Tag Archives: Hillary Clinton

Can this man ‘speak from the heart’?

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Donald J. Trump’s allies say his task at tonight’s debate with Hillary Rodham Clinton can be defined cleanly and crisply.

He has to “speak from the heart” that he is truly sorry for the ghastly remarks he made 11 years ago about women.

The recording, released this past week by the Washington Post, has put Trump in a lot of political trouble. It has given Clinton an enormous amount of ammo she can throw at him.

Trump’s pals say he must deliver the apology of his life.

My questions? Is this individual wired sufficiently to convey such sincere contrition — and will it expunge the record of the terrible things he has said?

Early voting bites ’em in the rear

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This is going to so very Trumpian, so please forgive me.

I called it, man! I’ve been saying for years that early voting carries tremendous risk, that the candidate who gets one’s vote before Election Day could mess up royally and make the voter regret the ballot he or she has just cast.

Donald Trump, anyone?

Several states have begun allowing residents to vote early for president. Many thousands of Americans have done so. Many of those who have cast their ballots early did so for Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee for president of the United States.

Texans will commence early voting on Oct. 24.

Perhaps those who’ve voted early walked away from the polling booth feeling pretty darn good about the vote they cast.

D’oh! And then something happened! The Washington Post uncovered an 11-year-old video and audio recording of Trump saying some ghastly things about women.

You know what has happened in the 48 hours since then. The Republican Party is in full crisis mode. GOP members of Congress have pulled their endorsement of Trump back; many of them have called on him to quit the race; House Speaker Paul Ryan disinvited Trump to a political rally in Wisconsin; and in the Mother of All Political Insults, Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, cancelled an appearance with Trump.

Has there been a clearer demonstration than this — at the presidential election level — of what can happen to someone’s vote?

I posted this blog item four years ago.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2012/10/down-with-early-voting/

I am disgusted by what we’ve learned about the Republican presidential nominee.

However, the revelations that have come out about the candidate’s behavior fill me with a sense of validation.

Early voting? No thanks. When your candidate messes up, you can’t take it back.

Calls for Trump to quit race are mounting, but …

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The Deseret News of Salt Lake City has joined a growing chorus around the country in demanding that Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, quit his campaign.

The editorial is attached here:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865664336/In-our-opinion-Donald-Trump-should-resign-his-candidacy.html

He probably won’t quit, although I hate to predict anything at this point of a growing scandal that only promises to get worse.

My own sense is that Trump is thinking about it, considering at some level to call it quits, to hand this presidential nomination over to VP nominee Mike Pence.

He has vowed to go the distance.

Frankly, I want him to stay in the race. It’s not that I want this man to redeem himself. I believe that politically speaking he is beyond redemption.

Republican Party primary voters very well could have known this kind of news would splatter itself all over the campaign. Yet they punched their ticket next to a man who “tells it like it is,” who eschews “political correctness,” who has promised to “build a wall” to keep out the Mexican “rapists, drug dealers and killers” and who has pledged to ban all Muslims from entering the United States of America.

Oh, the personal stuff? The three marriages and his boasts about all his sexual conquests, the language he uses to describe women? Pfftt! Doesn’t matter, man.

Trump “isn’t a politician,” the mantra goes. Well, actually he became a politician the moment he rode down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his campaign for the presidency.

The media are largely complicit, too, in allowing this man to get to this point. They didn’t call him out immediately for the lies he told about seeing “thousands of Muslims cheering” the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11, or for the phony excuses he gives for refusing to release his income tax returns.

The Deseret News has taken a bold step in calling for Trump to quit the race. I get that it dislikes Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, too, and cannot endorse her candidacy.

There will be more of this kind of demand in the days to come before the election.

Let us not kid ourselves, though. The Republican Party’s primary voters have made their choice. It’s Donald J. Trump. They now must swallow what he fed them on his march to their party’s presidential nomination.

You guessed it: There’s more from Trump’s filthy mouth

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There well might be no end to what we’re going to hear from Donald J. Trump’s filthy mouth.

The Washington Post is now reporting that it has uncovered more recordings of the Republican presidential nominee talking with that scholarly soul and renowned social critic, shock jock Howard Stern, about his sex life.

Some of it post-dates the now-infamous hot-mic recording of Trump and “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush talking about Trump’s attempt to seduce a married woman … and a whole lot of other disgusting stuff.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/more-trump-tapes-surface-with-crude-sex-remarks/ar-BBxbcus?li=BBnb7Kz

But now we’re getting an intimate look at the character — and I use the term guardedly — of the man who wants to become president of the United States of America.

Threesomes? Sex with women while they’re menstruating? Profane references to his daughter Ivanka’s physical attributes? We’ve got some of that, too.

Is it any wonder at all that members of Trump’s own party are deserting him in droves?

I still intend to watch Trump’s Sunday night televised joint appearance with Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton. My concern, though, is whether I’ll have the stomach to listen to all of it, given where I am pretty sure the questioning will go.

What might happen next with Donald J. Trump?

A woman holds signs depicting the head of Republican presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump as she waits to enter the auditorium to hear him speak, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, N.H.  (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)

Let’s roll out a few notions about what could happen to Donald J. Trump’s crumbling presidential candidacy.

