To the liberals of the world, we owe everything—our science, our literature, film, music, architecture..
Republicans have never been able to compete creatively. In science, they are basically AWOL. In the arts, they are complete non-achievers. Recognizing this, they had to find their strengths in this world. And find them, they have: Viciousness, racism, religious extremism, theft from the public trust at a staggering scale, violence, destruction. Their goals have never had anything to do with societal betterment. That is not what they are about.
5
Ah, the vindictive congenital coward, amoral, duplicitous, mendacious, record-holder in the 'round-mattress pornstar races thanks to his bone spurs, thus enters the fray, wallowing across the stage like a bloated Komodo dragon. If only he could claim even one grandparent born in this hemisphere...
3
It's many months away from Election Day.
Let's compose ourselves and persevere.
Chill, people!
5
Besides political goals such as healthcare for all, combating climate change, etc. the Democratic candidates should focus on CHARACTER. On caring for others, on honesty, on decency, on compassion, on something other than "self". We should NOT, NEVER get used to a morally bankrupt, dishonest, corrupt administration.
5
“Suburban women is where he has a challenge" . . . because they are smart and savvy!
6
Eat more Big Macs, Mr. President. Lots and lots of Big Macs. They are really good for you; those
pesky scientists are just creating another hoax when they tell you of health risks involved in consuming too many Big Macs. Have away.
10
My only wish for 2020 is that we expunge Donald Trump from the office!
9
Moderate suburban voters are not going to yell and scream and jump up down in their adulation of Trump like his disaffected rural and rustbelt supporters do, so guess who he is going to play to - right, the peanut gallery, the reality tv believers, the angry and fearful gun fetishists and unhinged abortion opponents who will love him the more for every mean comment and racist slur he spews.
A conman can spot a mark at a hundred paces.
Trump core supporters are clinging to their place in the social pecking order by their fingernails and fearful of falling further. Their motivation is negativity. Suburban voters, by and large doing better socially and economically, are perhaps not as motivated by hatred and fear, IOW, their support is weaker. And for the real country club set, they already have the tax cut of their hearts’ true desire, so why do they need embarrassing Trump making a mess of everything else?
4
He will also go after the prison and junior high vote.
You have been writing for almost 4 years that Trump policies and values are bad for America. He is going to be re-elected by a large majority. You must believe the majority of your fellow countrymen and women have bad values or are stupid. You should have the integrity to write about why you think this. Please do that.
1
Wait for it.The kinder, gentler Trump. A reasoned Trump, a hopeful Trump.Slow to anger and quick to forgive.The man is a pathological liar.His personality is vindictive cheap and brassy.The dems need someone of real personality and genuine charisma to keep hitting on that central simple flaw of the incumbent in the upcoming season,someone who can motivate the sick, the elderly, blacks and Hispanics to stop cowering in despondency and get out the vote. Its great the dems have arrayed a firing circle of impressive cannon,they have to figure out a way of firing out , not in!
3
Off Topic: Illegal Drug use and Distribution.
Subject: Drugs are not an industry in the United States!
Info: All drug laws in the the united states are repealed.
"I take it upon myself to say that this message is from the President of the United States Donald Trump."
The Cameleon
I am a Texas rock solid hard-core Republican voter. I have an undergraduate degree from U.T. and a Masters from Rice University.
You Yankees would characterize me as a "goober" or "redneck".
I almost always vote Republican.
I hope and pray the Democrats have enough common sense to nominate Bloomberg.
He would be my choice in the voting booth.
467
@Premier Comandante
I wouldn't characterize you as any of those two things you mention because I don't do that, but if you voted Republican just because Bloomberg isn't the Democratic nominee, I'd definitely call you un-American.
350
@Premier Comandante Why do Republicans think we Democrats owe them anything? Vote however you please, but don't tell us who our nominee ought to be.
294
@Premier Comandante
Im liking Bloomberg too but I wish I knew more about him. Also wish he was in the debates.
47
It is real simple,
As an African-American voter, why would you vote Democrat? Trump's economic policies have reduced the unemployment of AA voters to an unprecedented low.
Trump is the best thing that ever happened to the African American voting pubic.
Game over. Black folks will vote for Trump. Bills are paid and money in the bank. End of discussion.
19
The economic reasons for black employment and wage increases are far outside of a president’s control, whether it be Trump or anyone else.
20
@39-year-old Guy
Not true...the reason the economy keeps humming along at it's best in decades is because of Trump and his reducing regulations on businesses...when unemployment is at 3.6% everybody that wants a job can get one...and that includes all races...and businesses doing their best means wage increases for all...so it really is about the economy and Trump has that sewn up...
6
@Premier Comandante trump makes it sound as if African Americans weren't successful until he came along and that the black community owes all of its success to trump and him alone. It's incredibly condescending and presumptuous. Especially when the reality is that his policies have very little to do with the employment numbers and his so-called "great economy".
Also, what you neglect to mention is that the income gap between African Americans and Caucasians hasn't improved one bit...if anything, it's gotten worse.
As for winning the African American vote, Trump's strategy is the same one he used in 2016 -- a widespread disinformation campaign backed by dark money from people like the Koch brothers. This propaganda effort specifically targeted black voters in order to suppress their vote. Incendiary comments like yours on social media were a big part of that effort.
Stay vigilant, folks!
13
I don't think Trump has a chance in 2020. Of course, I did not think he had a chance in 2016 either. But I would think his prospects have only gotten worse since 2016. I would really love to see some polling on this, but we probably won't see any meaningful polling until the Democrats select a candidate.
279
@Dan Frazier
Trump's favorability ratings are at an all-time high and the chances of Trump being re-elected will continue to increase unless the Democratic Party and the press treat Sanders fairly.
The press has for all practical purposes censored any headlines that include the facts that Sanders won by 6000 votes on the first alignment in Iowa and won by 2500 votes in the second alignment.
Buttigieg only won by a slim margin according to the obscure measure called "delegate equivalents," which were designed to diminish the weight of the Latino vote in the satellite caucuses, where Sanders won by a landslide among night-shift workers.
The silly measure called delegate equivalents was only heightened to disguise the facts.
Shenanigans like this hurt the credibility of the press and the Democratic Party and enhance the likelihood that Trump will be re-elected.
27
@Dan Frazier Actually according to Gallup his approval is at an all time high. His favorability ratings are higher than just before he was elected last time.
14
@Dan Frazier Polling is readily available. Please look at it. It does not support your mistaken belief that Trump "doesn't have a chance."
The composite poll of Trump's approval rating shows his approval rating has improved in response to the unsuccessful attempt to impeach him: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo The Gallup poll earlier this week reported 49% approval and 50% disapproval. That is the highest Gallup approval since he was elected.
Another good indicator is the polling reported by real clear politics that shows he will probably win a greater victory in the electoral college than he did in 2016, although he could lose the popular vote by a wider margin than in 2016.
It is not a good idea to put your head in the sand. I don't think anyone who looks at the polls and reads NYT regularly thinks that Democrats can beat Trump in November.
Please understand that I am not a Trump supporter. I am doing everything I can to prevent him from being re-elected despite my pessimism.
26
52 percent of suburban women, a buzzword for white women, voted for Trump in 2016. His behavior then was as bad as it is now and the economy is doing well for that social class, so they will probably vote for him in larger percentages in 2020.
Trump has an opportunity to appeal to black voters since the Democrats have offered us nothing of value while expecting us to support their “It’s All About (Illegal) Immigrants!” platform. We have no reason to support that platform. A start to getting more of the black vote is to start releasing nonviolent drug offenders sentenced to draconian drug dealer prison terms for mere possession. Crack addicts should be treated the same way opioid addicts are treated today.
Repeal Biden’s crime bill retroactively and offer benefits to the states to follow suit as Biden did on the bill’s rollout. Biden’s policies affected many black families unfairly and he has yet to apologize and undo the damage he caused. I believe this often stated idea that the majority of blacks support Biden has no basis in reality.
14
@Lynn in DC
Trump has been a big supporter of prison reform. I commend him for that.
4
I hope voters keep watching and paying attention to the way Pelosi is acting and things that she says. I know you can't fix stupid, but she may be a great asset for Trump's reelection campaign in November.
11
People would be better off realizing what a lying crook our dictator Trump is. People would be best waking up and realizing our constitution and democracy are about to be wiped out of existence for a leader and GOP who care nothing about the fools who voted them into office.
10
My family...Democrats all...were absolutely astonished when Trump got elected in 2016.
But we’re even more astonished by the Democratic Party reaction to Trump’s win...characterized by conspiratorial bad faith and malfeasance in an ongoing effort to oust Trump by any means necessary...be it the Steele Dossier, RussiaGate, or
UkraineGate.
Who knows what they’ll try next. But despite their failure, the Democratic Party ‘Resistance’ has managed to accomplish one unlikely, near impossible thing: they’ve made Trump into a sympathetic character.
Consequently, our next vote will be a protest vote...against the ‘Resistance’ faction formerly known as the Democratic Party, and against the ‘race and gender’ hustling that has become their ‘progressive’ hallmark...NOT the party of FDR and JFK!
19
@Susanna
Nice try. Your comment is very similar to another under a different name, saying they are Black and voting Trump.
I think the commenter who said the trolls are working hard tonight is absolutely correct.
Trump a sympathetic character! The golfer in chief whose taking down the American Dream? Anyone with common sense has no sympathy for Trump.
21
@Susanna Real Democrats are tired of the bogus "Dems have been after Trump since he was elected" argument. That you would even make such a bad faith argument puts your claims of being a Democrat in doubt.
Trump has been abusing the power of his office for political and financial gain since he took office. Yet party leaders tried to avoid impeachment for as long as possible. The Democrats didn't look for a reason to impeach trump. Trump shoved more than enough reasons in their face.
9
@Andrews
Sadly, you underestimate how many moderate Democrats and independents just like me have become disillusioned by the ‘progressive’ hijacking of the Democratic Party.
Ad hominem name-calling simply means that your argument is without substance. Nice try.
6
I don't know if America has been gaslighted or gaslit but maybe questioning its sanity is is not such a bad thing.
When black is white,wrong is right, and down is up I must say questioning one's reality is not out of order.
Sometimes I think regardless of the disconnect Trump is the right man in the right job at the right time.
Maybe the black lists were an answer to the questions posed by the victims of McCarthy and Reagan.
3
Imagine… politically correct troubadours hawking dishonesty, while engaged in outrageous lies designed to marginalize any and all not adhering to their cultish whims. Or a former VP embracing righteousness mumbo-jumbo while orchestrating and extorting millions of dollars favoring the financial coffers of ‘the Biden five’ from foreign demigods in search of US financial aid.
Imagine… questioning Obama’s legacy, or holding socialist wunderkinds associated with the mainstream news media accountable for their lies and hateful innuendo. So much misery to ponder; if we didn’t have the Mollie Hemingway’s associated with the news media, we would all be lost to the whims of ‘deep state’ collaborators in their search of politically correct gangsters to implement their treasonous dreams.
Imagine… pondering the likelihood of a putsch in America, or the notions that those associated with the mainstream news media might be acting as propaganda wastrels in lieu of real journalist in search of the truth. If the Treasury Department or those associated with the Department of Justice weren’t investigating members of the ‘deep state’ putsch, we might be reduced to whims of PC troubadours and partisan pollsters.
Watch and listen to this fool, for even a minimum of five minutes, and then you tell me he isn’t barking mad.
Surely this country deserves better than this egotistical child.
His coronation as king is fast approaching.
8
Please be aware of the truth when it comes to " Mr. Trump himself sees the economy as his calling card and is monitoring fluctuations in stock market closely, and his team thinks the economy is one of their best selling points" for he is no smarter than a 12 year old. All he does is borrow money to cover his great programs and this year alone he will have us, the taxpayers, borrow over $1 trillion more and this problem will only get worse. Anyone can spend money, but few know how to actually make it. Trump is not a money maker but a spender and as long as he can spend your money, claim to be a genius and get away with it we, he again proves that it is the taxpayers/voters who are the real problem.
3
Trump as proven beyond a shadow of doubt, crime pays.
And now he has the backing of the entire republican party to make sure that fact continues.
11
While most attention is going to impeachment and Trump's endlessly corrupt behavior, he's steadily doing great damage to the environment. Taking back federal monuments lands, opening them up for fossil fuel exploration, rolling back waterway and wildlife/bird protections and building an environmentally destructive border wall. All of that on top of doing everything possible to worsen climate change. MUCH more needs to be written and reported on about this. We need to vote the anti-environment party OUT!
3
@JVG: I know, and now he wants to mine COAL in what are currently national parks in Utah. Ouch!
3
As a college-educated woman, with an MBA and teacher's masters, from a wealthy suburb, I must tell you this Mr. Trump: no way will you get my vote!
5
Freedom medal to Rush Limbaugh. Great way to court black voters.
17
America, wake up!
Trump in the WH.
3
The Donald has clearly and already won re-election.
Dems, you are flushed.
No one and nothing to offer the voters except elderly white candidates.
5
Calling Trump “the most divisive President” simply contributes to the divisiveness. C’mon NYT, you can do better than that.
4
I didn't hear him gloat about the stock market yesterday when it closed down the way he did at the prayer breakfast. He's an im imbecile!
9
I have a really short wish list for Trump.
1. Run a competent, transparent, and non-corrupt government. Fat chance.
2. Bring a sense of decorum and decency back to the White House. That ain't in him.
3. Stop with the Twitter.
That's it. Donald, you've failed miserably so far. You need to clean house and get on track, or you can forget about my vote. Right now I'd vote for a cross-eyed pig before I'd vote for Trump. Your administration is a cesspool of graft and corruption.
9
Trump is a dictator! Anyone thinks otherwise is delusional. Sorry!
12
The Democratic Party has put forth such a pathetically weak panel of candidates that Trump will undoubtedly win 2020 in a landslide no matter which clown wins the Democratic party nomination.
Mondale-Ferraro is coming
6
All Democrats have to do to win is make ads showing Trump at his small, bitter, racist, greedy self. Money (what little there is with minimum wage still at $7.25 an hour) is not all that matters. Americans have watched him closely for three years now and they don’t want this man to be our leader. They wouldn’t even let him babysit their kids let alone be Commander-in-Chief. He doesn’t read and he’s dumb as a rock, according to many. Decency, honesty, and integrity matter most in an American President. He’s simply an embarrassment.
Speaking of which, vote against Republican Senators too, who, except for Romney, don’t have an ounce of integrity between them.
9
@Sherry "...what little there is with minimum wage still at $7.25 an hour..."
And how is the Democratic Party's refusal to resolve the large labour pool of undocumented workers going to increase the minimum wage?
1
I think we Black voters are good on Trump.
4
Sorry. Myself and every other professional I know who lives in my suburb are going to personally put the effort into making sure Trump and his criminal syndicate are not re-elected; even if that means traveling to NC or Philly suburbs to canvass. Everyone is tired of him and will go all out to stop him. No way he wins back the suburbs, and definitely no way he wins black people anytime soon.
12
Regardless who is the democratic candidate, as sad as it is
1
Trump's actual wishlist: stop any black and brown people from immigrating here. Blocking the family members of legal immigrants from Africa and the Middle East should really endear him to Black Americans. Trump is a fascist and his followers are complicit in the downfall of the US.
7
yeah right after three years of treating just about everyone like they were some sort of jerk he thinks he can just pivot? Laughing.Reality is about to make itself known to the right wing
5
Trump by a landslide
3
Blast him and the whole republican train he rode in on! Vote blue.
10
This is the same President who just gave Rush Limbaugh, the purveyor or modern racist normalization, who’s spawned an entire media of bigotry, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I think Trump has both the Black Female votes he’ll ever have with Diamond and Silk.
8
If trump picks up 5 black voters it would double the amount he had in 2016. Just kidding but not far off:)
4
I'm confused. Is there any news is this piece or is it just bar talk of the several reporters? The gist seems to be the incumbent wants to win reelection (duh!) and the after work crowd acknowledges this, while hoping for roadblocks. Possibly belongs on a blog but not NYT front page.
2
As the campaign sign in my neighborhood states emphatically: “Any Functioning Adult-2020.” This rules our any fascist Republicant.
7
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/auschwitz
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/hundreds-deported-u-s-el-salvador-have-been-killed-or-n1126906
This the presidents agenda and you can't change if these sites are mention by his opponent and compare the eras.
@William
America is not the dumping grounds for 3rd world peasants that cannot fix their own countries.
America is for Americans. We’re done with the Democratic Party’s peasant invasion.
Done.
1
I don’t get why that black South Carolina Senator supports Trump. Can anyone explain?
2
Always remember, Lincoln will forever be the most divisive President, his election alone caused a Civil War.
@Richard
and remember DJT said in one of his memorable rambles
"Not too many people know it, but Lincoln was a Republican."
"Not to many people know it" is Donald's shorthand for 'I just found this out."
4
More blacks will surely vote for a white supremacist now that there are jobs paying six dollars an hour in Georgia pulling guts out of chickens. Suburban moms will surely vote in droves for the guy who grabs women's private parts, folds on gun legislation and wants to turn perfectly good public schools into bastions of theocracy and oh yeah wants to dilute health care. Yup Trump is going to get all those folks to vote for him and then send everyone a free pony!
8
Lets not forget, the American-Jewish community, with his chutzpah on issues with Israel, he is trying to buy our votes (also curry favor with the nutjob Evangelist community's, Christians United for Israel. Between Charlottesville, and now firing Lt. Vindman, which is tRump's version of the Alfred Dreyfus Affair (France, 1890s), this will not happen. With an Absentee Ballot, my vote will count!
2
@NYer in the EU
Sure, your vote will count in useless New York and still be totally worthless in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania....
Trump in a landslide
1
Reporting from a very affluent suburb of NYC evenly divided between Repubs & Dems. For years, all the town councils, mayors, members of congress were overwhelmingly Republican. If you happen to trip on any sidewalk, you are virtually guaranteed to fall on top of at least one MD, Dentist, PhD, attorney, accountant, professor.
Then came Trump.
Within one election cycle, all the towns were dominated by Democrats, the mayors were all Democrats, and a pretty likable Republican house member was sent packing. Ask anyone and they'll tell you that they voted to express disgust with Trump.
Now, it's 2020.
And most of us have never been in better financial shape. The economy wreaking havoc on the poor has transferred one heck of a treasure to us, and all we did is sit at home and watch our net worth grow and grow.
So we're grateful to Trump? Not a chance.
We loathe him. And the reason is deceptively simple. In fact, the Trump campaign should come out and do some focus groups to verify this:
More than any of our disagreements with his barbaric, corrupt policies, we simply can't stand his fundamental stupidity. He's dumb. He's an embarrassing fool. End of story.
Believe me, whatever he says, he hasn't got a snowball's chance in the burbs. The only thing worse than him being re-elected would be him or any of his kids moving in.
To sum it up: we're snobs and he's ...... well ..... you know.
8
@Horace Dewey
Yes I'm in great financial shape; but I have said more than once to my financial guys (to their unconcealed horror) that I would give half my sizeable wealth if DJT were gone. I did send lots of money to Hillary (not my favorite but the alternative as we have seen, was horrible) - enough for a trip to Wisconsin at least. I don't contribute any more to political campaigns. I give to organizations helping the people that have been systematically devalued by this regime.
4
@Horace Dewey
RINOs are irrelevant.
See McCain, Flake, Bill Kristol, Mitt Romney, George Will, and the rest of the spineless Never Trump Club.
For every one of you spineless RINOs, there are 1,000s of blue collar Americans who will vote for the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln: Donald J. Trump
1
Translation: Trump wants a landslide
1
Here's my wish list for Trump: For him to join Manafort in Jail!
9
If that headline is true (which its not) what is the left collectively stressing about?
Donald J. Trump, a legend in his own mind.
6
I’m Native American and Trump has already won a majority of our vote. The first President since Calvin Collidge to try and keep those treaties signed with us...this one rebuild the homes destroyed Cililo when white built the Dales Dam. 75 years late, a white President at last remembered that promise. Others promises kept for the Shoshone, Blackfeet, Sioux, and other western bands
Based on our experience, Trump should win all black
votes, all Asian votes, all Hispanic voters. No real Native American will vote fir anyone else,
1
Trump will win another 4 years.
There is a hardwired urge in people to love a strongman dictator. Then, they aren't responsible for what happens. In addition ,Trump panders to also hardwired racism, sexism, misogyny, religious bigotry, homophobia and bullying impulses in human nature. He removes guilt because he is worse than his cult like followers.
Being a decent person is too much work for a lot of humanity. They would rather have a Trump with them in the gutter than have to work harder to follow the example of Presidents like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama who led with an example of decency and morality.
5
@Displaced yankee
I’m pleased you mentioned two of the worst presidents in US history: Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.
We The People are fixing those mistakes with a Trump landslide.
Please stop calling illegal aliens “undocumented.” They have documents from their home countries. They’re here illegally. Call it what it is.
1
@Skippy
Yes, they are illegal aliens.
However, "undocumented" is the correct term applied to people living in the U.S. without U.S. citizenship or other legal immigration status. i.e., Even though they hold documentation from their home countries, they do not have the appropriate U.S. documentation.
Maybe Trump should take a page from Andrew Yang’s playbook and just promise every Black and suburban voter $1000 a month and spare himself the phony makeover. A wolf in sheep’s clothing is still a wolf.
2
@John Doe: I'd only take the money if I didn't have to vote for him...
I, like many of my fellow citizens, will vote for Satan if the Democrats nominate Satan. If the Democrats nominate a rock, I will vote for that rock.. It matters not a whit to me what Trump does between now and election day.. There is zero possibility I’ll be changing my mind.
13
@JHS
Now you know why your party will keep losing again and again and again.....
@Reality Check ---have you forgotten about the mid-term election already? Oh right, Fox News doesn't mention that election eh.
5
As Donald Trump top African Americans are the likes of Ben Carson, Tim Scott and Kanye West he can't credibly speak to and for the most loyal and long suffering base of the Democratic Party aka black African American Protestant women.
5
Of course he wants to win, because if he doesn’t, it is likely he will go to prison.
7
Fire DNC chairman Tom Perez. He's more dangerous than Trump
2
Trump’s propaganda team (otherwise known as his campaign staff) are probably going to have to arrange to ban all news media from, and prohibit cameras at his rallies (except the one trained on him), so that the pictures of hate-filled, snarling faces of his supporters won’t freak out those African Americans and suburban voters he wants to court, when they see them on TV or online.
2
Divisive if you’re a Democrat. If you believe in America First...capitalism, nationalism, unilateralism, he’s the best President ever.
1
You can believe in all of those things, but strongly oppose an unethical out of control president who has abused his power or the spineless Senators who are afraid of him. I’ll vote for a anyone the Dems put up before I’ll ever vote Republican again - I won’t like my choice, but Anything else is better for the country
5
Suburban women have not suffered under Trump. Their 401ks have risen (and improved their retirement outlook).
All Trump haters have is hatred. That's it.
Trump voters may not love the guy. The Presidency isn't a popularity contest or a pretty boy contest. A President isn't supposed to be a cutsie pal.
Trump re-did and improved trade deals. Dems hate the fact that other countries can't take advantage of us. Other countries loved Obama because he was all too glad to let them treat us as fools.
Obama also separated families and kept kids in cages, so shut up.
When there's a Trump hater in a social group badmouthing the President, the Trump supporters keep quiet. We don't want our cars keyed, called "racist!", punched in the face, or homes vandalized. We've been denigrated by the Media for four years. So imagine we don't hold the Media in high regard. But now the Left and Media want our votes! Hello?
But at the polls we vote Trump.
Trump 2020
@Elizabeth Carlisle
I will vote for whomever the Democratic nominee is because I am tired of people such as yourself giving credit for this economy and the lower unemployment rate to donald trump. President Obama inherited one of the worse economy’s this country has ever experienced. His efforts in the White House turned it around, often working against a congress who tried everything within their power to make him a one term president. Additionally, I have more integrity than to vote for a racist, lying, serial adulterer and fake Christian who, lets face it, would not have been elected president in the first place if he were anything other than a white man.
6
Let's hope not on the suburbs.
Let's hope not with the blacks.
Let's REALLY hope not with the winning in general.
An it will be a victory for civilization if we can stop him.
But how will ever change the thinking of people how think there is nothing wrong with a person like that being president?
3
@Bryan
Hopefully they will go back underground where they were before. It’s not like they haven’t been here all along. trump just gave them the courage to come out.
1
i hope he succeeds on Nov.3, 2020, otherwise he will end up with his former attorney, Michael Cohen. We all know where Michael Cohen is now.
He’s lost blacks, women and the suburbs. They rest of all I’m not so sure of.
1
In 2018 and 2019, the suburbs voted for Democrats. Trump and Co. aren’t reading the room.
4
Trump*, his father, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, all have a deplorable record when it comes to blacks, even being forced by the courts to cease and desist.
Democrats must expose that record this time around. Out of some kind of misplaced genteel habit of thought, they did not hammer that home last time.
Dems: Start now and do not stop until the last vote is in the box.
Not only is he the World's Biggest Liar, he also has a criminal past.
Take off the white gloves!
3
Unforeseen things always happen during election season. It could be a world event, recession, or perhaps Trump will pull another stupid move like extorting Ukraine to get him in trouble. For some voters that would be the last straw.
Trump has the arcane Electoral College going for him, where white working-class voters and Evangelicals tip the scales in his favor. If he does win re-election, Democrats must take back the Senate to curb his packing of the federal courts.
There are facts that are obvious:
Trump is the most hated and despised US President of all time. Not just in the US but around the world.
Trump is the most derisively laughed at President of all time. Not just in the US but around the world.
Trump is the most ignorant US President of all time.
Trump is the most dangerous President of all time. He’d like that one.
Trump is the US President most fooled and used by other despots around the world.
Trump is the most greedy US President of all time. He made money off his election campaign. He complained he wasn’t personally being paid any of the money donated for his Inaugural Celebrations. He makes money off the US taxpayers while in office.
He is the US President who has fooled the most people for the longest time.
He is the most criminal President the US has ever had.
He is simply the worst US President of all time.
Venal, malicious, sick in the head, still does not understand there are co-equal shares of power heading the US Government.
Welcome to 1933.
6
An astute comment. He is preparing America to become the Deutschland of the 1930s. He is a demagogue who spouts hate and lies and loves rallies. Seems eerily familiar to the Fascists of that era!
1
All losers are desperate for a win, to the point of making "winning" an existential principle. The loser in question, Cheating Donnie Chump, has failed so miserably at every level in life that the appearance of winning has become a welcome substitute for any actual victory. So sad.
Really? That pivot strategy just may fly in suburbia. As for the attempt with African-Americans:
"When people show you who they are the first time, believe them."
-Maya Angelou
5
Trump exists because Democrats have been too lazy to vote.
4
I used to be a Republican. I will never vote Republican ever again. The GOP (Government Of Putin) is dying. Trump is killing it.
9
Trump is the most divisive and corrupt president in my life time. He is a danger to our Democracy, and to the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.
The USA would not make it thru another 4 years of Trump intact.
Democratic candidates need to get on the same page, and start calling out trump for who he is; an extremely corrupt liar, a want-to-be autocrat, a racist, a misogynist and a bully.
Trump has increased our national deficit by almost 600 Billion dollars.
Trump has spent and estimated 150 Million taxpayer dollars on personal travel to his golf clubs and other properties (Trump will not disclose the actual amount).
Trump has given huge tax breaks to his Billionaire donor cronies, and has used his office to divert taxpayer dollars to his personal properties and investments.
When is the Trump corruption and lies going to end ? Nov. 2020 !
3
How's he going to build this support? By telling black voters and suburban women they're stupid if they don't vote for him?
Because that worked so well last time.
Conduct and behavior will drag not only him down but Republicans everywhere. This bump in the polls won't last as we're already seeing what his idea of a vindicated president should do. Rage, lie, insult, demean and threaten.
Everything but lead. Many are already sick of him, by November most will be and will vote accordingly. If for no other reason than simply not to have to hear that voice and see that face again.
The Senate tied themselves to an anvil that just went off the high bridge. It will land on them.
4
I pity any black or white educated voter that is so sheltered that they do not see who trump really is. These four years have shown how disgusting and disgraceful a human can be. Watching our taxpayer's money magically float it's way into trump's properties and to his family is beyond reproach.
If anyone in these categories do not realize this by now, there is some really sick stuff going on in their households and states.
7
Unlike what it says in the article caption (who believes the NYtimes anyways except the left wing), the latest Gallop poll shows democrats are losing support to independents, and now the number of democrats equal republicans. Then of course, fewer republicans answers the pollsters, and perhaps (actually likely) republicans are now the majority party. The largest and expanding cohort are 65 years old+, that favor republican, which isn't being compensated by illegal immigration.
Link to gallop poll: https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
Moreover, Trump has been having an outstanding record at success lately. If that really is his wish list, there is a good chance he will accomplish it. The democrats will eat it again just like they have been the last 3 years .
1
If anything, the whole impeachment fiasco topped by Pelosi shredding the SOTU speech ensures Trump 2020
1
Can you imagine Michelle Obama putting a Medal of Freedom around Rush Limbaugh’s neck during the State of the Union?
Or being asked to? A man with the epitome insult to the true makings of the USA?
That’s how convoluted and crazy this country has become under Donald J. Trump. Leave it to him to think African Americans, singled out by him, will be foolish enough to support him.
