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BlueMTexpat

BlueMTexpat's Journal
BlueMTexpat's Journal
May 13, 2016

How Hillary Clinton Will Fight Donald Trump’s Unpredictability

http://time.com/4328519/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-unpredictable/

Taken together, the GOP has provided Clinton a playbook of things not to do: don’t stoop to Trump’s level, don’t ignore him until it’s too late, don’t merely call him sexist, don’t trust in policy above personality.

“Trump seems like a boorish insult comic, but he is actually incredibly disciplined about driving a single specific contrast narrative: Cruz is dishonest, Jeb is weak, Rubio isn’t up to the job,” says Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser and message maven to President Obama. “The Clinton campaign and larger Democratic infrastructure needs to settle on a similar narrative and hammer it as relentlessly.”

Hillary Clinton has so far resisted the urge to jump into the fray. When Trump charged that she “enabled” Bill Clinton’s infidelity, she let the line slide and instead pivoted to hammer him for refusing so far to release his tax records. “When you run for President, especially when you become the nominee, that is kind of expected. My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns,” Clinton told a crowd in Blackwood, N.J. “We’ve got eight years on our website right now. So you have got to ask yourself: Why doesn’t he want to release them? Yeah, well, we’re going to find out.”

In traditional campaigns, communications teams develop message plans and calendars to systematically relate their agenda to voters — and to sync up with advertising buttressing the themes. But running against Trump there is no “jobs week.” Rather, every day threatens to be dominated by whatever new insult or attack the former reality-television star dreams up. “A constantly reacting campaign is a losing one,” one Clinton ally says. “If you’re responding knee jerk, you’re going to need knee-replacement surgery by November.”


There are some good things at the link.
May 12, 2016

Among other things, Hillary's campaign

is prepping for some of the smaller primaries ahead.

President Clinton to campaign for Hillary Clinton in Sioux Falls http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/11/president-bill-clinton-campaign-hillary-south-dakota/84252068/

President Bill Clinton will campaign for Hillary Clinton on May 20 in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana ahead of the June 7 primaries, Hillary Clinton's campaign announced Wednesday.

Bill Clinton will attend public events in Sioux Falls, Fargo, N.D., and Billings, Mont., according to a news release from the campaign. He will discuss "why Hillary Clinton is the best candidate to break down all the barriers holding families back."


Hillary Clinton ramps up campaign in North Dakota http://www.inforum.com/news/4031086-hillary-clinton-ramps-campaign-north-dakota

BISMARCK – With challenger Bernie Sanders still nipping at her heels, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is ramping up her campaign’s presence in North Dakota ahead of the state party’s June 7 caucuses to elect delegates to the national convention.

The Hillary for North Dakota campaign on Thursday named Marcella Jewell as its state director. Jewell also has organized Clinton’s campaign in New Hampshire, Maine and Indiana.


Whether demographics favor her or not, Hillary is going there - not dismissing ANY state or ANY voters.
May 11, 2016

This Donald Trump interview should set off all sorts of alarm bells for the GOP

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/11/this-donald-trump-interview-should-set-off-all-sorts-of-alarm-bells-for-the-gop/

I'm not that fond of Chris Cilizza. But he nails this. It's also more LBN than anything. But I get tired of people jumping on OPs to make nasty points about Hillary, even when they have zilch to do with the OP, so am posting it here.

Donald Trump is in the midst of a sort-of "congratulations to me" media tour — granting a series of interviews in which he touts how well he has done, how smart he is and, by comparison, how dumb everyone who said he couldn't win the Republican nomination is.

Which is his right. And, given how long the odds were that Trump would conquer 16 other candidates to become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, a valedictory lap might even be in order.

The problem for Republicans is that the lessons Trump appears to have learned from his march to the GOP nod are all the wrong ones. His interview with the Associated Press, which the wire service published on Tuesday night, is filled with cringe-worthy pronouncements that should send chills up the spines of Republican elected officials and party activists hoping to preserve their congressional majorities this fall.

The worst of Trump's assertions is that data — and the science that analyzes it to produce targeted messaging and get out the vote operations — isn't all it's cracked up to be. "I've always felt it was overrated," Trump told the AP. "Obama got the votes much more so than his data processing machine. And I think the same is true with me."
May 11, 2016

Hillary Clinton will almost certainly clinch the Democratic nomination on June 7

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/11/hillary-clinton-will-almost-certainly-clinch-the-democratic-nomination-on-june-7/

Bernie Sanders's back-to-back wins in Indiana and West Virginia give the Vermont senator both bragging rights and increased leverage at July's Democratic convention in Philadelphia. As scolds (like me) insist on pointing out, though, what it does not give him is any increased ability to actually win the nomination. Barring an enormous catastrophe — not a small catastrophe — Hillary Clinton will clinch the party's nomination after votes come in June 7.

There hasn't been much change to the math underlying that assumption in months. The Republican contest isn't over because Donald Trump clinched a majority before Clinton; he'll do so June 7 as well. It's over because his opponents dropped out, while Sanders hasn't. Trump's hold on his nomination continues to be less secure than Clinton's, but because of the way the Democrats give out delegates, it seems as though the opposite is true.

After last night, Bernie Sanders needs about 66 percent of the remaining pledged Democratic delegates in order to pass Clinton's total. Even though he won most of the delegates last night, he won fewer than he needed to stay on track to pass her. So his magic number — the percentage of delegates he needs to win going forward — once again went up.


https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484
May 11, 2016

Another Way White Men Are Ruining It for the Rest of Us

http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/05/white-men-trump-clinton.html?mid=facebook_nymag

A Quinnipiac University swing-state poll has revealed that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are virtually neck and neck in the key states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The reason? Clinton's "historic weakness among white men." See, they'd rather vote for a dangerous xenophobic narcissist than (ew) a woman.

