May 10, 2016

Hillary Clinton Continues To Dominate Electoral College Presidential Predictions

May 10, 2016/ Anne Enke

Hillary Clinton Has Edge Over Donald Trump in General Election NPR

NPR is joining the 2016 presidential election club of electoral college analysis, issuing the first monthly update based on fundamentals — historical trends and demographics, plus reporting and polling (both public and private).

As every set of presidential analytics argues, (FiveThirtyEight, Cook Report as examples), Hillary wins. NPR promises to explore the data from questioning angles, writing:

"But there is also the potential that this fall's presidential battlegrounds could be re-sorted — pitting white, working-class voters, whom Trump is appealing to, against Latino voters, who appear to be in Clinton's corner. Traditional ways of thinking about the map should and will be challenged. So in addition to our current ratings, we also explore several possibilities and scenarios, including Trump's potential path and even two potential ties, based on Trump doing well in the Upper Midwest and Clinton racking up wins in competitive states where the Latino vote is important."

Donald Trump Wrong That Hillary Clinton Doesn't Do Very Well With Women PolitiFact

PolitiFact gives Donald Trump a "pants on fire" rating for his assertion that Hillary Clinton doesn't do well with women in polls. The man is lyin' Donnie, a man who actually does have small hands.

During a May 2 interview on CNN’s New Day, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doubled down on his charge that his potential Democratic rival in November, Hillary Clinton, is playing the "woman card."

"She's playing the woman card," Trump told host Chris Cuomo. "And if she didn't play the woman card, she would have no chance whatsoever of winning."

Trump went on to say that Clinton’s standing among female voters in particular is nothing to write home about.

"Frankly, (Hillary Clinton) doesn’t do very well with women," Trump said. "If you look at what happened recently, … in the last two weeks, including New York. I won with women by vast, vast majorities. I was way, way up with women far above anybody else in the exit polls of the recent election."

RealClearPolitics.com in April reviewed seven polls with Clinton/Trump head-to-head matchups. Clinton won them all, with an average of +19. Her weakest win was the Rasmussen poll -- a notoriously Republican-leaning poll -- in which HIllary bested Trump by 6 points.

Getting Bashed By Berners

'I've been silent': Harvard's Clinton backers face life on a pro-Bernie campus The Guardian

As a member of the Harvard for Hillary group, Janet Ho canvassed for Clinton during the Massachusetts primary. Ho, a 19-year-old freshman, is an open advocate for the former secretary of state, but admitted that being a Clinton supporter can be difficult.

“Do I feel more challenged by Bernie supporters? Yeah. Do I feel more challenged in general? Yes, I do,” she said. Ho said she felt she had to “justify” her backing for Clinton to Sanders fans.

“They see the Hillary supporter as someone who doesn’t really want as much equality as they do.

“Like: ‘What do you mean why don’t you want free tuition for everyone? It’s not fair. Why don’t you want equal pay for everyone? Why don’t you want to tax the rich? What’s wrong with you?’ Like: you’re evil.”

Bernie's Narcissicism Complicates Democratic Race

Bernie Sanders Makes Things Ackward for Hillary Clinton's DNC Takeover MSNBC

Bernie Sanders, enjoys another moment in the limelight, speaking to campaign volunteers in Bowling Green, Ky. There are procedures in how things work at this point in the nomination process, but Bernie will have none of it. He insists that he will take a floor fight to the convention, disregarding the damage to all Democrats in November, and not only his foe -- the woman he loves to hate -- Hillary Clinton.

The California primary is the end of it, say Democratic insiders.

"So the DNC and the Clinton campaign will have to execute the merger earlier, with one candidate still in the race and potentially over his fierce objections. But the clock is ticking on the general election, and Democrats are eyeing the day after the California primary as a likely time to end this.

Typically, party nominees move quickly to lead the national parties, which essentially become arms of the campaign.

“In 2000, when I was chair, after [Al] Gore beat [Bill] Bradley in Iowa and New Hampshire, Bradley essentially withdrew. A week later, someone arrived at DNC headquarters and said, ‘Hi, we’re taking over,’” said former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who ran the DNC during the final years of Bill Clinton’s administration. “They really take over. And you know, as DNC chair, that you are now working for the campaign.”

Party chairs usually stay on – and there’s no sign Clinton wants to replace Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz – but now the campaign calls the shots."

As I keep saying, Bernie Sanders wants to destroy Hillary Clinton. Let's be clear-eyed about this. She is his public enemy #1. In the privacy of the voting booth, I believe there's a strong chance he will vote for Trump.

As his chief surrogate Susan Sarandon said to Chris Hayes, voting for Trump will hasten their revolution. Present generations can suffer, so future ones will thrive.