The little girl in the pink sweater will be the poster child for the last Black American to be used by Trump. How low - using a little girl for his pretense of caring for education. Look at his Secretary of Education - Betsy DeVos - a woman with NO COLLEGE DEGREE in EDUCATION.
Fool once, Donald, but not again. Done.....
6
These people think that Trump’s problem with suburban women is that he’s different from anything they’ve seen before?
No, it’s his raging misogyny, serial abuse and constantly demeaning and insulting comments toward women that are his problem.
5
From The Times a few days ago..
Trump Ally Held Event Handing Out Cash in a Black Community - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/us/politics/trump-black-voters-cash.html
Connecting with Black voters? Why are some people are willing to settle for crumbs on the floor rather than a seat at the table.. being trotted out like a dusty sign that was in the garage waiting to be put on the corner??
Note to Trump and his "allies" engaging in this pandering and insulting behavior.. Do you wonder if you have been taken for the money.. And no vote on election day??
I hope so.
Trump's doctored twitter of Nancy Pelosi ripping Trump's manifesto of misinformation is another instance of his manic lying. The man has no domestic or foreign policy, he only deals in vitriol.
4
The republican senate disgraced their building by disgracefully conducting themselves in a white supremacist, trailer park level of legal jurisprudence.
There was no Impeachment acquittal, only a lawless cover up.
Trump will only win the praise of Vladimir Putin and the Russian Kremlin for blatant acts of treason against the government of the United States of America.
1
Where, in this article, is the quote from Donald Jr that the Times usually includes in its coverage of the Trump presidency.
1
Every suburban woman I know detests Trump. He has propelled more women to activism than ever before. As for him getting African-American support, that’s insulting given that Trump is a hero to racists and white supremacists.
3
Democrats used to be philosophical voters as did much of the American electorate. That's what gave us Kennedy, Johnson, Carter. After Reagan, there's been a steady growth in selfishness and the so-called independent voter. It's about "me and my wallet. Sure I care about babies in cages at the boarder and white supremacists marching in the streets of American cities. But I'm voting to keep my money." The RNC understands and exploits these voters with fear and xenophobia and more lies.
I am a Sanders guy who welcomes billionaire Bloomberg.
Because the first and most important question is: Who stands the best chance of beating this monster Trump and his gang.
R's have a 200 million dollar war chest.
Bloomberg has 250 times that.
On guns, income inequality, health care and virtually every other issue, tell me where Bloomberg is not to the left of Obama?
R's: Pitch black people.
D's: Cory Booker for VP.
Why not the others?
Pete is too conspicuously young, inexperienced and gay. Klobuchar won't get enough voters off the couch.
Biden is exhausted -- and wasn't much when he wasn't.
Warren is a school marm trying to be a soccer mom.
They are all GOOD, but none are as sure a thing.
Bloomberg singlehandedly overwhelms citizens united.
(250 times more money than republican war chest.)
All he has to do is stay alive, stay smart and use his team's talent:
Warren/Klobuchar: Supreme Court. (Senate approves its own)
Biden: Ambassador to Somewhere.
Pete: press secretary/trouble shooter/ gun problem?
Bernie: Advisor/Friend. Don't be like Hillary.
We've never had more reasons to vote Democrat & We need a 1932 landslide.
4
I have no sympathy for those who say they will vote for trump if this or that democrat is the nominee. How much evil must this man do before people realize no matter which democrat might be elected its still better than re-electing the most despicable and vindictive individual ever to somehow be elected as president.
6
Ha, that's a good one!
My friends of color please do not be fooled by Trump . Remember the disgusting name calling and unpresidential language that comes out of his mouth every day . Register to vote Blue and elect a decent person to run our precious country.
2
Trump avoided impeachment because of cowardly GOP senators. He is no way winning over people of intelligence.
2
He would continue to lose women. Isn’t he a pro at that?
To quote Carol King “Well it’s too late baby, it’s way too late”. We suburban women know you for what you are. You can’t erase the past 3 years, you can’t become someone else. We’re done.
5
The problem with any plans Donald Trump may have to win over minority voters is that almost all minority voters are aware of his overt pandering to white supremacists.
The problem with any plans Donald Trump may have to win over suburban voters is that most suburban voters have received an education at some point in their lives.
Perhaps he will be able to sway some gullible people by his ad blitzes. I hope not.
1
Keep on wishing!
It’s Fox News. The only people who defend Trump watch Fox News. I don’t think that demographic is going to budge
4
Trump sure has a problem with women. He buys them or grabs them by their ‘you know what’.
2
Although I'd never underestimate the Democratic party's ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, this year the presidential race seems like a no brainer. The Republicans are going to get slaughtered, and boy howdy they deserve it. If Trump wants blacks and suburban women he's going to have to grab them by the...
Iowa was a poor start, but NH will do better and then the Dems will be on their way. They could nominate a feral pig for the top of the ticket and I'd sure vote for it. After all, the Republicans did it 4 years ago and it certainly worked for them. And since this is the year we also elect the state legislatures ( thinking of those district lines to be drawn) and many governors, maybe we can finally get rid of some of that gerrymandering.
2
I hope that if and when a Democrat wins the WH, they will use the office in even a greater extent than trump has, and use it in any way possible to their advantage.
That means no more playing nice with these fascists.
Playing nice means you will be cut out of the game altogether.
Whatever it takes to win and stay in office.
That is now the name of the game.
Gloves off.
republicans have shown the ONLY thing they care about is getting and staying in office any way they can.
They have shown that clearly during impeachment.
As a lifelong Democrat, I'm saying this.
Frankly, I don't care if this comment is flamed.
I have already lost members of my family because of the hatred they have shown by voting for trump.
5
When he leaves office he will be indicted. Let’s make that happen ASAP.
3
What ? A difficult choice ? Fascism or FDR/LBJ democratic party principles ---that is the choice. It couldn't be clearer.
2
If the Democrats nominate Sanders or Warren, Trump will win. I I am a suburban in New Jersey and have been a democrat all my life, I am not billionaire but I am a a super=Senior (82 yrs) living on Social Securoty and Pension ans withdrawals from IRA that was decimated by Ceorge Bush, recovered by Obama and doing well to keep and my super=Senior wife going. Sanders is fanatic. Warren needs to get off her anti-billionaire kick. Not all billionaires are corrupt and dishonest. There are Bloombergs Bezos and Stephen and kimmels. Pleas, keep then Democrat. `
1
After awarding Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom, no one should vote for Trump.
8
Nothing, absolutely nothing will change even more circus and vitriol.
I hope by now even his base understands they’ve been played big time.
All he does is splitting the country to avoid his long awaiting justice to finally take place.
Criminals should be in prison not running the country unless you want to go back to Wild West again, with all the lawlessness we’re not too far!!!
2
“We don’t have a Democratic opponent yet,” said Mr. Cramer. “It’s always harder to run against the unnamed opponent. Once you have the opponent, you get to draw the distinctions.”
Once Trump has a specific opponent he can begin his name calling, defaming and twisting of lies in the hope of disqualifying some poor soul who is what he’s not, and will never be —> an honest person. A qualified candidate.
Can you imagine spending decades developing the skills that might, just might, allow you to qualify for consideration, to become the POTUS, only to find that you’ll be facing Donnie, the grade school playground bully?
How demoralizing.
The unpresidential president — the vindictive windbag who rules by bluff, intimidation and deceit.
Oh how we hoped against hope that this national nightmare might end with some of the the Republican senators showing us and our nation some honor and decency, but that was not to be.
The Republicans are gone. The party of Trump remains. Trump. McConnell, Graham, Doug Collins...
This is the United States of Anerica. The world needs us to be responsible, enlightened adults. There is so much real work to be done.
Please. Let us put an end to this circus of spineless lying clowns.
3
He can wish that the public has no memories and is totally ignorant. His method is like that of a dictator to provide constant propaganda and disinformation to persuade the public to vote for him. Hundreds of millions of dollars of false advertisements to be re-elected. Truly that is Trump’s real fake news. Let’s pray that the public is more intelligent than he thinks and are not persuaded as easily as the Republican Party and its leaders. Pray also that the election and the ballot box are not interfered with by Trump or foreign powers like Russia!
1
Black voter here. I don't care if Trump makes it rain $20! I find him completely repulsive and would never consider voting for him. His pandering to black voters, like talking credit for Kim Kardashians work, only makes me detest him more. News flash, not all black voters are concerned about criminal justice reform. And that's because we're not all criminals. I couldn't care less!
83
@Drug Money - Hey DM, Good luck to us.
Trump doesn't have to promise more free stuff (the paid parental leave for federal workers is an ill-advised exception -- unionized federal workers are not going to vote for Trump no matter what he does), so he appeals to people who pay their own way in life.
Will minorities, with their lowest-in-history unemployment, vote for Trump, whom the Democrats and Media say is a racist? Mostly, no, but Trump doesn't have to get all their votes; those who understand that they don't have to stay on the victim plantation will vote for Trump, even if they (like me) find him a boor and braggart. If, indeed, Trump gets an increased share of minority votes, he will certainly win in November.
Suburban women need to think about Trump policies (which benefit them, as well as all Americans) rather than react emotionally to the somewhat odious Trump.
1
Win. Win. Win. Trump headlines practically hand him the election next time. Meanwhile, Democrats "wobble," "surprise" by succeeding, "are targets," and "don't agree." Who do YOU think will win, nation's newspaper?
1
Sure wish his ‘to do’ list included a trip to China.
1
His policies have not change, his behavior is worse.
Why does he think he can win back the suburbs?
As for black votes, forgetaboutit. We will never vote for the the guy who questioned the citizenship and patriotism of Barack Obama.
Trump will be fired by the american voters come November 2020!
3
There are a couple of simple facts to stress. First of all Donald Trump is a clinical sociopath. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to know this. He is easily diagnosed by his observable behavior. Anyone who would vote for this dangerous man is not very intelligent. Secondly we don’t live in a democracy. So your vote actually doesn’t count that much depending on where you live. The election will be decided in a handful of swing states. There is no Trump voter who’s going to change his mind and I don’t believe there’s any such thing as an independent voter. I think that’s just a Trump voter who doesn’t want to state it publicly. We need to look out for voter suppression and do everything we can to turn out the vote. It will take huge numbers of voters to counteract the Republicans’ treachery.
5
Trump inherited a healthy growing economy still rising out of the 2007 financial disaster, a disaster arising out of the removal and enforcement of regulations by the Bush administration. Trump has no concern for fiscal responsibility and he is obsessed on spending that only benefits an autocrat. Trump is a hateful, vindictive, and friendless person and left unbridled he will allow the locust to consume America and only a dustbowl will be left.
Donald Trump benefits greatly from being untethered from the truth. Before he got away with doing anything, Trump got away with saying anything. While his opponents sometimes struggle and sometimes stumble to make stubborn facts fit and to make sense, Trump is like quicksilver and like fools gold. People flock to him not despite his lies, but rather because of them.
Ironically this least righteous and most impious of demagogues is most loyally served by a politics of faith. By a flock for whom GOP wedge issues are gospel. By generations schooled in extremist religious academies, our American madrassas. Where facts are reviled in favor of fanciful fictions. Where armageddon and apocalypse are prayed for. Where up is down every day, not just when the president's defense team take the field.
The advent of Trump was a long time coming. Tricky Dick Nixon, Reagan the genial vicious fabulist, the cherry picking Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld - all paved the way. Easy lies defeat hard truths any day. As long as we let them.
3
Good luck Trumpers. These groups haven’t suddenly forgotten his vindictive policies.
3
Democracy’s wish list:
Wake up people.
Don’t buy the con.
Don’t let him win.
1
The republican base will never surpass 50 percent. Half of the population have above average intelligence, while 50 percent have below average intelligence. We know where the GOP base is concentrated.
Dirty tricks, cheating, and non-stop lies won in 2016, and could well do so in 2020.
But president candidate Mike Bloomberg is smart and makes the current Electoral College president look small, very small. All he needs to do is play video clips of Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, Chris Christi, and his other opponents who rightfully bad-mouthed him in 2016.
1
Trump's problem is he smart enough to lie, mislead and hide behind his office. But Trump is not educated to know that it is wrong. Trump's challenge is to overcome Trump.
1
@Sean Peterson "Candidates proposing multi trillion dollar programs without honestly telling me how they are going to pay for them is a deal breaker. "
Excuse me, Sean, In 2016 Trump promised he had all sorts of "Plans" for healthcare, etc. All kinds, soon to be released. the Best Plans, etc, etc. Guess what. That was all lies. He never had a single plan (except to build a Wall, paid for by Mexico, but of course that, also, was a lie). So, Trump just lied about his plans. He never, ever talked about paying for anything. Indeed, is one and only legislative "victory" was a massive tax cut for the wealthy and corporations which now is resulting is trillion dollar ANNUAL deficits. So, he lied about that too .
So, what you are saying is that you will accept lies from Trump, but not actual, real plans from Democrats.
Tell me, when did you become insane?
1
DNC must refute Trump's lies immediately.
All Trump news conferences and campaign ads and news articles must be immediately (within minutes) followed by the truth in live broadcasts from DNC headquarters. Team of experts specifically developed and organized to stop the lies.
1
@libel
Rob Reiner should be the chairman of this DNC process/ committee.
The majority of America's wish list: a new president.
The Donors want four more years of looting. They willl pay and do whatever is needed to make that happen. The dumpster fire distraction is a feature, not a bug.
Wishing list time?
Ok, then here is mine:
- that the US has a decent human being as its next president. (a competent, informed and intelligent one would be a plus and a nice change too obviously..)
- that you manage to bring back a severe form of accountability for ALL involved in the disastrous policies, lies, crimes, posturing, misdemeanors, enablements and outright cover ups of the last 3 years.
- that the US learns from this experience, analyses, understands and takes measures against the roots of the sickness of wich trump is actually but a mere symptom.
So, in other words, Trump also believes in unicorns. Are there 2016 voters who didn’t support Trump then who feel they made the wrong choice? Oh, and under what rock will he find the woman or black constituent who now felt his welcoming embrace when Melania put the Medal of Freedom on Rausch Limbaugh?
Come on Dems. Get control the narrative. Somehow the myth has arisen that due to his fake acquittal that Trump is winning again.
Get a mantra such as NO WITNESSES NO DOCUMENTS NO TRIAL NO ACQUITTAL.
There is plenty of ammunition. Bring some ammunition to the discourse.
The flagrant cover-up is enough to show that Trump is losing.
Get it together and hammer the same point as he does.
Just like 2016 this election is for the Democrats to lose. If they choose to have a platform of fairytale promises this year it will be hard to attract the suburban voters who actually pay income taxes into their tent no matter who their candidate is. Despicable Trump will only be aided and abetted by a fantasy proposition by Democrats. IMO any centrist candidate that can think on their feet in a debate with Trump will trash him in the general election. So to the Democratic Party I only ask don’t repeat the mistakes of 2016. (BTW have heard from acquaintances that although they voted for Trump in 2016 they will not repeat that mistake in 2020. He has not gained any new support around here as far as I can tell.)
For a man who ostensibly has no strategy, cannot think, does not read, shoots from hip, he seems to know exactly what he is doing and where e is heading.
1
Trump will just lie. That is what he does.
#1 on the to do list should be:
Be nice to people.
Unless the democrats get their act together and fast, Trump will win.
Trump survived Mueller Reports, Trump also survived Impeachment. Now will he survive what happens on the night of Nov. 3, 2020? If NOT, he will resign as POTUS effective immediately making Mike Pence as 46th. Mike will pardon him for all his misdeeds. Life goes on. a 47th will be sworn in on January 21, 2921.
Today I saw an election campaign yard sign that read "Any Responsible Adult for 2020". Trump will not get re-elected.
1
Trump was not ‘acquitted.’ He was lucky enough to corral 51 co-conspirators to cover up his high crimes and misdemeanors. This is not acquittal or exoneration; it’s injustice by autocracy. America is a bleak place now, and if Trump wins again, we will need another Period of Reconstruction to bind the nation together again. Tragic times, indeed.
He should have thought of this plan ages ago. Good luck with that, genius.
This is the end of the road. If the citizens of this country aren't intelligent enough to realize that this is the last chance to wrest control from the Republicans and those that would accelerate income inequality while destroying our planet, we don't deserve to call ourselves the Land of the Free. Whether it's Bernie, Biden or someone else, minority voters have no right to complain about growing racism if they're not willing to go out and vote Trump et al out of office. The fact that it's even close is a massive embarrassment to our nation.
1
Trump fails in several economic areas: healthcare, the environment, the digital economy, and economic security. Add that to Trump's divisiveness, pettiness, lawlessness, demagoguery, and lack of knowledge, etc. Any sane person would vote as a never Trumper.
1
The Democrats need to point out that the economy has not improved for the working poor, thousands have lost health care, the tax cut benefited the wealthy and large corporations. Business friendly, conservative judges are making decisions that are against the best interest of the people and the environment. This country is being deregulated back into the era of environmental disaster. Families are still being bankrupted by medical emergencies, young people are handicapped by student debt and affordable housing and homelessness still plague large cities. Suicide and drugs are epidemic. Racism and hate groups are on the rise. Job creating infrastructure programs go nowhere. Climate change is real...the future is not fossil fuel. Wages have increased a pittance for the those on the lower end. We have a cruel immigration policy. There is a lot to talk about!! Get to it Dems and stop bickering!! (Read Tightrope by Nick Kristof!)
We keep hearing that Trump's Approval Rating has never been above 50%, but remember how badly he lost the popular vote. He only needs victories in a handful of swing states to continue as President, and Republican tactics are likely to bring that about. Elections are zero-sum games (see Game Theory) that Republicans play much better than Democrats.
2
45 fires a highly decorated Army Officer who has an outstanding work record, Lt. Colonel Vindman for being disloyal. A soldier he praises is a convicted war criminal. Further, at the National Prayer Breakfast he could not accept Jesus' teaching about loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. He admitted he hold onto contempt for those he labels his political enemies. As for boasting about the economy, come visit Lordstown, Ohio. While there was significant job growth, manufacturing went down 12%; and the new manufacturing businesses only employ a small number of people. His economic success depends upon the work done to recover from the Great Recession. Its like he began his Presidency standing on third base and made home and he thinks he hit a homerun! His State of the Union was not given, the Union was not on his mind, just the Republicans (he only addressed them). It was a rant expressing the state of his mind. I have heard numerous observations by reasonable journalists and historians that the current WH reminds them of Germany 1939! (cf. "Fear" and "A Very Stable Genius")
1
There is not a thinking woman I know who is not completely revolted by Trump and all he stands for. This crosses all age groups.
Yes we are so fortunate that the Democrats are pinning their hope on the current candidates. None can win the election against Trump . Perhaps in 2024 they will have learned what it takes to win the presidency these days. It's not:
We hate the current president
We care more about illegal immigrants than we do citizens (unless they are rich or an actor or actress)
We believe more in giving away free stuff than we do work.
We don't like Caucasians but we like all the other races.
We really like you if you are genderless or basically anything but heterosexual.
1
Trump said in 2016 he will provide economic opportunities and create jobs and bring manufacturing back to America.
The Democrats offered scorn and identity politics.
Trump has actually done what he said he would do.
Elizabeth Warren yesterday said Democrats need to ask for blacks " at least at election time" That's right the Democrats only care about blacks promising this and that which is never delivered because well, they want the black vote at election time.
Trump said to minorities like me, give me a chance what have to got to lose. Well I supported Obama for 2 terms and got nothing. I supported Trump for one term and got a huge difference in economic growth.
1
So wrong! Impeachment is not behind the "president," it's all over him, like a cloak of goodness over a demon.
And the Democratic race is not "muddled," it's clear as a bell, with Bernie as the victor, for Dems and for America.
Trump's "buoyancy" is short-lived. He'll learn that the hard way November 3. Permanently. Man up to that truth, little Republicans!
Unlike last time, the American majority will win.
1
Dopey outdated strategy long predating social media mimicking 1960 strategy directing fun bouncy jingle ads at housewives.
1
On Trump’s To-Do List: Take Back
The Suburbs. Court Black Voters.
Expand the Electoral Map. Win.
On Trump’s List: Take Black Voters
To Court. Expand The Suburbs.
Map the Back Do Electoral Win.
A Bernie vs Donald debate would contrast Sanders talking about health care, student debt, reviving the labor movement & raising the minimum wage while Trump raves incoherently about his own unapreciated greatness and how the Democrats are all Communists . . . . And Republicans want this contrast?
So Trump courts the Black vote through false and misleading advertisements, like his campaign's Superbowl ad about criminal reform. The cites the release of Alice Johnson, an African American who was "sentenced to serve life in prison for a nonviolent drug offense." What the ad fails to point out, the Washington Post does: Ms. Johnson was released because Kim Kardashian got Trump to pardon her. Meanwhile, there are many more deserving inmates than Ms. Johnson and no, the new "First Step Act" isn't going to really reform the criminal justice system - at least while Bill Barr or any Trump appointee is running the criminal justice system. Just more lies....
If he was to get Kavanaugh to resign and replace him with Merrick Garland he’d see some support from women, at least those that aren't in manufacturing or agriculture, which are both in recession.
1
"“I think the biggest problem that he has with suburban women is the part that so many in his base like about him,” Mr. Cramer said. “His rhetoric, his punching down at his opponents. It’s so different than anything they’ve seen.”"
OR, just maybe, it could be that over 20 women have charged Trump with sexual assault and he is a probable rapist. No normal woman will support Trump for ANY reason.
Trump is a terrible candidate who would have to be his opposite to grow a turnout. Based on his first 3 years in office this is unlikely. In 2016 when searching for a VP he offered Kasich the deal that Kasich would address domestic and foreign policy while he, Trump, would Make America Great. Since Trump inherited an economy whose fundamentals were very strong Trump's plan for success could have worked.
Kasich did not buy into the plan and Trump chose to meddle in domestic and foreign policy rather than let Pence take care of those details. The result is that suburban voters have even greater concerns -- way beyond Trump's extremely unpresidential statements and decisions that added to the Republican rout of 2018.
Perhaps Trump could cut a deal with Pence where Pence would take care of foreign and domestic policy and Trump Make America Great Again and have no further role in policy until after the election! This would boost Trump's reelection prospects and might even be welcomed by many Democrats.
Even James Carville publicly bemoans the state of the DNC and its lurch to the Left, warning it must quickly correct course. He reads the political compass better than those trying to read tea leaves as in this article.
1
The "Any Sane Adult" campaign signs leave out Trump and his enablers, for sure. Also, "private concern among Republicans" and a nickel won't buy you a cup of coffee.
1
I grew up in the suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s, and still live in exurbia. American suburbs are all about raising healthy, well-educated children, finding your piece of the American dream, and having access to the best of nearby metropolitan areas and the greener pastures of the ‘burbs. The values engendered in suburbia are all anathema to Trump: He deplores families, children, education, health care, fresh aire and water, and a chance to carve out a piece of the elusive dream. If he thinks suburbanites will embrace him in 2020, he is in for a rude awakening, and justifiably so.
Not exactly. Trump's true desire, and he has stated this many times, is to right the wrongs of the 2016 election. You see, he is deeply troubled by the fact that he lost the popular vote, especially to a woman. And only three states effectively gave him the electoral college, and not by much. Clearly, he resents that it wasn't a rout all around, especially considering the assistance of Russian operatives.
So, if anyone believes that Trump will play by the rules in 2020, then you're simply lying to yourself. We have much to fear this time about a rigged election, orchestrated by Trump and senior Republicans, with the assistance, again, of Russian agents. Trump's goal is not just to 'win,' but rather 'to do whatever it takes to win.'
5
Trump is not capable of changing the way he acts.
He will not win again - as if he did the first tiem.
1
Tragically as Bernie and Pete rise in the polls, we see Trump's approval rating rise in response to the point where it looks like Trump would beat either Bernie or Pete in November. Apparently Democrats increasingly are favoring candidates, Bernie and Pete, which the national general electorate simply will not elect president in 2020. If Bernie and Pete supporters actually believe that Bernie or Pete could beat Trump in 2020, they appear to be quite simply flat out wrong about those candidates.
2
A second term for Trump is only frightening if the house and senate are in republican hands. Truly the only way to move the agenda forward is to have a democratic majority in both houses. Democrats should actually run on that. Trump wants to be loved, has no ideology, and owes loyalty only to Putin. But republicans owe donors...so that means only tax breaks and budget cuts.
What’s a Democrat to do? It’s all about the down ballot baby. With a blue down ballot majority we could get great thing with a spoonful of sugar.
1
For the first time in my adult life, I'll be a "single issue" voter this year...that issue will be to get trump the out of office. Same goes for his Republican lackeys in Congress who protect and enable him at all costs to the country. I don't feel great about it, but the damage that trump and the GOP will do with another 4 years has left me no choice. It won't be safe for any of us.
Whether you support him or not, Joe Biden is right -- this year's elections will be for the "soul" of our country.
7
It is time for people to seriously consider the implications of having a leader who demands total loyalty. Where does this road lead, when there is no room for dissent? Is that the American way? Would you have a personal relationship with somebody like that?
Another four years is a long time. And it will embolden future leaders to adopt the same strongman tactics. Perhaps the Democrats can push that message.
1
Funny to see republicans thinking that Bernie would be the "easiest candidate to beat". Democrats thought exactly the same thing about Trump before 2016... and here we are.
1
Trump is the biggest socialist of all. But his socialism only helps the rich.
2
If the Iowa and New Hampshire Primaries are any indication of the challenger he’ll face, 4 more years is almost a certainty. The Democrats could not look more divided and dysfunctional than one could ever imagine.
1
It is clear that the Democrats face a major challenge trying to defeat Mr Trump. With an economy booming and extremely low unemployment, it would be a very naive Democrat strategist who didn't think that many voters will overlook Trump the man and vote for someone who hasn't collapsed the economy as many of his opponents claimed in the lead up to the last election.
1
DJT brings three years of what ruination management looks like to the majority of voters. With Putin as his role model for governing, he has managed to divide our country into two camps. A cult-like support for his decomposition of our democracy...and everyone else. The trump cult is strong, organized, monied and has managed to turn even principled representatives into zombie followers through fear and intimidation. The current front running Dem candidates all desire to be the better choice for America, bringing back ethical, moral and intellectual stability to our highest office. Democratic and independent voters are a diverse bunch. Over and over, past candidates have shown that they too develop cult-like followers (Bernie or Bust). We need a candidate that can unite the ‘everyone else’. We need a candidate that appeals to the majority of voters opposed to trump. By definition, congressional representatives and senators are elected to represent the respective views of their bases, not to act as executive leaders. We need a true executive candidate. Someone morally and ethically sound with a solid resume’ of executing plans and accomplishing long term goals. A true leader, not a tv personality. Mike Bloomberg might just fit the bill.
1
One thing I take from your article is that trump will tell each segment of the population exactly what they want to hear in order to get their vote. I am bothered first that this is who our president is and second that people continue to fall for this.
7
While doubling down on his base, Trump is also reaching out to other voters, who could help him win comfortably in November. But as millions of Americans have grown numb to his behaviour, those who rejected him in the past might still vote for him, as long as their personal lives won’t be affected by keeping him in office.
This antipathy towards politics and their indifference to Trump’s grossly immoral character will do more harm to the country than they want to realise.
Don't let the 2016 tragedy repeat itself, please.
3
I don't know too many people who have no issue with someone's brother being fired along with them who did nothing wrong. Trump inherited Obama's economy but now he's running a $1 trillion deficit, farmers are losing their markets, many jobs have no benefits, people are working more than one job to survive. Yet Trump sees that as a great economy.
3
Trump's To-Do List: Watch the Democrats implode. Win. That's all. The implosion: Failed Russion collusion. Failed impeachment. Failed Iowa caucuses. Unpopular party platforms (socialism, drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, sanctuary cities, college debt forgiveness, reparations, universal healthcare, end ICES, etc). Do nothing House of Representatives. Trump couldn't have written a better script. Best economy in decades, acquitted, and the Democrats in turmoil. Presidency is a done deal. The Democrats should focus and keeping the House. That may be over too.
1
I just finished reading The Girl With Seven Names -Escape from North Korea; great read for anyone wanting to get a better picture of what it’s like in the North. Anyhow, the young woman tells a very detailed story of what it was like growing up there, how she escaped and later how she rescued her family from the regime. I couldn’t help but think while I was reading the book how DJT has such similar characteristics to Kim Jung Un that it’s truly frightening. And now with his newly emboldened power my feelings are that there is no limit with Orange man. I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet.
2
Trump’s going to win folks. It’s a horrible truth. The apathy of the young, the general weakness of the Democratic candidates and the exhaustion he induces in even the motivated all factor in, but most importantly, the electoral math. He’s going to win and I’m fearful for our country with him unleashed with Mitch McConnell in a 2nd term.
1
Trump lost the popular vote. The Democratic “minority” represents about 17 million more people than the Republican “majority” and Mitch McConnell still controls the Senate. Americans must stop deluding themselves and realize they don't live in a democracy.
1
This President has never governed; he basically campaigned since inauguration. The taxpayers pay hundreds of millions for the President to fly around and hold rallies. This is another thing that urgently needs to be prohibited in the future, when the votes are there. A concise election period of no more than 3 month for primaries and general each is what we should have.
