Donald Trump Supporters Are Heirs to 'Reagan Democrats'

Well, they'll be called "Trump Democrats" if enough leftists switch over and vote the GOP ticket in November.

But see Heat Street, "Here’s Why Donald Trump is Ronald Reagan’s Heir."

Hillary Clinton 'Inching Up' in Los Angeles Times Presidential Election 'Daybreak' Poll

I've been checking this poll daily, especially with the wild double-digit polls released in the last week.

Clinton's indeed inching up, but the Times' poll still has Clinton's lead over Trump with the margin of error, 45.1/43.4.

At LAT, "Clinton continues to inch up in tracking poll":

More than a week after the end of her nominating convention, Hillary Clinton continues to slowly gain ground in the USC Dornsife/L.A. Times "Daybreak" tracking poll of the election.

Since July 28, the Democratic nominee has gained 5 percentage points in the survey and leads Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, 45%-44%. Trump has lost just over 4 percentage points in the same period.

Clinton's lead, which is well within the survey's margin of error, is smaller than in many other polls released in the last week. That's in part because of the design of the Daybreak poll, which is structured in a way that makes it less susceptible to big swings one way or the other than standard surveys.

It's a "rolling average" over seven-days.

You're not going to get wild results, like that McClatchey poll that had Clinton up 15 points the other day. Ridiculous.

Still, it bears repeating that Donald Trump's main goal is to stay on message. I thought his economics speech yesterday was fantastic.

Pat Caddell: 'Never in My Life Have I Seen a News Organization Do Something So Dishonest...'

He's talking about Reuters, which changed its polling methodology so that Hillary would be tops in its presidential horse-race surveys.

At Breitbart, "Pat Caddell on 'Cooked' Reuters Poll: 'Never in My Life Have I Seen a News Organization Do Something So Dishonest'."

I think Reuters is eating its shit methodology now. After falling behind by 8 points in a post-Democrat convention Reuters poll, the organization's most recent survey has Trump now within the margin of error. See, "Clinton's lead over Trump narrows to less than three points: Reuters/Ipsos poll."

Donald Trump's 'Tax Revolution'

At the New York Post:

Tomorrow's cover: Trump’s "tax revolution" should be embraced by both parties https://t.co/lq4XjCi2cB pic.twitter.com/k9D800bMjR

— New York Post (@nypost) August 9, 2016

Trump Nation Losing Faith?

Nope.

But I don't think there was any question. It's what's going to happen to independent and so-called swing voters?

But see LAT, "Are all those Trump controversies raising doubts in Trump Nation? Not really":

Donald Trump has dominated the airwaves for much of the 2016 presidential campaign, but the Republican presidential nominee has faltered in recent polls.

His campaign has been dogged by a series of controversies, including Trump’s sparring with the family of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq, his invitation to Russian hackers to look into Hillary Clinton’s emails, and his initial hesitancy in endorsing House Speaker Paul D. Ryan.

Are those issues causing second thoughts among his most ardent supporters? Earlier this year, we profiled several voters around the country — a personal trainer in Virginia, a retired car salesman in Las Vegas and a Latina immigrant in Texas, among others. All had become, for different reasons, enthusiastic citizens of Trump Nation.

What’s behind Trump’s slipping poll numbers? Have the latest controversies caused these voters to reconsider? We checked back with some of them, and the answer is: not really. The things that made Trump appealing to them to begin with — his willingness to take on the status quo, his calls for building American strength and clamping down on immigration — still hold true, they said...

Keep reading.

Trump and Clinton Swap Voters in Ohio

From Cathleen Decker, at LAT, "In complicated Ohio, Trump and Clinton swap voters as they vie for a key state":

No state this year does Republican dysfunction like Ohio.

The popular Republican Gov. John Kasich stiffed Donald Trump at the home-state convention and now regularly dismisses him on Twitter. Trump has threatened to retaliate by raising money to squash Kasich’s future ambitions.

The state’s Republican Sen. Rob Portman, running for re-election, has stuck with his endorsement of the party’s nominee but has yet to appear in public with him. Instead, Portman has upbraided Trump repeatedly, and his campaign recently sent aides to search for potential supporters at Hillary Clinton rallies.

