Kasich Cartoon

New Hampshire will go down as the place where Hillary Clinton's campaign lost its way

Hillary Clinton still believes in vast right-wing conspiracy

Political prognostication is an uncertain art, never more so than in the New Hampshire primaries of 2016.   On the eve of the elections, equipped as I am with all the most scientific polling and profoundest opinions of the professional pundits, I still wouldn’t place a bet on the electoral outcome of the race.
On other hand, I’d be willing to put a few dollars on the proposition that, when the history of the 2016 presidential race is written, the past week in New Hampshire will go down as the place where the Clinton campaign lost its way.
Bernie Sanders didn’t do her in. She did it herself, with two unforced  errors.
The first error was her transparently false attempt to recast herself as a bank-busting progressive.  This gave rise to a very public airing of a very inconvenient fact: After leaving the State Department, Hillary got rich selling her services to the highest bidder.
Not all of the $21 million Hillary got for speechmaking and private audiences came from Wall Street companies. But almost two million did.  What did Hillary do for the money?  Why was she worth a quarter of a million dollars an hour?  Did the bankers pay her for leadership bromides (there is no ‘I’ in team!) or valuable insights?  Come on.  She could have serenaded them with the original score of Cats for all they cared. That money was Wall Street venture capital, an investment in access and influence in a Hillary Clinton presidency.
Progressives know this of course, and they despise her for believing they are stupid enough to fall for her act. That’s why they holler ‘liar’ when her face shows up on TV.  Some will vote for her on in November, if she gets there, but they won’t turn out in the Obama-like numbers required for victory.  
Hillary’s second mistake in New Hampshire was boasting that she gets things done  (in contrast to Bernie, a mere dreamer).  This invites the public to focus on her record and opens a door that leads to an empty trophy room.
After graduating from Yale Law School, Hillary flunked the Washington, D.C. bar exam. Her legal career in Arkansas tracked the rise of her husband in state politics. She became an associate at the Rose law firm after Bill was elected attorney general; and a partner when he became governor.
As first lady, Bill Clinton entrusted her with his health care policy. Her team produced an unworkable plan that went nowhere.  She spent the rest of her White House years travelling the globe as a good will ambassador, wrote books about children and her cat, and directed the (unsuccessful) defense of her husband against charges of sexual harassment.
In the Senate, Hillary was hard working but undistinguished.
Her main accomplishment was getting federal aid for New York after 9/11— not exactly a heavy lift.  She is mostly remembered (negatively by progressives) for voting in favor of the Iraq War, a decision she now calls a mistake.
In 2008, Hillary went into her first presidential race as a very well financed front runner.  She mismanaged the campaign and lost to a little known first-term senator.
As Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, Hillary presided over a series of diplomatic blunders.  She declared a Russian “reset” that never happened.  She was a cheerleader for the disastrous ‘Arab Spring’ and the Muslim Brotherhood government that took power in Egypt. She was a key architect of the “lead from behind” invasion of Libya that ended in chaos.
What did Hillary really do as secretary of state? She logged a lot of miles. She says she was “in the room” for the decision to kill Usama bin Laden although it wasn’t her call. And lately she has been saying that she set the table for the Iran nuclear deal. If true, this would be a dubious achievement. And, if she is taking credit for things that happened after she left State, there is the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the rise of ISIS to account for.
Before New Hampshire there were plenty of people, not all of them Democrats, who accepted Hillary’s “experienced and competent” image without thinking much about it.  But this week she decided to stake her claim to the White House on her ability to get things done. That invites a skeptical second look. Coupled with her unconvincing progressive remake, this could leave her without a political identity or a credible electoral selling point.

'White guilt' video shown to high school students irks community

An animated film designed as a lesson in “racial discourse” for students at a Virginia high school has led to backlash from community members who’ve taken issue with not-so subtle references to so-called white privilege throughout the video.
“They are sitting there watching a video that is dividing them up from a racial standpoint. It's a White guilt kind of video,” Don Blake, whose granddaughter attended the assembly where the video was shown, told told WWBT. “I think somebody should be held accountable for this.”
Officials at Glen Allen High School in Henrico said in a statement that the video, “The Unequal Opportunity Race,” was a presentation involving “American history and racial discourse.”

