Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

Our Angel's Corner archive is here.

OCTOBER 4,  2016

DEBATE REACTION – AT 11:46 P.M. ET:  It's pretty clear from reaction across the internet that Republican Governor Mike Pence won tonight's vice-presidential debate.  The CNN poll, just out, shows a 48-42 win for Pence.  Not a knockout, but thoroughly respectable.

I agree with the reaction.  Pence was not only vice-presidential, he was presidential.  Some are already calling this his audition for 2020.  Fine with me.  Mike Pence is a solid governor of Indiana, a committed conservative, an experienced former member of Congress, and a man who should have run for president this year.

Pence was reasoned, and he inspired confidence, something in short supply in this election campaign.  His opponent, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, was perfectly serviceable, but sounded rehearsed and programmed.  He reminded me of a high-school guidance counselor who doubles as the girls' soccer coach.  Kaine also interrupted Pence too much, and became annoying.

The problem, of course, is that Pence's victory may not move the needle much in the presidential race.  People usually don't vote for vice president.  And, ironically, Pence's performance showed dramatically the defects of Donald Trump as a candidate at the top of the ticket.  Pence may actually have done Trump some harm through the comparison. 

During the debate, Trump was tweeting mean comments about Tim Kaine.  As several commentators said, someone should have taken away Trump's iPhone.  It was as if he was fearful that the camera would be off him, and on Pence, for 90 minutes. 

The real polls, scientifically done, will be out in about three days.  They'll be taken in time for Sunday's presidential debate in St. Louis.  Republicans will hope that Pence closed a bit of the gap between Clinton and Trump, which in recent days has reflected a Clinton lead of a bit more than three points.  If Trump will listen, and prepare thoroughly for Sunday, he might reverse the current trend in this race.  If Trump doesn't listen, and starts going off the course, Clinton will continue her momentum, win the election, and Pence will start building for the campaign four years hence, as a man already known as a national figure. 

October 4,  2016     Permalink

-----------------------------------

The vice-presidential debate is over.   As always, I gather information and reactions before commenting, so I'll be back in a little while.  One immediate observation, and unsurprising:  The vice presidential candidates are better than their bosses.

TONIGHT'S DEBATE – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  The Washington Times presents the the candidates:

One thing is for sure. Donald Trump has a running mate with impeccable conservative credentials. In fact, Gov. Mike Pence has the best conservative credentials in 50 years according to the American Conservative Union, which ought to know. “Mike Pence is the most conservative vice presidential nominee the country has seen in 50 years,” the organization said after reviewing Mr. Pence’s legislative and voting patterns, declaring him to be “99 percent alignment” with their tenets.

The conservative group annually reviews the records of federal and state elected officials on a scale of zero to 99 points, assigning them an “ACU rating” based on support for bedrock conservative issues. A certain Democratic rival is at the opposite end of the ideological spectrum, however.

“The single most liberal vice-presidential nominee in our lifetime is Tim Kaine, the only nominee with a perfect 0 percent lifetime rating,” the organization said, adding that the rating “puts him to the left” of then-Sens. Barack Obama who had a 10 percent rating, and Hillary Clinton (8 percent); Sen. Bernie Sanders has a 6 percent rating.

In the meantime, the press is painting Mr. Pence as a kind of conservative booster shot for Donald Trump’s campaign. Mr. Pence’s critical role is as “Trump’s emissary to evangelicals,” suggested The Associated Press. The Hill bills Mr. Pence as a “jump-start” for his running mate while Politico offers starker terms: “Hill Republicans bet it all on Pence.”

David Kochel, a strategist for former presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, advises Mr. Pence to take a risk, and perhaps be in touch with his inner Trump.

