The Commentariat -- Jan. 25, 2014

Internal links removed.

David Remnick, Ryan Lizza & Dorothy Wickenden discuss President Obama's final three years in office and his legacy:

White House: "In his weekly address, President Obama said that the Administration has taken another important step to protect women at college by establishing the White House Task Force on Protecting Students from Sexual Assault":

** Mean Mike. Gail Collins: "Basically, [Mike] Huckabee seems to be telling us that the Republican Party will not insult women by suggesting the federal government should require health insurance policies to include birth control pills in the prescription drug coverage. He appears confident that women will find that an attractive proposition.... He laid bare a fact that the party has always tried desperately to hide -- that its anti-abortion agenda is also frequently anti-contraception.... Over the past five years, as his party got raw and angry and mean, Huckabee got raw and angry and mean." ...

... CW: It's worth contrasting Collins' straight talk with moderate conservative & sometime-feminist Kathleen Parker's take on Huckabee's concerns about our out-of-control libidos. Apparently one must be a liberal to understand what Huckabee said. In any event, Parker totally misses Mean Mike's message. ...

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "... why do [Republicans] keep doing this? ... The simple answer is that they can't help themselves, but more specifically, it's a combination of ignorance, contempt, and Puritan morality that inevitably leads to these eruptions.... These kinds of statements tend to come from older conservative men who have no idea how ladyparts work, and really don't want to know.... The morality clearly reflected in these statements is that sex is inherently sinful.... Republicans think they're talking to a nation of nuns...." ...

... Digby: "... the fact that no one wants to have sex with the Mike Huckabees of the world (at least unless they are paid to do so) might just reflect badly on the men rather than the women. After all, if a man can't even be bothered to figure out how birth control works, I'm going to guess he hasn't spent a lot of time figuring out how a woman's sexual response works either." ...

... "The Speech about Women You Should Have Heard." Irin Carmon: "For anyone listening [to President Obama's remarks about protecting college students from sexual assault], this speech was profoundly radical. It accepted as a basic premise that freedom from sexual violation is a ground rule for equal participation in society. It lacked even a passing, prurient interest in drunk girls or in boys who would be boys. It proposed a higher form of masculinity that wasn't about chivalrous deference to women as gentler creatures, but about seeing women as people deserving autonomy, people for whom violence could mean that 'we're all deprived of their full potential'":

Lawrence Hurley of Reuters: "The U.S. Supreme Court said on Friday that, while litigation continues, an order of Roman Catholic nuns need not comply with a part of President Barack Obama's healthcare law requiring employers to provide insurance that covers contraception. In the latest skirmish over religious objections to providing government-mandated contraception, the four-sentence court order was a partial victory for the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Baltimore-based order of nuns that runs nursing homes, and Illinois-based Christian Brothers Services, which manages healthcare plans for Catholic groups." ...

... Lyle Denniston elaborates on ScotusBlog. ...

... Irin Carmon: "... in a one-paragraph answer to the Little Sisters' emergency appeal for a reprieve from the rule, the Supreme Court has made it even weirder."

Sy Mukherjee of Think Progress: "Chain retailer Target announced on Wednesday that it will stop offering health insurance to employees who work less than 30 hours per week, instead sending these workers to Obamacare's insurance marketplaces to buy new plans. The announcement was quickly picked up by conservative outlets as proof that the health law is giving workers short shrift. To the contrary, these part-time workers will most likely be better off under Obamacare plans, and Target's decision to shift the employees into the marketplaces is definitive proof that the health law is doing exactly what it's intended to do."

Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Critics of the Affordable Care Act are seizing on a decades-old provision in Medicaid law to scare lower-income Americans from signing up for health care insurance, warning newly eligible enrollees that the federal government could take their house and other assets once they die."

Joe Nocera: For the severely mentally ill, care options are worse today than they were 30 years ago.

Zeke Miller of Time: "... the Republican National Committee passed a resolution Friday calling for an investigation into the 'gross infringement' of Americans' rights by National Security Agency programs that were revealed by Edward Snowden. The resolution also calls on on Republican members of Congress to enact amendments to the Section 215 law that currently allows the spy agency to collect records of almost every domestic telephone call."

