19 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Mike Pence is an embarrassment. During his interview on CBS this morning, it appeared he saw a different debate than the rest of us. He has no shame.That must be why Trump picked him.

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2. Ford has a message to Donald Trump: We're not going anywhere.

   "Ford has been in the United States for more than 100 years. Our home is here. We will be here forever," said spokeswoman Christine Baker. 

   The company has 85,000 U.S. employees, up 28,000, or nearly 50%, in just the last five years. It has 8,800 employees at Mexican plants, and will add 2,800 jobs there when the new $1.6 billion plant opens there in 2018.

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3. They're gonna wear out that Etch-a-Sketch.

   In the immediate aftermath of Monday's presidential debate, Donald Trump had nothing but praise for moderator Lester Holt.

   "I thought Lester did a great job," the Republican nominee told CNN, adding that he thought the evening's questions were fair.

   By the time he appeared on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning, however, Trump had changed his mind: "I'd give him a C, C+. I thought he was fine. Nothing outstanding. I thought he gave me very unfair questions at the end — the last three, four questions."

   Among Trump's other complaints: His microphone was too low and wasn't working properly. On TV, anyway, there were no audio problems.

   It is not hard to figure out what is going on here. Trump, whose default mode is "winning," felt good right after the debate and therefore had no gripes. Then he found out he lost in the eyes of most viewers — andseemingly, members of Congress, too. Now he needs to put the blame somewhere. Continuing a familiar pattern, he picked a member of the media and a piece of equipment. (Remember when he blamed his refusal to disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan on a bad earpiece?)

   Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, also said right after the debate that "Lester Holt did a great job as the moderator." But other surrogates seemed to sense more quickly that their candidate fared poorly, and were swift to bash Holt.

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/27/donald-trump-has-already-flip-flopped-on-lester-holts-debate-performance

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4. Snapshots of undecideds:

   Republican pollster Frank Luntz conducted a focus group of undecided voters in Pennsylvania. Sixteen said Hillary Clinton won. Five picked Trump, per CBS News.

   

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   In a Florida focus group organized by CNN, 18 of 20 undecided voters picked Clinton as the winner.

   Not one of 29 undecided voters in an Ohio focus group organized by Park Street Strategies thought Trump prevailed, while 11 picked Clinton and the rest said neither. By a two-to-one margin, the group thought Clinton had the better tone and, by a three-to-one margin, they thought she came across as more knowledgeable candidate on the issues.

   A CNN/ORC flash poll found that 62 percent said the Democrat won, compared to 27 percent who picked Trump. That’s on par with 2012, when Mitt Romney was seen as the winner of the first debate.

   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/09/27/daily-202-why-even-republicans-think-clinton-won-the-first-debate/57e9b033e9b69b3019a1e037/

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5. Nate Silver sees the debate as mostly good news for HRC, kind of cautiously optimistic for potentially giving her a few points and also cautions:

   As a warning, you should give the debate five to seven days to be fully reflected in FiveThirtyEight’s forecasts. It will take a couple of days before reliable, post-debate polls are released, and then another couple of days before the model recognizes them to be part of a trend instead of potential outliers. Also, check the dates carefully on polls released over the next few days to make sure they were conducted after the debate. Although pollstersreleased dozens and dozens of polls over the weekend in anticipation of the debate, there are probably a few pre-debate stragglers that will slip through.

    

    

   http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/clinton-won-the-debate-which-means-shes-likely-to-gain-in-the-polls/

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6. Clinton won the Debate.

   Trump won the election.

   Or, as Michael Moore put it:

   Michael MooreVerified account‏@MMFlint

   It's over. Trump, the egoist, the racist, the narcissist, the liar, "won." We all lost. His numbers will go up. She told the truth. So what.

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   1. Sounds like Mexico won:

      Mexican peso gives clearest market signal that Donald Trump lost debate

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   2. As a political analyst, Michael Moore makes a fine movie producer. My recollection of his comments in 2012 and what I've seen this year consistently forecast doom and gloom for Democrats.

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      1. Righties think we libs all hang on Moore's every word. It's like the way TV ads targeting teens use ancient (more than a couple of years old) slang they think is still "hep".