"I think somebody should be held accountable for this."
- Don Blake

They added, “A segment of the video was one component of a thoughtful discussion in which all viewpoints were encouraged. As always, we are welcoming of feedback from students and their families, and we address concerns directly as they come forward.”
As the video begins, four athletes take their marks at the start of a race. While two white athletes immediately take off at the sound of the starting gun, two non-white athletes must remain in the starting block while a red light blocks their path. The non-white athletes are bombarded with words such as “slavery,” “broken treaties,” “genocide” and “segregation.” The white athletes continually run around the track, getting older as their batons – marked with a money symbol – grow larger and larger. Eventually they hand the baton off to a younger white athlete running beside them.
More than a minute into the animated video, the non-white athletes finally get to start the race. But as soon as they begin running, the pair is beset by rocks, potholes, sharks and rain clouds symbolizing “standardized tests,” “discrimination” and the “school to prison pipeline.” The white male athlete, holding a water bottle marked “Yale,” eventually wins the race without even having to run – he takes his place on a fast-moving conveyor belt as the word “privilege” follows him. He crosses the finish line just ahead of the white female.
As the four-minute film ends a message flashes across the screen: “Affirmative action helps level the playing field.”
Radio personality Craig Johnson said the discussion should not be focused on skin color.
“The reality of it, it’s over. The aftermath of it is poverty pimps that will not let it die,” Johnson told WWBT. “Dr. [Martin Luther] King gave his life so that America would be a pace where we are judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin.”

Sanders, Trump and more. Fasten your seatbelt, America, this is gonna be one heckuva ride

New Hampshire is over! After decades of hosting the first in the nation primary New Hampshire, rocked the political world and set in motion an election that is as unpredictable as any in modern times.
Tuesday night, the voters of New Hampshire kicked off what may be the longest and most uncertain election in my five decades of watching and participating in presidential politics.
There was no surprise at the top of the polls with the results, it was only the size of their landslide victories. The liberal winner Senator Bernie Sanders, the Socialist, running for the first time as a Democrat, won overwhelmingly and crushed the alleged inevitable nominee Mrs. Clinton by more than 20 points. Sanders cannot be dismissed and now is a real contender.
The size of Sanders’ victory will make establishment Democracts very nervous about Hillary's  long term viability.
As expected, Donald Trump, former Democrat, one time independent, and now Republican, carried the GOP side by two to one and again has to be viewed as the frontrunner.
The amazing thing is that Trump has barely touched his wallet or run a real campaign yet he has managed to crush all comers.
He will certainly run a serious campaign now and the Republican presidential nomination is a real possibility.
As often happens in New Hampshire, many voters, 4 in 10, didn't make up their minds until the last hours.
Late deciders often make the difference in an election and Tuesday night in New Hampshire after they heard and saw it all they did it again.
Granite State voters punished Marco Rubio for his weak debate performance on Saturday and they rewarded  John Kasich for his "one state all or nothing campaign" by voting him into second place.
The governor from the critical battleground state of Ohio, (Republicans can't win without it) is now positioned to be the establishment candidate. His strength is that he probably knows more than anyone in the race about domestic budget policy and military affairs. His weakness is that he needs to really expand his fundraising capacities and political operation. He has nothing going on in South Carolina.
Kasich also will be the target of conservatives who see him as a "RINO" (Republican In Name Only) and simply too liberal.
The greatest danger for any candidate is when momentum catches up to a lack of organization. That’s when failure is a real possibility.
The governor could be a strong general election candidate but he has to first survive the Republican only primaries.
That’s a tough challenge.
Iowa winner Ted Cruz, while spending little money and being badly outspent by his opponents in New Hampshire, proved again that he is the true conservative and is a long term challenger especially as the race heads south.
Jeb Bush, with his 90-year-old mother in tow, spent a fortune in a state that has a long history with the Bush family but he still could do no better than fourth place. There’s not much of a future left for him.
Rubio is wounded and needs a major state win to get back in the game. Florida, where Trump is leading overwhelmingly, may turn out to be Rubio’s Waterloo. He must win his home state on March 15 – which is a winner take all contest, if he is to go on.
Christie won no delegates Tuesday night and ran seventh. He has no money and needs to throw in the towel and return home to a state that he has been out of for more than 400 days in the last two years.
The same is true for Carly Fiorina and Dr. Ben Carson, who has fallen from the top to the bottom of the pack in record time. It's time to go home.
In the meantime, if I would have predicted a year ago that Sanders and Trump were going to be the winners of the New Hampshire primary, Fox News would have kicked me off the air and I would have been a laughingstock in the pundits club.
Of course I didn't predict it because like all of you I had no idea. And as we move on, I have no idea who is going to win either party's nomination or ultimately the presidency.
I am handicapped by fifty years of knowledge and experience, which is totally irrelevant in this election.
Also get ready for the outrageous promises you’re going to hear from both sides. They will challenge your wildest imagination.
Buckle up your seat belt because this is going to be one heck of a ride!

