CONOR LAMB, 33, DEMOCRAT, GEN Y, 2018 SPECIAL ELECTION WINNER (PA)

CONOR LAMB, 33, DEMOCRAT, GEN Y, 2018 SPECIAL ELECTION WINNER (PA):

CONOR’S CAMPAIGN PLAYBOOK WAS BORROWED FROM JFK, OBAMA & TRUMP.

LEADERS LIKE CONOR CAN USHER IN EFFECTIVE LANDMARK GUN CONTROL & UPHOLD THE 2nd AMENDNENT.

CONOR ATTRACTED VOTERS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE POLITICAL AISLE.

CONOR’S WIN PROVES DEMOCRAT VOTERS ARE SICK & TIRED OF LYING, COMPLACENT, GREEDY, CAREER POLITICIANS IN CONGRESS WHO ARE SELL OUTS.

CONGRESS NEEDS NEW BLOOD & ACTION.

CONOR IS THE BEGINNING OF THAT MOVEMENT.

CONGRATS TO CONOR ON HIS WIN.


Sources: NBC News, NY Times, Youtube


****** Who Is Conor Lamb, Winner in a Special House Race in Pennsylvania?


For the Democratic Party, Conor Lamb seemed like a candidate generated from reams of election data mined and analyzed to produce an ideal fit for his Southwestern Pennsylvania congressional district.

A former Marine who favored gun rights, he was culturally conservative enough to appeal to rural voters. He was pro labor and pro tariff in an area that still has thousands of steelworkers union members. As a federal prosecutor, he cracked down on drug dealers but also offered empathy about the tragedy of opioid addiction. And his Ivy League polish and earnest manner played well with college-educated suburban voters.

And now, with his victory in a district so Republican that Democrats did not even field a candidate in the last two elections, Mr. Lamb, 33, has offered a template that will be studied in congressional races where Democratic candidates need to win over voters who supported President Trump.

“He is like the type of Democrat that won in ruby-red districts in 2006, who breaks the mold and is much more of a nontraditional, outside-the-mainstream, everyday American law enforcement type,” said John Lapp, a Democratic strategist who was executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, when the party wrested control of the House from Republicans.

Mr. Lamb had to navigate a district that President Trump had won by nearly 20 percentage points in 2016. The president labeled him “Lamb the sham” in a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania last Saturday, and the administration deployed Vice President Mike Pence, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, and Donald Trump Jr. to defeat him.

In turn, he showed restraint and discipline in talking about the president and was quick to support Mr. Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. He did not respond to the president’s mockery, and on Wednesday morning, refused to engage when he was asked on CNN to comment about Mr. Trump’s remarks.

“You call it a red district,” Mr. Lamb said on CNN. “I call it western Pennsylvania. We worked extremely hard to get out and campaign in person over every square inch of this district. And I think just through talking to people, looking them in the eye, figuring out what the issues are for them and trying to come out with solutions, we seemed to have reached a lot of people. We saw huge turnout on both sides which is great. People around here are engaged.”

Mr. Lamb also said he thought voters were weary of pettiness and name calling.

“There was a lot of foolishness in this election and cartoonish campaigning,” he said. “By the time of the president’s visit last weekend, people were tired of that entire approach. I had people, especially elderly people, come up to me and say, I hate those ads against you. It’s not right. It’s not worthy of us. I think there is a little bit of burnout on that type of campaign before the president ever got here.”

Mr. Lamb built his coalition from many disparate parts. He bridged the divide between labor union leaders and their members. “He married the union leaders and rank-and-file for the first time in two decades,” said G. Terry Madonna, a professor at Franklin and Marshall College who has conducted polls in Pennsylvania for more than three decades.

He also focused heavily on local issues and mostly avoided getting into a fight with his Republican opponent, Rick Saccone, over Mr. Trump.

