Sunday Open Thread [8.7.16]
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–Washington Post/ABC News–Clinton 50, Trump 42
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–Morning Consult–Clinton 46, Trump 37
MICHIGAN–PRESIDENT–WXYZ-TV/Detroit Free Press–Clinton 46, Trump 36
Post/ABC poll: Among college-educated whites – which Obama lost by 14 and Dems have never won since exit polls began – Clinton leads by 6
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 7, 2016
“Clinton winning 92% support among self-identified Democrats. That compares with 86% support just before the Republican convention and is an indication that the Democratic convention helped consolidate supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders behind her candidacy… In contrast, Trump is winning 83% of self-identified Republicans, nearly identical to the 82% support he had among Republicans before his convention in Cleveland.”
Clinton+8 in new ABC/Post poll, 50-42. Kind of interesting: voters prefer experience over an outsider, 58-39 https://t.co/2T3rNWhnS8
— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) August 7, 2016
Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) says he plans to vote for the Libertarian Party’s presidential ticket, becoming the first member of Congress to express support for Gary Johnson’s third-party campaign, the New York Times reports.
Said Rigell: “I’ve always said I will not vote for Donald Trump and I will not vote for Hillary Clinton. I’m going to vote for the Libertarian candidate.”
“After a disastrous week of feuds and plummeting poll numbers, Republican leaders have concluded that Donald Trump is a threat to the party’s fortunes and have begun discussing how soon their endangered candidates should explicitly distance themselves from the presidential nominee,” the New York Times reports.
“For Republicans in close races, top strategists say, the issue is no longer in doubt. One House Republican has already started airing an ad vowing to stand up to Mr. Trump if he is elected president, and others are expected to press similar themes in the weeks ahead.”
“In the world of Republican ‘super PACs,’ strategists are going even farther: discussing advertisements that would treat Mr. Trump’s defeat as a given and urge voters to send Republicans to Congress as a check on a Hillary Clinton White House.”
Trump crowd boos and chants "USA" in response to protesters holding up pocket sized Constitutions: https://t.co/L1hCrnMbKa
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) August 6, 2016
“The chairman of the American Nazi Party, Rocky Suhayda, declared on his radio program last month that a Donald Trump victory would present a great opportunity for white nationalists to build pro-white coalitions.,” BuzzFeed reports.
Said Suhayda: “I’m gonna project, that I believe that Trump is going to win the election this November… I think it’s gonna surprise the enemy, because, I think that they feel that the white working class, especially the male portion of the working class, and with him his female counterparts have basically thrown in the towel. Given up hope of any politician again standing up for their interests.”
At Jarry metro today with @JustinTrudeau – a broken escalator makes it hard for some to get to their metro #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/J0OSXbpTZb
— Adam Scotti (@AdamScotti) April 16, 2014
Jonathan Bernstein on why party defections matter: “In a normal election when both parties are united behind their nominee, voters will hear one message for months: that people like themselves, including the politicians they like, are supporting one candidate, while people they normally dislike or disagree with are backing the other one. Whether voters consider themselves partisans or not, that message pushes them in the ‘correct’ direction — to the candidate of the party they normally support.”
“Conventions are especially powerful in sending such signals because they dominate the news for a few days at least, drowning out the voices of the opposing party. Even after the convention, that message can be strong — if the party is united, that is. The muddier things are, however, the less likely voters will be pushed in the ‘correct’ direction.”
“This is probably a big part of what has given Clinton a solid lead in the polls right now. The Democrats are united and sound united, while Republicans clearly are not.”
Eugene Robinson at The Washington Post explains how Donald Trump will leave “a lasting stain” on the Republican Party:
To Republicans who hope to emerge from the Donald Trump fiasco with any shred of political viability or self-respect, I offer some unsolicited advice: Run, do not walk, to the nearest exit. […] You’re taking a position that is indefensible on both philosophical and real-world grounds: begging Trump to pretend to be sane and competent until Election Day. […]
Republicans, you are aiding and abetting a latter-day Juan Perón in his quest for power. You know that he believes in no coherent policy agenda beyond his own self-proclaimed greatness. You see how unhinged he becomes when anyone challenges him. You know what a grave risk it would be to have a man like that in the Oval Office.
“In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” — Former CIA Director Michael Morell, writing in the New York Times.
Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast provides a broader view:
[E]ven with Clinton’s convention bounce and Khan bounce, this thing is still closer than it should be, reflecting the reality that one-third of America thinks she belongs behind bars and a significant portion of the middle third kinda-sorta agrees (the third third, of course, is in Clinton’s corner). And there isn’t much Clinton can do to change that unless she rescues a falling baby or something. In addition, Clinton hatred will really rev up by October, and I assume that the TV ads from the anti-Clinton PACs will be numerous and brutal. […]
We like to think campaigns are battles of ideas, and they usually are to a surprising extent. This one isn’t that, since one candidate doesn’t actually have any ideas. He has grudges and resentments and a constant need to be seen as dominating. The ways to beat that candidate are 1) to feed his grudges in the hope that he’ll say something offensive, and 2) just prevent him from dominating. Clinton may never shake completely loose of Trump, but if her team is on the ball, they can try to make sure he never gets up a head of steam.
Charles Krauthammer: “Of course we all try to protect our own dignity and command respect. But Trump’s hypersensitivity and unedited, untempered Pavlovian responses are, shall we say, unusual in both ferocity and predictability.”
“This is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value — indeed exists — only insofar as it sustains and inflates him.”
“Most politicians seek approval. But Trump lives for the adoration. He doesn’t even try to hide it, boasting incessantly about his crowds, his standing ovations, his TV ratings, his poll numbers, his primary victories. The latter are most prized because they offer empirical evidence of how loved and admired he is.”
Take a brief dip into the Breitbart universe pic.twitter.com/hwuBDaY2QM
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) August 6, 2016
Lt Gen Mike Flynn and Rick Scott on MTP this morning. Another example of the liberal media trying to trick people into thinking that it isn’t liberal by carrying out water for Trump
Viewing Trumps behavior these past days it would appear if anyone is unstable it’s him
Everyone see the News Journal’s article on the ongoing saga of the ME’s office?
Ugh, not good.
@jason: More like carrying the chamber pot.
@DD: The dip into Breitbart is more like an acid bath.
The collapse of the conservative movement’s propaganda wing continues apace:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/ailes-used-fox-budget-to-finance-campaigns-against-enemies.html
Doctors don’t like insurance companies:
US Doctors Call for Universal Healthcare: “Abolish the Insurance Companies”
http://www.occupy.com/article/us-doctors-call-universal-healthcare-abolish-insurance-companies
A group of more than 2,000 physicians is calling for the establishment of a universal government-run health system in the US, in a paper in the American Journal of Public Health.
According to the proposal released Thursday, the Affordable Care Act did not go far enough in removing barriers to healthcare access. The physicians’ bold plan calls for implementing a single-payer system similar to Canada’s, called the National Health Program, that would guarantee all residents healthcare.
The new single-payer system would be funded mostly by existing US government funding. The physicians point out that the US government already pays for two-thirds of all healthcare spending in the US, and a single-payer system would cut down on administrative costs, so a transition to a single-payer system would not require significant additional spending.
“Our patients can’t afford care and don’t have access to the care they need, while the system is ever more wasteful, throwing away money on bureaucratic expenses and absurd prices from the drug companies,” said David Himmelstein, a professor in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College and lecturer on medicine at Harvard Medical School.
This is a great DKos thread: Three Words That I Wish I’d Never Hear Democrats Say Again
Pretty thought provoking discussion of what is motivating some working class white voters to support Trump.
@ Jim C: That is unbelievable! Considering there is some 916,264 (2014) Doctors in the USA. 0.22%
The current situation is ridiculous. Rates just keep going higher and higher. Look at the VA, that is doing just great. Let the insurance companies cross state lines, costs will go down!
So we now know that Trump is nothing but a Putin DUPE
Have missed you, TT!
When a doc does surgery, it should be up to him to go after the insurance company and not the patient.
^ why should the doctors? In addition to giving at LEAST 12 years of their life to learning medicine, they should also be savvy in health insurance hoops?
No way.
There should be no health insurance companies at all. All they do is drive up the cost of care so they have more to skim off the top, while doing nothing other than getting paid for someone else’s (the doctors) work.
Doctors should be fairly and well compensated by the public, and in turn, the public gets whatever medical care they need whenever they need it.
“Doctors should be fairly and well compensated by the public, and in turn, the public gets whatever medical care they need whenever they need it.”
You are going in the right direction, except that physician pay is only part of medical expense. I know in public debate we often say “doctor pay” when we really mean “medical costs” – I’ve done it myself – but that’s not the whole picture.
I realize it broader than just the check the physician gets…. but too often people blame medical bills on “greedy doctors”….. as if investing an ass-load of money, taking on mountains of debt (costs of med school are no-doubt a contributor to medical costs) all to become a person who treats illness and saves lives makes you a greedy person. But sure, the public should also fund nurses (who done make enough) orderlies, x-ray techs, as well as the people who research and build all the equipment.