“I predict a steady, if boring, vice presidential debate performance that will be the focus of one full news cycle — probably right up to the moment Mr. Trump next tweets, after which attention will shift back to the main event between him and Mrs. Clinton. All of that is what Mr. Pence is likely to do. But what should he do? My advice in two words: Go rogue. Instead of offering explanations for Donald Trump, he should adopt Mr. Trump’s penchant for speaking his mind and being authentic,” Mr. Kochel wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

COMMENT:  And I agree with the advice.  Pence is a pro.  He can hit the other side without being obnoxious about it.

And Kaine, presented to us by the media as a "moderate," is a solid liberal, out of touch with the need for change from the leftist policies of Barack Obama.

I hope Pence shakes it up.  Advance word is that he will be tough.  I hope so.

October 4, 2016       Permalink

UNBELIEVABLE – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  I hate to see the great FBI in this position.   Everything the Clintons touch, they corrupt.  This requires a Congressional investigation, and fast.  From Fox: 

Immunity deals for two top Hillary Clinton aides included a side arrangement obliging the FBI to destroy their laptops after reviewing the devices, House Judiciary Committee sources told Fox News on Monday.

Sources said the arrangement with former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills and ex-campaign staffer Heather Samuelson also limited the search to no later than Jan. 31, 2015. This meant investigators could not review documents for the period after the email server became public -- in turn preventing the bureau from discovering if there was any evidence of obstruction of justice, sources said.

The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee fired off a letter Monday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking why the DOJ and FBI agreed to the restrictive terms, including that the FBI would destroy the laptops after finishing the search.

“Like many things about this case, these new materials raise more questions than answers,” Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News.

“Doesn’t the willingness of Ms. Mills and Ms. Samuelson to have their laptops destroyed by the FBI contradict their claim that the laptops could have been withheld because they contained non-relevant, privileged information? If so, doesn’t that undermine the claim that the side agreements were necessary?” Goodlatte asks.

The immunity deals for Mills and Samuelson, made as part of the FBI’s probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server when she served as secretary of state, apparently included a series of “side agreements” that were negotiated by Samuelson and Mills’ attorney Beth Wilkinson.

The side deals were agreed to on June 10, less than a month before FBI Director James Comey announced that the agency would recommend no charges be brought against Clinton or her staff.

Judiciary Committee aides told FoxNews.com that the destruction of the laptops is particularly troubling as it means that the computers could not be used as evidence in future legal proceedings, should new information or circumstances arise.

COMMENT:  I just wonder what Attorney General Loretta Lynch's role in this was.  She oversees the FBI.  If Clinton wins, she will enter office under the same cloud that seems always to hover over the Clintons – the cloud of corruption.

We deserve a lot better.  Now let's see if the Republicans pursue this outrageous case, or let it slip away, which is very Republican, after all.

October 4, 2016       Permalink

POLLS ON DAY OF VEEP DEBATE – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  All major polls, as of this morning, favor Hillary Clinton.

The RealClearPolitics average of major polls has Clinton up 3.7 points.  The polling runs from NBC, in which Clinton leads by 6, to Rasmussen, in which she leads by 1.

Clinton also leads in most of the battleground states.

Trump had an awful week.  Clinton won the first debate decisively, and Trump compounded his loss by going completely off message, not realizing that Miss Universe is not a major issue to most Americans. 

The next presidential debate is this Sunday, October 9th, in St. Louis.  If Trump cannot defeat Clinton, or at least tie her, I have the sense that his campaign will be futile.  The

The vice presidential debate is tonight.  Rarely does a veep debate change anything, but both the Democrat Tim Kaine and the Republican, Mike Pence, are more desirable public servants than the characters at the top of their tickets.  And one of them might just become president.  So look them over. 

There is a general revulsion toward this campaign among members of the public, if surveys are to be believed.  People just wish it were over.  And I believe the mainstream media, with its obvious bias, has been permanently damaged...but the culprits will never realize it. 

