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2016 Election Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 06, 2016 29 Comments
I was a guest on The Michael Koolidge Show on 1440 WROK in Rockford, Illinois and numerous other stations. The discussion started with my take on the VP debate.
"I was left with the feeling wondering why Mike Pence wasn't the presidential nominee because he was so much better on his feet than Donald Trump. And I wonder if Trump had given the performance that Pence gave, I think the polling would be very different nowadays. Trump was rising in the polls as we approached the presidential debate, it was not a good night for him by any account, and he has sunk pretty significantly, several percentage points, since then. And I just think that if he were as prepared as Pence was prepared, if he was on message as much, if he didn't take the bait the way Pence never took the bait, I think we could be in a very different spot here.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 06, 2016 1 Comment
The Democrats salivated when Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) called GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump a role model. Her opponent Gov. Maggie Hassan held a press call and released a web ad over it. Pollsters even said the comment and Ayotte's attempt to walk back hurt her chances for re-election. But did it? From The Boston Globe:
Ayotte, a Republican, leads her challenger, Governor Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, 47 percent to 41 percent, in poll of the high-stakes race for US Senate. The poll was performed on Monday to Wednesday this week, surveying voters before and after the US Senate debate earlier this week during which Ayotte said “absolutely” Trump is a role model for her children. Hours later Ayotte said she misspoke. In any case, the poll did not show any erosion of support for Ayotte following her comment. But Hassan’s campaign will begin airing a one minute-long television advertisement Friday that highlights her debate mishap.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 06, 2016 8 Comments
We'll admit it up front: there's not much redeeming social value in the story we're about to present you. Let's just call this political entertainment of the pugilistic sort between two people who clearly have little use for each other. Over the course of a longish segment on today's With All Due Respect, Trump surrogate Boris Epshteyn and Gary Johnson backer Liz Mair engaged in a running battle. The barbs came fast and furious, with, among other things: Mair—playing the sexism card—ripping Epshteyn for interrupting her; Boris noting Mair's fascination with the word "butt" and taunting her over not having a job this election cycle; and Mair suggesting that Boris had trouble keeping up with the news. At the end, when John Heilemann facetiously observed that it had been a real "lovefest," Mair retorted "I don't do the loving, I do the hating."

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 05, 2016 30 Comments
Former Massachusetts Governor and current Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate Bill Weld has a new political mission and surprisingly, it has nothing to do with helping Gary Johnson win the presidency. Weld simply doesn't want Trump to win, so he plans to focus on attacking him. The Boston Globe reports:
VP hopeful Weld is more interested in attacking Trump The Libertarian vice presidential candidate, William F. Weld, said Tuesday that he plans to focus exclusively on blasting Donald Trump over the next five weeks, a strategic pivot aimed at denying Trump the White House and giving himself a key role in helping to rebuild the GOP.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 05, 2016 9 Comments
James O'Keefe of Project Veritas has released a video that exposes Ohio's Democratic Senate candidate Ted Strickland's real positions on coal and guns while confirming that the Democrats have given up on his campaign. According to Strickland, 87% of Ohio's energy comes from coal, but he admitted on camera that coal isn't a big deal to him:
"No, I'm not big on coal. I'm not big on coal. I understand coal. Coal is dying," he said.
Yeah, it's no wonder why the United Mine Workers of America decided to endorse Strickland's opponent Sen. Rob Portman.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 05, 2016 29 Comments
The GOP has recently gained momentum in its race to keep the majority in the Senate, but a slip of the tongue from incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) could bring everything down. During her debate with her opponent Gov. Maggie Hassan, Ayotte told the moderator she considers GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump a role model:
“I think that certainly there are many role models that we have and I believe he can serve as president, and so absolutely I would do that,” she said awkwardly.
Democrats wasted no time jumping on her comments and using it to their advantage. It may just work

