Presumptuous Politics : May 16, 2016

Monday, May 16, 2016

Hillary Cartoon

Kentucky, Oregon hold primaries Tuesday as Clinton, Trump look to November matchup

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton made campaign stops Sunday in Kentucky ahead the state’s primary later this week, pitching a pro-jobs agenda and trying to stop rival Sen. Bernie Sanders’ extended string of victories, as the primary season enters its final stages.
“We just have to get more Americans a chance for better jobs with better incomes so you can believe you’re going to give your children and grandchildren a better life,” Clinton said at a rally in Louisville. “We can put more Americans to work.”
Clinton and Sanders will compete Tuesday in Kentucky and Oregon, while Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump will try to add to his delegate count in Oregon.
There are 28 Republican delegates at stake in Oregon toward Trump securing the party nomination with 1,237. He now has 1,134 delegates with 436 still available in the party’s seven remaining state contests.
Trump was not on the campaign trail Sunday. Since becoming the nominee in early May, the billionaire businessman has increasingly focused on financing a general election campaign and getting the party to rally around his candidacy.
Clinton already has an insurmountable lead in the delegate race, 2,240-to-1,437, toward 2,383 to clinch to party nomination.
The 55 at stake in the state’s Democratic primary Tuesday and the 61 in Oregon won’t change the outcome of the party’s primary. However, Sanders has won 10 of the past 12 state contests, which is inspiring the Vermont senator to keep his campaign alive through the remaining nine Democratic contests and the party’s nominating convention in July.
“We are going to create an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent,” Sanders said at a rally Sunday in Paducah, Ky. “What we are seeing is massive levels of poverty that should not be taking place in the richest country in the world. … A handful of wealth families are controlling the political and economic life of this nation.”
(The state’s unemployment rate of 5.6 percent is above the national average of 5 percent.)
Clinton is expected to do well in Kentucky, which has a Republican governor and two GOP senators. She soundly defeated Barack Obama their 2008 primary contest in the state, and limited polling shows Clinton with a double-digit lead ahead of Tuesday’s contest.
As one of the country’s most liberal states, Oregon would appear like Sanders territory. However, the state’s Democratic primary is open only to registered Democrats, a situation that has hurt Sanders in other states with so-called “closed primaries," considering his crossover appeal to independent voters.
Polling in the state varies, but a new and frequently cited survey by the Portland-based firm DHM Research shows Clinton leading by double digits.
The former secretary of state is also trying to move toward an anticipated general election race, against Trump. Her campaign sent out a fundraising email Saturday highlighting the cost of “running two races,” under the headline “Nuts.”
On Sunday, Clinton again turned to Trump, saying as she has before that he’s a “loose cannon” for suggesting that more countries have nuclear weapons and using the United States’ against the Islamic State.
“I’ve never heard such reckless, risky talk from somebody about to be a nominee for president than I’ve heard from Donald Trump when it comes to nuclear weapons,” Clinton said in Louisville. “He says he would use nuclear weapons. This is scary, dangerous talk. This is the talk of a loose cannon.”

Trump, Biden attend University of Pennsylvania graduation

PHILADELPHIA – Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have attended a graduation ceremony at the University of Pennsylvania, but not on the stage as politicians -- they were in the audience as parent and grandparent.
The Republican presidential candidate's daughter Tiffany Trump and the vice president's granddaughter Naomi Biden were among the 1,500 students who graduated Sunday evening from the School of Arts and Sciences. Donald Trump graduated from Penn's Wharton School of Business in 1968.
Biden was seen embracing his granddaughter at the ceremony. He was accompanied by his wife, Jill Biden.
Trump was accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump, and his former wife, Marla Maples.
Trump and Biden aren't expected to attend Monday's main graduation ceremony for the Ivy League school.

Nevada Democratic Convention becomes 'unruly and unpredictable' amid rules disputes over delegates

