TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016
Today’s Good News And Bad News
From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

BAD NEWS FOR HILLARY
The latest Wikileaks dump, the 11th one from John Podesta’s private emails was discussed on RT (Russia Today). The worst thing that RT can find in this batch is that Podesta once referred to Bernie Sanders as a “doofus.” The remainder is just a bunch of typical campaign discussions of no political significance. If that’s all Wikileaks and the Russians can come up with, then things aren’t too bad for Hillary. Putin and the gang had better get more creative if they are going to make a difference in the election. We are still waiting for the big October surprise that they promised. 

BILLY BUSH FIRED
Billy Bush, the smart aleck who went along with Trump’s bragging about what he could do to women and get away with, was permanently fired by from the Today Show by NBC. Before you feel too sorry for little Billy, take note that NBC paid him a rumored 5 to 10 million to go away quietly. In a CNN interview, Melania Trump blamed Billy for the infamous Pussygate tape that caused so much controversy, claiming that the Donald was egged on by Billy. Does she really think that Trump is that easily influenced? Also on the CNN interview, she said that the allegations of all of The Donald’s women accusers were, of course, lies.

NEWSPAPERS DON’T LIKE TRUMP
None of the top 100 newspapers, based on circulation, have endorsed The Donald. Probably the majority of them were normally Republican leaning but, for some reason, they just can’t bring themselves to recommend Trump for president. Of the top 100, 43 have endorsed Hilary, 3 have endorsed Gary Johnson and the rest have endorsed no one. The largest, USA Today, has said “anyonebut Trump.” Newspapers don’t have as much influence as they did before Al Gore invented the internet but they still have a little bit. Almost all have a staff of educated professionals that continually review national and world events and many aspects of society, so their collective judgment should count for something. We suppose that the fact that so many could reject The Donald is just part of the great media conspiracy.

COLBERT EXPLAINS CONSPIRACIES
Steven Colbert explained all the conspiracies against Trump in his Monday monologue. It was too good for CBS, who had to blur out a portion of the Venn Diagram he drew but you could probably figure it out. Go here: 

REPUBLICANS MAY BLOCK ALL SCOTUS NOMINATIONS
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) said Monday that if Hillary Clinton is elected, Republicans will unite to block anyone she nominates to the Supreme Court. Speaking on WPHT-AM radio’s “Dom Giordano Program” in Philadelphia, McCain pledged to obstruct any Clinton Supreme Court nomination for the current or any future vacancy. “I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up,” he declared. We don’t know if this is just a hollow campaign promise because he is in a tough reelection fight or if he really means that Republicans in the Senate are going to refuse to do their constitutional duty for another 4 years, on top of the year they have already wasted by refusing to even hold hearings on Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland. Our guess is that this is merely campaign posturing, as McCain hasn’t been that unreasonable in the past.  Later in the day, McCain did walk back his statement a little bit, thus confirming our assessment.

REPUBLICAN OFFICE REBUILT
The local Republican campaign office in North Carolina that was firebombed over the weekend is being restored. When news of the firebombing reached The Donald, he tweeted, without evidence, “Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning.” As it turns out, such “animals” raised more than $13,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to help reopen the GOP headquarters as soon as possible. The creator of the fund, David Weinberger, a Democrat from Brookline, Mass., posted: “Until an investigation is undertaken, we cannot know who did this or why. No matter the result, this is not how Americans resolve their differences. We talk, we argue, sometimes we march, and most of all we vote. We do not resort to violence by individuals or by mobs. So, let’s all pitch in, no matter what your party affiliation, and get that office open again quickly.” Maybe things aren’t as bad as some would have it. Three weeks from now we can all go back to agreeing on how bad the Bengals are and that Mike Brown is robbing the Hamilton County taxpayers blind. 

TODAY’S STATE POLLS
If these are to be believed, life is good for Hillary this week. The only area of mild concern is the mixed results from the two polls in Ohio. All of the other swing states are swinging her way. Now all she has to do is run out the clock and hope that there isn’t some big hidden reservoir of angry white men in a lot of swing states, or a devastating Wikileaks dump from Putin and Co.

— More Good News And Bad News Tomorrow —