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How Walsh's endorsement of Clinton could help him more than her

Adam Reilly makes the case:

If Walsh enters the crucible of a presidential election and makes a tangible difference - helping, in the process, to elect the first female president of the United States - he’ll achieve something his predecessor couldn't. The missteps of the first half of his first term won’t be forgotten, but they’ll suddenly seem a lot less relevant. And those of us who like to daydream about a competitive mayoral race in 2017 will have to find another political parlor game to play.

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Comments

But I'll never vote for Walsh ever again.

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Why not?

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Poor handling of snow
Poor handling of space savers
Poor handling of Patriots parade
Poor handling of Boston2024
Poor handling of IndyCar

And the guy can't handle a drink so he's against legalizing marijuana.

Aside from that?

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You're seriously knocking someone for being sober?

I agree about space savers, Boston2024, and Indycar, but whining that someone has managed to stay sober is incredibly childish and ignorant.

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...about Marty's sobriety, good for him.

The problem I have is his insistence on marijuana being a 'gateway drug' and vowing to fight legalization.

Just because he has addictive tendencies doesnt mean the rest of us should have to suffer.

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Honestly. I don't actually dislike the guy but I sure as hell didn't vote for him, and he has been everything that I expected and less. WYSIWYG. Did you really think, from that campaign, that he was going to be a brilliant, innovative, politically nimble, leaderly kind of guy whose passion for the city shines through at every moment? You thought he was going to come out against Boston 2024 before his back was absolutely against the wall, with all of those goons crowding every meeting? You thought he was going to be a hardliner on charter schools? Come on. I don't have much sympathy for anyone who feels that they were somehow misled on Marty's finer qualities.

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^

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#feelthebern

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Historically Socialism has failed every time attempted, what makes you think it will workout now. Bernie has some magical unicorn dust?

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Actually the New Deal prolonged the Great Depression. Several economists have looked at this in depth. If WWII hadn't happened which curtailed the policies and reduced international competition to ashes the US would look like/worse than Argentina today.

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We're no longer fighting World War II, but many of the issues in this Roosevelt re-election film are eerily true today.

The nose and hair are different, but it's easy to imagine Bernie Sanders as the modern express train, and the GOP as the smokey old locomotive. Instead of building war machinery, Bernie Sanders wants to create jobs by rebuilding our nation's infrastructure.

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Several economists have looked at this in depth.

And many, many more have looked at the same data and reached the opposite conclusion.

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My grandfather used to talk about the Wobblies. They would go around finding work for people who joined the party. They took care of people, and young men without jobs would follow.

Fascist states in Europe were built and powered by the idle hands of young people.

FDR knew this, and knew that the best way to ensure that would-be fascists and communists would feel great about America was to set up programs that engendered loyalty. Programs building great American things. Programs that lifted people out of hopelessness. Programs that kept men busy and well fed and feeding their families, however defined.

Grandpa left the wobblies for the CCC, and spoke glowingly about his time building Grand Coulee Dam. It was like the scout camp he never had, having left school at 13 and joined the military using his late brother's driver's license at 15.

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Um FDR's administration was packed full of Stalinist apologists and sympathizers. The US was reluctant to get into WWII because of the Soviet-Nazi pact at the outset. It wasn't until toward the end of the war that the administration realized this was a big problem.

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Frickin' America Firsters just can't resist blaming a Communist Fifth Column for their own pro-Nazi sentiments, am I right, Charlie and Henry?

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FDR replaced Henry Wallace as his VP for damn good reason. The whole Red Scare wasn't a random media fabricated panic. The USSR had extensively infiltrated the government with sympathizers prior to and during the war. Remember to many (Duranty types)the whitewashed worker's paradise was a model for the New Deal. Toward the end of the war FDR realized WWWIII might be on the horizon and that these sympathizers might turn into a national security nightmare.

When the USSR got the atomic bomb through traitors in the US atomic program

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You overestimate their influence in keeping us out of the war until Pearl Harbor, in a country that had a powerful isolationist, nativist, anti-Semitic movement.

As for Wallace, did Roosevelt remove him from the ticket because he was a Red or did party leaders engineer his removal at the 1944 Democratic convention because they realized Roosevelt might die and didn't want a liberal like him as president?

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The John Birch Society is alive and well!

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1 cup of Breitbart, 2 Tablespoons of Glenn Beck, a dash of gold buillion and 1 heaping pile of bullshit.