All that would be merely familial squabbling if not for Ohio’s frequent role as the decider in presidential contests. It is a must-win state for Trump; a loss here would almost certainly deny him the presidency and secure the White House for Clinton.

It is also a high-profile test of the contours of the national campaign, as both Trump and Clinton have a good chance here of stealing from the other party’s usual voters.

Clinton is going after Republican-leaning suburbanites put off by Trump’s demeanor and is trying to persuade blue-collar white voters that Trump is a hypocrite on trade and business issues.

Trump has set his sights on those blue-collar Democrats with a campaign heavy on expressions of grievance for decades of manufacturing declines. He’s also courting Republicans eager for change after two Democratic White House terms.

“Both campaigns are probably spending time watching some of their traditional voters run away and watching others run to them,” said Doug Preisse, a Columbus-based Kasich confidant who heads the Republican Party in Franklin County, which includes Columbus.

The most recent public polling has the race dead even in the state — but that survey was conducted weeks ago, during the Republican convention. Even Republicans suggest that Clinton has likely pulled ahead here, as she has in nearby industrial states and nationally since the end of her convention.

But few expect Ohio to deviate in November from its recent record of close contests.

“It’s winnable for both candidates. The question is who has the superior ground game and strategy,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, whose July poll had Clinton and Trump deadlocked at 44% each. “It’s going to be fought in hand-to-hand combat in a lot of these counties.”

If so, Trump could be hard-pressed. Organizationally, Clinton has the upper hand. Her team barely left after the March primary; the candidate and her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, have been regular visitors.

Clinton is building on multiple winning streaks: former President Bill Clinton’s wins here in the 1990s, President Obama’s two general election wins, and her own primary victories in 2008 and this spring.

Her team has hundreds of workers in the state, and in her visit here Sunday, Clinton advertised more openings for organizers. The campaign is canvassing supporters and registering voters in communities across the state this weekend.

Trump’s campaign has been slower to form, a danger in a state where early ballots can be cast starting Oct. 12 — just a little more than two months away. The campaign’s new state director began work on June 23, well after Clinton’s chief strategist set up shop; only last week he was moving into an office in Columbus...

Keep reading.

Photos Reveal Hillary Clinton Needs Help Climbing Stairs

It's at American Mirror, "SHOCK PHOTO: Multiple staffers help unstable Hillary up stairs."

That got Drudged, heh.

Good for over 8,000 comments.

ADDED: Instalanched too, "HILLARY’S HEALTH STATUS IS IFFY: Drudge is on it, too. Check out the photos and her difficult trip up the stairs. When will the media question Hillary’s health status? Hey, back off, man. She has Media Privilege. (And this is an example of it.).

Donald Trump Campaign Reboot

He just needs to be disciplined, although not too much so, or he'll lose his signature appeal.

Mostly, though, he needs to stay focused on the key issues, hammering on the economy and Hillary Clinton-Democrat Party corruption.

But see the Wall Street Journal, "Donald Trump Tries a Campaign Reboot":

Donald Trump is trying to quickly reset his presidential campaign to address worsening poll numbers and growing isolation from influential members of the Republican Party.

At weekend rallies, the GOP nominee read from a hand-held script and offered endorsements for the re-elections of a trio of Capitol Hill Republicans whom he had toyed with rebuffing. On Monday, he will head to Detroit to deliver an economic policy address that is expected to draw contrasts with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Many in Mr. Trump’s party have been clamoring for weeks to see these kinds of adjustments. If he is to persuade Republican skeptics to buy back into his campaign, just weeks before the crucial post-Labor Day stage, the unorthodox, first-time candidate now must show he can make the changes stick.

Part of the issue for the New York businessman is that he has run his campaign much like his family business, with his grown children as his top counselors and surrogates. That has meant he hasn’t developed a strong connective tissue to party stalwarts and activists that can sustain a candidate through difficult times.

Reports of Republicans leaving the party, lining up behind Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or even backing Mrs. Clinton gained momentum last week, after the nominee’ criticized the parents of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.