Trump, Sanders win New Hampshire -- and 2016 battle moves south, west

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders scored decisive victories in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary – as Ohio Gov. John Kasich surged into a second-place finish and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was fighting to stay in the race with Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush for third.
After months of campaigning in the snow, the battle for the South now begins -- and the runners-up will be looking for new life, and in some cases survival, as the winners celebrate.
“We are going to make America great again,” the victorious Trump told cheering supporters Tuesday night. “We are going now to South Carolina. We are gonna win in South Carolina!”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, though, is staying behind -- returning to his home state after a disappointing sixth-place finish with a mere 8 percent of the vote. He told supporters he planned to make a decision Wednesday on the way forward with the viability of his campaign now in serious doubt.
The rest head to the Palmetto State, each facing a unique challenge: Trump aims to hold his front-runner status after cementing it in New Hampshire on the heels of his Iowa loss. Kasich, while getting a big boost out of Tuesday’s contest, will look to demonstrate he can play beyond New Hampshire. And as Cruz and Bush look to build on their performance, Rubio is vowing to improve after a rocky debate seemingly disrupted his momentum.
"That will never happen again," Rubio told supporters Tuesday, referring to his Saturday debate performance.
On the Democratic side, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is facing the prospect of losing her front-runner status if Sanders can close his polling gap in South Carolina and beyond.
The Vermont senator voiced confidence at his victory rally Tuesday night.
“Tonight we serve notice to the political and economic establishment of this country,” Sanders said. “Now it’s on to Nevada, South Carolina and beyond.”
The Clinton campaign tried to cast the candidate’s primary loss in the best light, saying in a memo that the outcome was “long expected” and prospects for future victories remain “very good.”
“I want to say I still love New Hampshire and I always will,” Clinton told supporters at a Tuesday night rally. “Now we take this campaign to the entire country. We are going to fight for every vote in every state.”
For the winners of both contests Tuesday night, New Hampshire was a comeback after each came in second last week in Iowa.
Trump won decisively, towering over the Republican field with 35 percent of the vote after 92 percent of precincts had reported results early Wednesday. Sanders was crushing Clinton 60-38 percent with 93 percent of precincts reporting in the Democratic race.
Kasich clocked in second with about 16 percent, while the battle for third remained a fierce contest.
With 12 percent of the vote, Texas Sen. Cruz had nudged ahead of former Florida Gov. Bush and Florida Sen. Rubio, who both had 11 percent. However, the margin between the three was still too narrow to project who would finish third, fourth and fifth in the Republican race.
Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina finished seventh with 4 percent of the vote, while retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson finished eighth with 2 percent.
For Kasich, his time in the state appeared to pay off and the second-place finish gives a major boost to his campaign, especially after he finished a distant eighth in Iowa last week.
It also dealt a blow to Rubio, whose strong, third-place finish in Iowa eight days ago gave him momentum that lasted until Saturday, when Rubio stumbled in the debate amid withering attacks from Christie.
The closeness of the race for third, fourth and fifth places still might end up prolonging the Republican nominating contest because it complicates the establishment’s efforts to coalesce around a single consensus candidate.
Yet the person who tripped up Rubio in Saturday’s debate, Christie, was mired in single digits in Tuesday's race, leaving him to weigh his options back home.
Exit polls suggest Trump was aided in large part in the state by independents. They showed 36 percent of the state’s influential independents were backing Trump, leading the field among that bloc.
On the Republican side, Trump led virtually every poll in the state in the run-up to the contest.
And on the Democratic side, Clinton consistently trailed Sanders going into Tuesday’s contest. But the margin of victory for both Sanders and Trump was substantial.
Clinton herself has pushed back on reports that the campaign may be looking at a shake-up in the near future – but the speculation is sure to mount following her Granite State loss.
From here, the campaigns head next to Nevada and South Carolina, which hold the next two contests before Super Tuesday at the beginning of March.