Shame on the news industry stuffing itself at the expense of our nation.
And while we are ar it, somehow end the constant polling. It only makes the pollsters rich; nothing else.
1
Whichever Democrat contender gets the final nod, the others should implore their supporters to vote for him or her. Trump will win because of intransigence within various Democratic camps where supporters will only vote for their hero and no one else. Democrats need to unite, share values, and share voters. Otherwise, “Four more years, four more years!”
If you vote for him you deserve what you get. Just because someone promises you pie in the sky or claims he is responsible for the economy going gangbusters or even if he is responsible for that, doesn't mean you have to vote for someone who stands for nothing good in this world. Here in Canada we were also promised pie in the sky, lower taxes, whatever, but refused to elect a candidate with a retrogressive agenda, there is a choice to be made.
" his re-election bid’s greatest weaknesses with an aggressive, well-funded but uncertain effort to win back suburban voters turned off by his policies and behavior."
His policies and behavior are well documented no during his tenure as potus...maybe some of his followers will accept only what he says but the rest of us have memories and we can read and watch his disguting behavior over and over.
Please do not use the word “re-election” when referring to Trump.
He is an asterisked office holder, having secured the presidency through a combination of foreign interference, voter suppression, and dark money donations, not to mention widespread voter apathy and an opponent who had an ill-advised campaign.
Trump was never “elected” in the first place, at least not fairly, democratically, and legally.
Calling the Democratic race for the candidacy "muddled" misses the point that all coverage is good coverage. The polite, issue based competition of the democrats is garnering media attention in sharp contrast to the bombastic, rude & ill informed republican side. I don't think Trump is winning votes by his bad behavior when, even in a tough competition, the democratic candidates all show statesmanship that he lacks.
“Every country has the government it deserves.” - Joseph de Maistre
Trump’s election (and an increasingly likely looking reelection) is just an indicator of the moral degradation of the American society. It’s not like there was a sudden surge of racism and xenophobia after his election. It was always there. Trump just gave it an outlet and normalized it. Only a united front against him will stop the republicans. It doesn’t seem likely to happen.
1
These are desperately sad days for the United States. Those voters who are loyal to Trump personify the desperate sadness: they have been abandoned by the traditional ties with Democrats, that party reeling with ever increasingly vitriolic infighting and bungled Iowa caucuses. If Trump is re-elected in November, it will be because the anger caused by desperation and sadness still perpe
1
Thanks for giving Trump a road map on how to corrupt American politics even further and longer. It’s-sad to watch from afar as a great democracy slowly slides into demagoguery and autocracy.
2
I know three of the 100k Michiganders who left the top of their tickets blank in 2016.
One (male, suburban, affluent, Boomer) is now a full on Trumpist.
One (male, suburban, affluent, Millennial) thinks Trump is a horrible person but is voting for him in 2020 for policy reasons.
The last (female, suburban, affluent, Boomer) was an avowed Never Trumper until about four months ago, and now thinks she might vote for Trump because "the left has gone crazy and terrifies me."
While Democrats play to their base and otherwise irrelevant Twitter activists, the GOP is focused on strategically getting the voters that actually matter - swing voters in moderate swing States - with an effective message.
Democrats need to pull it together, and fast. Conservative identity is rising, according to a recent Gallup poll, largely in reaction to the excess of the far left. The economy is good. People are used to Trump, and the fact that the sky hasn't fallen and their own lives have improved takes wind out of a lot of the most dire Democratic rhetoric.
2018 wasn't a blue wave; it was a normal mister
Time for Dems to stop talking about pronouns and socialism, stop appealling to the Brooklyn and Seattle bubble, and get real about actually winning.
Here in the 'burbs, trump supporters are as loyal as Lindsey Graham.
As for black folks, trump's major effort will be discouraging them from voting and if the past is any guide, that won't be difficult.
12
@Brad
Trump got twice the black vote as Romney did in 2012, based on his "What do you have to lose?" comment in 2016. Black workers now have the lowest unemployment rates, and the smallest discrepancies with white unemployment rate in history. his favorability with Black voters is up to 30%, per Gallup.
Republicans have noting to gain from discouraging Black voters. They are shifting to Republican.
The brains of coastal Democrats will explode in 2020.
Please explain why it is that minority turnout is lowest in the state of Massachusetts. Because Democrats do not care about minority turnout but do benefit from the false allegation that Black people are disenfranchised.
Given the doctored video showing Nancy Pelosi tearing up her copy of the SotU variety show script during the Tuskegee Airmen segment (that both Facebook & Twitter refuse to take down on account of them being so scrupulously honest & ethical & pro-free speech), it would seem djt's major effort with "black folks" will be to lie to them, which, if the past is any guide, won't be difficult for him. As for discouraging them from voting, perhaps he can get some of his "very fine people" from Charlottesville to work the polls. The subtle bigotry of low expectations is alive & well--at least in Oregon.
2
@Brad Your comment insults the intelligence of many black voters. Did you not see the voter suppression that occurred in Georgia against Stacey Abrams? We turned out to vote, but our votes were denied. When we turn out to vote, we vote for the better conscience of the country. 98% of black women voted for Hillary. More than 90% of black women voted against Roy Moore. Please rethink your generalizations before making them.
2
Trumps main appeal is simple:
(1) All who do not support Trump are enemies of the state.
(2) Trump is the only person who is strong enough and ruthless enough to root out those enemies no matter what it takes.
(3) l'etat, c'est moi.
Does this appeal to you?
26
What about the leaks every time something else pops up? Is that acceptable to you? I suppose if it is against Trump, it is. Personally, I think that if someone leaks some classified info, and I dont care against which side, they're both the same, about 30 years in prison should be the penalty.
1
@IowaFarmer "Does this appeal to you?"
No. Your bad caricature does not appeal to anyone.
The real Trump does, and unlike Democrats, his main focus is to make people prosperous. Which he succeeded.
(3) doesn‘t appeal to me because I don‘t know French. :-)
"Being ASTUTE."
The Cameleon
1
The man is poison to our country and to our world. I will never, ever forgive the cowardly action by Republican Senators to get him off the hook for the crimes that he was impeached for. I pray that they will get their just rewards as soon as possible and before Trump finishes destroying our country. They deserve the worst rewards. In my opinion, anybody that would consciously vote for this man has no conscience.
87
Firing Vindman's brother along with the venerable Alex Vindman is exactly what happens in N Korea, where up to three generations of a family member can also be punished for a "crime," usually disagreeing with the Dear Leader.
We all know that Trump admires Kim and his murderous policies. How many more will we see implemented here? Remember Trump's dismissal of the complicity of Kim in the death of Otto Warmbier.
64
@Pat
Vindeman testified to Congress that he did not agree with Trump's foreign policy. His twin brother sat behind him while he testified.
They are not apolitical civil servants. Their jobs were to support the foreign policy of the President, not to substitute their opinions for his. They were not punished or fired. They were reassigned to jobs where they will no longer be able to undermine policies of the government.
Otto Warmbier entered North Korea in December 2015 and was arrested in January 2016. His brain injury occurred when he was sentenced in March 2016.
Obama did absolutely nothing to get him released from North Korea on humanitarian or any other grounds. there is no way of knowing whether he could have recovered if he had had adequate care in March 2016. But keeping him in a comatose state for 17 month until Trump got him released so that at least he could die in the company of his family and loved ones.
How can you dismiss the extraordinary complicity of Obama in the death of Otto?
1
@Pat Respectfully, your comment Is a false equivalency. Kim has his opponents murdered. Vindman still has a job in the US military with no reduction of rank or compensation. Quite a difference.
It would be great if we could relax and get a clear look at the way Trump always needs to rile everyone up, to get our blood boiling in order to be in control. Trying to figure out who can beat him from a place of desperation is not necessary. We can do this. Democrats do not need to stand up to Trump.They need to ignore him.
Trump is a nothing burger.
Any Democrat can ignore Trump. Any Democrat can beat him in the next election. Nothing Trump says is worthy of a response. Nothing. There is also no point in confronting him. The best offense is to act like he is not there.
Trump rants and rages and makes up idiotic names for his rivals. That is not professional. No defense is needed against being called names. If you have to say something, maybe say, "This is a presidential debate, not a school playground. Name calling is inappropriate here. We are speaking in front of the American people. Have some respect."
A calm relaxed candidate who could speak the plainly to the American people, who could remain unflappable in the face of Trump's unrelenting attempts at "winding them up" could easily win. Democrats and many others are going to vote Democrats no matter who. So let's sit back and watch Trump lose control when his tactics stop working. He resorts to physical intimidation, ignore that too.
Never get upset at having to interact with an evil human being.
52
@Thinking "who could remain unflappable"
Pelosi tearing up the SOTU transcript sure did not help. She lost the House elections right there.
Yup...you’re wrong. Your entire post is why the Democrats lost the last election and why they’ll likely lose in November. Pretending like Trump’s not there and not attacking him is an automatic loss. Haven’t you figured that out by now?
@Mike
It is not about winning
Or losing
It is about America and the Constitution and American values. It goes beyond all the imaginary winning.
Winners and losers have to stick together and be honorable and care about the truth.
I am a Democrat and can't stand Donald Trump. I crossed party lines to vote for Reagan after the miserable Carter years, but am proud to have voted Democrat in every other election.
But perusing these comments, I see that perhaps 90% or more of the comments come from people who could only be described as "die hard" Democrats. To many of these people, Mitt Romney is a fascist.
The fact that many Democrats, like far-right Republicans, seek an echo chamber environment says a lot about America.
As I look at the current atmosphere, I see little likelihood of our choosing a candidate or platform that will appeal to many moderate Republicans or Independents in November.
Donald Trump will be in office another four years.
26
I predict the largest voter turnout in history led by out youth. Large turnouts will always beat Republicans. our children will take back their country.
Spoken like a true Democrat. The ones that divide us with their negativity.
Dems must appeal to the 40 million who did not vote in the last presidential election. And the many Black voters who stayed home. Plus the young must come out strong.
We once again are in need of a strong appealing message and not fight Trump. Thst's what he wants.
We need a strong candidate sooner than later.
@delta blues — You are correct! The “New Left” is a scary proposition! We always knew the far right was scary but this left makes the right look like they’re selling cookies and lemonade!
The number one flaw in their platform is their religion: “Climate Change.” That is not an environmental thing—it’s a 100% political/economical thing.
Any sane person is positive towards clean air, clean soil and clean water legislation but these people have twisted it quite nicely to fit their political aims. Example: carbon dioxide is plant food, wherein plants give us oxygen in return for us and other natural segments creating CO2, but the left is working 24/7 to turn it into a poison in our minds as if it were carbon monoxide! They say it’s warming the planet but they don’t ever say what atmospheric CO2 parts per million number we should strive for; in what corporation anywhere do they work without a target number? It doesn’t exist!
President Trump is the man you love to hate, but he’s the only one putting up a barrier to these new beings who would make day into night and night into day.
I am a black female, approaching my mid fifties. I am single working mother/grandmother. There are so many things that repel and disgust me about Trump and his coterie of miscreants that I fear for the future of our youth. I think what causes me to scream the loudest is when Trump continually touts the employment rate for Blacks—-I don’t have a degree but I have NEVER had a problem obtaining employment. And nothing that I have seen tells me that Trump has done anything for anyone but himself and HIS group. I would sooner walk up onto the interstate at 5 p.m then vote for him. My family and friends ALL feel the same.
85
@Cherie Childs
You live in California. When you vote, there are rarely Republicans on the final ballot, Democrats having eliminated Republican primaries, disenfranchising Republicans. You chose between two Democrats for the Senate contests in 2016 and 2018. You live, effectively, in North Korea, where you can vote for whichever party candidate you like best or dislike least. It can be a Hobson's choice.
In the rest of the country, voters have a choice. If the voters don't want a fast train to nowhere, politicians cancel the project and devote the funding to other things, like fire prevention or building water supply infrastructure. In California, when it turns out that the train to nowhere is going to cost four times the original estimate, the politicians kill it, rather than continuing to squander taxpayer money on something taxpayers don't still want.
You have never even heard a positive slant on conservative government policies and believe the Democrat narrative that all Republicans are evil.
That's what happens in a single party totalitarian political environment.
1
@Cherie Childs Thank you for your comment. trump makes it sound as if African Americans weren't successful until he came along and that the black community owes all of its success to trump and him alone. It's incredibly condescending and presumptuous. Especially when the reality is that his policies have very little to do with the employment numbers or his so-called "great economy".
2
Thnk you for sharing this!
It confirms what I was thinking as I read in the article about Trump’s sudden interest in black people’s votes: “No way is anyone gonna fall for this con.”
1
His #1 concern: Get re-elected, so that he can run out the statute of limitations clock on all of the crimes that The Southern District of New York is waiting to prosecute him for the second he's no longer POTUS.
He doesn't care about the needs of his base, or anybody else not named Donald J. tRump.
39
@Kevin C.
The statute of limitations is stopped while he is president if he is successful at arguing he is not subject to prosecution while president. The federal government, [the Southern District] is not prosecuting him. If he were guilty of any federal crimes, it would have been appropriate for Schiff to have included same in his impeachment. Schiff instead chose to charge him with non crimes and did not have sufficient evidence to convict. If Democrats hold the House in 2021, I'm sure we can look forward to another four years of failed impeachment tries.
The state of NY, the NY AG, does have outstanding allegations that they are attempting to pursue.
1
@Kevin C. One has to be suspicious that he was so quick to blame the Clintons for Epstein's convenient death. It might well have been most convenient for Trump. After all there is a video of him ogling cheer leaders with Epstein at Mar a Lago and his "Jeff is a great guy" comments from earlier.
Why so quick to blame the Clintons on Epstein's death? I always thought the haste of that comment was swept away and left unexamined.
The accusation suddenly withdrawn by his accuser before the 2016 election - she was clearly terrified- has also been swept under the carpet. As with Bill Cosby he says all the women are lying and just want his money. Trump is fighting for his life because 2020 defeatl, as you hint would be legally catastrophic for him. As usual he is fighting courageously for Donald Trump and that is all. History will inevitably call him the most expansively corrupt president ever- and Barr will not be around to protect him.
“I would vote for my seven-year-old nephew over Trump. He’s more qualified. He’s kind. He’s well read. He wouldn’t fire people without merit (or threaten to imprison them). He would know not to award a Presidential Medal Of Freedom to someone as toxic as Rush Limbaugh.” — Signed a female swing voter from suburban Nevada
72
@JT Jones "I would vote for my seven-year-old nephew over Trump. He’s kind."
If that seven-year-old nephew were beaten up for three years, like Trump, with no reason, then by age ten he wouldn't be so kind...
1
Trump's appeal is much deeper than NY Times readers think or say. There's a lot of people for Trump that just keep their opinions to themselves because of the incendiary reactions those on the left have to anything Trump. And that is why Trump will run the table. The same people who disparage Trump are the same folks he seems to steamroll every week. This election, the swing vote will be the African American voter
Mayor Pete? Do you really think he can get more black vote than Trump? There is ZERO chance of that. No one will talk about that because it makes folks uncomfortable.
Bloomberg? 32 ounce soda? No chance. He can spend all his money and it won't matter.
Warren? She hides behind a campaign aid, coming off of a plane. If she can't even face a reporter's camera, do you think she has any chance with Trump?
Biden? Seriously? He's like leftovers in the fridge.
So you are left with Sanders. And AOC campaigning for him. That is the enthusiasm ticket.
Now if he picked Hillary for VP, enough people would hold there nose and vote for him.
15
@DKE, you had me until the last paragraph. I fully expected you to conclude that we’re doomed. I would have preferred that to your suggestion.
I agree about AOC, she might be a good bartender, maybe, maybe not, but some of her comments and answers show her inexperience, or maybe her level of intelligence.
Trump and his sorry band , I would wait awhile before bursting open the keg to celebrate. Bernie will not be the Democrats nominee in 2020.
As we also recognize that running a Socialist for President would be tantamount to political suicide .
We will however run a candidate who will beat Trump especially in the suburbs. There is no doubt in my mind about that Trump has been and remains poison to suburbanites .
One thing Trumps advisors are correct on his 'Event' last Thursday did nothing but remind us how truly awful he is.
17
@Alec
I think you are comprehensively correct. The Trumpists and their stooges are grossly underestimating the power of his opposition.
Good. Let them underestimate you.
1
So trump and the Repubs will take out the sharpie pens and spew forth lies and fake stuff all over the place - you can take that to the bank. They will lie, divide, call people childish stupid names, drive fear into vulnerable Americans and tell no truth. They showed just how untruthful they are by voting against truth during the impeachment and trial process. No one, no info with any truth was allowed.
So - given all this dark energy, the only 2 real questions are:
1. how many American voters will actually vote (the larger the number the more likely trump and the Rs will be crushed)
2. How many Americans will actually believe the guy with the fake hair, fake tan, and the mind and mouth of a 7 year old bully
19
@LoveCourageTruth
Right, The are underestimating the intensity of Trump's dedicated opposition. But don't underestimate the assisted cheating that is going on even now as Mueller warned
If anyone believes anything the Trump campaign and Trump say about the re-election strategy then you will be duped by one of the world’s most malign conmen once again.
“President Trump's team is presiding over a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar digital operation, an operation that carries his campaign's message across just about every digital platform available. And that message, says journalist McKay Coppins, could result in the most extensive disinformation campaign in U.S. history. He's been writing about this for The Atlantic.”
Microtargeting each individual who has a digital footprint with lies and what they WANT to hear that corroborates their opinion rather than facts and reality.
Coppins experienced it firsthand. He admitted that the disinformation caused him to question what he knew was true.
All major journalism outlets need to team up and uncover this diabolical Manchrian voter/candidate effort. There might be some who will wake up from the Trumplicon hopefully.
15
@Agent 99 I read that same article and it's very alarming. Trump's campaign is going full-steam ahead with propaganda tactics and outright brainwashing and thought manipulation. I wish it was receiving more attention by the press.
People would do well to just stay away from social media as much as possible and get back to old fashioned grassroots political activism - organizing protests, writing letters, making phone calls, knocking on doors, driving people to the polls, volunteer for voter registration drives, etc.
1
Trump can win two ways:
1. Cheating (GOP path)
2. America goes back to 1850s.
Both are bad..
Let's Make America Great Again together.
12
Here are the problems facing the democrats:
50% of voters will not vote as usual.
Electoral College.
Citizen's United.
Gerrymandering.
Trump's help again from Russia and any other despot nation on the planet who hates democracy.
The democrats will win the popular vote again but that doesn't count.
11
Here are the problems facing the democrats:
50% of voters will not vote as usual.
Electoral College.
Citizen's United.
Gerrymandering.
Trump's help again from Russia and any other despot nation on the planet who hates democracy.
The democrats will win the popular vote again but that doesn't count.
9
Here are the problems facing the democrats:
50% of voters will not vote as usual.
Electoral College.
Citizen's United.
Gerrymandering.
Trump's help again from Russia and any other despot nation on the planet who hates democracy.
The democrats will win the popular vote again but that doesn't count.
7
In my opinion Trump's dictatorial plan is almost complete. It builds on decades of Republican groundwork. Voters valuing democracy must be totally clear about the fact that they have the fight of their lives on their hands. This is not an ordinary election.
1. Gerrymandering is common in many places.
2. Democrate leaning voters are increasingly prevented from voting.
3.Control of many state legislatures is now in the hands of what should be recognized as right wing extremists.
4.The courts have over decades been actively stacked with Republican leaning judges. Even the Supreme Court's impartiality is seriously in question.
5. The Senate has been eviscerated to the point that it refuses to look at the information central to impeachment.
6. Republican Senators have condoned foreign interference in US elections to serve their purpose.
7. The electoral college favours Republicans.
8. Facebook & Cambridge Analytica highlights the lengths that Republican kingmakers are willing to go to subliminally manipulate how people think.
9. Republican allies own most of the media and drive his agenda.
10. Trump actively undermines public trust in Government.
11. He has secured a strong funding base to finance his campaign by giving tax breaks to the rich.
12. The Reps are ruthless and will use the "hang the dead chicken around their neck mentality" (see previous Daily Podcast) to discredit their opponents.
Many will vote for this society if it means they have a job.
11
@Ben
And when the Dems win, they will say it was rigged by the fictional Deep State without any evidence at all.
You forgot the most important part of his plan to win: cheat.
26
We need to impeach Trump now for crimes against humanity for supporting coal ,fracking and oil. Pope Francis told oil men not long ago if your product is destroying our environment you can be charged with crimes against humanity. We need to start charging him we have Pope Francis blessing by him saying that. Lets do it and have this impeachment run right into our election.
8
@D.j.j.k. Yes, just saw a couple of Hollywood A-listers come to New York to talk about the hazards of oil, etc. They flew by private jet, thereby luring more carbon than we do in a decade.
@D.j.j.k.
RE: for supporting coal ,fracking and oil.
D.j.j.k. unless you are off the grid it's likely your power source for your post came from fossil fuel.
Not only will Trump win more Suburban and black votes, but also get support from legal immigrants of all colors and ethnicities. The Democrats are trying to get votes playing identity and victimhood politics, doing dirty tricks like the Impeachment drama. They act as if they own the immigrant community and are the only voice to represent them. But most of the voters including immigrants, care more about economy, jobs, securing borders and stopping illegal immigration. President Trump is going to secure an even bigger victory this time.
19
@CT Resident
What? He might win by minus 2 million votes instead of minus 3 million votes?. Illegal immigration spiked under Trump. Obama had it under control
13
@CT Resident
My in laws are all working class legal immigrants. They barely speak English.
They LOVE Trump because they see him as supporting people who work hard and follow the law.
Democrats need to open their eyes.
@CT Resident I doubt it.
It would be a mistake for anyone to assume that because the stock market appears strong now, defeating Donald Trump will be an uphill battle. In fact, Trump is more vulnerable than a typical incumbent president because
(1) the level of the stock market in February does not tell what it will be in September or later,
(2) investors happy about the stock market are largely Republican voters who already planned to vote for Trump,
(3) the stock market level is not the same as the health of the economy,
(4) the current high levels reflect, in part, short sellers covering their bets,
(5) the economy Trump inherited from Barack Obama was strong and getting stronger, and many Americans will be persuaded of that historical fact by effective Democratic advertising,
(6) the mercurial Trump personality, which annoys and embarrasses a majority of Americans, is also likely to reflect itself in an erratic management of the economy,
(7) Donald Trump counts on fear-mongering in international affairs to make himself appear indispensable to the American electorate, but that adventurism upsets the stock market, and
(8) the vast majority of Americans who will be casting votes in November have bigger financial problems to worry about than the level of the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
If Michael Bloomberg is involved in the presidential race – either as the Democratic nominee or as a voice loudly supporting the nominee -- the amateurism of Donald Trump will be obvious.
19
Trump promised farmers more exports. So far the exports are imaginary but the $16 billion in tax dollars he gave them to keep them quiet are real. He promised auto workers more jobs, but auto jobs shrunk. He promised coal miners more jobs, but so far there are fewer.
It is ironic that the economy and wages are better in blue areas while red areas remain down. And yet!
18
@Beth look the stock market has gone up under trump but it tripled under Obama. Trumps first 3 years job growth is a million less than Obama last 3 years.
@Beth
The blue areas have increased the minimum wage. Trump's economic accomplishments are a mirage.
@Beth - guess you missed part 1 of the new China trade deal. Helps farmers.
i don't know how he thinks he's going to accomplish any of this seeing as how every time he open his mouth he creates a new controversy or contradicts himself. most if not all of the last campaign "promises" have yet to be met, and now there is noise about going after social security and medicaid and medicare. my guess is that somehow he gets re elected our seniors and retires will be the first ones thrown under the bus by the trump led gop.
10
Win back the suburban voters? Trump got 97.1% of the vote in the Iowa Republican caucus. Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and other metros have lots of suburban voters. What a great time to register their protest against Trump.
So where were they caucus day?
12
@Erik even Republicans don't care about the primaries o the RNC stepped in and won't let anyone run against trump in the primary.
The biggest hurdle trump faces is his own actions. Of course, many Americans refuse to pay attention to what he does, so all he will have to do is shout "HILLARY CLINTON" and breeze into another term.
6
@Tom
Not sure why that would help, since she won't be on the ballot.
@Tom
Yes Hillary has so much baggage it's good for another election.
The Democrats do have a heavy lift. The system heavily favors the incumbent. Trump has unlimited resources. The economy is strong, and that generally carries the day. Trump has several serious vulnerabilities though. His personal failings, his human rights record, the wasteful wall and the promise that Mexico would pay for it, and his absolutely irresponsible and horrific environmental record. I didn’t mention health care because at this point, that’s a he said he/she said argument. Trump’s threats to social security and Medicare could also be game changers. Then there is the Democratic nominee. There are good arguments on both sides for Sanders on the one hand, and a moderate on the other. I am beginning to believe that a strong moderate is the best hope for a Democratic victory. Of those, it seems like Bloomberg might be the guy.
8
I agree. A strong moderate is the only answer to Trumpism and a salvo for the republic.
I am a female Trump supporter who voted for him in 2016 somewhat reluctantly. Today I am an enthusiastic Trump supporter who will vote for him in 2020. I do not always like how he expresses himself but I like his policies. He has made America great and he needs to continue. His support right now is at 49 percent according to Gallup. Not too shabby.
19
@KMW And yet most of the people I know who voted for trump are horrified and will not be voting for him again. And with good reason.
Which Trump/Republican policies are MAGA followers thankful for? Policies that take away their health care? Policies that require them to work more than 1 job to make ends meet? Education policies that hurt our public schools and make college unaffordable? Policies that put more pollution into our air and drinking water? Policies that break up immigrant families?
Are they happy to know that Trump couldn't care less about them, and he favors billionaires instead? Are they happy to pay taxes they can't afford, so the very rich can pay less? Are they happy that their children will live in a dangerously polluted environment because trump doesn't believe in science?
Or maybe they want to turn our democracy into a dictatorship, knowing their children will have to live with the consequences.
1
"He has made America great".
Really? I think that would need some explaining to say the least.
You do realize that it is a very vague and delightfully simplistic slogan on one side, and on the other, as seen from an informed and rather uninvolved perspective, that the reality seems to be quite exactly the opposite?
1
I'm confused, what has he done to make America great?
1
The problem: Democrats want to be right. Republicans just want to win. And they will, if we do not go to their level and fight back.
12
DJT is raiding the Dems loyal and most dependable vote bank of African Americans (AAs) and he may be succeeding. According to Sen. Tim Scott of S. Carolina, 30% of AAs could be voting enthusiastically for DJT in Nov 2020 over any of the current Dem. presi. candidates who may turn out to be their eventual nominee. If that turns out to be true then not only will the president win the electoral college but also the popular vote. No wonder AOC has sour grapes and is alleging that AA voters are being bought out by DJT. No madam AOC, the new generation of AAs are not brain washed and cannot be bought out with promises of entitlements, they want some thing that every American is entitled to. Equal opportunity, justice and representation and are probably drawn to the clarion call of DJT to give them that and more with simple words "What do you have to lose?"
As far as taking back the suburbs, DJT will have a harder task. The main stream media with its identity politics driven news coverage has turned the suburbanites against him with bombardment of negative propaganda against DJT's tweets and personality. It is actually the suburbanites who have immensely benefited from the record high stock market levels, the preservation of social security and the Medicare for all above age 65 and the reduction in crime and drug addiction. Come No. 2020, the suburbanites will be petrified with the possibility that things could go downhill for the nation and themselves, if DJT is not reelected.
12
@Girish Kotwal Whether he can get suburbanites depends on whether D's make people aware that Teump has already announced that if he's re-elected, he intends to take a hatchet to all three major components of the social safety net: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
@Girish Kotwal Blacks are not voting for him.
@Girish Kotwal trump makes it sound as if African Americans weren't successful until he came along and that the black community owes all of its success to trump and him alone. It's incredibly condescending and presumptuous. Especially when the reality is that his policies have very little to do with the employment numbers and his so-called "great economy".
Also, what he neglects to mention is that the income gap between African Americans and Caucasians hasn't improved one bit...if anything, it's gotten worse.
As for winning the African American vote, Trump's strategy is the same one he used in 2016 -- a widespread disinformation campaign backed by dark money from people like the Koch brothers. This propaganda effort specifically targeted black voters in order to suppress their vote.
Stay vigilant, folks!
After an uplifting State of the Union, seeing Pelosi rip the transcript may have played to her base, but sure did not win her many independents.
An edited version has become a Facebook and Twitter sensation, viewed maybe 10 million times. Her people desperately ask for it to be taken down.
It may cost her a million votes, and the House...
15
Hate to break the news to you but most independents skipped the state of the union and are paying more attention to the Bloomberg ads flooding the market.
@novoad
Pelosi isn't running for president, is she? So how could she lose all those votes? Votes for what office?
Well if Pelosi ripping up paper is more off-putting than Trump giving the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh, there really is no hope.
We all know that Trump employs illegal immigrants, what he does and plans to do for immigrants. He used federal employees as pawns during a budget battle, requiring many essential employees to continue working without any idea of when they would receive their next paycheck. We have seen his retribution against government employees that upheld their oath to the Constitution by testifying during the impeachment investigation
As demonstrated by his policies and actions, he does not truly value federal employees (or US citizens).