“The friendly fire within the Republican Party over the last week has been extremely counterproductive,” said veteran GOP strategist Dave Carney, who isn’t involved in the Trump campaign but says he will vote for him. “In modern presidential politics, this election is an outlier in terms of deterioration of support.”


Mr. Trump hopes for a reboot with his Detroit speech, which will talk about “the tepid economy under Obama and Clinton, versus the kind of growth economy that Mr. Trump wants to build,” Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said Sunday on Fox News.

“We’re comfortable we’ll get the agenda and the narrative of the campaign back on where it belongs,” Mr. Manafort added.

Mr. Trump in his speech is expected to give broad strokes about his economic plan, particularly to underscore his support for tax cuts. He is also likely to reiterate his plan to create a single top business tax rate that would apply to corporations and to businesses that pay taxes through their owners’ individual returns.

The candidate isn’t likely to offer a detailed revision of his previously announced plan for big tax cuts. Advisers have been working on an overhaul of that plan to address criticism it would rapidly expand the federal deficit, but that revision isn’t yet ready, advisers said.

Mr. Trump has shown an ability to survive rough patches, and he and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, have stressed party unity in recent days. At a rally in New Hampshire Saturday night, Mr. Trump largely stuck to lines of attack against Mrs. Clinton that bind most Republicans together.

Still, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, both of whom are facing election challenges, didn’t appear on stage with their party’s nominee during weekend rallies in their respective states...

More.

WATCH: New Donald Trump Video Mocks Hillary Clinton as Malfunctioning Robot

It's good.

At Instapundit, "HEH: Trump video mocks Clinton as short-circuiting robot."

Leftist MSM Smear Campaign Won't Stop Donald Trump (VIDEO)

Heh, at the D.C. Whispers blog, "ALERT: Democrat & Republican Leaders to Declare Donald Trump “Mentally Incompetent” (UPDATES)."

Lolz.

Declare Trump "incompetent"; say he's about to "drop out"; and allege that the entire GOP establishment has abandoned him, and you can create an almost impenetrable Orwellian bubble of lies.

That's what the left does. It's all lies.

I will concede the polls are not going Trump's way, although I'm still leery of the sampling.

We'll see, of course.

In any case, you gotta love the Alex Jones folks for keeping the faith:

Democrat Party Registration Numbers Surge Behind the Orange Curtain

The O.C.'s a polarized county.

If you get up into North Orange County, it's almost like Los Angeles and Long Beach. Totally diverse --- and leftist.

But in South Orange County --- Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo, and Dana Point, for example --- I'm sure there's still large Republican majorities. But even there it's changing.

At the O.C. Register, "Democratic surge shrinks GOP lead":

A surge in Democratic voter registration has cut Republicans’ advantage in Orange County to less than 6 percentage points and has doubled the number of Democratic cities over the past year.

The Republican margin has been shrinking since 1990, when the GOP edge was 22 points. But in the past six months, the pace of change has been four times as fast as the 26-year average – due in part to the GOP’s controversial presidential nominee. That could hurt the local Republicans in November’s down-ticket races.

“Donald Trump has become our best marketing tool,” said Henry Vandermeir, chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County. “He’s insulted pretty much every constituency in this county, which has helped drive Democratic registration and turnout to new highs.”

Vandermeir’s registration efforts have gotten a boost from other quarters. In addition to the county Democratic Party, at least four left-leaning groups – including MoveOn.org – have been registering voters in Orange County. County GOP Chairman Fred Whitaker said his party has gotten virtually no outside help.

Additionally, Sen. Bernie Sanders attracted young adults who might have otherwise not participated. And the competitive Democratic presidential primary in June boosted turnout, while the Republican contest was already decided....

Orange County was long touted as the nation’s most Republican county. The modern-era high point was 1990, when the GOP’s 56 percent share of the electorate translated to a 22-point advantage over Democrats. (In 1928, Republicans were at 73 percent.)

That edge has slowly dropped, to 17 percentage points in 2000 and to 11 points in 2010.

Republicans are now 39.7 percent of county voters, an all-time low. Democrats are at 34 percent, their highest since 1992. Voters with no party preference account for 22.6 percent, down from the all-time high of 23.6 percent last year.

