Maybe you have noticed that the typical Trump event is Trump, alone, speaking at a lectern. Normally you would see a nominee standing side by side with local candidates, supporting them, and them wanting to be associated with him.
Here's the truth -- not only does Trump have negative coat tails in most parts of the country, the fact is that a lot of Republicans in office really don't want him to win. And whatever the public spin is about horrible crooked Hillary, the people who have worked with her -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- really like and respect her.
And now Clinton's speech outing Trump as an alt-right conduit has made him even more toxic. I said it yesterday, folks, this is the beginning of the end
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sheldon-whitehouse-republican-senators-secretly-support-clinton
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) claimed that his Republican Senate colleagues are more inclined towards Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump—whether or not they admit it in public. “From a Senate perspective, in a secret ballot, Hillary gets a lot of votes out of the Republican caucus. Potentially she even commands a majority of the Republican caucus in a secret ballot because people really do respect her”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/26/1564054/-Top-Republicans-dodge-questions-on-Trump-s-hate-movement
Top Republicans dodge questions on Trump's hate movement
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/08/republicans-agree-trump-racist-boor
The day after Hillary Clinton delivered a vicious indictment of Donald Trump, the Republican party's ostensible leader, on the same subject, Republican leaders haven't risen to his defense.
The Republican Party has tweeted repeatedly since Clinton's speech, praising the National Park Service, hitting Clinton on her Foundation and pledging to return to the Constitution. It offered no press release in defense of its nominee, issuing one only about Clinton having not held a press conference since last year.
MSNBC's Benjy Sarlin (who noticed the GOP's silence early) asked party spokesman Sean Spicer about the lack of a coordinated rebuttal to Clinton. "I don't know," Spicer said. "I think Congress is in recess."
More: http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/26/when-silence-is-the-story
When Silence is the Story
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/08/26/trump-is-getting-precious-little-support-from-republicans-it-could-be-fatal/?utm_source=rss_plum-line&utm_term=.f6b97941b49a
Donald Trump has always operated on the Great Man Theory of the presidency, which in his telling says that solving problems isn’t about institutions or parties or interests or complex systems, but about one top-notch guy making things happen through the force of his will. As he famously said during his convention speech: “I alone can fix it.” Well, now Donald Trump is truly alone. . . .
Heh
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/trump-only-liars-cry-racism-also-hillary-is-racist.html
Trump: Only Desperate Liars Call Their Opponent Racist. Also Hillary Is Racist.
Watch! http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/i-know-youre-bigot-but-what-am-i.html
Trumpy asks blacks, What do you have to lose? Here's what
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/26/1564094/-Clinton-ad-answers-Trump-s-question-to-black-voters-What-the-hell-do-you-have-to-lose
So last week was, according to Trump's people, a great week for him. Getting a new campaign team in place, reading a few teleprompter speeches that actually contained some policy ideas, and starting the tonal "pivot" that was supposed to make him palatable to the GOP mainstream.
OF COURSE that couldn't last, and now he has himself mired in a total meltdown over his signature issue, immigration. He was softening, no he was hardening, no he wasn't changing at all. He was moving away from his nativist hard line and embracing some of Obama's policies. No he wasn't. He favors a path toward legalization (maybe) . . . but not "amnesty." He won't deport everyone, but . . . he still might.
Now his position is a complete muddle, he seems to have pissed off everyone on all sides of the issue, and the one thing he had going for him -- Mr. Plain Talker, tell it like it is, has been taken from him and he's in the place he never wanted to be, mouthing platitudes that you KNOW he doesn't really believe. They should have stuck with "let Trump be Trump"
https://politicalwire.com/2016/08/26/trump-really-has-no-immigration-policy/
Trump Really Has No Immigration Policy
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/08/donald-trump-asks-hannity-audience-figure
Donald Trump Asks Hannity Audience To Figure Out His Immigration Policy For Him
More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/08/26/trumps-position-on-deportations-is-perfectly-clear-let-us-decode-it-for-you/?utm_source=rss_plum-line&utm_term=.4b27ce7085e4
Trump’s position on deportations is perfectly clear. Let us decode it for you.