"This election may be good for divorce lawyers," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll. "The gender gap is massive and currently benefits Trump."

Another revealing result of the poll: Voters say Trump would do a better job handling the economy and terrorism, even though voters in all three states think Clinton is more intelligent than Trump by a wide margin. Hmmm, funny how that works.




Thank heavens for AAs, Latinos, and ... women, along with all white males who are not men-babies!
May 11, 2016

Hillary Clinton campaigning in N.J. today

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/05/hillary_clinton_campaigning_in_nj_today.html

Clinton is scheduled to talk about her plans to raise wages for middle class workers. The event, being held about a month before primary voters here go to the polls, is Clinton's first public campaign stop in the Garden State since launching her nationwide bid.
...
The stop comes on the heels of Clinton expanding her staff in New Jersey. On Monday, her campaign announced it hired Democratic strategists Laura Matos as political director, Derek Roseman as communications director and Sarah Horvitz as organizing director.
...
Even though Sanders won the West Virginia primary on Tuesday, Clinton leads the race for the Democratic nomination.

Because Democrats award their delegates proportionally, Clinton also picked up delegates and came closer to the 2,383 she needed to be nominated on the first ballot this summer. She entered the day just 155 delegates short and picked up at least 10, according to the Associated Press. West Virginia will send 37 delegates to the convention.

Clinton has 2,239 delegates, including 523 superdelegates. Sanders trails with 1,469 delegates, including 39 superdelegates.
May 11, 2016

Vice President Joe Biden 'Confident' Hillary Clinton Will Be Democratic Nominee

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/vice-president-joe-biden-confident-hillary-clinton-democratic/story?id=39014454

Vice President Joe Biden today predicted that Hillary Clinton will be his party's presidential nominee, even though the Democratic primary is still underway.

“I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee, and I feel confident she’ll be the next president,” Biden said in an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts.

The vice president’s comments came during an interview with Roberts about his “Cancer MoonShot” initiative. President Obama earlier this year announced Biden would lead a "moonshot" endeavor to cure cancer, a disease that claimed the life of his son Beau.

Biden, who decided against a 2016 run of his own, has refrained from endorsing Clinton or her Democratic opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, in this election, but his statement is the most direct acknowledgement from inside the White House that Clinton will clinch the nomination.


There is also video at the link,
May 9, 2016

One Weird Trick To Lose The 2016 Election: Alienate Women

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/donald-trump-sexism-women-2016-election/

538 discusses Trump's "Women Problem." This is long, but a good read.

micah (Micah Cohen, politics editor): Greetings, all! With no debate or election this week, let’s consider a longer-term problem: Trump and women. The Internet spent the past week picking over a startling fact: Women (and I’m talking Republican, Democratic, unaffiliated, etc.) disproportionately don’t like Trump. We’ll get to why in a moment, along with what it means electorally, but first question: The data has shown for a while that Trump has less support among women than among men — why all of a sudden the media interest?

harry (Harry Enten, senior political writer): I think it’s a few things. First, because there are no elections or debates this week, the media is looking for new ground to cover. And with Trump ahead in the delegate count, the pivot to the general election is obvious. Second, I think the whole Heidi Cruz picture thing really put the issue at the forefront. Even Newt Gingrich and Ann Coulter are having a tough time defending Trump on this.

natesilver (Nate Silver, editor in chief): One answer is that the media is mostly dudes. But this is part of a broader issue also, which is that the media has only just now started to write how terrible a general election candidate Trump might be. Trump’s favorables among the general electorate might have gotten a bit worse, but they’ve been epically terrible since he launched his bid (actually, since before he launched it). Women are a big part of that, of course.

I mean, it literally took nine months for the conventional wisdom to recognize that someone could be astoundingly popular with a plurality of the electorate and extremely unpopular with a majority of it.
May 9, 2016

Hillary Clinton Rally at Camden County College on Wednesday

http://patch.com/new-jersey/gloucestertownship/hillary-clinton-rally-camden-county-college-wednesday

Gloucester Township, NJ -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is coming to Gloucester Township on Wednesday.

Clinton will will “discuss her plans to raise wages and break down all the barriers that hold Americans back” during an appearance at Camden County College on Wednesday, May 11, her campaign announced.
...
Clinton’s appearance comes about a month ahead of the Democratic Primary in New Jersey, on June 7. It is one of seven states that will hold its primary that day.

As of Monday morning, she was leading the primary with 1,705 pledged delegates and 523 super delegates. Bernie Sanders has 1,415 pledged delegates and 39 superdelegates. At total of 2,383 delegates are needed to secure the nomination.
May 9, 2016

FUN: "Chelsea's Mom"

This New Music Video Will Forever Change How You See Hillary Clinton

http://elitedaily.com/news/politics/hillary-clinton-chelseas-mom-dave-days/1486747/

Eight years after his hit video “I’ve Got A Crush On Hillary,” Dave Days is back at it with “Chelsea’s Mom.”

The new music video is a parody of Fountain of Wayne’s classic “Stacy’s Mom,” but reimagined with Hillary Clinton. Days, a creator in the Fullscreen network, told Elite Daily:

Everyone has a sexy side, and we wanted to show Hillary’s.

See it for yourself with the premiere of “Chelsea’s Mom,” above.

The video was produced by Josh Berger, who said he wanted to have some fun with an alternate view of Clinton. In satirical impressions of Clinton, like on “Saturday Night Live,” Clinton is typically presented as “super rigid,” and they wanted to do something different.


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