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Re:Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence by hackuser on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @04:40PM (#13421550)
> The reason is that the Democrats don't have a good "bench."

Obama led the Democrats to political disaster; I wonder if any party since WWII has been in as bad a political position. Why would they want his continued leadership after he leaves office?

Re:Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence by frio on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @04:54PM (#13421701)
They have; most notably the Republicans when LBJ crushed them in a landslide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...). Or even -- again, the Republicans -- as recently as 2008 when Obama won (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...), and the Democrats has a supermajority across all three houses and beat McCain by a larger margin than Trump beat Clinton.

I won't wade into the debate about Obama's future, and will point out that I think the USA's effective two-party system is pretty busted, but yeah -- the USA has a pretty polar political past.

Re:Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence by hackuser on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @05:38PM (#13422147)
> the Democrats has a supermajority across all three houses

In 2008 they did not have a 'supermajority', usually interpreted to mean a veto-proof or filibuster-proof majority, in any house of Congress.

Also, today Republicans control both houses and the Governer's seat in approx. 33% of states.

Finally, the Dems can't win in some states due to gerrymandering and voting laws that prevent even a majority of Democratic votes from winning the election.

Re:Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence by frio on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @07:31PM (#13422939)
Sorry -- I'm not an American, I misunderstood what "supermajority" meant (I took it to mean a majority in each of the houses). My bad :).

I'm not saying the Democrats weren't roundly drubbed in the last election, just refuting the belief that this might be the worst position a political party has been in since WW2. I hadn't thought of the state legislature, however! That's a good point.

Re:Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence by astronautjones on Tuesday January 17, 2017 @10:23PM (#13423712)
No, the DNC led the Democrats to political disaster by discouraging anyone other than HRC from running, and running an atrociously hubris-filled campaign
Re:Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence by hackuser on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @12:56AM (#13424371)
> No, the DNC led the Democrats ...

The President is the head of the party; the DNC traditionally is run by his people AFAIK.

Re:Obama Commutes Bulk of Chelsea Manning’s Sentence by astronautjones on Wednesday January 18, 2017 @06:17PM (#13431415)