October 4,  2016     Permalink 

OCTOBER 3,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

BE ADVISED – FROM THE L.A. TIMES:  Even in our increasingly partisan society, you might have figured that your doctor’s office would be neutral territory. But that just goes to show how naive you are.  A new study from researchers at Yale University details significant differences in the way primary care physicians from across the political spectrum approach medical issues that touch on hot-button topics, such as abortion and gun control.  For instance, doctors were more likely to say that they would counsel a patient seeking an abortion to consider the mental health consequences of going through with the procedure if they were registered to vote as Republicans than as Democrats. Likewise, doctors registered as Democrats were more likely to urge patients who owned guns to keep them out of their homes, while doctors registered as Republicans were more likely to ask if the guns were stored safely.  Democratic doctors are also more likely to say that Hillary Clinton just has a cold.

IS THIS MAN NUTS? – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:    Former President Bill Clinton stumped for his wife’s campaign on Monday in Michigan by deeming the Affordable Care Act a “crazy system.”
President Obama’s signature piece of legislation was framed as nonsensical public policy that punishes middle-class Americans by doubling their health-insurance premiums, according to video footage of the event.  “You’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half,” Mr. Clinton told voters. “It’s the craziest thing in the world.”  The footage was immediately posted on the internet by the Republican Party, which has made similar critics of the industry overhaul since its inception. Not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted in favor of the Affordable Care Act when it was passed in 2010.  “The people that are getting killed in this deal are small businesspeople and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies,” the former president added.  Just who is Bill Clinton campaigning for?  And how soon does he expect to be invited back to dinner at the White House? 

BAILING ALREADY? – FROM THE HILL:   Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) is predicting that congressional Republicans will be more willing to work with Hillary Clinton than they have been with President Obama, should she be elected president.  "Barack Obama was somewhat of an unknown – he was a senator, but only for a year-and-a-half before he was elected president. She is a known commodity, and I think there’ll be more camaraderie in terms of working together, than there might have been in the early days of Obama," Isakson told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  Isakson, who is running for reelection and has endorsed GOP nominee Donald Trump, added, "I don’t think it will be like the post-Obama election at all." Democrats have repeatedly blasted Republican tactics under the Obama administration, arguing that GOP senators have reached a record level of obstruction on legislation and nominations.  I guess some Republicans are polishing the Clinton apple a bit because they sense she'll be elected.  I won't be shocked if we see more comments like this.

October 3, 2016       Permalink  

RUSSIA IN CONTROL – AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  Another famous victory for Field Marshal Barack Obama and Grand Admiral John Kerry.  Let us celebrate these magnificent strategists.  From AFP:

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered a halt to an agreement with the United States on plutonium disposal, citing Washington’s “unfriendly actions”.

The deal, signed in 2000, was meant to allow both nuclear powers to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium from their defense programs, a move seen as a key step in the disarmament process.

The two countries recommitted to the deal in 2010.

The Kremlin indicated Monday that it would stick to the agreement if Washington lifts sanctions and ends other policies seen as unfriendly to Moscow.

Putin charged earlier this year that the United States was not honoring the agreement by disposing of plutonium in a way that allowed it to retain its defense capabilities.

The suspension is symbolic of the breakdown in nuclear nonproliferation cooperation, an expert said.

The decree published Monday states that Russia is pulling out of the agreement “due to a drastic change in circumstances, the appearance of a threat to strategic stability due to unfriendly actions of the United States toward Russia”.

It claimed that Washington was “unable” to carry out the terms of the agreement and that Moscow “must take urgent measures to defend Russian security”.

COMMENT:  This should be brought up during the debate on Sunday.  Clinton must be pressed on her failures as secretary of state.  And it's fair to press Trump on his praise for Vladimir Putin.

Clearly, Putin is reaching for superpower status again, and achieving it in the face of a weak Obama administration.

October 3, 2016      Permalink

STATE OF THE RACE – AT 9:53 A.M. ET:  Clinton has a small edge.   The race is still competitive.  But the self-inflicted wound known as Donald Trump has not yet regained the initiative he lost with the first debate.  From The Hill:

Hillary Clinton has a small but meaningful edge over Donald Trump with a little more than five weeks to go until the election.

