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Tim Kaine is as vanilla middle as you can get. -- Robert Reich 7/24/2016 In Robert Reich's op-ed on Sunday, he questioned whether Hillary Clinton 'got it' when it came to selecting Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) as her running mate against the Trump/Pence ticket, accusing her of fundamentally ignoring the progressive nature of this year's primary. Clinton was in a terrific position of choice, already knowing the opposition's lineup before her choice was formalized -- she could have chosen anyone fr

On July 22, Wikileaks released nearly 20,000 e-mails among DNC staffers, a number of which suggest bias against the Sanders campaign during the Democratic primary. Some e-mails show high-level DNC members trying to undermine the Sanders campaign, and others reveal the attitude of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz toward Sanders and his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver. In light of these leaks, Wasserman Schultz has stated that she will resign as the head of the DNC after the national convention i

As the 2016 Republican National Convention wrapped up Thursday, one aspect was clear: Americans are increasingly looking for alternative candidates outside of the two-party duopoly. According to Google Trends, searches for "3rd party candidate 2016" increased by 1,150 percent over the last week. Interestingly, states with the highest third party candidate searches in the United States were (in order): Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, and Michigan. Politico reports t

Faced with the prospect of Bernie Sanders not being the Democratic nominee, many of his supporters are taking a step in the seemingly opposite direction, lending support to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. At first glance, Trump is a surprising choice. After all, the media narrative presents Trump and Sanders as diametrically opposed: Sanders supporters are portrayed as hip -- often unrealistic and impulsive -- college students dedicated to social change, while Trump fans are charac

On July 14, congressional lawmakers introduced the Automatic Voter Registration Act of 2016, which would ensure that whenever a citizen interacts with the government, they are automatically registered to vote unless they choose to decline. The bill is being led by Representative Robert Brady (D-PA). While support at the congressional level has been primarily among Democrats, automatic registration is a bi-partisan reform at its very core. Five states have adopted automatic voter registration th

Support for Libertarian Gary Johnson continues to grow, according to the newest poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist. The poll shows double-digit strength in both Virginia and Colorado. While Johnson has had an average national showing of 10 percent for several months (polling as high as 13 percent in one poll), the nature of a federal republic makes each state's results all that really matters. A double-digit showing in two hotly contested battleground states represents a huge impact on

The #NeverTrump movement is dead. Squashed, as it were, by a new party rule. A 77-21 vote in the RNC Rules committee Thursday effectively banned “conscience voting” for delegates to the Convention, ending the movement among delegates to vote for someone, anyone, other than Donald Trump. The movement was spearheaded by Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh and a variety of outside organizations, including Free The Delegates 2016 and Our Principles PAC. Unruh and company strove to encourage delegates t

A July 11 federal court case in Richmond, Virginia, comes in the midst of much debate over delegate rules, and has the potential to turn the tables on Trump at the GOP convention. Virginia RNC delegate Carroll Correll Jr., backed by the Citizens in Charge Foundation, sued Virginia Attorney General Mark Herrig and other state officials over delegate binding laws. Correll was successful in overturning rules that required delegates to vote winner-take-all, rather than proportionally. He hopes the

An independent running in Illinois' 13th congressional district could garner substantial support in November. However, the candidate's Democratic opponent is now trying to keep him off the ballot. David Gill is a Bloomington physician and ran for Congress four times as a Democrat. This year, however, he decided to run as an independent. Gill criticizes both parties as controlled by "corporate interests" in a manner resembling Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Now, members of hi

In late June, the Supreme Court voted unanimously to vacate the conviction of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell, who was found guilty by a jury in 2014 on 11 corruption-related charges. The court has sent the case to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to re-try the case according to the Supreme Court's interpretation of the federal bribery statute. The case revolves around the relationship between a Virginia businessman, Jonnie R. Wi