Here’s what we know:

* Trump was caught on tape saying some unbelievable, hideous and profane things about women. We’ve all heard the tape.

* Many Republicans in both houses of Congress are calling for Trump to step down, to quit as their party’s presidential nominee. I’m waiting, however, for my own congressman — Republican Mac Thornberry — to issue a statement of any kind regarding his party nominee’s conduct.

* House Speaker Paul Ryan was going to appear with Trump at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, then he disinvited the nominee.

* Trump has issued a Twitter statement that vows he “never” will quit the race, that he will not let his supporters down.

* Polling after the first “debate” with Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton has shown Trump slipping dramatically; the revelation revealed in this horrific audio recording are sure to accelerate the polling free fall.

I refer occasionally to my trick knee. It’s acting up this afternoon just a bit and it’s telling me something I thought I’d never hear.

It’s telling me that the probability of a Trump withdrawal is increasing. How do I know this? I don’t.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pressure-mounts-on-trump-to-step-aside/ar-BBxaPaB?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

The pressure is building from within the Republican Party. Key Democrats don’t want Trump to pull out; they see him as their ticket not only to retaining the White House, but getting control of the Senate and possibly making serious inroads in trimming the GOP majority in the House of Reps.

That’s what is driving the Republican big wigs to persuade Trump to pull out.

He’s not going to be elected president. Indeed, he well now could lose the race in a huge fashion on Nov. 8. The bigger the margin of victory for Clinton, the greater chances of a Senate flip back to Democratic control.

Am I predicting a Trump withdrawal? No. I’m out of the predicting game, remember?

But if this guy has any sense — at all — of the disaster that awaits him and the party he only recently adopted as his own, then he ought to rethink that pledge to “never drop out” of the campaign.

In fact, when a politician is forced to say he’ll never do something, then we know he’s at least thinking about it.

Trump using tenuous ‘defense’

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What am I missing here?

Donald J. Trump — at the time newly married — went off on a hot-mic rant 11 years ago in which he talked about having sex with a married woman, groping another woman, about how his “star” status enabled him to have his way with women, disparaged another woman’s appearance … all while dropping f-bombs and using crude references to the female anatomy.

Then he defends himself by saying essentially two things:

* The audio recording is more than a decade old and does not reflect the person he is or was — or will be as president of the United States.

* Bill Clinton abused women and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, fought savagely to defend her husband over what he did more than two decades ago.

So, which is it? Does the 11-year-old audio recording count more or less than a 20-plus-year-old series of alleged sexual dalliances — plus an actual relationship that occurred while Bill Clinton was president of the United States?

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, is running against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

I’ll ask one more question: Does the behavior of a nominee’s spouse even rise the level of actual relevance that’s equal to the behavior of a current candidate for the presidency?

This next ‘debate’ is going to be a doozy

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, left, stands with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the first presidential debate at Hofstra University, Monday, Sept. 26, 2016, in Hempstead, N.Y. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Donald J. Trump has taken credit for a lot of things lately.

* For predicting the terror attack that killed 49 people in an Orlando, Fla., nightclub.

* For persuading President Obama to release his birth certificate that proves he is a “natural-born” U.S. citizen.

* For selecting a running mate, Mike Pence, who did a stellar job while debating Tim Kaine the other night.

* For juicing up the ratings that drew all those viewers to the first debate with Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Well, the Republican presidential nominee can take credit for what’s going to transpire, more than likely, at the next debate, when he and Democratic nominee Clinton square off.

Ladies and gents, we are heading for a serious train wreck of a political spectacle Sunday night — all due to Trump’s hideously lewd comments about women that were caught on a “hot mic” 11 years ago as he was preparing for a cameo appearance on a daytime soap opera.

You’ve heard about it, yes?

Well, the reaction has been ferocious. Many Republican leaders want Trump to drop out of the race; others of them want his running mate, Mike Pence, to bail.

They wanted a full-scale apology from Trump. What they got last night in a 90-second video was as much a threat against Clinton as a mea culpa for saying how he sought to have sex with a married woman, how he wanted to grab another one in her private area, how he was able to have his way with women because he’s a “star.”

Did you see contrition in Trump’s face or hear it in his voice as he delivered that so-called “apology”? I did not.

Now we get to watch Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump field questions from votes in this town hall event in St. Louis. The questions will come not only from moderators Martha Raddatz of ABC News and Anderson Cooper of CNN, but from every-day folks who (a) believe Trump has disqualified himself as a presidential candidate or (b) believe Hillary Clinton needs to answer as well for her husband’s own well-chronicled sexual misbehavior.

The rest of the issues — trade policy, the war on terrorism, the economy, jobs — may be cast aside as Americans tune in to hear Trump seek to defend the indefensible.

Go ahead, Donald. You are more than welcome to take credit for triggering this national debate.

Media stars jousting over candidates of their choice

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My list of pet peeves has grown over the years as I have grown older.

I don’t call myself a curmudgeon, but I do at times come off as a fuddy-duddy. Some things about contemporary journalism, for instance, annoy me greatly.

