Op-ed: The leading candidate in the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, a strong candidate to be the first female president of the United States, is reportedly considering choosing a woman as her vice president. So we’d get two in the White House at once. Even more surprising, Hillary Clinton’s list includes a woman who many had wished had run against her, Sen. Elizabeth Warren. What better candidate to deal with the kind of bankruptcies, Donald Trump. Warren specialized in bankruptcies as a law professor at Harvard. Trump has a lot of explaining to do about how he could manage multiple bankruptcies while families who lost everything in the 2008 recession couldn’t afford the lawyers’ fees charged for them. The web was full of stories considering the possibilities, not only of Warren as a candidate, but that Clinton might choose another woman. Several were on lists published by sites as powerful as the New York Times. “Regardless of how things shake out in the weeks to come, having two women on a single ticket would be an electrifying, historical occurrence.” Vanity Fair said. It is not too soon for Clinton to start finding a running mate. Next week she is likely to add hundreds of thousands of votes to her popular vote lead over Bernie Sanders. Sanders strategy of focusing on caucuses got him much publicity on the national TV. But by early April he was behind Clinton by 2.5 million votes, according to a review by Pulitzer-winning site Politico. Since then she has added nearly 300,000 votes in the New York primary and will win three or four of the primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Rhode Island. She leads by double digits in the biggest, Pennsylvania. She is being called the presumptive nominee, and no matter how many paths pundits can find for Sanders to stay in competition not even Hawkeye in the Last of the Mohicans could do it. Perhaps most ironic is that the nation has been hearing non-stop that Citizens for United, the Supreme Court case that removed all rules of corporate political spelling, Sanders is still going. All on small donations from private citizens, he claims. Check out: Donald Trump’s Aging Air Fleet Gives His Bid, and His Brand, a Lift - NYTimes Donald Trump’s Jet, a Regular on the Campaign Trail, Isn’t Registered to Fly - NYTimes
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Op-ed: Sanders won’t go away even after crushing defeat.
Sen. Bernie Sanders isn’t going to withdraw from the presidential campaign even after a crushing defeat in New York by Hillary Clinton. Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, told MSNBC that even if Clinton still holds the delegate and popular vote lead after all the primaries to come his candidate will try to win the race at the party’s convention in Philadelphia at the end of July. This is the same campaign that predicted it would surprise pollsters and win Clinton’s home state despite polls showing them behind by up to 17 percent. Some pundits had supported their claims that they were catching up with Clinton. In the end, they lost by about 16 percent. Weaver told MSNBC that if all the votes of caucuses were counted Clinton would have a huge lead in the popular vote. Most caucuses draw about 4 percent of the their party’s voters. Primaries get around 20 percent. Clinton has claimed more than a 2.4 million-vote lead. Tuesday night she added 265,000 votes to her lead. Polls indicate Clinton has big leads in several northeastern states voting next week, including Pennsylvania. Clinton’s delegate lead is boosted by the primaries she has won as well as so-called “super delegates” picked by the party leadership. The election website 538 said the New York vote “is a devastating result for the Sanders campaign. The outcome almost certainly ensures that Clinton will beat Sanders in the elected delegate count after the final Democratic votes are counted in June.” Weaver, after having the math pointed out to him, said the campaign would go on anyway. “Absolutely,” he said. Clinton, in her victory speech, said there was nothing important dividing her camp from Sanders. The campaign could get even nastier than it has been in recent weeks. Some pundits suggested Sanders should accept his losses and push for a movement that will have influence in a party that he is not even a member of. He is an independent. Op Ed: Voters in Wisconsin are unlikely to decide anything in their primary Tuesday. There is no way Sen. Bernie Sanders can deliver a knockout blow. Sen. Ted Cruz is in the same position, unless the unpredictable Donald Trump decides the presidential race is boring him. “Mr. Sanders might still pull off a big win. Barack Obama won the state by 17 points in 2008, after all. But a big win for Mr. Sanders would not necessarily put him on track to win the nomination. Even an overwhelming victory for the senator might only narrow Mrs. Clinton’s lead by 20 delegates,” the New York Times