Open Thread for Friday, September 30, 2016

PRESIDENT
NATIONAL——PPP——CLINTON 49, Trump 45
COLORADO——PPP——CLINTON 46, Trump 40
FLORIDA——PPP——CLINTON 45, Trump 43
FLORIDA——Mason Dixon——CLINTON 46, Trump 42
MICHIGAN——Detroit News——CLINTON 42, Trump 35
NEW HAMPSHIRE——WBUR——CLINTON 42, Trump 35
NORTH CAROLINA——PPP——CLINTON 44, Trump 42
PENNSYLVANIA——PPP——CLINTON 45, Trump 39
VIRGINIA——PPP——CLINTON 46, Trump 40
SOUTH CAROLINA——Winthrop——TRUMP 42, Clinton 38
CALIFORNIA——SurveyUSA——CLINTON 59, Trump 33

Steven Shepard at Politico explains Trump’s terrible week:

For many insiders, Clinton’s good week was driven more by Trump’s demeanor and behavior in the days after the debate — which included re-litigating his 19-year-old comments about the then-Miss Universe’s weight gain —as what happened on the stage at Hofstra University. […]

“The debate helped to stop the hemorrhaging in the Clinton campaign’s messaging and management when Trump went off-script and went back to the Trump of the primary debates,” said a Wisconsin Republican. “Clinton should send him a thank-you note.” […]

“Any inroads Trump had made with suburban women is now gone after that debate,” said an Ohio Republican. “Also, I have to imagine the African-American community is getting more energized after his birther answer.”

At The Huffington Post, Christina Wilkie explains why Trump’s attacks on Clinton’s marriage will backfire:

As part of the couple’s divorce proceedings, Ivana Trump’s lawyers asked him under oath about his dealings with other women and whether he had been faithful to his wife.

Instead of answering, Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Over the course of five depositions that summer, he was asked approximately 100 questions related to marital infidelity. He pleaded the Fifth on 97 of them.

Politico n Paul Ryan’s precarious future: “Whether he goes that route or not, Ryan is likely in for a tumultous next few years. If Trump wins and Ryan retains the speakership, the Wisconsin Republican will be forced to continue to wedge his positions into Trump’s alternate Republican universe.”

“If Clinton wins, Ryan will have to preside over a slimmed Republican majority, more heavily populated with burn-the-house-down conservatives. He’ll have to cut deals and do business with Hillary Clinton — a woman he’s met with privately just twice — while at the same time keeping conservatives content.”

“It’s a governing scenario that people close to him are beginning to envision, according to multiple sources in his political orbit — and not a particularly pleasant one.”

“Donald Trump and his allies are refusing to let up on their attacks on former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, with Newt Gingrich shaming her for gaining weight during her reign and Corey Lewandowski suggesting she’s an attempted murderer,” Politico reports.

“The sustained assault has provided a wide opening for Hillary Clinton’s campaign to drive home the narrative that Trump is a misogynist and a horrible role model for voters’ children.”

The Washington Post says there is a pattern to Trump’s lies: “Donald Trump is the most unusual politician we’ve ever fact-checked, given the sheer volume of his misstatements, falsehoods and unreliable statistics. Trump is on track to earn more Four-Pinocchio ratings by himself than all other Republican politicians (or Democrats) combined in the past three years.”

“But there is a distinctive pattern to Trump’s biggest fibs. When challenged with irrefutable evidence that his statement is wrong, Trump will grasp at the flimsiest pieces of evidence to insist that he is right, even if the new evidence contradicts or undermines what he had originally claimed. But he will not back down or suggest he might have made even a minor error, creating an illusion for his supporters that his false claim is based on verifiable facts.”

Why Donald Trump will do even worse in the second debate https://t.co/4b9ElYK0Uo

— Anita Finlay (@AnitaFinlay) September 30, 2016

“Donald Trump’s charitable foundation — which has been sustained for years by donors outside the Trump family — has never obtained the certification that New York requires before charities can solicit money from the public, according to the state attorney general’s office,” the Washington Post reports.

“Under the laws in New York, where the Donald J. Trump Foundation is based, any charity that solicits more than $25,000 a year from the public must obtain a special kind of registration beforehand. Charities as large as Trump’s must also submit to a rigorous annual audit that asks — among other things — whether the charity spent any money for the personal benefit of its officers.”

FACT: by age 18, all women have mastered this expression in response to braving the many temper tantrums of misogynistic, domineering men. pic.twitter.com/iemLstHURi

— Anne T. Donahue (@annetdonahue) September 27, 2016

USA Today broke its 34-year history of never making an endorsement in the presidential race:

This year, the choice isn’t between two capable major party nominees who happen to have significant ideological differences. This year, one of the candidates — Republican nominee Donald Trump — is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency.

From the day he declared his candidacy 15 months ago through this week’s first presidential debate, Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he lacks the temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents.

R's write bad bill.
O criticizes.
R's pass bill.
O vetoes.
R's override.
R's blame O for not criticizing enough.https://t.co/58Calm7x8e

— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) September 30, 2016

Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board, has endorsed Hillary Clinton:

The end of the election is now in sight. Some among the anti-Hillary brigades have decided, in deference to their exquisite sensibilities, to stay at home on Election Day, rather than vote for Mrs. Clinton. But most Americans will soon make their choice. It will be either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton—experienced, forward-looking, indomitably determined and eminently sane. Her election alone is what stands between the American nation and the reign of the most unstable, proudly uninformed, psychologically unfit president ever to enter the White House.

Of all the ways to attack Hillary Clinton, the Trump campaign has chosen the one that helps her the most https://t.co/6Etq1Op2GB

— Steven Ginsberg (@stevenjay) September 30, 2016