That means Republicans’ 8-percentage point edge in February has shrunk to 5.7 points...

I grew up in Orange County. Shoot, I walked to school through the orange groves behind my postwar track housing neighborhood. It was great!

But keep reading (via Memeorandum).

If you click though, little noticed there is the surge in "no party preference" voters, at almost 23 percent (up from 10 percent in 1992). A lot of independents are extremely angry and frustrated and may well vote for Trump as the anti-establishment outsider. I think idiot Democrats ought not be counting their presidential chickens before they hatch.

Bill Only Got a Blowjob ... I'm Gonna F*ck the Whole Country...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Democrats Looking to 'Annihilate' the 'Movement' Behind the Rise of Donald Trump

Well, I'll post it later, but Sarah Kendzior has a great piece up today at Foreign Policy arguing that even if Trump loses, the changes we're seeing in American politics aren't going away. (She's worried about "far-right" militias, populist "white supremacy," and a broken media that fails to stop the other two.)

More on that later.

Meanwhile, get a load of this.

The Democrats are looking to crush the Trump movement before it breaks out of its cage. They're hoping to run up the electoral margin in November, effecting such a large landslide as to "annihilate" the enemy.

Boy, as if the stakes weren't already high enough.

Here's Amy Chozick, at the New York Times, "Democrats, Looking Past Mere Victory, Hope to End the Trump Movement":

Democrats had hoped the party’s convention last week in Philadelphia would win over skeptical voters and ease concerns about Hillary Clinton’s trustworthiness, giving her a slight advantage in an unpredictable election year.

But after Donald J. Trump criticized the parents of a slain Muslim-American soldier, that cautious optimism morphed into a widespread belief that the race had fundamentally shifted in Mrs. Clinton’s favor.

“It’s a more permanent turning point,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

Allies remain skittish and say that by many measures Mrs. Clinton is a weak candidate with a muddled message who faces an electorate in which a majority of voters do not trust or like her.

But Mr. Trump’s inability to seize on his own party’s convention and emerge a more disciplined candidate has eased early concerns that he could appeal to a broader electorate in the fall.

“People are waking up to how unsound Donald Trump is,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut. He specifically pointed to Mr. Trump’s criticism of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim-American soldier killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq.

“He couldn’t have done a better job of reminding people who were on the fence why they can’t vote for him,” Mr. Malloy said.

Democrats, prompted by Mr. Trump’s latest antics and the string of Republicans who have spoken out against him, have, perhaps prematurely, started discussing a loftier goal than just winning in November: a wide margin of victory, driven by a record turnout among black, Latino and young voters, that could help squash Mr. Trump’s movement.

David Plouffe, President Obama’s former campaign manager, proposed the idea in June. “It is not enough to simply beat Trump,” he wrote on Twitter. “He must be destroyed thoroughly. His kind must not rise again.”

The proposition seemed far-fetched at the time, given the realities of the electoral map and Mrs. Clinton’s weaknesses. But in recent days Democrats and advisers have, delicately, embraced the idea.

“The first order of business is winning,” said Geoff Garin, a strategist for Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign who now advises Priorities USA Action, a pro-Clinton “super PAC.” “But the larger stakes of the election are putting the country on a path where Trump’s views of the world are far in our rearview mirror.”

Senator Barbara Boxer of California said that a Democratic win in November was far from guaranteed, but that she hoped for “a complete revulsion of the Trump wing” that would lead to a “realignment” of the Republican Party.

Mr. Obama, who is famously competitive, has also prioritized making sure the voters who backed him in 2008 and 2012 turn out in equal numbers for Mrs. Clinton. “He wants them to not just vote for him but to vote for the issues he cares about,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama.

Mr. Plouffe, elaborating on his earlier Twitter post, said in an email, “This could still be a relatively close race, but it’s more likely to be a blowout than a Trump win.”

Well, as I always say, we'll see.

