may be tempted to use this as an excuse to cripple Sanders’ campaign by permanently denying him access to the voter database — but if she makes so foolish a move it will hurt Clinton because voters will conclude that the fix is in. Look for the suspension to be lifted, but only after as much damage as possible is done to Sanders’ reputation for honesty.

Is it time to remove Wassermann Schultz as DNC chair? No. It’s past time.