Anyone who remembers that long string of 59-41 Senate votes during 2010 is forever disabused of the notion of Susan Collins as any sort of moderate.
the people of Maine sent her back to Washington. Apparently they approved of her votes. So unless Maine has turned red, she’s moderate. A lot of Democrats did lose their jobs though, even in blue states. So you should perhaps reassess who wasn’t being moderate from 2009-2010.
Is this the adaher principle in action, whereby moderation is a major boost to a candidate with an ®? ®, me hearties, ®! ®!
Trump sent a care package of water and towels to Rubio. Trump is pictured on the items.
Cause he sweats so much.
Collins backed Obama on multiple initiatives during initial string of 2009 and voted for the New START treaty. Unemployment benefits extension in April 2010. She supported Cash for Clunkers and the HR1 Stimulus in 09. (only one of two Republicans to do so). And voted for repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Even recently last year she voted with Dems on S 2578, theProtect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act.
She has countless other votes, of course, supporting the GOP. But if there IS still somewhat of a moderate in the Senate I think she fits the bill.
It’s ridiculously immature and juvenile on Trump’s part, but his tweaking Rubio over the water thing really is pretty funny.
“Talk like a pirate” day was last month, so is this “talk like a Republican” day? 
At any rate, my impression of Susan Collins is that she’s been able to stay in office by talking like a moderate, but breaking from her party only once every blue moon or so when it came time to vote.
In the 112th Congress (2011 to 2013) she voted with the Republicans 66% of the time, second only to Dean Heller of Nevada in crossing the aisle. I’d say that was more than once in a blue moon.
Anybody who voted against even such a moderate and quite conservative health care reform bill as the Affordable Care Act is not a moderate in any meaningful and real sense of the term.
Given the solid GOP majority in the House in that Congress, I’m gonna call ‘free vote,’ i.e. when your party leader tells you to vote whichever way will help keep you popular with the home folks so you can win re-election, because your vote isn’t needed.
In 2010, Collins’ vote mattered. With a solidly Dem House, and 59 Senators in the Dem caucus, her vote was, or could have been, the tipping point.
I don’t want to start another Trump thread, so I’ll ask this question here. Assuming Trump drops out before it becomes obvious who the eventual nominee is, who do you think he will endorse? Would his endorsement possibly make a difference? I ask mostly because I wonder who the people currently supporting Trump would move on to should Trump drop out. Who do you see winning over the Trump supporters when he drops out?
Those are two different questions.
Who will Trump endorse? Trump. I cannot see a scenario in which he endorses another candidate unless he is paid handsomely (in which case, Bush) or has an excellent quid pro quo (less likely, because if his candidate doesn’t win, he gets nothing).
Who will Trump supporters go to? I suspect Fiorina. She has no political experience, isn’t black, Asian, or Latino*, is a good speaker, and is just the right combination of savvy and insane. He’s more likely to cut a backroom deal with her to drop out first and have her endorse him, though, so in that case… I dunno. Maybe Carson.
*Hey, I just realized, this is the first time we’ve had at least one of each of these as contenders for a major political party.
Trump supporters should eventually end up with Cruz.
Mittens waits patiently by the phone…
Fiorina’s just a more masculine Lindsey Graham and Cruz is an actual Tea Partier-neither of which ideologies are particularly to Trump voters.
QFT.
Donald Trump: The Choice of Dutch White Supremacists!
via Talking Points Memo:
[Long story; lots of shenanigans:
So. Once again, its the Dutch. Uh-huh.
Trump is “to the left” of most of the other major GOP contenders, while Cruz might be the most right-wing of any Presidential candidate ever, not excepting Lester Maddox or Howard Phillips.
But you’re probably right. Trump supporters aren’t policy geeks; they’re into bombast and zaniness. If a charismatic candidate emerged who only wanted to talk about flying saucers and alien abductions, he’d probably soar past Trump and Cruz in the polls.