Public-opinion polls can be infuriating. They’re often read as if they’re telling us how to vote, rather than a speculation on how what we’ll do. Indeed, some voters who want to be part of a fashionable majority will take them that way, and hitch a ride on a bandwagon.
Donald Trump may be having a little fun, even if his friends and foes, who are worrying about what happens on Nov. 8, are not. They’re not sure why he said he wouldn’t accept defeat, nor what, exactly, he meant. He hardly clarified his meaning to them the next day when he said he would accept the voters’ verdict “if I win.”
With so many campaign reporters in the tank with her, eager for a little warm and cuddly, Hillary Clinton’s fear of talking to them is a puzzle. She can be sure of not getting very many tough questions, and her answers will be carefully presented to an unsuspecting reader/viewership. They all share the same assignment, to destroy the Donald.
Donald Trump and his regiments marched out of Las Vegas Thursday morning in high spirits. Maybe they were just whistling past that famous graveyard where hopes go to die. Or maybe not. Some post-debate polls show the race still tied, and if that’s true the debate changed very little. There’s still the election, to settle the dispute once and for all, or at least until 2020. (That campaign begins Nov. 9.)
The enduring American political parties have always been coalitions. The country is too big and populous, with too many strong regional and other economic demands to meet the models of European-style ideological political configurations.
Raising children has never been more challenging. Just ask the new mother who drops off her crying six-week-old infant at a child care center, drying her tears, because she can't afford to stay home with her baby.
The Democrats, who imagine they have the franchise on ethics in politics, have argued for years that there's no such thing as voter fraud, and anyone who says that such wickedness exists is a racist in a small closet who ventures out from time to time to keep minority voters, i.e., blacks, from voting.
The 2016 presidential election season has not been kind to values voters. It's hard to imagine how America can recapture its place as "a shining city on hill" when most campaign coverage is about sex, lies and videotape. Values voters may be tempted to tune out in disgust and stay home on Election Day, but they have an obligation to weigh necessity against their wishes.
The passionately courted undecided voter is beginning to wake up to the hard fact that soon he must make a choice. Will he stay home on election day, looking for the Prohibition or Vegetarian Party candidate, or swallow hard and choose between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Many — most, if the polls are right — will ultimately vote with far less enthusiasm than they ever expected to do. There's a widely held view among politicians that most of the citizens have a realistic view of human nature and vote "against" rather than "for," and if that's true this is the year that proves it.
The WikiLeaks disclosures, coming now on a daily basis, are such interesting reading that agents of the Clinton campaign are working overtime to divert attention from them, particularly the revelations in the emails of the campaign manager, John Podesta. Hillary insists that the hacking of his email account was sponsored, directed or financed by Vladimir Putin, who in this telling even rewrote them to reflect badly on both Mr. Podesta and Hillary. There's no evidence of Russian connivance, just speculation.
When he ran for president the first time, in 2008, Barack Obama appeared before the Veterans of Foreign Wars to assure them that he felt their pain (though probably not in the same places).
There's nothing quite as sad as watching grown men racing for the tall grass in the face of difficulty and danger. The Republican elites panicked by the disclosure that Donald Trump said something gross -- even if not necessarily as gross as some of the things attributed to JFK and LBJ and Bill Clinton -- should remember what Donald Rumsfeld, who was then the secretary of Defense, said during the first Gulf War.
If Hillary Clinton and hypocrisy are not exactly synonymous, they share the same web address. The WikiLeaks cache of emails containing excerpts of her paid speeches to private donors and organizations demonstrate that every time she opens her mouth, out comes cant.
Hacking files of other people is not nice, and if the FBI finds out who's doing it the perps should be punished, even if they're Russians, and severely. But we're nevertheless learning some interesting things in the WikiLeaks disclosures. This sudden mania for disclosure of bad language and naughty behavior encourages others to contribute entertaining and embarrassing videos.
As millions continue to express anger over Donald Trump's leaked audio comments, I cannot help but notice the selectivity of their moral outrage.
Freedom, among other good things, is the right to be left in peace. But with privacy under assault, it's a right frequently and eagerly trampled. With many of their personal transactions conducted online, Americans are learning that their private business is being vacuumed up without their knowledge.
Nobody much trusts Hillary Clinton. The public-opinion polls have shown that for months. Even her supporters concede that she's self-centered and given to patronize nearly everybody — Donald Trump-like, you might say. Millions of Americans just don't like her. Pity the country with a leader whom nobody likes or trusts.
Only the blind couldn't see this coming. Hillary Clinton's primary claim to the White House has always been about sex: "It's time for a woman in the White House." Her most loyal constituency is the feminist movement. She would need an October surprise that would play a female card with devastating consequences, to sway uncommitted women to seal her victory. She found the card, played it, and the election still hangs in the balance.
