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September 09, 2016 11:10 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (September 9)

  • 1 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Get More SmarterThe 1-0 Denver Broncos look like they found their quarterback for the (near) future. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Republicans across the country are having trouble (again) with Presidential candidate Donald Trump, this time because of the GOP nominee’s proclivity for praising one Vladimir Putin. As Politico explains:

Donald Trump’s extraordinary embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin has put his campaign on the defensive for a second straight day, coming after the Republican nominee praised the Kremlin strongman and appeared in an interview on a TV network backed by Moscow.

Trump’s warm words for Putin have raised the hackles of fellow Republicans and put his allies in the awkward position of claiming their party’s standard-bearer is not really praising the Russian leader. It has particularly alarmed the GOP’s hawkish national security wing, which hews almost universally to its longstanding view of Russia as an implacable foe of the United States.

Trump inflamed the situation Thursday evening by criticizing U.S. foreign policy during an interview broadcast on RT America, a television network owned by the Russian government that often toes the Kremlin’s line. He even dismissed U.S. officials’ concern that Russia may be seeking to disrupt the Nov. 8 election as “pretty unlikely,” though he went on to say that any such interference would be “inappropriate.” (Trump’s campaign manager said the interview was meant as a “favor” to host Larry King, whose show is syndicated and broadcast on RT.)

If we’ve learned anything from 1980s action movies, no American wants to be seen cozying up to the Russians. As Chris Cillizza writes for “The Fix,” Trump’s political love affair with Putin may be the last best chance for Republicans to walk away from the GOP nominee:

It’s a totally inexplicable position for the Republican nominee to take.  Hell, it’s an inexplicable position for any politician in either party running for any office to take.  You can tell that in the tortured ways in which Trump’s backers within the GOP are trying to deal with his bromance with the Russian leader…

…This is not an issue in which Republicans can retreat behind the old Trump’s-the-nominee argument.  Trump isn’t speaking for the vast majority — or even a healthy minority — of voters within the Republican party. Backing a candidate who repeatedly flirts with Russia and its leader is not the sort of thing that you can just write off to being a good soldier for the party in the post-election analysis.

If you are a Republican elected official considering whether to jump off the Trump train, it’s now-or-never time.  You go along with Trump’s views on Putin’s Russia and you don’t get to run away from him if he goes down in flames over the next 60 days.

Colorado Republicans such as Rep. Mike Coffman and state Sen. Laura Waters Woods have missed their exit on Trump before…will they take this final off-ramp?

 

► Colorado House Democrats continue to significantly outraise their Republican counterparts, according to the latest campaign finance reports. 

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, is trying to convince reporters that Trump is not actually a “birther” who questions whether President Obama was really born in the United States. Unfortunately for Conway, there is a mountain of evidence suggesting otherwise, and Trump has never shown even a hint of interest in walking this back. From the Washington Post:

There’s just one problem with Conway’s case.  The candidate has never given any indication that he is convinced that Obama was born in the U.S..

“I don’t talk about it because if I talk about that, your whole thing will be about that,” Trump told reporters earlier this week when asked whether he believed Obama was born in this country. “So I don’t talk about it.” That’s a very similar argument to the one Trump made to CNN’s Brian Stelter in July. While acknowledging he would “love to” talk about birtherism, Trump added: “If I do talk about it, then what happens, is, that takes up — then we’re not talking about the horrible economy.”

Despite the best efforts of Conway and Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani, who has also insisted Trump knows Obama was born in the U.S., there is simply no evidence to back up that claim. In fact, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Trump still holds that view but has, for political reasons, just stopped talking about it.  As WaPo’s Trump reporter Jenna Johnson noted: “Trump has never apologized, recanted his charges or even admitted error.”

Nice try, though.

 

► The re-election campaign of Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) is using a small radio buy to attack Democratic opponent Morgan Carroll because she works as an attorney…

…Really, that’s it. That’s the entire attack.

 

► Some Republicans are questioning whether transgender Americans have a place in today’s GOP. We’re not sure why this is really a question.

 

► Democrat Tom Sullivan is making a strong late surge in his bid for a seat in SD-27. In the most recent fundraising period, Sullivan tripled the contributions of Republican incumbent Sen. Jack Tate, which has the GOP concerned about holding onto this Aurora-area seat.

 

► Sunday marks the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. If you’re interested in remembering 9/11 by listening to the unhinged rants of a fervent anti-Muslim racist nut job, then Colorado Christian University has the perfect program for you.

 

► Colorado Republicans who are still holding out hope that Darryl Glenn won’t get trounced by Sen. Michael Bennet are stumbling around muttering “Iran.”

 

► Congressman Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) is hoping to hold on to his seat by painting Democratic opponent Gail Schwartz as an “enemy of coal.” As Charles Ashby writes for the Grand Junction Daily SentinelTipton’s attack is more than a little sloppy:

Problem is, that bill, SB252, wasn’t about coal, at least not directly.

The bill doubled the state’s renewable energy standard for rural electric associations, meaning they had to generate at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. For-profit utilities in the state have a 30 percent standard.

While Tipton said Schwartz had “turned her back” on her constituents, neither he nor his new advertisement mentions that, at the time, the board of directors of the Delta-Montrose Electric Association, which was impacted by the measure, passed a resolution in support of it as long as the bill allowed smaller REAs to generate energy from local sources, which is does.

Since then, Delta-Montrose has made strides in increasing the amount of power it generates from renewable energy, creating jobs in the process, Schwartz said.

Schwartz said Tipton also fails to mention that one of the Delta County coal mines shut down because of a devastating fire, while the other succumbed to international market forces.

 

Sorry, Republicans, but the Hillary Clinton email story isn’t the whopper you might have hoped for. 

 

► The Colorado Independent takes a look at why two anti-fracking measures failed to qualify for the ballot in 2016.

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► There are new pictures floating around featuring Bill Clinton and Donald Trump — GASP! — posing for photos with women. Must be a slow news day.

 

► Anne Holton, the wife of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine, was in Denver on Thursday to talk about education issues.

ICYMI

► Applications for concealed carry permits are nearing a record high in Colorado. According to one gun store owner, this is partially because there are people squatting in your backyard. From KOAA in Colorado Springs:

“They came in and said ‘my neighbor’s house got broken into or this vagrant threatened me, or I came home and found all of these people living in my backyard,’ it’s just story after story,” Paul Paradis, owner of Paradise Sales said.

Paradis says one out of every five handgun sales he’s made this year was for that exact reason.

Uhh…okay. Enjoy your weekend — and don’t try to live in your neighbor’s backyard.

 

Don’t forget to check out the Get More Smarter Show. You can also Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook

Comments

One thought on “Get More Smarter on Friday (September 9)

  1. DMEA is arguably the most progressive rural electric in the United States; they were the first REA to endorse "25x'25". But not for them refusing to sign an extension to their all-requirements contract with Tri-State, the billion-dollar boondoggle Holcomb coal plant in Kansas may have gotten legs. They are also responsible for the recent FERC ruling forcing G&T's like Tri-State to accommodate local, clean energy projects. Tipton is on the wrong side of this argument. 

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