SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Today’s Good News And Bad News

From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

GOOD NEWS FOR TRUMP

33,000 Member FOP union endorses Trump as the “law and order” candidate.  Hillary did not seek their endorsement. 

 

BAD NEWS/GOOD NEWS

Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein have both failed to qualify for the first debate, as expected.  The rules were that anyone had to have 15% in the polls to be included and neither one came close to that.    This is generally viewed as good for Hillary and bad for Trump, as he should be less able to avoid direct questions with only two candidates on stage.  

 

TRUMP GETS MORE HEAT ABOUT BIRTHERISM

Dozens, or maybe hundreds of articles have been written about Trump’s long-delayed admission that he believes that Obama was born in Hawaii.  Part of the uproar is because he offered no apology for his 5-year campaign to discredit the president, but instead tried to blame the whole issue on Hillary, who he falsely claimed started it all.   Even worse, he tried to take credit for ending the ugly rumor.    This created yet another controversy with Trump getting the worst of it.   It practically guaranteed that there will be questions about the birth certificate campaign and his role as the head promoter of the issue.   If his campaign thought that his announcement would get some African-American votes, they were probably mistaken.  One article about Trump’s birther” campaign in the Washington Post put it this way:  “It’s an unfathomably cruel and dispiriting message to send to African Americans. It says to them, no matter how smart and hard-working you are, no matter how much you achieve, no matter how carefully you make yourself unthreatening to the white majority, no matter how deftly you manage to move through the most elite institutions in America and dazzle everyone with your talents, you will still not be accepted as a genuine citizen of this country. You could become president of the United States and they will literally demand to see your papers, and even when you give in to this vile demand they will still deny that you are American.”    Another commenter adds –   If you do all that and then you  win the Nobel Peace Prize they will still say you are just a N—-r.      Trump could have avoided all of this with a simple statement that he had been mistaken and offered an apology to Obama and his family, but The Donald never admits he is wrong about anything and never apologizes.    He also received criticism for using the occasion as a means to promote a large turnout for the opening of a new Trump hotel in Washington, D.C.   The mainstream media seem to be really upset about the whole thing and how it was handled. 

 

GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY

Al Gore, who was planning to sit this one out, has decided to get back on the campaign trail to support Hillary.   His theme is that voting for third-party candidates is risky, which is something he should know a lot about, considering that third party candidate Ralph Nader cost him the election in 2000 by contributing to his loss in Florida.   Bernie and Elizabeth Warren will also be out there with the same message.  If the election is close, would-be third-party voters could determine the outcome, so courting them makes a lot of sense.

 

BOB SCHIEFFER’S ADVICE TO DEBATE MODERATORS

Bob, Schieffer, the long-time host of CBS’s Face the Nation has some advice for the debate moderators.  Besides the obvious – don’t get nervous, nobody is looking at the umpires at a ball game, one piece of advice is somewhat at odds with a statement by Chris Wallace, who will be the moderator of the last debate. Schieffer says it is the responsibility of the moderator to correct any obvious falsehoods by the candidates, whereas Wallace took the opposite view.  Considering the reputation of both candidates, any moderator that tries to take that part of Schieffer’s advice is probably going to have his hands full.  (More HERE) 

— More Good News And Bad News Tomorrow —