Walter Shapiro

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

Isn't Teleprompter Trump also boring Trump? — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@DKarol @StevenHerbert @realDonaldTrump It always amused me that the Bernie folks never figured out that, in theory, the Democratic Convention could pass a rules change giving first ballot votes to super-delegates. And the super-delegates could vote on the rule. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@DKarol @StevenHerbert Not pushing Booker whose campaign is like "Waiting for Godot" performed in seven acts. But in the past we didn't totally write off candidates because they hadn't made a move by two months before Iowa. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@dkahanerules You may be right. That said, this was Allen's view and, of course, he would go to a foreign-policy guy like Halper. We don't know what other conversations Baker was involved in. Telling that Baker took over a major job in the 1980 Reagan campaign while Halper was chopped liver. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@DKarol @StevenHerbert Super-delegates were only there to save the Democrats from the equivalent of Trump. They've always been afraid to get on the wrong side of constituents. As for Perez, I suspect that Terry McAuliffe would have come up with some way to get Booker and Castro on the debate stage. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@DKarol @StevenHerbert I will add that Twitter is not an ideal venue to argue this out. Put another way, it would be far better if Perez and the DNC used judgment to award the debate slots rather than coming up with rigid rules. But they are too frightened by the post-2016 rage of Bernie's brigades. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@DKarol @StevenHerbert Steyer has also been consistently off-message with his Super PAC millions whether it was pushing climate change in 2014 or being far too premature on impeachment in 2018. Problem with any polling threshold is that it rewards candidates who are on TV when the poll is taken. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@dkahanerules Why Halper rather than, say, Jim Baker? I covered the 1980 Bush campaign and Halper was merely a traveling aide aboard the Bush plane. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

Quite a different look than, say, Groucho and Chico as the leaders of Freedonia in "Duck Soup." — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@mike_littwin Especially for residents of the state of Colorado. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@StevenHerbert Here's a quick answer: Give an automatic slot to any Democrat who has won a statewide election in the last six years. Give priority for prior service to the Democratic Party. Focus only on early state polls as a way to qualify. Rule out billionaires who troll for contributions. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

Thrilling that Andrew Yang is on the debate stage and Cory Booker isn't. Nice going Tom Perez. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@ClydeHaberman @JulianStein1 I’m doing this from memory and Benny may have made thinking noises. But I know it was much longer than a standard pause. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@ClydeHaberman @JulianStein1 It’s also my favorite. It was said to be the funniest 30 seconds of silence in the history of radio. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@JulianStein1 @ClydeHaberman I find that joke of Benny’s funnier and funnier with each passing birthday. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

No comedian ever had better timing. He was even better on radio. And do see his 1941 movie on the Nazis (yes, it was a comedy) “To Be or Not To Be. “ — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

About the only other way you could get as dramatic an age split would be if you asked who favors doubling Social Security benefits for baby-boomers and nobody else. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

But no two campaigns boast happier consultants. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

In a troubled world, this is good news. What that means (assuming Gabbard would have qualified) is that there is more time for credible candidates for president who didn't pay a courtesy call on Assad. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@SenatorZero Trump has already had confirmed 48 appeals court justices. There might only be 3 or 4 Supreme Court vacancies under GOP presidents in the next 20 years. The odds of any appeals court judge making it are small. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@SenatorZero Not for appellate lawyers whose private sector career might parallel Ted Olson's. The point of the Vox piece that triggered my initial tweet is that (unlike most Trump appointees) the new judges are really smart, competent and very conservative. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

Only thing that might temper the Trump-McConnell-Federalist Society judicial takeover is wondering what percentage of talented right-wing appeals court judges will be content to spend 10-15 years living on judicial salaries. I know this is a thin reed for hope. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@Profepps @MerylGordon Most important quote of the Carter years. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

Paul Volcker was a great man. And we have had few of them in the last 40 years. I got to know him in the 1980s and 1990s through @MerylGordon who started as a DC economics reporter. He was glorious company and should be hailed as the man who ended inflation. RIP. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@pattmlatimes Thanks for pointing out that Boomers are not the only generation that failed to deliver utopia. Also, while I haven't read the LA Times piece, I somehow don't feel personally responsible for 9/11. Nor do my fellow Vietnam protesters in the 1960s. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

I think it's "discus toss." But as a typo goes, I love the idea of "discuss toss" as an Olympic event. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

I knew him well. And everything Jeff says is true. So sad that our world gets smaller. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@DKarol @LaraMBrownPhD @MattGrossmann @BrendanNyhan He probably also has his own airport. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@LaraMBrownPhD Couldn’t bear to type Giuliani’s name and relive the reality that sensible people once thought him a plausible president. — PolitiTweet.org

Walter Shapiro @MrWalterShapiro

@LaraMBrownPhD @DKarol @MattGrossmann @BrendanNyhan All I know is that Bloomberg is either Wesley Clark or Joe Lieberman who thought that NH polls would hold steady even if they skipped Iowa. And Bloomberg is skipping all of February. — PolitiTweet.org