What are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Flaws?

I thought she did a pretty bad job with Abrams the other day fwiw. Consider that not all politicians are equally talented?

XP and in orbit OTM, there doesn’t need to be a winner of a contest here.

Overall I was amazed at how rare it was for anyone on camera yesterday to be able to speak in full sentences that actually landed where they were going. Like, worse than the general population of my workplace, which is saying something. AOC and all the Dems in general were better spoken than any GOPers afaict but really it was shocking. Aside from maybe Justin Amash, I could tell which party was speaking even when I wasn't watching the video just by listening for subject-verb agreement.

xps oof back to read-only itt

Like, don't these people have to campaign and make speeches to get elected?? xp to self

I think the best thing about AOC - which was probably indicative of the 2018 election as a whole - is no doubt her ability to draw more young people into this maelstrom of bullshit to make it a better place. I caught myself the other day thinking, jeez, this person (at least for now) really seems like a political virtuoso, where has she been?! And then my brain immediately reminded me, duh, she's almost 20 years younger than me, still in her late 20s, this is about as early as she can get in there.

^^^ I was shocked by how terrible some of the congresspeople with JDs(actively had practiced) were with their questioning.

I was shocked at how much better Michael Cohen, graduate of the alleged worst law school in the country, did than several of those chuckleheads.

Like, don't these people have to campaign and make speeches to get elected??

a lot of them don't

AOC is on another level than Omar. She's clear, confident, to the point, doesn't grandstand, makes substantive contributions, etc. She's a political wizard. Omar struggles to articulate her thoughts, she mostly produces political outrage soundbites. It's just not apples to apples.

XP and in orbit OTM, there doesn’t need to be a winner of a contest here.

They’re our main marketable product really

I think because of what a crazy-huge national profile AOC has garnered in such a short period of time (at least half-driven by thirsty-ass dudes on the right), it's very easy to overlook that each of these people's main job is to represent the interests and needs of their constituencies. and just by the fact of their identities I think AOC, Omar, and Tlaib are innately already doing a better job than probably anyone any of these districts has had in a long time. without looking it up I know MN has large Somali communities and I assume that's true of Omar's district, and the same with Tlaib and Muslim-Americans and AOC and Puerto Ricans.

new poll : Best New Congresswoman
poll end 12/31/9999

I was shocked by how terrible some of the congresspeople with JDs (actively had practiced) were with their questioning.

This is mainly a function of lazy preparation and mediocre staff work, not just a tediously unimaginative Republican strategy that was dictated by the leadership. Most reps spend huge amounts of time on the phone schmoozing big donors and leave much of the serious work of research and legislative strategy to their staff, who brief them on what to do 'just-in-time'. That's why AOC praised her "overpaid staff" to them. She and they know where the real work gets done.

The republicans’ whole project was to deflect. There wasn’t really a “good” way they could have done it.

Their whole tactic was to say Cohen was asking for it and he never said 'no'.

Not a cool guy, obviously, but Cohen crushed it honestly, especially when he told them that he got in trouble because he did the same thing they were doing—defending Trump by any means they could

Wasn't this thread title going to be changed because it was terrible?

No. Only pitchfork and stalin try to rewrite history.

The archives should stay as they are (barring something egregious obviously)

also this is insane to rank them in terms of jobs well done. All three were noticeable better than most/all. AOC is the winner if we are going there. sheesh.

― Yerac, Thursday, February 28, 2019 4:13 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is true. i was responding to some posts above, but it is a silly game. sorry for contributing to it.

although i should note that if people compare/contrast it's partly because
1) they are all freshman congresspeople w/ high profiles
2) they actually make lots of public appearances together, and IIRC aren't omar and tlaib AOC's apartmentmates?

so it's not like the only reason for "grouping" them is b/c they are women of color. they actually kind of run in a pack! in a good way!

I could tell which party was speaking even when I wasn't watching the video just by listening for subject-verb agreement.

Well, that and having to reach for the volume button on my computer to turn down the blowhard GOP firebreathers.

yeah I'm not sure what a "winning" Republican strategy could've been, given that Cohen was going to prison trying to protect Trump. still, I am pretty sure "yell and shame Cohen until you're red in the face" was probably not the best way to do it

Let us remember that for at least 20 years the GOP has run people whose purpose is to be as incompetent as possible to show how incompetent the federal govt is

i'm not sure you can call that "purposeful" -- it's just kind of a dynamic of its own.

a vicious circle, if you will

NHS, that's the mission, expressed in a leaked Bush-era memo.

*nah

That *would* be your autocorrect

You're welcome!

Michael Cohen, graduate of the alleged worst law school in the country

To be fair, Rashida Tlaib also got her JD from the same place (as did Joseph Overton of "window" fame). It's basically a diploma mill for law degrees and a bunch of MI political types have gone there (it's also right down the road from me).

xpost

i was wondering what the National Health has to do w/ this!

