Delaware Liberal

Open Thread for Thursday, September 22, 2016

Delaware Dem

PRESIDENT
NATIONAL–NBC/Wall Street Journal–Clinton 48, Trump 41
NATIONAL–Pew Research Center–Clinton 45, Trump 38
NATIONAL–American Research Group–Clinton 47, Trump 44
NORTH CAROLINA–PPP–Trump 45, Clinton 43
WISCONSIN–Marquette–Clinton 41, Trump 38
NEW HAMPSHIRE–Monmouth–Clinton 47, Trump 38

U.S. SENATE
WISCONSIN–Marquette–Feingold 47, Johnson 41
NEW HAMPSHIRE–Monmouth–Ayotte 47, Hassan 45
NORTH CAROLINA–PPP–Burr 41, Ross 41
NEVADA–Rasmussen–Heck 44, Cortez Masto 40
CALIFORNIA–Field–Harris 42, Sanchez 20

GOVERNOR
NEW HAMPSHIRE–Monmouth–Sununu 49, Van Ostern 43
NORTH CAROLINA–PPP–Cooper 50, McCrory 43

Donald Trump faced a swift backlash after declaring that African Americans are “in the worst shape they’ve ever been” during a campaign event in North Carolina, the Washington Post reports. “The comments drew immediate criticism on social media from critics who accused him of failing to consider the United States’ history with slavery and North Carolina’s history with Jim Crow laws and segregation.”

And one of Donald Trump’s solutions: nationwide stop and frisk. “We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well,” Trump said of the practice, which empowered police officers to stop a person on the street for a pat-down if they suspected him or her of wrongdoing. In fact, data showed that the practice effectively turned into racial profiling that disproportionately targeted black New Yorkers. Studies also found that stop-and-frisk was ineffective in catching criminals or preventing crime. A federal judge ruled it unconstitutional in 2013. Not to mention, I thought Republicans were for less government? What Trump is calling for is a nationwide police state that can stop any citizen for any reason (because we are talking about the subjective thoughts of a cop, and recent evidence demonstrates wrongdoing equals being black).

Harry Enten: “Among the swing states, there are particular ones that Trump and Clinton need to avoid losing. If their opponent is ahead there, it’s an almost a sure sign to the candidates that they’re losing the election: For Trump, these are the light-red states (e.g., Ohio, Florida and Iowa); for Clinton, they are the light-blue states (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia).”

“Hillary Clinton is preparing for two different foes in Monday’s presidential debate: an on-message, disciplined Donald Trump and a freewheeling, more provocative Donald Trump,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The Democratic nominee has cleared her schedule on multiple days to test arguments and practice for her first 90-minute matchup with the GOP nominee. This week, she has convened a small group of top advisers to run through potential questions and help her anticipate an assortment of scenarios.”

“In contrast, Mr. Trump has played down the value of doing dry runs and warned of the perils of over-preparation.”

Ed Kilgore:

Clinton’s two fundamental problems are persistently high minor-party undecided votes that allow Trump to remain competitive despite low absolute numbers, and growing indications of a GOP turnout advantage attributable to greater enthusiasm. The simple solution to both problems is to use the debates to raise the stakes for the election by leaving no one under the illusion that a “protest vote” or a decision to stay home will have anything less than apocalyptic consequences.

With Clinton’s speech targeting millennial voters yesterday, it is becoming clear she understands that left-leaning voters who are contemplating a vote for Johnson or Stein — or who may just stay home — are as big a threat to her prospects as the stubborn Republicans who are manifestly not following #NeverTrump conservative elites out of the Trump column. Monday’s first debate offers a heaven-sent opportunity for her to make it clear there is indeed a lot more than a dime’s difference between the two major-party candidates, and that life will take a turn for the worse for each and every meh liberal voter if Trump becomes president. Fortunately for her, the same aggressive tactics that could wake up such voters might also light a fire beneath the “base” voters who seem inclined to mosey on down to the polls on November 8, while Trump’s angry legions snake-dance toward victory in a slow-motion white riot.

Rick Klein: “It took until almost 10:30 pm last night for the Trump campaign to put out its statement on the latest Washington Post revelations about the Trump Foundation. This one accused the Post of ‘inaccuracies and omissions’ and ‘wrong’ facts – and proceeded to enumerate precisely zero items from any of those categories. It’s response by bluster, on paper, replacing actual answers to valid questions. (The paper trail in the latest report – documenting personal business legal settlements covered by Trump’s charitable foundation – is particularly solid, and has not been refuted by anyone in and around Trump.) Tuesday night, Mike Pence applauded his running mate for answering media questions ‘just about every day.’ But a summer story-line has flipped as we head into fall: Trump hasn’t held a full-fledged news conference since July.”

“His campaign’s scorching attacks on media organizations who dig in on his business or personal dealings are designed to obfuscate, not illuminate. A campaign that’s focused on ‘Crooked Hillary’ is going to have a harder time making that case without a straighter posture.”

Meanwhile, Hillary has a press conference every day now. And the Clinton Foundation is above reproach.

Kevin Drum makes the progressive case for Hillary Clinton.

For a lot of liberals, the most important goal of this election is to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. And since Trump naturally sucks up most of the political oxygen, that means lots of blogging about Trump and not so much about Clinton.

But a lot of lefties aren’t happy about that. They want a positive argument in favor of voting for Clinton, not just a negative one for voting against Trump. That’s fair enough, so I figured I’d put one together.

The positive argument he makes contains 84 items that you’ll want to check out.

Matt Latimer: “Time and again, Trump has survived what only a few years ago would have been considered career-ending gaffes… This defies all the rules of public life as we’ve come to understand them. For decades, a single spontaneous outburst (John Kerry’s ‘I was for it before I was against it’), a pompous proclamation (whatever Al Gore intended to say about his role in the Internet), a cuckoo pronouncement (George Romney’s claim to have been ‘brainwashed’ about the Vietnam War), or even an embarrassing misspelling (Dan Quayle’s infamous attempt to correctly write the word ‘potato’ on a blackboard), caused irreparable, often campaign-ending damage.”

“Trump has done all these things—some of them multiple times in the same day. The gaffe hasn’t destroyed Trump; it’s made him stronger. The reasons for this are instructive, and they will change the way politics is practiced forever.”

Phillip Rucker noticed Hillary Clinton’s pivot.

Hillary Clinton has decided it’s about time she do more talking about Hillary Clinton.

After a year and a half of running for president, the Democratic nominee has concluded that many Americans still do not have a clear understanding of what motivates her or what she would do as president. So in the campaign’s home stretch, Clinton is trying to reintroduce herself and her ideas to the country.

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