Tag Archive: Donald Trump

Moving on from Sanders to Trump and the general election

Donald Trump and his taxes, a current focus of the Clinton campaign

Donald Trump and his taxes, a current focus of the Clinton campaign

Hillary Clinton has been practically ignoring Bernie Sanders for a month. She hasn’t been attacking Sanders over his scorched-earth efforts to tear down the Democratic Party from within. Clinton hasn’t even been calling on Sanders to release multiple prior years of tax returns, which any serious presidential candidate must do. Instead, because the delegate math now makes her the unstoppable 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee, Clinton has turned her attention to the general election and her likely opponent, Donald Trump. Yesterday, I decided to follow Hillary Clinton’s lead and attempt to just move on from the battles with Bernie to focus on Trump & the general election. I have to say, it’s very refreshing.

The secret weapon in this year’s elections

Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump 2016

Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump 2016

There’s a not-so-secret weapon looming in the likely 2016 presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Want to guess what it is? Here are a few hints: it’s very powerful, it exists in large numbers, and one of the presidential candidates is one. What’s the secret weapon?

Three reasons to vote against Donald Trump

Donald Trump speaking in Manchester, NH last February

Donald Trump speaking in Manchester, NH last February

After Donald Trump‘s big win and Hillary Clinton‘s near tie in the Indiana primaries last Tuesday, given the resulting delegate math, attention immediately turned to the likely upcoming general election between Trump and Clinton. While the criticisms that can be leveled against Trump are many, voters might become distracted if too many such charges come flying across the airwaves. In order to keep it simple, we have identified three areas in which Trump is most vulnerable to criticism and political attack in the general election:

Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders: the endgame appears

Bernie Sanders speaking in South Bronx, NY

Bernie Sanders speaking in South Bronx, NY

Last night’s Democratic Party primary results in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island were clarifying for a couple of reasons. First, Hillary Clinton‘s wins over Bernie Sanders in four out of the five states other than tiny Rhode Island, especially her healthy and wide margins of victory, respectively, in delegate-rich Pennsylvania and Maryland, all but assured that Clinton will clinch the Democratic Party nomination for president. The other clarifying element of last night’s results was that the endgame for Clinton, Sanders and the Democratic Party finally started to emerge. Here’s what that endgame looked like:

Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton: time to de-escalate

Hillary Clinton speaking in Durham, NC

Hillary Clinton speaking in Durham, NC

Last night’s New York Democratic Party primary was a defining moment in the sometimes nasty presidential nomination contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton won a decisive victory, with a margin as of this writing of some 16 percent and a net gain of about 33 pledged delegates. [Note: these results are subject to updates]. Coming at a time when Sanders needs to win virtually every state left by a landslide, his loss to Clinton in New York turns his nomination chances from “nearly impossible” to “pretty much unimaginable.” Perhaps knowing this, Sanders spent yesterday in Pennsylvania instead of New York, supposedly to campaign for next Tuesday’s primaries, but then reportedly left his press corps in Pennsylvania last night and exited back home to Vermont. So the question becomes, what happens now?

Hillary Clinton moves into general election mode

Hillary Clinton speaking in Durham, NC

Hillary Clinton speaking in Durham, NC

Hillary Clinton gave a speech in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday, in which she blasted Republicans for refusing to consider President Barack Obama‘s U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Likewise, Clinton has released a new ad focusing on New Yorkers, and specifically attacking Donald Trump. Clinton’s new focus on Trump, the Republicans and Supreme Court nominations — one of a president’s most important Constitutional powers — seems to represent a shift from the presidential primaries to the general election.

Reasons 1-5 why Bernie Sanders is losing the Democratic presidential nomination

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders

The term the pundits are using now to describe Bernie Sanders‘ chances of winning the Democratic Party presidential nomination is “nearly impossible.” Looking at the cold hard math of the Democratic Party nomination process, especially the proportional rather than winner-take-all awarding of state “pledged” delegates, we agree. If Hillary Clinton does capture the requisite majority of delegates as expected, the blame game will begin as to why Sanders lost. Here, in no particular order, are the first five reasons for Sanders’ failure:

Bernie Sanders loses Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton with supporters at Hillside High School, Durham, NC.

Hillary Clinton with supporters at Hillside High School, Durham, NC.

This is the headline the mainstream media would be running today if they were honest. Last night, Hillary Clinton racked up decisive wins in the delegate-rich Florida, North Carolina and Ohio Democratic Party primaries, as well as narrow wins in Illinois and Missouri. Almost no one expected Clinton to do so well in last night’s primaries, especially in Ohio. Moreover, due to the cold hard math of the Democratic Party’s proportional delegate allocation (i.e., delegates are awarded based on share of the popular vote in each state, rather than winner take all), Clinton netted approximately 100 delegates over Sanders, to increase her overall lead to about 314 delegates, 1139 to 825 (all totals approximate, as different sources sometimes differ slightly and could be updated).

In the Iowa Caucus, a smiley face and a gold star for everyone

Donald Trump after giving "concession" speech at Iowa Caucus

Donald Trump after giving “concession” speech at Iowa Caucus

Last night’s Iowa Presidential Caucus gave all the front-runners in the Democratic and Republican Parties something to smile about. At least, the Caucus results gave each of the following campaigns something to spin positively about:

Clinton, Sanders and O’Malley show substance at Democratic Town Hall

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama after clinching 2008 Democratic presidential nomination

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama after clinching 2008 Democratic presidential nomination

Last night, one week before the Iowa Caucus, CNN hosted a Town Hall event at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, featuring Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. The three candidates showed differences in their views and policies while answering questions from the audience of mostly undecided Democratic voters and from moderator Chris Cuomo. But perhaps more striking was the level of knowledge, substance and forcefulness each candidate exhibited on the issues.