Delaware Liberal

Friday Open Thread [7.15.16]

Delaware Dem

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–CBS News/NY Times–Clinton 40, Trump 40
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–Economist/YouGov–Clinton 45, Trump 43
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–Associated Press-GfK–Clinton 40, Trump 36, Johnson 6, Stein 2
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–McClatchy/Marist–Clinton 42, Trump 39
PENNSYLVANIA–PRESIDENT–NBC/WSJ/Marist–Clinton 45, Trump 36
OHIO–PRESIDENT–NBC/WSJ/Marist–Clinton 39, Trump 39
IOWA–PRESIDENT–NBC/WSJ/Marist–Clinton 42, Trump 39
IOWA–PRESIDENT–Gravis–Clinton 42, Trump 40
WISCONSIN–PRESIDENT–Marquette–Clinton 45, Trump 41
COLORADO–PRESIDENT–FOX News–Clinton 44, Trump 34
COLORADO–PRESIDENT–Gravis–Clinton 43, Trump 41
VIRGINIA–PRESIDENT–FOX News–Clinton 44, Trump 37
MICHIGAN–PRESIDENT–Gravis–Clinton 48, Trump 41
FLORIDA–PRESIDENT–NBC/WSJ/Marist–Clinton 44, Trump 37
NORTH CAROLINA–PRESIDENT–NBC/WSJ/Marist–Clinton 44, Trump 38
VIRGINIA–PRESIDENT–NBC/WSJ/Marist–Clinton 44, Trump 35
COLORADO–PRESIDENT–NBC/WSJ/Marist–Clinton 43, Trump 35

Gov. Mike Pence (R) “still has not filed the necessary paperwork to withdraw himself from the governor’s race that would allow him to run for vice-president,” the Weekly Standard reports.

Pence’s team has until noon on Friday to file the papers. What happens after that deadline is unclear.

Republicans really are cowards when it comes to terrorism. Not mention explicit racists and fascists.

According to CNN, Donald Trump asked Mike Pence to be his running mate early Thursday evening and Pence accepted, but (as the Indiana governor is surely learning) even the clearest decision is always up for negotiation to Trump. Just hours later, the candidate told Fox News he has yet to make up his mind about who he’s taking to the election, saying, “I’ve got three people that are fantastic” and “I haven’t made my final, final decision.”

My God. He is going to pick General Flynn or Gingrich now and look even more the fool. If I were Pence I would tell Donald to go fuck himself.

The Washington Post says Trump’s VP process has spun out of control: “At some point, Trump’s choice of a running mate will be announced. But it will take some time to sort out the events of the past few days.”

“Was this a process that revealed indecision on the part of a candidate who has tried to project decisiveness and strength? Was it one that revealed continuing tensions inside a campaign that has been riven by staff differences? Or was it merely an aggressive media eager to break a big story that got ahead of events and created confusion when little actually existed? Or was it some combination of all of them?”

Tim Tebow has backed out of being a speaker at the GOP convention. I know, you are DEVASTATED by this news. It looks like Trump is just putting people on a list without their consent.

Nate Silver says Pence is unknown but better than any alternative: “To a national audience, Pence is almost entirely unknown; this morning’s CBS News/New York Times poll put his favorability rating at 5 percent against 8 percent unfavorable, with 86 percent of registered voters either being undecided or not knowing enough about Pence to have an opinion. A Marist College survey, meanwhile, puts him at 12 percent favorable and 21 percent unfavorable. That would present some risk to Trump, because there would be a scramble between the news media and the campaigns to define Pence in the eyes of the electorate. Given Clinton’s greater staffing and financial resources, it’s possible that Pence could stumble out of the gate.”

“And yet, several of the alternatives reportedly on Trump’s VP shortlist, especially Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie, are both widely known and widely disliked by the general electorate. So if Pence isn’t quite a risk-free choice, he’d be better than one who was guaranteed to be unpopular.”

When asked about Pence possibly being VP, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest expertly trolled him.

Earnest lauded Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) for deciding to expand Medicaid in his state under ObamaCare.

“I know that Gov. Pence did do some important work with the administration to expand Medicaid in his state,” Earnest told reporters when asked what Obama thinks of the governor. “That’s something President Obama has been encouraging Democratic and Republican governors across the country to do.”

The spokesman added, however, he would “leave it to the individual candidates to determine who they believe would best complement their skills and could lead their party.”

That’s the kiss of death in some circles.

Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told a conservative radio host that Donald Trump “gets and understands religious liberty,” the Huffington Post reports.

Bachmann shared an anecdote: “He even said, ‘I don’t understand, when I was growing up, everybody said Merry Christmas. Even my Jews would say Merry Christmas.’ New York City, there are a lot of Jews, and they would even say Merry Christmas. Why can’t we even say Merry Christmas anymore?’”

Bachmann added that Trump had “1950s sensibilities” and “1950s common sense,” and warned that Hillary Clinton would bring “certain destruction” and “catastrophic decline” and a “godless United States that will walk into certain catastrophe.”

David Wallis:

As the video of the memorial goes viral, and many commentators scold Bush for inappropriate behavior, this proud liberal must say…enough.

I agreed with few—really none—of George W. Bush’s policies; he must live with himself for lying the country into the Iraq war while his economic malpractice led to the great recession. But the attacks on his method of mourning strike me as cynical and churlish—the general mood in the country right now. I felt the same way when much of the conservative media lit into Bill Clinton for laughing at the 1996 funeral of his Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who tragically died in an airline crash while serving his country.

I like to offer contrary viewpoints sometimes. I thought Bush was inappropriate, but point taken Wallis.

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