“He decided early on he would not turn this into a national election,” Mr. Madonna said. “It was a local election. Number two, he did events, but more important, he knocked on the door, put the yard sign up, emphasizing his personal connection with people, something Saccone did not do.”

He added, “And also, he was like, ‘Donald who? Who’s that guy?’”

Though the race was Mr. Lamb’s first attempt at public office, politics is part of his family pedigree. His grandfather, Thomas Lamb, was the Democratic leader of the State Senate in the 1970s and served in the administration of Gov. Robert P. Casey.

Michael Lamb, his uncle, is the controller for the city of Pittsburgh and an avid supporter. His younger brother, Coleman Lamb, is helping out as well, on loan from his day job as press secretary for a New York congresswoman.

Mr. Lamb leaned hard on his military background — he served as a prosecutor in the Marine Corps and was stationed in Okinawa while on active duty — and his support for gun rights, beginning with his first commercial.

That same ad also featured a picture of him at a gun range, noting that he “still loves to shoot.” These were acts of political inoculation: Mr. Lamb was sending a message to the district’s conservative-leaning voters that he was his own person.

He also effectively neutralized Republican attempts to label him a liberal in the mold of the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi, by saying that he would not vote for her in a leadership election. Republicans, who poured in millions of dollars in ads against Mr. Lamb, tried to paint him as a slavish follower of the California Democrat. He countered with a commercial noting that his opposition to her had been reported on the front page of a local newspaper.

Mr. Lamb had another résumé-enhancing line to offer voters: federal prosecutor. After clerking for a federal judge in New York, he did a stint as an assistant United States attorney in Pittsburgh, prosecuting a range of cases that gave him a law-and-order credential.

But his time in the Justice Department during the Obama administration also provided Republicans with some fodder. In one ad, the National Republican Congressional Committee noted that Mr. Lamb had reached a plea bargain with a drug kingpin, a potentially damaging line of attack in a region ravaged by opioids.

Like the other attacks Republicans hurled at him, it ultimately proved ineffective.

HILLARY CLINTON MAKES HISTORY BUT CAN'T WIN WITHOUT OBAMA & SANDERS

HILLARY CLINTON MAKES HISTORY BUT CAN'T WIN WITHOUT HELP FROM OBAMA & SANDERS:

YOUNGER VOTERS WILL NOT SUPPORT HILLARY MINUS HELP FROM HER FRIENDS.

TRUMP & GOP LEADERS SHOULD BE SOMEWHAT NERVOUS.

OBAMA IS STILL A POLITICAL GENIUS ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL.

Sources: CNN, NBC, Jimmy Fallon Show, YouTube

****** Bernie Sanders vows to work with Hillary Clinton as Democrats move toward party unity

~ Story highlights

• Sanders met with Obama for the second time this primary season
• He also met with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid

Democrats took giant steps toward party unity Thursday as Bernie Sanders vowed to work together with Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump in November and President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden formally endorsed Clinton for president. 

Sanders' decision to continue his White House bid even after Clinton became the party's presumptive presidential nominee has had Democrats on high alert as they seek to quickly change gears and take on Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Sanders' first explicit promise on Thursday to join forces with Clinton to take on the Republicans will help quell concerns among Democrats about divisions in the party.

Emerging from the White House after a meeting with Obama that lasted more than an hour, Sanders warned that a Trump presidency would be a "disaster" and that he would "work as hard as I can to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president of the United States."

"I look forward to meeting with (Clinton) in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1%," Sanders told reporters.

The senator thanked both Obama and Biden for showing "impartiality" during the course of the Democratic campaign. 

"They said in the beginning that they would not put their thumb on the scales and they kept their word and I appreciate that very, very much," Sanders said. 

He added that he will monitor a "full counting of the votes" in California, where Clinton won the Democratic primary contest on Tuesday. The results will show "a much closer vote," Sanders predicted.

