[guest post by JVW]

Because I slid a few bucks to My Little Aloha Sweetie and to the Crazy Cute Hippie Chick in order to help their odds of remaining in the primary debates, I now find myself on the Democrat National Committee’s email list. Every day, usually multiple times I day, I am sent a message ostensibly from some party hack like Nancy Pelosi or Tom Perez, or else some candidate desperate to raise money like John Hickenlooper, or even from staffers writing on behalf of Kamala Harris or Joe Biden. Inevitably they question my fealty to progressive causes and the Democrat party (and rightfully so!) and ask me to donate time or money or both to the party’s candidates. It’s nothing unusual: I got the same thing from the GOP back when I was registered in that party.

But Democrats being Democrats, I was hit with what I thought was a really obnoxious ad earlier this evening, very badly targeted to a crude schlub like my own self. Carrying the subject line “19 of the country’s top designers have come together to create clothing in support of Joe Biden and Democrats” it was an exercise in the obnoxious trendiness of the party of the cool, hip, and glamorous. Since I have become something of an expert on campaign merchandise, I just knew I had to take a closer look. Here’s a gander at the insufferable twee wokeness of the fashionista left:

Hey, I’m the first to admit that I know virtually nothing about modern fashion, but the names of the “19 of the country’s top designers” were absolutely unknown to me with the exception of one, Vera Wang. But these fashion mavens who generally create high-end fashion that can run in the five figures (all five of them, incidentally, coming to the left of the decimal point) appear to have given their least talented sub-sub-sub assistants the task of designing affordable campaign merchandise that only costs about what Joe and Jill Biden report giving to charity every couple of months in years when he isn’t on a Presidential ticket, or, to use a more generationally-appropriate comparison, what Mr. and Mrs. Robert O’Rourke of El Paso report giving on average every three weeks.

So when you’re looking for that great designer campaign piece in the $60 range, you can go with this Vera Wang hooded sweatshirt:

Or, if it is far too warm where you live to don a hoodie, you can go with this Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez t-shirt whose inspiration they ripped-off — sorry, I mean borrowed — from midcentury American artist Jasper Johns:

But if you’re down to your last few bucks yet don’t want to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between 19 of the country’s top designers and the Biden-Harris campaign, perhaps you can spring for this fashionable — yet functional! — facemask from Monique Péan, which Dinosaur Joe would force you to wear until November were it not for that pesky Constitution:

You can see the rest of the swag from designers such as Brett Heyman, Jason Wu, Prabal Gurung, Carly Cushine and other notables (I’ll take their word for it!) of the fashion world here. While they are all certainly better than the “I was that little girl” t-shirt from the Harris campaign, none of them hold a candle to the bitchin’ LGBTQ tank-top that the Biden campaign rolled out during last year’s Pride Week.

– JVW

[guest post by JVW]

Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick plans to enter the 2020 Democrat Sweepstakes, and will file paperwork to be in the New Hampshire Primary later this week. This, of course, coming on the heels of Michael Bloomberg’s expected entry into the race, announced last week. If you’re keeping score at home, this would bring the number of Democrats seeking the top job up to 18, after the recent departures of Tim Ryan and Robert O’Rourke had dropped the number to a dangerously low 16.

If you had forgotten about Deval Patrick, he was the former assistant attorney general during the Clinton Administration, who then won a surprise victory in 2006 over establishment Democrats and a Republican lieutenant governor to become the first Massachusetts governor from his party since Michael Dukakis had left office sixteen years earlier. He steered Massachusetts policy in a decidedly progressive direction by raising taxes, increasing spending, and embracing whatever trendy social justice policies reared their ugly heads. Mr. Patrick also courted his share of controversy. He left office on a sour note, with a two-pronged gut punch of a huge budget deficit from his progressive economic policies, coupled with the complete failure of the lavishly-funded (and money wasting) Metro Boston Transit Authority to operate during a winter snowstorm. And finally, he raised a lot of eyebrows by taking a post-governor job as a “global ambassador” to the short-lived Boston 2024 Olympic Bid Committee at the remarkable consultant rate of $7,500 per day. A group of disgruntled Bay State residents managed to organize a strong opposition group, and Boston was forced to drop its bid.

