Month: July 2015

Sanders Pulls 100k to Nationwide Event

Buck Banks

100,000

Number of supporters Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) attracted to participate in a nationwide house party, the New York Times reports. “The national organizing day, which featured more than 3,500 events and house parties across the country, centered around a technological infrastructure that uses text-messaging sign-ups and a deep database of volunteers. Attendees at the house parties were asked to text a number to opt in and show interest.”

Trump Leads in Polls, but Not Popularity

Buck Banks

Despite what you may have read elsewhere — or heard from the man himself — Donald Trump is not all that popular with Republican voters. Sure, he’s in first place in many polls. But Trump is near the back of the pack by another important measure… Trump’s favorability ratings among Republicans are barely better than break-even: 47 percent favorable and 43 percent unfavorable. Among the 17 Republican candidates, Trump’s net favorable rating, +4, ranks 13th, ahead of only Chris Christie, Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham and George Pataki. … And yet, in these same polls, Trump is the first choice of an average of 20 percent of Republican voters — the highest in the field, ahead of Scott Walker (14 percent) and Jeb Bush (12 percent).

— Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.

Trump’s Big Government, ‘Expedited’ Revolving-Door Amnesty Plan Would Cost $375 BILLION

Jon Ponder
Donald Trump interviewed by CNN's Dana Bash, July 29, 2015
Donald Trump interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash, July 29, 2015

Now that the media is forcing Donald Trump to provide specifics to back up his bravado and bluster, he’s revealing himself to be just another big-spending, big-government Republican — at least when it comes to two of the nation’s most complex and intractable problems: funding healthcare for the poor and what to do about the millions of undocumented residents living in the United States.

In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Donald Trump admitted he once supported socialized healthcare in the form of a single-payer system like Medicare for seniors in the United States and the cradle-to-grave socialized systems in Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Japan, Kuwait and other U.S. competitor and allied nations.

(CNN has not enable embedding the video, but see it here — and the transcript of section of the interview about Trump’s healthcare and immigration plans follows this article)

[…]

Trump Again Triggers the Instinct to Destroy Stuff

Trish

There’s something about Donald Trump that makes people want to beat things, and this ad from a Van Nuys, Calif. Nissan dealer is proof. The ad, which has been condemned by Nissan corporate, shows a sales manager nicknamed, “The Ladies’ Man” beating a pinata of a man in a suit with a generous topping of blonde hair.

After store managers hit the piñata, Van Nuys General Sales Manager Martin Cuevas declares, “Aqui en Van Nuys Nissan, los Latinos mandan.” (Translation: “Here at Van Nuys Nissan, Latinos rule.”)

Nissan quickly condemned the ad.

[…]

Presidents Versus Porn Stars — Some Endorsements are More Welcome than Others

Buck Banks

Mitt Romney (left) and Meatloaf
Mitt Romney (left) and Meatloaf
It might seem a bit early in the 2016 campaign for endorsements to make a difference, but apparently, since 1980 at least, endorsements from party elites and big donors have been the single best predictor of who a party’s eventual nominee will be, according to the New York Times.

The pace of endorsements is a bit off of what it has been in the past few elections, probably because of the number of candidates, at least on the GOP side. The Times notes that only 14 percent — or 45 of 335 — current Republican governors, senators or representatives have publicly backed a candidate. Of those who have, however, more have endorsed Jeb Bush than any other candidate.

Not so on the Democrat side, with Hillary Clinton bagging a former president (her husband), Madeleine Albright, former U.S. secretary of state and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, former governor of Vermont and candidate for Democratic nomination for president in 2004.

In addition, Clinton has been endorsed by 11 sitting and former Democratic governors, 33 current or former U.S. senators and nearly 90 U.S. representatives as well as a ton of state politicians, government operatives, musicians and actors, celebrities and businesspeople.

[…]

Three Out of Five Floridians Flunk Written Driver License Test

Buck Banks

3 out of 5

Floridians are flunking the state’s new written driver license test. “State officials expected some applicants would have trouble adjusting to a new written test implemented in January but acknowledge it erupted into an unexpected problem when they discovered more than 80 percent of drivers in some counties were unable to pass,” reports the Tampa Bay Times.

Mark Cuban: Trump Is the Best Thing to Happen to Politics

Buck Banks

I don’t care what his actual positions are. I don’t care if he says the wrong thing. He says what’s on his mind. He gives honest answers rather than prepared answers. This is more important than anything any candidate has done in years.

— Billionaire Mark Cuban, telling Business Insider that Donald Trump is “probably the best thing to happen to politics in a long, long time.”

Profiling Trump’s Lieutenants

Buck Banks

Trump’s key lieutenants tend to fit the same consumer profile that his discount luxury brand targets: They are men with middle- and working-class roots; lacking in elite credentials; mesmerized by made-for-TV displays of lavish wealth. They are impressed with brashness and bored by subtlety. They are amused by dirty jokes and averse to irony. They are likely to buy a Trump-branded necktie sometime this year, and if they feel like splurging they’ll get the matching cufflinks, too.

— McKay Coppins writes on Buzzfeed.