Cameron Joseph of the Hill: "A series of changes aimed at tightening the GOP presidential primary calendar sailed through a vote at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting, giving the party new tools to control its nomination process. The new 2016 rules will make it much harder for states to cut in line in the nomination process and will help Republicans avoid a repeat of a drawn out, bloody primary many believe damaged Mitt Romney's chances in 2012 of defeating President Obama."

Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: The White House is establishing an internal political operation & has named a director.

Dana Milbank: "Apologize, then blame someone else." Hey, it's the conservative way. ...

Joe Coscarelli of New York: "[Thursday], Think Progress noted that in the first fourteen school days of 2014, there have been at least seven school shootings in the United States. That number is already out of date: One student was shot and killed this afternoon on the campus of South Carolina State University...." ...

... Here's the Think Progress story, by Adam Peck.

Senate Race

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: The senatorial campaign of Michelle Nunn, daughter of former George Sen. Sam Nunn (D) "will test whether the rapidly changing demographics of Georgia -- where state elections data show that the white vote dropped to 61 percent of the total in 2012 from 75 percent in 2000 -- have shifted enough to return a Democrat to Washington. And it will reveal how much legacy still matters in politics."

Presidential Election 2016

"Planet Hillary." Amy Chozick has the cover story for the New York Times Magazine on All Hillary's Friends. The raw ambition is sort of sickening. The cover itself is hideous. ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "The real news in on the front of Friday's [New York Times], though, and it comes from Nicholas Confessore.... [Story linked in yesterday's Commentariat.] Right now, twenty-four months before the Iowa primary, and at a point when not a single serious candidate has declared that she or he is running for President, Priorities USA, the Democratic Super PAC that raised and spent wads of cash in support of President Obama's 2012 reëlection campaign, is putting its money and expertise behind -- you guessed it -- Hillary Clinton.... The most immediate implications of the decision by Priorities USA, which was founded by two former Obama-campaign officials, Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, are for anybody who is thinking of challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination ... : don't bother! This thing is already sewn up. If you go ahead with your foolhardy pursuit, you'll be crushed. Not only will you be confronting the candidate with the most experience and strongest poll numbers, you will also be going up against practically the entire Democratic establishment: the best campaign managers, the wiliest spinmeisters, the biggest of big-name endorsers, the most modern technology, and the deepest pockets."

Local News

Shawn Boburg of the Bergen Record: "The Port Authority will not pick up the legal bills of a former executive at the center of an investigation into the George Washington Bridge access lane closures. On Friday morning, the agency notified David Wildstein, the agency executive who ordered the September lane closures, that it had turned down his request for indemnification, a Port Authority spokesman said. The notification said Wildstein's request 'would not be warranted' under the agency's bylaws, the spokesman said. Those bylaws state that the Port Authority will provide current and former employees with legal representation if the action in question fell within their job duties, according to its bylaws. It will not pay if there was fraud, malice, misconduct or intentional wrongdoing, the bylays state."

News Ledes

AP: "Someone armed with a gun opened fire at a busy shopping mall in suburban Baltimore late this morning and three people died, including the person believed to be the shooter, died, police said. The shooting took place at the Mall in Columbia, a suburb of both Baltimore and Washington, D.C." ...

     ... The Washington Post story is here.

     ... CW: I wonder when the governments of "normal" countries are going to start issuing travel warnings to their citizens, urging them not to travel to the U.S. because it's an unstable, dangerous place.

Guardian: "The Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, has offered two opposition leaders top government posts on Saturday, the presidential website said on Saturday, after the two sides met for talks aimed at seeking an end to a violent political crisis. Former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk would be offered the post of prime minister and Vitaly Klitschko ... would be proposed as deputy prime minister responsible for humanitarian issues, the website said."

AP: "A judge on Friday ordered a Texas hospital to remove life support for a pregnant, brain-dead woman whose family had argued that she would not want to be kept in that condition. Judge R. H. Wallace Jr. issued the ruling in the case of Marlise Munoz. John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth has been keeping Munoz on life support against her family's wishes. The judge gave the hospital until 5 p.m. CST Monday to remove life support. The hospital did not say Friday whether it would appeal."

