Month: November 2015

The GOP Created the Monster that Is Trump

Buck Banks

Republican elites are panicky about the durable dominance of Trump (and to a lesser extent Ben Carson) in the presidential race. They are right to worry, but I don’t feel much sympathy. Trump is a problem of their own creation. … Trump gets ever more base in his bigotry — and yet, with few and intermittent exceptions, rival candidates, party leaders and GOP lawmakers decline to call him out. So he continues to rise, benefiting from tacit acceptance of his intolerance. … For months — years, really — Republicans have averted their gaze from Trump’s attacks on women, Hispanics and immigrants. Now the racism becomes more overt — and still, he goes unchallenged.

— Dana Millbank, writing in the Washington Post.

This Generic GOP Stump Speech Could Be Used by Any Republican Candidate

Buck Banks

Podium

FiveThirtyEight asked former Republican speechwriter Barton Swaim to write a ?totally pandering stump speech for an imaginary GOP presidential candidate. If you’d like to see the version with Swaim’s annotations, go here.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Who’s ready to stand up for America? [applause] Who’s ready to take this country back? [applause] Who’s ready to send a message to the elites in Washington? [slightly waning applause]

You know, the Democrats want to make this election complicated. They want to convince you that taking more money out of the private sector and giving it to bureaucrats in Washington will somehow improve the economy.

How would that work? They’ll tell you, “It’s complicated; just trust us.”

They want to convince you that giving Iran’s extremist thugs whatever they want — and trusting that they won’t build a nuclear weapon — will somehow make the Middle East more stable.

How, exactly? “Well, it’s complicated. Just trust us. Just trust the Obama administration. Just trust the Democratic leadership in Congress, like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.”

They’re going to try to convince you that putting government in charge of your health insurance is somehow going to improve our health care system. You might wonder how putting government in charge of anything makes it more efficient or improves its quality.

It hasn’t exactly worked that way with the Postal Service, but hey — it’s complicated. You’ll just have to trust them.

[pause; wait for a few people to boo]

[…]

Most Americans Don’t Think Obama Has a Plan on How to Deal with ISIS

Buck Banks

23%

Of Americans think President Obama has a clear plan for dealing with ISIS, the lowest number yet recorded, according to a new CBS News poll. Sixty-six percent do not think he has a clear plan — a new high. “Large majorities of Republicans and independents say the President doesn’t have a clear plan, and almost half of Democrats (40%) agree. More Democrats (45%) say he doesn’t have a plan than say he does.”

Americans Trust Clinton More than Trump to Deal Effectively with Terrorism

Buck Banks

50% to 42%

Margin by which more Americans say they trust Hillary Clinton to handle the threat of terrorism than Donald Trump, who leads the Republican field and responded to the Paris terrorist attacks by calling for heightened surveillance of mosques and redoubling his opposition to allowing Syrian refugees to settle in the U.S., a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.

Trump Tops GOP Field Nationally Four Months in a Row

Buck Banks

4

Number of consecutive months Donald Trump has led the GOP primary field. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Donald Trump leading the GOP field with 32%, followed by Ben Carson at 22%, Marco Rubio at 11%, Ted Cruz at 8% and Jeb Bush at 6%. No other candidate has more than 4% nationally. In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton leads with 60%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 34% and Martin O’Malley at 3%.

A new Fox News poll also shows Trump expanding his lead to 28%, followed by Carson by 18%, Cruz at 14%, Rubio at 14% and Bush at 5%.

Woolsey: Hang Snowden High

Buck Banks

It’s still a capital crime, and I would give him the death sentence, and I would prefer to see him hanged by the neck until he’s dead, rather than merely electrocuted.

— Former CIA director James Woolsey, telling CNN that leaker Edward Snowden should be convicted of treason and given the death penalty in the wake of the terrorist attack on Paris.