Each week we rank key politicians relevant to the current political environment. Each week these political figures may fall or rise based on a set of guidelines.
Figures that have been in office are impacted more by gaffes and positive/negative legislation decisions. Newcomers are less impacted by gaffes and positive/negative legislation decisions. We also judge based on eyeball test, experience, decision making, career background.
Our Current Ranking
- Joe Manchin
- Alexandria Ocazio Cortez
- Beto O’ Rourke
- Joe Biden
- Donald Trump
- Ted Cruz, the Senator from Texas definitely is the first on our list.
- Greg Abbott
- Rick Perry
- Andrew Cuomo
In a statement all but dooming the nomination of Neera Tanden, Senator Joe Manchin of W-VA wrote I believe her overtly partisan statements will have a toxic and detrimental impact on the important working relationship between members of Congress and the next director of the Office of Management and Budget, For this reason, I cannot support her nomination. As I have said before, we must take meaningful steps to end the political division and dysfunction that pervades our politics. At a time of grave crisis, it is more important than ever that we chart a new bipartisan course that helps address the many serious challenges facing our nation.
Tanden has essentially been attacked by Republicans according to the Washington Post for being a partisan. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio didn’t like that she called Senator Susan Collins of Maine the worst, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a fraud, and did not like the tweet where she said vampires have more of a heart than Ted Cruz.
The Post reports that Neera Tanden and Bernie Sanders had some tense moments in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries, Sanders asked about the corporate donations to the Center for American Progress, she said that it would have no impact on her. Sanders did not say how he would vote. Cory Booker, a Democratic Senator of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic Senator of Minnesota expressed their support, with Klobuchar expressing sympathy for saying regrettable things in the past.
Joe Manchin’s words and with the Democratic majority being as narrow as it is shows why he’s on the power ranking for this last week.
The initial inaction and planned weekend trip, which we now know was for a party and was not a trip for his daughters as Ted Cruz original said was not wasted. AOC used it to raise 3.2 million dollars. AOC has been on the other end of a barrage of a right wing smear campaign, by Fox News and others, because she is promoting the Green New Deal, which proposes progressive climate change policies. Republicans and the right wing have been amplifying a messaging attack campaign on Alexandria Ocazio-Cortez, falsely blaming green energy, and renewable energy, instead of really taking the time to address the fragile energy sector of Texas.
While Ted Cruz spent much of the week under attack for his lack of leadership, including blaming his daughters for the trip to Cancun, when it was found out from group texts that both him and the wife were planning a party , and he’s been trying to get back on track, Beto O’ Rourke has been displaying strong and consistent leadership. While he definitely is a partisan, as he is running for a Senate position, he’s been trying to present his partisan case as to why Texas is the way it is. After his failed Presidential bid, he has rose back to national prominence, earlier in the week having a town hall on MSNBC discussing the issue.
With 2022 just around the corner, while Beto has not publicly stated whether or not he is going to run for office, it’s clear that he is not going away. If Ted Cruz is not careful, he might shift the spotlight to someone who is not even an elected leader, who may take the mantle from him in the future to lead as a Senator in the future.
President Joe Biden could have done what the former President did, and withheld aid Texas much in the same way that Trump withheld aid to California during the wild-fires and withheld aid to Puerto Rico during the hurricanes because the leader of Puerto Rico was critical of him, Joe Biden acted quickly giving Texas necessary generators they needed, not pointing fingers, and making a national emergency to assist Texas right away.
History does not offer much of a guide in terms of former Presidents running again and winning. Theodore Roosevelt tried to do so and failed. In the 1890s, one such example, according to NPR, is similar to Trump’s ascent. That is Grover Cleveland. Cleveland won in 1884, then, in 1888 with the issue of tariffs, he said that it hurt the businesses. He won the popular vote, but, lost the electoral college. In 1892, he ran again and won.
Given the power Trump holds over the GOP, NPR indicates that history would suggest that Trump will definitely be back in some way. While there are not a lot of modern examples, there are certainly historical ones.
Despite given the opportunity to dismiss it as fake news, the morning joe show gave Ted Cruz credit for not doing so. Ted Cruz also publicly asked what could be done to prevent it from happening again . While he might not get a pass from the liberal media that have read into his apology and assessed that he blamed his daughters, he is trying to look at the issue and is doing more than many would in his position. Matt Gaetz Congressional representative of Florida, said he should not have apologized. Note: fact checkers have uncovered that the alleged tweet that he said he would believe in climate change if Texas froze over was fake .
Greg Abbot, the Governor of Texas has made quite a name for himself, but, in quite the wrong way. While Texas has been dealing with a cold snap, the first thing that Greg Abbott did was go on the Sean Hannity show and blame Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal for the issue. It has already been repeatedly debunked that it was not wind turbines or renewable energy sources that were what malfunctioned during the recent cold snap. Rather, it was the fault of Texas, as Rachel Maddow has reported on, did not invest in the proper technology to withstand the cold. It was not a matter about whether or not it is the fault of renewable energy or non renewable energy sources. But, it is the fault of the state of Texas for knowing about this issue for quite a while and not doing anything about it. To simply say that they had no idea about the cold potentially being a problem, would be false. They knew about cold weather being an issue for one whole decade and essentially sat on it.
While many Texans are dying as many are without heat water, and power, Rick Perry has told Texans to brave the cold for a few days in order to keep the federal government off of their backs. Texas is the only state that is not connected to the US power grid and as Rachel Maddow points out, has set up its system in order that it does not violate any issues of interstate commerce.
Rick Perry said all of this, to keep the federal government off the backs of Texas, while having worked in the department of energy, as a Fed. That should give you an insight into how the people that worked with the Federal Government during the previous administration worked.
Despite what you hear from Fox News, the story on Cuomo is in fact being covered by the media. Cuomo’s claim which was echoed by Melissa DeRosa, told the New York Post that they were afraid of being investigated by the then Trump administration. The allegations against Cuomo would indicate that he lied about the deaths.
In fact, while the conservative media like to say that the left wing has been ignoring him, it has become much harder too, when they look at a totality of his statements, even the staunchest of Democrats could come away critical of DeBlazio, a number of people compare him to Trump, saying he ingores scientista. He’s even publicly said it himself that he ignores the experts as the coronavirus has only been around for one year, so, as he said it, there are no experts. Salon said that Cuomo has channeled Trump at times promoting hydroxycloroquine, and, also, other journalists other than Fox News have called the relationship between the Governor and Chris Cuomo on CNN inappropriate.
His actions have definitely not gone unnoticed.
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