Politico: "Jesse Ryan Loskarn, a one-time star staffer who was the former top aide to Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, was found dead Thursday afternoon following charges he possessed and distributed child pornography, according to the sheriff's office in Carroll County, Maryland. Loskarn, 35, is believed to have committed suicide."

AP: "Egyptian riot police have fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi protesting as the country marks the third anniversary of the 2011 uprising." ...

     ... Washington Post UPDATE: "Rival groups of demonstrators across the country were met with deadly force. Clashes between police and anti-coup protesters aligned with Mohamed Morsi, the ousted Islamist president, left 29 dead and nearly 170 injured, according to the Health Ministry, one day after six people were killed in a string of attacks on security targets in Cairo. Twenty-six of the deaths were in greater Cairo, the ministry said.

The Commentariat -- Jan. 24, 2014

Internal links removed.

... Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute: "The minimum wage is 23 percent less than its peak inflation-adjusted value in 1968. This is despite productivity (how much output can be produced in an average hour of work in the economy) more than doubling in that time period. The low-wage workforce has surely contributed to this rise in economy-wide productivity, since as a group they have far more education now than they did then." Via Daily Kos.

The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes. -- John Maynard Keynes,1936 ...

     ... ** Paul Krugman: "... it applies to our own time, too. And, in a better world, our leaders would be doing all they could to address both faults." Krugman goes on to show how unemployment, inequality, & economic crisis go hand-in-hand-in-hand. ...

... Tim Egan: Bill Gates predicted that "by 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world."

Savvy Businessman Jamie Dimon gets a raise, despite the fact that JPMorgan Chase had to pay $20 billion in fines this past year.

I think a lot of it was unfair. -- Jamie Dimon, while hobnobbing with the super-rich & famous in Davos, Switzerland, on the way federal regulators' "assaulted" JPMorgan

David Remnick of the New Yorker has more from "The Obama Tapes."

Richardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "The uninsured rate dropped modestly this month as expanded coverage rolled out under President Barack Obama's health care law, a major survey released Thursday has found. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found that the uninsured rate for U.S. adults dropped by 1.2 percentage points in January, to 16.1 percent. That would translate to roughly 2 million to 3 million people gaining coverage."

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Democrats are drawing their red line against debt limit concessions -- again. Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) will release a letter later Friday saying Democrats will not heed any GOP demands in exchange for hiking the debt limit next month in the latest round of the fiscal fights that have plagued the Capitol." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Two years ago, the demands were for trillions of dollars in cuts. Then it became 'the Boehner Rule,' which was the Speaker's made-up requirement that the House would demand equal-size spending cuts every time it lifted the debt ceiling. Now they're just floating a bunch of scattershot attacks on Obamacare, without even the pretext of reducing the debt, which was the whole rationale for threatening a crisis in the first place.... But you can only try this bluff once. The only way it could still work would be if Obama either paid a ransom or Republicans shot the hostage. Once the mark knows you're bluffing, it's over. You can't do it again. Nobody is falling for this":

Julie Creswell & Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "This month, the Justice Department said it had joined eight separate whistle-blower lawsuits against [Health Management Associates, a for-profit hospital chain based in Naples, Fla.,] in six states. The lawsuits describe a wide-ranging strategy that is said to have relied on a mix of sophisticated software systems, financial incentives and threats in an attempt to inflate the company's payments from Medicare and Medicaid.... The accusations reach all the way to the former chief executive's office, whom many of the whistle-blowers point to as driving the strategy." CW: I am totally shocked that a Florida-based for-profit hospital conglomerate would engage in Medicaid & Medicare fraud, Rick Scott.

Steve Kenny of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Thursday that the United States was willing to discuss how the criminal case against Edward J. Snowden would be handled, but only if Mr. Snowden pleaded guilty first. Mr. Holder, speaking at a question-and-answer event at the University of Virginia, did not specify the guilty pleas the Justice Department would expect before it would open talks with Mr. Snowden's lawyers. And the attorney general reiterated that the United States was not willing to offer clemency to Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has leaked documents that American officials have said threaten national security." ...