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Socialism failed?

Yeah, I was so glad when we got rid of the FDA, public schools, fire departments, police departments, public roads, public highways. Those things were the worst.

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on the difference between socialism and democratic socialism.

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You better not drive or flush a toilet today.

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If Walsh gets reelected it's largely going to because the city has been able to keep the tax base growing, the power of incumbency and because he hasn't done anything truly terrible. Because the mayor is such a powerful position in the city, most likely candidates tread carefully to avoid getting into conflict with him. For example, read today's Globe article about how there was a plan by civil rights activists to keep score on Walsh's promises to diversify city government but that it fell apart because people both got busy with other stuff but also they didn't want to antagonize Walsh.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/11/30/civil-rights-groups-fail-iss...

This was probably a bigger issue with Menino who could be very vindictive so this isn't a slam on Walsh per se. I don't like Walsh as a mayor but I think none of his missteps to date will be enough to dent his reelection chances.

I don't think national politics are that relevant to the mayoral race and I'd also argue that the much ballyhooed closeness of Patrick to Obama was also overblown. The construction and public sector unions and developers are way, way more important to Walsh than Clinton.

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... and would add that structurally it is very difficult to unseat a Boston mayor. If I have it right, the last sitting mayor to stand for reelection and lose was James Curley in 1949, and he didn't lose by much.

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Too bad Walsh didn't stand behind the bid thereby by putting a serious dent in his favorability ratings. Truly a missed opportunity to send this rube back to the 'private' sector.

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About 17,000 people work for the city and most live here. If you give them all a COL increase every year, never cut benefits and never lay anyone off - they will mostly vote for you. Plus many have a spouse, parent or kid that live here. About 120k people vote in a mayoral election - but if you can get city workers (not to mention the authorities like Boston Housing and the BRA) plus a family member - you pretty much lock up the election once you add in the unions (who historically back the winners) and a small number of people that you fix a street light or pothole for. Which is why someone like Menino could be mayor for life and nothing short of a severe financial crisis will ever let a reformer become mayor of Boston.

As for Hillary - I was thinking of voting for her as I don't like one party to control everything - but there are three industries that drive Boston and Mass - healthcare/biotech, financial services and higher ed. Her rhetoric is anti all of those industries - which may be good for the country - but it won't be good for us. I think she'll get the Democratic nod and thus win Mass - but you have to admit - that's a bit like giving yourself two black eyes and a broken nose.

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has shown a lot of contempt for the people in city hall. While there are certainly seat warmers there, and new ones introduced by the mayor, most city employees just want to do their jobs. The mayor and his team see conspiracy everywhere and won't release information, create shadow departments and long term messes (remember the BRA? the plan was to fix it. nothing has happened.) I wish for so many reasons our local politics were set up better--but mostly because we are probably stuck with this guy and his small-minded team.

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Saying Clinton is anti-healthcare, anti-financial, and anti-higher ed is a statement not based in reality.

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Talking about what she says she is going to do - and her reforms in all those sectors would/could significantly reduce revenue/increase costs for those industries.

Not saying I disagree philosophically - just saying that the negative impact on Mass could be tremendous if these fast growing industries stop growing - or even shrink.

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Not saying it's not true but where's the data? I know lots of BTU members and BPD personnel live outside the city, but I don't know to what percent.

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Walsh has a choice opportunity to play kingmaker on a national scale

Walsh a kingmaker? As noted in the article, his endorsements haven't been effective on a state level. What makes him think he can be effective on a national level?

I don't want to make an ass out of u and me but isn't it a given that Sec. Clinton will win the Massachusetts primary?

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Walsh admitted he was waiting to endorse Clinton because he was a Biden supporter. I don't think his heart and soul is behind Hillary insomuch as going with the union lobbyist (SEIU) flow.

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Indycar handouts in the Seaport when there is no library, school or other major permanent community facility are actions of a corrupt man and it makes a lot of sense that he would stand behind a candidate who has no real concept of middle-class and who can take bribes, allowing huge correlations to buy the presidency. Bernie for Prez!

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If Walsh can find a way to count all those college students in the census yet deny them the vote, it might make a difference for Clinton.

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Why should students get to vote both here and in the states they live? There's no way to prevent them from doing so if you allow them to register.