In a press briefing Thursday afternoon, White House spokesman Josh Earnest described the meeting as a "friendly conversation that was focused on the future," and said Obama congratulated Sanders on his "remarkable accomplishment" in the Democratic race. 

Shortly after the meeting, the White House released a video in which Obama enthusiastically backed Clinton and acknowledged the historic achievement of her becoming the first woman to win a major party's presidential nomination. He will join Clinton on the campaign trail for the first time next week in Wisconsin.

"I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office," Obama said in the video of Clinton, whom he defeated eight years ago. 

He also thanked Sanders in the video for running an "incredible campaign" and for shining a spotlight on issues such as economic inequality and the influence of money in politics.

Sanders' high-profile meeting with Obama and his public remarks afterward come just days after Sanders declared that he intends to continue his 2016 campaign. At a rallyTuesday night, Sanders had declined to acknowledge that Clinton had secured the necessary delegates to win her party's nomination. He vowed to forge ahead to the District of Columbia's primary next week, and then on to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said their camp would would like to quickly mend fences and unify the party. 

"Nothing has been scheduled yet, but I think both sides want to make sure that it happens and happens soon," Podesta told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He added that they would "welcome" Sanders campaigning for Clinton. 

"If you go back to 2008 after it became clear that President Obama had won the pledged delegates and was going to be the nominee of the Democratic party, that's exactly what Hillary did," he said. "Even after that hard-fought campaign, she went out and endorsed him, asked that his name be put into the nomination by acclimation, she campaigned with him."

The Sanders-Obama meeting Thursday marked the two men's second White House sitdown this primary season and the fourth time they've spoken in the last month. White House officials hoped Obama could prod the Vermont senator toward eventually acting as a unifying figure for the Democratic Party.

In a taping of "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, Obama said he was hopeful that the party will "pull things together."

"The main role I'm going to be playing in this process is to remind the American people that this is a serious job," Obama said. "You know, this is not reality TV. I've seen the decisions that have to be made and the work that has to be done."

Since clinching her party's nomination, Clinton has stuck to a conciliatory tone when it comes to her rival.

In her victory speech in Brooklyn Tuesday night, Clinton congratulated Sanders for an "extraordinary campaign" and sought to reach out to his supporters. 

"Let there be no mistake: Sen. Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise incomes, reduce inequality, and increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America," Clinton said. 

Thursday helped shed light on Sanders'intentions and state of mind -- particularly the role he hopes to play in his party -- as the general election kicks off in earnest.

Sanders sat down in the afternoon with his longtime friend and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who has publicly said Sanders should "give up." Reid described the meeting to reporters afterward as a "good visit," and emphasized that Sanders has the good will of the Senate Democratic caucus. The Nevada senator said Sanders made no mention of changing the reality that Clinton is the party's presumptive nominee, and quipped that Sanders appears to have "accepted that."

Reid also echoed other Democratic leaders, saying, "I'm not pushing him to do anything."

Prior to that meeting, one source familiar with Reid's thinking said he believes Sanders can be helpful in Senate races, including in raising money, and is open to any number of ways to unite the party. 

Sanders also met with Biden late Thursday afternoon to discuss some of the issues central to his campaign, including income inequality, big money in politics and "the need to reform our politics," according to a statement from Biden's office. Later in the evening during a speech in Washington, Biden endorsed Clinton, saying "God willing," the former secretary of state would be the next president.

To cap off a whirlwind day of meetings, Sanders held an evening campaign rally in Southeast Washington. 

The senator delivered his usual stump speech, touching on issues of economic, social, racial and environmental justice. But his remarks also reflected on the arc of his unlikely campaign and what he and his supporters have achieved over the last year. 

The pundits had underestimated his political revolution, Sanders said. "Well, here we are -- it's mid-June, and we're still standing."

At the event, Sanders supporters acknowledged that the senator was unlikely to be the Democratic nominee for president. They expressed a mix of disappointment and pride -- and frustration with what they said was a lack of viable options. 

