41 Comments - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:13 am: The hits just keep on coming. At this point, Sullivan, today, a Friday, should dump all his own oppo left to drag out and then see where he sits. Maybe it’s time to rethink this whole ridiculous plan and leave while some dignity exists - Gary Hart - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:17 am: Did he every really have a candidacy? - Montrose - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:21 am: Radical Globalist is the name of my new band. - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:22 am: ==I mean, he was basically a kid when he founded that magazine.== Yes, but he’s still not that old, and reads as even younger. Plus, nothing he did up until announcing for Governor really contradicts his stewardship of that magazine, so it’s really hard for him to make the case that it was just a useful indiscretion. The most interesting thing to me is that his whole military scandal can be summed up into “Stolen Valor. I know we’ve had some folks on here who have rejected the idea that voters will be too interested in that scandal, but those are two highly charged words. - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:22 am: *youthful indiscretion. It’s clearly proving to not be very “useful” to him at all! - NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:27 am: Jesse Sullivan looks like he will become in 2022 what happened to Paul Findley in 1982. When the latter was unseated by Durbin. - Ron Burgundy - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:30 am: This is what happens when you pretend to be something you are not, or at least were not. How can anyone trust you with the highest job in the state if they don’t know who you really are, and it doesn’t seem like you even know? As for that article, and a bit in his defense, they seem to think cutting people off from an education is a good thing and attack Sullivan and his magazine for condemning it. I’m with the magazine on that one. - Lucky Pierre - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:31 am: If only he had thought to launch his campaign in Bill Ayer’s living room all of this would have blown over by now - Three Dimensional Checkers - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:33 am: This is just a lesson to all you young aspiring Republican candidates out there: never believe you can make the world. better place. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:36 am: === This is just a lesson to all you young aspiring Republican candidates out there: never believe you can make the world. better place.=== Or understand your own oppo… and don’t try to steal valor… and maybe not have a big piece of a rollout is talking to gym-bros, (that’s *more* towards Sully, but I digress) - fs - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:38 am: == I mean, he was basically a kid when he founded that magazine. == If he was a Senior in college, he was as old or older than many who actually put in the sacrifice to serve their Country. A status he now tries to latch onto and falsely claim for himself. So I give zero benefit of the doubt to him for his “youthful” status at the time. - Watchful eye. - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:39 am: Griffin team trying to kill Sullivan. But per today’s press Ken doesn’t know what his consultants are actually doing. Bad stuff - Chicago Blue - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:40 am: How is that language anti-Semitic? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:41 am: === Griffin team trying to … Sullivan=== Sullivan is doing a bang up job on his own ruining his stead. Sullivan is not a victim to Griffin, Griffin’s Crew, anyone. - Pundent - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:42 am: This is the bloodbath that will be the top of the ticket race for the GOP. For Sullivan, and possibly Irvin, setting their sights further down the ballot might be a better path. There’s a purity/litmus test at the top that few will pass and for those that do they’ll have to be willing to surrender to the crazies. - Watchful eye. - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:44 am: Griffin crew dropping the oppo. Again. Might not be Griffin. Just a crew - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:46 am: ==Griffin team trying to kill Sullivan.== I have a feeling they may come to regret embracing the “No True Scotsman” aspect of Republican Primaries. But we’ll see. ==Sullivan is doing a bang up job on his own ruining his stead.== It’s really surprising how he came out of the gate with $11M but still hasn’t been able to do any effective counter-programming. All you hear about Sullivan is the attacks on him. - vern - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:47 am: This campaign is starting to become a fun metaphor for the blindspots in the Silicon Valley/crypto mindset. It really feels like Sullivan didn’t anticipate a lot of the obvious obstacles because he was confident he could yada-yada-yada past any criticism. Putting out pictures of yourself in uniform despite not serving is a really basic campaign error, but Sullivan is so steeped in “disruption” culture that he couldn’t believe he might make a mistake. Move fast and break things, indeed. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:49 am: ===… dropping the oppo. Again.=== All fair game. This ain’t beanbag, or phony valor either. - Watchful eye. - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:50 am: Agree. But bigger story is the “Griffin crew” is a figment of their own imaginations - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:52 am: ===But bigger story is the “Griffin crew” is a figment of their own imaginations=== Maybe go back to bed, start the day over… That’s your takeaway? (Sigh) - Arsenal - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:53 am: ==If only he had thought to launch his campaign in Bill Ayer’s living room all of this would have blown over by now == Sorry ya boy is getting roasted and all you can do about it is whine about 13 year old political attacks. - Three Dimensional Checkers - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 9:55 am: ===Or understand your own oppo… and don’t try to steal valor… and maybe not have a big piece of a rollout is talking to gym-bros, (that’s *more* towards Sully, but I digress)=== Yeah, I pity the guy. I was at SLU during this time. Didn’t know Jesse Sullivan personally, but there were a lot of people with very earnest Catholic beliefs. Those including Catholic social teaching, which I guess is anathema to Republicans today. It’s good for Democrats, so I should probably just keep my mouth shut and watch these people destroy each other. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:01 am: === If only he had thought to launch his campaign in Bill Ayer’s living room all of this would have blown over by now=== You do realize when your spout ignorance like this it means you already know what Sullivan did is wrong, but you want to “wrongs” to both be acceptable… right? Maybe in 2022 you can aspire to realize your bot talking points and whataboutisms that make you look ridiculous. - Watchful eye. - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:04 am: Yeah. Reading more than one blog a reall eye opener - Floyddog - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:05 am: The rampant capitalization is egregious on its own, even without the content - 47th Ward - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:11 am: === Bill Ayer’s living room=== You spelled Mar-a-Lago wrong. - Candy Dogood - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:14 am: I think my favorite part about this specific dump is the position taken in the magazine isn’t inappropriate or wrong, it’s just not compatible with the current pile of random disconnect positions that have been shoveled into the center of the GOP tent. They’re just calling him out for not being racist or bigoted enough for the nomination and we probably should appreciate that for what it is instead of pretending that this is a legitimate criticism of foreign policy views, especially since there is only one other candidate in the race who I think could find the Levant on a map. - Homebody - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:18 am: How the Israel/Palestine conflict has become so embedded in US politics has always been super weird to me. Basically it is a third rail, no matter what you say other than the most generic statements. Here we aren’t even talking about someone running for a position that affects foreign policy in any way. We’re talking about something a college kid wrote a decade+ again, who is now running for a wholly domestic position. - Lurker - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:21 am: “ How is that language anti-Semitic?” I could be wrong because I read thru the article quickly, but I think they only call it anti-Israel. And since the stated purpose is to side with the poor, I’d assume the Palestinian side in that conflict would better fit their alignment. But, my statement is a lot of nuance so it can all be forgotten for a better statement of, Sullivan is anti-Israel. - Candy Dogood - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:24 am: ===The magazine viciously attacked Israel yet again In Spring 2009, when One World published an article titled “Obstructing Freedom In The Occupied Territories,” by Saint Louis University student Sharifa Barakat. Barakat attacked Israel’s “occupation” of Palestine, and called for boycott and divestment campaigns targeting Israel.=== I think we should seriously take a step back from this oppo dump to look at the language they’re using to describe this issue. Our State Department refers to the region as the Occupied Territories and the racist bigot that wrote this is using quotation marks around the word occupation as if to suggest Israel isn’t occupying the occupied territories? Here’s an example of an official state department report using that term: https://www.state.gov/reports/2016-report-on-international-religious-freedom/israel-and-the-occupied-territories/israel-and-the-occupied-territories-the-occupied-territories/ Whoever wrote this piece, whoever is using this language, is intentionally producing a bigoted piece that is intended to stoke prejudiced bigoted views and is using language that is the opposite of how the United States has referred to the region since 1967 regardless of who was in the White House. Maaaaybe we should be discussing a little more about who is hosting, producing, and paying for this hateful political propaganda a little closer. - Ultimate DD - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 10:48 am: How “bigoted” of you candy. - Bigtwich - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 11:22 am: Sullivan should ask Aaron Schock how to deal with this. - Streator Curmudgeon - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 11:40 am: Not that I’m planning on running for office, but my dull, accomplishment-free college years are looking better and better. - Candy Dogood - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 11:42 am: ===How “bigoted” of you candy.=== To be human is to have implicit bias. - NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 11:53 am: ==Sullivan should ask Aaron Schock how to deal with this.== Schock would probably tell him to get photographed shirtless and to decorate his home like the mansions on Downtown Abbey. He would probably ask, “Are you related to John Sullivan?” - ArchPundit - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 12:02 pm: ===Sullivan should ask Aaron Schock how to deal with this. Sell nukes to non-nuclear allies was Schock’s primary idea for China. Israel already has them though. Nukes aren’t terribly useful in the Israel-Palestine conflict for obvious reasons. - Roadrager - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 12:07 pm: ==This campaign is starting to become a fun metaphor for the blindspots in the Silicon Valley/crypto mindset.== “Fake it ’til you make it” turns out to not be as effective a strategy when you’re running for public office on your “military” record, or claim to be revolutionizing blood diagnostics. Going along fine and dandy for self-driving cars, though. - Yiddishcowboy - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 12:44 pm: @ various commentors: Whenever people or groups focus strictly on the Palestinian issue in terms of what only Israel has done or hasn’t done vis a vis the Palestinians, without so much as a single complaint or comment about what Hamas, Hezbolla and most, if not all, the Muslim countries have done to hurt and oppress the Palestinians, it - including the BDS movement - does nothing but deligtimizes Israel’s right to exist, which is textbook antisemitism. This is all Im saying about the matter. - Candy Dogood - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 1:26 pm: ===does nothing but deligtimizes Israel’s right to exist, which is textbook antisemitism. === I think it is pretty important that if we’re evaluating the publication based off of what was written in 2007 and 2009 that we place it into the context of the relationship as it was in 2007 and 2009 which means removing everything that happened after 2009 from consideration. In terms of the rest of your sentiment, that’s fine, but the Two State Solution has been official US policy for almost 4 decades. Does Israel support Palestine’s right to exist? We should not pretend that criticism, even one sided criticism, is some how the same as suggesting that the nation shouldn’t exist. Saying “So and so is a real [censored]” doesn’t deligtimize that person’s right to exist. I think there’s plenty of room to critique a theocratic state which seems to have engaged in ethnic cleansing of a religious minority that it treats as second class citizens without suggesting that the people who live in that place don’t have a right to self determination or sovereignty. You draw your line in the sand wherever you want, but where you’re putting it is going to force a pretty big brush be used to get your painting done. You also might want to pay attention to why someone drafting a hit piece like this in a GOP primary would chose “Anti-Israeli” instead of “Anti-Semitic.” That choice wasn’t a happy accident. - Candy Dogood - Friday, Dec 17, 21 @ 1:56 pm: I am certainly not the target audience for this negative piece, but I think it is very illuminating that whoever wrote it thinks that a statement like this coming from a young man in college is a bad thing. ===Engagement: show what you stand for rather than what you stand against…Dialogue: Have the humility to realize that you don’t corner the market on truth…Action: Have the courage to act on your potential; the move from beliefs to charity to justice.=== - Jesse Sullivan a kid trying to make the world a better place. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.