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 05, 2016 14 Comments
On Wednesday, Romanian hacker known as Guccifer announced he hacked into the Clinton Foundation. He showed a screenshot of folders he found in the foundation's server, which included "docs and donors lists of the Democratic committees, PACs, etc." He then asks if this surprises anyone, but it did raise a few red flags. It turns out, people have discovered that a lot of his new "findings" actually belong to a previous hack on the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Plus, Clinton Foundation officials said no one could find proof that someone hacked its server.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 05, 2016 12 Comments
How well did things go for Mike Pence and the Trump-Pence ticket tonight? Even Chris Matthews—no doubt to the horror of Rachel Maddow who was helping oversee the post-debate commentary on MSNBC—had to declare Pence the "winner." Perhaps even worse for the denizens of MSNBC and its viewers, Matthews said Pence looked "strong" and like a "grown-up," whereas Tim Kaine came across as "desperate." Ouch!

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 04, 2016 87 Comments
It wasn't even close. Mike Pence trounced Tim Kaine. If Trump had given the performance in the first debate that Pence gave tonight, Trump would be leading in the polls instead of sinking. Pence made the case against Hillary on Obamacare, foreign policy, law enforcement, immigration, the email server and a host of other issues, including her claim that half of Trump supporters are "deplorables."

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 04, 2016 12 Comments
Follow the vice president debate between Gov. Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Kaine with us here at Legal Insurrection! Longwood University in Virginia is hosting the debate, which will start at 9PM EST. You can watch the live stream and Twitter feeds below.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 04, 2016 5 Comments
In September, we noted that Avengers writer Joss Whedon gathered a few of his celebrity friends and produced "Save the Day” as a way to encourage people to show up at the polls come Election Day. While it was not hard to see the production as pro-Clinton, a group of talented deplorable citizens gathered together to make the best political ad to date in response the glitterati's pleas.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on October 04, 2016 5 Comments
Joe Scarborough was probably just trying to make the point that Donald Trump is very unpopular with black voters, but he wound up saying something that some might view as insulting to African-Americans. Interviewing Al Sharpton on today's Morning Joe, he asked about the Rev's view that Hillary has not been doing enough to appeal to black voters. As Sharpton prefaced his remarks by observing that Hillary is way ahead of Trump among black voters, Scarborough interjected "my dog's way ahead of Trump among black voters." It's amusing to watch the video: as Joe gets to the end of his statement, it seems to dawn on him that he's wandered down a dangerous path, but by then it's too late so he plows ahead!

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 03, 2016 20 Comments
Publisher Ishi Press International has put pictures of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump on its new edition of Adolf Hitler speeches:
My New Order: Volumes One and Two cover Hitler’s speeches from 1918 to 1941. Volume One’s back cover features a picture raising his hand in a gesture similar to a Nazi salute. In a blurb about the book published on Amazon, publisher Ishi Press International claims “There are clear similarities between the speeches of Trump and the speeches of Hitler. “Here are examples: They repeat themselves constantly, saying the same things over and over again. They never admit they have made a mistake nor do they ever take anything back. To any criticism, they respond by insults and name calling. They use a low form of language, with simple sentences even a person with the lowest level of education or with no education at all can understand,” the blurb continues.

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 03, 2016 19 Comments
Democrats and their media allies are trying to revive the "war on women" from their 2012 playbook. The best they can do however, is accuse Trump of fat shaming a beauty queen over twenty years ago. Trump has been teasing that he might go after Hillary for the way she treated Bill Clinton's women over the years but it seems The New York Times has beaten him to the punch. This report from Megan Twohey is filled with all kinds of sordid details:
How Hillary Clinton Grappled With Bill Clinton’s Infidelity, and His Accusers Hillary Clinton was campaigning for her husband in January 1992 when she learned of the race’s newest flare-up: Gennifer Flowers had just released tapes of phone calls with Bill Clinton to back up her claim they had had an affair.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 03, 2016 20 Comments
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has urged states to take advantage of federal government protection to secure their election systems before November 8:
“These challenges aren’t just in the future -- they are here today,” Johnson said in the statement. “In recent months, malicious cyber-actors have been scanning a large number of state systems, which could be a preamble to attempted intrusions. In a few cases, we have determined that malicious actors gained access to state voting-related systems.”
A few days ago, a DHS official said hackers targeted about 21 states.
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