Sam Mbulaiteye, a researcher from Silver Spring, Maryland, said he was disappointed that Obama endorsed Clinton earlier in the day. 

"I think Bernie's message is closer to Obama's message in 2008 -- it's a message of change, hope and about the future," Mbulaiteye, 50, said. 

Mbulaiteye was undecided on whether to support Clinton or Trump in the general election. "In terms of being anti-establishment, Trump is closer to Bernie Sanders," he said.

Jenn Fendrick, a 32-year-old stay-at-home-mom from Fairfax, Virginia, lamented "the end of an era" and said she would vote for Clinton in November -- but "not enthusiastically."

This is "hopefully not the end of his movement, though," she said of Sanders. "He's definitely too old to run again."

BLACK OLDER DEMOCRATS HATE CHANGE - 2016 ELECTION (INSANITY POLITICS)

BLACK OLDER DEMOCRATS HATE CHANGE - 2016 ELECTION:

(INSANITY POLITICS)

The late Scientist Albert Einstein once defined the word "INSANITY" as doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting DIFFERENT results.

The word "CHANGE" is defined as Being DIFFERENT.

However for most BLACK Democrat voters the word "CHANGE" is a dirty word especially as it relates to Politics.

Most older BLACK Democrats appear to be resistant to CHANGE and lack Objectivity in their thinking.

Perhaps this explains why Pres OBAMA targeted Younger voters in 2008 and 2012.

In fact most Older BLACK Democrats would rather DIE from a terrible disease then to consider supporting a REPUBLICAN candidate, even if voting for that GOP candidate is in the best interest of BLACK voters.

Will Older BLACK Democrat voters open their minds to CHANGE?

Or will they allow their Stubbornness to Silence and Devalue the voices of future BLACK Democrat voters?

~ Blacks, Democrats, and Republicans (CIRCA 2011)

Thomas Sowell discusses Black voters’ allegiance to the Democratic party and the failure of the GOP to make a robust case for black votes.

Blacks have been the Democrats’ most reliable voting bloc for the last 50 years.

And let’s face it, with Barack Obama in the White House, that’s not going to change in the near future.

On the national level, Democrats typically get around 90 percent of the black vote, even when a black man isn’t running for president as a Democrat.

Al Gore got 92 percent of the Black vote in 2000; John Kerry got 88 percent in 2004.

These percentages aren’t just impressive; for Democrats, they’re imperative.

Since 1980, the percentage of white votes received by the Democrats’ candidate for president has usually hovered around 39 percent.

Unless Democrats maintain a vise grip on at least 90 percent of the black vote, the party’s presidential prospects usually fade to oblivion. Both parties know this.

If the GOP peeled off just 5 or 10 percent of the black vote, Democrats would be in perpetual electoral jeopardy, and not just at the presidential level.

Dr. Sowell discusses a few of the reasons why blacks who support Democrats are voting against self- interest (and makes a more persuasive case than Thomas Frank did in What’s the Matter with Kansas? regarding Kansans’ support of the Republican party).

There are many more reasons. Consider just the following: Large, Arbitrary Minimum Wage Increases.

Milton Friedman once said that “We regard the minimum wage as one of the most, if not the most, anti-black laws on the statute books.” (A good argument can be made that the minimum wage vies for this title with the Davis-Bacon Act — uniformly supported by Democrats — mandating that prevailing wages be paid on government construction projects and passed for the express purpose of preventing blacks from competing with whites on public-works jobs.)

Sharp increases in the minimum wage price unskilled workers out of the labor market, a dislocation that falls most heavily on young black males.

Such increases impair the ability of unskilled workers to get the entry-level jobs that are the first rungs on the ladder of upward job mobility.

As someone once said, a wage, minimum or otherwise, presumes a job. Public Education and School Choice. Millions of black kids are trapped in medieval public schools that are insulated from competition and suffocated by union rules.