Such as when reporters and commentators become newsmakers. My old-school thought is that they should be apart from the action. They can report on it and, yes, comment on it without making hay.

That all said, now we have two Fox News stars jousting with each other. News anchor Megyn Kelly has become a “supporter” of Hillary Rodham Clinton, says avid Donald J. Trump ally Sean Hannity.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/megyn-kelly-sean-hannity-trade-barbs-over-trump-treatment-229220

The feud is on.

Hannity is a commentator. He is a strong conservative voice on the “fair and balanced” cable network. He’s been in Trump’s camp since the beginning of this presidential campaign.

Now he’s decided to challenge Kelly, who serves another function at Fox; she is a news anchor. She’s also a pretty solid journalist. Kelly had the bad form, I guess in Hannity’s view, to ask Trump some tough questions way back during that first GOP primary debate. She wanted Trump to explain his highly offensive comments about women. The exchange that ensued sparked a feud that continues to this day.

That makes Kelly a Hillary Clinton supporter, according to Hannity.

I should note that of the two, Megyn Kelly is the one with a journalism education and professional background. Hannity lacks those educational credentials; he’s a talker.

I, frankly, don’t much care who she intends to vote for when the time comes. It shouldn’t even be a topic for public discussion. But then we have Hannity — who doesn’t hide his own bias — trying to make noise … which is all this is, in my humble view.

These media stars need to settle down. They ought to stop firing their barbs at each other and concentrate on the individuals and policies on which they report and offer opinion.

Who’s the major culprit in this goofy exchange?

Sean Hannity. Of course!

My advice to the young man? Knock it off, dude, and keep on shilling for Trump.

Gov. Johnson needs to study up on foreign affairs

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The world’s most indispensable nation needs a leader who is well-versed on the world that surrounds it.

The United States of America remains the greatest nation on Earth, despite the ridiculous assertions of Donald J. Trump that we’ve become something significantly less than that. Accordingly, whoever becomes president needs to understand the principals involved in some of the world’s greatest trouble spots.

Libertarian nominee for president Gary Johnson flunked that knowledge test yet again.

Sigh …

He asked an interviewer “What’s Aleppo?” He didn’t know that Syria’s largest city is the epicenter of the hideous refugee crisis that has engulfed so much of the Middle East and Europe.

Then, when asked by another TV interviewer to name a single foreign leader he liked and/or respected, he couldn’t name one.

The latest gaffe came when Gov. Johnson was asked to name North Korea’s leader. He couldn’t come up with Kim Jong Un.

One of the tests of leadership in this country must include knowledge of far more than such basic information.

An exceptional nation needs to have exceptional leadership at its helm. Two of the four people running for the presidency — GOP nominee Trump and Johnson — are flunking the leadership test. I won’t speak yet to the knowledge base owned by the Green Party nominee for president, Jill Stein.

The fourth candidate is Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. She has demonstrated that she fully prepared to assume the role of president of the world’s greatest nation.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gary-johnson-couldnt-name-north-koreas-leader-kim-jong-un/ar-BBx3t5v

‘Atlantic’ makes history with endorsement

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Hillary Rodham Clinton’s pile of media endorsements has added a significant new voice.

While I have conceded that endorsements from elite media organs don’t pack the wallop they once did, this one has gotten some traction.

“The Atlantic” has issued its third presidential endorsement in its 159-year history. The first one went to the nation’s first Republican presidential candidate, a guy named Abraham Lincoln, in 1860.

Five score and four years later, in 1964, “The Atlantic” weighed in with an endorsement of President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Now it has backed Hillary Clinton.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/11/the-case-for-hillary-clinton-and-against-donald-trump/501161/?utm_source=atlfb

Here’s a snippet from the editorial: “Today, our position is similar to the one in which The Atlantic’s editors found themselves in 1964. We are impressed by many of the qualities of the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, even as we are exasperated by others, but we are mainly concerned with the Republican Party’s nominee, Donald J. Trump, who might be the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency.”

This is a fascinating development as the campaign heads for its final month. I’m so glad it’s almost over. I am running out of stamina listening to the candidates trashing each other.

“The Atlantic” concludes its editorial endorsement with this: “We believe in American democracy, in which individuals from various parties of different ideological stripes can advance their ideas and compete for the affection of voters. But Trump is not a man of ideas. He is a demagogue, a xenophobe, a sexist, a know-nothing, and a liar. He is spectacularly unfit for office, and voters—the statesmen and thinkers of the ballot box—should act in defense of American democracy and elect his opponent.”

Ouch, man!

To be candid, the endorsement doesn’t convey unbridled confidence in Clinton’s standing. It’s more of a non-endorsement of  Donald J. Trump. I suppose that sums up what has shaped up to be the theme of this campaign: The candidates cannot stand on their own record exclusively, so they pound away at their opponents’ weaknesses.

Trump is the most profoundly unqualified and unfit candidate for the presidency most of us ever have seen.

Will this endorsement matter? Will it be the difference between winning and losing? I doubt it. Still, it’s worth your time to read and to digest what the editors of a distinguished publication have to say about the next election for the presidency of the United States.

Oh, I am so glad it’s about to be over.