FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2016
Today’s Good News And Bad News
From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

TRUMP WILL OR WILL NOT ACCEPT ELECTION RESULTS
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says that he will accept the results of the general election next month — if he wins. “I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Delaware, Ohio, his first comment since the final presidential debate Wednesday. After pausing for effect, he said, “… if I win.” Few people on either side saw any humor in his remarks, if indeed that was the intent. Trump has been complaining that the election is being “rigged” for at least a couple of weeks, ever since his big decline in the polls, so his refusal during the debate to agree to accept the outcome of the election doesn’t sit well with anybody, especially former losers like John McCain, Mitt Romney, John Kerry, and Al Gore, all of whom had to suffer the embarrassment and agony of conceding to the winner. Assuming he does lose, the latest speculation is that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell will have to do the conceding if Trump does not.

TRUMP BOOED AT AL SMITH DINNER
A day after the debate, Trump was practically ran off the stage at the annual Al Smith dinner, where politicians have traditionally traded light-hearted jokes with each other. Trump started with a couple of good jokes, but Trump being Trump, he quickly forgot the light-hearted part, and tore into Hillary with a viscous attack, calling her crooked, that had everyone booing him. The Al Smith dinner is a Catholic charity event and the Donald even told everyone that Hillary hates Catholics. Not a good line, considering the audience.

A transcript of their remarks is here: 

TRUMP SIDES WITH PUTIN OVER U.S. INTELLIGENCE
If Trump isn’t Vladimir Putin’s puppet, as Hillary claimed in the debate, he comes pretty close to sounding like Putin’s lawyer, insisting that 17 U.S. intelligence agencies are wrong about who is doing all the email hacking and feeding the results to Wikileaks. We suppose that not only does The Donald know more about military conflicts and potential conflicts than all the generals, he knows more than all of our spies too. Here is a good article on that subject: 

IT MIGHT BE GARLAND’S TIME
Most Republican politicians have come around to accept the fact that The Donald is going to lose, and Hillary will be the next president. So, Mitch McConnell’s principled position that the vacant position on the Supreme Court should be someone selected by the next president instead of Obama doesn’t look so good to them now. This was all predicted at the time Obama selected Merrick Garland, and in fact, he selected Judge Garland precisely because he would be someone that the Senate Republicans could accept instead of someone more left-leaning. McConnell and company didn’t really have any objection to Garland, as they had already approved him almost unanimously for a lower court appointment, but they simply wanted to embarrass Obama by denying him his constitutional duty to choose another Supreme Court Justice. (So much for their supposed love of the constitution) Now, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake wants to take up Judge Garlands appointment, before Hillary gets her chance to appoint someone else. It would be a real calamity for the Republicans if someone like Louis Brandeis, William O. Douglas or Earl Warren were named to the court instead of Judge Garland but liberals are hopeful. Garland is just not what they wish for, although he is certainly no Scalia, which is what McConnell wants. 

GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY
A federal judge has ordered Virginia voter registration offices opened until midnight tomorrow due to being closed during the recent hurricane. This has happened in other states affected by Hurricane Matthew, where the courts had to intervene to allow voters to register. Although Virginia is supposed to be a swing state, both presidential campaign have pulled out of the state, assuming a Hillary victory. 

TODAY’S STATE POLLS
Still a dead heat in Ohio, as expected. In Utah, the anti-Trump Republican, Evan Mullin. is actually ahead of Hillary and may have a chance to win the state. Utah is usually in the top 3 “most Republican” states, along with Oklahoma and S. Carolina.

— More Good News And Bad News Tomorrow —