Yet Democrats resist meaningful choice, insisting instead on that infallible remedy, “full funding.” ‪#‎more‬#They’re encouraged, apparently, by how well that solution has worked in places like Newark, which spends $18,000 per student — among the most of any major public school system — but where only 30 percent of 8th graders can pass the annual proficiency test in math.

Or perhaps they’re brightened by the example of the D.C. public-school system, which also has among the highest per-pupil expenditures in the nation yet perennially returns among the lowest test scores.

Less than 25 percent of black 17-year-olds can read as well as the average white 17-year-old. 

Nearly 90 percent of black 17-year-olds score below the average white 17-year-old in math.

More than 90 percent of black 17-year-olds score below the average white 17-year-old in science.

The average black 17-year-old has the academic proficiency of the average white 8th grader.

These figures have proven impervious to increased spending. In fact, in some cases the gap has widened as public school spending — in constant dollars — has increased.

But Democrats, beholden to unions, continue to oppose school choice and meaningful reform, thereby consigning another generation of blacks to educational purgatory. Affirmative Action.

Democrats are champions of racial preferences (see Eric Holder’s directive to the Dayton Police Department).

Since racial preferences in, e.g., college admissions most heavily favor blacks, it would appear, at first blush, that black votes for Democrats are indeed self-interested.

But evidence continues to accumulate that affirmative action may be one of the greatest scams perpetrated on blacks.

Studies by, for example, the Center for Equal Opportunity show that the racial preferences employed by some college admissions offices boost a black applicant’s odds of admission over a similarly-situated white comparative by a factor of 200, often much more.

This results in what UCLA law professor Richard Sander calls the “mismatch effect” — i.e., black students being admitted at schools in which they’re poorly qualified to compete.

Consequently, black students are more likely to perform poorly and flunk out.

For example, Prof. Sander found that 50 percent of black law students settle in the bottom 10 percent of their respective classes.

Black law students are two and a half times more likely than whites not to graduate, four times more likely not to pass the bar exam. Welfare and the War on Poverty.

Were this a shooting war, the Democrats would have surrendered in 1965.

As it stands, after 45 years and several trillion dollars, misguided if well-intended liberal policies have contributed to a toxic culture of grievance and dependency that, while not confined to a particular race, has been especially damaging to the black underclass.

The list of issue conflicts between Democrats’ policy positions and the interests of black voters goes on and on: illegal immigration, abortion, Social Security reform, to name a few.

But don’t expect any noteworthy changes in black voter allegiance in the near term.

A comment made by a black law student after an affirmative-action debate in which I participated a few years ago illustrates just one of the many obstacles faced by Republicans.

The student acknowledged that affirmative action often harms its purported beneficiaries and that its proponents are, as he put it, “condescending and insulting.”

Even so, he asked. “How can we (blacks) support Republicans given the Republicans’ history toward blacks in this country?”

I pointed out that it wasn’t the GOP that had opposed Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Nor was it Republicans who opposed the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting slavery or the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing equal protection or the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing voting rights.

It wasn’t Republicans who opposed Teddy Roosevelt’s anti-lynching legislation, or that filibustered or otherwise opposed more than a dozen anti-lynching bills in the last century.

Republicans didn’t institutionalize Jim Crow or implement school segregation, poll taxes, or literacy tests. Bull Connor, Lester Maddox, Orval Faubus, and George Wallace weren’t Republicans.

A higher percentage of Republicans voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act than did Democrats.

The student and the other black students gathered around looked surprised.

One confessed that she would’ve bet that “Democrats” should be substituted for “Republicans” in each of the examples.

The GOP’s record concerning blacks is far from unassailable, but that doesn’t explain Black allegiance to Democrats.

That allegiance won’t change — Allen West and Tim Scott notwithstanding — as long as President Obama is the Democrats’ standard bearer.

And as long as Republicans don’t make an effort for the vote.

Sources: National Review, Mediaite, Youtube