After 10 days of family visits, baseball games, golf tournaments and lots of work after getting home, this is my first opportunity to weigh in on the news from the Democratic Convention and the days that have followed. I’ll cover a variety of topics here separately.
Breaking The Glass Ceiling
It’s been about a week since Hillary Clinton officially shattered that proverbial glass ceiling and accepted the Democratic party’s nomination to be President of the United States, thus becoming the first woman to be a major party nominee for the presidency. It was a historic night to be sure but didn’t feel remotely like what happened eight years ago when Barack Obama became the first African-American nominee.
This of course is because Clinton and Obama are very different candidates. The youthful, handsome Senator from Illinois seemingly came out of nowhere and inspired millions with his hopeful rhetoric and forward-looking agenda. Hillary Clinton has been a part of the national consciousness for 25 years due to her marriage to the 42nd President of the United States. History-making to be sure that she is the first female nominee but she’s also history-making as the first presidential spouse to be on the doorstep of the Oval Office. If she had married a non-politician and had ascended to this position it would have been far, far more significant. Since the history-making achievement occurred only because of her last name, it’s greatly diminished.
Still, it was a convention that was engineered to unify the party and also to peel off independent-minded Republicans who are horrified by the thought of a Trump presidency. In a continuing effort to woo voters who normally side with the GOP, Mrs. Clinton made a rare appearance on FOX by sitting down for an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.
Unfortunately, Clinton still hasn’t figured out how to properly answer the continuing questions about whether she was telling the truth about the setup of her private email server:
(FBI) Director Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people, that there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails.”
— Hillary Clinton (on “Fox News Sunday,” July 31, 2016)
Hillary’s quote above, which she’s repeated since then, was given four “Pinocchios” from the Washington Post, the maximum number on their scale to describe a whopper of a lie.
The point here is that, if Hillary’s last name wasn’t Clinton, the email scandal would have sunk her candidacy for president. And of course she wouldn’t have been able to move to New York and get elected to the Senate or become Secretary of State in the first place if her name wasn’t Clinton. There’s no doubt, in a parallel universe, that a woman of her intellect, work ethic and passion might well have been able to forge a political career of her own without riding the coattails of her husband but a “glass ceiling” being broken would have been more meaningful if it had been accomplished by a woman who did it entirely on her own.
“Because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all of our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be President of the United States.”
— Michelle Obama (at the Democratic National Convention, July 25, 2016)
I’m sure that Michelle’s line resonated with many. I’m a man so there’s a part of this I’ll never understand. I’m just saying that this is not an accomplishment remotely on par with the one achieved by Mrs. Obama’s husband.
The Wrath of Khan
If you were a Martian watching the two political conventions while trying to study the most powerful nation on the planet inhabited by earthlings, you might be inclined to think that the two candidates were among the most awful, evil people to ever inhabit the earth and that our planet was worthy of alien conquest. While that’s a little strong, there’s no doubt that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the two most deeply unpopular and disliked presidential candidates that any of us can remember. Both Trump and Clinton have survived an abundance of scandals, real or imagined, that make them target-rich fodder for their political opponents. In both conventions, more time was spent tearing down the opposition than in building up their party’s nominee.
The Democrats have a highly flawed and untrustworthy candidate but they have the incredible good fortune to have a truly unqualified and seemingly unhinged opponent. Thus the three-pronged strategy: make history by electing the first woman president, tout that candidate’s resume and point out that their opponent is dangerous. At the convention last week, highly credible and well-known speakers such as former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, retired General John Allen and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg filled the task of attack dog against the big bad dog named Trump. But nobody had a more meaningful impact in his anti-Trump speech than Khizr Khan, the father of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in the war in Iraq. Khan was chosen to speak to highlight the racism of Trump’s proposed ban on all Muslims into the United States.
Khan held up a pocket U.S. Constitution that he carries and boldly asked if the Republican candidate had even read the document, offering to lend Trump his copy. Khan also said, powerfully, to Trump, “you have sacrificed nothing.” By itself, this was a powerful moment at the convention. However, it was just a moment and normally would have wound up being a small side note. However, because he’s the candidate who can’t take an attack without attacking back, Trump gave this story legs by counter-punching against the “vicious attack” (his words) from Mr. Khan. After suggesting that the Clinton campaign had written the speech (which Khan denies), Trump made an unsolicited jab at Khan’s wife Ghazala.
“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. Maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”
— Donald Trump (on “This Week with George Stephanopolous”, Sunday, July 31)
With the insinuation that, because she is a Muslim wife, Mrs. Khan was not “allowed” to speak, Trump played right into the hands of his critics who call him a racist. This was a blatant cheap shot and utterly idiotic. In this interview, Stephanopolous followed up by asking Trump about Khan’s claim that he had “sacrificed nothing” while they had endured the loss of a son. You’re not going to believe this response:
“I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices…I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot.”
— Donald Trump (on “This Week with George Stephanopolous”, Sunday, July 31)
Are you fracking kidding me? Creating thousands of jobs and having “tremendous” success is a sacrifice on par with the loss of a child who was serving his country in the military?
