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2016 Election Tag

Last week Hillary Clinton joined Jimmy Kimmel Live. Increasing attention to what onlookers suggest could be serious health issues led Kimmel to challenge Hillary with a presidential competency test -- opening a jar of pickles. Hillary succeeded in opening the jar of pickles all on her very own, only for pickle truthers to question the veracity of the Kimmel/pickle challenge. The largest detractor was conspiracy monger, Alex Jones. So, Kimmel took seven minutes out of his show to expose the truth behind Pickle Gate.

Huma Abedin, the top aide to Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, has announced she's leaving her husband Anthony Weiner after The New York Post revealed he's still sexting other women. https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/770279919263907840

On Tuesday, voters will decide if former DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is worthy enough to advance to the election in November after a summer filled with controversy. She came under fire this summer when "leaked emails showed that staffers at her organization appeared to be plotting ways to undermine the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)." She resigned as chairwoman on the eve of the DNC.

Obama's former campaign manager David Plouffe appeared on Meet the Press and while commenting on Donald Trump, described him as a psychopath. Even Chuck Todd, who's not known as a right leaning pundit felt that was a little much. Politico reports:
Plouffe: 'We have a psychopath running for president' President Barack Obama's former campaign manager on Sunday called Donald Trump "a psychopath."

The British Brexit leader Nigel Farage recently spoke at a Donald Trump rally and offered some words of encouragement for attendees. Real Clear Politics reported:
Former leader of the UK Independent Party Nigel Farage, credited for Brexit, addressed the audience at a Trump campaign rally in Jackson, Mississippi on Wednesday night. Farage left the UKIP after the United Kingdom voted to 'leave' the European Union.

Thursday, Hillary Clinton's campaign unveiled a nasty new ad. The ad shows various white nationalists and members of the alt-right voicing support for Trump, who they believe represents their values. Also featured is Breitbart News' Steve Bannon, who recently joined Trump's presidential campaign.

As the ongoing saga of Hillary's email scandal trudges along, Trey Gowdy, House Oversight Committee member, claims Hillary used a special tool to wipe clean her home-brewed email server. No, it wasn't a very special cloth. (I know, I figured that's what she used, too). According to Gowdy, Hillary used BleachBit, a program that deep cleans files, cookies, and servers. From the BleachBit website:

Indiana Democrat Senate candidate Evan Bayh wants to win back the seat he gave up in 2011, but does he even live in the state? He told WISH-TV:
“Well,” he said, “1142 C Canterbury Court, Indianapolis, Indiana. It’s on my drivers license.”
But Independent Journal Review found that his address is actually on Canterbury Square. This has only added fuel to claims that he doesn't actually live in Indiana and rarely visits.

The Clinton Foundation has a dark cloud over them due to emails showing major donors asking then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for huge favors. They have tried to mend their ways by deciding to stop accepting foreign donations if Hillary wins the presidency, but they may have taken a big step back. Chelsea just decided to remain on the board even if her mom wins. Conflict of interest much? Besides Bill, who else has better access to Hillary than Chelsea?

The current polling gives little rational reason to think Donald Trump will win in November. No matter how you slice it -- national 4-way, national head-to-head, battleground states, electoral college, unfavorability -- Trump is deeply underwater, as this polling average chart at Real Clear Politics today shows: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ The trends are not any better for Trump than the averages. The two weeks after the Republican Convention were a complete disaster for Trump, from which he has not yet recovered:

The GOP has worried it may lose its Senate majority in November and Toomey may be one of the victims. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) has received an endorsement from former Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords as he faces a tough reelection in November. The endorsement from Giffords and her anti-gun violence group Americans for Responsible Solutions might be just what Toomey needs to defeat his Democratic challenger Katie McGinty, who has slightly pulled ahead in four polls.

