Marco Rubio's Nauseating Ad Campaign in Virginia

With Virginia among the states having presidential primary elections on "Super Tuesday," state wide - but especially in the large market areas - we are being saturated with television ads being aired by either candidates and/or various PAC's.  In addition, candidates are making appearances in the state - Marcobot will be in Republican leaning Virginia Beach this evening.  The Republican ads are enough to make one vomit and/or scream at the television set.  Among the worse and most disingenuous are those of Marc Rubio which strive to make Rubio the heir apparent to Ronald Reagan, ignoring the fact that Rubio has embraces bigotry Regan would have shunned and the reality that Reagan could not win the GOP presidential nomination nowadays.   The Washington Post looks at Marcobot's efforts against Trump in Virginia and the splintered GOP in Virginia.  Here are excerpts (note the references to generally insane Prince William County that continues to reelect nutcase Del. Bob Marshall):

As polls show Trump leading in nearly every state participating in the whirlwind of Super Tuesday Republican primaries and caucuses, Rubio is pouring resources into Virginia, a marquee battleground where he hopes to emerge as a measured alternative to the combative mogul.

Besides airing more than $500,000 in television ads in Virginia this weekend, Rubio plans four stops in the state on Sunday, including Leesburg, the type of affluent Washington suburb he needs to dent Trump’s momentum.

Even as polls signal Trump’s strength in Virginia, recent interviews with more than two dozen voters in Prince William County suggest that some in the electorate are dissatisfied with their ­choices and that Rubio may have an opportunity to expand support.

Thirty miles southwest of Washington, Prince William is the state’s second-largest county, with an ever-burgeoning population of affluent professionals, government bureaucrats, military officers, evangelical conservatives, immigrants and blue-collar workers.

Once reliably conservative, the county has become a bellwether for a state that has turned more moderate, supporting President Obama twice after having backed President George W. Bush.

“If Trump carries Prince William, it shows he has appeal across a range of Republicans,” said Robert Holsworth, a retired Virginia Commonwealth University political science professor. “It’s up to the other candidates to show that they can appeal across the Republican electorate.”

Virginia is more important for Rubio and Cruz, said Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University who said recent polling suggests that Rubio has the most potential. In one survey, more than 40 percent of voters said they approved of Rubio even though only 22 percent said he would get their vote, Kidd said.

“Ultimately, somebody has to take those voters away from Donald Trump or he’s not stoppable,” Kidd said. “If Rubio doesn’t do well in Virginia, I don’t know how he can make the case that he’s the moderate alternative.”

In the back of the Nokesville Market, Ed Chapman sipped coffee and longed for an earlier era. Spread out before him were drawing pencils, a sketch book and a photograph of Ronald Reagan that he was using as a portrait model. 

Reagan was his kind of leader, he said. Strong. Articulate. Mature.  The current crop of Republicans pales by comparison — especially Trump, whose plan to build a wall along the Mexican border “is incredibly stupid,”

In Manassas, as she ate lunch with friends at a mall, Betty Phillips, 75, said she finds herself enjoying Trump’s antics, even as she’s put off by his temperament. Rubio is preferable to Cruz, she said, if only because she doesn’t like the Texan’s appearance.

“Isn’t it awful?” she asked, laughing. “I’ve had a hard time. We’ve not got very much to pick from.”

Bernie's South Carolina Problem

One take away from the Nevada caucuses yesterday is that Bernie Sanders to date has not been able to win the support of black voters.  As the Democrat primaries move into South Carolina and then on to other states, this failing could fatal to Sanders' claim to be viable nationwide.  A piece in Politico looks at Sanders' problem and speculation as to how Sanders will do or not do in the upcoming primaries.  Here in Virginia (our primaries are on March 1, 2016), we are already beginning to see Clinton ads on television.  Here are excerpts from the Politico piece:

For Bernie Sanders, who took a drubbing from African-American voters in Nevada Saturday, it only gets worse from here.

On the heels of losing the black vote by a blowout margin of 76 percent to 22 percent, according to entrance polls, the Vermont senator now must look ahead to South Carolina next Saturday, where African-Americans will cast a dramatically larger share of the vote than in Nevada.

In the first-in-the-West caucuses, African-Americans cast just 13 percent of the vote. In the upcoming first-in-the-South primary, they’re expected to cast nearly 60 percent of the Democratic primary vote. Then, several days later, comes a burst of Super Tuesday primaries where Sanders must run in nine states with higher black populations than Nevada.

Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster, laid out Sanders' quandary in direct terms.  "This is Bernie Sanders' problem: If you cannot compete for the black vote, you cannot be the Democratic nominee for president," Belcher said.

South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison said . . . . When you're going into states like Georgia and North Carolina and Louisiana and Mississippi that have a significant African American population which will make up a large component if not the majority of the Democratic primary in those states you need to be able to win significantly enough so that you can pull out a victory in those states," Harrison said.

Both neutral Democrats and Clinton campaign observers concede that Sanders is making some progress among black voters in South Carolina, but contend that it's not enough to cut the deep roots the Clinton name has among black voters in the state.

"It's a wall," said Rick Wade, President Barack Obama's 2008 African American outreach director, correcting himself after first saying Clinton had a "firewall" of African American support. "And I'm confident that she will win South Carolina, The question is by what margin."

The Clinton campaign is determined not to give Sanders the opportunity to gain ground. Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, a Clinton surrogate, offered a sharp critique of Sanders' college plan during the senator’s tour of black colleges in the South.  Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge and former Bill Clinton administration Labor Secretary Alexis Herman making stops at churches and black sororities. Fudge and a handful of other prominent African-American members of Congress also made stops at black churches across South Carolina in support of Clinton.

Some of my friends will likely have a fit with me, but tomorrow I think I will put a Hillary bumper sticker on my car.