Hillary Clinton Headlines May 9, 2016

Did Donald Trump Just Hand the Senate to Elizabeth Warren? Politico

Trump's empty administration Politico

Sorry, Bernie fans. His health care is short $17,000,000,000 Washington Post

Hillary Clinton, the 'nasty, mean enabler'? The claim is ludicrous by Jill Abramson The Guardian

Trump's empty administration Politico

Think America's terrified of Donald Trump? Check out how the rest of the world's reacting VOX

Clinton explains 'loose cannon' attack on Trump Politico

Clinton calls on media to step up scrutiny of Trump CNN

April 01, 2016

A Second Projected Hillary Clinton Vs Donald Trump Electoral College Wipeout

April 01, 2016/ Anne Enke

The Electoral College: The Only Thing That Matters Center for Politics

Last week FiveThirtyEight issued a prospective Clinton-Trump presidential election electoral college map that was a blowout for Hillary. Today The University of Virginia Center for Politics revised their May 2015 electoral college projections with a new map today. It doesn't look very different from Nate Silver's.

Today's March 2016 map had Democrats: 347; Republicans: 191; Toss-ups 0

The May 2015 map had Democrats: 247; Republicans: 206: Toss-ups: 85

Chuck Todd is the latest MSNBC host to turn against 'cranky' Bernie Sanders Daily News Bin

MSNBC has been a media machine for the Bernie Sanders campaign. I don't watch Morning Joe anymore, because I just can't deal with the Hillary hate. Being a politics junkie, I do watch the evening shows, as I channel surf. Rachel was put in a state of high embarassment by top Sanders strategist Tad Devine, promising upsets that never happened. Ever hopeful for Bernie, Maddow suspended what used to be a more rational and solidly objective presence at her desk, and bought into the coming "surprise". Her scoop actually had her losing a lot of credibility with Clinton supporters.

Clearly annoyed by Tad Devine's claim that Sanders has won states where he competed and lost states where he didn't, Rachel tore the claim apart on-air, walking through the numbers to demonstrate that the Bernie Sanders campaign invested more time and resources than Hillary Clinton in states like Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Virginia -- states where Clinton was victorious.

Last night Maddow spoke of what she believed was a "substantive difference" between Hillary Clinton, who considers women's rights to be a key issue in the campaign and Bernie Sanders, who appears to consider women's rights as secondary to his Wall Street and income-inequality platform. Bernie's rather dismissive attitude about the priority of Trump's comments about punishing women who would get illegal abortions caused quite major concerns among Democratic women.

Chuck Todd -- no friend to feminism -- suggested that "Sanders is getting cranky" whenever he's asked process questions. Then Todd and Maddow continued.

“Are his campaign and him on the same page?” Todd asked. “This happens a lot. Campaign says one thing, Rachel or myself or someone else presents it to Sanders, and he throws his aides under the bus. It’s just a pattern I’ve noticed with Sanders.” Maddow then suggested that the Sanders campaign message at this point is “I may not win with the people, but maybe I can get the superdelegates.”

Hillary Clinton Uses Trump's Abortion Comments to Hit Sanders CNN

Commentary from Anne's HillaryWomen News page on Facebook

We're evaluating and talking to others about Bernie's comments about abortion and reproductive rights being a less serious issue -- even a distration -- from important topics like income inequaity. Rachel Maddow, one of Bernie's biggest supporters, was quite taken aback last night. As women, we know that controlling fertility is considered to be a higher impact factor on income inequality than minimum wage or bad trade deals.

Sometimes Bernie Sanders reminds us of the doctors who develop drugs and only test them on men, so as to avoid the 'variable' of testing them on women. The impact on women can be very negative.

There is a reason why the 'establishment' endorsed HIllary and not Bernie. It's over comments like these:

Quote: "Clinton, speaking at State University of New York at Purchase, said she knows the Vermont senator "supports a woman's right to choose." But she also questioned his approach to the controversy.

"I want you to hear this because last night, Senator Sanders agreed that Donald Trump's comments were shameful, but then he said they were a distraction from, and I quote, 'A serious discussion about the serious issues facing America,'" Clinton said to boos from the crowd. "To me, this is a serious issue and it is a very serious discussion. I know Senator Sanders supports a woman's right to choose and I also know that Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL endorsed me because I led on this issue."' (End quote)

The endorsements came for Hillary because Bernie failed to repeal the Hyde amendment in all nine versions of his health care plan, unintentionally eliminating not only all coverage for abortion, but morning after pills, IUDs and other forms of contraception. HIllary has called for the repeal of Hyde for a decade.

Search for info on Bernie Sanders positions on 'personhood legislation', and you will be lead to articles on corporations. Search Hillary and you will be taken on Google page 1 articles about Republican legislation wanting to equate the civil rights of women with those of a fertilized egg.

Quote: "Hillary Clinton derided “personhood” legislation as efforts to “outlaw common forms of birth control and ban abortions even in cases of rape or incest.” “Clinton also hit hard on raising the minimum wage, saying it’s a ‘pro-family’ issue — and offered a full-throated defense of legal abortion. ‘Women’s rights are the canary in the mine. If you don’t protect women’s rights here at home and around the world, everybody’s rights are lost,’ she said. ‘You have to ask yourself, do you want a senator who will always defend a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions and won’t ever shame or judge a woman for decisions that are complex and deeply personal, or do you want a senator who will push so-called ‘personhood’ laws that would outlaw common forms of birth control and ban abortions even in cases of rape or incest?’” [The Hill, 10/25/14]