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What’s with the first-name usage for Hillary?

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I’ve wondered about this for nearly as long as Hillary Rodham Clinton has been in public life — which seems like forever.

Why do the media, the political class, historians and Mr. and Mrs. J.Q. Public refer to the Democratic nominee for president as “Hillary”?

I’ll admit to doing it in casual conversation. My wife and I talk about this election all the time. We’re caught up by it. We’re enthralled — if that’s the right word — by all of its patently bizarre twists and turns.

Then I’ll toss out something like this: “Did you hear what Hillary and Trump said today?” My wife identifies the two major-party candidates the same way.

The Republican nominee doesn’t get the same air of familiarity, if that’s what it is. We refer to Donald J. Trump as “Trump.” I’m inclined to use more, um, descriptive terminology at times. And yes, I’m quite sure those on the other side attach the same pejorative qualifiers to Hillary.

See, there I go again … falling into that first-name trap.

I mean no disrespect. I take her as seriously as I do any other politician, male or female.

I’ll admit to using first names on other pols. Newt, Mitt and Jeb are my favorites. Their names are unusual enough that you don’t need to last names to know about whom one is referring. It’s kind of like Wilt, Arnie, Tiger and Kareem … you know?

There’s got to be a psychologist out there who can explain it to me.

Hey, do you think Dr. Phil might be looking for a topic to cover on his TV show.

entertainment news, national news, political news

Lighten up, Trump; ‘SNL’ goes after Hillary, too

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Donald J. Trump’s feelings are hurt.

He doesn’t like the impressions that Alec Baldwin does of him. He’s told Baldwin and “Saturday Night Live” to knock it off. Why? It’s gotten “personal,” says the Republican nominee for president.

Really. Well, how do you suppose Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton likes being portrayed by Kate McKinnon? Publicly, she’s laughing it off, which is how grown-ups are supposed to react to political satire.

Indeed, “SNL” has proven over many years to be an equal-opportunity jester. It has parodied Al Gore and George W. Bush, Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole and H. Ross Perot.

Oh, and then there’s Sarah Palin.

Let’s go back a ways and recall “SNL’s” treatment of Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford — and of Ronald Reagan.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/snl-takes-jab-at-donald-trump/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=29995717

I’m reminded of a politician I once knew when I worked as editorial page editor of the Beaumont Enterprise. Our paper circulated throughout two congressional districts, the 2nd and the 9th. The 2nd District congressman was the late Charlie Wilson, a conservative, free-spirited Democrat.

We had a cartoonist on our staff, Jerry Byrd, who used to poke fun of politicians of all stripes. Yes, we needled Rep. Wilson on occasion for this or that policy statement.

How do you suppose Wilson responded when we published an editorial cartoon that was critical of him? He wanted the original drawing. He loved it. He took it in good humor and never bitched about it.

Trump’s baptism as a politician has occurred at the highest level possible. He gets poked and prodded by some of the best political satirists in the business.

Dude, it goes with the territory.

national news, political news

First-class passengers above ‘groping’?

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Rudolph Giuliani needs to, um, no longer speak on behalf of Donald J. Trump.

Then again, turn him loose! You go, Rudy!

The former New York mayor said the following about allegations that Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, groped a woman aboard a jetliner:

“Some of these things appear to me appear to me on their face to be kind of untrue,” Giuliani said. “Fifteen minutes of groping in a first-class cabin of an airplane? It doesn’t make sense. I’ve been in first class a lot, fortunately. Since I stopped being mayor, I can afford first class. You know, you see everything that goes on in first class.”

He wasn’t there. He has no idea about the circumstances. He is passing judgment — with no knowledge of the facts — on a woman whose accusation of groping fits the M.O. of other alleged incidents involving Trump.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/giuliani-alleged-trump-groping-%e2%80%98couldn%e2%80%99t-possibly-have-happened%e2%80%99-because-it-was-first-class/ar-AAj1cVi?li=BBnb7Kz

It’s fair to point out that Trump opened up this line of so-called political discourse himself by saying what he said to Billy Bush on that “Access Hollywood” tape. The Washington Post obtained it, put it out there for all the world to see.

