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Franklinton, N.C. A sign in a Granville County yard urging people to "kill liberals" is the latest in a string of fiery political messages posted by the homeowner, according to people in the area, who say they mostly ignore the rhetoric and the man behind it.

The sign, at the corner of Bruce Garner Road and Pocomoke Drive 2 in the southeast corner of the county reads "Civil War 'Now' Kill Liberals." The man who posted it wasn't home Wednesday when a WRAL News crew stopped by.

"This is quite offensive, and before the election, he had other offensive signs, too," said Ravinder Bindra, who runs a country store about a quarter-mile away on Bruce Garner Road. "I dont pay, most of the time, any attention."

Bindra said the sign's owner stops by his store almost daily, but the Sikh immigrant from India said the man never bothers him.

"He has not been any trouble to me so far," he said. "I dont know what his name is. See, nobody cares about him."

Some neighbors said the man, who also flies a Confederate flag, a "Don't Tread On Me" flag and a U.S. flag with only 13 stars, causes no trouble other than firing off guns in his yard and lighting bonfires with his buddies.

"That mans posted all types of (stuff) out there in his yard," said Ronnie Keith, who lives up the road from the sign's owner. "Its probably just for entertainment."

Keith said most people have an attitude similar to Bindra's when it comes to the man and his signs.

"They dont care. Its their opinion, and they know they have the right to say it," he said. "Me, myself, personally, I dont really do politics."

Bindra said the signs don't signal local sentiment.

"(If it) was of a majority of the people, then Id be worried, but a single person like him, Im not worried about any mishappening or anything," he said.

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Granville neighbors call man's 'kill liberals' sign hyperbole - WRAL.com

House Democrats think theyve finally found their path back to power: Republicans voting to repeal Obamacare.

Yes, the best thing to happen to House Democrats since they pushed through the sprawling health care law and lost the majority as a result could be the Republican drive to dismantle it.

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I think the Republicans are playing Russian roulette with this vote, said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). Theres no question in competitive districts where youve got a potentially vulnerable Republican incumbent, this could make or break you.

Democrats dont actually want the law repealed. Under their dream scenario, House GOP leaders would muscle through their controversial health care bill only to watch it die a long, painful death in the Senate, where it has already received a lukewarm reception from Republicans. Obamacare would stay intact while the House Republicans who voted to gut the law have a big shiny target on their back heading into the 2018 midterms.

I think there will be a political price to pay at the ballot box in 2018, Rep. Linda Snchez of California, vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters Tuesday.

Democrats know a thing or two about the political price of Obamacare. Republicans channeled anti-Obamacare fervor in 2010 to take back the House, costing Democrats a whopping 63 seats and the majority along the way. Republicans have found success campaigning on repeal of the law in the seven years since, dashing Democratic efforts to take back House control.

Now, with the laws support ticking up and Republicans without a popular alternative of their own, Democrats are hoping to flip the tables in their favor.

The House GOP bill in its current form would allow states to opt out of key Obamacare protections for people with pre-existing conditions and requirements that insurers offer coverage for maternity care and mental health benefits.

The attack ads write themselves, Democrats argue. And they are betting the House on it.

After seven years in the minority, rank-and-file members, many of whom were elected after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosis tenure as speaker, are restless. There are even whispers of a push for wholesale leadership changes if Democrats dont post big wins in November 2018.

Taking back the House majority is an enormous lift, even in a midterm year when voters tend to favor the party not in the White House. But Democrats think Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare even if theyre not successful could be the galvanizing message they need to bring people to the polls.

I think theres no doubt we can take back the majority of the House in 2018 if the election were today, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. The challenge, he added, is maintaining that enthusiasm for the next 18 months.

There are already positive signs for Democrats.

Democratic candidates, in part buoyed by fierce resistance to President Donald Trump, ran competitive House races last month in traditional Republican strongholds in Kansas and Georgia. And there are 23 Republicans sitting in districts Hillary Clinton won last year, giving House Democrats campaign arm a good starting place to carving a path back to the majority.

Right now, there are no guarantees the House will even vote on a bill. High-profile defectors like former House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) have put the latest Obamacare repeal effort on life support.