The candidate most immediately threatened by Mr. Patrick’s entry into the race would seem to be Elizabeth Warren. He likely takes away some of her local New England vote, and his pedigree is similar to hers in that both are lawyers who have made a fair amount of money in the private sector (he at Bain & Company; she at Harvard Law) yet still sing lustily from the progressive songbook, seemingly immune to thoughts of inconsistency or hypocrisy. He could conceivably cut into Joe Biden’s advantage with the Barack Obama loyalty vote, especially among African-American Democrats, due to his longtime friendship with the 44th President. But it’s difficult to see the average voter associating the ex-governor with the former President, absent a clear endorsement which it doesn’t seem likely would be forthcoming. With only eighty-two days until the Iowa Caucus it appears far-fetched to expect Mr. Patrick’s campaign to have a strong organization in the Hawkeye State, but a decent finish in the New Hampshire Primary eight days later (where My Little Aloha Sweetie is currently polling at six percent!) might make his candidacy real. Conversely, a weak showing in the state just north of his might suggest that his candidacy is as foolish as that of John Hickenlooper or Jay Inslee.

Now all that’s left is for Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, John Kerry, John Edwards, and Gavin Newsom to enter the race and we can let the real fun begin.

– JVW

[guest post by JVW]

Now that the campaigns appear to be in full-swing, our attention should naturally turn to one of the key indicators in any campaign of the 21st Century: which candidate has the best campaign merchandise available at his or her website. Surely we know that our last two Presidents rode an iconic poster and a pointed-message baseball cap all the way to the White House, so these people who would move in to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue need to demonstrate some cool swag right away in order to establish themselves as serious contenders.

In light of that, I have examined the online stores of all of the candidates to try and determine who offers the best swag thus far in the election cycle. I have broken them into four groups: Those who don’t even register due to lack of interesting offerings or even lack of an online store at all, those whose products are insipid, those whose products are uninspiring, and then, at last, a final seven counted down all the way to the best campaign merchandise I have seen thus far. So here we go:

Those Who Don’t Even Register
Bill de Blasio doesn’t bother to have an online store, which is probably good because he also doesn’t appear to have any supporters. Poor Steve Bullock (yeah, I checked, he really is running) has a very pedestrian campaign site with no store. New arrival Joe Sestak also does not (yet?) offer merchandise on his site. Miramar, FL Mayor Wayne Messam’s campaign site doesn’t even load for me, so he might want to rethink going with that Venezuelan web-hosting service. And, to no one’s real surprise lunatic fringe candidate Mike Gravel also doesn’t have a store (though I did come across what I think were parody items on another site that said stuff like “Mike Gravel: Property is Theft”).

There is absolutely nothing of interest in the online stores of Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bennett, and Tom Steyer.

Tim Ryan’s store is apparently trying hard to push merchandise among the residents of Youngstown, Ohio, the center of his Congressional district, which suggests they are overstock from his last Congressional campaign. Seth Moulton has commercialized the revelation of his post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Insipid
Julián Castro cartoon portrait stickers
In perusing Secretary Castro’s online store, I see that he makes heavy use of the diacritic (acento in Spanish) over the “a” in Julián, turning it into what I guess is supposed to be a flame. They also feature a bunch of merchandise with a theme of Adiós Trump He’s selling Obamaesque stickers which the store refers to as a lotería, a word I only know to mean “lottery.” Is there another translation of the word that I am unaware of? I guess we can’t ask Mr. Castro himself, since he doesn’t actually speak Spanish, acento notwithstanding.

Kamala Harris bus rider t-shirt
I have to say, I think her logo (pictured above) with the colorful “KAMALA” is actually pretty snazzy, but I’m going to hammer her over another item she is pushing. Senator Harris, of course, famously started selling t-shirts celebrating her nasty bit of demagoguery against the hapless Joe Biden at last months debate. Just look at the shirt (link above): what kind of person would actually wear that anywhere other than at the Harris 2020 campaign office or a rally? Every single one of those shirts that are purchased this year will be at Goodwill by Christmas 2020.

Jay Inslee authored children’s book
Yep, it looks like the Washington Governor who is obsessed with climate change has written — and illustrated! — a children’s book. It clocks in at 20 pages, so for $12.50 you are paying sixty-two-and-one-half cents per page, which makes college textbooks seem like a bargain.

