NEW HAMPSHIRE—PPP : Clinton 44, Sanders 42, O’Malley 8
NATIONAL—CNN/ORC: Trump 36, Cruz 16, Carson 14, Rubio 12, Christie 4, Bush 3, Fiorina 3, Kasich 2, Huckabee 2, Paul 1
NATIONAL—Reuters: Trump 34, Carson 16, Cruz 14, Rubio 11, Bush 7, Christie 4, Paul 4, Fiorina 3, Kasich 2, Huckabee 1
NEW HAMPSHIRE—PPP : Trump 27, Cruz 13, Rubio 11, Christie 10, Carson 9, Kasich 8, Bush 5, Fiorina 6, Paul 4, Huckabee 1, Santorum 1
In the four man race that the GOP Primary has become, Ted Cruz is now firmly in second place, nationally and in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The fifth man in the four man race between Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Carson is now Chris Christie. He is up to 4% nationally and 10% in New Hampshire.
An interesting stat from the CNN poll: “Trump is supported by 46% of Republicans without a college degree, compared to 12% for Cruz, 11% for Carson and 8% for Rubio.” But we already knew that.
Politico: “Nearly 60% of Democratic insiders in the first four nominating states say the businessman — who has mostly avoided tapping his vast personal fortune to fund his campaign — would be the easiest of the leading GOP candidates to defeat in the general election.”
“Roughly two out of three picked Rubio from a list of five leading GOP contenders — including Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush — as the most formidable GOP hopeful due to his biography and political skill.”
CNN: “Anxious that his lead may not fade before the voting starts, GOP strategists have begun to brace for a long and painful nomination fight, with Trump’s opponents hoping to grind him down over a period of months.”
“But even in the face of more evidence of Trump’s endurance — and grudging recognition that a Trump victory is no longer outside the realm of possibility — many establishment Republicans still insist that ultimately, the businessman is unlikely to clinch the nomination. They are starting to anticipate a protracted primary race that extends far beyond the early states and possibly into the summer, in which the party slowly wears Trump down.”
Employers added 211,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent, according to data released by the US Department of Labor Friday morning. Consensus expectations had been for 190,000 new jobs, so the report was a bit better than expected. That means the pace of job creation was good enough to make it all but certain that Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve are done delaying and will raise interest rates at their December 17 meeting.
Last night, a theater performance played out in the Senate. Mitch McConnell managed to get the Senate to finally pass a bill, by a vote of 52-47, that repeals Obamacare, defunds Planned Parenthood, and allows terrorists to keep buying guns legally in the United States. They also refused to increase security at Planned Parenthood facilities in the hopes that conservative terrorists will find it easier to commit more attacks.
The bill will be vetoed by President Obama, of course, after it is passed in the House. This was all theater so that the GOP could send a message. And that message is that the Republican Party opposes women’s healthcare, opposes healthcare in general, and is in support of terrorists and will continue to arm them. The GOP wants you to die, and because you are not dying quickly enough for them, they will arm terrorists to see that you do die.
Eugene Robinson at The Washington Post:
The common denominator in mass shootings is the use of firearms. Variables such as political ideology, religious fervor and mental illness are motivating factors, but death comes from the gun.
Until our society recognizes that simple truth, the list of place names to which Colorado Springs and San Bernardino were recently added will have no end.
Iowa state Sen. Mark Chelgren (R), who is running for Congress, told the Knoxville Journal Express that if someone “is found to have crossed into the country illegally, committed a felony while here, then been deported, he supports executing that individual if they break America’s immigration laws a second time.”
Big news yesterday from Defense Secretary Ash Carter:
Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday said he’s ordering the military to open all combat jobs to women, overruling Marine Corps commanders who requested exceptions for a small number of front-line combat jobs and furthering President Barack Obama’s legacy of making the military more inclusive.
“We cannot afford to cut ourselves off from half the country’s talents and skills,” Carter told reporters at the Pentagon.