To be honest, though, I wouldn't count Donald Trump out just yet, to say nothing of the movement that's behind him. It's a little premature to suggest a political realignment away from the Republican Party. The anger and frustration in the electorate remains extremely raw, and voter volatility usually follows from that. As I noted yesterday in looking at some of the battleground polls, it's still a very close race. I expect Trump to get past this latest brouhaha just like he's gotten past the earlier ones. The challenge, as always, will be to get his message out to the people, over the heads of the media hacks who aren't even trying to hide their disdain for Trump and his supporters.

That said, I don't think the Dems are going to need to crush the opposition in November. The demographic changes sweeping the country, specifically the continued high rates of immigration and the rise of crypto-Marxist Millennial voters, will be enough to position a far-left Democrat Party as the country's majority party for a generation. That's the frightening possibility, and the rank-and-file folks behind Trump's rise are well aware of it.

Still more at the link.
 

'Millennials are the worst. I should know — I am one...'

Heh.

This is a great essay.

From Johnny Oleksinsk, at the New York Post:

"The social awkwardness of 20-somethings is a problem caused by two enemies: Kanye-sized egos and smartphones" https://t.co/fSgYYW6g5K

— New York Post (@nypost) July 12, 2016

Too often, during a conversation, a young person’s eyes glaze over as they decide what scintillating tidbit about their brilliant selves to reveal next, be it the three days they didn’t leave their apartment, or how a study abroad experience in Portugal nine years ago shaped who they are today. News flash: Nobody cares.

(Sorry, I just got a text from someone I’d rather be spending time with. Feel free to keep reading while I carry on a separate conversation with them.)

Pew Research Center: America's Shrinking Middle Class

At Pew:

Who is "middle income" and "upper income" in 2014? https://t.co/jz76pj9h6y https://t.co/drKOo36oGw

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) May 12, 2016

And at the Los Angeles Times:

From coast to coast, middle-class communities are shrinking https://t.co/wgdlO2qKj4 pic.twitter.com/Oh3aAzBqpA

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 12, 2016

Well, the Democrats promised hope and change. Folks are a bit tuckered out on the hope amid all this change.

Bernie Sanders Supporter Attacks Hillary Clinton as 'Corporate Democratic Whore' at New York's Washington Square Park

Nasty primary they're having over there on the Democrat side, heh.

At LAT, "A Sanders supporter's 'Democratic whores' insult just exposed the party's risk of splitting":

A Sanders supporter's 'Democratic whores' insult just exposed the party's risk of splitting https://t.co/vM9Id7cXZw

— L.A. Times Politics (@latimespolitics) April 14, 2016

A supporter's inflammatory rhetoric at a massive rally for Bernie Sanders on Wednesday — capped by a reference to Hillary Clinton as being among "corporate Democratic whores" beholden to the pharmaceutical industry — underscored the concerns of some Democratic leaders about unifying the party heading into the general election.

Dr. Paul Song, a Santa Monica radiation oncologist and leader of a major California progressive group called the Courage Campaign, was one of the first speakers at Sanders' evening rally in New York's Washington Square Park. He used his remarks to rail against what he called "an immoral and unjust healthcare system" even after some improvements through President Obama's Affordable Care Act.

"Please do not believe ... that our healthcare system is OK," he pleaded with the crowd, which the Sanders campaign said numbered more than 27,000. "Please do not believe that we only need minor tweaks."

Song praised Sanders as the only candidate who recognized healthcare as a human right and support for universal healthcare, before he turned his attention to Clinton.

First, he said he respected Clinton and her husband and noted they had helped his family -- President Clinton traveled to North Korea to secure the release of his sister-in-law, Laura Ling, a journalist who was detained there. But Song said he could only support a candidate who "will help every single family in the United States."

"Secretary Clinton has said Medicare-for-all will never happen," he said. "Well, I agree with Secretary Clinton that Medicare-for-all will never happen if we have a president who never aspires for something greater than the status quo. Medicare-for-all will never happen if we continue to elect corporate Democratic whores who are beholden to Big Pharma and the private insurance industry instead of us."

Clinton's campaign pounced on the comment, calling on Sanders to disavow it. Sanders' campaign did so on his Twitter account Thursday morning, calling the comment "inappropriate and insensitive."

"There's no room for language like that in our political discourse," the post reads...