As a Michigan citizen, I was not aware that Democratic NY Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney authored the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act--the very bill that this story identifies that the White House is going to help with "policy issues directed at swing states."
On July 20, 2017, the conservative Heritage Foundation wrote that paid family leave "would establish a new national entitlement that could expand as other federal entitlements have, potentially costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year."
At every opportunity as this election campaign continues, I would hope the NYT will identify that this bill, that Trump will brag about, was authored by a Democrat, has been opposed by conservatives and is simply an attempt to "bribe" voters in those swing states.
5
My wish for Trump: lose the cities, lose the suburbs, lose swing states. Lose the electoral college. Lose, lose lose.
20
If President Trump should win reelection, who will be more shocked – his supporters, or his detractors.
Make no mistake – as an incumbent, he is in the driver's seat.
6
I’m not dooming-and-glooming yet. It’s more than eight months to the election, which is an eternity in Trump Time. Watching his White House post-impeachment rant, I’m sure his base was titillated. But I wonder how many voters were shaking their heads and adding it to the long list of intemperate and dishonest behaviors he’s compiled over the past three years. A positive economy, with a traditional president, is an effective selling point. But Mr. Trump has been, proudly and overtly, neither traditional nor presidential. He’s been mean and petty and whiny. That sits in the emotional gut in a way that no campaign ad can easily shake.
Nonetheless, I don’t quite know where America is at nowadays. If his conduct is considered acceptable, if not laudable, then I guess a second term is possible, and the country will get the president it deserves. I’ll vote for the Democratic nominee whoever it is, but I worry about the field. Each has strong points, but none of them stir passion in me, like President Obama or President Kennedy or, for that matter, Rep. Schiff during the impeachment. Where is that person who calls to our better selves? Bring this, and I would rest much more easily that change is coming.
4
The only way this weak, corrupt Individual One could hope to win in November would be by foreign election meddling, and intimidation. He is unlikely to succeed in his cheating this time because so many honest people will be vigilant about it.
The memory of the general public is far longer than Trump and thugs think.
No one should ever forget the blatant attempts to subvert the Constitution for his own benefit, or the picture of a war hero, Lt. Col. Vindman being perp walked out of the White House because he once again stood up for his country, or the Republican Senate's sham trial, the interference in military justice and freeing a war criminal. I could go on and on.
9
About Trump's "Economy" --most college educated suburban voters know that Trump has been feasting off a table set over eight long years by Obama.
16
@Val Landi
In 2024, after Trump's second term, some voters will still be claiming it was Obama's economy.
The 'burbs are too wise to fall for Trump, who sacrifices the future for a sugar high of the present. Now he's getting rid of all the career international experts on the U.S. National Security Council. Gee, Trump voters, firing all our experts, what in the future could possibly go wrong?
8
Trump rolled into office thanks to the efforts of his friends over in Russia, and there is no indication that those same cronies aren't working for him again right now. Further, we have, in no particular order: gerrymandering, cheating (e.g., outgoing Republican governors disempowering incoming Democrats, cancellation of Republican Presidential primaries), and the failure of the Republican-led Senate to enact any sort of secure elections act. None of this portends a fraud-free election in November.
Trump needs to remain in office to remain out of jail. Doesn't hurt that he and his family of grifters are making money hand over fist at the same time. Give him a chance, and he will drive the economy into the ground, take healthcare away from everyone, and help eliminate clean air and water as we know it.
When Bill Clinton ran, it was all about "the economy, stupid." Now, it should be about "healthcare, stupid," as well as "climate change, stupid." and most important of all, "don't be stupid."
Vote him out, whoever his opponent is, and dump his enablers, too, while we're at it.
27
@Charlemagne - the Russia card. Yaaawwwnnn...
@Charlemagne how in your right mind do you continue to believe the Russian nonsense? Vote Trump out. Fair enough. He doesn't deserve to be President but don't just parrot a debunked story
It's always been divisive. What do you expect from a two party system? At least we now have a Leader who will build a wall, support Law Enforcement at all levels, deport illegal alien criminals, shut down sanctuary cities, and not worry about a lifetime career in Politics. Get Real - Trump will win in 2020 in a Super Landslide. The current Dems are jokes in very poor taste.
14
@vince williams
Trump defined in summation:
— Trump is a genius, but you can't see his grades
--- Trump is healthy, but you can't see his medical reports
--- Trump is rich, but you can't see his tax returns
--- Trump is honest, but you can't see any documents
--- Trump is innocent, but you can't subpoena witnesses
1
@vince williams: Mexico still isn’t paying for the wall, criminals like Trump never support law enforcement, he employs illegal aliens because they’re cheaper than Americans, and if he tries to shut down New York City, his lifetime career will be very short...
Easy to do all you want by ignoring the U. S. processes; defying Congress, threatening GOP members and not disclosing all that is mandated. In other words any dictator can accomplish a lot. Too bad he has started the end of our democracy to the joy of the likes of you. Any means to your end? Congrats. Nice knowing you USA.
1
A so-called president who hides his personal finances, his personal deals with foreign powers, who blocks witnesses and evidence, obstructs justice, lies 16,000 times in office ....Trump is the face of the Republican Party...and they are all traitors except for Mitt Romney.
No matter who, Vote Blue!! or else.. we remain on the path to a Trump GOP/fascist dictatorship.
36
This guy thinks he’s king....but he isn’t really. The REAL king is ....can you guess? It’s King Mitch. This acolyte wouldn’t be where he is if it weren’t for King Mitch. Think about it.
17
African Americans like myself will elect Trump despite his policies against countries such as Tanzania for he will protect our Second Amendment rights.
17
@Jonathan
yes, you can rely on him for that, until you can't--in other words when it doesn't fit his agenda any more. You can rely on him for only one thing--to protect his own interests and he will do anything to do that.
7
@Jonathan
You don’t speak for all African Americans. We know a con man when we see him. His little dog and pony show at the SOTU to try to convince African Americans that he’s the best thing to happen to us since slavery ended is just him trying to get re-elected. This economy that he like to take credit for is President Obama’s. The unemployment rate for African Americans has been steadily going do as a result of President Obama’s efforts. And the only thing the second amendment did for Philando Castile, an African American man with a gun, was to get him killed. Me and my African American family and friends will certainly not vote for trump,
I'd prefer a conservative who is more like bill Buckley, but Trump is far, far preferable to anything and anyone the dems are offering. and I am a white new York jew.
15
Hope someone got paid a lot for this "brilliant" strategy.
1
Donald Trump is a great politician he's just a horrible POTUS. I don't see how he or his fake ads can convince anyone who is paying attention to the details of his administration to vote for him ever again.
7
He is clever but not smart. Many are holding the reins on this wild hyena.
Trump's plan is three-fold: cheat, cheat and cheat again. My guess is that we're in for a whole new level of dirty tricks. My fear is that the Dems aren't nearly prepared for it.
15
@Andy Strote - cheat? That was the DNC, stacking the deck for that lame candidate, Hillary.
6
Under Obama black unemployment fell 9.3% points (16.8 to 7.5%). Under Trump it's dropped an additional 1.5% points (7.5 to 6.0%). It's astonishing that he believes voters will be dumb and ignorant enough to give him credit. He's actually taking credit for the good work done by the first black President.
24
@John "Under Obama black unemployment fell 9.3%...Under Trump it's dropped an additional 1.5% points (7.5 to 6.0%)...He's actually taking credit..."
The numbers improved in Trump's 1st days in office, when he couldn't possibly have caused the improvement. You know the joke about the rooster who crows because he thinks he made the sun rise? Well, Trump really believes it. At least he wants us to.
Actually, Obama doesn't get all the credit. When the collapse came in '08, Bush was basically absent, and his administration followed conventional economic advice. Obama continued on that path. (Many progressives wish he hadn't bailed out the banks, but that's a different -- and debatable -- issue.)
4
@John trump also makes it sound as if African Americans weren't successful until he came along and that the black community owes all of its success to trump and him alone. It's incredibly condescending and presumptuous. Especially when the reality is that his policies have very little to do with the employment numbers and his so-called "great economy".
2
I hope Mahomes declines to attend a White House invitation.
11
As a Black woman, I am confident that he has all the “The Blacks” he is ever going to get and I am sure even some of them have left him. I feel sorry for any person of color who would vote for him.
41
@B He tried to get Aretha to sing at his inauguration. She wouldn't touch it. God bless her.
@B
Why? What have the Dems ever done for you other than pander for your votes. It not to your advantage, as a voting block, to be so predictable and dependable.
@B Apparently you are not on Twitter and YouTube. There is no question that Trump, at a minimum, will get 15% of the black vote. Many blacks are tired of being pandered to and patronized by Democrats.
No way?! Trump wants to win?! This is brilliant stenography. Spare us.
8
Trump’s problem with attracting Black voters is partly a lack of diversity on his team.
One, it’s really easy to see what he thinks about Black people, if you look at who he has in his cabinet. Ben Carson = urban = Black. When I here him talk about Blacks, it is always in a very tight box, and it always sounds like Black people are “others” - not regular Americans like his base.
Furthermore, who are the people he is sending into Black spaces to speak on his behalf? Who are the Black people in the room when they develop these sure-shot strategies to speak to Black voters? I’m picturing that woman who was naive enough to let a White Congressman use her as a prop at a congressional hearing. But she didn’t have the foresight to see how it would make her look like she was a slave on an auction block. Clearly, she thinks and speaks for all Black people.
6
@Romain
How honoured she was to be HIS African American. Back in the 80s he had a policy whereby he would not have rented her a house.
Can't he just expand the map by printing it out and using a sharpie?
20
Minorities care as much about illegal immigration as white rural red staters. Democrats need to clearly disavow open borders.
20
Advocating on behalf of undocumented immigrants is a losing strategy.
“’I think the biggest problem that he has with suburban women is the part that so many in his base like about him,’ Mr. Cramer said. ‘His rhetoric, his punching down at his opponents.’”
The biggest problem Trump has is that he has been punching down his opponents for so long he can’t stop now.
Trump 2007: “If someone attacks you, do not hesitate. Go for the jugular! It’s a jungle out there!”
7
Why doesn't President Trump retire. I think he has done enough. He can give speeches at White Suprematists rallies which he obviously wants to do. Most of the country depise him. They despise him. They want him out and the electoral college is what is keeping him in the White House. Same with you Mitch. The American people do not want you and your treasonist comrades. Extreme radical right with no ethics. Please leave.
29
All voters have to do is look at what Mr. Trump does, and not what he says. Giving the Medal of Whatever to Limbaugh sent a pretty strong message to women, young women, people of color, recent immigrants, and progressives. So, no matter what sweet sugar-coated message we see in Trump campaign ads, just keep that medal award ceremony in mind, and keep Charlottesville in mind, and Stephen Miller's continued employment in mind, the horror of those children in cages on our southern border, and ....well, you know what I mean.
44
He can still be found insane and incompetent, which is getting easier and easier every day.
23
Interesting to read what Trump wants.
I know what I and my friend Alice wants:
Can we get what we want
It’s Trump’s arrest we want
You can bet that’s what we want
Which is, Trump’s arrest we want
Donald Trump, such a pest
If we get his arrest
I can get, get some rest
It’s Trump’s arrest we want
25
Let’s not have a third party liberal this time!
9
Let’s not have corporate Democrats backed by billionaires and Russian oligarchs this time!
Kill Citizens United, reform political financing laws, publicly fund presidential campaigns, get rid of unlimited PAC money.
The next president--not the current charlatan--should make this priority #1.
21
The regurgitation of the sophistical arguments to justify their votes to acquit can only be appreciated by the most stupid of the electorate. Perhaps I am being too hard on these senators. They may only be victims for feeling the need to follow the old adage to not bite the hand that feeds you. We are ourselves culpable for failing to educate all of our citizens to be able to think critically
5
Cheat, cheat. The middle class of this country sure needs to wake up and look at their bank account, bills, and no hope of ever having a retirement. They will work till they drop while the rich and corporate America support Trump and the GOP. Shameful.
23
@pb - I just looked again. My retirement account has more than doubled under Trump.
Thanks!
The Party of Lincoln is gone.
Trump and his Tea Party sycophants have transformed it into a white nationalist cult.
Trump is a con man; master of the "Big Lie" - the economy, immigration, healthcare, abortion, the "deep state", etc.. Trump is backed by billionaire Rupert Murdoch's Fox News conspiracy theories and their rightwing propagandists. Trump plays to his constituents' xenophobia, religious intolerance and racial bigotry to exploit them. They are even abetting him as he openly seeks foreign interference in our US elections.
We can take our country back. We can once again become America, the "shining city upon a hill". We can do that by sweeping Trump, McConnell, and the rest of this Tea Party cult of kleptocratic autocrats out of our government.
If we do that, in November, we will have regained our democracy, our ethics and our respect in the World.
21
Here's the easy way for Dems to win the suburbs and black votes - and the election. Klobuchar for Pres, Warren for VP and Barack Obama for Attorney General
6
Are you telling the truth or is it a lie? I can't tell anymore.
4
@Nancie
The sad fact is, Trump has never known the difference.
1
FOX news was created with a specific objective in mind:. never let Watergate happen again. Well, FOX news came through. Many people simply can no longer distinguish between truth and what FOX spews out...
13
As a Black voter and a grounded New Yorker, all I can say is:
Donald Trump, if you are listening -- you can forget about the Black vote.
48
@N. Smith
Trump is not appealing to blacks or anyone in blue strongholds of NY, Calf. etc.
@N. Smith Fact.
Individual 1 is courting African American voters? Just play some video of him during the Central Park Five trial. Who said this—that when people show you who they really are—believe them.
I think that was Maya Angelou.
51
@Naples That full page ad should be used by all Democratic candidates.
@Naples Trump also just gave an award to Rush Limbaugh. That should tell African Americans all they need to know about trump.
@Naples Also, make commercials that include some of Rush Limbaugh's diatribes against Barack Obama and black athletes.
Too late. You can’t be the most offensive, repulsive, and ignorant, man in the world for three years and then turn around right before an election and pretend to be somebody else. There are plenty of people who love how disgusting and contemptuous Trump is. They will vote for him. But the rest of us won’t. The real question is, how big a slice of the American electorate is completely backwards in their thinking about the world?
43
So much punditry and wasted words. Only two words are essential, screamed to the rafters by anyone with a heart and brain: STOP TRUMP!
31
Court Black Voters. Hard to see that happening when Trump’s core constituency is white supremacy.
35
How on earth would anyone not be turned off by Donald’s repulsive behavior at this point? And why would any minority member, including me, consider voting for such an obvious hater of anyone but white men?
It’s been said that actions speak louder than words, but in trump’s case his words AND actions are blatantly offensive and often illegal. He’s a national and international horror show.
We will vote him out.
38
@Anne G Trump just gave a major award to Rush Limbaugh. That should tell us everything we need to know about how Trump views African Americans.
@Anne G
as a non-minority voter : could not agree with you more
Hey Mr. Trump - I will be voting for Mike Bloomberg, a real billionaire, a real leader, a real NYC elected person and a real philanthropist.
Mr. Trump, you have no billions, you could never get elected in a New York race for any position city or statewide, and you have stolen from your own scam charities.
I like Mike.
46
Looking forward to when Trump faces a real trial after we vote him out.
30
One word, Bloomberg.
17
Two words: never Bloomberg
Donald Trump's hoping to gain the Black vote is further proof he has lost touch with reality.
The list of Trump racism is long and varied. Headlined by his active support of white supremacists. He once complained that, after seeing America, immigrants from Nigeria would never “go back to their huts.” He insisted that our only Black President wasn't born in the U.S.
Among Trump's many awful, evil aspects, his racism is the worst.
25
I saw Van Jones interview this week when he talked about Trump going after these voters and warning the Democrats. Interesting commentary.
Good Luck getting suburbs (especially women) and black voters. Trump’s policies and vile behavior will not be forgotten.
21
Trump already has won reelection. He won it the day that all Dem candidates at the 1st debate raised their hands in favor of taxpayer paid healthcare for illegal aliens. Bloomberg was lucky he was not there.
11
@Reader In Wash, DC Taxpayers also pay the healthcare of people who use the ER for basic health needs, bankrupting hospital infrastructure. Be careful with your aim.
4
Amen. The commercials just from the debates are truly priceless.
6
@Reader In Wash, DC: Yup, bar them from receiving healthcare when they have open TBC or Coronavirus. Brilliant!
3
Trump’s uncertain effort to win back suburban voters turned off by his policies and behavior. This is essentially unachievable for President Big Mack. He cannot change who or what he is, a white supremacist who is lying about something whenever he opens his mouth, and a president that is not interested in healthcare for everyone with pre-existing conditions which is every voter out there.
15
Lie. Cheat. Make the GOP turn a blind eye. Win.
10
@Freonpsandoz
Make the gop turn a blind eye?
They gouged their eyes out long ago, then seared the sockets with a hot poker. After that they bolted inch thick steel plate over the remaining mess and then buried their heads in concrete.
They don't want to see a thing.
1
He really wishes the statue of limitations were a lot shorter.
7
@EW Since he can't be prosecuted while president, I don't think the statute of limitations is a factor here.
2
Ultimately the choice will be between two candidates (one with a track record) and two 'visions'.
NYT / coastal elite rhetoric (and virtue-signaling) aside; Trump's record is quite good. The economy is strong, and most Americans want borders enforced, don't want to subsidize illegal immigration - and want an end to purposeless wars.
African Americans have enough reason to consider Trump, rather than dutifully falling into line for a party that doesn't really deliver much for them (and whose leadership doesn't proportionately reflect African Americans' contribution).
And the 'promise' of socialism only portends to deliver even less.
13
@Ami "Socialists" is one of many meaningless buzz words that Trump's propaganda army regurgitates ad nauseum in an effort to stereotype and misrepresent Democrats (and anyone else who opposes trump) in the scariest light possible.
Even people I know personally who once voted for trump are getting tired of the rhetoric and fear mongering pushed by the trump propagandists.
As for African Americans, Trump's strategy is the same one he used in 2016 -- a widespread disinformation campaign backed by dark money from people like the Koch brothers. This propaganda effort specifically targeted black voters in order to suppress their vote. Incendiary comments like yours on social media were a big part of that effort.
Stay vigilant, folks!
3
@Ami African Americans wont vote for him. Lionizing Rush Limbaugh was a big mistake. Rush was anti-Obama and hates blacks. Also, The Central Park Five saga is very poignant for black men.....who know that Trump wanted those innocent boys executed. Finally, Trump alienated the biggest pool of culturally and politically conservative blacks in America - the Nigerian-Americans - by adding Nigeria to the no-travel list.
Don’t you mean dictatorship
It is Bloomberg or bust!
13
If so, it will be the latter
Ask yourself this. Would you trust Trump taking care of your kids, your money or your dog? That should help how you feel about him taking care of our country?
59
I doubt that Trump can or will get more Black voters and people in the suburbs. If he thinks he can, it's just one of his many delusions....
22
It’s odd that neither Trump nor the Times has mentioned winning the Latino vote. Right now Latinos are 25% for him and 75% against him.
16
@Judy
Which Latinos? Not Cubans and Venezuelans in Florida -- all exiles from Leftist regimes.
There are enough anti-left Latinos in Florida to insure that Trump wins Florida in November.
1
the biggest wish that trump has is he wants to have the role his idol putin has. trump wants to be our tyrant, and so far he is living up to that. only the democrats want this country to be the way it was intended, a democracy. this week the republicans, except romney, they have shown their spinelessness and have kowtowed to their leader, trump. this was a disgustingly sad week for america.
17
Just read that the kid he trotted out for scholarship is in fact already enrolled in a charter school she loves in Philly. What was THAT all about?
16
@Rose
Make an appearance at my rally in the guise of SOTU speech and I will give yoru hcild a full scholarship.
In the real world we call that Quid Pro Quo.
1
@Rose
Smoke and mirrors.
2
Trump likes to think he can read people, not as well he thinks, or he would know how to challenge and upgrade his base, instead, he expects charisma and status to do what he knows he can't, he expects proxies to act on his behalf, with many people the fact that he was on TV matters, makes them think he is glamorous, the Evangelicals think he works for them if so why does he keep maneuvering taxes so that these so-called ministers, leaders can have private jets, large compounds, the best food, clothes, cars, chauffeurs, but many Evangelical worshipers are struggling, they think McConnell because yes he has gotten judges appointed is working for them, McConnell works for the wealthy, if a poor Evangelical appears in court chances of losing their case pretty slim, but when Trump, Barr, Graham, Gaetz possibly present for possible alleged illegalities these same judges will owe them freedom, why them over you, now here is the thing African Americans are not stupid, many are professionals, many have homes, jobs, dreams, they are not illiterate, they can read and write, they no longer see themselves as inferior nor should they, the same as the latino population they are not criminals, they are not weak, they have education, they certainly work harder than Trump and family, so on this one hand Trump views them all as failures, yes there are some, as there are some caucasians who have failed big time, so these groups need to remember Trump and the Republicans are not their friends.
8
@Rachel Quesnel
Any "Evangelicals" trying to actually follow Jesus in how they live their lives will not be able to rationalize voting for Trump.
6
Trump, the president and campaigner, whines his grievances, attacks, demeans, dehumanizes, threatens, holds his breath and gets his revenge on anyone that points out he is corrupt, incompetent, a national security risk, watches too much TV, golfs too much, needs coddling and is otherwise unfit for office.
Hiis rationale for reelection is he and his administration is the greatest ever in the world so what have you got to lose.
One would think even the wealthy donors, the Evangelicals, the white nationalists would want to replace Trump with a more stable frontman.
9
He will be a formidable candidate.
He has the economy behind him. Employment statistics (thank the Lord) are strong. The stock market zooms up and up.
There is that within most of us that is drawn to someone like Mr. Donald J. Trump. "Ah, " we murmur, "love it or leave it, he tells it like it is. No namby-pamby about this man--nothing mealy-mouthed or equivocal."
And then--those myriad little hatreds and resentments that fester away beneath the decorous surface of even the most virtuous---
--to which (as with the now-legendary "dog whistle") Mr. Trump calls--
--plus the fact that (of course) he is a sitting president--
--plus the Democrats busy shooting each other in the foot--
--plus this chaos of a showdown in Iowa--
--my fears outweigh my hopes.
Maybe, in spite of it all, the Dem's can pull it off. And they might. They might.
I hope.
8
@Susan Fitzwater Which Trump/Republican policies are MAGA followers thankful for? Policies that take away their health care? Policies that require them to work more than 1 job to make ends meet? Education policies that hurt our public schools and make college unaffordable? Policies that put more pollution into our air and drinking water? Policies that break up immigrant families?
Are they happy to know that Trump couldn't care less about them, and he favors billionaires instead? Are they happy to pay taxes they can't afford, so the very rich can pay less? Are they happy that their children will live in a dangerously polluted environment because trump doesn't believe in science? Or maybe they want to turn our democracy into a dictatorship, knowing their children will have to live with the consequences.
1
Vote Blue no matter who.
And convince your family & friends too.
45
Democrats and Independents tend to be much less rabid about their political choices. Consequently, these two groups should focus on getting people to the voting stations. Believe me, nobody wants to take two buses, or load up a couple of kids in diapers, or take time off work, or whatever if they don't have help or worse, don't really care. We need guidance on how to assist those who will be most harmed by Trump's creeping crud.
13
Anybody but the Corrupt Criminal - Traitor TRUMP.
Hopefully the next Real President will start a commission like 9-11 or the Warren Commission on the criminal behavior and all the bad actors that served Trump. Everyone of them needs to serve time, asset confiscation, tax claw back, and world wide block-aid of anything Russian.
13
Goal: To keep him and his family out of jail as long as possible.
7
@Christine The goal of trump and his family is also to make as much money off the office of the presidency as possible.
4
"Hey, allies! Want to help rid the world of this cancer? Then please start now in assisting Dems to beat him and his enablers in Congress and the Senate."
Dems can phrase it however they want, but to stand a chance of winning in Nov they need to start this endeavor, like yesterday.
I have had it up to here with this "going high" nonsense.
11
Whoever the Democratic Party nominee is, the strategy should be simple. Put forward the platform, shrug off the inevitably childish insults, and tactically goad DJT into his childish tweets and statements. He’s a narcissist and can’t resist rising to the bait. And over the campaign it will do him in with any voter with a modicum intelligence. JMHO, I could be wrong.
8
Go Trump!!!
What have you got to lose???
7
@Odysseus
EVERYTHING, starting with our democracy.
3
the economy has shown no
signs of slowing? really?
6
It's almost comical. His campaign and PACs are spending 10s of millions on a message and he blows it up the first time he gets in front of a live audience.
3
It is comical!
1
Intuition is the polls are as incorrect as 2016. Unscientific as it may be, my poll of usually sane suburbanites quietly admit to Trump - and my poll strongly favors Trump if the candidate is Sanders or Warren - truthfully Bernie elicits less verbal response than Warren. (I confess I’m going to vote for any Democrat, but this is what I hear. And not just in NY).
8
The Dems need to stop feeding off each other and focus solely on Trump. They all have positions on campaign issues that are similar enough to be allow for compromise later. The other thing that’s crucial, actually more so than the top of the tickets, is taking back the Senate.
23
With the current Dem candidates very publicly at each other’s throats, don’t be surprised if Bloomberg’s strategy works.
And his chances get even better when you realize there just aren’t any really good candidates. I like Buttigieg, and hope he stays on a roll. Seems unlikely.
10
What Trump is doing now -- campaigning to Black Americans -- he could have done four years ago. With his show-biz & entertainment connections with prominent Blacks, and with some job competition between Blacks and immigrants, he might have effectively united Black & white against immigrants. I am thankful that he didn't, and that both groups now are pretty much united against him. Still, he could peel some Blacks away.
Whoever the Dems nominate, he/she needs to campaign to the best in us, not to identity-group grievance issues. Because if he/she does the latter, Trump will effectively play to the grievances between Blacks and Hispanics.
12
He gave Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He’s not going to win black voters.
44
@Angela
Trump and Limbaugh both despise women, but a lot of them still voted for Trump.
What Trump is doing is turning the military and VET groups against him. He dismisses TBI for the military in a missal strike as small headache. He had a decorated soldier escorted out of the White House because Vindman obeyed a lawful request from congress. The President-has every right to pick his people. He does not have the moral right to be a cowardly bully. Trump embarrassed our country.
21
I will unhesitatingly back whomever the Democratic nominee is. At this point the goal is to evict what is—without question—the most deliberately divisive, reckless, ignorant, unapologetic, shameless, and craven President this nation has ever had. He and his followers may think they’re “winning,” but history will be brutal to them.
20
People need to organize. We are facing a group of powerful people who are using fascist techniques to usurp power. And it is either working on them or they actively support it.
What fascists do is play the victim card. They use inflammatory rhetoric and threats of violence to invoke an attack. When people attack they claim they are the victim and bust through laws and procedure.
They typically also pass of hijack immigration laws to allow them to target minorities or groups that are unable to defend themselves. When people defend them to protect human rights abuses they use it is a means to attack and delegitimize those promoting liberal society as a whole. Their power typically revolves around a group of people who believe they are victims of whatever group is the target. Which is where fox news feeds the sense of victimization on the right.
Organize locally and support honest people that will actively find ways to disarm this movement in local office and all through government.
Fund and support groups that will promote and fight the rhetoric being used that aligns with this technique.
8
So basically. the gop only sees inroads when they lie. Got it.
11
The secret for anyone running against him in 2020 is to continuously cite "impeachment" and that he's the only president to be impeached and run again. Constantly mentioing impeachment will infuriate him, and he'll eventually lose it, bigtime.
So. declared candidates, please take note.
Concoct "impeachment" orations, statements, and come-backs. All of you.
No need to introduce or deliver them with logic and reason. Do as Der Trumpf would not hesitate to do: Levy them with compulsion and impunity. Make THAT the discussion at every turn. It will infuriate him.
Impeachment - Impeachment - Impeachment. "But he's been IMPEACHED already......"
6
African Americans have been in this Country for 400 years. They know a dangerous man when they see him. Trump is dangerous. Currently they support Joe Biden and they aren't wrong. The rest of America just needs to stop falling for the GOP gaslighting: swift boating, Her emails , Benghazi etc. Get a clue already.
31
I have never understood how anyone could vote for and support this person.
The usual excuse is “my bank account is doing so much better”.
How can anyone justify or rationalize his insults, name calling, bad language, or just plain boorish behavior.
I don’t get it, or, is this really us?
22
I can't imagine anything more obnoxious than Rush receiving the medal. If Mother Teresa were still with us, she might quite possibly lead the parade of recipients lining up to give their's back.
When Rush revealed his cancer, however, he joined an elite group of which I am a member. I despise his views. But I wish him well.
12
I wish him all the positivity and good will he has expressed for others throughout the years.
3
I voted for Hillary in ‘16, but I’m not going to hand over my 401k to a socialist in ‘20. I’m quite left of center, but “it’s not the government’s money.”
8
Could you explain to me how you would be “handling over” your 401k to a socialist? Unless you are a billionaire, you don’t have a lot to fear from Sander’s or Warren’s policies, and if you are a billionaire, it won’t hurt you to join the human race again.
16
@Allen Mills Socialists" is one of many meaningless buzz words that Trump's propaganda army regurgitates ad nauseum in an effort to stereotype and misrepresent Democrats (and anyone else who opposes trump) in the scariest light possible.