There’s more: a couple of days ago, Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson went on CNN and blamed Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the death of Captain Khan. “It was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that changed the rules of engagement that probably cost his life,” Pierson said, referring to the 2009 order tightening restrictions on when troops can engage in combat. There’s one problem with Pierson’s analysis: Captain Khan was killed in 2004 when George W. Bush was President.
You can’t make this stuff up. The whole Trump campaign, from the beginning, has been one that never apologizes for anything any time.
Anyway, you can expect Khizr Khan to be a regular on the talk show circuit because he has now become a mini-celebrity. In presidential politics, candidates are best off when they present positive messages while leaving the attacks on their opponents to their surrogates. With Khan and dozens of others, there are no shortage of attack dog volunteers.
The Veep
Since I am a Republican and the nominee of my chosen party likes to pat himself on the back all the time, I’ll do the same. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that Hillary Clinton should choose Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate and, just as Obama did eight years ago when I wrote that he should pick Joe Biden, she wisely followed my sage advice and made the best pick (wink, wink). Kaine self-describes himself as boring. Some argued that, since the candidate at the top of the ticket is kind of uninspiring, she should have made an “exciting” pick like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (who is especially popular with the Bernie Sanders supporters), New Jersey Senator Cory Booker or HUD Secretary Julian Castro. To me, because she’s going up against an unqualified and controversial candidate in Trump, there was no need for Hillary to choose sizzle. Picking a solid but goring guy was the right move. Kaine is eminently qualified for the job if the need were to arise. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes this election was between Kaine and Mike Pence instead of Clinton and Trump.
Kaine, who had the unenviable task of unveiling himself to the general public after the speech of current VP Joe Biden and before the speech of President Obama, delivered a workmanlike performance. His imitation of Trump was overdone (leave the Trump impressions to SNL’s Darrell Hammond and Jimmy Fallon) but it was an otherwise good introduction. His best moment was, as one of the few members of the Senate with a family member in the armed forces, he said “as he’s serving his nation abroad, I trust Hillary Clinton with our son’s life.”
More Email Problems and the Bernie Factor
Most people walked away from the Democratic convention feeling that it was a home run for Hillary Clinton and the polls that have come out since have shown a decided convention “bounce” for Clinton in the polls. Still, the convention did get off to a somewhat rocky start. As the convention was getting underway, WikiLeaks revealed that it had been given a treasure trove of emails from the Democratic National Committee that showed that, yes indeed, members of the DNC were doing their best to help Hillary beat her persistent challenger Bernie Sanders. Of course, it’s been obvious to anyone with half a brain that Clinton was the preferred candidate of the party elites and superdelegates. As much as Donald Trump has talked about “rigged system” against him, the Dems’ system was truly rigged against Sanders. Starting with the scheduling of debates on holidays and the whole superdelegate system itself, the process was engineered in Secretary Clinton’s favor from the beginning.
Everyone who supported Bernie Sanders felt this already. So imagine their outrage with the release of emails of DNC staffers and Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz which confirmed those suspicions. Schultz was booed off the stage by her own delegation from the state of Florida, resigned as DNC Chair, and did not speak at the convention. On the first night, there was a lot of booing from the convention floor at the very mention of Clinton’s name. The whole “Bernie or Bust” movement, however, led to one of the event’s highlights. It occurred when comedian Sarah Silverman, a Bernie supporter, on stage with another comedian turned Senator Al Franken, told her fellow Bernie supporters that they were being “ridiculous” by not supporting Clinton.
This was the ultimate difference between the key moments involving the primary challengers of the two parties. Sanders, when given his opportunity to speak, gave a full throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton. When Ted Cruz spoke at the GOP convention, he pointedly encouraged people to “vote their conscience” and was booed off the stage when he specifically did not endorse Trump.
The Bounce
Whether it’s the contrast in conventions or Trump’s stupid feud with Khizr Khan or both, there has been a clear and significant bounce for Clinton in the post-convention polls. A CNN poll released a few days ago has Clinton leading by 9 points, a Fox News poll released yesterday shows a 10-point edge, a NBC Wall Street Journal poll released today has her up by 9 points and a McClatchy-Marist poll released today shows a whopping 15-point advantage.
It should be noted that, when it comes to the post-convention bumps, the party in power typically has the advantage because their convention comes last. So, in 2008, with the GOP going second, the post-convention polling showed John McCain leading Barack Obama by a few points. In 2012, in which the Dems’ convention followed the Republican convention, the post-convention polls showed Obama ahead of Romney by just 3 to 5 points. Those polls showed substantially tighter races than the ones coming out this week between Clinton and Trump.
Recent battleground state polls also look rosy for Secretary Clinton: a 15 point lead in New Hampshire, an 11 point lead in Pennsylvania, 9 points in Michigan and 6 points in Florida. So it’s clear that, if the election were to be held today, it would be a “complete disaster” for Donald Trump.
Thanks for reading.
Chris Bodig