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 27,  2016

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

WHAA..? – FROM THE POLITICO:   Joe Biden is at the top of the internal short list Hillary Clinton’s transition team is preparing for her pick to be secretary of state, a source familiar with the planning tells POLITICO.  This would be the first major Cabinet candidate to go public for a campaign that’s insisted its focus remains on winning the election, and perhaps the most central choice for a potential president who was a secretary of state herself.  Neither Clinton, nor her aides have yet told Biden. According to the source, they’re strategizing about how to make the approach to the vice president, who almost ran against her in the Democratic primaries but has since been campaigning for her at a breakneck pace all over the country in these final months.  "He'd be great, and they are spending a lot of time figuring out the best way to try to persuade him to do it if she wins,” said the source familiar with the transition planning.  I have no idea what the thinking behind this would be.  Appease Obama?  Appoint a figurehead so Hillary can be her own secretary of state?  Biden has been wrong on every major foreign-policy issue of our time.  Maybe Hillary believes it will take Joe almost four years to find the State Department.

SICKENING – FROM THE HILL:   A woman is claiming that Justice Clarence Thomas groped her when she was a young scholar in 1999, an allegation the justice denies.  Moira Smith claims Thomas squeezed her on the buttocks several times at a dinner party when she was a Truman Foundation Scholar, according to the National Law Journal, which first reported the allegations.  In a statement through a Supreme Court spokeswoman, Thomas denied Smith's allegations.   “This claim is preposterous and it never happened,” the spokeswoman said.  The woman making the charge is a Democratic Party activist (shock).  The timing is suspicious, to put it mildly.  She has also made similar charges against men in the past.  Justice Thomas has a long record of working with women, like law clerks, in private surroundings.  There has never been a charge against him in the years he's been on the Court.  Obviously, I can't say absolutely that it never happened, but the story is wobbly on many levels.

THE WONDERFUL FOLKS WHO GIVE YOU THE NEWS – FROM AP:   SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — Donald Trump repeatedly rages that the media is biased against him, putting claims of press prejudice at the center of his campaign for president. Most voters — and not just those who are backing the Republican nominee — agree with him, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.  Overall, 56 percent of likely voters say the media is biased against Trump, just 5 percent say it's biased in his favor and 37 percent say coverage is mostly balanced.  Eighty-seven percent of Trump's supporters see the media as biased against him, and even Hillary Clinton's supporters are more likely to see bias against Trump than bias in his favor, 30 percent to 8 percent. Sixty percent of Clinton's supporters see no bias in either direction.  The people are catching on.  The mainstream media is a cheering squad for the Democratic Party.

October 27,  2016     Permalink

TRUMP ON BLACKS – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  If Trump had made speeches like this throughout his campaign, he'd be in a better place.  From greensboro.com:

CHARLOTTE — Donald Trump on Wednesday pledged what he called a "new deal for black America" as he attempted to make late inroads with a voting bloc that polling shows favors Democrat Hillary Clinton by a vast margin.

"I will be your greatest champion," Trump said during an campaign rally here. "I will never ever take the African-American community for granted. Never, ever."

In a scripted speech heavy on policy specifics, the Republican presidential nominee laid out a plan that he said is built on setting up better schools, lowering crime in inner cities and creating more high-paying jobs. 

COMMENT:  I've always believed that the so-called "black vote" is far more vulnerable to a good conservative argument than the Dems believe.  Many blacks are indeed frustrated.  They elect the same people every time, and they get no results.

But this is too little, too late. 

October 27,  2016     Permalink

DAILY OUTLIER REVIEW – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  As readers know, we've been following the three outlier (but respected) polls – IBD/TIFF, Rasmussen, and L.A. Times tracker, which have dissented from the conventional polling view that Hillary is well ahead.  We might have to add Fox to the "outlier" list, as its latest poll, which we reported last night, shows that Hillary's lead has been cut to three points.

IBD-TIFF: 

Hillary Clinton's lead widened to two percentage points over Donald Trump in the latest IBD/TIPP presidential tracking poll, with a 43% to 41% edge in a four-way matchup. But unrounded results using one more decimal point show Clinton with a smaller 1.2 percentage point lead, 42.6% to 41.4%.

Libertarian Gary Johnson holds 7.5% of the vote, while Green Party standard bearer Jill Stein's support fell to just 2.2% -- less than "other" (2.8%) and "don't know" (3.6%).

However, in a head to head matchup, Clinton now holds a 2.6 percentage point lead over Trump -- 44.2% to 41.6%.

RASMUSSEN: 

Both major party candidates are creeping up in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports White House Watch.

The new national telephone and online survey of Likely U.S. Voters still finds Democrat Hillary Clinton with a one-point lead over Republican Donald Trump – 45% to 44%. Libertarian Gary Johnson remains at a low of four percent (4%), and Green Party nominee Jill Stein earns just one percent (1%) of the vote. Two percent (2%) like some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Only the L.A. Times tracker has Trump ahead, 45.2% to 44.5%.

By the way, the new AP poll shows Clinton 14 points ahead, but that, too, looks like an outlier the other way. 

The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Clinton with a 5.4% lead, a difficult gap to close in these final days of the campaign.

We'll only know on November 9th which pollsters got it right.

October 27,  2016     Permalink

OCTOBER 26,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

CLINTON LEAD NARROWS – FROM FOX:   With less than two weeks to go, the race for the White House has narrowed as Hillary Clinton now has a three-point advantage over Donald Trump.  That’s within the margin of error of the national Fox News Poll of likely voters.  Clinton is ahead of Trump by 44-41 percent. Another one-in-ten back a third-party candidate and four percent are undecided. Last week she was up by six points (45-39 percent) and before that by seven (45-38 percent).  But an AP poll shows Hillary up 14 points.  Go figure. 

HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS – FROM FOX:   UNITED NATIONS – A U.N. expert says junk food is a human rights concern.  Hilal Elver, the U.N.'s special representative on the right to food, said Tuesday the rise of industrial food production combined with trade liberalization has allowed large corporations to flood the global market with cheap, nutrient-poor foods that force poor people to choose between economic viability and nutrition, effectively violating their right to adequate food.  I'll never look at French fries the same way again.  And we thought nuclear weapons were a problem.

MAJOR ISSUES DEPARTMENT – FROM FOX:   The Clinton campaign’s recent attacks on Donald Trump for his comments about a beauty queen’s weight problems were months in the making, according to an opposition research report uncovered in emails released by WikiLeaks on Sunday.  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton invoked those comments during the first presidential debate on Sept. 26. Near the end of the showdown, during a sustained riff about the Republican nominee's past remarks about women, Clinton cited the case of Miss Universe 1996 Alicia Machado.   Nothing like a clear sense of priorities.

October 26, 2016       Permalink

AND IN THE REAL WORLD – AT 12:33 P.M. ET:   While we fight an election campaign, others are fighting for real, or getting ready to.  Anyone in the mainstream media interested?  From London's Mirror: 

Britain is sending hundreds of soldiers and hardware to Russia's borders as part of a huge military deployment.

A total of 800 troops, drones and tanks are moving to Estonia as part of the biggest military build up of NATO troops on Russia's borders since the Cold War.

It comes after an increase in tensions between the West and Russia in recent months.

Earlier this month, 40 million Russians reportedly carried out nuclear evacuation tests after officials warned that the West wanted to launch strikes on the country.

NATO is now pressing allies including the US and Britain to contribute to the military presence as the alliance prepares for a long quarrel with Moscow.

Last week, a Russian aircraft carrier passed through the English Channel as it travelled to Syria in a show of force along Europe's shores.

Alliance defence ministers aim to make good on a July promise by NATO leaders to send forces to the Baltic states and eastern Poland from early next year.

COMMENT:  But how important could all this be when compared with opening rest rooms in America to people who identify with any available gender?  I mean, let's have priorities here.

October 26, 2016       Permalink

THREE NEW RESULTS, JUST IN – AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  New state polls, possibly good news for Donald Trump.  From Bloomberg: 

Donald Trump has a slim advantage in Florida as critical independent voters narrowly break his way in the must-win battleground state, a Bloomberg Politics poll shows.

The Republican presidential nominee has 45 percent to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 43 percent among likely voters when third-party candidates are included, the poll found. In a hypothetical two-way race, Trump has 46 percent to Clinton’s 45 percent.

Among independents, Trump gets 43 percent to Clinton’s 41 percent in a head-to-head contest. When third-party candidates are included, Trump picks up 1 point with independents while Clinton drops to 37 percent, with Libertarian Gary Johnson taking 9 percent and the Green Party’s Jill Stein getting 5 percent.

“This race may come down to the independent vote,” said pollster J. Ann Selzer, who oversaw the survey. “Right now, they tilt for Trump. By a narrow margin, they opted for Obama over Romney in 2012.”

Trump’s showing in this poll is stronger than in other recent surveys in the state. Clinton had an advantage of 3.1 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics Florida average on Tuesday.

Poll also shows Senator Marco Rubio with a ten-point advantage in his re-election race.

In Ohio, the latest Axiom poll shows Trump up by four, 46-42%.

And in Pennsylvania, the latest poll shows Trump gaining, and now within three points of Hillary Clinton, 45% for Clinton, 42% for Trump.

We always caution readers that a poll is a snapshot in time, and the results above are from a single poll in each of the states covered.  But I do get a sense of a possible movement toward Trump.  Maybe.  Only maybe.

I ask this question:  Is it possible Trump is getting a sympathy vote?  You know, you bash a man so much that voters start to feel it's unfair.  I only raise the question.

October 26, 2016       Permalink

THE OUTLYING THREE – AT 9:35 A.M. ET:  We focus each day now on the three "outliers," the three major polls that are getting famous for disagreeing with the big fat guys, all of whom are predicting a decisive Clinton victory.

Yesterday (cue the Soap Opera organ music) the three showed tiny leads for Hillary Clinton – so small as to be insignificant.  Today, two show the same thing, but one has reverted to a small Trump lead:

From IBD/TIPP, with a great record of accuracy:

Hillary Clinton maintained her lead over Donald Trump in the IBD/TIPP presidential tracking poll, but she is ahead by less than a full percentage point — 41.8% to 41.2% — in a four-way matchup. Libertarian Gary Johnson captures 8% of the vote, with Jill Stein down to 2.9%.

Clinton is now up two points in a head-to-head race with Trump — 43.3% to 41.3%.

From Rasmussen: 

Hillary Clinton still maintains a slight advantage as support for the major third party candidates appears to be slipping away in Rasmussen Reports’ latest White House Watch survey.

The new national telephone and online survey shows Clinton leading Republican Donald Trump 44% to 43% among Likely U.S. Voters. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson earns a new low of four percent (4%) support, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein has fallen to one percent (1%). Three percent (3%) still like some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided.

It is common for third-party support to slip as election day nears.  Many voters decide they want to vote for someone with a chance at winning.

The L.A. Times tracker, which showed a slight Clinton lead yesterday, now shows a razor-thin Trump margin, with Trump at 45.3% and Clinton at 44.2%. 

The election is less than two weeks away.  If the major polls are correct, Clinton needs only to get through these final campaign days.  If the three musketeers, the outliers, are correct, this race can go either way.

October 26,  2016     Permalink