Even people I know personally who once voted for trump are getting tired of the rhetoric and fear mongering pushed by the trump propagandists.
Stay vigilant, folks!
1
@Allen Mills
You are not alone.
Bloomberg
I'm amazed at two points in this article that I believe the authors are tragically incorrect. First, Black Americans haven't aligned with the Republican Party since the end of reconstruction in the 1880's. Second, any residual of blacks supporting Republicans was eradicated with Nixon's southern strategy in the 1970's. Second, are the authors actually, unbelievably reinforcing Republican smears against democratic socialism, the system actually imbeded in our Constitution, and quite reasonable, supported by academia and government leaaders, across many countries.
11
I'm a black voter who lives in the suburbs. I'm married and we both work. I would vote for Trump, but there's just one small problem: I hate him and his party.
68
@Maryland Chris You're not alone.
Democrats, under the sway of ‘progressive’ ideology, have become the party of personal, cultural, societal, and — now — political dysfunction.
Trump is a piece of work but few, beyond the radical left, really want to turn this nation over to perpetual malcontents and incompetents.
6
@EGD
You mean like the T Party?
Give me a break.
2
Is that why he did this in the SOTU address?
The Philadelphia fourth grader who President Trump shouted out to in his State of the Union speech Tuesday to promote school choice reportedly already attends one of the city’s most desired charter schools.
According to a Philadelphia Inquirer report Friday, Janiyah Davis — who Trump said in his speech is one of thousands of students “trapped in failing government schools” as he announced that she will receive a scholarship to attend the school of her choice — has attended Math, Science and Technology Community Charter School III since September.
17
Just more weak trump theater, gaslighting and propaganda for all to enjoy.
8
I have never understood why someone doesn't tie old Trump to Putin and throw them both an anchor - there is plenty of footage of Donald, loud and proud about old Vladimir. He hooked up with Russian associates last election, believes him over our intelligence agencies- plenty of Baby Boomers raised on Red Scare "the communists will make you pick between them and Jesus!." Now we have a president who has actually says he DOES want to *pal around* with communists. Run with it, Dems!
Seems like the dems who are terrified of being called socialist-lite should point out that most of the Trump base is on socialist Medicare and Social Security. Even our military is a state-sponsored lifestyle.
Why not compare and contrast with Donald's preference for communist dictators and ex-KGB Vladimir or simply point out that Donald's own dad-in-law was IN the communist party for crying out loud! And Donald got him some chain-immigration! Let them explain that. lol.
9
@Kay Johnson
That’s fodder for the general election.
1
Never underestimate the power of a few committed citizens to change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead
VOTE....it’s the ONLY power We, the People have!
18
He separates parents from there children. What kind of human being does such an unthinkable thing. How could anyone ignore that when they vote.
420
@sirina
I don't know. Maybe check with President Obama. The program was started under his watch. Had he not started it, maybe President Trump would not employed it.
41
@sirina The policy you are referring to was in place before Trump assumed office. Do you also fault Obama?
32
@T Smith If Obama separated children from parents without keeping track of whose child was whose, then yes. But these complaints NEVER occurred when Obama was President. Besides Obama didn't deal with a border crisis and did what he did quietly.
22
I am a suburban woman and would never vote for Trump. His awful record speaks for itself. We hope to flip AZ and cast out McSally with him. Working toward it
43
Trump is truly delusional if he thinks he has converted any voters to his camp. He has the angry red hats , and that’s as far as his appeal goes.
18
The support for Trump always astonishes me because of his erratic behavior that reasonably speaking, makes him the worst president in memory or ever possibly. The lying, bombastic talk, puerile need to attack antagonists, inability to form a coherent policy plan for the country, the mind of a grifter all make him what he is, a weak leader.
20
I am amazed at how many commentators here simply think Trump is going to lose in November, with the rationale essentially being they want him to lose. Seriously?
13
Straw man argument.
I am highly educated (in academia), white, suburban, and a practicing Catholic.
I will vote for Mr. Trump on the abortion issue alone.
As Buttigieg admitted when asked about it, there is no place for me or other pro-lifers in the Democratic Party.
11
@Christine M
And we should have freedom from religion in politics.
12
Good for you. That is certainly your right. I am also Catholic and I believe caging babies, allowing easy access to assault rifles by which hundreds of adults and children are needlessly murdered, unrepentant racism, misogyny and hate mongering are not Jesus’s message.
More than140 million Americans live at or below the poverty level. This is a weak trump disgrace.
11
@Christine M
You are then a hypocrite because you show zero concern for the children who are already here. One issue voting is a thing of the past. If you care about children, you'll vote for a party that cares about the issues of concern that will effect all of our children. Republicans do not even understand science and/or care about climate change.
You are not pro-life if you do not acknowledge climate change and the children who have been separated from their families and caregivers at the border. Shame on you.
11
Trump's to do list:
get re-elected so Barr can keep protecting him from prosecution
get re-elected so SDNY prosecutors can't indict him
get re-elected so he can continue to use taxpayer money to enrich his resorts, foreign and domestic
get re-elected because he needs more time to hurt the many groups and individuals who have escaped his special cruelty
get re-elected because playing "foreign policy" is so much fun
But most of all: get re-elected to prove it's possible for a crime family to pander for votes, take over a tv station, a branch of congress, and the judiciary, and end up running a big country.
18
I agree with all this except the idea that Trump took over a TV station. Fox News would have been there for any Republican President. A lot of the groundwork that was there for Trump had been in the works for a long time.
3
get re-elected so he can continue to soak the american taxpayer for hundreds of millions of dollars to play golf.
2
What am I missing? Can't anyone see trump's character is not worthy of the office?
25
There are some here considering economy and they believe what Trump is saying, that he alone is responsible for the current good one. First of all, research this. Is this true? Trump is a serial liar.
Secondly, please, research, or better yet, take a trip to Norway or Denmark or Switzerland. Social democracies do thrive along with a robust economy.
Last point. Consider quality of life when you vote. Has Trump contributed to this in any way at all? Because quality of life is worth billions.
I am a content and happy Canadian. I am grateful for the excellent education system we have and being able to go to the emergency department with no fear of losing my house. I don't mind paying taxes. It eases my mind greatly.
21
As a Black African American who lived through the nationwide search for identity during the 60's, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the ensuing years of struggles and gains around issues of equality; I am saddened to see what has become of our country in so short a time under trump.
I have to say that I am disappointed at the number of people who seem to say that they are undecided about who to vote for as if this administration's recent historical events were simply pages out of a summertime fictional novel.
The rise of racists groups in the country, the trauma of family separations at our southern border, the constant attacks on the environment, and the continued abuse of power by this White House should be a definitive election indicator.
Added to this is the public display of petty vindictiveness emanating from the White House towards career professionals who honorably stepped forward to alert America that all presidential calls are not 'perfect' and some are downright criminal.
So it is my hope that a majority of people at the ballot box who have been paying attention to the disaster that is trump will say ENOUGH!
Now is the time to restore the Office of the President to one of hope for the country instead of the cesspool it has become.
725
@Lalo
I thank you so much for saying the truth of what the Trump administration has been all about. I don’t care what your party affiliation is; take a good look at what has occurred over the last 3 years and ask yourself: is this how we should behave? Is this who we are? This is not what any belief system you are affiliated with ascribes to.
Please Americans, let’s return to sanity and support a moral person for our nation’s leader. Someone who cares about all of us and wants to work for a better country and a better world. Donald J Trump isn’t that person.
109
@Lalo What a wonderful, beautifully written statement. Are there enough who can see as you do the corruption of Trump and do not take his bigotry lightly?
78
@just Robert Thank you for
that wonderful response to the article regarding Trump's plans for the 2020 election. I am an African-American born and raised in the South. I am saddened to see what has happened to our country under this President, Many Americans of all cultures and faiths and ethnicities have fought so hard to try to make this a more perfect union. As a person who had by law was required to attend segregated schools and read from text books that were given to us after white students had written in the books and even torn pages from these books. We had parents who could only go to school when the farming season ended. But through all the trials of segregation and jim crow and plain bigotry, we made progress. Now Trump is trying to take us ---meaning our country --to a dark place again filled with hate. I hope that we join together in November and remember that although we are far from perfect, we are better than what Trump has shown us. Thank you.
59
If all it takes for Trump Inc to be successful is an ad campaign, then his properties would not be taking such a beating. Trump himself is the ultimate advertisement for his brand, but the only money makers are Mar A Lago and the golf courses he attends. His supplicants want to see him in person. The only public venues where Trump is welcomed are his campaign rallies. Trump does not, and never will, have support with the majority of Americans. It is doubtful that suburban women and blacks changed their minds from watching Superbowl and Lifetime channel ads.
11
If I was a democrat I would be truly worried about the election...If a "socialist" is voted in as the party's nominee, there are two outcomes...if they win the general election, the economy falls apart and we have a long depression with hundreds of thousands of people out of work...if they lose the general election, then Trump is reelected and the country has prosperity for 4 more years...if a moderate democrat wins the nomination, there's a chance of winning the general election but it is a very small chance...it will definitely have to be the right candidate and there is only one that I see filling that list...most of the candidates are flawed all but one...but I don't think that one candidate will get nominated because of all the "socialist" supporters that will probably not back a moderate candidate if their candidate is not nominated...so that is basically the crux of the democrats problem...it's basically a no win game for the dems...
3
So sad to see weak trump gaslighting and propaganda in full force.
4
Your read on where the economy would go is basically backward. Four more years of Trump would very likely lead to a full blown depression, as the rich soak the last bits out of the economy, leaving fewer and fewer middle class jobs. The “socialists” (your word, not the reality) would help to restore some balance in that regard, without changing the basic structure of our government as the oligarchists would like to.
1
@ORnative Socialists" is one of many meaningless buzz words that Trump's propaganda army regurgitates ad nauseum in an effort to stereotype and misrepresent Democrats (and anyone else who opposes trump) in the scariest light possible.
Stay vigilant, folks!
1
Whoever you favor, vote in 2020. Let’s never, ever have another election where a de facto none of the above came in first. More people stayed away in 2016 than voted for either candidate.
Also, avoid the crowds which will probably by huge. Check if your jurisdiction allows absentee ballots.
14
Every jurisdiction allows vote by mail. Sign up for it and simply vote at your kitchen table and mail it in. Easy.
3
How can he take back the suburbs that he never had?
14
"With impeachment behind the president, his re-election campaign wants to address political weaknesses exacerbated by his policies and behavior." How about changing his policies and behavior as a start?
9
I am a volunteer who (after knocking hundreds and hundreds of doors for President Obama) trains canvassers to knock doors in our suburban county. This bellwether county, and indeed the entire state of Virginia, is very unlikely to go for Warren and even unlikelier for Sanders.
I’m putting what little I can spare into Amy Klobuchar’s campaign. I urge others to do the same.
14
“Mr. Trump cannot win a second term without attracting more suburban voters and independents in a handful of states...”. Won’t matter. Win or lose he will definitely declare fraud election and keep the keys. He already said he would before 2016 election. Only heart attack or stroke will save us now.
7
I am wishing ardently for either.
2
I don't fell welcome in either the Republican or Democratic parties and watch helplessly as the US heads toward a dissolution of what remains of democracy.
Trump was not impeached. Why not? The framers of the Constitution made impeachment very difficult.
Although Trump is the worst president at least since Andrew Johnson, his major crimes are incompetence, inability to listen to advice and self-delusion. One can argue that these are not impeachable offenses.
Asking the Ukraine to investigate corruption in Burisma is a borderline case. Different people can read it differently. Some Republicans said it wasn't enough. Romney had the courage to vote to remove.
But the outcome was never really in doubt. The issue now is whether Democrats will have the wisdom to nominate a candidate who will win.
I like the Sanders vision. He is right that we need a path towards universal health care. But he demonizes health insurance, pharmaceuticals and oil companies. I wonder what the employees of these industries are supposed to do, vote for Trump?
Remember folks, incumbents usually win. This is even more true when the economy appears to be booming.
Thus I find myself gravitating towards the center and Mike Bloomberg.
Yes, he is far from perfect. But if Trump wins reelection our democracy may become an autocracy sooner rather than later.
With Bloomberg, our institutions may be allowed to recover. Then we need to tackle the problems which Sanders has laid out for us.
6
Don’t forget, voter suppression is weak trump’s game. If you fail to vote for any reason, trump wins. Probably not the outcome you are hoping for.
9
We can expect less emphasis on caging children and more emphasis on the economy and a new round of tax cuts. Those tax cuts will be aimed at the suburban middle and upper middle class who got chicken feed from the first one (or had their taxes raised).
We’ll see how many of those suburban women will still vote against Trump when he attempts to buy their votes with more “free” money. Americans love free money, so my bet is that the bribery works.
1
If the Dems focus on 'playing the man not the ball' they risk having neither the policies nor the team required to create sufficient appeal to voters who might be swung away from Trump and the Republicans.
Principles are great and very important, but this is politics, not an ethics, constitutional law, or political science class.
The time to realign to the rule of law and constitutional principles of democracy comes when you control Congress, the Senate, and the WH.
2
No money and no economic prosperity is worth giving up our liberties.
449
@BWCA what liberties have you been forced to give up in the past 3 years? Just curious.
15
@BWCA How is it possible that a president vilifies half of the country, calling me and my elected representatives "evil, corrupt, horrible people?" Trump has made it very clear that if you don't support him unconditionally, if you don't vote for him and recognize his complete authority over all the U.S., then you are the enemy. If you express any criticism of him whatsoever, if you try to hold him accountable for his actions, then you are the enemy and will suffer "payback".
Remember that when you go to the polls in November.
34
@BWCA I would be very interested in a list of liberties that you have lost. Please be specific. I am not aware of having lost any liberties, but maybe I missed something.
9
Democrats talk about helping lower income folks, while advocating for more poor low skilled immigrants and do not differentiate between legal and illegal. Trump curtailed both, now adults of working age are rejoining the work force in record numbers. Wages are raising in low wage jobs by market forces, not government mandated minimum wage increases distorting markets.
Trumps economy is buoyed partiality by the confidence of business folks and farmers now have,that is a intangible no Democrat can instill.
Black folks have in recent times have voted for democrats promising free stuff and their policies have severely undermined their families resulting in evermore poverty,broken families, blight,chaotic schools and crime.
With Trump, Black folks will be able to pull their children out of appalling Union/Democrat controlled schools into schools that teach and have discipline,the value of young Black adults in labor markets will keep increasing.
We need for our poor folks of all backgrounds,partiality disabled,longtime unemployed to have opportunities at productive work and a paycheck.
In November, see more of these folks voting Trump!
9
@Lane
Any Democrat will do a better job than Trump.
Trump is a divisive tyrant who will only get worse with time. He's an unstable force who brings it out in others.
2
@Lane Blacks are not voting for Trump. Giving Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal during Black History Month.....while ignoring the Tuskegee Airman.....was a huge tactical and optical error.
Also, the biggest bloc of culturally and politically conservative blacks in the country - the Nigerian Americans - have turned on him because he put Nigeria on the travel ban list.
Your assessment of Black people makes it clear that you don't know any.
The lack of viable candidates is staggering. Anyone who campaigns on the grounds of excluding or demeaning social segments or classes, must be self disqualifying. We hear about billionaires: Would Sanders hate Elon Musk because he falls in this class?
As an independent, what I see as a weakness is the "preaching" style of many of them: Buttigeig, Warren, Sanders. Just puts me off. I want someone that is smart, decent (normal) and has high energy. I just don't seem to see it in this pack.
6
It’s doubtful many suburban women will go back to Trump. Most people are looking forward to four calm,no drama years ahead. Years when we can wake up and not cringe wondering what that day will bring from DJT. Years when we no longer have to explain to our children that bullying behavior is not to be tolerated yet they see it from the president and the GOP members of Congress.Years when we are not daily inundated by thousands of lies. Years when our country can heal, our democracy can be restored, and the rule of law is obeyed at the highest levels. When we can believe our government is doing right by us.
Suburban women are a pretty intelligent lot. They are not going to be swayed by a few targeted commercials and they wouldn’t be caught They will do their homework and conclude that the few extra dollars in their pockets did not begin to cover increases in health care, insurance, rent, and utilities.
And then they will look at what all the deregulation will mean for the health,safety and livelihoods of their children and of the planet.
There really is no choice for the intelligent suburban woman.
8
I'm sure Trump would like to expand his base, but the unfortunate fact is that he doesn't need to. An equally viable strategy would be to simply hang on to his base while engaging in a social media campaign to undermine unity among Democrats, which he is evidently doing pretty effectively.
Trump's base is extraordinarily loyal. Almost everyone who voted for him last time will do so again, which means that the only way for Democrats to win would be to increase turnout in the 4-5 swing states that will decide the election.
That's not likely to happen, given the current set of candidates. If the nominee is not Sanders, more than half of his supporters stay home, and Trump gets re-elected. If the nominee is Sanders, Democrats can write off any possibility of wooing moderate Republicans or middle of the road Independents, and they lose support among people of color, and Trump gets re-elected.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is spending tens of millions on a very sophisticated social media campaign to divide Democrats so that Warren supporters feel like they can't support, Bernie supporters can't support Warren or Biden, etc. And it's apparently working.
I personally don't see any way the Democrats win the swing states they need without appealing to the center. I think it would be foolish to run a socialist at a time when satisfaction with the economy is at historic highs. But who's the centrist?
154
@Joe M.
Make sure that California has back-up paper ballots for President to protect agains trump, Putin interference.
Check with the Gov's office
24
@Joe M. Bernie really gums up the elections. He knows he cannot win but continues to run for office. It is time for someone to convince Bernie that he is hurting America rather than helping it. It is ironic that Bernie is the single candidate who will hand the election to Trump. How can he not know that?
40
@Joe M. "Trump's base is extraordinarily loyal..." Very true. But the base is 40%, maybe 45% at very most -- not quite enough in itself.
Sanders appeals to some Trump voters who aren't attracted to mainstream Dems. If he's nominated, there may be some pleasant surprises. The mainstream Dems can help by not attacking him for using the S-word. (And please, please go away, Hillary.)
For now, I'm impressed with Bloomberg's approach: He understands that Trump is a greater threat to us in many ways than any other candidate. If the Dems unite in this way, Sanders has a real chance. And the converse is true: I think Sanders will support the eventual nominee, and that his supporters won't abstain (as I did in '16, voting 3d party).
28
I live in a suburban wealthy neighborhood about 15 miles east of Seattle. For several decades it’s been a Republican stronghold, republican Presidential candidates flock here to raise money including Trump. I know a LOT of republican women and women who consider themselves independent who would never consider voting for Trump, they cannot stomach anything that comes out of his mouth or the blatant corruption his administration has brought on this country and assault on women’s healthcare and healthcare in general by the GOP. Maybe their husbands look the other way to vote the ticket but women cannot. Republicans are blind to the fact women detest Trump.
480
@tiredofwaiting I believe there are (more than) quite a few places where women would like to vote their conscience, but cannot for one reason or another. I do think that there are a lot of women whose husbands/boyfriends accompany them to their polling places and either directly or indirectly influence who they cast their ballot for. It also wouldn’t surprise me if, in some places, voting isn’t truly anonymous and people worry about “repercussions” (whatever they may be) of voting any way other than what’s expected.
12
Trump will always appeal to Evangelical women, who only care about overturning Roe. V. Wade and believe it is a divine commandment to submit to their husbands’ authority.
47
@tiredofwaiting. I think that is an indictment of those women more than it is of Trump. Their husbands are looking at facts and are not deceived by emotions.
2
As a female voter this man turns my stomach like no other president ever has. At this point there are no arguments his campaign can make that would disinherit him from his own words and actions.
504
@dusty WE don't really care about your personal likes or dislikes. What we care about are results - Trump gets results.
4
@dusty. Have you actually read about Bill Clinton and the terrible things he did to women? Or what Teddy Kennedy did to a particular woman? Trump is helping the poor and people of color get jobs, heat their homes and retain their human dignity. That is something well to do leftists don’t understand.
4
@ehillesum Actually if you read the recent fact checking research, Obama created more jobs than Trump has during the same period of time. No, he isn't helping people of color find jobs, the economy is following the trajectory set by Obama after Bush's recession. Trump is riding on the laurels of others. Did you think that a man who has declared bankruptcy as many times as he has, and who was found guilty of housing discrimination against African Americans in the 1980s would be interested in helping them obtain jobs?
12
Democrats and Independents need to ban together. The dramatic performance of escorting Vindman out of the WH, and the public punishing of his family member should frighten even Trump's most ardent supporters. This isn't disagreeing with Ronald Reagan's trickle-down economics, this is the behavior of an oppressive government gaining limitless power.
560
@Ann --it won't frighten Trumps cult--they agree with it & love it. He does this stuff to retain his 'base' (CULT) as he needs to be re-elected to maintain the protection of the office of the presidency & not be charged with the various crimes he's committed.
54
@Ann
His supporters are down with this agenda because they've never had any power, or much control over their life circumstances, and they are enjoying the illusion that they do now, and dreaming that it will continue.
21
@Ann
The word is regime. Trump Regime.
The Republicans and their supporters have created a Trump Regime.
26
It is the height of hypocrisy (and dare I say irony) that the same Democrats who railed against a Republican-styled oligarch who chanced at the presidency are now hoping for a Republican oligarch for salvation in November.
Trump and Bloomberg...both Republican oligarchs.
What happened, Democrats? You used to be against rich Republicans deigning to be President, and now you'd rather take a rich Republican over one of your own if it means taking down Trump.
I think that's the epitome of cutting your nose to spite your face. Or perhaps abandoning all ideals...
10
@Jason W
You are incorrect in your assumptions. It has nothing to do with hyposcrisy. This isn't a normal election. Trump is a real threat to our well-being.
Step one is to oust Trump. STEP ONE. There is nothing that can move forward until that happens. Get it?
Then we work on the rest. I don't care if it's Bloomberg -- yes he's a billionaire but you can read about his tax proposals on his campaign site. Not bad coming from a billionaire.
5
@Jason W
Yea, you think. YOU.
You forgot to mention that the current congress of republicans has been intellectually bankrupt of all ideas since at least 1980.
And if YOU can't see the difference between Trump, a democrat become republican, who is essentially a high grifter and Bloomberg, a republican become independent who actually made BILLIONS by his intelligence and perseverance, and not lost them, then, as McConnell would chuckle: I guess there's not much we can do thar.
3
Agreed, but how many Democrats really support Bloomberg? Without being paid to do so, I mean. I have my doubts. Regardless, too many Americans in general are willing to say “Politicians beholden to billionaires are bad. Let’s skip the middleman and vote directly for billionaire politicians.” The logic escapes me.
1
Tell me again why Trump is a champion of the disaffected, downtrodden worker? But wait, maybe not this time. Once bitten twice shy babe.
10
@Mike C.
Disaffected workers aren't too intelligent. At least not enough to understand a rudiment of political science in order to realize that Trump is a Fascist.
Anyone with the slightest knowledge of politics can see a Fascist when they rear their ugly ideas. Only the ignorant will willingly and enthusiastically latch on in support because the Fascist tells them what they want to hear. Trump is a champion of Trump INC and it's subsidiaries, the numerous Trump LLC's and Trump jr. LLC's and Trump Son In Law's LLC's. He talks a good game for those who want to believe more than he is believable. He'll tell anyone he's their champion, but he's not.
The only thing worth reporting about Trump is that he is only still in office because of his own disregard for the law, along Bill Barr and Mitch McConnell. Do not normalize any of this.
26
@DD Do we really want another 4 years of wealthy oligarchs, religious fanatics, fascists, bigots, industry lobbyists, mob bosses and Fox news zealots running our country? William Barr, Mike Pompeo, Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Betsy DeVos, Andrew Wheeler, Rudy Guiliani, Wilbur Ross, Mick Mulvaney, Sean Hannity ... these self-serving grifters and zealots who trump keeps appointing are as good of a reason as any to vote Trump out of office. Same goes for Trump's Republican lackeys in Congress, who've chosen to protect and enable him at all costs to the country.
3
every day brings new narrative, all week a triumphant trump was almost assured of re election. today? a "realignment" towards democrats. this entertainment based cliffhanger coverage has to stop especially since you hide info behind paywalls. let news be read freely and editorials and features locked.
3
Bloomberg might do well to imitate Trump. He could say "You don't have to like me, but I won't collapse the stock market and I am the only one with the money to respond to all the lies coming from Fox News."
11
@JR
The stock market is at an all time high. The S&P has returned 50% since he was elected.
4
@JR Very true. Bloomberg would need to work hard to get people of color voting for him, however. Though he was smart enough to denounce and apologize for it, his "stop and frisk" policy didn't exactly win a lot of people over to his side.
3
@Matt
Money isn't everything. And I wonder how many reading this have noticed more in their bank account. A very very few I'm sure.
7
In 2016, no one knew the full extent of this man's corruption.
Yes, they had hints. They'd heard stories. They'd seen the Access Hollywood tape. Read about Stormy Daniels and all the others.
But still, for whatever reason, a good majority of fence sitters no doubt thought to themselves "How bad could it be? He's a hugely successful businessman, right? He can run a country, right?"
Well...now they know.
The man has a full-blown ignorance of everything from history to politics to economics to geography to business to even the most rudimentary of scientific concepts.
Worse, he seems to wallow in his ignorance and surrounds himself with people of the same ilk.
He lies as easily as most people breathe. His egoism is in full display day in and day out.
He worships at the feet of dictators as he alienates our friends.
I truly believe the fence sitters among us, especially those in the suburbs, have had enough.
This man is not someone they see as a human being. Much less a leader of their country.
The next 6 or 7 months of him unleashed in full-on mask, horns and tail should make that crystal clear.
Praying they join the rest of us November 3 and toss this total fool and imposter out of the White House.
20
@Scott Montgomery Certainly not everyone knew but if you're from NYC or Southern New Jersey you knew he was a con man.....one big difference now is that for many, he became a laughingstock because people caught on early that he was a liar and cheat and they treated him accordingly. The incredible thing now is that so many people actually believe him and trust him.
6
@Kate M.
I hear you. Out here on the other coast we just saw him as some ego-driven TV hack.
Now we know. And hopefully, millions more now know as well.
We have a wish list too, and, he’s on it!
1
Will these voters go for this ugly, ugly man, who is turning our country into an ugly, dark place? Or, will they choose to end his hateful, angry, negative tenure that has removed all hope for our sense of country, patriotism, truth, optimism, love, community, and pride? I hope they can step back and see what this choice is about, and it's not the economy.
26
@Iowan Trump supporters don't see him for what he is. They see what he has projected himself to be. It's a human weakness that is nearly impossible to overcome.
2
My biggest fear is that if loses he refuses to give up the office. I never seen him be humble or admit anything other that complete and utter victory. He will never admit defeat.
21
@PCND
Really. Can you imagine him ever giving a concession speech?
3
@PCND
That’s an easy problem to solve. The new president will be certified by the Electoral College and the US House. He can stay in the White House and claim he’s president, but they can cut off his heat and his access to Air Force One. The new president can rule from anywhere.
All the methods of winning an election listed in the title are what honest candidates do. But let's get real; this is Trump.
According to our Intelligence (not Trump's) Putin is already working our social media. And other autocrats were surely "listening."
Then there are voter purges and voting machine hacking.
Oh yes, Trump's got a long to do list before November.
And there will be another list of things to do if the vote doesn't go his way.
16
The premise here is that, if Trump succeeds, it will be all about strategy, without concrete achievements weighing in his favor. But the economy is strong and there are no great military fiascos threatening national security, like Iraq, ISIL, Iran, Crimea or the conflict in the South China Sea.
With a strong economy and no overriding national security threats, Trump is in a position to win the support of those concerned with the well being of the country. Democrats have a full array of national disasters to weighTrump down. But as long as it's wishful thinking and as long as a good economy and the lack of a major international crisis continue Trump has much support of the practical minded. The fact that he doesn't do the job well does not necessarily take precidence over the fact that things are going pretty well. However incompetent Trump may be, he's getting away with it. And a litany of things that could go wrong aren't enough unless some of them do go wrong.
7
@michjas Not everyone has a 401k or enough money to invest in the stock market.
So which Trump/Republican policies are MAGA followers thankful for? Policies that take away their health care? Policies that'll result in cuts to social security, Medicare and Medicaid? Policies that require them to work more than 1 job to make ends meet? Education policies that hurt our public schools and make college unaffordable? Policies that put more pollution into our air and drinking water? Policies that break up immigrant families?
Are trump supporters happy to know that Trump couldn't care less about them, and he favors billionaires instead? Are they happy to pay taxes they can't afford, so the very rich can pay less? Are they happy that their children will live in a dangerously polluted environment because trump doesn't believe in science?
Or maybe they want trump to turn our democracy into a dictatorship ruled by corrupt oligarchs, and they're perfectly fine with their children having to live with the consequences.
3
@michjas Well lets see. The wall he built fell down with the wind. Mexico did not pay for the wall. He did not achieve what Obama did with the economy though right now it looks ok except that the middle class is still struggling. His tax break went to the wealthy and corporations. He has destroyed most relationships with our allies. He consistently lies about everything. He is about to cut social security and medicare. He is trying to wipe out coverage for preexisting conditions . He has rewarded Pharma so drug prices are not going down for the most needy. He cannot hold good people in his cabinets because of his lack of knowledge, unwillingness to learn, his arrogance ,etc. He is ruthlessly vindictive and thinks he is King and above the law. lastly he loves dictators and AutocratsHe wants to be Putin.