... Kate Tummarello of the Hill: "National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden on Thursday said he would be willing to return to the United States if he were able to mount a legal defense as a whistleblower. 'Returning to the US, I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself, but it's unfortunately not possible in the face of current whistleblower protection laws, which through a failure in law did not cover national security contractors like myself,' Snowden wrote during an online chat." CW: Apparently his bids to help Germany & Brazil guard against U.S. cyberspying did not go well.

"The Hidden History of the CIA's Prison in Poland." Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "The CIA prison in Poland was arguably the most important of all the black sites created by the agency after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It was the first of a trio in Europe that housed the initial wave of accused Sept. 11 conspirators, and it was where Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-declared mastermind of the attacks, was waterboarded 183 times after his capture.... But what happened in Poland more than a decade ago continues to reverberate, and the bitter debate about the CIA's interrogation program is about to be revisited."

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "Dinesh D'Souza ... was indicted on Thursday on charges that he used straw donors to illegally donate to a 2012 Senate campaign. Mr. D'Souza is an outspoken political commentator who directed '2016: Obama's America,' a scathing anti-Obama documentary released in the final months of the president's re-election campaign. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said that Mr. D'Souza encouraged others to give $20,000 to a Senate candidate and reimbursed them for the donations. Election law prohibits such arrangements and caps donations at $5,000 per donor to any one candidate." ...

... Schadenfreude Gives Way to Guffaws. J. K. Trotter of Gawker: "D'Souza is scheduled to be arraigned in Manhattan on Friday. He is also scheduled to debate former Weatherman Bill Ayers on January 30 at Dartmouth College about what makes America so great."

Laura Barron-Lopez of the Hill: "Climate change may get in the way of future Olympic Winter Games, a new study finds. If the globe continues to warm at its current rate -- without taking measures to mitigate climate change -- only six out of the last 19 locations that hosted the winter games will be cold enough to hold them by the end of the century, according to the report conducted by the University of Waterloo and Austria's Management Center at Innsbruck." CW: Finally something that could get politicians to do something to abate global warming. ...

... Ah, Another Incentive. Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke's balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force." Thanks to contributor Mushiba for the link.

Thomas Caton & Brody Mullins of the Wall Street Journal: "Behind the scenes..., [Google] has been working hard to change its profile as an ally of the Democratic Party, courting Republicans and building alliances with conservatives at a time when regulators and Congress are considering issues affecting its business interests." CW: Story is firewalled. If the link doesn't work, cut & paste part of the sentence into a Google search box. Irony intended required.

All Bob's Friends -- Are Crooks. Jonathan Deinst of NBC News-4 New York: "The federal criminal investigation into New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez [D] is broader than previously known.... The Department of Justice is investigating Menendez's efforts on behalf of two fugitive bankers from Ecuador, multiple current and former U.S. officials tell NBC 4 New York. The probe into Menendez's dealing with the bankers comes as federal authorities are also investigating his relationship to a big campaign donor from Florida." With video. ...

... Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez is striking back against new corruption allegations regarding his ties to two Ecuadorian bankers who are accused of defrauding account holders in Ecuador to the tune of $100 million."

Local News

Michael Isikoff of NBC News: "FBI agents have begun questioning witnesses in the investigation into whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's aides threatened to cut off Hurricane Sandy relief money to Hoboken unless the city's mayor backed a billion-dollar development project, three sources with direct knowledge of the probe told NBC News on Wednesday. Federal prosecutors and agents have also instructed key witnesses to preserve all documents and emails relating to the allegations by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, these sources said.... Federal agents questioned Dan Bryan, Zimmer's chief of staff, and Juan Melli, her communications director.... The two Zimmer aides are among at least five witnesses who Zimmer told the FBI could confirm that she had previously told them about the conversation she says she had with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno last May." ...

... Darryl Isherwood of NJ.com: "The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey has issued a subpoena for documents to both the Christie for Governor reelection campaign and the New Jersey Republican State Committee, an attorney for both organizations confirmed today.... The subpoenas request documents from the two organizations in relation to the investigation into lane diversions at the George Washington Bridge in September." ...

... Tom Haydon of the Star-Ledger reported this story January 17, but it's just now getting more attention: "Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage says recalling he complained about political retribution back in 2010. Bollwage on Thursday said that shortly after Christie first became governor, he closed the Motor Vehicle Commission office in Elizabeth because Bollwage, along with Union County Democrats state Sen. Raymond Lesniak and Assemblyman Joe Cryan, opposed some of governor's legislative efforts, such as an annual cap on budget and property tax hikes. Bollwage said Elizabeth also was denied red-light cameras, while surrounding municipalities received approvals. Christie spokesman Colin Reed disputed Bollwage's claim that closing the motor vehicles office was political, stating the move saved hundreds of thousands of tax dollars." CW: Yes, withholding basic services can save lots of tax dollars. (It's true that the DMV is revenue-producing, but almost everybody who needs drivers licenses or car tags will go out of his way to get them.) ...

... Matt Katz of WNYC: "The Christie administration has quietly cut its ties to an embattled company that had New Jersey's biggest contract for getting Sandy victims back in their homes. Homeowners and legislators had widely criticized the company's performance, taking some of the gloss off Governor Chris Christie's signature project: Sandy recovery. Christie officials - who as recently as two weeks ago gave legislators in Trenton no hint that the contract had been cancelled - wouldn't say on Thursday why the deal with Hammerman and Gainer, or HGI, was terminated more than two years before completion." CW: Could there be a seedy untold backstory here?

Can This Marriage Be Saved? Rosalind Helderman & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Maureen McDonnell relayed to federal prosecutors last summer that she felt responsible for the relationship with a wealthy businessman..., and her attorney asked whether the case could be resolved without charges for her husband.... Instead, months later, authorities proposed that then-Gov. Robert F. McDonnell plead guilty to one felony fraud charge that had nothing to do with corruption in office and his wife would avoid charges altogether. The governor rejected the offer.... Since the indictment was handed up on Tuesday, the former governor's comments have focused almost exclusively on his own innocence." ...

... Gene Robinson: "Nobody's as stupid as Bob McDonnell pretends to be."

Jeff Karoub & David Eggert of the AP: "Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder asked the federal government Thursday to set aside thousands of work visas for bankrupt Detroit, a bid to revive the decaying city by attracting talented immigrants who are willing to move there and stay for five years.... The proposal involves EB-2 visas, which are offered every year to legal immigrants who have advanced degrees or show exceptional ability in certain fields.... The visas are not currently allocated by region or state. And the number he is seeking -- 50,000 over five years -- would be a quarter of the total EB-2 visas offered."

Ian Simpson of Reuters: "The company behind a chemical spill that left about 300,000 people in West Virginia without tap water failed to disclose a second chemical in the leak, state officials said on Wednesday. The company, Freedom Industries, had previously said that only one chemical, crude MCHM, had spilled from one of its storage tanks into the Elk River at Charleston on January 9. Freedom Industries told the state Department of Environmental Protection on Tuesday that a second chemical, PPH, was in the above-ground tank despite an order immediately after the spill to disclose what was in it, the department said in a statement."

Congressional Races

** A Sobering Reality Chek. Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "The GOP's effort to rebrand itself didn't get far -- but it may not matter: It's winning anyway.... Republicans are almost guaranteed to keep the House of Representatives in November; they have about a 50-50 chance of taking the majority in the U.S. Senate; and they are likely to keep their majority of the nation's governor's mansions." AND "Republicans will have a 64 percent chance of victory" in the 2016 presidential contest, according to a model developed by John Sides. ...

... Presidential Election 2016

This Is Depressing. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "The Obama political operation that once buried Hillary Rodham Clinton's White House ambitions is now rapidly converging around her possible 2016 presidential bid, conferring on Mrs. Clinton enormous early advantages in money, expertise and voter targeting techniques. On Thursday, Priorities USA Action, a 'super PAC' that played an important role in helping re-elect President Obama, announced that it was formally aligning itself with Mrs. Clinton and would begin raising money to fend off potential opponents for 2016. The group -- the largest Democratic super PAC in the country -- also named new directors, appointments that will cement the group's pro-Clinton tilt...."

