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2016 Election Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 02, 2016 17 Comments
Keith Olbermann left MSNBC a few years ago then went to ESPN for a while where he somehow still managed to report left wing politics. Now he's working for GQ and appears to be broadcasting out of what looks like a middle school gymnasium. In his most recent report, Olbermann embraces his inner Carville and sounds the alarm about Donald Trump who is, like the Manchurian Candidate, a plant for a secret takeover of Washington, DC by Russia.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 01, 2016 30 Comments
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) have announced they voted for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump in early voting. However, neither one said Trump's name:
“I stand where I’ve stood all fall and all summer," the Wisconsin Republican said on "Fox & Friends." "In fact, I already voted here in Janesville for our nominee last week in early voting."

Posted by New Neo on November 01, 2016 20 Comments
When Barack Obama took office in 2008, one of the most difficult things for conservatives was the fact that he soon had a compliant and Democrat-controlled Congress to do his bidding. With the defection of Arlen Specter in April of 2009 and the seating of Al Franken as a result of the disputed Minnesota senatorial race, the Republicans lacked even the 41 votes necessary to stop the Democrats in the Senate, although they finally gained exactly that number with the surprise election of Scott Brown of Massachusetts. However, after that point, the Republicans in Congress were able to stop some of the Obama agenda after gaining the ability to muster at least 41 votes in the Senate, and after they gained the House in 2010. That's why the Democrats in the Senate triggered the nuclear option for judicial appointments in November of 2013, when they still controlled both the presidency and the Senate but the Republicans had gained enough senators to block judicial confirmation under the old (non-nuclear) rules. But under the new nuclear option rules (see this for a full explanation of how it works), a simple majority of Democrats could successfully force a vote to confirm Obama's judicial appointments, rather than needing to gain 60 votes to close down debate.

Posted by Mike LaChance on November 01, 2016 68 Comments
Remember a few months back when Democrats were accusing Donald Trump of being a conspiracy theorist? Good times. Democratic strategist James Carville has completely lost his mind and is now claiming that the FBI is working in concert with the Republican Party to take down Hillary. Oh, and the KGB is involved too. Fittingly, Carville made the remarks on MSNBC. Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
Carville Blows Up On MSNBC Anchor: Our Democracy Is Under Assault By Comey, The KGB And Republicans CARVILLE: He was acting in concert and coordination with the House Republicans. End of story. He gave a letter to them. They gave it to FOX News. Also, we have this extraordinary case of the KGB being involved in this race and selectively leaking things from the Clinton campaign that they hacked.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 31, 2016 31 Comments
Frank Drebin would be so proud of his namesake . . . It was one of those classic "nothing to see here, move along" moments. On today's Morning Joe, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, saying that there was no new terrain broached in FBI Director James Comey's letter of this past Friday, claimed "it won't move people away from" voting for Hillary Clinton. Bruni also praised the "incredibly rapid and thorough mobilization of the Clinton campaign and their allies" in getting headlines to mention Comey as much as Clinton, and to question whether the FBI Director did the right thing. Lost on Bruni was the irony that chief among those Clinton campaign "allies" are members of the liberal media who write the headlines. You know: allies such as . . . Frank Bruni.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 31, 2016 15 Comments
Gun control is an issue which has somehow gotten lost in the coverage of the election. Not many people are talking about it but it's actually on the ballot in four states. ABC News reports:
4 States to Weigh Tougher Gun Control in Nov. 8 Election The last time voters in Maine were asked about gun rights, they easily passed a constitutional amendment creating a right to own firearms that "shall never be questioned." Three decades later, the state known for its hunting tradition will vote on whether to tighten restrictions on gun sales and transfers.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 30, 2016 38 Comments
From the Arkansas Governorship to the U.S. presidency to the State Department to the Clinton Foundation, the Clintons corrupt every institution they touch. That includes the current presidential election, with Bill Clinton meeting secretly (until caught) with Attorney General Loretta Lynch as the FBI and DOJ were evaluating whether to prosecute Hillary. Bill didn't need to say particular words to influence Lynch, the message was sent by the meeting. It tainted Lynch, DOJ, the FBI and the entire investigation. Hillary was under investigation because she improperly set up a private server to handle her work email traffic, including classified information. This was done for the worst of reasons, to create a shadow electronic government completely under the control of Hillary and her team in order to shield her records of public service from public scrutiny. All else flows from that, including putting Obama in a position of lying to the public about what he knew and when he knew it.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 29, 2016 89 Comments
There have been numerous developments today in the reopening of the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton, most notably the declaration of war by Clinton World on James Comey. The war started after almost 24 hours of shock and awe resulting from the Friday afternoon announcement left Team Hillary and the rest of Clinton World attempting to hold back the onslaught of news coverage. Clinton World first tried to buy itself time by arguing over what the meaning of "reopen" was. It was comical, but arguing over definitions is what the Clintons do to buy themselves time until they can counter attack:

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 29, 2016 41 Comments
Now that the Weinergate story has broken, how many early voters may wish they could go back and change their votes? We'll never know and it doesn't matter because they can't do it. This is a perfect example of why we shouldn't have early voting. The practice has the potential to encourage fraud because campaigns can analyze early voting data and know where they need stronger turnout on election day. The Wall Street Journal provides a look at how early voting is going so far:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 28, 2016 39 Comments
By now you know about the bombshell that the FBI has reopened its investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails. But wait, there's a connection to Anthony Weiner. The New York Times reports that new emails were discovered curing the FBI's investigation of Weiner's sexting scandal (the latest one, not the original). Assuming the Times report is accurate, it's important to point out that the report is not that the emails in question were to or from Weiner, but were on a device examined for the first time during the course of that investigation. The Times states:
Emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server were found after the F.B.I. seized electronic devices once shared by Anthony D. Weiner and his estranged wife, Huma Abedin, a top aide to Mrs. Clinton, federal law enforcement officials said Friday.
Who could have predicted this twist?

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 28, 2016 23 Comments
Huffington Post is the site that embarrassed itself by refusing for months to take the Trump candidacy seriously, relegating Trump coverage to its Entertainment section while explaining to readers that the Trump campaign was simply a "sideshow." So it's notable that it was HuffPo's Sam Stein, of all people, who testified to the decency of Trump supporters on today's Morning Joe, saying he found them "kind, very nice" and that there was no "blood in the streets." Stein and Joe Scarborough contrasted the decency ofTrump supporters with the scare story on the front page of today's New York Times, headlined "Some Donald Trump Voters Warn of Revolution if Hillary Clinton Wins."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 27, 2016 70 Comments
When my super-talented colleague Mary Chastain wrote about the new tone of state Republican party ads, she posted that Hillary Clinton was the most probable winner. She would be right if the reports we were getting weren't being offered through a haze of "Gaslight," a point that conservative talk show host Tammy Bruce has been making often in recent days is that the elite media is manipulating the reports to distort reality to create a very specific outcome (e.g., 3 media organizations have given their employees orders to destroy Trump).

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 26, 2016 17 Comments
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) told The Washington Post that his committee has "years" of investigation material on Hillary Clinton, even after the presidential election:
“It’s a target-rich environment,” the Republican said in an interview in Salt Lake City’s suburbs. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 26, 2016 1 Comment

This one surprised me. I've grown accustomed to most cultural venues mocking anything Republican or right-leaning (though it could be argued Trump is neither). But a recent 'Saturday Night Live' sketch called "Black Jeopardy" was surprisingly kind in its portrayal of what appears to be a...

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 26, 2016 10 Comments
About the last person you'd expect to be taking unsubtle shots at Elizabeth Warren's phony claims of Native American heritage is Mika Brzezinski. Early in this presidential cycle, Brzezinski was Warren's biggest fan, urging her to get into the race. But on today's Morning Joe, after clips were played of Warren on the stump for Hillary making over-caffeinated condemnations of Donald Trump, Mika declared "she's on the warpath." Mark Halperin groaned in response, but a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-her-mouth Mika feigned ignorance of the gibe she had just aimed.
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