2
We Democrats must stop deceiving ourselves about the electorate’s motivation for voting. For years, we Democrats have resisted the cold reality of America’s embrace of financial self-interest and cultural conservatism based on many factors, including but not limited to, background, religion, ethnicity, and, in some cases, long-standing prejudice. Far too many of us Democrats are shell-shocked when under-qualified Republicans like George W. Bush and Donald Trump beat superior Democrats to win the Presidency. Many of us express disappointment in the typically slim but decisive majority of whites who vote for such candidates. The truth is that it is about money and culture and so it will be again in November. To prevent the continuation of our national nightmare for another four years, we Democrats must accept the fact that supply-side economics helps stock-owning Americans in the upper classes. We must support a presidential nominee who can competently attack this conventionally strong economy as being hostile to the majority of Americans, the ones in the working classes, who do not own stocks beyond their 401k retirement plans. We also must stop forcing our cultural liberalism down the throats of Americans and begin to gently preach our sermons about accepting Americans who are different than we are. This is the only way we will deny Donald Trump a second term.
6
@Howard Gregory Don't forget gender (anti-female) prejudice. That's what many Republican policies are all about.
2
@Howard Gregory
I’ll go you one better. Democrats should propose a big federal tax cut, like to zero. That would “get rid of the IRS”, a favorite GOP talking point.
Howard, being from NJ, this should appeal to you and to many suburban middle and upper middle class professionals who are currently financing this federal government and enabling Trump.
Democrats need to use the suburban desire for more tax cuts to undermine the income transfers from the blue states to the red ones, using red state taking points.
4
Low turnout is the key to Mr. Trump's reelection. His appeal to black voters is designed to malign the Democratic nominee not so they will vote for him, but so black voters will stay home on election day.
11
@Russell The same strategy was used to suppress the black vote in 2016. It was apparently a widespread propaganda campaign secretly backed by the Koch brothers. Wouldn't be surprised if they're involved in it this time as well. I wish the media would look into this more.
It would be great if we could have an election without the interference that was evident in 2016. In his testimony Mueller warned the US that this was his biggest concern. For some "inexplicable reason" (quotations indicate sarcasm) virtually nothing has been done in the last four years to mitigate this possibility. And now that the reins are off Trump, we very well might have the most corrupted election in our nation's history. Given he needs to stay President or else face criminal charges, he's even more committed to do anything to win. Result: Trump wins second term. Thanks Republican Congressmen! You've unleashed a tyrant.
9
It’s difficult to see a path to victory for the Democrats. The vast majority of Sanders supporters have vowed to vote for nobody but Sanders. Even if he is not the nominee. They’ll write him in or not vote. Currently, that represents about 25% of the Democratic vote. That will make it very difficult for any other candidate. And Sanders’ leftist socialist platform is not palatable to most Americans, including many Democrats. Biden’s campaign is failing as is Warren’s. Buttigieg is not really electable. Klobuchar might have a chance but it will be difficult for her to get the Sanders supporters to turn out for her. I just don’t see the path to victory. But, it’s early so maybe things will change.
9
"The vast majority of Sanders supporters have vowed to vote for nobody but Sanders."
That was a lie in 2016, and is more a lie now.
3
Vast majority? I saw one poll which quoted a very narrow majority of 53 percent.I have my own doubts about that number. I think a lot of Bernie Bros (and Sisses?) like to threaten the rest of the party, using their leverage to hold them hostage. But let’s see what happens if it comes down to someone else vs. Trump. If they can’t vote against Trump, they deserve another four years of climate change acceleration, rising deficits, and right wing judges getting lifetime appointments. The millennials are the ones who will have to live with it the longest.
3
@B. T. Do you have a source for your claim that the "majority of Sanders supporters have vowed to vote for nobody but Sanders"? Because all I see is promises by users on social media that this will be the case. And I would hope that we've learned our lesson about accepting at face value the narratives that get pushed by social media.
I do a lot of volunteering for voter registration drives and have spoken with many voters -those who tell me that Sanders is their first choice also say they'll vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is, especially this time around.
3
Here in MN the word amongst college educated white women who deplore Trump is that their comfortable lifestyles will change dramatically should one of these Democrats be elected President.
That doesn't mean they're going to vote for Trump, but it also doesn't mean they're going to vote for the demise of their own lifestyle and extremely generous health insurance that many of them have through the largest job and wealth generating corporation in the middle of Dean Phillip's district (United Health).
They'll stay home in most cases..just as many Republicans did when it came time to choosing the very erratic John McCain or the Populist Barack Obama. Those rationale minded Republicans stayed home in 2008 and those rational Democrats in 2020 will do the same.
Plus we have the bonus of Ilhan Omar representing the district immediately to the East of us..meaning even moderates like Dean Phillips and Angie Craig (new moderate D's elected in 2018) will have to fend for themselves having sold their soul to Nancy Pelosi and having to defend Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket.
I can see it now...as Democrats they will actually try to run a campaign AGAINST the leader of their own party.
Ask Erik Paulsen how that works out.
6
@Erica Smythe I think suburban women with nice lifestyles and good health insurance are going to vote against Trump in droves. The women I know in that demographic loathe him more than you can know.
5
@Erica Smythe why will their lifestyles decline?
2
@Erica Smythe Your post is suspiciously incendiary. I have to wonder how much truth there is to it, or whether it's just some made-up pro-trump narrative intended to manipulate people into thinking that Democrats are widely reviled.
3
"Among the goals is trying to appeal to black voters and suburban and upper-income white voters with ads such as a spot focusing on criminal justice reform that first aired during the Super Bowl and is continuing on cable channels with large female audiences, like Bravo and Lifetime."
The strategy will fail.
To borrow from the late Lane Kirkland, an African American who votes for Trump is like a chicken who votes for Col. Sanders.
10
Trump is toast.He made everyone under the sun mad from day one and folks are itching for revenge
13
Trump has no interest in “winning” the black vote. He just wants to siphon off enough black votes in key states to keep those electoral votes in his pocket.
This will be a tall order given his racists rants against other people of color and Muslims. He has no real support among local black politicians but will probably be able to grab a few endorsements from black preachers who are anti choice and a few others from the gospel of prosperity crowd.
Mostly he will count on his history as a TV personality. The real question is can he get 10-12% from a group that went 95% for Obama?
Therein lies the key. If Obama sits out 2020 Trump just might buy enough black votes in a few states to tip the scales. If he speaks up, Trump’s plan will fail.
There’s certainly nothing in the GOP legislative agenda to attract the black vote.
But both Democrats and Republicans know that the real key is voter turnout. Trump’s base has to show up and whoever is the Democrat’s candidate will have to have a tepid turnout from the black community in order for Trump’s strategy to work.
My guess at this point is that with images of Nazi’s marching in Charlotte and rebel flags waving from Trump supporters getting any significant amount of the lack vote is a very long shot.
But then some said the same thing in 2016.
8
How is a life long white supremacist and misogynist like President Trump going to get more black and female votes? Are there really that many fools in America?
18
@Joe Miksis , Unfortunately, yes there are.
5
We will see. The 2020 election is a referendum on the intelligence of the American public. Of course, I also thought that about the 2016 election, and it turned out that many Americans aren’t too bright. Blame Hillary all you want, but there were 17 candidates in the Republican primaries, and Republicans deliberately chose the most hateful, offensive, and ignorant candidate out of the bunch.
5
There were enough to get him elected in 2016.
One of the most divisive? I have no idea who you could possibly consider to have been worse.
20
@mja McCain, LOL, if he had been voted for in 2012
Oh, come on...president 44 and I voted for him twice as we had no real choice for voting. President 44 as my students said many times, led from behind, literally. What we now have lived through and now hopeful. 2020. The only democrat that has the experience on the democrat side is Bloomberg and even this is a stretch because who the heck wants health care like Canada in our society...Actually, Ron Paul, LOL
1
Well the South considered divisive enough to leave the Union.
Most presidents want to be re-elected so they have political capital to further or complete the work they did during the first term. Trump needs it for his humungous ego. It isn't one iota about the country. If he wins, his victory lap(s) will make that insane post acquittal mini-rally look like kindergarten story time.
11
@Srocket He must be dreaming already about his inauguration show. Primetime, of course, with Oprah style give-aways. Medals of Freedom, pardons, candlesticks from the Blue Room, National Park land, Moon rocks, all of America's resources will be up for grabs in a second Trump term.
1
If Trump wins in November all the rest of the country, except the racists and Trump' fellow grifters, lose.
14
I’d rather take poison than vote for Donald Trump.
21
Make mine a double.
5
@Gen X guy I think the meteor hit that destroys mankind, preferred by over 60% of New Hampshire Democrats according to a recent survey by U Mass Lowell, would be preferable.
1
As a Suburban woman, in Kansas, you’re so so wrong Mr. Trump. On every level. I will do everything in my power to make sure you do not win in November.
105
Amen to that, Ruby! I’m with you.
11
@Ruby Thank you, thank you, thank you!
5
@Ruby Same here!
Democrats need to get real about the need to beat DJT in November and stop that idiotic bickering about whose Health Plan is better,-of course, they are all better than Trump's-. and focus on dismounting this myth invented by Trump and the Rs, amplified by a mesmerized press that the Economy is doing well. It is not. Is a bubble on top of a Himalaya of debt.
But if Sanders with his extremist ideas is the Ds candidate Trump will win 49 States. That will prove that the answer to Savage Capitalism is not Savage Socialism. If Warren, who has turned out to be a Sanders copycat gets the nomination Trump would only win 48 as she will carry California no matter what. Buttitieg may do a little better, but with all the lead in his back pack including his lack of experience and his rehearsed answers he still is no match for the Reality Show host.
On the other hand, seasoned middle of the roadsters like Biden, Steyer, Klobuchar, even Bloomberg would win it all as long as they are progressive enough to attract the young and the disenfranchised without going crazy, always staying within the realms of reality, something they have done so far.
8
Former President Al Gore would like to remind you all that "vindication" in an impeachment trial in the Senate does not mean victory for your party's presidential candidate, nor does it seem to grant majorities in the House or the Senate in the election immediately following.
7
@CB
Al Gore was never the President.
"“Suburban women is where he has a challenge,” said Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican from North Dakota.
“I think the biggest problem that he has with suburban women is the part that so many in his base like about him,” Mr. Cramer said. “His rhetoric, his punching down at his opponents. It’s so different than anything they’ve seen.”"
Aw, come on Kramer, you know even suburban chicks really dig guys who are obnoxious, touchy (in more ways than one), always able to keep up petty grievances and show a constant willingness to hurt anyone who dares insult or annoy them in any way, especially a willingness to strike back at people with less power or importance. Like you put it so well: "punching down". That turns the ladies on.
And he needs to tell them how hot they are. Chicks totally dig that, too, when trying to engage in substantive discussion of national affairs and the direction of the country. He just needs to turn on the old charm that was so useful to the rich young Don during his own "personal Vietnam" days.
19
@b fagan Suburban chicks also like access to birth control without government interference.
4
@Frances Grimble
How is government interfering in your birth control?
Having someone else pay for it is another matter...
The fundamental issue with Trump, even if you broadly agree with his big policy initiatives like taking on China and Immigration reform; simply put, is that he is just a low quality sleazy individual who never ceases to amaze with just how low he will stoop.
Just when you think he has hit rock-bottom in terms of what he can say or do; he blows you away again by groveling even deeper into this endless pit of sleazy corrupt behavior unbecoming of any presidency.
The inevitable question for conservatives then becomes how do you justify the damage to the institutions of state by voting for this man.
20
One hundred forty million Americans live at or below the poverty level. What a disgrace for weak trump whose campaign relies on gaslighting and propaganda.
14
Anecdotal response from relatively “blue” Hamilton County Cincinnati: all of my college-educated female friends loathe Trump and didn’t vote for him in 2016 and are actively opposed to him in 2020. They have brothers and husbands who think otherwise. Working as a social worker at a rehabilitation facility in “red” Clermont County, I’ve had co-workers pull me into private space because they’re afraid of retribution to express their disgust with Trump.
12
@Susan Beav I’m also in Cincinnati. I think Bloomberg can flip a lot of our neighboring counties. He’s already opened offices all over Ohio and is holding events etc. He can go the distance.
4
One of the factors helping Trump is the Democratic party. The Dems aren't explicitly hateful like Trump is, but they're almost as divisive, talking about "black" people this, "white" people that.
Unless you sell cosmetics, the only reason to talk about skin color is racism. Talking about skin color accentuates racism by making people think about it.
I wish the Democrats (and others) would figure this out.
15
@Astrochimp So you think discussing racism makes it worse? Actually, I suspect not pointing it out when it occurs, as in this president's speech and policies, does that.
4
@Astrochimp
Being “colorblind” is also racism. It takes work for advantaged whites to acknowledge genuine societal and cultural differences between people of all races, to adamantly demand equality, and joyfully celebrate the differences.
2
@Astrochimp Actually it is important because black people face different issues than white people. Women face different issues than men.
I wish straight white conservative males would figure this out.
1
With regards to casting their vote for president... suburban women, or any parent for that matter, need ask themselves only one question...
"Is this Trump individual the type of role model I would want my children to emulate?"
Pity the children of parents who'd answer in the affirmative.
14
The same type of parents who take their children to Trump rallies.
November’s election
is the most important one in our lifetimes & turnout must be historic if Democrats are to take back the Senate & White House.
Encourage family & friends to register including young people turning 18 this year. The ballot is the only way to rid ourselves of the worst president ever. Save our country-take back our democracy. Your vote is your voice-please use it.
10
My thoughts: the republicans are going to get wiped out come november.
18
@Armo hopefully in the states that matter. I am not that optimistic.
2
@Armo That is called wishful thinking.
3
@Armo
Of course. What else would you think, coming from that wide cross-section of America represented by SFO?
3
Call me negative or maybe realistic but I don't see Democrats winning the White House in November no matter who wins the nomination. But we aren't the problem. Nitpicking all the flaws of our candidates ignores the facts: our candidates are decent men and women. But Trump supporters will never be convinced to withdraw their support from the narcissistic con man. There is no rhyme or reason to it. It is what it is. Democrats are not doing anything wrong. It's very sad to think that the most corrupt president we ever had will probably be reelected anyway with his tireless band of sycophants cheering him on.
10
@Kristin
Sadly I must add the other problems that all but presage another Trump win, namely the Electoral College, Russian interference, Citizen's United and Republican gerrymandering -- just like in 2016.
3
Let’s make Him an offer he can’t refuse : the entire State of Florida.
Seriously.
9
How about Alabama or Mississippi instead? There is still a lively resistance in Florida!
1
@Phyliss Dalmatian
But what about Ed McGinty …….?
Re-criminalizing abortions is going to win female voters? How gullible do they think they are?
16
Trump has one issue that might help him get another look from minority voters.; school choice. The Democrats' symbiotic relationships with the teachers' unions is well known and has often been to the extreme detriment of minority children, particularly in the big, liberal cities.
No one thinks Trump will carry minority voters, but this issue might help him increase his share of their votes from 2016.
10
@Kelly It wont help.
7
Trump is a moneymaking machine for the media. They'll use each other no matter what are the consequences.
21
Trump's motto:
(he stole it from H.L. Mencken)
“no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”
11
I don't care how much my 401(k) has risen--especially since 3/4 of the rise took place during the Obama administration. Trump's actions and behavior are beyond the pale. I would never vote for him, and never vote for anyone who supported him. He has dragged our nation through the sewer, and his own behavior is utterly vile and disgusting. I wouldn't shake his hand or have him in my home. And then there his utter incompetence as an administrator. He can't keep his team together except by intimidation. I can't imagine any decent person feeling any different. We need him out of office so we can restore decency and competence to our government.
204
Bravo
21
@William O, Beeman I second that emotion!
9
@William O, Beeman
Well said. I do fear that there is been a significant coarsening of the culture, and that prevents a lot of people from understanding what a classless bully he really is.
1
A couple of friends just in from Tennessee looking for property because they want OUT of Trump's America. He works in the music business and finds the clients are more overtly racist and gun hugging these days. She can't find anyone to talk to without skirting the elephant guns in the room. He had to pass on some NRA grass because it made him nauseous.
But this means the hate haters are leaving those addicted to the outrage to concentrate that bait. Some suburbs will become more racist and hateful as those with tolerance have to bail on them, while others will find more peace in their valleys.
11
@Abby
If Trump gets back in in November.......
I was going to write “voted back in” but that’s probably no longer accurate, since Mitch McConnell refused to do anything about election security except a token amount.
People will no longer just be leaving Trump country, they’ll be leaving America. The brain drain will start.
It’s a shame the non Trump cult leave those red states before the election. They could help to turn them purple or blue.
3
@Gracie I think a lot of people will leave if he gets elected again. Smart, capable people—-basically the people he hates. So yes, it will be the start of the brain drain. I’ve seen a mini version of this happen on the job because of a toxic manager, and it’s been impossible to bounce back. We always compared our work troubles to the WH, and the core of it stemmed from hate and fear. I too plan to leave if he gets elected.
1
@T
Best wishes to you T.
I know some who are planning to leave if Trump gets back in too.
For what it’s worth, and I don’t know where you’re planning to go,
* Canada
* New Zealand
* Australia.
-are good countries to go to.
I’m sure there are others depending on personal circumstances.
How? Tell more lies only the base could believe? He’s already shown to have lied at the SOTU Address about; “Being sure people with preexisting conditions are protected;” because he’s in court, right now, trying to take that away. He lied that the Democrats are blocking lower drug prices; yet SB3 is sitting in Mitch McConnell’s pocket because big pharma will stop donating to the GOP if he allows a Senate vote.
During the midterms, even a desperate last-minute plea by Trump: “We’ve changed our mind, we really do like people with preexisting condition,” didn’t work. Democrats took 41 seats simply by asking; “You want to keep your healthcare?” That’s all Democrats need run on in the next election.
28
@Jerry Sturdivant "And do you want to keep your Social Security as he's already taking it away from the disabled" would be another.
17
@Jerry Sturdivant They should ask whether people want to hold onto their clean drinking water as well.
If so, get ready for the big whopping lies, America suburbia and all African-American voters: "I'm the greatest president since Lincoln, maybe ever! I freed the slaves!"
"Oh yeah, I also made Mexico pay for my beautiful border wall, gave you all great health insurance, rebuilt our national infrastructure, halved the national debt, and put Latino immigrants in cages!"
Top that, Democrats!
9
“ The challenge facing Mr. Trump’s advisers remains the same as it has been since 2017: The president is among the most deeply divisive leaders in the nation’s history, whose conduct has helped accelerate a realignment of moderate suburban voters toward Democrats. ”
Much as I would like this to be true, Donald Trump’s approval rating is trending up. Right?
6
@Karen Lee
Only on Gallup. On the combined polls his approval rating has remained steady at around 43%.
14
@Karen Lee
He has the worst approval rating average of any president in modern history. Let that sink in for a minute. Worse than James Earl. Worse than Gerry Ford. Worse than either Bush. Multiplying nothing by nothing is still nothing.
2
@Karen Lee when times are good and you’re better off than four years ago then yes people te Ns to stay with the flow in case you missed that in previous elections
Trump continually represents views and makes arguments which are illogical and divisive and bigoted. His theory that his economy and his accusations of Democrats as socialist revolutionaries will win him more suburban voters would seem to be slim. The voters he’s lost, were lost because the economy is not significantly improving for all but about ten percent of the people and his views are obnoxious to most educated and female and minority voters.
11
Trump’s problem with the suburbs is partly related to SALT and other tax changes that weren’t that great for some middle class people in the suburbs.
6
@Romain yeah, but only in the highly taxed suburbs - most of the country benefitted
3
...Cede territory to Russia (via US troops withdrawal) so that Putin will be even more aggressive about co-opting the election in Trump's favor.
5
@common sense advocate why don’t you go and join the army then
1
@Brian Kenney Once everyone has a gun, who needs to join the army any more?
1
There is every chance that between now and November Trump, Barr and company will be trying to rig the voting machines. That's their last resort and they are pretty close to it. Having said that, if election fraud is put aside, a Klobuchar/Booker or a Bloomberg/Harris ticket would destroy Trump.
14
@SR oh yeah! Bloomberg/Harris
1
Jared Kushner chopping wood? Lol! Sure. I'll eat my left hand if the boy even knows the difference between a maul and an axe.
5
If anyone really thinks or believes that Blacks are going to support Trump, they really have no idea or clue what they are talking about.
I guarantee the people who think that don't know or associate with many black people and don't spent any time in a predominately black community or environment.
No, Trump isn't going to win over any new black voters.
29
That’s just a Trump advisors, so yes your correct.
2
@Zobar Not one. Not one.
Turnout is all that matters come November. Trump is not winning back the suburban voters who are appalled at his immorality and incompetence. And he is certainly not winning any new black voters. 35% of this country will stick by him no matter what. So that really leaves us with the majority of Americans who want to see a new president, but must be compelled to come out and vote this fall. Yes, it will depend in part on who the Democratic nominee is but I hope that whoever it is, we all rally around that person. Because if we do, it is lights out for Trump.
27
The most important action to take in any race is to vote only for democrats.
17
How about repeal 22nd Amendment ? You don't think he would try ?
5
He's already effectively repealed the 25th. pence and his cabinet will NEVER throw him under the removal bus.
3
@TonyC He totally has his sights set on plowing the 22nd Amendment out of his way. He is a power-hungry man-child who thrills in whipping his authority around and now he knows he can do whatever he wants and all his little followers will fall right into place defending him and turning any situation where people are seeking accountability from him into an opportunity to declare himself a victim.
5
Trump won’t live long enough to take advantage of repealing the 22nd amendment. Dude does not look healthy.
2
Trump is hoping that people don't pay attention and can be influenced by hot rhetoric and outright lies, but for those of us who pay attention all his campaign advertising will not make a difference: he is the most crooked and corrupt President in US history and should be shown the exit.
68
If democrats don’t get their act together and drop the identity politics, Trump will win. The messages I hear from candidates are a lot of “the sky is falling” and “orange man bad”.
Obama was loved because he brought a message of inclusion and hope in the American dream. He didn’t tell Americans they are bad people. He told them to strive even higher. Many democrats forget (or choose to ignore) that many of those “racists” who voted for Trump, voted for Obama before him.
25
Exactly, the Democrats need to win, not rely on Trump losing.
5
@EmilyS, you make a good point. Obama campaigned every where, even in areas where he wasn’t going to win. Whoever the Democratic candidate is needs to do the same.
7
@Emily S guess what? It’s too late ! And I didn’t love Obama who gave away the store, made bad stupid deals with Iran, lousy trade deals and talked like he was from the hood which he was not.
2
There is not enough money in this planet to buy ads erasing the daily behavior of this president.
29
Win the suburbs....with your attitude toward women? with your
revolting behavior....think again?
50
Bloomberg should design an important sports stadium, declare imminent domain on Trump tower in NY, bulldoze it and build something else. Do the same thing at all the other Trump towers in other cities. The IRS should audit Trump as well, for real this time.
15
Dems need ads that :
1. Point out that Opportunity Zones are intended to incentivize already-rich developers to gentrify low income neighborhoods
2. Splice together the ads microtargeted to rubes and scaredy cats snd show them to the rest of us so we can jeer
Stat.
6
It was almost laughable the way Bernie and Elizabeth trotted out the infallibly predictable rhetoric when asked during the New Hampshire debate about Mike Bloomberg's entry into the race. Those were two angry millionaires, boy.
Here's the layered irony.
"Buying elections" is what the Republicans are doing and have been doing very effectively. What do you think Citizens United was all about?
The same people viewing Mike Bloomberg as an opportunistic interloper will be viewing him as a savior if he defeats Trump. And well they should, because that's why Mike is running -- to save the country from a destructive, dangerous demagogue.
By funding his campaign entirely with his own money, Bloomberg can say with unassailable logic that he's immune to corruption because he won't owe any favors to anybody. How paradoxical that the best short-term remedy for Citizens United, in lieu of its legislated elimination, is a billionaire with more money to spend than the Republican corrupters.
As for Mayor Pete, what a difference a day makes. His vulnerability was exposed in the debate in a way I hadn't expected. Suddenly my hope that he could win substantial support in rural areas, based on his showing in Iowa, is severely diminished. For me, he's another long shot candidate now.
Which brings me back to Bloomberg.
Have you seen his ads? The ones with Obama and John Mellencamp are brilliant.
America's not after a "revolution."
Want to win?
Mike Bloomberg and Stacey Abrams.
Boom.
31
@Honora
From the Washington Post:
'The speaker on this night, three months before the Iowa caucuses and a year before the presidential election, was Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat who came within fewer than 55,000 votes of being elected the nation’s first black female governor.
'Abrams was there to talk about voting rights. But, as often happens at her public appearances, a question came up: Would she be willing to serve as vice president?
'“I’m happy to do so,” she said, to applause and cheers from the crowd.'
3
@Honora
That's not true. The exact opposite is true, as reported in this paper:
"Stacey Abrams Says She’s Open to Being Vice President for Any Democratic Nominee
"Ms. Abrams, who announced this week that she would not run for president, told The New York Times that she would be “honored to be considered” for vice president."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/politics/stacey-abrams-vice-president.html
@Honora Then Bloomberg/Harris? Bloomberg/Booker?
Re the economy, one thing the Dems need to emphasize is that much if not most of of the wage increases of the past few years have been due to states with Dem majorities in their legislatures raising their minimum wages, plus increases in wages in the few areas of the economy with strong unions. The GOP has spent 40 years busting unions and promoting anti-union "right-to-work" legislation. One of the biggest propaganda coups in history is the Republicans' success at getting the white working class man to be against/to hate unions.
27
@CowboyMarine excellent point!
If Trump is re elected,prepare for a total dictatorship. The vote in the Senate shows that the Constitution is being ignored, and not defended.What will be the next breach by trump, who now has total unbridled control over the country.?
24
@Mike Maybe he will declare a state of emergency and not hold an election at all. Wouldn't put it past him. Anything to hold onto power.
1
@Mike
Just look closer. Trump isn't even waiting to be reelected to mount a total dictatorship -- with the Supreme Court solely in his pocket, he declared that the day after the Republican Senate acquitted him of impeachment charges.
4
I wonder if it has dawned on Republican voters if they re-elect the president in November how that will reflect on them - do they really see themselves as depraved as Trump is? I believe this president’s standing among all previous holders of the office scrapes the bottom of the barrel. The world’s view of Americans has declined ever since Trump’s inauguration – show the world that character does matter.
14
Unfortunately, the people who are his core supporters don't really care how they look to others. Voting for him is their badge of honor.
3
Trump is grid-locking Californian phones with phone message beginning "I am Donald Trump...and my reelection campaign needs to raise money." Huh? They come from vacated phone numbers about once every 90 minutes.
4
Suburban women, with affluent family incomes, will see their family portfolios sinking markedly when Sanders wins the WH. Even winning the Democratic nomination will chill the stock market and give them a scare. Sanders is for certain Trump's favorite opponent right now. Yes, it is pandering but Trump is already giving cash "prizes" in contests to blacks in the South to seduce their votes. He's likely to pardon more imprisoned blacks with the same goal. While it's hard to foresee an outcome without knowing his opponent, the word "muddled" is being used frequently in the press to describe the Democrats' race. The longer Democrats are muddled, the less threat they pose.
6
Yes I’m sure the man who wanted to execute the Central Park 5 will gain a lot of votes from blacks. Having good ol boy Jeff sessions as AG certainly helped, as well as giving the medal of freedom to Rush, the same honor bestowed upon Rosa Parks.
8
@blgreenie
You mean like what happened to Obama? He was a centrist and they called him a socialist, a christian and they called him a muslim, a citizen and they called him a Kenyon. Yeah, we know how low the GOP will go. We know how selfish corporate oligarchs have become. We know that what is at stake is our future.
We aren't scared.
We aren't racist-- we are uniting.
Sanders 2020.
2
Donald Trump might as well forget winning Black voters, because the list of grievances against him is a long one.
Especially now with his recent travel ban against Nigeria, an English-speaking country that has a highly educated and motivated population well known for their work-ethic.
And then there is his troubled history of making racially insensitive comments, and the fact that he was also involved in a federal lawsuit in the 70s for housing discrimination -- he lost.
That said, it's going to take a lot more than made-for-TV moments like the ones he likes to hold at his rallies to convince Black people that he cares about them and not just their votes in an election year.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump once asked African-Americans "What do you have to lose?" by voting for him.
It just so happens that the answer is: a lot.
29
Reading the tea leaves, it looks like Trump is pretty much a shoe in to win. As an Afro American the current trend of the party (i.e.Bernie, Warren, Buttigieg) does not endear me nor many Afro Americans I am close to enthusiastically support. The issues at the forefront are a hodgepodge of idealistic and misguided agendas that barely begin to address the challenges of the average Afro American... and trust me it’s not a race thing. After all, we are arguably the most solid pillar of the party. I get it. In this “big tent” village some will be overlooked... but I didn’t expect us to be placed in the out-house! Good luck beating Trump without the likes of me.
16
Get involved in the primary!
None of the candidates is perfect.