Whatever they use as their address on Federal Tax returns is their home address and where they should be registered to vote. Period.

Including them in census data makes some sense though since the area is providing services to them and their presence changes the overall dempgraphics of the area. That said, since it is a highly variable group of people year over year the information is less than reliable for many areas of data researchers will use so their inclusion skews as much as it clarifies.

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If they are counted here in the census, they are not counted at home.

If they vote in Boston, they do not vote at home.

You might check some of the local university websites on the subject. Many students vote at school because communities in the Northeast have made it historically very difficult to absentee vote at home.

However, if Walsh arranges major hassles under your "wahhhh they can't vote HERE" thinking, and suppresses the vote, that probably helps Hillary.

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The census is based on PERMANENT LEGAL RESIDENCY. College students can't get driver's licenses from the state they go to school in can they?

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College students here in Boston are in school for 9 months of the year - and many stay and work here during the summers too (I did).

College students should vote in the state and city in which they reside for most of the year. Just how many do you think return to their home community after finishing school? Not the majority, I assure you.

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They can be counted in both the census here and the census at home. The census conducts many more surveys than just the Decennial Census of Population and Housing (the ten year total survey required under the Constitution). That is the only one where you must respond based on your permanent resudence. A great deal of other infomation comes out of the other surveys the census bureau conducts and these are often what is relied upon for Federal funding of programs or other calculations.

And, yes, a student can potentially register here and where they live. They are committing voter fraud and is is no different than in my beloved home state of NJ where unions place members in vans and drive them from NJ to PA, NY and CT to spend a day voting for all of their favorite Democrats.

In fact, when my wife was in college in NC, student organizations were pushing students to register so they could vote against Jesse Helms and were specifically advocating they would not need to give up their registration at home.

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How can Walsh keep anyone from registering to vote and actually voting in any election?

Moreover, how does your city handle Tufts and the students that live there?

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I don't think you can stop someone from voting in both places, there's no way I can think of.

If you register in the city of Boston and also register in your hometown of Oshgosh, no one will ever know. Get an absentee ballot for your Oshgosh address and vote in person in Boston.

I hope someone will correct me and prove me wrong, I just don't see how.

This type of voter fraud would be almost impossible to uncover. I do believe it happens.

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You're makin' my point!

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I know but some people refuse to believe this. Either they are just turning a blind eye, or I'm missing something.

Swirly just says it never happens but offers no proof. I figured she'd have some kind of explanation that checks for fraud.

If she doesn't know of anything, I very much doubt that it exists.

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If you claim there is a problem that involves some solution that may infringe on rights of others or costs money or both, the burden is on you, dear.

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No one said that .

But, with that you can not possible state that voter fraud doesn't happen.

First step is recognizing there is a problem - dearie :)

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If you've ever looked at the voters registration form, you'd see that there is a place to note where, if anywhere, you've been registered to vote. This is a form one signs under pains of perjury. When one is changing their place of registration, the authority that is adding a voter informs the authority where the voter voted previously, who unenrolls said voter.

Yes, one can lie on a legal form, but your assumption that someone would do that is a bit far fetched.

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I just re registered to vote and I was honest.

Are you that naive that you think everyone is as honest?

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That a bunch of college students will register to vote in Boston for the presidential primary and purposely lie on the form if they were registered on Long Island previously (a much more likely scenario than anywhere in Wisconsin) in order to vote twice.

I have heard of scenarios where voters have taken advantage of same day registration or shorter terms than Massachusetts (which I believe requires one to register 20 or more days before an election) to vote in several primaries. That's still a boatload of effort, and sorry, looking at the figures, I don't see college kids by and large doing that.

I do think that almost everyone is honest enough to fill out a form signed under pains of perjury properly, but of course I would never say everyone would do so.

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What figures are you looking at? Really, I'm just trying to understand how anyone would catch this. Swirly and other swear it never happens but how would you prove that? No one has ever said why they think it never happens.

And yes, I do think that people would go to such lengths. People with agendas,.

Unless there is some comparisons of voter attendance nationally, voter fraud is very easy to commit. I do want to be wrong, so feel free to let me know where.

Did I use my mothers absentee ballot? How would you know?

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Here's the survey from 2008. You know, the one where a young energetic candidate got out the youth vote. Citizens aged 18-24 were 13 percentage points less likely to be registered voters than eligible voters overall, 15% less likely to have voted overall, and 6% less likely to have voted even if they were registered.