Now … we’ve got this. A former political hero-turned-attack dog mounting a bizarre defense on behalf of someone who has admitted that he tried to seduce a married woman and has bragged about what his “star” status allows him to do to women.

Hypocrisy? There it is.

national news, political news

‘Rigged election’ talk creates serious concern

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It’s been said many times by historians that the United States is the world’s model for peaceful transition of power from president to president, particularly in times of crisis and tragedy.

* 1963: John F. Kennedy was gunned down and Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office shortly after doctors announced the death of the president. We didn’t skip a beat.

* 1974: Richard Nixon resigned from office in the midst of a profound constitutional crisis and Gerald Ford became president, declaring “Our long national nightmare is over.” The beat went on.

* 2000: George W. Bush won election by the narrowest margin imaginable over Al Gore. The Supreme Court settled it in accordance with constitutional law. The government continued to function.

Three earlier presidents — Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley — were murdered while they were in office; their vice presidents took power, also without incident.

That history of relative tranquility is being threatened in 2016 by an ominous drumbeat from Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, who keeps harping on a “rigged election” determining who will become the next president. He continues to foment anger among his supporters who talk openly about “revolt” against the system if — and/or when — their guy loses to Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-rigged-elections-republicans-229846

This is nasty stuff, man.

According to Politico: “Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to lose on Nov. 8, refuse to concede the election, and teeter the country into an unprecedented crisis of faith in government. Republicans and Democrats, in Washington and beyond, fear that the aftermath of the 2016 election will create a festering infection in the already deep and lasting wound that the campaign is leaving on America.”

On top of what he’s been saying about “rigging” the election, he asserts that Clinton should be thrown in jail. Due process? Presumption of innocence? Forget about it!

There’s this, also, from Politico: “And, they say, only Republican leaders who speak up will have any chance of stopping it.”

They’re quiet — so far.

There needs to be a dialing back of this crackpot rhetoric. Trump likely will ignore all pleas to restore some semblance of reason. After all, he said recently he’s been “unshackled” by House Speaker Paul Ryan’s declaration that he no longer can “defend” Trump over the accusations that he assaulted women sexually.

Trump’s foes have declared him to be a demagogue who presents a serious “danger” to the United States of America.

Trump is proving them to be absolutely correct.

national news, political news

Hillary remains mum on Trump’s latest trouble

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Hillary Rodham Clinton likely has a lot to say about Donald J. Trump’s sexual behavior.

Her problem? She cannot say it out loud. The Democratic nominee for president of the United States must rely on surrogates to express their outrage on her behalf.

She happens to have a couple of powerful surrogates: President Barack H. Obama and his wife, Michelle, who have done a masterful job of peeling the bark off the Republican presidential nominee.

Hillary Clinton’s own history — as well as the history of her husband — compel her to remain mum on the subject of those ghastly Trump comments we all heard the other day aboard that “Access Hollywood” bus in 2005.

As the New York Times has reported: “Though Hillary Clinton has stood at the center of feminist debates for more than two decades, she has also been an imperfect messenger for the feminist cause. That has never been more true than now, as her old missteps and her husband’s history have effectively paralyzed her during a moment of widespread outrage.”

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/missteps-in-hillary-clinton%e2%80%99s-past-leave-her-muted-in-furor-over-donald-trump/ar-AAj00Y1?li=BBnb7Kz

And the outrage hasn’t let up since the video and audio recordings were released to the public.

As for whether any of this damages Hillary Clinton’s political standing, I happen to believe it will not.

Her tactic so far has been to change the subject when the talk turns to Trump’s statements about attempting to seduce a married woman, or how his “star” status allows him to grab women in their private areas, or allows him to kiss them aggressively without their consent.

The two of them have one more joint appearance to endure before voters have their final say. It will occur, interestingly, in Las Vegas, Nev., where Trump has some significant business dealing and where — one might presume — he has engaged in some of his untoward behavior with women.

Will any of this come up when the event opens? Uhhh, let me think for a second … yes, it will.

Do not look for Clinton to go there. She’ll likely just let Trump rant like a madman over the former president’s misbehavior.