Robert O’Rourke “Beto” bandana
Órale, homes! If you are some güero gabacho trying to play-act as uno de la raza, you’re going to need this accessory to wrap around your newly-shaved cabeza or maybe to hold your hairnet in place, ese. This is the bandana you want to get, cabrón.

Elizabeth Warren stickers.
Raise your hand if you are surprised that the Queen of Insincerity herself is still trying to dine out on a comment that Cocaine Mitch McConnell made over two years ago while using parliamentary rules to stop Fauxcahontas from droning on about the unsuitability of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. She’ll still be flogging that moment long after she deservedly joins George Frisbe Hoar and David I. Walsh in the pantheon of forgotten Massachusetts Senators.

The Uninspiring
Cory Booker trans pride pins
One of the things I learned from this little exercise is that all of the Democrat candidates sell Pride Week merchandise and a few of them go further and sell items marketed specifically for the trans community. These “T” items are distinguished from the other Pride Week items by being issued in pink and blue only, unlike the “LGBTQetc” full color spectrum. Senator Booker’s other items are dull and unimaginative, so this is about as good as he has to offer.

Pete Buttigieg coffee mug
Color me disappointed that the openly gay guy doesn’t offer any “fabulous” items, just the blandest of bland stuff. He also has merchandise bearing the slogan “Win the era.” What the hell is that? I thought maybe he’s re-fighting the battle for the Equal Rights Amendment, but it looks like he means era as in “a fixed point of time from which a series of years are reckoned.” Unless maybe it’s a coded message for the South Bend Cubs of the Class A Midwest League to get their pitching in order. In any case, the only thing worthwhile I saw in his store are some items that remind us how to pronounce his last name. Is it too much to ask him to sell a logo baking sheet for croissants?

Kristin Gillibrand t-shirts
Not that there is anything interesting about her logo, and she offers the same old collection of shirts, caps, buttons, stickers, and signs that everyone else does. But the Poor Woman’s Hillary does have one magnificent bit of wokedness that none of her competitors seem to have picked up on: all of her clothing items are unisex (the site likes to use the term “gender neutral”) in shape and sizing, meaning there are not separate men’s and women’s versions of the garments. I’ll bet some of the other candidates are kicking themselves for not having thought of that.

Bernard Sanders throwback t-shirt
I guess the Vermont Democrat Socialist doesn’t hate free enterprise so much that he would miss out on the opportunity to sell some merchandise to the earnest young Marxists who love him so, even if he pays them “starvation wages.” Unfortunately for him, his logo and merchandise look like overstock items from his 2016 campaign, with a very similar logo and same stupid slogan. For some reason they have added a Soviet-red headband this time around. Truly the most uninspiring swag, from a campaign that you might have thought would have cooked up something more interesting.

And now for the good merchandise.

Seventh Place
Tulsi Gabbard button
I am flummoxed that Tulsi Gabbard’s site does not feature any Aloha-related items. It seems like a huge missed opportunity. She doesn’t even have floral-print t-shirts, which would seem a natural for a Hawaiian candidate. I do like her pretty sunrise logo, however, so I’m going to go with her campaign button as the best item in her online store and one that bumps her onto the good merchandise list. But please, Congresswoman Gabbard, get some floral items!

Sixth Place
Marianne Williamson logo coffee mug
It is my sad duty to report that no, Ms. Williamson is not (as of yet) selling logo crystals on her website. I would buy one in a heartbeat, even if all she had was picture jasper and not something awesome like tourmalated quartz. She does have a nice — and entirely appropriate — purple-and-pink color scheme which I think is best represented in her logo coffee mug.

Fifth Place
Joe Biden Pride tank-top.
Virtually every single Democrat candidate, at least those who have more than 2% support, produced special LGBTQetc Pride Week apparel for the various events and marches that took place. The best I saw was from Dinosaur Joe, whose campaign played upon his aviator sunglasses-wearing reputation, which is just barely whimsical enough so as not to be grating. Oddly enough, the aviator sunglasses motif doesn’t appear to be used in any Biden merchandise other than this tank.

Fourth Place
John Hickenlooper can coozie
The former Colorado governor might have the best looking logo of all of the candidates, as he takes advantage of his long name by setting it against a backdrop that suggests his state’s famous mountains while at the same time representing the stripes on the American flag (he clearly is not going for the Colin Kaepernick endorsement). Better get ’em while his campaign is still operating, which may not be all that much longer.