reported. The TV pundits, and to a certain extent, newspapers and news agencies, are loathe to lead a story by saying it really means nothing. Polls at present show Hillary Clinton likely to win Pennsylvania and New York by big margins, whether there is another debate between the two are not. Debates haven’t shown that they moved previous sessions between the two. Clinton also is ahead in California. The sideshow that has been kept alive by the media on Clinton’s email also is unlikely to change anything. But the media these days is 24/7 and needs to say something. These often unscripted sessions bring out claims that are as off the wall as something Trump would say. In past years writers loved expressions like “it raises the question.” Trump learned, and has his own version. He will say “people are saying” Cruz is not qualified to be president because he was born in Canada. After Trump has said it enough times it becomes accepted that there is a legitimate question. Trump’s daily blathering isn’t concealing that his campaign is close to being in tatters. “Donald Trump’s campaign is increasingly falling into disarray as the Manhattan billionaire braces for a loss in Wisconsin that could set him on course for an uncertain convention floor fight for the Republican presidential nomination. Since March, the campaign has been laying off field staff en masse around the country and has dismantled much of what existed of its organizations in general-election battlegrounds, including Florida and Ohio,” Politico reported. Even if Trump manages to win the nomination he will have to rebuild his campaign staff while under fire from the Democratic nominee. A Mason-Dixon poll this week found Clinton was within three points of winning Mississippi, the first time a Democrat has won it in 40 years. A series of polls indicate Trump’s position on issues affecting women, as well as his highly publicized insults, will make it hard for him to win a national election. There are two other possibilities: Trump could withdraw from the race, or decide that he should run as a third party candidate. Op Ed: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gave the nation his “Scarlet Letter” on Wednesday. He said abortion should be outlawed and women who have them punished. The New York Times said Trump declared his support for abortion and “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have them. Trump, as usual tried to back off, but his Republican opponents reportedly reacted by further hedging their guarantees to support Trump if he wins the nomination. Trump said he didn’t need the support of Sen. Ted Cruz or Gov. John Kasich. "Just when you thought it couldn't get worse," Hillary Clinton tweeted Wednesday, sharing a tweet about what Trump had said regarding abortion. "Horrific and telling,” the Hill reported.” The Times quoted from an exclusive interview Trump had with MSNBC. The news network brought a Trump spokeswoman on to explain what was going on but she said she had not been fully informed. Trump also has been criticized by the other Republican candidates this week for refusing to fire his campaign manager, who was accused of assaulting a woman reporter. Trump’s comments criticizing individual women have already caused his popularity among women to decline. Trump also criticized Sen. John McCain, who was imprisoned by the North Vietnamese for seven years when his plane was shot down. He said people who are captured are not heroes. The “Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, tells the story of a woman required to a dress with the letter “A” on it because she had committed adultery. Op Ed: Trump and NATO Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has stabbed Europe in the back, saying we should cut support for NATO. Belgium, which fought by our side in two wars and hid American soldiers from Nazis, was digging out from terrorist attacks with Trump’s words ringing in their ears Tuesday. “NATO is costing us a fortune, and yes, we’re protecting Europe with NATO, but we’re spending a lot of money,” Trump told the Washington Post. “We certainly can’t afford to do this anymore,” Trump said. The con artist probably knows little about what Belgium has suffered. Nor does he care. After all, this is the man who said Sen. John McCain is not a hero. U.S. cable networks, as usual carried Trump’s reaction to the attacks in Belgium that killed dozens. He sells more of their products. Americans were feared among the wounded in Belgium. On Monday they focused on Trump when he was not even speaking, giving much less time to President Obama meeting Cuban President Raul Castro. Trevor Noah made fun of the networks saying they were waiting for Trump to appear. Noah said they would know when Trump was there. He is not a Ninja. If this had occurred during the Civil War then -President Lincoln would have jailed Trump. Lincoln had suspended habeas corpus to stop people from interfering with