From where I will be sitting while this event occurs, that will look like a good call.

Then she’ll likely sic Barack and Michelle Obama on him.

national news, political news

Trump’s record ‘too controversial’? Hmmm …

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This is too good to keep to myself.

OK, it’s already out there in the public domain, but I have to share a bit of it here. It involves something Donald J. Trump told columnist/TV commentator Chris Matthews in 1998.

It comes from the Guardian in Australia. A friend of mine sent it to me overnight in an e-mail. To wit:

“During a 1998 appearance on CNBC with host Chris Matthews, current Republican presidential nominee and then simple tycoon Donald Trump declared that if Bill Clinton’s personal peccadillos were enough to prompt impeachment proceedings, his own history with women was more than sufficient to keep him out of the White House.

“‘Can you imagine how controversial I’d be?’ Trump said at the time. ‘You think about him with women. How about me with women? Can you imagine?

“Trump was still confident that ‘his women’ would be better received by the American public. ‘Yeah. They might like my women better, too, you know?'”

Hmm. Well, time will tell — probably around, oh, Nov. 8 — whether Americans like Trump’s women better. My strong hunch tells me the decision voters make — once they get past his utter ignorance of the substance of anything at all — will also be based on Trump’s “own history with women.”

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Retirement means getting rid of … things

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This is another in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

Retirement takes on many meanings.

For my wife and me it means more travel, sleeping in, coming and going as we please. For me individually, it means writing what I damn well please on this blog.

It also means we feel the need to get rid of things that we’ve collected over our 45 years of life together.

I told one of my sisters this morning about the last item. So she asked: “You aren’t getting rid of memorabilia, are you?” No, sis. One does not get rid of memorabilia.

Friday morning and again today, we held what only can be called an off-the-cuff garage sale. We didn’t plan it. It just happened.iv

My wife noticed one of our neighbors was having a garage sale about four doors to our west. We live in a neighborhood with alleys and rear-entry garages. We saw the sign advertising our neighbor’s sale, so my wife got this wild hair: I think I’ll put some stuff out in the morning and see what we can sell.

We awoke Friday and she went out and began putting items on the driveway. We had some big items, too. The biggest of which were two dressers. We lugged them out of the garage.

Then the traffic began coursing down the alley. Folks stopped. We chatted them up. They’d look around. They’d buy this item or that.

Then a lady came, took a look at the dressers and said she’d think about it. I left the house to keep an appointment I had made in Masterson, about 30 miles north of Amarillo. My wife called me about 45 minutes later to tell me she sold them both for the asking price with which we had tagged them. Someone else came and bought ’em on the spot.

I came home a little after 11 a.m. We buttoned up our sale for the day.

Then again this morning we were at it again. More traffic. More visitors. More shoppers. More buyers. I was struck by the number of vehicles I saw today loaded with items purchased at earlier garage sales.

We got rid of a lot of small items today and one fairly large item: an indoor Christmas tree that a woman said she needs for her cabin in Red River, N.M.

When it was all over, we made a good bit of cash. We now also have a good bit more room on our garage. Our neighbors down the alley did pretty well with their garage sale, too, I’m happy to report.

All in all, we’ve had a very productive weekend.

We have some traveling money that we’re going to use when we haul our fifth wheel out for our next big adventure. It’ll be a good one. I’ll keep you advised.

Yes, this retirement thing is kind of cool.

national news, political news

How will the loser concede this election?

republican-presidential-nominee-mitt-romney-embraces-his-wife-ann-as-his-family-look-on-during-his-election-night-rally-in-boston

Allow me to play out what looks like an increasing probable political outcome.

It is that Hillary Rodham Clinton will be elected the 45th president of the United States of America.

The trend is moving rapidly in her favor in the wake of (a) two debate performances against Donald J. Trump and (b) the continuing fallout from Trump’s hideous statements about women.

So, what might we expect when the loser of this miserable election decides to issue a concession statement?

It’s been said that the winner’s victory declaration will set the tone for the next four years. What’s being said with increasing frequency is that the loser’s concession will be equally important.