Trump keeps promising a big immigration speech to lay out his policy clearly -- and keeps postponing it. Anyone want to guess why?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/08/25/another-unclear-trump-stance-will-he-give-an-immigration-speech/
What do immigrants want? It's simple
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/08/26/hey-donald-trump-it-turns-out-that-immigrants-really-just-want-to-work/
It is becoming clear that Kellyanne Conway is not really Trump's campaign manager. That would require giving her real control over messaging, scheduling, finances, and the ground game, and that's a full-time job. Instead, the Trump Whisperer has become a slightly smarter version of Katrina Pierson and Kayleigh McEnany, coming on television day after day to tell us what Trumpy really means, or would have meant, or might have meant, instead of what HE ACTUALLY SAID
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/08/kellyanne-conway-tells-rachel-it-doesnt
Kellyanne Conway Tells Rachel It Doesn't Matter If Trump's Proposals Are Unconstitutional
I type it, Josh posts the same thing: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/breaking-trump-has-no-campaign-manage
Kellyanne Conway now carries the label campaign manager. But that does not appear to be what she's doing. Campaign Manager's seldom make many press appearances. Frequently they're almost totally invisible to the public. In part that's because it's a different skill set. But the bigger issue is that being campaign manager requires a huge investment of time. You simply don't have time to do the job well making constant TV appearances - especially self-destructive, or at least campaign self-destructive appearances like Conway's appearance on Rachel Maddow's show. In effect, Conway appears to be functioning as some mix of national press secretary and chief surrogate. . . [read on]
Is he TRYING to self-destruct?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-s-razor-will-cut-you-up
Trump is hiring Bill Stepien, a central, directly implicated and almost immediately fired, figure in the Christie Bridgegate scandal as his national field director. Yes, that's happening. And yes, you're supposed to have a national field director before late August. And quite possibly, yes, this means the Trump field campaign will focus on engineering a crippling election day traffic jam in every black neighborhood in the country. . . .
More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-campaign-hires-bill-stepien-field-director
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/26/1564103/-Donald-Trump-fills-hole-in-his-campaign-with-Christie-aide-deeply-involved-in-Bridgegate
[NB: Here's what this tells me -- they couldn't find someone better. As with other hires, they're cobbling together available pieces, instead of really building a team of experienced party pros. Clearly a lot of people simply won't work with them.
Corey Lewandowski - OUT - after physically assaulting a reporter. Paul Manafort - OUT - after disclosures about his ties to Russia. Steve Bannon - already in trouble - for domestic abuse and improperly registering to vote. This ain't the A Team folks.]
Did I say "already in trouble"?
https://politicalwire.com/2016/08/26/trump-ceo-doesnt-like-whiny-brat-jews/
“Donald Trump’s campaign CEO Stephen Bannon was branded an anti-Semite by the same ex-wife who claimed he choked her, court documents reveal,” the New York Daily News reports. . . .
Trump: "The team with the best players wins"
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-25/trump-s-building-his-2016-campaign-team-again
For most of the past year, in fact, the Trump campaign team has been, at best, weakly organized and, at worst, chaotic. But that's not surprising: In his long, carnivalesque business career, Donald Trump has usually put his own interests front and center, and he's never been particularly good at managing sizable operations. . . .
This is the guy Trump wants to put in his Cabinet
http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/26/paul-lepage-and-donald-trumps-cabinet/
Gov. Paul LePage (ME)
Listen: http://crooksandliars.com/2016/08/paul-lepage-leaves-profanity-laced
And listen to this: http://crooksandliars.com/2016/08/paul-lepage-people-color-are-enemy
Trump won't disavow the supporter who says “Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/26/1564030/-Trump-not-sure-if-he-condones-supporter-s-wish-to-have-Hillary-Clinton-shot-for-treason
I agree. We really need to crack down on voter fraud!
https://politicalwire.com/2016/08/26/trump-manager-may-have-violated-election-law/
“Donald Trump’s new presidential campaign chief is registered to vote in a key swing state at an empty house where he does not live, in an apparent breach of election laws,” the Guardian reports.
