WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2016
Today’s Good News And Bad News
From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

TRUMP IS AT WAR
The Donald is at war with everyone – Republicans and Democrats. He is spending as much time beating up on Paul Ryan and John McCain as he is Hillary. It is sure to make him seem less attractive to everyone except hard-core Hillary haters. Some people have suggested that Trump has accomplished something that no one thought possible- uniting the Republican and Democratic establishments. Unfortunately, they are united against him. 

THE TRUMP TRAP
WP article suggests that Republican House and Senate candidates are caught in a real dilemma. If they stay with their support of Trump, they are likely to lose the support of swing voters but if they withdraw their support, their base will punish them. Many just don’t know what to do. Some have withdrawn support, some have reiterated their support, some have done nothing. Others tried to have it both ways, like Tim Ryan, refusing to be associated with Trump but not formally withdrawing their endorsement. Actually, it’s probably already too late for congressional candidates to do very much to change their personal electoral fate. More here:

MORE ON “THE APPRENTICE” VIDEOS
This year is a muckraker’s paradise. Both candidates have been in the public eye for well over half of their lives and there is a lot of information on video and audio recordings to dig through, looking for dirt. By now, every muckraker knows that video outtakes from the NBC show, “The Apprentice”, exist of Trump acting like himself and they all wonder what could be in them. Now, a sizeable and growing reward is being offered to anyone who has access to the videos to release them publicly. Will someone at NBC or a subsidiary risk their entire career for a few million? It seems possible but unlikely. A website called the “Trump Sunlight Campaign” is collecting funds just for that purpose. Of course, there are always plenty of deep-pockets donors on both sides that will pay for dirt on the opponent. 

GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY
A federal judge extends voter registration in the battleground state of Florida for one week, until Tuesday, October 18. The request to extend the deadline had been sought by the Florida Democratic Party in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. The deadline had already been extended one day from Tuesday to Wednesday after Republican Governor Rick Scott denied the extension, although he had ordered evacuations in advance of the Hurricane.

MORE GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY
Early voting data shows that Hillary may be building an early lead in two states. Democrats are requesting more absentee ballots in Florida than they were at this point in 2012, with increases of 50 percent in the heavily Hispanic areas around Miami and Orlando. In North Carolina, where Mitt Romney built enough of a lead in early voting four years ago to edge out a victory over President Obama; Democrats are requesting mail-in ballots in larger numbers than in 2012, while Republicans’ participation is declining. And if Trump loses either of those states, he probably has no path to victory. Meanwhile, you’re probably shocked that Hispanics are clamoring to vote early this year. What could possibly be the reason for that?

BAD NEWS FOR HILLARY
Wikileaks keeps leaking – Every few days Wikileaks puts out excerpts of John Podesta’s emails that have supposedly been hacked by the Russians. None of it is good but there hasn’t been anything really explosive in them yet. The continuing dribble of leaks has to make Hillary nervous. The campaign’s strategy to deal with this is to refuse to acknowledge the veracity of the leaks but at the same time tie them to Putin and tie Putin to Trump. They believe that nobody on either side of the aisle likes the idea of Putin influencing our elections, even if it is for their own candidate. 

AL GORE IS BACK
Not as a candidate but as a campaigner. Yesterday, for the first time, he made a joint campaign appearance with Hillary in Florida. He said: “Your vote really, really counts, a lot. You can consider me as exhibit A of that group.” Remember, Gore lost Florida in 2000 by only 537 votes. If he had won Florida, he would have become president, and Ralph Nader’s presence on the ballot probably cost him the election. Gore’s campaign appearances have two main purposes – to tell people that voting for a third-party candidate is helping Republicans and also, because he is so well known as an environmental activist, he may help attract younger voters. Hillary has promised to make dealing with climate change a top priority.

TODAY’S STATE POLL
We don’t know why they bother to poll Virginia – It’s been in the bag at least since Hillary picked the popular Senator and former Governor Tim Kaine for VP.

— More Good News And Bad News Tomorrow —