The Nevada State Democratic Convention on Saturday night devolved into an “unruly and unpredictable” environment following several disputes over rules governing delegates for Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, leading to law enforcement officials being called to keep the peace.
Two issues in particular stung Sanders supporters gathered at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel: (1) the approval of a set of temporary rules seen as less favorable to the Vermont senator by his backers and (2) the allocation of the 12 delegates up for grabs. In the final tally, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took seven delegates and Sanders five. Clinton's supporters outnumbered Sanders’ backers 1,695-to-1,662, an echo of her slim victory in February’s Democratic caucus, 53-47.
But Sanders supporters, riled by the news that nearly five dozen people were not given delegate status, said the results were skewed. Convention Credential Committee Co-Chair Leslie Sexton said 64 Sanders delegates – almost double Sanders’ eventual 33 delegate shortfall – were disqualified for various reasons and not given the opportunity to appeal, The Hill reported.
Sexton initially said she was not allowed to give a report about Sanders’ delegates – for an unspecified reason – but she eventually presented her findings once chants of “recount” and “let her speak” broke out, The Hill reported.
“Contrary to procedures and precedents set by the committee, nearly none of the 64 people were presented with the opportunity to be heard by the committee or to demonstrate that they are registered Democrats,” Sexton said.
The Nevada State Democratic Party said 58 of those excluded Sanders supporters were denied for reasons such as not registering as a Democrat by May 1 or due to a lack of personal information. Of the 64, six were “allowed to be seated after their appropriate information was provided,” the party said. Eight Clinton supporters were denied delegate status for similar reasons, The Las Vegas Sun reported.
A decision by Convention Chair Roberta Lange to quickly gavel the convention after a “yea” or “nay” vote that Sanders’ backers protested only raised the ire of those already upset at Saturday’s results. Lange quickly left the ballroom after officially closing the meeting.
But Sanders supporters remained, chanting and pondering their options, according to videos of the event posted at RealClearPolitics. Law enforcement officers and hotel security quickly formed a line in front of the stage as an unidentified individual pleaded with the crowd to exit. At one point several lights in the hall were reportedly turned off to try to get attendees to leave. Eventually, the attendees in the room peacefully dispersed. No arrests were reported.
“The Director of Security for the Paris Las Vegas Hotel informed the State Party and representatives from both presidential campaigns that the property could no longer provide the necessary security under conditions made unruly and unpredictable,” Stewart Boss, Nevada state Democratic party press secretary, said in a Sunday statement.
Sanders hadn’t addressed the convention controversy as of Sunday night, but in a release to his supporters on Friday he touted “working together respectfully and constructively on Saturday.”
Of the 43 Nevada delegates headed to the Democratic National Convention in July, 20 will support Clinton and 15 are set to back Sanders, with eight others as “superdelegates” who can choose to vote for whomever they want. Most “superdelegates” have said they’ll back Clinton.
Most of the Nevada convention was a raucous affair, with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., even getting booed at one point.
“If you’re booing me, you’re booing Bernie Sanders,” Boxer said. “Go ahead, boo yourselves out of this election.”
The Republican delegate-selection meeting Saturday at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center occurred without incident. A crowd of just more than 1,000 people selected 27 delegates to the Republican National Convention, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Those delegates are bound to vote on the first ballot according to February’s Nevada caucus results. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump won the state with 46 percent of the vote in that contest, securing 14 delegates.

RNC chairman warns against 'suicide' third-party run against Trump

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus warned Sunday that any effort by conservatives to draft a candidate to run against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump would be a "suicide mission for our country."
"What it means is that you're throwing down not just eight years of the White House, but potentially 100 years on the Supreme Court and wrecking this country for many generations," Priebus told "Fox News Sunday". "And so, I think that's the legacy these folks will leave behind."
Over the weekend, The Washington Post reported that a group of anti-Trump Republicans led by 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney and conservative commentator William Kristol had begun recruiting candidates to make an independent run for the White House.
According to the paper, Romney has made personal overtures to Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, a prominent anti-Trump Republican, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Inquries have also been made to businessman and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
When asked by "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace what he would say to Romney and Kristol, Priebus responded, "I think they should consider the ramifications of what's going to happen on the Supreme Court, get assurances from Donald Trump that they're satisfied with that would show that he's committed to those conservative justices ... and I think that's the better way to go as opposed to this third party route."
Meanwhile, Trump's top ally in the Senate said the real estate mogul would require more public policy schooling to earn the confidence of other Republicans and show he's ready to take on likely Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
"I think he's going to need to learn. He's going to need to understand really completely ... how complex this world is," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told ABC's "This Week."
In particular, Sessions said Trump has much to learn about how to talk about matters of war, saying "It's just a very, very complex world and you have to be careful when you commit a military force."
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., a onetime Trump critic who nonetheless has vowed to back him in November, called him "a work in progress," more so than most candidates. "Usually you know a lot more about a candidate because they've run for other things. They've cast votes. They've done things. And he does have a shoot-from-the-hip style."
GOP officials are still trying to determine who should be the leading voice for party barely six months before Americans choose their next president in a likely showdown between Trump and Clinton, a former senator and secretary of state. Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who held a high-profile meeting in Washington last week, represent two Republican factions. Ryan has said he is not yet ready to back Trump.
Trump and Ryan said after their meeting Thursday that they were committed to unifying the party despite their difference over immigration, Muslim immigrants, taxes, benefit programs and trade. The discussion seemed to thaw relations enough to make a reconciliation seem possible, and the men spoke of keeping the lines of communication open and of finding common ground.
Ryan's predecessor as speaker, John Boehner, said at a conference of finance industry leaders in Las Vegas on Thursday that he endorsed Trump and that Ryan probably was "trying to help shape the direction of Trump's policies."
What concerns many Republicans is the prospect of their backing Trump and then having him stumble over the party's core policy issues. For example, he once suggested in an MSNBC interview that there should be "some form of punishment" for women who have had abortions. Ultimately, Trump said abortion providers, not women, were the ones who should be punished if abortions were outlawed.
The policy education for Trump and his team appears to be underway.
A few weeks ago, top aide Paul Manafort spent about an hour at the conservative Heritage Foundation Washington as part of what the think tank described as part of an ongoing series of policy briefings for candidates and their advisers. Other Trump officials have been meeting with individual members of the House. Trump himself met with senators on the same day he met with Ryan, and many emerged describing an open-minded, even earnest candidate.
And lately, Trump has taken to describing his policy proposals as merely "suggestions." But Trump also has said he's his own best foreign policy adviser.