Clinton has moved onto firmer ground over the last week, thanks to her performance in the first primetime debate and ongoing troubles for Trump. She has led in every significant battleground state poll conducted in the debate’s aftermath.

The race remains competitive, however.

Clinton’s lead in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) national polling average is hovering between two and three percentage points. Trump still leads in the polling averages of several battleground states, including Ohio, North Carolina and Nevada. The data forecasting site FiveThirtyEight gives Trump about a one-in-three chance of prevailing.

But if Trump is to triumph, even Republicans acknowledge that their nominee will have to exert more discipline than he has shown in the past week. In a speech on Saturday night, he departed from his prepared text repeatedly, mocking Clinton's recent battle with pneumonia and saying he did not think she was "loyal" to her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

That came at the end of a week that had begun with a debate performance that drew considerable criticism and apparently halted Trump's momentum.

Even more alarming, to some Republicans, was Trump’s prolonged focus on one of the most damaging episodes from that debate, his criticism of a former Miss Universe, Alicia Machado.

At the debate, Clinton noted that Trump had once called Machado “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping,” the latter term an apparent reference to her Latina heritage. Machado was born in Venezuela, though she is now a U.S. citizen.

COMMENT:  Trump is an amateur.  Clinton, for whom we have little regard here, is a professional.  A professional politician, that is.  She's a terrible candidate with a tin ear, but, in a debate, she knows how to present herself.  And she knows how to avoid the press.

My sense is that the debate on Sunday is make-or-break for Trump.  If he cannot regain the initiative, Clinton might well revert to her original strategy of just running out the clock, and it might work.  For a person of her mentality, it won't matter how much she wins by.  Like Obama, she'll consider one vote a mandate.  And we'll be the victims.

October 3, 2016       Permalink 

AND IN THE REAL WORLD – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  The vice-presidential debate is tomorrow night.  The next presidential debate is Sunday.  I do hope that neither will center on the plight of Miss Universe. 

Maybe they should at least mention terror.  Terrorism is increasing, and rarely a day goes by without our president doing more to cozy up to the world's chief sponsor of terrorism, Iran.   From Gatestone Institute: 

On September 14, the Iranian Foreign Minister wrote in the New York Times that, "coordinated action at the United Nations to cut off the funding for ideologies of hate and extremism" is needed along with "a willingness from the international community to investigate the channels that supply the cash and the arms" to terrorists. He concluded with an appeal to "join hands with the rest of the community of nations to eliminate the scourge of terrorism and violence that threatens us all."

Given that in 2015 alone there were some 11,774 terrorist attacks in 92 countries, killing 28,300 people, one can agree that such action is needed. The irony, of course, is that the US Department of State released its annual report in June on state sponsors of terrorism, and Iran was the gold medalist for the world's number one terrorist nation -- an honor it has held since 1984. Only two other countries were listed as state sponsors of terror: Syria and Sudan.

Having Iran's Foreign Minister call for an end to terrorism is like having Bonnie and Clyde call for law and order.

The report makes clear, along with other available evidence, that much of the terrorism in the world is Iran's handiwork -- especially the terrorism directed at America.

The report emphasized that Iran "remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to [terror] groups around the world."

Iran provided arms and cash to terrorist groups and to nearly 30 Shia terrorist militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, especially Hezbollah, as well as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Houthi rebels in Yemen, and Shia militias in Bahrain.

On September 13, 2015, the US Central Command officially reported that Iran is specifically responsible for killing at least 500 American soldiers through the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

COMMENT:  And yet Iran is hardly discussed in the presidential campaign.  Hillary Clinton backs the Iran nuclear deal.  Trump opposes it.  They don't bother with it much.  There's Miss Universe to discuss, and Trump's perfectly legal use of the tax system. 

Don't blame the candidates.  They're negligent, but they're not alone.  It's the mainstream media that ultimately sets the agenda for discussion.  Today's journalism is worthy of our deepest contempt.

October 3,  2016     Permalink