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2016 Election Tag

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.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 26, 2016 70 Comments
Newt Gingrich appeared on the Kelly File Tuesday night and fireworks flew. Things started out fine with Gingrich offering his assessment of the presidential race but went downhill quickly when Kelly started bringing up Trump's negatives. Like many Americans, Newt has clearly tired of Trump bashing in media. Mediaite has more details:
Newt Gingrich Lost It and Blew Up at Megyn Kelly: ‘You Are Fascinated with Sex!’ Gingrich started to get a little snippy and said we all should just go home if she thinks the election’s over. He insisted that the odds “are pretty good” that Clinton doesn’t win.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2016 64 Comments
In August, the GOP and PACs associated with it, started preparing ads that target Hillary in case Donald Trump couldn't make a comeback. Now that it's almost certain we will end up with Hillary, the GOP knows the importance of holding the Senate and the House has only grown stronger. With two weeks left, the candidates have unleashed these ads across the country, mirroring their opponents as too similar to Hillary and promise to keep her in check in the White House.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 25, 2016 39 Comments
Could Donald Trump pull a Brexit, confounding elite opinion by winning the election with votes that the polls didn't pick up? On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post agreed it could happen. Scarborough said that people are still whispering to him as they leave the room that they're voting for Tump, but are embarrassed to tell pollsters given the coverage of his comments about women, etc. There are limits to the phenomenon: in Cillizza and Scarborough's view, the hidden Trump vote is unlikely to exceed 1.5%. But if Trump can continue to tighten the race in these two final weeks . . . it could be a very interesting election night.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 24, 2016 13 Comments
Is anyone at the New York Times pro-life? Times reporter Yamiche Alcindor won't say. On today's Hardball, discussion turned to Donald Trump's charge that the media elites are biased against him. Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt posited that 90% of the elite Manhattan/Beltway media will be voting for Hillary and applauding her election. To test Hewitt's theory, Chris Matthews asked Alcindor whether she knew anybody at the Times who was pro-life. She first responded, "I'm not going to answer that question." To his credit, Matthews pressed the question, but Alcindor continued to dodge, eventually saying she hadn't asked any of her co-workers about it. Matthews seemed to conclude that Hewitt's point had been made.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 24, 2016 11 Comments
The latest Project Veritas video shows Democrat operatives admitting that Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ordered the Donald Duck campaign to bombard Donald Trump/Mike Pence events:
“In the end, it was the candidate, Hillary Clinton, the future president of the United States, who wanted ducks on the ground,” says [Democracy Partners founder Robert] Creamer in one of several exchanges. “So, by God, we would get ducks on the ground.” It is made clear that high-level DNC operative Creamer realized that this direct coordination between Democracy Partners and the campaign would be damning when he said: “Don’t repeat that to anybody.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 24, 2016 7 Comments
While Hillary Clinton overall enjoys overwhelming support from the Hispanic community, the Hispanic millennials have not fully warmed up to her campaign. The majority of these millennials backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during the primary. He has encouraged his supporters to go to Hillary, but many have hesitated. Those who do support her "are doing so grudgingly."

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 24, 2016 40 Comments
There is a possibility that Texas, a state typically owned by Republicans, could turn blue next month since Donald Trump only leads Hillary Clinton by three points. However, Clinton only leads Trump by three points in Florida. From CBS News:
The poll numbers show voters’ frustration about the dialogue in the race – and what may amount to a wasted opportunity for both. Sixty-nine percent feel Donald Trump is talking about things that he, himself cares about, while fewer, 46 percent say he’s talking about issues they care about. Clinton has much the same gap.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 23, 2016 61 Comments
It's been a while since I've written about the Senate, but as the prof did an analysis of the GOP keeping the House, I am revisiting the question of whether or not the GOP can keep the Senate.  As a recap:  The Democrats need to win five Senate seats to win back the majority, only four if Hillary is elected and Kaine, as VP, holds the tie-breaking vote.   Republicans, by contrast, are defending 24 Senate seats to the Democrats' 10. As the professor noted, "In the case of the Senate, it will pave the way for Hillary to push through disastrous judicial nominations. And yes, expect Majority Leader Schumer to raise the nuclear option to the Supreme Court level if Democrats control the Senate by even a single (tie-breaking) vote." This holds true even if Trump wins the White House and the GOP loses the Senate.  Without the Senate, Trump won't be able to get the type of justice/s confirmed that he promised.  They simply won't make it through a Democrat-controlled Senate.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 22, 2016 21 Comments
While the polls mostly look grim for Trump as of today, two weeks can be a lifetime in politics. At some point do down-ballot Republicans all but concede that Hillary will win, and argue that a vote for the Republican House or Senate candidate is needed as a check and balance on future President Hillary? That's what Republican are accused of already doing in the Missouri Senate race, which by many accounts may determine who controls the Senate. The current polling shows Republican Roy Blunt very slightly ahead, but it's now considered a toss-up. The AP reports, GOP Senate Ad Acknowledges Clinton Likely to Win:

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 21, 2016 6 Comments
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) chapter in Florida has sued Broward County Supervisor of Elections Dr. Brenda Snipes after citizens said their mail in ballots did not include Amendment 2 to legalize medical marijuana:
It asked a county court judge to require that the elections office distribute new ballots to all voters who have received vote-by-mail ballots and to include information that explains that Amendment 2 had not been included on previous ballots.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 21, 2016 12 Comments
Russian officials asked three states if they could attend polling stations during the Nov. 8 election while Kremlin propaganda sites like Russia Today reported that Russia's Central Elections Commission even asked the State Department for permission to watch the polls. The State denied a request even came through:
"Any suggestion that we rejected Russia's proposal to observe our elections is false," Toner said, noting that allowing foreign observers is up to individual states. Russian officials could have participated in an observer delegation through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Toner added, but declined to do so, making their new complaints "nothing more than a PR stunt."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 21, 2016 31 Comments
After the third debate, much ado was being made about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton being seated close to each other at the Alfred E. Smith dinner, separated only by a holy man and a gulf of political differences. It seems that the the seating arrangement may have been a good idea.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 21, 2016 18 Comments
On last evening's Hardball, when Trump surrogate Steve Cortes said that voters across America don't care about Donald Trump's refusal to blindly accept the election outcome, Chris Matthews shut him down. After calling Cortes an "elitist," Matthews declared "this isn't going to work," cut Cortes off, and moved to reliable liberal Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post. By coincidence, in this morning's Quick Hits, this Insurrectionist wrote "the liberal echo chamber has contracted a bad case of the vapors over Trump's statement, but hard to believe many actual voters out in America give much of a darn." Guess elitist minds think alike ;-)

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 21, 2016 25 Comments
Helmut Norpoth, a professor at Stony Brook University on Long Island, has developed a model for predicting elections which, when applied, has correctly predicted every presidential election back to 1912 with one exception - the 1960 election. He has been predicting a Trump win for months and he's standing by his forecast. Syracuse.com reports:
SUNY professor says Trump win at least 87 percent certain; other polls 'bunk' A SUNY professor continues to project Donald Trump as the likely winner of this year's election and he's critiquing polls that predict the opposite in a new opinion piece.
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