Zeke Miller of Time: "The Republican National Committee took steps Thursday to change how it will pick its presidential candidate in 2016, the latest effort by the national party to tighten control over the primary calendar.... It’s all about the money. The RNC, is looking to free up those general election dollars sooner by moving the 2016 convention to late June or mid-July. On Thursday, the RNC's Rules Committee, continued to ease the path for better-funded establishment candidates to avoid the type of 'long slog' against poorly-organized and under-funded candidates that Mitt Romney was subjected to."

Sex and the GOP

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Mike Huckabee says Democrats make women feel helpless to control their libido by offering government-sponsored birth control":

     ... Peter Grier of the Christian Science Monitor: "'It sounds offensive to me, and to women,' said White House spokesman Jay Carney when asked about the remarks, which Huckabee made during a luncheon appearance at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting." ...

     ... Fade to Guffaw. Again. Dave Weigel: "Earlier today, Harvard's Institute of Politics announced that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who's currently a Fox News host and who may run for president again in 2016, would be a 'visiting fellow' for the spring semester." ...

     ... CW: May I suggest, in the interest of efficiency, that the Harvard student clinic set up its free contraceptives booth in front of Huckabee's classroom so the ladies of Harvard can picket while they wait in line for condoms, pills & other Democratic reproductive handouts.

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) revealed on Thursday that he had become a congressman because he was outraged that single women were having as many as 15 babies and getting welfare checks." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

News Ledes

AP: "Syria's government handed an ultimatum to a U.N. mediator hoping to broker peace in the country's civil war, vowing to leave if 'serious talks' do not begin by Saturday. The delegation chosen by President Bashar Assad met for less than 90 minutes Friday with U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi as part of a peace conference with the Western-backed opposition. The meeting has been on the verge of falling apart ever since it was conceived."

AP: "A string of bombings hit police around Cairo on Friday, including a suicide car blast that ripped through the city's main police headquarters and wrecked a nearby museum of Islamic artifacts. Five people were killed in the most significant attack yet in the Egyptian capital at a time of mounting confrontation between Islamists and the military-backed government."

All Our Presidents Are Losers

As noted in today's Commentariat, Peter Beinert thinks he has picked a winner for the Republican presidential nomination: "Don't laugh, Beinert writes in the Atlantic, "Rand Paul is the 2016 Republican frontrunner.... He has built-in advantages in Iowa and New Hampshire, a party moving in his direction, and formidable fundraising potential."

I suppose Paul could win the GOP nomination, but he will not be the next President of the United States. Here's why:

At the 1952 Democratic convention, John F. Kennedy lost to Estes Kefauver in balloting for the vice-presidential nomination.

Lyndon Johnson lost three elections. In 1941 he ran for a special election for the U.S. Senate & lost to Texas Gov. Pappy O'Daniel. “Landslide Lyndon” ran for the Senate again in 1948, and though he lost at the ballot box, he “won” through voter fraud. At the 1960 Democratic convention, Johnson lost the presidential nomination to Kennedy on the first ballot.

Richard Nixon of course lost the presidency to Kennedy that year, and lost the governorship of California to incumbent Pat Brown (Jerry's father) two years later.

Jerry Ford never lost an election before he became president, but he also was never elected president. Nixon had appointed him vice president to replace Spiro Agnew, who resigned after pleading no-contest to criminal charges. When Ford did run for president, he lost.

Jimmy Carter came in third in a primary race for governor of Georgia in 1966.

Ronald Reagan lost in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976.

George Bush I ran for the U.S. Senate in 1964 & lost in the general election. He lost to Democrat Lloyd Bentsen in another Senate bid in 1970. He lost a presidential primary bid to Reagan in 1980.

Bill Clinton lost a Congressional bid in 1974. After being elected governor of Arkansas in 1978, he lost a re-election bid in 1980.

George W. Bush lost a Congressional race in 1978.

Barack Obama lost a Congressional primary race (by a margin of two to one!) in 2000.

Rand Paul has never lost an election.