Presumptuous Politics : Sep 17, 2016

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Green Party Jill Stein Cartoons

Johnson, Stein excluded from 1st presidential debate

Jill Stein: I will feel terrible if Clinton, Trump elected

DENVER – The commission that oversees presidential debates has invited only Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to the first presidential debate. It excluded two third-party candidates who had hoped the event could help them talk directly to an electorate unhappy with the two front-runners.
The Commission on Presidential Debates said in a statement Friday that Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein were polling too low to qualify for the Sept. 26 event. The commission since 2000 has invited only candidates polling at 15 percent or above in an average of five polls. Johnson was at 8.4 percent and Stein at 3.2 percent.
Johnson, a former New Mexico governor and ex-Republican who is running with former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, has been pushing aggressively to get into the debate. He and Stein could still qualify for the two remaining ones in October if their poll numbers hit 15 percent, but that will be challenging without the national exposure of the debate.
In a statement, Johnson slammed the commission as a tool of the Democratic and Republican parties and vowed to make the October contests. "The CPD may scoff at a ticket that enjoys 'only' 9 or 10% in their hand-selected polls, but even 9% represents 13 million voters, more than the total population of Ohio and most other states," Johnson said.

Reid in nasty battle with Trump over weight, injury

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is fond of sparring with Republican presidential candidates, but the ex-boxer started an all-out street fight with Donald Trump this week -- and it only escalated Friday after the GOP nominee responded by mocking the injury that left Reid blind in one eye.
"Trump can make fun of the injury that took sight in my eye -- I've dealt with tougher opponents. With my good eye, I see Trump is a con-artist," Reid tweeted on Friday morning.
The political brawl started on Tuesday when Reid poked fun at Trump's weight.
While accusing the press of magnifying Hillary Clinton’s pneumonia diagnosis and downplaying Trump's health issues, Reid said during a press conference, “He complains about her health? What does he do? He’s 70 years old. He’s not slim and trim.”
Trump's health details released this week show he is somewhat overweight, and the candidate says he wants to lose 15 pounds. But he hit back hard at Reid for going there, making a mocking reference to Reid's 2015 home-gym accident -- which happened when an exercise band snapped, sending the 76-year-old to the ground. He broke several ribs and facial bones.
“Harry Reid? I think he should go back and start working out again with his rubber work-out pieces,” Trump told the Washington Post on Wednesday.
Aside from the tweet, Reid also issued a written response to Trump saying with "my good eye, I can see that Trump is a man who inherited his money and spent his entire life pretending like he earned it."
This is not the first time Reid has engaged in a verbal battle with a Republican presidential nominee.
In July 2012, Reid took to the Senate floor to engage in speculation that Mitt Romney had not paid any taxes.
Speaking in the Senate on Thursday, Reid also unleashed a flurry of broadsides at Trump calling him a “human leech” and a “spoiled brat.”
Reid, who is retiring in January after 33 years in Congress, also suggested earlier this summer that intelligence officials “fake” the security briefings given to Trump.
“How would the CIA and the other intelligence agencies brief this guy? How could they do that? I would suggest to the intelligence agencies, if you’re forced to brief this guy, don’t tell him anything, just fake it, because this man is dangerous,” Reid said during an interview with The Huffington Post.
Reid’s attacks may or may not damage Trump, but one of Reid’s colleagues believes the real blow is to the Nevadan’s own legacy.
"Harry Reid, for some time now, has been going beyond the line, making statements on the floor where words should be taken down," Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told Roll Call.
"And to hear in the last few months of his career, sadly, it's gotten worse. And it mainly looks bad for Senator Reid and his legacy."

