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Friday, May 20, 2016

Donald Trump is Expanding the Map-for the Democrats

When did you ever think you'd see the day when Arizona and Georgia are in play?

"TRUMP PUTS GEORGIA AND ARIZONA IN PLAY: Republicans in Arizona and Georgia tell Politico that Trump as the GOP nominee could put both states in play for Democrats:

"The most pressing issue in Arizona is Trump’s relationship with Hispanic voters….Democrats…are working aggressively to register the booming Latino community….While Georgia also has a growing Latino population, it is African American voter turnout that will play the decisive role in Clinton’s performance….With the new field program and a minority base energized to vote against Trump…Democrats are feeling increasingly optimistic."

"The Clinton campaign agrees with this analysis. Keep an eye on those shifting demographics."

"Meanwhile as the media tries to freak you out about how Trump is a real shot at beating Hillary, they are much quiter about this poll:

"HILLARY LEADS TRUMP NATIONALLY: The new NYT/CBS poll finds Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump among registered voters nationally by 47-41. Look at these favorable numbers:

"Only 21 percent of female voters view him favorably, while 60 percent view him unfavorably. A mere 14 percent of voters 18 to 29 view him positively, while 65 percent of such young voters have a negative opinion about him. And just 12 percent of nonwhite voters view Mr. Trump favorably, while 68 percent view him unfavorably. Mrs. Clinton fares little better. Just 23 percent of white voters view her favorably, while 63 percent of whites have an unfavorable view. Men dislike her almost as much as women dislike Mr. Trump."

"The polling averages show Clinton up by only two points. The question is whether these numbers will shift in her favor once Clinton has locked down the nomination and Sanders has taken serious steps to help unite the party behind her."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/05/20/stop-freaking-out-democrats-the-party-will-unify-probably/

A little false equivalence here, though I agree we'll get a better idea in June after she officially has it.

Greg Sargent argues that Dems shouldn't worry-the party will unify, Bernie won't try to blow things up.

"But it’s also possible, for the reasons I’ve tried to detail, that Sanders could still decide that the incentives actually point towards him doing everything possible to get his supporters across this gulf, for the explicit purpose of maintaining his movement’s influence and staying power, rather than allowing it to dissipate. And indeed, as Sahil Kapur reports, this is the signal that Sanders is privately sending to other Democrats, despite his outward defiance."

"Meanwhile, if you listen closely, Clinton and her campaign are actually trying to signal to Democrats that they should dial down the hostilities with Sanders and his supporters, and signaling that the Clinton camp, too, recognizes that it has a role to play in encouraging unity, which is important. And as the Post reports, the Democratic National Committee is close to announcing a series of process concessions to Sanders for the convention."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/05/20/stop-freaking-out-democrats-the-party-will-unify-probably/

For my part, I try to talk about Bernie as little as possible. I only spoke about him more the last few days as it was so absurd what the Berners in Nevada did. What was really shocking was Bernie's failure to condemn it in unambiguous terms.

I've talked about the fact that so few in the Beltway saw Trump coming. The only ones I know who seriously thought Trump could win last Summer were Scott Adams, Norm Ornstein and yours truly.

Tom Brown, you might be interested to know I got under Morgan Warstler's skin last night be telling him if he were smart he should mark my words as I've proven to be such a 'political seer!'

LOL. He had told me in 2012 that no way could Obama win if he failed to go to the Center. I had told him this was not the case. We know how that came out. Then there was this primary that I also called.

Morgan was not happy. He said I was 'throwing him shade.' I disagree-just giving him a little of his own medicine.

But in all seriousness, the real Original Sin is false equivalence-the media's attempt to always make the two parties entirely equal.

Yet the numbers tell a different story:

"Republican voters remain remarkably pessimistic about the state of their party. More than eight in 10 call the party divided, and 43 percent say they are discouraged about its future. About two-thirds think Mr. Trump can unite the party this year."

"By contrast, fewer than half of Democratic voters say their party is divided, and eight in 10 are hopeful about its future. More than eight in 10 think Mrs. Clinton can unite the party after the primaries end next month."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-poll.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0




6 comments:

  1. Mike, I'm glad to hear you got to Morgan a bit. As for Obama coming to the center in 2012, from my perspective he's ALWAYS been in the center! Maybe Morgan failed to realize he "going to the center" meant staying the course.

    I know you're tired of talking Bernie, but I think you and Ms. Rubin at WaPo are more and more on the same page. She has a couple of Bernie related pieces recently herself, and my guess is you might like them:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/05/20/democrats-we-feel-your-pain/

    I haven't read the one below yet, but something about the title tells me you'd appreciate it:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/05/19/trump-is-not-as-irresponsible-as-sanders-but-hes-close/

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  2. Yes, me and Ms. Rubin are on the same page often lately. LOL. Who would have predicted that!

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  3. I have to say, my heart goes out to her just a little. She's completely right.

    "Democrats, we know all too well what you are going through. An angry insurgent playing into voters’ fears? Check. A cult-like leader entirely divorced from reality? Yup. An antagonist who won’t give a straight answer when pressed for details? Know it well. An outsider complaining about a system in which he knew the rules going in and now claims is “rigged” against him? We know it all too well. But Democrats, it could be worse. Imagine if that angry, clueless cult leader were your presumptive nominee. Instead, you Democrats have just a few more weeks of the annoying gadfly Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to cope with, and then some convention logistics to navigate before you get the grown-up, albeit flawed nominee. Republicans, on the other hand, are stuck with Donald Trump."

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/05/20/democrats-we-feel-your-pain/

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  4. It's funny: I almost exclusively read right-wing blogs and opinion pieces these days. It's just more fun. Pretty much the only exception is your blog. I trust you to keep me up to date on anything interesting the lefties might say. =)

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    1. ... well you and the cartoon This Modern World (TMW) by Tom Tomorrow. He's a Bernie sympathizer, but that doesn't bother me much: his cartoons are hilarious and mostly directed at right-wing targets.

      A friend of mine recently emailed me a cartoon from a Santa Cruz paper called The Comic News which I used to have an actual subscription to years ago (in paper form... probably back in the 1990s I'd guess). I was a little surprised to see it's still around. My Santa Cruz located friends turned me on to it. They appear to be heavy Berners these days, but I still enjoyed reading through all the lefty cartoons... I'd forgotten that there are a good assortment. Here it is if you're interested:
      http://thecomicnews.com/
      All they do is collect all the political cartoons from around the country that they like and organize them according to subject. I don't know if they have any original material.

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