I personally will vote for whoever wins the primary because I do not think we can afford another four years of Trump. The earth cannot afford it. Our children cannot afford it. Democracy cannot afford it. Our court systems cannot afford it. The Supreme Court, my god, we will live in a fascist country.
There are children in cages, separated from their parents at our border. Every democratic candidate (I think?) will be committed to reuniting those children with their parents and ending this barbaric practice.
10
@Chris B. I feel that any of the candidates in the Democratic party are superior to Trump in every way. We have seen who he is, and what he does, and how he goes about the business of being President. Do you want more years of that? I am willing to bet on any of the candidates over Trump. Staying home to avoid the issue just gets you Trump as well.
3
@Chris B.
Seriously? I would have preferred Booker but Afro Americans weren’t supporting him in South Carolina or any place else so he had to drop out. Any of the Democratic candidates that are running are freaking light years better than what Trump is, and if he gets re-elected Afro Americans and most other citizens in this country will be in for a world of hurt. So I would advise everyone out there to put on their big boy/girl pants and work to get one of these candidates elected. We can complain after the election and protest, if need be, and work to create change that we want from a position of relative safety (think Supreme Court and other judicial appointments). If the Republicans win they won’t be thinking about Afro Americans at all.
1
That Trump thinks he has any shot at winning back the suburbs shows how delusional he is. The Democrats dominated in the suburbs in 2018, and if anything, Trump has become even more unpopular in the suburbs since then.
That's the danger of surrounding yourself with sycophants and living inside a bubble. People only tell you what you want to hear.
13
Young people, black people, women must get out the vote. In general terms these categories did not come out in the last national elections.
We must get rid of Trump and the Trump Party (formerly known as the Republican Party).
22
The anti-Trump is staring us right in the face in the person of Amy Klobuchar. Who better to contrast with the corrupt President? She has impeccable credentials, excellent communication skills, mid western appeal, experience, energy and none of the downsides and bad optics associated with Bloomberg (who I admire). She showed us how commanding she can be last night. She'd knock Trump off his feet.
15
@David Baldwin I am a constituent of Senator Klobuchar, and she was the successful antidote to the extreme Michelle Bachman. I can envision a successful Bloomberg/Klobuchar ticket.
5
@David Baldwin I am a constituent of Senator Klobuchar, and she was the successful antidote to the extreme Michelle Bachman. I can envision a successful Bloomberg/Klobuchar ticket.
1
@David Baldwin I am a constituent of Senator Klobuchar, and she was the successful antidote to the extreme Michelle Bachman. I can envision a successful Bloomberg/Klobuchar ticket.
1
I'm terrified that Don Jr. clearly feels a calling to carry on his father's legacy of hatred.
18
@Bob
Don't be terrified; heals inherited cowardice.
1
That’s the kind of thought that scares the ever loving bejesus out of me! And believe me it’s crossed my mind.
Trump can only remain in office by greatly rigging and totally disregarding the outcome of the next election. To cover and facilitate this theft, Trump and his shills are propagandizing that his reelection will be huge and inevitable. To hide the fact that election returns prove to the contrary, Trump can be expected to resort to brute force in censorship of the news and the prevention of the assumption of office by a rightfully elected president.
This will be cast by Trump as a necessary and rightful reaction to efforts of traitorous Democrats trying to steal what is rightfully his. And so the story goes and grows: everyone knew that he, Trump, was going to win because it had been so inevitably written by God.
In truth, a dead skunk in the middle of the road would draw far more votes than Trump, but the speculation and fabrication to the contrary serves Trump’s effort to lie and lash his way into dictatorial power.
14
@Sam Osborne
Nightmare-inducing stuff, indeed.
1
"...his re-election campaign wants to address political weaknesses exacerbated by his policies and behavior."
His feed-the-billionaires, environment-destroying policies and vulgar, loathsome behavior should make him a political non-starter.
But apparently a large fraction of Americans like vulgar. Behavior for which they would probably scold their five-year-old is perfectly acceptable for Dear Leader. Egad.
18
The authors did not mention the chief methods Trump is using to insure his re-election: "Make America Hate Again" and enlist Putin's help to cast doubt about the voting process.
23
@Cassandra I believe the chief methods Trump is using to reinsure his election are purging Democratic voter rolls in swing states and disenfranchising his opponents' supporters using any other means he can, including sending false voting information via social media, phone, email, and postal mail. This worked in 2016, with or without the help of Putin and other foreign operatives, and Trump is using even more financial resources now to misinform targeted voters on a daily basis.
5
Putin’s help is probably to unleash trolls online and on social media networks.
4
Maybe the thought of going to jail in 2021 will focus trump’ mind and keep him on message with suburbanites and other targeted groups. But as someone (him, not me) with impulse control issues as well as deteriorating mental and physical health, as well as an ornery personality, I doubt it.
15
This is why Trump wanted to bring Biden down: Trump knew Biden was the one who beat him in those sectors.
Now, sadly, thanks to his spineless congressional and adminstrative hostages and propaganda machine news, he's probably succeeded in removing his only obstacle.
17
@American Abroad
Other candidates will win the support of these populations.
Polls have shown support among all voters shifting in the last two months. Support will continue to evolve and shift.
Trump is not going to win African American support or support in the inner suburbs.
We should pay attention to who wins these bases of support. And also the latino population's vote is important and young people and indigenous people and unions. We need EVERYONE of these disparate populations to vote in November. And we need campaign enthusiasm and organizing.
GOP will be doing all it can to suppress and not count votes in November.
4
@American Abroad I am of the belief that more people see trump as the loser, liar, grifter, crazy person he is. Don’t give up yet.
5
If trump is re-elected it will mean the end of democracy in our country as we know it.
43
@Jordan Davies
You mean "when."
Say, here's a thought on how to "win back suburban voters turned off by his policies and behavior": he could change his policies and his behavior.
This country faces a lot of hard problems, and there isn't a single one of them that Trump isn't either ignoring or making worse as he continues his quest to vanquish anything larger than his own ego. Voting for Trump is the ultimate triumph of hope (or delusional thinking) over experience.
11
The article forgot to mention that the Trump team will be doing everything in its power to attract foreign interference in the election and suppress voting by the poor and minorities.
53
Trump’s impeachment is no more “behind” him than Bill Clinton’s ever was. Please stop parroting the GOP narrative on this - their president was impeached in the House and that’s how he is perceived and will be remembered, to the extent that he is.
53
Tax breaks to the rich and big companies exploded the US budget deficit to $1 trillion/year. Interest payments on this massive accumulating debt greatly limit future federal spending, meaning that Medicare for old age will be severely cut back (simple math supports this). This is the price of huge tax breaks at the same time as massive federal spending. Yes, this spending gives our current economic growth while the rest of the world is flat, but there is a big future price to pay. And tax breaks to the 1% don't help anyone but the 1%. Despite my simple statements, many voters can't understand that their future Medicare for old age is being spent now.
37
In addition to paid ads, Trump dominates television with his frequent appearances as president, along with his many tweets. But even during his last campaign, when he grabbed the lion's share of TV coverage, this strategy succeeded because stations discovered that his theatrical bluster was good for their ratings. I hope this time around, mainstream media will guard against giving him an unfair advantage in free coverage, even when he's acting under the guise of being presidential.
40
Rachel Bitecofer was the only political analyst to correctly predict the 2018 US House 41 seat gain for Democrats (ok, she predicted 42), four months before the election.
She says to forget about swing voters, the usual suspects in conventional electoral analysis. That kind of analysis assumes that the pool of voters is more or less fixed and those in the middle determine elections by swinging back and forth.
She says its all about negative partisanship, that drives more voters from one side or the other. And 2018 was a record for turnout in House mid terms, especially women and those younger than Boomer, who doubled their voting.
No President has done more to create negative partisanship than Trump, not even Nixon. Trump has racked up a record designed to antagonize the opposition. Rachel says it really doesn't matter who the Democrats nominate, because Trump is ensuring they turn out in droves.
While clearly Trump is trying to keep his base mobilized, the pool of potential Democratic voters is far larger, especially among generations younger than Boomer.
The median age of the Fox News prime time viewers is 68. Trump's campaign manager, Brad Pasquale, is working overtime to poison the minds of those who lean GOP through social media with inverted images of reality.
But the GOP is going to face a social media onslaught for enabling everything Trump, including his love affair with Putin. a change from 2016, where Trump bested Clinton 20 to 1 on Facebook.
21
@Look Ahead I read the article about Bitecofer's take on the electorate. From Texas, it just doesn't ring right with large groups in various regions not participating (for whatever reason: suppression, not liking either set of candidates, working multiple jobs, etc). Also, her analysis does not apply to young voters who do not have a voting history one way or the other.
1
Trump and his campaign has a goal of splitting the Democrat campaign by encouraging Sanders voters to come out during the primary and will discourage them from voting if he is not the
nominee for the Democrats in general election. Of course, he will use the concept of socialism against Sanders if he is the Democratic nominee.
8
@Dearson
The Republicans can use “socialism” all they want.....the people are no longer falling for that attack. Providing a decent, cost effective way of providing healthcare for our people is not socialism.
2
@Dearson Socialists" is one of many meaningless buzz words that Trump's propaganda army regurgitates ad nauseum in an effort to stereotype and misrepresent Democrats (and anyone else who opposes trump) in the scariest light possible.
Even people I know personally who once voted for trump are getting tired of the rhetoric and fear mongering pushed by the trump propagandists.
Stay vigilant, folks!
1
I’m not sure this election is even going to be real given how devious Trump is.
What if the result is close and Trump refuses to concede.
What about all the hacking and information wars?
Having said that I hope Democrats win.
Sadly I feel like Bloomberg as a fellow Billionaire might be the only one to unseat Trump.
13
@James
Flashback to 2016: What if Trump wins and Democrats refuse to concede?
There might be street demonstrations ("not my president!"), recount suits, pressure campaigns on electoral college electors ("Hamilton electors!"), investigations based on phony foreign collusion allegations, partisan impeachment, etc.
Oh wait. That happened
1
Trump’s a fake billionaire
Dems have to stop trying to convince Trump supporters and Republican die-hards who will never be convinced. Romney’s solitary vote made it abundantly evident that concepts like character, truth, honor, rule of law, etc. are Democratic values, not Republican values. It is time to focus on ourselves and our goals, by unifying behind a candidate, getting voters registered and to the polls, and winning in November.
53
Ok, I’m no digital marketing political expert, but it seems very obvious to me that if Trump continues to reveal his venom online, it can easily be picked up and revealed to suburban voters through traditional channels. What am I missing?
14
As a foreigner with a working visa, I don't get to vote but I do like Democratic party a little more. But more and more I feel Mr. Trump is winning. The republicans seem much much more united, the current overall economy stats is pretty ok, unemployment is very low, the recent Iowa primary really blows my mind on the level of incapacity of the Democratic party, and the left wing media attack left wing candidates so much I don't feel there's an "OK candidate" now let alone a good one. I hope these are not real just superficial phenomenon, I guess I'll just wait and see.
7
He can message all he wants. Words. But if you look at his actions, anybody that dares to cross him or even have a polite disagreement is out. He'll turn on anyone on a dime and throw them under the bus. Or claim he never knew them at all
So anyone that believes what he says, not what he does, and doesn't understand that the moment he's elected that it will be back to business as usual and he'll cease to care about them, well, not much hope for them.
That's assuming he can show some restraint until the election.
9
I foresee a landslide defeat of Trump, Republicans losing the Senate and a solid majority for Democrats in both houses of congress.
Texas will go blue, Florida. Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. It will be the largest electoral defeat in the history of this country.
23
@MN Student I admire your optimism! What you foresee is possible, but I think the Democrats can win if they take back Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, and flip a state that is ready to turn -- like Georgia. Please encourage your friends to get out and vote! I believe the young people will make all the difference in this crucial election.
7
@MN Student I admire your enthusiasm as well, but we must agree to vote BLUE up and down the ballot once the nominees have been determined. In addition, we may have to help in our neighboring states, like Iowa and Wisconsin, to go BLUE too!
6
@MN Student I think your prediction of Texas and Florida flipping to blue is a bit optimistic but hope you're right.
4
Trump will not win the black vote, but he and Republicans will certainly try to dilute or discourage African American turnout. If they are successful, he wins. 43% of the electorate did not vote in 2016, but that was not only because people did not like either Clinton or Trump. It was because of voter suppression in states such as Florida and Wisconsin through coordinated efforts to close voting precincts and cumbersome voter ID laws that targeted black people. Trump narrowly won both of those states in 2016.
Now that the Senate has not removed Trump, he will try every dirty trick to win reelection. In spite of the obstacles likely to present themselves, people who want to see Trump defeated, must turn out and vote. The 2020 Election will be the most important election in modern history.
32
@Patrick we do have some help. I’ve donated to the Lincoln project three times and the Payback project once. I may be grasping at straws but whatever helps. I would encourage anyone to check them out.
2
This past week Gallup released their newest poll results.
As Trump's job approval rating has improved to an all time high of 49%, so has the image of the Republican Party. Now, 51% of Americans view the Republican Party favorably, up from 43% in September. It is the first time GOP favorability has exceeded 50% since 2005.
Meanwhile, 45% of Americans have a positive opinion of the Democratic Party, a dip from 48% in September.
Additionally, the poll finds 48% of Americans identifying as Republicans or leaning toward that party, compared with 44% Democratic identification or leaning.
Anybody that thinks this doesn’t spell doom if you’re a democrat is living in a silo and only digesting news that is comfort food.
9
@DanielMarcMD I am wondering if this latest Gallup poll had somewhat skewed proportions of target sampling compared with the previous poll. If the target sampling had a more lean to Republicans, then all these numbers reasonably match. Based on my small experience, people around me do not change their thought so quickly or to such a large extent. People who are enough disgusted by Trump would not change their mind so easily or never.
4
@DanielMarcMD we can be complacent...we must get out the vote. These poll numbers are real, but they encourage me to get more engaged!
1
@DanielMarcMD All the more reason not to get complacent. Democrats in Congress appear to be the only ones trying to do their jobs of keeping a check on an out-of-control executive branch. They're the only ones fighting to minimize and limit Trump's damage to our Constitution, the rule of law and the country. Since they'll get no help from Trump's Republican lackeys across the aisle, it's up to we, the people, to give them the leverage they need to continue that fight.
Donate, volunteer, protest, organize, boycott, write letters, make phone calls, knock on doors, participate in voter outreach and registration drives, drive folks to the polls... do whatever you can to help and make your voices heard.
Whether you support him or not, Joe Biden is right -- this year's elections will be for the "soul" of our country. Vote in numbers too large to manipulate!
Yes the hard core MAGAs are dedicated. But I have never seen political sentiment as intense as the anti-Trump sentiment I see in even relatively apolitical people. Trump is never going to pick off any of these suburban voters, even though they might well vote for a normal Republican. That's because they are appalled by his personal qualities, corruption, and incompetence.
Some of these folks may have sat out the 2016 election, or voted third party, or even voted for Trump as a sort of warning shot across the bow, thinking that it was impossible for him to actually win. I suspect that many will be less sanguine this time around, and, like me, will vote for any candidate the Democrats put up, and with an enthusiasm and urgency that was missing in 2016.
Trump has been a nightmare and we want this nightmare to end.
29
@James Ferrell Here, here!
I fear he may win simply by employing nefarious tactics like jamming Democratic phone lines, spreading outlandish lies about his opponent, spreading disinformation about polling places in Democratic districts, all with Russian and other foreign help. In other words, we may well see 2016 on steroids. Most of what he says about others is projection about himself.
11
Remember that book, "Team of Rivals?" The author describes how President Obama rewarded his rivals by appointing a few to key positions in his administration.
Compare that to what trump did after his acquittal. Did he reward or punish those who testified against him?
Regardless of their race, voters will remember his vindictiveness in November.
10
@DragAzz Hill
Um, that book was about Abraham Lincoln.
3
@fFinbar
Agreed, which inspired Obama to do likewise when forming his cabinet.
Suburbia is lost. President Trump should just move on. If he wants to pick up votes, go to the over 65 women and push safety and affordable housing for this group. And, possibly increasing designated tax credits for all over age 65. He will pull in additional men and women with this as no one else has it on the radar screen. The Democrats, unfortunately left this older group years ago. An additional item he could consider: tax credits for business’ hiring over 65 retirees as this is currently a rapidly growing group, and many of this age live in important to have states. Just thinking out loud, because no Democrats outside of Ms. Kloboucher, have talked about the needs of this demographic group,other than those merely sharing nice to have plans that will never see light of day.
12
djt could not care less about the concerns of women--especially older ones. Their grope factors are too low. Any promises made to that segment of the population will be empty ones--just shameless pandering for votes. Women would do well to remember this. djt hates women, period.
3
@Prairie Rose I am a Single 66 year old woman who will never vote for Trump no matter what lies he spews. The Democrats never left us, many left them, out of their dislike for a candidate. Trump has already suggested cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, entitlements are on his “chopping block.” I am a constituent of Senator Klobuchar, and I vouch for her competence and ability to speak truth to power.
2
@Prairie Rose From someone who mostly votes Republican (me). I'm over 65 and there is absolutely NO way I would vote for this despicable, despicable man. A lot of people my age feel the same way. He is a cancer on our democracy, and he needs to be removed.
2
f the Democrats truly want to win in 2020, then the winning combination is:
Elizabeth Warren for President!
Cory Booker for Vice President in 2020 !
Both extremely competent, they will carry the women vote, especially those women who didn't vote, or those who voted for Trump, the woman hater and abuser!
They will bring out the the African American voters, Latino voters, progressives and the Blue Wave voters!
An unbeatable combination !
25
@Vision Warren needs to mellow out a bit while remaining frosty. Booker, while seeming like a nice guy to me, wasn't the greatest mayor of Newark and has been said more than once to be involved with Pharma-funding.
4
@Vision Sorry, Warren may be a good senator but as a candidate her message just seems to be a schoolmarmish "Please, please, pretty please make me president!."
3
@Vision what vote will Corey Booker attract, the Newark vote?? I’m Afro American btw.... and live 99% of my life in Afro American communities and attended primarily Afro American schools & university. Corey is out for a reason.
2
I'm a female voter living in a Michigan suburb. Nothing that his campaign is touting would get me to vote for Trump.
Like so many others, I'm appalled by the chaos and corruption.
I will be voting for the Democratic nominee, even if that person isn't who I rooted for in the primaries.
376
Exactly - - I am also a suburban female voter, and will never, under any circumstances, support someone as deceitful, mercenary, and vindictive as this president. I too plan to vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is, which is not normally my approach. It seems clear, however, that that is what every American who has had enough of this president HAS to do. If we don’t all stand behind whoever the Democratic nominee is (I am looking more closely at Amy Klobuchar, who could eviscerate this president in a debate), we’ll be facing four more years of this. The sad fact is that many Americans - including most of the Senate - evidently live their lives based on fear, whether of people who are different from them, or having less money in their 401Ks, or having to share/relinquish some measure of personal privilege, or any number of things. The more fearful individual voters are, the more they’re willing to overlook things like lying, bullying, and generally slimy behavior, so long as their personal fears are being managed. President Trump panders to these unexamined fears, whereas Democratic candidates generally don’t. At this point, if Cookie Monster runs on the Democratic ticket, s/he’ll have my vote.
19
@KLD I wish all American voters shared your common sense and your clear understanding of the priorities!
7
@KLD Just like you did in 2016 (and 2012, and 2008 and as long as you could vote). This was not the point of the article.
Upscale Democrats cause much harm to middle class voters:
1. The ACA, which they champion, includes a coverage gap of 27 million middle class Americans.
2. Medicare Part D also includes a coverage gap, which can cost up to $5,000 for each middle class enrollee;
3. Public school spending varies widely, with the middle class getting the short end of the stick. For example, in Bergen County, New Jersey, public school expenditures are twice the amount for upscale Democrats, per student, as they are for the middle class;
4. Democrats vehemently protested Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy. But little was said about a huge inequity -- upscale Democrats are taxed 24% at the margin while middle class families are taxed 22% -- effectively the same rate;
5. Democrats have long been champions of the home mortgage deduction and local property tax deductions, which drastically favor upscale Democrats over the middle class; and
6. Upscale suburban Democrats live in protected enclaves where the middle class, minorities and even Republicans are hard to fiund. For example, Democratic West Lake Hills, Texas has an average household income of $235,000, and has three or four black residents and a small poulation of Republicans.
Bottom line, the Democratic Party is run by upscale professionals who have been enriching themselves at the expense of the middle class, while suggesting that their wealth is just fine because only billionaires do economic harm.
21
@michjas .... "Public school spending varies widely, with the middle class getting the short end of the stick."....I was under the impression that most states had equalized spending among their various school districts many years ago.
3
@michjas
We already pay over $10,000 a year for every person covered in the country. Some pay more,some pay less,but the average is in excess of 10,000.
I have invested in the market for many years,but if you think large corporations are going to created new jobs or raise wages you have not been paying attention. We need to outlaw stock buy backs. Time for corporations to increase CAPEX,wages ,and/OR dividends
5
@michjas I wasn't aware that t here were separate tax rates for Democrats and Republicans.
3
From another Texan, although liberal, I firmly believe that Bloomberg can attract unhappy Republicans. Many educated Americans respect him for his real business accomplishments, his willingness to spend his money on issues he believes in, and his experience as mayor of New York City.
He would scare the heck out of Trump and I want to see that happen!
113
Right there with you!
8
@B. Moschner I agree. I think a Bloomberg + Buttigieg ticket could win.
2
@B. Moschner I would support a Bloomberg/Klobuchar ticket.
1
Only way Trump wins re-election is if he can cheat in the three rust belt states he barely won last time. His supporters have shrunk not increased and he just barely won it last time through the Electoral College.
The entire concern should be about organized systemic cheating by Republicans. They have officially given Trump permission to do all he can to steal the election.
87
@Steve
Trump doesn't have to "cheat." You've lost sight of the two main tenets of the Democratic Party:
1. Russian interference explains all election results.
2. Climate change explains everything else.
3
I too see this as a big problem. They have to cheat to win because nobody would vote for their policies except oligarchs, the wealthy and special interests who stand to gain mighty, and even more mightily with the judges McConnell has planted. Recommend you read Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains.
13
@Steve
Make sure there are paper back-up ballots for President and VP in Idaho
the only possibility for a reliable election....Insist
that your Gov. provides!
4
The Trump "great economy" myth is easily destroyed by the facts. Compare Obama's stats in his last 3 years in office to Trump's and Obama wins. The press has to do a better job of reporting on Trump's lies about the economy.
77
@kay exactly. The press should talk a lot about the economy data from 2008 to now. It will shows that economic growth started long at early obama and Trump is a beneficiary. Trump only knows tax cut, bullying fed to lower interests and blowing up deficit to pump up fake economy. How long it will last?
4
Just went to a Mike Bloomberg meeting and one quarter of the people where Republicans who won’t vote for him. Hope it is more than a local phenomenon
12
I had a big laugh when i saw Trumps wish list. Win the suburbs . The rural areas in the south have still been in the Great Recession the NYT’s had an article on recently. Caterpillar laid off lots of workers because of Trumps trade war. We don’t hear much about Trump and the GOP wanting to cancel rural mail delivery now do we. Those poor souls won’t know what hit them when Trump ends that if he gets a second term. The GOP are for less government and the Post office is government. I hope it happens then they will have to travel 10miles to get there daily mail. They will reap what they sew then.
20
@D.j.j.k.
Please check with the Gov. to make sure that Delaware has a back-up Presidential paper ballot to protect your vote!
1
I think "turned off" is rather understated. I might have gone with 'revolted' or 'disgusted.'
41
@itsmildeyes Nauseated is how I and many others feel.
6
While interesting, do you really need to give Trump this much of a megaphone with a blaring lead article? Last I checked, the Democratic race is very much unsettled while Trump is an obvious given for his party’s nomination. Would be fantastic to actually spend some quality time (and print space) vetting the Democratic candidates. Thanks.
25
I'm not religious and never really believed in active evil, but Trump is really changing my mind.
180
I’m a liberal Democrat in northwest PA. Trump won big here in 2016, talking about “beautiful coal” and praising fracking. Hillary had the opposite message on fossil fuels. Jobs here are scarce and you can’t tell someone with no college degree making $60K in the fracking industry, with good family health insurance, that you intend to obliterate his job — and expect to get their vote. And you can write off the votes of their whole extended family too. They all likely live here too.
18
@Libby Then what is the answer besides some alternative well-paying occupations to take its place - fracking is well documented to not only poison fresh-water aquifers but also cause earthquakes.
4
The coal and fracking themselves will obliterate his job in swift and due course.
Hard to get work when you've gone extinct.
6
"well-funded but uncertain effort to win back suburban voters turned off by his policies and behavior."
The entire premise is ridiculous and wishful thinking. The suburban voters who voted for Trump will vote for him again. They knew exactly who they were getting in 2016.
Here is the reality:
- Trump gets 99% of the people who voted for him in 2016.
- He gets a huge chunk of the libertarian Gary Johnson voters (like me), who thought Trump COULD destroy the country.
- He gets a chunk of Hillary voters who thought he WOULD destroy the country.
- Black voter turnout is way down because no candidate inspires them to vote (Biden will not be the nominee).
- Trump gets a much bigger share of the black vote.
Trump wins. Could not be more clear.
10
@Erik I disagree. Those suburban voters are gone and not coming back. EVERY Republican friend, family member or neighbor who held their nose and voted for him now vows to vote for anyone other than Trump. Even my dentist, a lifelong Republican, asked me what I thought about him in early 2017. He was already regretting his vote. There are a lot of clear thinking Republican voters who thought perhaps the Presidency would humble and chasten Trump. What they have seen over the last three years hasn't merely "turned them off," they loathe him, are sick over the damage he is doing to the country, and will readily vote against him given a moderate Democrat opponent with even a smidgen of decency and integrity.
15
@Retired My friend as well. She voted for Trump because she did not like Hillary Clinton. She regretted it soon also and will now vote for whoever his competitor is.
4
@Erik he’s not only destroying our democracy and rule-of-law, he is destroying our planet with his environmental policies! Jobs don’t matter if there’s no clean air and water, and increasing climate catastrophes. Trump’s greed is wreaking havoc in our world.
4
Trump’s campaign strategy is quite simple. Targeted online ads based off carefully selected recipients extracted from social media monopolies who sell our privacy and anonymity. The big question is are we gullible enough to take the bait?
10
My wish - Trump loses in November and has to face justice as a private citizen.
137
@Dave
Make sure your Gov is providing a back-up paper ballot
for Pres
so trump and Putin can't steal your vote.
3
I’ll take the former. The latter would be a bonus.
I am retired and part of America's 1%. In 2019, because of the GOP tax cuts for the wealthy, his deregulation of financial oversight, and he and his sycophants generation of chaos, I made a small fortune on stocks. So I get a big kick of how he can flim-flam the little people, who get almost nothing from his scams, and get them to vote for him.
Trump is the personification of Professor Harold Hill, the travelling salesman con artist, in "The Music Man". Down South and in Flyover Country, every town is "River City", and they are all buying Trump's musical instruments. Hats off to Trump; he is a grifter extraordinaire!
32
@Joe Miksis I am taking a screen shot of your post , and making posters , very rarely we see a honest opinion about how the 99% and the 1% are truly faring under the Trump admistration,
Thank you , I won't use you name you will anonymous member of the 1 %
3
@Joe Miksis Right you are. We native New Yorkers knew Trump for the con man he is long ago. Trump's gift is that he is able to spot a "mark" and exploit that person's dreams, fears or prejudices to his own advantage, be it for money or votes. Whether it's someone looking to get rich in real estate by taking a worthless course at Trump U, a worker with a grade school education looking for someone to bring back the good-paying job lost forever to automation, or someone who just wants to keep America white, Trump knows what it takes to make the sale to that person and, being completely amoral, he'll say anything to close the deal. It is very dispiriting how well it works.
3
@Joe Miksis More like the Prince of Darkness incarnate; they are obviously great supporters of each other.
1
The problem with many democrats is they they see the world as they think it should be, not as it is. Thus, they often fail to connect with voters whose viewpoints they sometimes even fail to acknowledge, let alone disagree with. People simply may not feel about an issue the way democrats feel they should. So, those people, who so easily could be won over, will gravitate to someone like Trump who acts like he feels their same concerns.
Yet many democrats belittle people with whom they diaagree or even worse, impose simplistic ,hurtful, disparaging labels on them such as racist or ignorant.
By doing so, they appear arrogant and elitist to millions of decent Americans whose only fault is that they refuse to be in lock step with dogma that has been decreed by those who purportedly know better than the rest of us.
Democrats better get “woke” to this reality or they are doomed to four more years of this president.
14
@Gino G Thanks for those sweeping generalizations and condescending stereotypes about a significant percentage of the country's population. You're guilty of the very thing you accuse of others.
The way things are going, we’re in for this awful waste of space until January, 2025. Let that sink in. Nobody loses elections like a Democrat. We are not a representative democracy; we are saddled with the anachronistic Electoral College. The will of the majority does not elect the President. And with the blue candidates staying in the race and attacking each other, we are chewing up valuable time and resources to create a winning campaign to meet the only worthwhile objective in this cycle: show the baboon the door. I’m not hopeful.