Clinton campaign pushes Democratic party stars to shore up youth vote

With Hillary Clinton's lead in the polls over Donald Trump all but gone, her campaign is pushing prominent Democrats, including former primary rival Bernie Sanders, into the field in an effort to lock up the youth vote for the Democratic nominee.
The effort began in earnest Friday, when first lady Michelle Obama addressed a rally at George Mason University in northern Virginia. She warned young voters against being "tired or turned off," and urged them to rally around Clinton, "particularly given the alternative."
Despite the first lady's efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported some members of the crowd could be heard chanting "Four more years!"
Clinton led most national polls by double digits in the days following the Democratic convention, but most recent polls have the race in a statistical dead heat. Much of that can be attributed to a drop in her support among young people.
In a Fox News poll taken in early August, days after the convention, Clinton led Trump by 27 points among voters under 35. In the most recent Fox News poll, Clinton led Trump by just five points among likely voters under 35.
Many of the voters who once backed Clinton appear to have thrown their support to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. In the recent Fox News poll, Johnson only garnered the support of 8 percent of all likely voters. However, Johnson polled at 16 percent among under-35s.
Sanders, who mounted a surprisingly strong primary challenge to Clinton with the help of overwhelming youth support, was scheduled to speak on Clinton's behalf at two Ohio colleges Saturday. A recent CNN/ORC poll showed Trump with a five-point lead over Clinton in the Buckeye State.
"I can criticize Hillary Clinton for this, that, and the other thing," Sanders told CNN Friday. "Trump literally changes his views every other day."
The self-described democratic socialist went on to call the real estate mogul "a fraud and a phony" who was running a "campaign of bigotry."
Clinton pollster and adviser Joel Benenson admitted to the Journal Friday that the campaign "closed the deal" with young voters. Another Clinton campaign official said they planned to stress a message that a vote for a third-party candidate like Johnson or Jill Stein of the Green Party was in effect a vote for Trump.
But other Clinton supporters believe the best advocate may be Michelle Obama, whom they want in battleground states as much as possible between now and Election Day.
Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director and a former Obama adviser, called the first lady "an advocate without peer."
"There is no other surrogate with the reach, credibility and respect she has," Palmieri said.

Trump says Clinton bodyguards should lose their guns 'and let's see what happens to her'

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump revived another campaign controversy Friday night, sarcastically calling for Hillary Clinton's Secret Service agents to be stripped of their firearms before adding, "let's see what happens to her."
"I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm, right?" Trump asked the crowd at a Miami rally. "Take their guns away, she doesn't want guns. Take their — and let's see what happens to her. Take their guns away. OK, it would be very dangerous."

There was no immediate comment or clarification from the Trump campaign about the remarks. However, the Clinton campaign had a quick reaction. Spokesman Robby Mook released a statement Friday night saying Trump "has a pattern of inciting people to violence. Whether this is done to provoke protesters at a rally or casually or even as a joke, it is an unacceptable quality in anyone seeking the job of Commander in Chief.
"This kind of talk should be out of bounds for a presidential candidate," Mook wrote.
A spokeswoman for the Secret Service declined to comment.
The riff recalled a remark Trump made last month that many Democrats condemned as a call for Clinton's assassination. Speaking at a rally in North Carolina, the Republican nominee said his opponent wants to "abolish, essentially, the Second Amendment."
He continued: "By the way, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."
Mook said then, "A person seeking to be the president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way."
Trump later disputed that criticism, saying everyone in his audience knew he was referring to the power of voters and "there can be no other interpretation."
Trump, who has the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, eventually took to Twitter to say the Secret Service had not contacted him about the remarks.
While campaigning in South Florida, which has a large Cuban-American population, Trump also said that if he's elected president, he will reverse Obama's efforts to normalize relations with Cuba — unless the country abides by certain "demands." Among those, he said, would be religious and political freedom for the Cuban people and the freeing of all political prisoners.
Trump says he'll "stand with the Cuban people in their fight against communist oppression."
The comment marks yet another reversal for the GOP candidate, who previously said he supported the idea of normalized relations, but wished the U.S. had negotiated a better deal.
Trump also said the U.S. has a broader obligation to stand with oppressed people — a comment that seems at odds with his "America first" mantra. "The next president of the United States must stand in solidarity with all people oppressed in our hemisphere, and we will stand with oppressed people, and there are many," he said.
He added that the people of Venezuela "are yearning to be free, they are yearning for help. The system is bad. But the people are great."
Trump has often cited the country as a model of a failed state, warning that if Clinton is elected, she'll turn the U.S. into Venezuela.