On Tuesday, Republican leaders were still shy of the 216 votes they need to pass the bill and scheduled a members-only meeting Thursday to reassess the bills status before a weeklong recess scheduled to begin later that day.

Democrats know that if Republicans cobble together the votes still a big if theres nothing they can do as the minority party to stop the repeal from passing. And publicly, few House Democrats will say theres an upside to House Republicans voting to repeal the law.

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Our job is to not let this see the light of day or the Senate chamber, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a leadership ally, said in an interview. Democrats will hold a news conference Wednesday with people with pre-existing conditions to spotlight the GOPs divide on the issue.

But privately, several Democratic lawmakers readily acknowledge a repeal vote would provide a silver lining. In fact, they plan to make sure the latest push will haunt even those GOP members who oppose the proposal.

You cant run away from this vote because its your leadership, said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley of New York. Even people who vote no if this bill comes to the floor.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already hit Republicans who voted for an earlier version of the health bill in committee. And just last week, before many Republicans had even weighed in on the latest proposal, the DCCC launched digital ads in 30 districts held by vulnerable Republicans.

That drumbeat will be even more relentless if Republicans actually bring the bill to the floor.

I think we feel increasingly that public opinion has swung to our point of view. And that accountability is going to be a big factor in next years election because of this vote, Connolly said. Theres a cadre of 35 to 40 Republicans who are staring death in the face if they give their vote.

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Why Democrats secretly want an Obamacare repeal vote - POLITICO

New York Times

Democrats Taunt Republicans With 'Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye' During Health Vote New York Times When it became clear on Thursday that Democrats in the United States House of Representatives could not defeat a bill to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act, they turned to a time-honored American tradition: taunting the other side. House Democrats Sing 'Na Na, Hey Hey, Good-bye'New York Magazine House Democrats sing 'na na na na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye' after GOP health plan passesThe Boston Globe Democrats' bizarre response to passing of ObamaCare repealNew York Post U.S. News & World Report -Washington Post -CNN -Talking Points Memo all 60 news articles »

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Democrats Taunt Republicans With 'Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye' During Health Vote - New York Times

Former Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the annual fund-raising dinner for New Hampshire Democrats.

MANCHESTER, N.H. As former vice president Joe Biden addressed New Hampshire Democrats last weekend, he acknowledged his appearance would kick-start conversation about the 2020 presidential race.

So he made his intentions clear, at least for now, saying, Guys, I am not running.

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But Biden was right about the start of the next presidential race. And whether or not hes a part of it, Democrats are starting to consider what kind of candidate would be an ideal opponent for the president.

Trumps candidacy was unprecedented, and his win was unexpected, so would Democrats be wise to match someone with similar celebrity power? Or should they go with an entrepreneur who has never run for office? Or is the party looking for a new face, particularly a woman or a minority?

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Daily updates and analysis on national politics from James Pindell.

Biden, in many ways, is the opposite of Trump. He served for decades in public life, knows most world leaders, and says he has never owned stock. In fact, required financial disclosures showed Biden was consistently one of the poorest members of the Senate.

Could Democrats win the White House with an unexciting but known entity who can argue that he or she will quietly just do the job without tweeting, er, making too much noise?

Democrats are just beginning to get their head around which direction they want to go, said Jim Demers, who led Barack Obamas campaign in New Hampshire in its infancy. It might come down to the boring candidates you know versus the new up-and-comers.

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Without a Clinton, Bill or Hillary, looming over or running in a presidential race for the first time in nearly 30 years, the potential field of Democratic candidates could be very large. Typically, candidates want a clear shot at the contest, so thats unusual for a presidents reelection race.

So far there appears to be a generational divide, with potential candidates like Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. All of them will be over 70 years old by the next presidential election.

At the same time, and as The New York Times pointed out this week, theres a younger generation of Democrats, including Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, or Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who could vie for the nomination.

In 2020, the Democratic base wants someone with courage, [and] new voters will want someone with vision, said Jamal Simmons, a former Democratic National Committee aide who has worked on presidential campaigns. But uniquely in this election, I think the right candidate will need to demonstrate that they are also competent and can do the job.

Another way to think of the 2020 contest is to look back to the situation Democrats faced in 1984. In that year, the party faced a former Hollywood actor and first-term president. Ronald Reagan had a rocky start to his administration, but he eventually found his way.