Third Place
John Delaney phone ring stand
Because sometimes the most hopeless candidate has the best piece of merchandise. This is a good-looking item (handmade out of Idaho wood), though unfortunately probably 99.98% of the country wouldn’t recognize the “D” logo. Who would have thought that a candidate might actually feature an item that is useful? I see that I accidentally omitted it from the merchandise mash-up picture at top, so here it is:

Second Place
Andrew Yang math lapel pin
Don’t ask me; geeks are gonna geek out. I suppose this is his way of saying that politics is a higher-order math problem. Lots of luck inspiring voters with that, pal.

First Place
Trump plastic straws
But sorry, Democrats, none of you can hold a candle to the best piece of merchandise from President Donald Trump’s online store. No, I’m not talking about the ladies’ swim suit or the insane tweets t-shirts or the MAGA Pride Week cap or the badly-needed Trump/Pence dog hoodie. I’m talking about an item perfectly designed to elicit whoops of delight from his base while simultaneously poking a finger in the eye of his biggest detractors. It’s high-level trolling genius.

Let the shopping begin!

– JVW

[guest post by JVW]

If you had Eric Swalwell in your office pool as the first announced Democrat candidate to drop out of the race, then congratulations, you appear to be on the verge of winning:

Eric Swalwell is reportedly dropping out of the presidential race Monday after his long-shot bid failed to gain traction among voters.

The East Bay congressman is expected to announce he’s running for re-election at a news conference at his Dublin campaign headquarters this afternoon, the Los Angeles Times and CNN reported. The decision comes as Swalwell cancelled Fourth of July campaign events in New Hampshire at the last minute and found himself likely to be excluded from the second Democratic presidential debate later this month.

Once Rep. Swalwell is officially out, the next man out will likely be a tight race among Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton, who failed to qualify for the first round of debates, and four who managed to debate without making any memorable impact: Representatives Tim Ryan of Ohio and John Delaney of Maryland, and the two Coloradans, former governor John Hickenlooper and current senator Michael Bennett. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio probably has enough nutty leftist money to hold out a bit longer, at least until he is excluded from the fall debates for having failed to reach at least two-percent support in candidate polls.

But even with Rep. Swalwell’s departure, the number of candidates (and, happily, the number of entitled progressive white male candidates) may initially remain steady, with the strong potential of an imminent announcement (from same link as above):

Swalwell could almost immediately be replaced in the presidential race by another Democrat from the Bay Area. San Francisco megadonor and former hedge fund chief Tom Steyer has told political allies he’s reconsidering his decision not to run for president and could announce he’s getting back in the race as soon as Tuesday, according to multiple media reports Sunday night.

Because clearly what the American people are looking for is a candidate who combines Donald Trump’s wealth with Bernard Sanders’ righteous leftist rage, Elizabeth Warren’s gross hypocrisy, Kamala Harris’s penchant for grandstanding, and Robert O’Rourke’s yearning for the limelight. At least Mr. Steyer, who celebrated his sixty-second birthday last week, would I suppose bridge that crucial gap between the septuagenerians and the eager young pups. His entry into the race, especially if he vows to self-fund his campaign with his massive personal wealth, probably spells an end to the Jay Inslee candidacy too, as the California billionaire’s Tesla will run the Washington governor’s Prius right out of the hardcore green express lane. So in that regard, let’s add Gov. Inslee to the list above of the potential next candidates to bail out of the race.

Don’t be surprised if we don’t eventually see one or two more Democrat candidates emerge. Maybe even the long-rumored if fantastically implausible candidacy of a certain African-American woman with high name recognition who is broadly respected even if she has persistent critics who question if her attempts to appeal to mainstream America are sincere or if they are a front for a more radical and divisive agenda.

Of course, perhaps Serena Williams will just continue playing tennis and stay out of the world of politics.

UPDATE: Between the time I drafted this post and published it, Rep. Swalwell has apparently confirmed his departure from the race, at long last garnering some media attention.

