The New York Times offers a tongue-in-cheek analysis of Sarah Palin’s Donald Trump endorsement speech delivered in her unique oratorical style in Ames, Iowa, yesterday.
Number of ballots cast in online balloting that ran from last Thursday through Sunday night to win the endorsement of the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, Politico reports. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders prevailed, “winning 78.6 percent of the vote out of 340,665 ballots cast — both records in terms of most votes cast and largest margin of victory. Just 14.6 percent voted for Hillary Clinton, and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley earned 0.9 percent, with 5.9 percent of ballots in favor of not endorsing a particular candidate this time.”
Women Democratic senators endorsed Hillary Clinton at a Capitol Hill fundraising event, the Washington Post reports. “But one particularly influential female Democratic senator didn’t join her colleagues: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — the anti-Wall Street crusader who was courted to run as the darling of very liberal Democrats — has not endorsed Clinton, nor has she promised she will.”
Gov. Christie is right for these dangerous times. He has prosecuted terrorists and dealt admirably with major disasters. But the one reason he may be best-suited to lead during these times is because he tells it like it is and isn’t shy about it.
— Fro the editorial endorsing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie from New Hampshire’s Union Leader, traditionally the most respected newspaper voice in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
It’s still too early, in my opinion, to endorse a candidate or pick a candidate. Everybody can look at how the presidential campaign is developing and get some pretty clear ideas about how they think it’s going to turn out, but I still think it’s premature. The election is still a full year away. I think I’ll wait to wade into it.
— Al Gore “politely but firmly” declining when People asked him if he supports Hillary Clinton for the president in 2016.
Mitt Romney (left) and MeatloafIt 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.
Money is unlikely to be Bush’s problem in this campaign, and cash may be a less valuable resource than another sort of currency in which he is lacking: the support of influential Republicans, like current senators and governors, especially those who publicly endorse a candidate. Historically, these endorsements have been the best proxy for support in the ‘invisible primary’ and a leading indicator for which candidates may emerge victorious through the rough-and-tumble nomination race. … So far, Bush has won very few endorsements. No current Republican senators or governors have endorsed him, and only five members of the House of Representatives have done so, all from his home state of Florida.
Number of Democratic lawmakers who have endorsed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 run for president, The Hill reports. “Sixty House lawmakers, just under one-third of the 188 Democrats in the chamber, and 27 senators, nearly 60 percent of the upper chamber’s 46 Democrats, are in the former secretary of state’s camp. The early tally nearly equals the 93 endorsements she picked up in her 2008 presidential bid.”
— Rev. Jarrett Maupin, Democratic candidate for Congress from Arizona, accepting the endorsement of a Phoenix strip club called the Great Alaskan Bush Co., the Arizona Republic reports.
Vice President JD Vance is off on an essential mission: Vance-splaining Trump’s lies, like a truth beautician.
He ‘splained Catholicism to the Pope,
As if Leo was a dunderheaded dope,
Now he’s ‘splaining to the GOP how to win the midterm elections.
“This may prove to be the most memorable ad of the entire election cycle. It is devastating. But I would’ve held it until the final weekend of the campaign. With this much time before the election, I fully expect the Democrats to have an equally devastating response.”
— Republican pollster Frank Luntz, quoted by Politico, on the campaign ad run by Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (R) featuring his opponent’s mother.
“With the war it’s just artificial, it’s a little bit high, it’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They could take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay and it’s going to be over very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.”
“The cesspit of corruption that is Donald Trump’s presidency is finally getting the attention it deserves. It’s about time. And if a massive blue wave sweeps Washington on November 3rd as polls now suggest, Democrats should put corruption front and center of their agenda in Congress. … The level of corruption that Trump has engaged in and enabled in others is completely unprecedented – self-dealing that, as Trump would say, is like nothing anybody has ever seen before.”
President Donald ?Trump’s approval rating fell to a record low as Americans worried about high gasoline prices and appeared ready to punish his Republican Party in the November 3 congressional elections, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday. Some 31% of Americans approve of Trump’s ?performance in office, down a percentage point from two weeks earlier and the lowest level in ?either of his presidential terms, the four-day poll showed.
KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”
Wall Street Journal: “The U.S. added 29,000 jobs in September, far short of expectations, in a sign that the labor market remains steady but may not be able to deliver consistent and sizable employment gains like it did in the past.”
G. Elliot Morris: “Voters aren’t confused about the motive, either. 62% say Trump made the promise mainly to win votes in November, and only 13% think he genuinely intends to send the money. … Moreover, 71% of adults say it is inappropriate for a president to promise government payments that depend on his party winning an election, including 53% of Republicans.”
“Donald Trump made over a thousand stock sales and purchases worth between $79m and $270m in July,” The Guardian reports. “His two largest sales were of Amazon and Microsoft stock, selling between $5m and $25m each on 20 July. That same day, he also sold up to $5m worth of Oracle and Costco stock, $500,000 to $1m in Nvidia, and bought up to $5m worth of shares in Intuit and Salesforce, among dozens of other transactions.”