5
@Bob Jones Well I am hopeful, as an Arizona resident we are on the verge of flipping the state blue, don't forget Bush and Trump lost the popular vote, whatever the GOP is selling americans are not buying, 82% of the electorate wanted Bolton to testify during the impeachment , this same electorate will remember in November the IMPOTUS is only there because of the cover up
6
Obama won. It’s your candidates.
1
I am what you would call the perfect swing voter: I live in Pennsylvania, middle class homeowner who did not vote for President Trump in 2016 and I am Black. I am dismayed by his conduct in office and would very much like to vote for a Democrat in 2020. However a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren nomination would make me a Trump voter in 2020. Candidates proposing multi trillion dollar programs without honestly telling me how they are going to pay for them is a deal breaker. Both Sanders and Warren want to nationalize entire industries ( Utilities, health care) ban energy production (Fracking a major employer in this region) and when called out on these points always try to defect and avoid the truth: These programs will lead to massive tax increases for the middle class and unemployment for millions of workers. Like it or not, fair or not the economy under President Trump continues to expand and create jobs . At the end of the day that is only thing that a majority of voters care about. Having voted in every Presidential election since 1984 I could be disillusioned about the entire process- all politicians lie to us and Trump is no different- but at the end of the day a expanding economy with job growth is what interests me (working in the private sector - you learn about that pretty quick). So come on Dems.. give a choice otherwise I will vote for Trump... I doubt I'm only one who feels this way.
My two cents...…….
135
@Sean Peterson
Maybe you don't fear an economic fall from massive US debt and/or from climate change, but these concerns are both factual and non-partisan, despite spin by politicians. Think short term at your own peril.
164
@Sean Peterson Sir, with all due respect choosing between Trump and progressive is the choice. I have voted in every presidential election since 1968, and I have watch this country move to the point the right wing is default party. It has gone from bad to worse -- we have a medical industry but no health care -- we have a fossil fuel industry that is literally destroying the planet. Perhaps you remember back when you were driving around the country in the early 1980s all the bugs you had to clean off your windshield. Not so now. We need to make a choice, and the non-Trump candidate who is going to appeal to you means more of the same, even if he or she wins.
81
@Sean Peterson Why do you demand that Democrats provide detailed information how programs will be paid for but accept Republican policies without any such requirements? The Tax Cut and Jobs Act was supposed to pay for itself and spur corporate investment. It did neither and continues to explode the deficit.
Trump has continually promised that a "beautiful healthcare plan" will be rolled out in the next few weeks. But just like "free beer, tomorrow", that beautiful plan never materializes?
How about the wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for? Why do you give Trump a pass on the assertion?
As for you statement that Bernie and Warren want to nationalize healthcare, I'm not sure what you're talking about.
If Medicare for those over 65 is a-okay, why is M4A a "nationalization" of the healthcare system? Besides, M4A has nothing to do with the providers of care...it is just the payer and not the provider.
If you fail to see the risks of fossil fuels at this point and think jobs is the only way to evaluate an energy policy, I think it would be hard to have a rational discussion on that topic. Ask someone under 25 if they agree with your views. Antarctica just recorded a recorded 65F temperature.
254
Those that think the economy is all that matters need to take a little bit of a long term view. If Trump stays in office, there is no guarantee that the economy or personal situations will remain what it is now. It is being artificially propped up as it is. In fact, his temperament along with the drastic things his donors want him to do like do away with Social Security and Medicare and cut taxes further for the wealthy could very well propel our economy into shambles. Most likely the rest of the world's will follow suit.
87
Trump “won” the GOP Senate vote to acquit him by brow-beating, threatening and using his base to blackmail them.
What he did immediately after his “acquittal” — firing decorated officers and the ambassador he had personally picked because he had given Trump $1million for he title — illustrates exactly what he would have done to any non-compliant GOP Senator.
But the People’s vote is different.
Their vote is protected by privacy.
Trump won’t know who does or does not vote for him — very unlike the very public Senate vote.
And in the privacy of the voting booth, people will vote their conscience, without fear of retaliation.
None of Trump’s usual tactics will “win” voters.
And the “economy” he boasts of is really the economy of the top 10 percent, mostly the top 1 percent.
The lower 90 percent are slipping, the bottom 20 percent has already collapsed. Homelessness is rampant.
Healthcare is impoverishing the bottom 50 percent.
The 50 to 90 percent are working their tails off and are just scraping by, barely able to pay for healthcare, housing, college and college debt.
Guns, xenophobia, abortion are not going to be enough to demagogue the lower class this time.
55
@Toms Quill
You are literally living through the very best of economic times. Right now!
There will be a time in the future when people will look back at this era as the very best in history.
7
@Rob you must be young, like 20 because I have experienced just as good if not better times in the last 60 years.
10
@Rob Not sure whether you're being sarcastic or not but unless the majority of the citizenry are benefiting from the economy, which Toms Quill eloquently pointed out they are Not, this era and time are certainly not the very best of economic times, but instead are among the darkest the majority of the nation has experienced. I just think the upper 10% have bigger mouths and more convincing marketing.
5
Last night I imagined if a character like Trump was the Prime Minister of Canada. I imagined the horror of having a neighboring country and ally having a leader like ours, I imagined how unbelievable it would be, and almost surreal. But lo and behold we have it here. Despite the daily onslaught of despicable actions Trump takes that leave me relentlessly sickened, I stepped back and re-realized even more what a danger Trump is. Imagining a character like him in charge of Canada made him seem all the worse. Sometimes you have to think about things like that to gain a greater perspective on how bad a situation truly is.
17
@Ozma I think that our electoral system here would prevent a Trump look-alike from gaining power. We saw that in our last election with the defeat of Maxime Bernier. Additionally, minority governments (like now) are quite common and rarely last more than 2 years. Our election offerings include socialists and nationalists (like the Bloc Quebecois). The interaction of the various parties gives us a sense of balance that the US does not have. You are either all in or all out. Predictably, it fails.
5
@Ozma Two words: Rob Ford. OK--I'll throw in two more at no additional cost: Doug Ford.
How to defeat Trump? Explain how he wants to cut Social Security and Medicare, two programs workers have paid into their entire working careers. Just the Republicans calling them "entitlements" is an insult. Why this is not brought up more is beyond me.
267
Let’s call tax cuts entitlements.
43
Because President Trump has said there will be no cuts to social security or Medicare.
1
@DeeBee The problem is the Sean Hannitys of the country will say that's a lie, even though it's not. Who do you think his supporters will believe?
7
On 11/4/20 Bloomberg is elected president by a considerable margin. Trump orders the election to be nullified and declares himself the victor. Thousands of armed supporters surround the White House (remember Richmond on 1/20/20). What will our government do? Don't think it can't happen.
13
@Carol I agree. Conversely, what if Trump wins and the military moves against him to re-establish the rule of law and adherence to the Constitution?
6
@Carol - I believe that American patriots would rise to protect our constitutional rights and privileges. It's the first part of your dream I cannot imagine - a different NYC billionaire winning the White House.
1
@Carol I DO think it can happen. I often wonder about Trump losing the election, bringing dozens of lawsuits and refusing to leave the WH.
2
I would like to ask John Roberts how he really feels now after acquittal. He seemed so sheepish during the questions and debate.
33
Everyone in suburbs would support President Trump, if he were actually standing up for the Affordable care Act and not trying to do away with insuring existing conditions (despite his rhetoric saying the opposite. If Trump cared about the poor and increased food stamps instead of taking them away, we would all feel more positively about Trump. If he did not collude with other countries (Russia and the Ukraine) to be elected, we would surely vote for him. If President Trump stayed away from twitter, and instead gave weekly news conferences with the media there to ask questions instead of insulting people, we would for sure check his name off on the ballot. If President Trump did not try to destroy those who thought differently from him, and if he chose cabinet officials from both sides of the aisle, we would surely support him as presidential. If President Trump taxed those making $500,000 and more a year and decreased the tax on the middle class, we would surely be more interested. If Trump modeled an ethical, moral and kind person in all his dealings with people, and did not use women sexually, we would finally decide--this is our President and we would not be fearful that our children may mistakenly hear what is now, nasty and vindictive speech. Make us want to vote for you, President Trump.
13
Not everybody in the suburbs.
2
@K.M ...."Everyone in suburbs would support President Trump, if..." No one would support Trump if they were half awake. He is a vulgar bigoted narcissist without a clue about how to run a country.
As an African American, I can absolutely see a path for Donald Trump to win over a sizable share of the black vote. Particularly African American men over 40.
This may SHOCK white liberal readers of the New York Times. Gasp! There are a host of reasons for this (cultural conservatism, improving economy, social media loosening the grip of pastors on parishioners’ vote, etc). But let’s just say that Democrats haven’t exactly focused on keeping the African-American vote.
I can assure not many of us were at the edge of our seat over whether John “the mustache” Bolton would testify or not...
33
@Mark Davis
This comports with a reality check I experienced at dinner the other night. My over 40 African American male friend did not agree with me when I went into my usual anti-Trump rant. Truth be told, it told me more about myself than him. I agree with you about the party’s failure to focus on its traditional core constituencies. As much as we all love to invoke the legacy of Dr. King, we forget, to our peril, what his doctorate was in.
1
@Mark Davis
Awarding a Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh was certainly a great start on winning a bigger percentage of the African American vote, wasn't it? With a 100 year old Tuskegee Airman sitting in the audience, no less. Have you forgotten who Mr. Limbaugh is? Need I remind you?
"The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."
"The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips, without any weapons. There, I said it."
Trump awarded this man a Medal of Freedom. You're seriously telling me you'll vote for him?
10
@Mark Davis
African American men are in the main not so naive, as to vote for an unbridled, life long racist, like Donald Trump. But thanks for the laugh, Mark!
6
With apologies to de Tocqueville, Trump is as great as a man can be without morality.
3
@TROUTWHISPERER ....I can cite a couple of dozen examples of why that's wrong. Can you sight one why it is right?
How could anyone still think that Trump has potential to be a respectable president?
20
@NM At least 50% of Americans think so.
“Under my watch the US economy is better than it has ever been”! So says trump. At his inauguration he vouched for economic growth of “5% or 6%”. Now after almost a full first term into his presidency economic growth is barely 2%! ,,, far below even Carter at 3.3% let alone JFK (5.7), LBJ(5.3),Reagan(3.5),and Clinton(3.8).
"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." — George Orwell, “1984”.
23
What you are saying might make sense to a rational objective person. Unfortunately those who this message should be for are none of those things. Their mantra is win at any cost including the truth and illegality...
8
If he really wanted to be president for another four years, wouldn't he take better care of his health?
10
@Linda
Unfortunately he feels he is invincible and immortal.
What he doesn’t realize is that, like every other human being, his days on this earth will come to an end and there’s absolutely nothing he can do about it.
2
@Linda
He disrespects and intimidates his well-done steaks so badly that it agrees to do him do harm, or else.
2
I sincerely hope that the Trump campaign spends or rather wastes oodles of their cash in the Suburbs in a vain effort to regain support from those of us who live there. Brand 'King Donald ' has never been a big draw in Suburbia and nothing that happened this week to change that.
Trump may feel emboldened by his Republican controlled Senate cowering in fear and voting not to impeach him , in the Suburbs we found it sickening. Like OJ Simpson's Trumps acquittal endears him to no one.
Trump will loose 'Bigly' in the suburbs in 2020 because he is simply unlikable, most reasonable people find his behavior appalling, if not Deplorable.
22
What is the point of going negative on Trump? It's totally worn out. Hasn't helped at all.
We can't win by being angry. We have to show a better way.
Every drop of ink, should be seen as a strategic resource. We need a Democratic Party positive article on the front page of the Times every day.
13
I hate these articles that make Trump seem like a normal candidate. Trump is going to do whatever he does and the people who adore him will love it and the people who are horrified will hate it. He's hoping that the people who love him unconditionally will turn out in droves. He's not going to change any minds between now and November. I personally can;'t even watch him on TV but I realize that many people actually think of him as the messiah. November 2020 is going to be all about turnout.
37
@Ivy Trump is a normal Republican. His behavior is straight out of the Republican playbook. He's nowhere near smart enough to invent the tactics he uses. A long line of Republican criminals going back many decades perfected them.
If that’s his strategy good luck to him.
1
Give it up. Russia managed to turn 100,000 votes in the last election to get Trump elected when we had an intelligence presence trying to stop them. Now the DOJ is acting with Russia to reelect Trump. Is anyone so naive they don't think Trump will team with Russia to hack the ballot boxes this time?
And frankly if Trump loses he isn't leaving anyway, the election will be rigged if he can't rigg it.
10
@deepharbor I don't buy those conspiracy theories. However, even a possibility is a good reason to stop concentrating on Trump and concentrate on winning both houses of Congress. If we succeed, Trump could be the first President to be impeached twice.
3
@deepharbor
Make sure your Gov provides a back-up paper ballot
in your state so Putin and his puppet can't steal your ballot again. This is urgent
1
@deepharbor
"Russia managed to turn 100,000 votes" Really? Care to share some fact about that?
Bernie Sanders just may win more states than Mondale in ‘84...which means he only
needs to win two.
10
Remember Reagans sweeping EC map in 1984, that is going to be Trumps swan song in 2020, all that red will be another color.
2
"Even as Mr. Trump flew to North Carolina … he called on the House to “expunge” his impeachment, an idea with no precedent or basis in the Constitution."
The world can hardly wait until November, when Mr. Trump can be "expunged".
15
@Joe Miksis
Well, the best thing, per the constitution is that he can't pardon himself.
He's impeached forever.
6
For Trump to feel good about anything, there has to be a clear enemy like Romney who displeases him enough for him to attack and retaliate. He can only experience a win through his attacks and he will continue this way until he is out of office and perhaps beyond. He cannot rejoice or feel Buoyed by his impeachment until there is an opportunity for revenge and retaliation. This president cannot plan or think through potential consequences unless someone on Fox or Rush gives him a preformed plan. The Democrats may have problems but they should be able to trounce Trump in November of 2020, if he is not allowed to get away with cheating during the election as he is now.
10
Democrats will be able to run ads showing Rush Limbaugh being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Not many suburban women or black people are going to be interested in voting for Trump when they get that reminder of the misogyny and racism he exudes.
18
@Cayce Jones
They won't do it. Trump constantly gives Democrats ammunition to attack him with and they never take advantage of it. He's already said he intends to cut Medicare in a second term. Apparently, nobody told the Democrats.
4
@Rick
It’s only February.
There’s still time.
3
@Rick
Demand a back-up paper ballot from your Gov
to ensure a verifiable vote for President.
3
How frightening it is that a person as un-American as Donald Trump has the Republican Party and the Russians firmly behind him. He has amassed an army of people, some of whom used to respect The Constitution and the rule of law and others who have always dreamed of making it a worthless 230 year old document residing in an the hallowed Smithsonian Institution.
3
Most importantly, he needs to win so the statute of limitations runs out before he's out of office and SDNY can't send him to prison.
2
@dtm
demand a a back-up paper ballot from your Gov.
to ensure a verifiable vote.....
Trump is on track to win reelection thanks to Pelosi and Schumer and the democrats bad impeachment case...the only democrat candidate he has to worry about is Amy Klobuchar...all the rest of them are flawed in one way or another and are unelectable...my money is on Trump for four more years...
6
A big question is whether Little Donnie cam behave himself for nine months.
2
@jumblegym
Demand a back-up paper ballot from your Gov so
we can verify the vote.
The article doesn't show the numbers.
The vote totals in Iowa were below expectations- no spike in enthusiasm. And for the Black vote, Trump doesn't need EVERY vote. He just needs a few percentage points because the Democrats rely on almost 97% of it.
His 2016 plea: "What do you have to lose?" got him 8% of the Black vote compared with Romney's 6% in 2012.
Criminal justice reform, opportunity zones, school choice, the lowest Black unemployment rate in history, etc. couple that with Kanye (don't laugh, he opens the possibility for Trump) and Trump reminded Black folks that the Democrats take them for granted, and he might up that to 10% or 12%.
If his percent reaches that in Detroit (Michigan), Milwaukee (Wisconsin), and majority Black cities in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the Democrats will lose.
Even Van Jones on CNN recognizes this. Screaming TRUMP IS A RACIST can't compare to his achievements that have benefited Black America.
This is why I fear the Democrats are about to lose this election.
12
@profwilliams Black people pity Kanye, we don't take political advice from him. Giving Rush Limbaugh the Presidential medal will cost Trump a lot of black voters. Another mistake Trump made was adding Nigeria to the travel ban list. Nigerians are the most socially conservative blacks in America. They are also the most educated and live mostly in the suburbs. I knew scores of them that supported Trump.....not anymore.
3
"Appeal to Black voters" and "chip away" at his problems with communities of color: i.e., enlist his party to do every thing they can to ensure low voter turnout, such as purge voter lists, close polls in local areas, confuse and divide.
Is there such a fine line between reporting "objectively" and serving as stenographers for a corrupt, lying criminal enterprise that these writers can repeat these "wishes" with a straight face? trump and his party have told us ad nauseam who and what they are; this reporting should be filed under the not-so-funny "comics" section.
6
While I can agree that his personality sometimes is suspect, folks whether they are Republican or Democrat when push comes to shove vote their pocketbooks.
That is one of the reasons that the polls were incorrect in 2016, and it will happen again this November, people talk a good story but when they pull that curtain closed they vote for the person that they believe will put money in their pocket.
This country has needed a tough businessman in the White House for the last 40 years. You may not like his personality ( neither do I), but I am only concerned with results not promises, and as far as I am concerned he has delivered. I guess I am in that basket of deplorables, because I will vote for him in November.
7
@Marty Goldman I would argue that moneyed interests create the "pocketbook" perception that benefit them and convince voters of it. The economy was very good under Clinton and Obama. Workers were dissuaded from seeing the significant increase in family income between 2014 and 2016. Of course, if you work on Wall Street, you'll definitely vote Republican every time.
3
Some people have principles. Love of money is not one. Hopefully you wake up to see you can’t eat money before all our water and air is poisoned by “deregulation.”
5
@Marty Goldman Sounds like you only care about one result - money. I guess that's fine as long as you don't care about democracy, don't live near the coast, don't care about your kids and their kids, and plan to check-out before the fallout from the mushroom clouds reach you.
2
I read this bit and start to wonder if some virus causes if this if that gossip while missing the point. So bits like this get team written. Warming up to the horse race stretch run bits that are about 95 percent already written.
He has as much chance of winning African Americans over to his racist vitriol as I, a Black woman, have of being the next Emperor of the Kingdom of Brexit.
Nice dream!
People still remember his disparaging President Obama about citizenship and all the other nonsensical outrageous lies.
Having said that, the Dems has better get it together.. They risk losing voters with free every thing for everybody.
Please.. Stop promising benefits to those who are in the country illegally. I do not agree that those here illegally should be receiving the same benefits and privileges as those who are citizens.
While some people may not want to hear that, that is, to me, one of the issues that will help defeat the Democrats in November...and not being able to, coalesce around a viable, winning alternative to what is in 1600 Pennsylvania now.
Some of the policies he enacted to harm sections of the country that did not vote for him, have in fact, ended up hurting and harming his "base."
People should realize that the wealthy got wealthier while those who are poor and struggling had to go out and get another part-time job and cut back on expenses.
How is that an improvement in anyone's life?
23
Yes, trump's only wish is simply to win - it's about him - he doesn't want to do anything for the country: improve conditions of the poor, improve education; raise minimum wages and whatever happened to infrastructure week? It's simply to win.
And to implement Tax Cut 2.0.
trump SAID he'd reduce the U.S. debt (in 8 yrs) and grow the economy 6% thereby increasing tax revenues.
Instead, what trump DID was lower growth estimate to 3.5-4%, implement a massive tax cut and increase the national debt by $3 trillion (Conway), it stands at $23 trillion, today.
Watch what they do, not what they say.
60
@LivingWithInterest don’t forget that he also wants to stay in office to get revenge on everyone who has crossed him, while he still has presidential power.
8
@LivingWithInterest And most of the total accumulated debt is due to Republican wars based on lies and incompetence, and on tax cuts for wealthy corporations and individuals. But not to worry, all that debt and greed must be what God wants according to the GOP and their high priests in Congress, the Supreme Court and the White House.
6
@ MK & Cowboy Marine
Yes, Yes and more Yes.
My predictions if trump is re-elected, he will:
Move to change the law to allow a third term president, Appoint another Supreme Court Justice,
Abortion will be outlawed,
Implement another tax cut without strings, AGAIN,
Cut more social program against those who can suffer it the least, and
Continue the assault on the free press.
The mass shootings will intensify while white supremacist marches will be further enabled.
The Senate will continue to reshape the judicial branch to be radically-conservative.
Minority, alien, and refugee incarcerations will increase with private jails reaping the $800/person capitation windfall.
trump will continue to play golf and host our Secret Service at his personally owned resorts. The perfect storm of a budding dictator - state owned properties.
4
I remember election night 2016 well. I was in Mesa, Arizona; a suburb of Phoenix. As soon as they announced Trump was elected president, I heard fireworks go off outside in the neighborhood. Someone had them set to go. Soon after, there was a helicopter circling around overhead looking for who did it. This year, I suspect it’s going to be an early night for the fireworks.
7
@Mark
'This year, I suspect it’s going to be an early night for the fireworks'
I am not sure I understand what you mean.
What does this mean?
Are the fireworks going off early as the re-election is decided early? or are the fireworks not happening because a Democrat won?
Please make a point. I sure am curious to know what Texas thinks of all this.
2
I believe Trump will be easily re-elected. He hasn't lost any supporters and he has gained many. The energy at his rallies is the best barometer. He polls at 49 percent and the polls are anti-him, like all else in the media (same polls said he would lose 99 percent to Hillary). It is best to divorce wishful thinking for such appraisals.
14
He did lose to Clinton by almost 3,000,000 votes. He might win again, but unlikely because he has a majority of votes. The Founding Father's were not enamored of pure democracy.
Thus, chickens, home, roost, coming.
5
@Alexgri His poll numbers are already down to 42% since two days ago and for both sides are basically meaningless until after the conventions.
1
@Alexgri there was only one poll at 49% and yet that still isn’t 50.1. He knows he can’t win which is why he tried to cheat with Ukraine against a candidate that no one actually likes. It’s Bloomberg all the way!
1
I don't care who's wearing the (D) on the ballot in November, they have my vote. The debates are irrelevant, as are the primaries, and the convention. At this point I'm just blocking out the whole mess, and waiting.
44
@Bubo
Demand a back-up paper ballot from your Gov to verify
an honest count and protection from trump/putin interference
1
Vote blue no matter who. Heal the US and re-join our allies. Fight for the 99%, healthcare as a right, the abolition of for-profit prisons, a living wage, investment in our children and education, bring decency back to our government, and so much more; none of these things are in line with the current administration.
44
@PLB Who the democrats put up matters. Do you really believe a candidate that takes money from these corporations is going to fight to do these things you've listed? Washington is a swamp and most of the candidates have already passed their initiation.
2
If you want to find out firsthand what life is like in an authoritarian country, vote for Trump. A victory in November will only embolden him to declare himself narcissist king. We all have a job to do to resuscitate democracy - we have to vote and get our friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, their voting age kids, our dental hygienist, and on and on to vote. There is hope in numbers.
26
@donaldo Very true. Do we really want another 4 years of wealthy & corrupt oligarchs, religious fanatics, fascists, bigots, industry lobbyists, mob bosses and Fox news zealots running our country? William Barr, Mike Pompeo, Stephen Miller, Jared Kushner, Betsy DeVos, Andrew Wheeler, Rudy Guiliani, Wilbur Ross, Mick Mulvaney, Sean Hannity ... these self-serving grifters and zealots are as good of a reason as any to vote Trump out of office. Same goes for Trump's Republican lackeys in Congress who will protect and enable trump at all costs to the country.
If Bernie Sanders is nominated as the Democratic candidate, he should pick Kamala Harris as his running partner. She is a woman, black and an excellent choice .Clear thinking, capable and an honest hard working Ex - Attorney General of California , she can attract a lot of support for the Democrats.
10
Ms. Abrams of GA would be the better choice, in my view.
5
The US can surely not survive 4 more years of this President, but neither can the world. We are all citizens of the world.
I hope for a change in 2020.
29
@Koret
How about the UK and other citizens of the world start paying their fair share of NATO? Time to pull your own weight. WW II has been over for 3/4 of a century.
That's what you really mean by the world can't take four more years of Trump. The US taxpayer gravy train might end.
4
@Koret Um, the world and the USA are doing fine. Well, maybe not Britain so much.
3
@Koret
'The US can surely not survive 4 more years of this President, but neither can the world.'
Oh yes it can.
And then 4 more.
3
Outside of the echo chambers of these comment sections, there is a huge swath of the population that likes Trump and even more that are repulsed by the extreme left wing of the Democratic party that seemingly has taken over. Although I will never vote for Trump, I understand people's fears about where the Democrats are heading and if the Democratic platform is far left, Trump is guaranteed a landslide.
15
@Hexagon if that's true, the USA is a lost cause and I feel vindicated for emigrating.
it'll be a long, slow decline of living standards as the Chinese and Europe eat America's lunch over the next hundred years.
1
@Hexagon Trump is rather rude and crude but he is very popular so he will probably win by a landslide. Bloomberg/klobuchar would be a good ticket for the Democrats. The rest of the candidates are hopeless cases and are unelectable
2
@Hexagon "Extreme left wing" as in health care reform, equitable taxation, infrastructure, addressing climate change, election reform. Polly want a cracker?
Aside from who the Democratic candidate is, and aside from Trump's campaign strategy, Trump is now drunk with power from the impeachment acquittal, this will likely be the real wildcard in this election. I think it is quite possible that we will be watching a Greek tragedy unfold in the coming year, with Trump as the protagonist. The protagonists in Greek tragedies usually don't end up in a good place.
13
Trump doesn’t need to expand the electoral college map. Keep the same and he wins re-election. That’s that simple.
7
AND Trump's main reason for wanting re-election is to maintain the protection of the presidency from being charged with the crimes that he committed prior to becoming president & also while president--EG's Tax Fraud, money laundering, attempted extortion, Obstruction of Justice, Obstruction of Congress. So far Trump has been the new 'Teflon Don' but if he loses the protection of the presidency he'll face various criminal charges that are already being investigated by various State's.
7
@Wayne
And we care why?
1
@Wayne A good of a reason as any to vote Trump out of office. Guys like him shouldn't be allowed to get away with all the crimes he's committed just because he's a white rich guy.
1
GOP trump supporters including most GOP senators dismiss the Mueller investigation as irrelevant. And now they are trumpeting the impeachment acquittal as total vindication. However Mueller said definitively on nation-wide TV that his report did not exonerate trump and that ONCE OUT OF OFFICE he was definitely liable for indictment for crimes most pointedly the deliberate obstruction of justice of which ten instances are extensively detailed in the report! This evidence has been carefully and painstakingly prepared and geared to support this eventuality. The 2020 election itself then is the critical vehicle for bringing this trump criminal travesty to a just end.
9
@John Townsend Agreed!
Because of the cascade of unpleasant facts that spilled out during Trump's impeachment, an increasing number of voters are realizing that there are essentially no limits to what he will say or do to gain re-election. If a freshly emboldened Trump has no real limits on his speech or behavior, hopefully enough citizens have finally HAD ENOUGH.
17
@chintermeister
But his approval ratings only increased with the impeachment hearings - rising by 5 percentage points. His Gallup polling is now at an all-time high at 49%, equivalent to the level previous incumbent presidents enjoyed prior to winning re-election.
3
@chintermeister
Demand a back-up paper ballot fro your Gov to ensure
a verifiable vote.
1
Stop framing this as a normal election; it is not. America has chose to venture onto the path of illiberal democracy. The only question is whether it continues or backtracks.
There is nothing normal here.
13
I cannot help laughing at seeing this title. I predict that as soon as Trump does/says a semi-decent thing following his advisers, he would do (mostly by tweeting) an opposite or destroy it less than a day. Ha, ha, ha, good luck to Trump campaign advisers!
Far more importantly, Democrats need to give a good alternative, and if so, the battle would be over.
5
I believe the US Constitution is running this November (2020.)
Either we, as a country, vote to keep it, or re-elect Trump.
It is simple as that.
21
The bloody country is more than wobbling and is in free-fall at this crucial juncture in our history. Why? Mostly in the name of money and personal, corporate, and political power.
So please stop all the political party and media horserace and campaign analyses based on the slicing and dicing of the electorate into demographic differences and how to exploit these differences to the advantage of one political party or another.
If this country is to survive as a viable democracy--where all political parties and elected government representatives respect our Constitution, the law, evidence and truth as well as human dignity and decency--then our national to-do list must be to demonstrate the willingness to stand up against Mr. Trump and mob rule to make America sane, honest, tolerant, thoughtful, caring, and fair again.
We are not on this earth to amass wealth and power at the expense of children, living things, the environment, and future generations. As supposed human beings, we are here to protect and improve life, and we can only do that by being responsible and holding ourselves and each other accountable.
Or do some demographic groups disagree with such fundamental values and principles?
15
To win, Trump has to hold the allegiance of his primary base of support: white evangelicalism.
In order to do that, he must hold positions of anger, fear, and bigotry, which alienate the two constituencies which could put him over the top: African-Americans and Suburbia (including mainstream Christians)
I remain convinced that this essential contradiction in the Trump “coalition” will break him in 2020.
11