Twitchy points out that just five months ago Rep. Swalwell promised not to run for reelection to Congress in 2020, declaring that he would focus exclusively on being elected President. He’s apparently back-tracking on that promise already. What a surprise. He will face a primary challenge from a young leftist inspired by our beloved nutty niece.

– JVW

[guest post by JVW]

Tonight comes the second group of ten Democrats who will debate each other to win the love and admiration of party activists who will select one of them to face President Trump in just about sixteen months from now. Following the procedure established last night, I want to place each of these candidates in the context of someone whom many (if not most) of us might have encountered in high school. So without further ado, here we go (once again, listed alphabetically by last name):

Michael Bennett – His family moved into town just before his senior year, and he pretty much kept to himself and left no record of having accomplished anything. Sat next to you in Chemistry II, but you don’t recall having more than maybe six verbal exchanges with him the entire year.

Joe Biden – Quarterback of the varsity football team that finished with a 2-8 record. Threw for five touchdown passes with eighteen interceptions and lost seven fumbles. Carried a 2.1 GPA and scored a 16 composite on the ACT, but nevertheless claimed that he was being recruited to play at Dartmouth. Dressed like the cool kids all dressed ten years earlier and drove a slightly run-down muscle car that he worked on himself, even though he didn’t know the first thing about auto mechanics.

Pete Buttigieg – Friendly and earnest fellow whose best friends were all girls. You appointed him refreshments chairman for the homecoming dance, and he bought a really nice cake but forgot to buy any drinks, so you had to give him $30 out of your own pocket so he could go get a couple of cases of Hawaiian Punch which nobody drank. He still says it was the best dance he ever attended and now wants to chair the prom committee.

Kirsten Gillibrand – Her sophomore year she became the lackey/toady for a snobbishly tiresome but oddly popular senior girl, and somehow parlayed that to entry into the “in” crowd after she dropped her Future Farmers of America friends. She promoted herself for homecoming queen quietly behind the scenes, but legend has it she received exactly zero votes. Was frenemies with every other girl in your class.

Kamala Harris – Rumored to have been secretly dating an administrator at the high school, which purportedly landed her positions as the head cheerleader and homecoming queen. Noticeably lacked enthusiasm for a cheerleader, and left the homecoming dance immediately after pictures were taken for the newspaper. Was always assumed to have a bright future ahead of her, even though her grades and test scores were only average.

John Hickenlooper – President of DECA and manager of the school store. Worked hard to keep it profitable even though it was known that everyone stole from it, but was lucky enough to make a high margin on brownies and therefore always break even. Nice enough guy, but extremely awkward to speak to, and had an annoying habit of agreeing with everyone with whom he spoke.

Bernard Sanders – Believed to have been held back two years because he seemed so much older than the rest of his peers. Kept circulating petitions to make school lunches “free” by doubling the price on the Coke machine. Furthermore, wants to provide “free” pencils and notebook paper by doubling the price on the Coke machine, and to have yearbooks distributed for “free,” subsidized by doubling the price on the Coke machine. Also wants the Coke machine replaced with water fountains which are healthier and better for the environment, as well as being free. Wrote an outraged op-ed in the school newspaper declaring the concept of a valedictorian was imperialist and should be abolished. A group of disaffected freshmen worships him.

Eric Swalwell – You had honestly never heard of this guy until the day he called the principal an asshole to his face and became a legend in his own mind just because a few popular kids chuckled. You quickly realized he was of extremely limited intelligence, and to this day you don’t know or care what happened to him.

Marianne Williamson – Cute chick who read Jonathan Livingston Seagull and listened to Dan Fogelberg, whose music she thought had really, really deep meaning. Believed strongly in using crystals for health and healing. You wanted to like her, but her thoughts were so banal and silly that you limited yourself to smiling and waving at her when you saw her in the hall. Spent most of her time in the art studio making stained glass doodads and painting rainbows and peace signs.

Andrew Yang – Fun guy who was excessively nerdy but usually made you laugh. Always had some off-the-wall scheme that he insisted would work if people would just “break out of their paradigms” and give it a try. Ignored by the jocks, the partiers, the pretty people, and the go-getters, but managed to become a success in business, even if many of his ideas continued to be risible.

So that’s it. I don’t think that I will watch this one either, so I’ll be interested in hearing what you all have to say.

– JVW

[guest post by Dana]

Debate season is just about upon us. Hoo boy, anything is possible in the Thunderdome.

