caulfield12

And yet the Dems didn’t learn that lesson in 2008 from the Clinton campaign...? That’s half the reason the Supreme Court will have a “Reign of Terror” the next 20-30 years, that “you’re likeable enough” issue wasn’t ever fixed, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on her behalf.

Couldn't we same the exact same thing about Trump and Obama...?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/13/opinions/the-question-woodward-book-doesnt-answer-zelizer/index.html The one question Woodward's book doesn't attempt to answer Fifty years after it seemed that George Wallace's brand of politics was banished forever, his legacy lives on in the White House. Our political processes were so broken that a political novice with a checkered business history and claim to fame from reality television rode his way to the presidency. While many people in the electorate were not happy with Trump or the system that produced him, and he actually lost the popular vote, the President was still able to win, thanks to the Electoral College. His victory was likely enabled by a combination of factors -- including growing inequality and the uneven recovery from the Great Recession, the rot in our campaign finance system, the failure of Congress to govern effectively, the flaws of his opponent, the growth of conservative news media, the use of social media by Russian hackers and the continued popular strength of reactionary social ideas in certain parts of the nation (you can probably add the Comey investigation of Weiner e-mails the last two weeks MY EDIT). Trump's support among Republican voters is currently at 85%. The answer to the state of our electorate won't be found in the portraits of the insiders who rule the roost in the White House. So Woodward has once again offered a fascinating account of parlor politics, this time in the Trump White House, but he has not provided an understanding about why this all happened and why it is allowed to continue. While this is not the story that Woodward intended to tell, it can't be ignored since it is the only way to get to the bottom of what is going on in American politics today. We need to start looking more carefully at the big picture -- understanding the trends and dynamics that created the toxic political environment that allows the presidency depicted in Woodward's book to occur. Until we have answers to these questions, we won't be able to have any assurance this will turn out OK, or that after Trump's presidency ends, his brand of politics won't outlast him.

In N.H. election stunner, a onetime refugee knocks off entrenched incumbent He’s a veteran state representative who has railed against immigrants “getting everything” at the expense of people born and raised in the state. She’s a 27-year-old former Afghan refugee making her first run for political office. So when the tally from Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Concord, N.H., was announced, even Safiya Wazir said she was astounded. She hadn’t just beaten state Representative Dick Patten, a 66-year-old former city councilor. She crushed him, winning 329 votes to his 143. Read the full story.

Getting closer and closer to having 6 guys with 20 homers...the only problem with that is only Anderson and Moncada are part of the future, with the POSSIBILITY that Palka/Davidson can be a workable platoon split at DH I guess.

Looks like the GOP is flooding the race in Nevada to support Heller (and oppose Jackie Rosen) with $22 million of soft money. Gotta love Citizens United.

Swarzak and Kahnle would quality as "nearly amazing" for the Sox, just like Fat Albers the first couple of months before the wheels fell off...think it was that game he pinch ran against the Mets.

Rondon needs to get the starting opportunity at 3B next year over Yolmer. Yolmer can be the supersub, his most suitable role...and Leury for OF/defense/PR, if you duct tape him up and he can still stand.

Heitkamp now has a 60% chance at losing, regardless of how she votes. I would argue Manchin's at 75-80% winning. Haven't seen anything recently on Donnelly and McCaskill/Tester, but the latter two SEEM safe for the moment (despite Trump waging a personal way out there in MT.) The Missouri situation has been a mess for the GOP for months now, between the governor and actual candidate.

Never in a million years would have predicted Mondesi would be outplaying Moncada by this much at the end of the year. That said, there's a lesson. Look at how many times Mondesi came up and failed (mostly, from an offensive standpoint) before he finally started to put it together the 2nd half of this season (of course, it seemed Buxton had turned a corner as well, and that didn't take.)

In the Woodward book, they talk about the RNC operation being revamped under Preibus (in light of the Obama dominance over two presidential elections) and how they had those strategic lists broken down into 90% likely to vote for Trump, 80% likely...and just hammered into them submission sending out all vote by mail/voter registration materials, calling pretty persistently until they got a commitment to get out and vote. As much as the story was the "independent/moderate" votes turning to Trump the last couple of weeks and minority voting being quiet or muted in terms of intensity for Clinton, the base REALLY turned out for Trump, and the Dems just took for granted a lot of voters in those Midwestern and Rust Belt states we keep coming back to over and over again (IA/WI/MI/OH/PA).