And notice the Bernie Guevara t-shirt on that Sanders supporter. Just wow.

Democrats Campaign in New York (VIDEO)

Via CBS News 2 New York:




RELATED: At the New York Times, "Bernie Sanders, in New York, Presses Fight Against ‘Status Quo’."

Feeling the Bern of Reality

Heh.

Feel the Bern.

From Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, on LinkedIn, "Feeling the Bern of Reality — The Facts About Verizon and the ‘Moral Economy’" (via Memeorandum):

I read with interest Jeff Immelt’s spirited response to Sen. Bernie Sanders putting GE on his hit-list of big corporations that are “destroying the moral fabric” of America.

In fact, I share his frustration. Verizon is in Sanders’s bull’s-eye, as well. The senator’s uninformed views are, in a word, contemptible. Here’s why.

His first accusation – that Verizon doesn’t pay its fair share of taxes – is just plain wrong. As our financial statements clearly show, we’ve paid more than $15.6 billion in taxes over the last two years – that’s a 35% tax rate in 2015, for anyone who’s counting. We’ve laid out the facts repeatedly and did so again yesterday (see “Sen. Sanders needs to get his facts straight” at Verizon.com/about/news). The senator has started to fudge his language – talking of taxes not paid in some unspecified “given year” – but that doesn’t make his contention any less false.

Sen. Sanders also claims that Verizon doesn’t use its profits to benefit America. Again, a look at the facts says otherwise. In the last two years, Verizon has invested some $35 billion in infrastructure -- virtually all of it in the U.S. -- and paid out more than $16 billion in dividends to the millions of average Americans who invest in our stock. In Sanders’s home state of Vermont alone, Verizon has invested more than $16 million in plant and equipment and pays close to $42 million a year to vendors and suppliers, many of them small and medium-sized businesses. Just yesterday, we announced a $300 million investment to bring fiber to the city of Boston, which will make it one of the most technologically advanced cities in the nation and expand broadband access for its residents. Boston’s Mayor Walsh is partnering with us on this initiative, calling it crucial for providing the foundation for future technology growth. We’re making significant investments in New York City, Philadelphia and other metro areas throughout our wireline footprint.

Verizon is one of the top 3 capital investors in all corporate America. Our investment has built wireless and fiber networks that deliver high-quality services, create high-tech jobs and form the infrastructure for the innovation economy of the 21st century.

I challenge Sen. Sanders to show me a company that’s done more to invest in America than Verizon...

Well, you get the picture, heh.

Still more, in any case.

RELATED: At Memeorandum, "Hillary Clinton rakes in Verizon cash while Bernie Sanders supports company's striking workers."

Cowardice in the Face of Leftist Jew-Hate

From Daniel Greenfield, at FrontPage Magazine, "How Bernie Sanders and other leftists help whitewash anti-Semitism on the Left":

At a Bernie Sanders event in New York City, a black “community activist” began ranting about “Zionist Jews” running the Federal Reserve and Wall Street. At previous events, Sanders had been quick to condemn what he claimed was bigoted and Islamophobic rhetoric by Republicans. But when confronted with the real thing by a left-wing activist at one of his own events, he couldn’t do it.

There was no condemnation of anti-Semitism. Instead after an initial claim that he was proud to be Jewish, he switched to a rambling speech criticizing Israel and distancing himself from Zionism.

Bernie Sanders had suggested at the same event that President Clinton was racist for defending his crime fighting policies to Black Lives Matter protesters, but would not condemn anti-Semitism. Instead of defying left-wing hatred for Jews, he tried to suggest that he wasn’t one of the “bad Zionists”. He was one of the “good Jews” who had a balanced position on Israel and “Palestine”.

It was a sad and shameful display. And this was not the first time that Bernie saw bigotry and blinked...

Folks should highlight this to the moon.

William Jacobson had a great report back in February, for example, "Anti-Israel activists hating on Bernie Sanders."

And keep reading Greenfield here.

Bernie Sanders Wins Again (VIDEO)

He's won, what, 8 out of the last 9 contests?

At the Hill, via Memeorandum, "Sanders extends win streak with Wyoming victory."