Month: December 2016

Poll: Majority Uncertain or Pessimistic about Donald’s Prospects

Jon Ponder

graphic-poll-feelings_about_election_of_trump

NBC News:

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 54 percent of adults saying that they are either uncertain (25 percent) or pessimistic and worried (29 percent) about how Trump will perform during his presidency, compared with 45 percent with either an optimistic and confident view (22 percent) or a satisfied and hopeful view (23 percent).

That’s a significantly worse outlook than Americans expressed after the elections of both Barack Obama and George W. Bush. A combined 66 percent were either optimistic or hopeful about Obama in January 2009, according to the same poll, while 59 percent were optimistic or hopeful about George W. Bush in January 2001.

Senate Democrats Preparing for Showdown Over Cabinet Picks

Buck Banks

Senate Democrats are approaching the January confirmation battle over Donald Trump’s Cabinet as a chance to launch their political comeback and expose the president-elect as a fraud. … Lawmakers know they’re unlikely, at best, to stop any of Trump’s Cabinet picks from being installed. But they still see major opportunity in the confirmation hearings. The goal, according to lawmakers and aides: to depict Trump’s chosen inner circle of billionaires and conservative hard-liners as directly at odds with the working-class Americans he vowed to help.

— Politico

Now There’s a Handbook for Resisting Trumpism

Buck Banks

Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump AgendaSome former congressional staffers are taking a lesson from the Tea Party’s playbook to craft an organized resistance to the rise of the Trump State.

They’ve written a handbook called “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda,” which is freely available for downloading, sharing and editing. It might actually work.

Here’s a sample of their manifesto:

[…]

Most Voters Unconcerned that Trump Could Dismantle Obama’s Accomplishments

Buck Banks

59%

Of voters expect that President-elect Donald Trump will dismantle Obama’s legacy, and many don’t seem to mind, according to a new USA Today/Suffolk poll. Key finding: Obama’s job approval rate was 54%, and yet 45% of those polled said that reversing his accomplishments would be a good thing, while 43% would disapprove. Pollster David Paleologos: “A majority of voters said that history will assess Barack Obama as a great or good president. And yet, there appears to be a disconnect, as so many voters are unconcerned that the job he did could be undone.”

Donald Claims He Could Have Won the Popular Vote — If He’d Tried

Buck Banks

Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult and sophisticated than the popular vote. Hillary focused on the wrong states! … I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote — but would campaign differently.

— Donald Trump, “still litigating his presidential victory, firing off a fresh set of tweets on Wednesday claiming he could have also won the popular vote if he had wanted to,” Politico reports.

What the 2016 Presidential Campaign Did to Us

Buck Banks

48%

Of Americans said a family member shared with them a false story that they believed to be true; 32% said they avoided talking politics with family because they supported a different candidate; 31% said they got into a heated argument with family or friends for supporting a different candidate; 22% reported being harassed for their political beliefs; and 17% said they blocked or unfriended someone on Facebook or another social-media platform because of the presidential election, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Trump’s Doctor: If He Dies, He Dies

Buck Banks

If something happens to him, then it happens to him. It’s like all the rest of us, no? That’s why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.

— Dr. Harold Bornstein — who declared during the campaign that Donald Trump would be the healthiest president in history — telling Stat he isn’t particularly worried about what the stress of the job might mean for the nation’s oldest president.