Of the 20 qualifying candidates, these are the top five contenders at this point in time: Biden, Sanders, Harris and Buttigieg and Warren. The two nights of debate will be held in Miami.

Here is the lineup for June 26:

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney
Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan

Here is the lineup for June 27:

Former Vice President Joe Biden
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg
California Sen. Kamala Harris
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet
Author Marianne Williamson
California Rep. Eric Swalwell
Businessman Andrew Yang
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper

How disappointing that Sanders and Warren won’t be on stage together to entertainingly try and out-socialism each other. Of course, his “Americans would be delighted to pay more taxes” silliness is still fresh in people’s minds, and her American Indian issues are still making the news. They’ve got problems. Clearly front-runner Biden will be the main target of the other contenders on the second night. And boy, has he given them some stuff to work with: flip-floppingon abortion, finger-wagging condescension toward women, flip-flopping on China threat, etc. I’m surprised that “spirituality guru” Marianne Williamson made the cut while Governor Bullock of Montana didn’t. Bullock being the only candidate to win a statewide election in a state won by Trump…But then again, we’re talking California and Montana.

Here is some background on how the matchups were decided:

According to NBC, the media sponsor for the first debate, a representative from NBC News Standards & Practices conducted the drawing.

Each campaign was invited to send one representative to NBC headquarters at Rockefeller Center in New York for the noon drawing. According to people in the room, the names were drawn and then NBC determined which set of Democratic hopefuls would debate on either night.

NBC announced that candidate podium placements would be based on polling and announced closer to the debates.

Candidates had to qualify for the first debate by either receiving at least 1% support in three polls from an approved list of pollsters or received campaign contributions from 65,000 unique donors, including 200 donors each from 20 different states.
Three Democratic hopefuls — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and Miramar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam — did not qualify for the first contest.

Let the games begin.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Joe Biden would be appalled:

A popular hunting shotgun could be banned under one of the bills moving through the state Capitol.

A pump or semi-automatic shotgun is the gun most hunters in Colorado use. It’s a gun state Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, says could be banned under a bill that’s already passed the House and Gov. John Hickenlooper says he’ll sign.

“They’re coming after the standard shotgun,” Brophy told CBS4 Political Specialist Shaun Boyd.

How can you fire it through your front door if it’s banned??

[Posted by Karl]

On Monday, The Hill’s Aaron Blake asked a number of questions for analyzing the 2010 midterm elections. The second question was, “How many more Democrats head for the exits?” Since then, three prominent Democrats have announced they will not seek relection — Sens. Byron Dorgan and Chris Dodd, plus Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. And Michigan Lt. Gov. John Cherry abandoned his campaign for governor. But these announcements may tell us less about 2010 than the instant reactions — or Blake’s piece — might suggest.

First, as lefty bloggers like Steve Benen were quick to note, even now, more GOP incumbents are retiring in the House, Senate and governorships than Democrats. Moreover, the number of vulnerable seats at issue with these retirements remains roughly equal. The conventional wisdom is that open seats are generally easier pickups, but regardless of where one comes down on that question, the landscape is close to a wash numerically.

Second, the retirements do not always benefit the GOP. Dorgan’s retirement is a likely GOP pickup, especially if (as expected) Gov. John Hoeven gets into the race. But Connecticut Attorney General Dick Blumenthal looks like a much stronger candidate than Chris Dodd, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (fmr. Sen. Ken Salazar is out) looks to be a stronger challenger than Ritter, and probably anyone could be a better candidate than Cherry. Granted, the fact that fresh faces apparently poll better than Dem incumbents does not bode well for Dems generally, but it demonstrates that an open seat is not always the best scenario for the party out of power, either.

Nevertheless, retirements can be an indicator of internal weakness. After all, one might expect fewer retirements among the party in power than in the out party. In addition, as Sean Trende noted back in October, in 1994, even if all of the Democrats who voted for the Clinton budget or the assault weapons ban had run for re-election, Republicans could have defeated enough of them to retake the House. It is too soon to say whether 2010 is shaping up as another 1994 — but the GOP does not have to win as many seats this year as they did in 1994, either.

–Karl

—

Thanks to RCP’s Jay Cost, for inspirational supporting links via Twitter.