his foreign and domestic policies at a time of war. Republicans will tell you time and time again that we are fighting a war now. Op-Ed: Hillary Clinton outdid her wildest expectations during Tuesday’s voting, with the counting not ending until Wednesday morning as two races were so close. Winning Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri was like a hydrogen bomb compared to the IED Bernie Sanders surprised her with in Michigan. Donald Trump did well also, but Gov. John Kasich slapped him in the face in Ohio. It didn’t stop the reality show carnival barker but makes a brokered convention more possible. It’s hard to imagine his poor showing – he only got pluralities not majorities – weren’t at least partly a result of the bad publicity he has gotten for the violence at his rallies. One sheriff considered arresting him for inciting violence. That charge was dropped. And his outrageous xenophobic, anti-women, racist and anti-Muslim charges may play a factor. The race caused Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to suspend his campaign. Even those who are not Republicans or not a fan were impressed by a speech that reminded people that the American nation is more important than any one candidate. “I ask the American people: Do not give into fear,” he said. The remark was aimed at Trump. The two candidates have exchanged insults about their urination problems. Things were going well for Clinton, who made a cameo appearance on the widely popular “Broad City,” a favorite of millenials. She showed she could blink either eye. Sanders made clear he was not going away, though he would be getting less airtime. “Our plan on this is we’ve got a long way to go, and we’ve got to demonstrate that Bernie’s the strongest candidate,” said Sanders strategist Tad Devine. “We believe that slowly we can win support for people who aren’t for someone, or who are softly for her, and then we can reach out more.” Op Ed: If you get all your news from cable you might believe that Donald Trump has tapped into a vast reservoir of anger. And there is plenty of anger. But there are multiple possible reasons. Despite what news networks report over and over it is not just anger that people have to get by on less money, assuming they have jobs at all. Network polls don’t ask about many of the other issues driving anger. Some of the people attracted to Trump may be angry that the Supreme Court has protected abortion and gay rights. Polls show a majority support these rulings, but plenty of people are very angry. They would support reversing these decisions if their candidate got into the White House. People also are angry that local governments have to pull people over and give them tickets because tax cuts have governments with too little money to provide services expected by these same citizens. Parking tickets are eagerly issued, and cars towed. Owners sometimes have to pay $100 or $200 to retrieve them. Though it is not related to income, widely publicized killings of unarmed civilians by heavily armed police has angered some people, and not just the black community that is so often the victim. Governments at all levels caved in to pressure from the Tea Party to reduce taxes at the same time we were fighting wars and expected to provide health care for wounded veterans. Many of these veterans are still waiting. And Trump is not the only one benefiting from anger. Bernie Sanders is getting thousands of donations from people angered by what Wall Street did to America’s economy and neighborhoods. There is a widespread feeling they largely got away with it without being punished. Sanders has been able to win some support by linking Hillary Clinton to the banks. Usually being considered a socialist is enough to turn off American voters. Not this time. Sanders won a surprise victory in the Michigan primary on Tuesday, at least partly because independents chose to vote in the Democratic primary and because some Democrats were detected voting in the Republican primary, for reasons that can only be guessed. That Trump, who has ripped so many people off with his private businesses, some of which then declared bankruptcy, is ironic. Funny, journalists are often taught not to use that word. Never in my lifetime has it seemed so appropriate There is an expression in America, often used in song lyrics and movies: be careful what you wish for you may get it. For followers of the Netflix series “House of Cards” everything Trump has done has already been done by Kevin Spacey. |
Robert Weller
2016 US election news and other news from the USA
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Worked in journalism, including on the Internet, for more than 40 years. Started as a news editor at the Colorado Daily at the University of Colorado, joined a small Montana newspaper, the Helena Independent-Record, and then United Press International. Archives
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