TODAY IS
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018
Trump’s 606th Day In Office

Reviewing Local Political Junkie We Called “Cincy Dave’s” Coverage
At This Point In 2016, There Were Only 49 More Days Until The Day That Will Live In Infamy For Crooked Hillary’s Supporters, Many Of Whom Have Still Not Recovered.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2016
Today’s Good News And Bad News
From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY
President George H.W. Bush is voting for Hillary, according to a friend, Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend, the former Maryland lieutenant governor and daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy. On Monday, Townsend posted a picture on her Facebook page shaking hands next to the former president and this caption: “The President told me he’s voting for Hillary!!” In a telephone interview, Townsend said she met with the former president in Maine yesterday, where she said he made his preference known that he was voting for a Democrat.  “That’s what he said,” she told POLITICO. 

If Papa Bush is voting for Hillary, it’s a pretty good bet that the little Bushes are too. It’s only one small step from voting to endorsing and Jeb may be considering that after being treated so badly by Trump in the name-calling contest that was called the Republican Primary Debates. As close as Florida may be, Jeb’s endorsement could make a big difference. Hillary may already be on the phone to see if Jeb would like a cabinet position or ambassadorship in a Hillary Administration. Ambassador to Mexico might be a perfect job for a washed-up politician who speaks fluent Spanish and whose wife is Mexican. He might even be able to undo some of the damage DT has done to our relations with our southern neighbors.

BAD NEWS FOR HILLARY
HuffPo has published a somewhat premature obit on the reasons why Hillary lost. There are nine reasons, ranked from first to ninth.
• The media treated her every small misstep as breaking news and Trump was never called on his lies
• The Russians hacked her phone (and probably her email server)
• The millennials didn’t get what they wanted, so they went off to sulk and not vote
• Bernie Sanders should not have attacked her personally and should have withdrawn much earlier
• Bill Clinton is past his sell-by date and couldn’t close the deal
• There are still lots of sexists out there, and the glass ceiling is made of gorilla glass
• Obama people, like David Axelrod, did her in with their tweets
• FBI director Comey indicted and convicted her in the court of public opinion
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s heavy thumb on the scale angered many Democrats

What the article doesn’t mention is that Hillary has been under ferocious attack from the right for decades. A lot of people (especially Fox News viewers) have bought into this and regard her as the devil incarnate. She made it worse by her circle-the-wagons mentality and her hostility to the media. If she has held a press conference every few weeks and answered all their questions completely and honestly, her public image may have been very different. 

TRUMP BREAKS RECORD
Much is being made over the fact that The Donald has raised more than any previous Republican candidate in small donations (from donors who have given less than $200 each). So far, he has raised $100 Million. This is compared with $156 million this year by Hillary and $484 million by Obama in 2012. None of this means anything compared to the huge amounts dumped into the campaigns, although indirectly, by the super-PACs, enabled by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which allowed unlimited money to be spent on campaigns by billionaires and corporations. If people think their small contributions make any difference, they are deluding themselves. Both campaigns are awash in a sea of corporate money. This is what passes for democracy in 2016.

TOPICS FOR THE FIRST DEBATE ANNOUNCED

NBC’s Lester Holt has announced the topics for the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, which will take place at Hofstra University on Sept. 26. They are: America’s direction, Achieving prosperity and Securing America. These are vague enough categories to allow just about any questions on defense, foreign policy, the economy or nearly anything else that can come up. No time left to bone up on these for someone who hasn’t been around for a while. The first debate is in only six days, so put some popcorn on your shopping list this week.

MERRICK GARLAND
Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court vacancy is unlikely to be confirmed, even in the event of a Hillary Victory, according to an article in Bloomberg. They say that if Hillary wins, Senate Republicans will be in such disarray that they couldn’t be herded to vote in their collective long-term best interest, which is confirming the middle-of-the-road Garland, lest Hillary nominate someone more liberal and far younger. Instead they would look at their short-term goals – to spit in Obama’s eye and not be seen in future primaries as caving in to him. It would be interesting to see, if the Democrats take over the senate, what if anything McConnell will try to do in the lame-duck period after the election and before the new Senate is seated. Either way, Garland should not hold his breath. 

TODAY’S MEANINGLESS POLLS
IPSOS again put out polls for all 50 states. Of these, California shows by far the greatest disparity between the candidates with Hillary ahead 63 to 24. California was once a reliable Republican state, voting with the GOP from the 50s through the ‘80s except when that guy with the funny name ”Barry” ran in ’64. Now, nothing short of a Governor Ronald Reagan could win there for the Republicans. Today’s swing state polls are a mixed bag with Trump ahead in CO, IA, NM and NV. Florida is split between 2 different polls and Michigan tied. They show Hillary ahead in NC, OH, PA, VA and WI. What is good for Hillary is that she only has to win a couple of the larger swing states whereas Trump would have to win nearly all.

— More Good News And Bad News Tomorrow —