WaPo hyping up Dem discord, or moderates stepping on rakes (or both!)?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-democrats-explode-in-recriminations-as-liberals-lash-out-at-moderates/2019/02/28/c3d163fe-3b87-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html?utm_term=.3fe3d46d9867

this seems like the key bit:

Publicly and privately, Pelosi has urged members to treat the Republican motions as procedural feints that should be routinely ignored. “Vote no — just vote no,” she told reporters Thursday, “because the fact is, a vote yes is to give leverage to the other side.” But Hoyer and Clyburn believe that is untenable when Republicans stand ready to use those votes as political cudgels against vulnerable Democrats.

somehow Hoyer and Clyburn still not understanding that the GOP is NEVER going to give you credit for voting with them. they don't need a cudgel; regardless of which way you vote they're going to smear you as a MS-13 coddling Communist baby-killer when campaign season rolls around.

Republicans buy cudgels by the freight car load, because you can never have too many cudgels. And besides, the Republicans in the House know they have nothing else to do for two years than polish their cudgel collection.

something to keep in mind when pondering AOC's smart questioning etc - not to say she's not talented or smart, but keep in mind she actually has time to confer with staff and do research and stuff since she's not bound to the conventional donor relationships and the schedule that entails

Per the @aoc call time conversation, here is how the DCCC suggests to freshmen that they spend their time as members of Congress. (GOP is no different.) https://t.co/gIVPLErblM pic.twitter.com/DTZFp14Wim

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 1, 2019

one thing missed in the coverage btw is that she DID do a bit of what could be construed as grandstanding by connecting the dots to something local to her district and vividly meaningful to the people who elected her, talking abt the stupid huge trump golf course in the bronx. but she did it smartly and it didn't crowd out her actually questioning the person who had been called in to be questioned, which yeah she did better than anybody. just bam bam bam who else should we be calling in here to question about x, what do we need to subpoena.

i guess not grandstanding exactly, but, yknow, using a portion of her 5 mins for making a point.

Trump’s tax returns have long been a white whale for Democrats eager to determine if they can prove that the President committed tax fraud or engaged in untoward foreign dealings.

But Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony this week strengthened Democrats’ motivation for requesting them from the IRS, Democratic aides told NBC.

Cohen testified that Congress could find in Trump’s tax returns proof that the President alternately deflated the value of his assets to lower his taxes and inflated their value to insurance companies as it suited his business interests.

“Would it help for the committee to obtain federal and state tax returns from the president and his company to address that discrepancy?” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) asked Cohen at one point during his testimony before the House Oversight Committee.

“I believe so,” Cohen replied.

thanking you, aoc

God I hope she shames a few of these fools into stepping their game up. Lady shouldn’t have to be doing everything around here.

Omar is doing great: https://www.mediaite.com/online/rep-ilhan-omar-defies-democratic-leaders-by-refusing-to-recognize-venezuelas-guaido-absolutely-not/

“Well the constitution of Venezuela says that there needs to be an election called within 30 days and we’re waiting for that to happen. What we should be involved in is having diplomatic conversations and bringing people to the table and being a partner in facilitating that,” Omar said, adding “we are threatening, we are threatening intervention” and “sending humanitarian aid that is in the guise of, you know, eventually invading this country and the people of the country don’t want us there.”

When asked if she recognizes the opposition as the leader, Omar, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “Absolutely not.”

Apparently Bezos is trying to cancel her or something. Sounds very tedious. Hope she can handle the establishment's first concerted effort to derail her

idk if this is a flaw but i do want to know why she put out this broad vague set of aspirational guidelines for the green bill and didn't partner up with a leftist climate group to propose and promote an actual bill. why just throw out these goals and hope for someone else to figure out the legislation?

it seems really half-assed

think the goal was to move the Overton window as quickly as possible rather than come out with a detailed, concrete plan, which could take months to put together

she's only been on the job for like 2 months

there are so many NGOs out there not one of them has legislation prepared that she could back? maybe this is the secret to why the left is so ineffective bc i'm sure Cato or whoever have a stack of legislation for every topic you might want to pursue just waiting for a congressperson to champion

I do not care what the “green new deal” actually is or might be but it sure as heck is a punchy phrase and so I’m in favor of rallying people behind it. The Medicare for all bill is real but who knows what’s actually in it? Not me. Who cares

there are so many NGOs out there not one of them has legislation prepared that she could back? maybe this is the secret to why the left is so ineffective bc i'm sure Cato or whoever have a stack of legislation for every topic you might want to pursue just waiting for a congressperson to champion

― Mordy, Thursday, March 7, 2019

Ya think this version of the GOP cares about policy positions?

I'm perfectly happy with talking points for now.