More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steve-bannon-florida-voter-registration
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/26/election-fraud-steve-bannons-residency-issues-explained-by-breitbart-news-articles/
“ELECTION FRAUD”: Steve Bannon’s residency issues, explained by Breitbart News articles
This is no joke: they found the guy who wrote Trump's "health record"
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/08/nbc-news-tracked-down-trumps-doctor-and-it
More: https://politicalwire.com/2016/08/26/trump-doctor-wrote-letter-in-just-5-minutes/
“Donald Trump’s personal physician said he wrote a letter declaring Trump would be the healthiest president in history in just five minutes while a limo sent by the candidate waited outside his Manhattan office,” NBC News reports.
Trump embraces pure Roveanism, calls Clinton a "bigot." And it works
http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/26/trump-adopts-roves-strategy-media-buys-it
It
is interesting to watch Trump squirm and dive when Anderson Cooper
tried to tie him down on what that means. But there is a reason why
people like Rove and Trump employ this tactic: the media buys it. For
example, here are some of the headlines emanating from yesterday:
ABC: Clinton, Trump Tangle Over Racism
Washington Post: Clinton, Trump exchange racially charged accusations
CNN: Clinton says Trump leading ‘hate movement’; he calls her a ‘bigot’
Politico: Trump and Clinton throw more blows in bigotry fight
In
other words, projection isn’t just a psychological defense mechanism
anymore. It is a political strategy used to ensure that the media
reports it as a “he said/she said” that is the basis of bothsiderism. It
works. And the media can simply fall back on saying that they are
simply reporting the facts of what happened.
More: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/media-false-equivalence-over-racism-charges-helps-trump.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/08/26/who-is-the-real-racist-clinton-or-trump-this-doesnt-seem-like-a-fair-fight/?utm_source=rss_plum-line&utm_term=.eddb4725f482
More on how the media's fecklessness rewards bad behavior
http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/26/clinton-foundation-reporting-is-why-americans-still-hate-the-media
In
other words, there is no evidence from these emails to support claims
by Judicial Watch, a right-wing group, or Donald Trump that the Clinton
Foundation was rife with pay-for-play. Yet our media isn’t saying this.
Instead, it is playing up Clinton’s “struggle” to figure out a way to
“handle” the controversy and its challenging “optics.” Never mind that
quid pro quo means something for something. In this case, the emails
show the opposite – favors requested, favors denied. [read on]
No end to the bad news for the Trump campaign
http://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/08/27/how-much-bad-press-can-trumps-campaign-take-before-it-implodes/
How Much Bad Press Can Trump’s Campaign Take Before It Implodes?
And now this: https://politicalwire.com/2016/08/26/trump-says-hes-going-to-arizona-but-staff-doesnt-know/
Aggregate polling shows NO NARROWING of Clinton's lead
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/08/its-end-august-hillary-clinton-lead-clear-steady
Was the Clinton Foundation "pay to play"? Here's a way to find out
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/08/clinton-foundation-corrupt-theres-way-find-out-anyone-whos-seriously-interested
Yes, Clinton should do a press conference. No, it's not that simple
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/clinton-and-press.html
More: http://www.salon.com/2016/08/26/hillary-clinton-hasnt-held-a-news-conference-since-december-but-npr-has-proven-why-its-not-media-blackout/
Let's hope she's right
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hillary-clinton-certain-no-more-damaging-emails
Clinton: 'I Am Sure' There Are No Damaging Emails Still Lurking Out There
You won't find much in PBD favorable to Paul Wolfowitz, but this is interesting
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/paul-wolfowitz-may-vote-clinton
Former Bush Admin. Official Says He May Vote For Clinton: Trump Is 'Dangerous'
Even Fox World had to admit that Clinton's speech on Trumpy's alt-right connections was accurate and fair
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/08/25/1563876/-Fox-s-Shep-Smith-Hillary-used-Donald-Trump-s-own-words-was-historically-accurate-on-his-policies
In other news . . .
More trouble for Bernie's "political revolution"
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/26/12658332/bernie-sanders-post-campaign-political-revolution
Bonus item: Texas IS different
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/08/fun-guns-there-goes-your-tip-edition
***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are
doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using
the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL: http://pbd.blogspot.com
I don’t get anything personally out of this
project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The
credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute.
But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of
as many people as I can.***