But yes, this cohort, which is consistently less likely to vote, theoretically could decide en mass to perjure themselves on a voters registration form. And yes, they could have their parents also register at their dorms, then later come back from Wisconsin (in your scenario,) to go to City Hall, fill out a form for an absentee ballot to be mailed to their hyper political children, who could theoretically break the law again by casting the parent's ballot, which the parents somehow agreed to be a party to even though the kids will not vote the way they want them to.

And a missile could have struck the Pentagon on 9/11/01, and the collapse of the World Trade Center could have been an optical illusion. That said, I deal with the real world.

I just want to know about Swirly's theory that Walsh will actively prevent college students from voting. Your theory is much, much more interesting.

By the way, if you took Swirly's advice and googled voter fraud, one of the results on the first page was a case in Indiana involving absentee ballots. However, Swirls started out talking about college kids, so your theory is still, well, interesting.

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First of all, it is actually very easy to uncover. It just doesn't seem to happen.

Funny how a google search for "voter fraud" - the actual incidents - seems largely confined to wealthy people who have multiple properties in a metro area and register in each of them.

Guess what party's ticket they tend to run for elected office on?

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The evidence of this is so apparent. I mean, what else expains the rash of Republicans elected in Greater Boston in recent years. Yes,how else did it happen???

What world do you actually live in? Have you ever actually been to Bergen County, NJ?

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How easy is it to uncover? You say, but don't explain. There is no mechanisim that centralizes voter rolls, checks for duplicates or even deceased.
I have said before my deceased mother was sent an absentee ballot to my address by the democratic party. Did I vote using that ballot and then go in person? Who knows? How would you ever find out?

So far no one has proved that voter fraud doesn't happen and that there is a system in place to prevent it.

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http://votingrights.news21.com/article/election-fraud/

Not that you don't have the burden of proof to prove that there even is a problem in the first place, but there is no problem in the first place.

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You don't seem to understand.

In the cases of college students voting at home and where they attend school, tell me Swirly dear, how would you detect the double votes?

you can say it "doesn't happen" until the cows come home but you really don't know.

And yes, people with agenda's would be crazy not to give it a try.

I referred to your link but it doesn't address what I'm saying.

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The mayor (Walsh or anyone else) wins elections by having the support of unions and $funding$ from real estate interests. So called progressives, aside from their support for union issues, in return for 'progressive' support, they get a few bones thrown their way in the form of support from city hall for some (not all, not the more outlandish stuff) 'progressive' social issues. And some 'advocates' get $jobs$ at city hall.

An incumbent also has support and power from those whose well paid jobs he helps them secure.

Support for Hillary or or anyone else has little to do with it. I'm sure he'll end up supporting the Democratic front runner and chosen candidate. It's way too early now to throw support to anyone.

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You're going to want to recheck your syntax rules, guy. Dollar signs set off variables, sure, but they sure don't WRAP variable names. And if you're trying to delineate formatted transput, we're going to have a fight on our hands, because we use ALGOL-60 standards in this house, not that bastardized upstart ALGOL-68.

On the other hand, if you're trying to make a point about progressive politics in this city, you should probably stop putting 'scare quotes' around 'concepts' that you clearly 'fail to grasp.'

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I pity all voters that rely on endorsements in order to pick their candidate. Just decide on your own.

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I lament my fate amongst such fellow citizens.

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It's hard to imagine many voters deciding who to vote for, because of this mayor of Boston's recommendation. Is there really anyone here on Universal Hub who was previously undecided, and/or changed their mind to vote for Mrs. Clinton now, because Mayor Walsh endorsed her?

It's even more preposterous to suggest the mayor will become "invincible" simply because he backed a candidate who happened to win national office.

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Practically all establishment Democrats -- elected officials, appointed officials, those who work for them and/or are part of their machine -- will fall into line behind Hillary, without question. Not many will have the courage to do otherwise. I'm just hoping that the time-servers don't add up to much in terms of numbers.

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By making him Ambassador to the Vatican, Bill Linehan will become Mayor. OMG.

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If that did happen, Michelle Wu would become mayor - assuming Clinton wins and Wu runs for and wins a second term as council president.

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I'm looking forward to another tight race.

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He would have been better off endorsing Trump. Maybe Trump could have build a casino in Boston down the road.

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