Trump has waged a campaign of anger, fear, suspicion, innuendo, invective and bigotry. Listen to his supporters yell “Lock her up!” at those rallies. Listen, too, to them complain about alleged conspiracies involving the “liberal mainstream media” and “politically correct special interests” who are teaming up to “rig” an election that produces a desired result.

They are echoing the statements of their guy, Trump.

The candidate has bitched about a “rigged election.”

Tradition holds that the loser concedes once the election is decided and then declares his intention to work with the winner to heal the wounds opened up by months of bitter campaigning. Recall, though, when Al Gore conceded defeat in 2000, only to take it back when the Florida ballot-counting threw the proverbial wrench into the entire election process.

It’s fair to wonder what kind of concession statement Donald Trump would deliver when the time comes for him to call it quits.

Will he lead his ardent Republican “base” voters into lingering bitterness? Will he make an accusation of election-rigging? If that happens, and no one should be surprised if does, then we’re headed for a very difficult transition as the new president prepares to assume the most cherished role in the nation — if not the world.

My hope is that if he loses — and one is compelled to offer that qualifier until one candidate gets the Electoral College majority required to win — that he does so with a modicum of grace, decorum and good will.

However, my fear is that Trump would hold true to the form that enabled him to secure a major-party presidential nomination. It was a butt-ugly process and my concern is that he very well could make it an equally unattractive concession.

national news, political news

Trump mounts disgusting ‘defense’

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Let’s see where this story is going.

Donald J. Trump has admitted to “Access Hollywood” that he has tried to sleep with a married woman and has boasted about how his “star” status allows him to grab women in their private areas.

Then came the accusations by several women who have said the Republican nominee for president of the United States has groped them and sexually assaulted them.

How does Trump respond to this?

In a most disgusting way.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/301074-trump-defends-himself-against-accusers-by-attacking-their

He’s called the women “horrible, horrible people. Liars.”

But then he singled out one of them. Jessica Leeds told the New York Times that Trump had assaulted her 30 years ago.

His response? “Believe me, she would not be my first choice,” Trump said. “That I can tell you. You don’t know. That would not be my first choice.”

There you have it. The man who wants to be president of the United States belittled an accuser with a veiled implication about her physical appearance.

Can this get any lower? I would say “no.”

Then again, tomorrow is just around the corner.

national news, political news

Check out this poll … from Texas, of all places!

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OK, as long as we’re talking about public opinion polls that are all the rage as the presidential campaigns heads for the stretch …

A WFAA/SurveyUSA poll puts Donald J. Trump up by 4 percentage points over Hillary Rodham Clinton … in Texas!

Trump, the Republican nominee, is reeling after revelations of that hideous recording of him boasting of what he tried to do and what he could do with — or to — women. Clinton, the Democratic nominee, is now beginning to put some distance between her and her foe in the campaign’s final weeks.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/10/13/poll-trump-leads-clinton-only-4-texas/

I’m not going to suggest that Clinton will win Texas’s 38 electoral votes. The WFAA/SurveyUSA survey, though, suggests some movement away from the GOP nominee in a state that has become as reliably Republican as they come.

And get this: The survey contains a 4 percent margin of error, which makes the Clinton-Trump contest in Texas a virtual dead heat.

Huh? What the hey?

Isn’t this supposed to be one of Trump’s “firewall” states, where he actually could shoot someone — as he once boasted — and still retain his supporters?

It is fascinating in the extreme that with all the utterly miserable statements Trump has made during his entire presidential career — which comprises this campaign — that a video and audio recording of Trump’s vulgar references to women has turned voters against him.

It wasn’t enough that he ridiculed Sen. John McCain’s service during the Vietnam War; or that he mocked a reporter with a physical disability; or that he said a U.S.-born federal judge couldn’t preside over a case involving Trump University because of his Mexican heritage; or that he would ridicule a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith.

Oh, no. None of that stuck.

He talks dirty about women? He boasts about his attempts to commit “sexual assault”? His constant berating of women’s appearance? Yep, now he’s done it. Clinton has been talking about Trump’s “unfitness” for the presidency. There it is, in plain view.

Now we’re talking some serious erosion of political support — even, apparently, in Texas.

Maybe …

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