On arguably the worst day of Hillary Clinton's campaign, her campaign manager Robby Mook never stopped laughing and grinning through his Morning Joe appearance. The AP has reported that more than half of the meetings Hillary had as Secretary of State with non-governmental representatives were with people who had donated to the Foundation. But in what was clearly a grinning-past-the-graveyard strategy, there was Mook laughing like he had just won the lottery. And when he wasn't actively laughing, Mook kept a smile resolutely plastered in place. Mook displayed encyclopedic knowledge of all facts favorable to Clinton. But when it came to something that might harm her, Robby suddenly pleaded ignorance. Joe Scarborough asked whether it was true that when Doug Band of the Foundation was sending Huma Abedin emails asking for meetings on behalf of donors to the Foundation, he was also the head of the Teneo firm at a time Huma was on the Teneo payroll, effectively making Band Abedin's boss. "I, I don't, I don't know the details of, you know, what was going on in her life," stammered Mook. Isn't that convenient?

Hillary Clinton escaped catastrophe when FBI Director James Comey declined to recommend criminal charges in connection with her emails. But the influence-peddling pipeline between the Clinton Foundation and the Department of State during her tenure as Secretary might just come back to do her in... Witness John Heilemann, co-host of Bloomberg TV's With All Due Respect, on this evening's show. Heilemann is anything but a conservative or Trump admirer, yet he had the candor to describe Hillary's State Department dealings as "seamy and seedy." Even guest co-host Alex Wagner, a devout liberal, acknowledged: "you can't get past the number that the AP is reporting today, that 85 of the 154 people from private interests that met with Secretary Clinton while she was at the State Department were donors to the Clinton Foundation. Those numbers are a problem."

If you've been paying attention, you already know the media coverage of Trump is a daily drum beat of negativity and undue scrutiny unlike anything we've ever seen. The media may not be crazy about Hillary Clinton, but they're on a special mission to make sure Donald Trump never sees the inside of the Oval Office. The New York Post's Michael Goodwin made this the subject of his most recent column:
American journalism is collapsing before our eyes Donald Trump may or may not fix his campaign, and Hillary Clinton may or may not become the first female president. But something else happening before our eyes is almost as important: the complete collapse of American journalism as we know it.

I've been keeping an eye on the tough Congress elections headed into November, especially since the GOP could easily loses its majority in the Senate. North Carolina could lose one of its GOP senators while New Hampshire could lose its only GOP senator in Kelly Ayotte. The tough reelection has led her to distance herself from GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Ayotte said she would vote for Trump, but stopped before giving him her full endorsement. This has frustrated the independent voters she needs to win. She didn't even attend a rally attended by Vice President candidate Mike Pence where he told the crowd they need her "back in the U.S. Senate." As The Washington Post described it, she "is stuck between Donald Trump and a hard place."

In recent days, Donald Trump has made a concerted effort to moderate the tone, and some would say the substance, of his campaign. So how does a notable member of the MSM reward him? By analogizing him in explicit terms to a Nazi. On Monday evening's Hardball, Matthews asked if Trump is "in the bunker?" Making the Nazi analogy clear, Matthews said that "somebody compared him to Downfall, the movie about the end of the Third Reich." Matthews admitted: "it's never fair to do that," but that of course didn't stop him, as he suggested that "he's in the bunker but doesn't know what's going on outside. "

The MSM can't stop talking about Donald Trump having brought onto his campaign the Chairman of Breitbart News. But Hillary's closest aide being for 12 years an editor of an Islamist magazine that among other things blamed the US for 9/11? Meh! On today's With All Due Respect, guest co-host Alex Wagner seconded the excuse that the Clinton campaign is shopping. Said Wagner: "as you and I have both worked on magazines, we know that there are a lot of editors who do absolutely nothing but are listed on mastheads anyway." John Heilemann similarly argued that while his title at Bloomberg Politics is Managing Editor, he doesn't do any managing or editing. He went on to assert that not many voters care about Huma Abedin "one way or the other." Added Heilemann: "I know people on the right will hate me for saying that."

The GOP has panicked lately about their majority in Congress, especially in the Senate, as the party divides over Donald Trump and the lack of fundraising. Their worst fears appear to becoming true in North Carolina, once seen as a lock for the GOP. The Wall Street Journal reports that Democrat Deborah Ross may beat two term GOP Senator Richard Burr. The Democrats also gained a rise because Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has placed North Carolina high on her priority list. Ross tends to climb the polls as Clinton does the same. When Clinton went up nine points, Ross found herself up two points on Burr for the first time in the election.