Any reason given for Moncada not playing, other than avoiding a LHP and the strikeout record? Haven't his RHH stats vs. lefties been significantly improved the last 4 weeks or so?

3/4ths of the way through now...scary stuff, a bit more on the military/foreign policy side, but that’s logical since tax reform was the only big legislation. Porter, Cohn, Tillerson and Mattis are the ones who come out best.

https://sports.yahoo.com/yoan-moncada-closes-200-strikeouts-022412845.html

If Eloy Jimenez doesn't come up and hit 800-850 the first three months next year, there will be a ton of fans jumping ship. This rebuild was largely predicated on Kopech, Moncada and Robert being superstars, and none of them are even close right now...so everything is basically riding on Eloy's knees and Cease's elbow at this point. It's pretty easy to imagine reactions on here to the typical Class B/C free agents we're going to roll out there. Watching these games with Detroit, Minnesota and KC are becoming almost unbearable with the "race of the bottom" mentality that we're currently witnessing. Otoh, having a #3 pick (instead of 4-6) will give us ANOTHER reason to get excited about next year. Jimenez is pretty much it, for now.

Ho hum, another called strike 3 on Moncada, way outside according to Pitch Track at MLB.com.

See Nats/Strasburg. Their recent legacy will be having all that talent on one roster, yet never winning a playoff series.

Lopez on the Royals...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/10/politics/mia-love-campaign-funds/index.html Yet another Republican in trouble...this time Mia Love in Utah.

The Indians are losing Allen, Brantley, Miller and Kipnis...Encarnacion will be in the last year of his deal, as well. They have enough starting pitching to win 88-90 games, but that assumes full health and progressions from some of their younger guys like Bieber. It’s hard to imagine the White Sox being worse at any position next year...where would it be, other than catcher? Some combination of Davidson/Palka/Delmonico at DH will be fine. Moncada, CF, Abreu and Jimenez should put up much bigger numbers. Anderson, about the same, probably better than worse, especially from a defensive standpoint? Donaldson or Moustakas make sense depending on price. You can pretty much say for sure that Yolmer and Avi aren’t in the long-term plans at this point, same with Leury Garcia (too many nagging injuries.) Even without Kopech, difficult to imagine being worse. Hamilton might surprise as closer right off the bat, although I’m not sure they’re ready to anoint him until he has at least a half season under his belt.

He’ll lose half of whatever he wins when Julia Chen divorces him...

KC’s starter acquired from Moustakas trade...

Is Lopez going to turn out to be a decent starter? Let’s wait and see how he does against a playoff-caliber roster...and it’s not like Walker is projected to be a Gold Glove level outfielder, he’s a better version of Call/Fisher from previous drafts, sure, but how much better and where does he play? For every “Walker was the best pure hitter in the draft” argument, there will be the retort that we said the same thing about Zach Collins, who isn’t currently listed on any Top 100 lists. You can make the argument we need a starting pitcher at the back end and a higher upside CFer a lot more over the next 2-3 seasons, unless we are going to completely write off 2020 as well. Before long, we will be arguing that we need to trade Moncada because we’ll only be competitive in his three most expensive arbitration years. Then, we’ll basically be the Pirates.

Why did we even trade Sale, Eaton and Q if that was the best fallback plan when things didn’t go according to plan? No, the next thing we’ll be hearing is “keeping the powder dry” and not allocating valuable resources for placeholders...or that we’ll really be able to sign some high quality players when the new tv contract begins (skipping over the fact that Moncada and Kopech excelling in 2019 was one of the biggest selling points for getting a better tv deal). Now you’re putting all your hopes in Jimenez and Machado/Harper are arguably the only two players who could move the bar significantly in terms of fan interest. Trade for Ohtani to shake up the franchise? They need to earn their money and reformulate something interesting, that’s for sure. More Shields, Yolmer, Engel, Delmonico and Davidson puts the Sox in the “they might as well relocate to Charlotte or San Antonio/Austin” conversations.

Collins, Zavala, Basabe, Hamilton, Burdi