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7. Trump = Mr. Seething Machine.

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8. Liked today's quote.  Glad that Pols has stopped with the Limbaugh quotes.  The things is you can't argue with people who will never change their minds.  Kind of like posting political items on Facebook.  You don't change anyone's position and piss off everyone in the process.

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9. 

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10. HRC  is following up on a good debate very nicely today with a strong appearance at a N. Carolina community college. Telling personal stories about her hard working mom (her mom's back story is absolutely Dickensian) and dad, delivering appealing messages. The chalk on backboard voice and stiff manner are completely gone. She's coming off warm, comfortable in her own skin, funny, caring, very smart and very prepared.  She was pushing voter registration, both if you haven't already and to check to make sure  you aren't going to have a problem with your registration if you have.

    Energized, supportive enthusiastic largely young crowd was cheering her on as she reminded them of how their governor and legislature have hurt the state with their anti-LGBT and other legislation, how they've pushed through measures to make it harder for minorities, seniors and young people like the millennials in the crowd to vote. Explained that that's why it's so important to vote and vote for a Dem state legislature as well as voting for her and for Dem congressional candidates.

    Best I've ever seen her addressing a crowd and especially targeting student/voters. Seems like she's keeping Trump on defense the day after while building on her debate victory. And since there were several subjects hardly touched on in the first debate, she will have the opportunity to score more hits in the next ones.

    She still has Trump's many remarks fawning all over Putin, among other things, to hit him with next time. He has hits left too but there's no question who's better prepared to get past them and move on in the desired direction instead of getting bogged down responding to every dig as thin skinned Trump does. And he's been so generous in providing plenty of video of himself saying things he now claims he never said.

    Good time for her to start handling and presenting herself so well to the average voter who tunes in late. Bad time for Trump to start looking weak. And how nice for HRC that so many people are watching the debates because of Trump's celebrity so she can get more miles out of a good performance now than ever before in this election cycle.

    Trump's been looking whiny and petulant all day. She's been looking like a winner. And she doesn't need to gain all that much. She just needs to go from too close to a few points in the right direction.

    I think she's going to get it done.

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    1. Hey, it's Trump/Putin in 2016 !!

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       1. Pence might want to gt himself a loyal food taster if Putin wants to make that happen. One who doesn't mind dying a slow horrible death for the the Trump cause.

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11. Between his whining sessions today would someone read this to Drumpf and remind him it's authored by two Republicans? 

    Why Obama Is Right on Clean Energy

    As former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency who served three Republican presidents, we strongly support the president’s Clean Power Plan. It is consistent with the fundamental, longstanding approach this country has applied in the face of environmental threats. We have filed a supporting brief with the court.

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12. Remember back a couple of years when members of our CO delegation were hell-bent on defunding the food assistance program in the re-authorization of the Farm Bill? Well, what do you know, the economy has improved, people found jobs and have ceased needing assistance.  To the tune of 4.4 million people.  #thanksobama 

    Keep in mind, the very same people willing to gut this food safety net for the least amongst us think this is a good idea.  

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13. Another rightie paper breaks over a hundred years of precedent….

    For the first time in its 126-year history, The Arizona Republic has endorsed a Democratic candidate for president.

    The paper's editorial board said Hillary Clinton is "the only choice to move America ahead."

    "Since The Arizona Republic began publication in 1890, we have never endorsed a Democrat over a Republican for president. Never. This reflects a deep philosophical appreciation for conservative ideals and Republican principles," the paper's editorial board wrote. "This year is different."

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/2016-elections#ixzz4LWXNZxVm 
     

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14. During a story about Emmet Till, a young black who was murdered in the mid-fifties, a film maker said something that caught my ear. He said…."the truth is fundamental to justice..you cannot have justice without truth."

    While obvious, it is still profound….

    When will we re-insert this fundamental principle into our politics? We have certainly abandoned being truthful as a bottom line for acceptance of any leader, whether in public office or private industry. We seem to no longer seek a standard of "what is right and truthful?" and have moved to an acceptance of " "whatever we have to say to win". 

    Telling a lie no longer seems to carry much of a price….George Washington would be appalled….

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