November 15, 2016 12:47 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (November 15)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Enjoy the sun, folks; actual winter might be just around the corner. 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…

► President-elect Donald Trump is having a bit of trouble finding qualified people to work in his new administration. As the Washington Post reports, politicos are avoiding a Trump White House like it was the last piece of Halloween Candy:

President-elect Donald Trump prepared on Tuesday to meet with incoming Vice President Mike Pence to discuss Cabinet selections amid continued uncertainty over who will fill key positions and growing acrimony between Trump advisers and some key Republicans…

…Former congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), a widely respected voice on national security, announced that he is leaving his position as a senior national security adviser to Trump’s transition team. Bloomberg Politics, citing people familiar with the matter, said Rogers was asked to leave by senior transition team members.

It was unclear why, and Rogers could not immediately be reached for comment.

Eliot Cohen, a leading voice of opposition to Trump among former national security officials during the campaign, blasted Trump’s transition team in a tweet on Tuesday.

“After exchange w Trump transition team, changed my recommendation: stay away. They’re angry, arrogant, screaming “you LOST!” Will be ugly,’’ tweeted Cohen, who served from 2007 to 2009 as counselor to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He was a driving force behind an open letter last spring — eventually signed by 122 Republican national security leaders — who opposed Trump’s candidacy.

The Post also reports that former Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson will not be a part of a Trump administration after all. You know things are really going off the rails when Ben Freakin’ Carson doesn’t want a job.

► Congressman Mike Coffman and his wife, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, seem to think that the 2016 election and the rise of Donald Trump is pretty hilarious. The joke’s on you.

► One of Colorado’s representatives to the Electoral College is encouraging Republicans to refuse to support Donald Trump for President. #NeverTrump to the bitter end, baby!

For those of you who aren’t fans of Trump, don’t get too excited — this isn’t likely to work.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The new House Minority Leader is a familiar name in Colorado politics — with a familiar right-wing refrain.

► Here’s another update on ballot return numbers from the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. Election results will be certified on December 8.

► As Marianne Goodland reports for the Colorado Independent, there are still two Colorado races that have yet to be determined because of tight vote margins.

► Colorado experts are advising people not to bail on Obamacare, despite the election of Donald Trump.

► If you didn’t get the memo, 2016 was a “change election.” As Chris Cillizza writes for “The Fix”:

That desire for radical change at any cost is illustrated in the exit poll when voters were asked which character trait of the candidates mattered most to them.  Almost 40 percent chose “can bring needed change” — double the amount who chose the next most popular option (“has the right experience” — 21 percent.) Among the group who put a premium on change, Trump won 83 percent to 14 percent(!).

That’s the election right there.  People wanted a change so desperately that they were willing to ignore — or focus less on — all of the problems they had with Trump. He was new and had never done this whole politics things before. Clinton was the dictionary definition of the establishment.  That was it…

…This election is a reminder — yet again — that I (and most of us in the political world) have a tendency to overthink how voters make up their minds.  They hated the status quo. They wanted something else. Trump was the something else. Lesson learned. Onward.

► A Denver measure to allow limited public social marijuana use appears to have passed as final ballots are tallied.

► The EPA provides an update on cleanup efforts from the 2014 Gold King Mine spill near Silverton.

► Congressional Democrats are delaying leadership elections amid concerns about the direction charted forward by longtime Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi. Democrats will wait to vote on leadership choices until November 30.

► On the Republican side of leadership elections, it appears that Paul Ryan will get another term as House Speaker.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► White power in the White House.

► Denver sucks at recycling, apparently.

ICYMI

► Like many Americans, President Obama is struggling with the idea of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States.

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