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Saturday, October 24, 2015

Obviously it's a Good Week for Secretary Clinton

These were the words of Lincoln Chafee yesterday as he ended what has been widely called his Quixotic campaign. 

I had suggested yesterday his stepping down when he did certainly seemed to have be related to HRC's testimony and his comments at the Women's Leadership Summit confirmed this.

"As you know I have been campaigning on a platform of Prosperity Through Peace,” the Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat former governor and senator of Rhode Island told a Democratic National Committee gathering in the bowels of a downtown Washington hotel."

"But after much thought I have decided to end my campaign for president today,” he added, as the crowd lightly groaned. “Thank you. I would like to take this opportunity one last time to advocate for a chance be given to peace.”

"Chafee, who never gained any traction by any metric, leaves the race just two days after Vice President Joe Biden opted against a run, and three days after former Virginia senator Jim Webb ended his own bid. It also came just hours after Hillary Clinton, the party’s front-runner, survived a marathon Capitol Hill testimony session on Benghazi

"Asked by reporters afterward why he had dropped out, he said, "Obviously it's a good week for Secretary Clinton."

"He wished people had paid more attention to his other priorities, he said. But yes, he affirmed, he stands by his support of the metric system."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/lincoln-chafee-drops-out-of-democratic-race-215101#ixzz3pUgvsWun

In principle he's right on the metric system. It would have been better had the US adopted it when everyone else did. Of course, the time path dependent nature of policy also says that it wouldn't necessarily be the the best policy today.

I mean if you started in year 0 with a choice it's clear you would have chosen the metrics system. But would the transitional costs today make it worth the lift? Especially as it's so hard to get anything done in Washington I don't know that this would be the most important priority to spend precious political capital on

As even some Bernie supporters are now saying, change over the next few years whoever wins will be incremental.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/hillary-clinton-sounded-presidential-at.html

Chafee had also been the one who tried to make an issue of HRC's emails even after Bernie told the truth: we are all tired of this damn discussion. And no the FBI isn't investigating her

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/andrea-mitchell-needs-to-stop-lying-fbi.html

It is investigating the entire State Department's email system. 

Yet Chafee wanted to discuss this-remember the famous no answer. 

So it's not surprising that after those hearings that put her in such a favorable light were over, Chafee bowed out. 

3 comments:

  1. Every time I write a simulation I only use SI units (basically metric). I don't know anybody who does otherwise. It's just plain easier. You might provide an interface that allows other units, but everything internally is SI. SI won.

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  2. So what was Chafee running on then? I'm not an engineer so I don't know about this like you.

    But even so, if engineers and everyone that matters is using the metric system what would be the need for Chafee's platform?

    Even more important, in a world of such limited political capital to get anything done in Washington, why focus on this as it seems you are able to use it even with the US anomaly?

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    Replies
    1. I don't know what Chafee was running on. Perhaps getting road signs converted to km instead of miles? Lol... I agree, it's probably not worth the political capital, as you say.

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