To challenge him, Democrats put up a field with a few different types of candidates.

In one corner was John Glenn, a US senator and national celebrity who was the first American to orbit the planet. Then there was Senator Gary Hart, a candidate known for his fresh ideas and, four years later, his extramarital affair. There was an old-school liberal, former senator George McGovern. In the end, former vice president Walter Mondale won the nomination.

Mondale went on to lose the presidential race by a landslide, winning only Minnesota and Washington, D.C.

To win the nomination, Mondales aides said they focused on his experience. Speaking after the 1984 campaign at Harvard, his pollster, Peter Hart, said a focus group during the primary showed them this strategy could work.

Hart had the new ideas that could help the economy, but when asked which candidate was better on foreign policy and doing the job, 15 hands shot up for Mondale, Hart said, according to a transcript of the event. They answered that Mondale knew what he was doing, hes experienced, hes been there.

When Hillary Clinton picked Tim Kaine as her running mate, he was criticized as being an unexciting choice for the ticket. Kaine even made self-deprecating jokes about it. But for the Clinton campaign, the choice was seen as another way to reinforce a message that the Democratic ticket was more serious about governing than was Trump.

Keeping in mind what happened with Mondale, and also with the Clinton-Kaine ticket, its a question whether Democrats will make the same decision in 2020.

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The Democratic Party's big choice in 2020 - The Boston Globe

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didn't hold back in her critique of President Trump and the 2016 election she lost to him, while speaking at Women for Women International event on May 2. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Intheaftermathofanelectionloss,itismoreimportantthanevertokeepShakespeares admonition in mind to thine own self be true. Butso far, theDemocrats appear tohave rejected aself-aware, detached point of view.They cant seem to respect the legitimacy of their defeat.

Their denialcrescendoedyesterday when Hillary Clinton blamed her defeat on FBI Director JamesComeyand emails leaked fromWikiLeaks.Iwont belabor the point, but Clinton lost because she had no economic message at a time of great economic anxiety. And, 2016 was a change election and she was the opposite of change. Her candidacy embodied thestatus quo and celebrated more of the same.

Now she wants to bea leader of the so-called resistance? Yawn.

And,ohby the way,theDemocratsdefeat in November continues one of the most gruesome politicalslaughtersany Americanpoliticalparty has ever experienced. Specifically, since 2008, Democrats have lost62House seats, nine Senate seats, 12 governorships and959state legislativeseats.Anautopsy of theDemocratsperformancethrough theObama years reveals the deepproblems that thelefthaswithwhite voters. Relative to the 2012 election, Slate notes that Clintonlost nearly 1 million white votes in the Rust Belt statesof Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.And per aPoliticoreport, Clinton lost rural Americaby a 3-to-1 margin in 2016. But Democrats dont want to hear it.Rather than ask how they can win back the voters theyve lost, the left seems to be saying goodriddanceto white, working-class Americans.

Meanwhile, themost popular Democrat in the United States is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a socialist outsider who isnt even a true Democrat. He doesnt embrace the Democratic Party as thevehicle for his political movement but has nevertheless been welcomed by the intransigent new-left as its leader. And for members of the Democratic establishment, latching onto Sanders is their only hope for maintaining some semblance of party unity even if their change agent isnt a committed Democrat.

While Republicans stagger around legislatively andfitfullybuild an administration, the Democrats are stuck carping and pursuing conspiracies of their own. Even though we are six months out from the election and no evidence suggests collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, the left is still hopelessly looking for a silver email to strike and bring down this president. Their pursuit of a smoking gun is simply dishonest and distracting.

In Washington, it is hard being in the minority. You have competing agendas, jealousies and multiple leaders who are probing the possibility of running for president themselves.It is hard to have a spokesperson that others defer to, and it is hard to make your message heard when the majority party in the White House has superior resources at its disposal. To stand a fighting chance, the minority party must launch a forceful effort, presented by nimble and sharp, made-for-TV personalities. And above all else, a coherent agenda and party unity are required. So far,theDemocrats have none of these.

Excerpt from:
The Democrats haven't learned from their defeats - Washington Post (blog)