As liberal pundits go, I find Sam Stein among the least objectionable—a low bar to be sure. The HuffPo editor has a streak of fairness to him. But on today’s Morning Joe, Stein served up some absurd spin on Hillary’s “basket of deplorables.”
“Deplorables,” according to Stein, in a way “does work to her advantage.” Why? Because some moderate Republicans will “look at this division between the deplorables and the non-deplorables . . . and do say to themselves: do I want to be part of that?” A kind of snob appeal, Sam? Don’t think so, and even Joe Scarborough, who continued his attacks on Trump throughout the show dismissed the notion, saying “you don’t win voters by calling other voters irredeemable.”
Speaking personally: this Insurrectionist is not a “moderate Republican.” So I’m not in the group that Stein says Hillary is hoping to “cleave off.” Even so, I’ve had strong reservations about Trump. But Hillary’s “deplorables” has had the opposite effect on me that Stein described. Rather than making me want to disassociate myself from the basket, it makes me that much more fired up contra Clinton.
SAM STEIN: I don’t think Hillary Clinton did this thing as a three-dimensional chess grand strategy, but we did talk in the last hour about how there is a way in which this whole conversation does work into her advantage. And I think the Pence thing [his declining to call David Duke “deplorable’] illustrates that.I think there is a chance that there are some moderate Republicans out there that look at this division between the deplorables and the non-deplorables, however you want to describe it, and do say to themselves: do I want to be part of that? I think that’s what the Clinton people are saying, is can we cleave off these Republicans? And she went out of her way to say there are people who are not deplorable in the Trump camp. I think she wants to win them and I think they want to have this conversation in order to get them so disgusted with the Trump camp that they actually consider her candidacy.JOE SCARBOROUGH: I think so, but –STEIN: — it might not be the best way to do it.JOE: I believe most people around the table beleive, Mike, that you don’t win some voters by calling other voters irredeemable.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY