Emerging From The Great Recession
There was some rather important economic news yesterday, which could be summed up as "things are getting better." Incomes are rising, unemployment has stayed low, the number of uninsured Americans has now dropped by half (thanks to Obamacare), and all of these things are happening at historic rates. The Great Recession is finally over, in other words.
This news didn't get nearly the attention it deserved, because bad economic news is always more enticing to the mainstream media. Think about it -- when unemployment was extremely high, each month's numbers were breathlessly reported on the day they came out, as the lead story on the evening news. These days, the fact that unemployment has now stayed close to five percent (5.1 percent or less) for over a full year is barely ever even mentioned. Even when a newspaper runs a headline like: "Middle Class Incomes Had Their Fastest Growth On Record Last Year," it mostly gets ignored on the airwaves. Hey, it's so much more fun to report on the Trump/Clinton daily molehills instead, right?
Digging into the statistics reveals gains not seen in a half-century. That's not hyperbole, either, as the Census Bureau showed (emphasis added):
Middle-class Americans and the poor enjoyed their best year of economic improvement in decades in 2015, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, a spike that broke a years-long streak of disappointment for American workers but did not fully repair the damage inflicted by the Great Recession.
Real median household income was $56,500 in 2015, the bureau reported, up from $53,700 in 2014. That 5.2 percent increase was the largest, in percentage terms, recorded by the bureau since it began tracking median income statistics in the 1960s.
In addition, the poverty rate fell by 1.2 percentage points, the steepest decline since 1968. There were 43.1 million Americans in poverty on the year, 3.5 million fewer than in 2014. The share of Americans who lack health insurance continued a years-long decline, falling 1.3 percentage points, to 9.1 percent.
A combination of forces fueled the gains, including an improving job market, low inflation and rising wages, particularly for low-earning workers who may have benefited from state and local initiatives to boost minimum wages.
To review: wages grew more than ever previously recorded. Poverty fell at the steepest rate since L.B.J. was in the White House. According to Gallup, the rate of uninsured Americans was at 18.0 percent in 2013, and it is now down to 9.1 percent. That means the percent of people without health insurance is now half what it was, just before Obamacare started. Half! Obamacare has done precisely what it was designed to do, to put this another way. The job market continues to improve, as it has steadily throughout most of Obama's term in office (after the bottom was hit during his first year). The wage gap between men and women even slightly improved. Oh, and raising minimum wages means everyone's wages increase, and this starts from the lowest income levels and moves up -- instead of the top-down wage increases that really only benefit the one percent. From the article:
Liberal economists said it was encouraging that the gains started with the workers who earn the least. Income grew most for the lowest-earning workers and least for the highest-earning ones, though all income groups saw improvement.
"The highest income growth was in the bottom fifth" of workers, "which is very welcome news," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute think tank. Furman, of the White House, credited wage-boosting policy initiatives for some of that increase: "The fact that millions of workers have gotten a raise, as states have raised minimum wages, has definitely had an effect there," he said.
All told, the gains brought median incomes nearly back to their levels before the recession, after adjusting for inflation, though they remain below 1999 levels.
The news, however, was not universally rosy. Those who live in areas where they are represented by Republicans did significantly worse, likely due to resistance to minimum wage increases and the failure of red states to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, as the article also helpfully points out:
Median incomes did not budge significantly in rural areas, while in cities, they grew by 7.3 percent. The South saw significantly weaker income growth than the West.
On health care, states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act continued to see a decline in their uninsured rate, widening a coverage gap with those states that did not expand the program.
Put slightly differently, living under Republican rule is dangerous to both your health and your paycheck.
Democrats running for office really need to point this disparity out, from Hillary Clinton on down to individual House races and gubernatorial candidates. They should be shouting from the campaign trail: "We want to raise the minimum wage, but Republicans refuse to do so, even though it is proven to raise everyone's wages without inflation. The data don't lie. Democrats want to improve workers' lives, Republicans refuse to even consider it."
Of course, some Democrats are too timid to make this case. It's always politically risky to tell voters that things are getting better when it's not yet true for all. This leads voters to the assumption that politicians are not only out-of-touch but are actually blaming them for their economic woes: "See? Everyone else is doing better, so there really must be something wrong with you if you aren't," is the way this comes across, in other words. And that's not exactly the way to get people to vote for you. Some Democrats walk this tightrope by tempering their outlook: "Things are getting better, but they haven't gotten better for all, because we still have work left to do." This is more polite than saying: "If the Republicans keep the House, your lives are never going to improve much, because they refuse to consider Democratic solutions that have been proven to work."
It's always politically risky to tell people things are getting better (or worse, for that matter) when their own experiences run counter to the national average. A politician talking in rosy terms about the improving economy isn't going to be welcomed by people who lost their job and still can't find another one. But there's a flip side to this as well, which I'll get to in a moment.
If this were a normal presidential election year, the recent excellent economic news might have guaranteed the race to the incumbent party. Some political science professors use only two basic data points to predict presidential election outcomes, which sounds too simple to be true but actually works remarkably accurately. Just by looking at the state of the economy and presidential job approval ratings, most presidential elections can indeed be predicted. If the economy's bad, or if the sitting president is below 50 percent approval, then the "out" party will likely win the White House. If the economy's good and the president has a clear majority who approve of the job he's doing, then his party will hold onto the White House.
Barack Obama's job approval was just rated at 58 percent in a recent poll. That was higher than other polls, but he's been comfortably above 50 percent in almost all of them for the past few months. Taken together with the economic good news, this would normally mean Hillary Clinton will be elected president in November.
Of course, this isn't exactly a normal election year. The phenomenon that is Donald Trump has already broken many of the rules and safe assumptions people have made. He could continue to do so, running a campaign that is so outside the normal way campaigns are run that it's hard to predict what will happen based only on conventional data and conventional prediction models.
Still, an economy improving at historic rates certainly undercuts one of the main arguments Trump has been making. According to Trump (and Fox News, of course), we are currently still in a post-apocalyptic hellscape of an economy. Things are bad for everyone, across the board. Life sucks and is getting suckier by the day.
But what this could mean is that it is Trump who is risking people rejecting his view of the economy more than any Democrat talking the economy up. Especially for middle-class suburbanites who may have weathered the Great Recession and are now seeing fatter paychecks. For this crucial demographic, Trump's doom-and-gloom on the economy doesn't ring true. Which means it could be Trump who is seen as out-of-touch in his viewpoint rather than Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or any other Democrat pointing out that all the economic news is good. Really good, in fact.
Trump's view still rings true to a lot of his supporters, of course. Regions left behind by manufacturing jobs leaving (never to return) are still open to Trump's viewpoint. But they're probably not going to vote for Clinton anyway. The election may instead be decided in the suburbs, as it often is. If Hillary Clinton is making more sense on the economy than Donald Trump to these suburbanites, that will give her a decisive edge. The Great Recession was a deep and lasting blow to the American economy. Barack Obama turned this around, and things have slowly improved over the course of his presidency. But last year, things started improving at historic rates for the poor and middle class. This good news hasn't reached everywhere, but it has reached enough places that might just make the doom-and-gloom message the one that's not believable.
-- Chris Weigant
Cross-posted at The Huffington Post
Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant
Note to Hail Hydra:
I'm posting this here, in the hopes you'll see it. My apologies for the long delay in seeing your comment a few days ago:
http://www.chrisweigant.com/2016/09/12/the-deplorable-basket-case/#comment-84172
It's now up and visible.
Welcome to the site! Your first post was held automatically for moderation, but from now on you should be able to post and see your comments instantly.
Just remember not to post more than one link per comment, as multilink comments are automatically filtered and require moderation (which, as you can see, sometimes takes awhile).
In any case, thanks for your patience, and sorry again about the delay.
-CW
Welcome Hail Hydra.
Read your first post and hope to hear more from you...
This PC crap is destroying America. How can you defeat the Dubya Recession if you can't even say its name? W!
I've been saying for a couple of years now (sometimes on this blog, I think) that when we hit the next recession we will look back fondly on 2014-20xx as "the good times" - not everybody of course, but there are always people who are going thru a bad patch, regardless of the rest of the economy.
A growing economy is like sitting in a hot tub that is gradually warming up, even a blast of hot water isn't as impactful as when the heater fails and cold water starts pouring in - everybody jumps out even though the temperature is warmer than the pool.
Sorry for the long analogy, but my point is that, like sudden cold water, a recession gets our attention and we act and talk about it. Gradually improving economic circumstances are far less impactful.
This cognitive weakness has been one of the levers than populist politicians like Trump have used since the Greek times and probably before.
Heaven help us if too many people react rather than think.
BTW is there a way of looking at all of your posts on one screen?
Good one JFC [3].
All hail Hail Hydra,
(Or if you are Southern, like me, it sounds more like "Ah Hell, Hail Hydra".)
Welcome to the group.
ListenWhenYouHear,
All hail Hail Hydra,
(Or if you are Southern, like me, it sounds more like "Ah Hell, Hail Hydra".)
LOL... Totally true! :)
[5] Neil,
Why would you want to do that?
Let's get an edit function, first ...okay?
You have to love anonymous posters ...
HH ... I'd love to hear why you chose that one.
Chris,
Donald Trump is a non-serious candidate and Republican economic policies have been thoroughly proven to be nothing but detrimental to the economy.
So, why do Democrats, generally speaking, have a hard time talking about their economic success stories and their pro-growth tax and fiscal policy?
Chris,
The Great Recession was a deep and lasting blow to the American economy. Barack Obama turned this around, and things have slowly improved over the course of his presidency.
President Obama had a lot of help, you know and, it would be nice if his first secretary of the treasury got the lion's share of the credit due for turning the US economy around and putting it on a solid road to recovery.
Speaking of Geithner ... now, there was someone who knew how to handle the Republican economic policy nonsense! Ironic, isn't it?
I would be remiss if I didn't correct the record of [13] and say that Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke also deserves a lot of credit for saving the economy while congressional Republicans did everything they could to prevent a recovery.
You have to love anonymous posters ...
Cowards, pretty much... :^(
Donald Trump is a non-serious candidate and Republican economic policies have been thoroughly proven to be nothing but detrimental to the economy.
Yea, and Democrats have done SOOO well the last 8 years...
Howz that TrainWreckCare workin' out for ya'all?? :D
Michale
HH ... I'd love to hear why you chose that one.
Terrorist sympathizer...
Michale
She didn't insult ALL of Trump's supporters - only the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic ones.
OK, OK....
So, if I call Hillary Clinton a bitch, no one has any right to get offended unless they actually believe that Hillary Clinton IS a bitch...
Is that the SOP we are operating under now??
OK, kewl... I can live with that.. :D
Remember, people. Your rules.. :D
Michale
http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Bill+Clinton+Former+President+Bill+Clinton+WHcrDUOZRPSl.jpg
"Bill still dicking bimbos at home"
Colin Powell
I mean, honestly..
What kind of perverted moronic disgusting stoopid asshole would want BILL CLINTON back in the White House???
Michale
Liz,
Donald Trump is a non-serious candidate
And yet, Trump is virtually tied with Hillary...
So, what does that say about Hillary?? :D
Michale
And yet, Trump is virtually tied with Hillary...
And in many battleground states, Trump is actually BEATING Hillary... :D
Michale
The Great Recession is finally over, in other words.
Yea, "The FALL of Recovery", right?? :D
Where have we heard THAT before???
You can throw out all the cherry picked stats you want..
But the REAL test is a simple question to Joe and Jane Sixpack..
"Are your lives any better?"
And the answer is a resounding "HELL NO!!"...
THAT's the only stat that matters...
Speaking for me personally... Before Odumbo & the Demcorats, a normal week for me was $1500 and a GOOD week was around twice that. I had a GOOD week at least every couple months..
NOW, I am lucky if I go home with $200 a week... And I haven't seen a week over $1300 in 5 years...
So, as I said.. You can cherry pick all the rosy pinky EVERYTHING-IS-AWESOME stats you want..
But it's all nothing but smoke and mirrors.. Odumbo and the 'rats have totally frak'ed up the country...
THIS is the reality whether ya'all want to admit it or not...
Michale
Put slightly differently, living under Republican rule is dangerous to both your health and your paycheck.
Yea??
Howz Chicago these days???
What about Baltimore???
Detroit?? Now THERE is the epitome of 'crat rule....
Michale
And for Demcorats??
TRUMP WITH SIX POINT LEAD
http://www.latimes.com/politics/
The hits just keep on coming!!! :D
Looks like true patriotic Americans DON'T WANT to elect a POTUS with Parkinsons.... :D
Of course, ya'all will whine and cry and stamp your feet that the poll doesn't mean anything.. But we all know that ya'all ONLY say that because the poll doesn't say what you want it to say..
If it showed Deaths Door Hillary with a 6-point lead, ya'all would swear by it..
That's what comes with being enslaved by Party dogma and ideology. No independent thought whatsoever...
It's going to be a fun six weeks :D
Michale
Some people say that the Orange One is a choke artist because he's received billions of dollars worth of free media and yet he's still LOSING, but he's really just too racist for the American People.
Some people say that the Orange One is a choke artist
As opposed to Hussein Odumbo who has made race relations in this country 10 times worse..
yet he's still LOSING
Apparently, you are not up on current events, moron....
Trump has pulled ahead in several battleground states...
but he's really just too racist for the American People
That has already been disproven as a lie... But why would anyone here expect you would deal in facts.... :D
Michale
Ford shifting all U.S. small-car production to Mexico
Ford announcements today range from shifting much of their North American production to Mexico and their enthusiasm for self-driving cars in the future. USA TODAY
CEO Mark Fields told investors the move is part of plans to make production simpler and less expensive
Ford plans to eventually shift all North American small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico, CEO Mark Fields told investors Tuesday, even though the company's production investments in Mexico have become a lightning rod for controversy in the presidential election.
http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2016/09/14/mexico-ford-shiftng-us-car-production-mexico/90355146/
There's ya'all's Demcorats.. Sending US jobs to other countries...
Michale
See, here's the dynamic that ya'all don't seem to get...
Everyone knows EVERYTHING there is to know about Hillary, insofar as positive aspects go..
There is absolutely NOTHING out there that true patriotic American people could learn and say, "Wow.. That makes Hillary look so much better. I am beginning to like her!!"
Anything new we learn about Death's Door Hillary will be negative...
So Hillary's numbers have no where to go but down..
The only thing that Hillary can pray for is that Trump does something or says something that is really stoopid.. Which is definitely a possibility, I grant you...
But, of late, Trump has gotten VERY disciplined in his message and his messaging... So, the chances that Trump will do/say something that actually hurts his campaign is growing slimmer each and every day...
So, Trump will likely only go up and Hillary has no place to go but down...
Now, let's look at things that are beyond the campaign's control.. About the only thing that COULD happen that would make the Demcorat Party look good is a hurricane or other natural disaster.. Even that is not a guarantee because the Baton Rouge floods made Hillary, Odumbo and the rest of the Demcorats look like morons and made Trump look like the caring POTUS..
Terrorist attack??? Point to Trump???
Russia flexing it's muscles and annexing another territory?? Point to Trump...
Riots?? Point to Trump...
Cops ambushed/assassinated?? Point to Trump..
No matter HOW ya'all want to look at it, logically speaking, Trump has no where to go but up..
And Death's Door Hillary has no where to go but down...
"Simple logic"
-Admiral James T Kirk
I would ask ya'all to refute this logic with logic of your own, but I know it's impossible for those who are enslaved by Party ideology to be logical, so I won't even bother...
Michale
Americans' Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low
http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx
And THAT is why Hillary is sinking..
The *ONLY* thing that Death's Door Hillary has going for her is that she has the vast majority of the MSM in her pocket..
But true patriotic Americans are beginning to realize that the vast majority of the MSM simply cannot be trusted. So, what the MSM says, TPAs believe the opposite... :D
Michale
So, what does that say about Hillary?? :D
I've already addressed that.
NOW, I am lucky if I go home with $200 a week... And I haven't seen a week over $1300 in 5 years...
One word, Michale ... marketing.
I've already addressed that.
Yes you have. And quite logically, I concede... But you are the ONLY one who has been logical about it.
The ONLY one...
Makes ya feel speeshal, don't it? :D
One word, Michale ... marketing.
I am actually using MORE marketing now, than I did before..
No, the reason why is people in my community are struggling to make ends meet. They don't have the spending cash for computers and TVs...
In short, despite all the cherry picked stats that say otherwise, the Demcorats have been screwing over Americans since they gained power...
Upwards of 80% of Americans want this country to change direction..
Now WHY do you think that is??
Is it because Democrats have been doing such a bang-up job??
No.. It's because the Demcorats have run this economy into the ground..
Michale
Hillary is supposed to appear at a campaign event today..
We'll see if her Parkinsons allows her to make an appearance and actually stay for the duration...
Michale
Something very interesting has happened over the past two weeks in the presidential campaign: Donald Trump has seized the momentum from Hillary Clinton and is climbing back into contention in both national and key swing state polling.
New polls released over the past 24 hours confirm this momentum. In Ohio, Trump leads Clinton by five points in a new Bloomberg Politics poll and a similar five in a CNN poll. In Florida, Trump has a three-point lead on Clinton. In Nevada, Trump has a two-point edge, according to a Monmouth University survey. And in the latest weekly tracking poll from NBC and Survey Monkey, Clinton's national lead has shrunk to just four points. In the RealClearPolitics polling average of all national surveys, Clinton's lead has shrunk to two points over Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/14/dont-look-now-donald-trump-has-all-the-momentum-in-the-2016-race/
Yea....
Trump is "losing"....
Trump is "toast"..
Trump's campaign is "imploding"...
:D hehehehehehehehehe
Ya'all are going to be saying that exact same thing when Trump is sworn in as POTUS on 20 Jan 2017... :D
Michale
http://sjfm.us/temp/badoptics.jpg
Bad optics, Trump...
VERY bad optics....
Michale
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrMLSplVIAAf8oJ.jpg
Omygods, she looks like Death....
Michale
Michale wrote:
"Howz that TrainWreckCare workin' out for ya'all?? :D"
Actually Michale, for me, it is working out GREAT. I have not been able to get health insurance through my employer. I am not old enough for Medicare yet. I had a heart attack a couple years ago. Without Obamacare, I would have to go without ANY health insurance at all, as I don't qualify for Medicaid either. But with the ACA, I only pay 69 dollars a month for health coverage!
For me, it has been a LIFESAVER.
Michale wrote:
"Upwards of 80% of Americans want this country to change direction..
Now WHY do you think that is??
Is it because Democrats have been doing such a bang-up job??
No.. It's because the Demcorats have run this economy into the ground.."
Run the economy into the ground, REALLY??? Did you not read anything Chris wrote??? You really should have said run it into the ground like Bush did, or the Republicans in states like Kansas and Louisiana.
Also, if Americans think we are going in the wrong direction and REALLY want a change, then they should be voting the Democrats in and the Republicans out, since it is the Republicans who have controlled the majority of the government for the past few years, if you count state legislatures, governors, and the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.
JM,
Well, I am happy it's working out for you..
The rest of the country, it isn't..
Exchanges are shutting down and going bankrupt left and right..
But, as long as YOU'RE happy, I guess that means TWC is a success, eh? :D Heh
Run the economy into the ground, REALLY??? Did you not read anything Chris wrote???
Yes, I read a bunch of cherry picked stats...
Also, if Americans think we are going in the wrong direction and REALLY want a change, then they should be voting the Democrats in and the Republicans out,
Yea, you see if you can convince them of that.. :D Good luck.. :D
Michale
Also, if Americans think we are going in the wrong direction and REALLY want a change, then they should be voting the Democrats in and the Republicans out,
So, what you are saying is that when Republicans are in control, EVERYTHING is the fault of the Republicans.
And when Democrats are in control, EVERYTHING is the fault of Republicans.. :D
Yea... NO Party slavery there, eh? :D
Michale
Actually Michale, for me, it is working out GREAT.
Using that "logic", the economy is totally in the dumps because I ain't makin' it.. :D
Michale
Speaking after the fire on Monday, Ibrahim Hooper, the national spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said, “Unfortunately, within the past year, we’ve seen an unprecedented rise in bigotry in our society. It’s becoming a great concern to the American Muslim community.”
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/man-arrested-for-setting-fire-to-pulse-shooters-mosque.html
A Missouri man ambushed and killed three law officers and wounded three others in Baton Rouge on Sunday during a time when police nationwide and in the Louisiana city in particular have been on high alert after five officers were killed in a Dallas ambush July 7
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/17/us/baton-route-police-shooting/
Trumpers:
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/30/trump_supporters_first_pepper_spray_then_yell_nr_lover_to_15_year_old_protester_in_paul_ryans_hometown/
Trump supporters pepper-spray then yell ni###er lover at 15 year old girl.
Trumpers.
Trump supporters pepper-spray then yell ni###er lover at 15 year old girl.
Trumpers.
Yea, right... Suuuure they did..
Michale
REVEALED: NEW PAY-FOR-PLAY DETAILS OF CLINTON CORRUPTION
Newly released emails reveal how the Clintons used their influence to obtain large amounts of cash
http://www.infowars.com/revealed-new-pay-for-play-details-of-clinton-corruption/
Michale
HILLARY CLINTON’S NONEXISTENT DIAGNOSIS – NO SUCH CONDITION AS “NON CONTAGIOUS BACTERIAL PNEUMONIA” IN ICD-10…
Fake illnesses, fake diagnosis and fake tests. All for a fake candidate. Go figure.
http://www.infowars.com/hillary-clintons-nonexistent-diagnosis-no-such-condition-as-non-contagious-bacterial-pneumonia-in-icd-10/
Those links have as much reality as yours do, Paula... :^/
Michale
http://www.liberalamerica.org/2016/08/17/trump-supporters-in-convoy-when-he-wins-were-gonna-burn-every-single-nier-video/
Trumpers.
PNEUMONIA? HILLARY RECEIVED NEUROLOGICAL TEST BEFORE SHE COLLAPSED
Image shows Clinton grasping fingers of nurse
http://www.infowars.com/pneumonia-hillary-received-neurological-test-before-she-collapsed/
I am glad we have established that ENQUIRER style links are now "proof positive" of accusations... :D
Now I'll be able to post responses to ya'alls trash links.. :D
Michale
VIDEO: ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ RIOTERS TARGET WHITES FOR BEAT DOWNS
"They beating up all the white people"
http://www.infowars.com/video-black-lives-matter-rioters-target-whites-for-beat-downs/
Clintonistas.... :D
Michale
Dallas Police 'Ambush': 12 Officers Shot, 5 Killed During Protest
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/dallas-police-ambush/protests-spawn-cities-across-u-s-over-police-shootings-black-n605686
Clinton Supporters Kill Cops...
Michale
"I can do this all day.."
-Captain America
Captain Steve Rogers is voting for Trump.... :D
Michale
Seriously, Paula..
Do you REALLY want to fill up this site with bullshit Left Wingery and Right Wingery propaganda???
REALLY???
Michale
Because I know that I don't....
Michale
LATEST POLLS
General Election:
Trump vs. Clinton vs. Johnson vs. Stein
CBS News/NY Times
Clinton 42
Trump 42
Johnson 8
Stein 4
General Election:
Trump vs. Clinton vs. Johnson vs. Stein
Rasmussen Reports
Clinton 40
Trump 42
Johnson 7
Stein 2
General Election:
Trump vs. Clinton
LA Times/USC Tracking
Clinton 41
Trump 47
:D
Michale
Trump leads in Florida...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/fl/florida_trump_vs_clinton-5635.html
Michale
Trump leads in Ohio
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/oh/ohio_trump_vs_clinton_vs_johnson_vs_stein-5970.html
Michale
Clinton leads in Pennsylvania but her lead is shrinking..
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/pa/pennsylvania_trump_vs_clinton_vs_johnson_vs_stein-5964.html
Michale
Clinton leads in NC, but her lead is shrinking..
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/nc/north_carolina_trump_vs_clinton_vs_johnson-5951.html
It doesn't look good for Clinton...
Michale
Hillary speaking live in NC on Cspan: https://www.c-span.org/video/?415316-1/hillary-clinton-campaigns-greensboro-north-carolina
She looks rested and wonderful!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CrMLSplVIAAf8oJ.jpg
She looks like day old death...
Something one of my rotties would drag in...
Michale
Polls darken for Democrats
Hillary Clinton’s once formidable lead over Donald Trump in national and battleground polls is evaporating.
Trump has pulled into the lead in Florida and Ohio, two crucial states where he has trailed Clinton for most of the race, and several states that once looked out of reach for Trump — Colorado and Virginia, among them — suddenly appear competitive.
One survey showed Trump swinging to a lead in Nevada, a state that President Obama carried with ease during both of his presidential campaigns. And a poll of Iowa, which has only gone for the GOP nominee once in the last seven elections, found Trump ahead by 8 points.
The swing in national polls is equally dramatic.
While Clinton led Trump by an average of 7.6 percentage points one month ago, her advantage is now down to a meager 1.8 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics average.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/polls/296189-polls-darken-for-democrats
You can spin it all you want...
But the FACT is.... the REALITY is... Hillary is falling...
Her numbers are falling...
Her support is falling..
Her health is falling....
Donald Trump is going to be our next President...
Get used to it...
Michale
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-dodges-reporters-in-six-question-press-conference/article/2601963
Same old Clinton...
Same old secrecy....
Same old evasiveness....
Michale
LizM [12] -
That is an excellent question, and one I have no answer to. I've always wondered myself, personally... sigh.
Michale [various] -
These stats aren't "cherry-picked," they are in fact the entire cherry tree. Or orchard, even. You make such a big deal about how you're all about "facts" (or "FACTS"), but when faced with those that contradict your opinion, you discard them pretty easily... I'm just sayin'...
:-)
-CW
Hmmmmmmmm
Trump support surges in Pennsylvania towns
Scant evidence of Clinton campaign in traditional stronghold
https://www.ft.com/content/fef42a12-7b1c-11e6-ae24-f193b105145e
I seem to remember someone here in Weigantia saying something like, "Wake me up when Trump starts taking Pennsylvania" or something like that...
Wakie, Wakie, hands off snakie
:D heh
Michale
These stats aren't "cherry-picked," they are in fact the entire cherry tree. Or orchard, even. You make such a big deal about how you're all about "facts" (or "FACTS"), but when faced with those that contradict your opinion, you discard them pretty easily... I'm just sayin'...
And I can find just as many FACTS that "prove" how bad the economy is.. How many tens of millions of Americans are out of work?? How dismal the middle class has gotten.... How well off the 1% has gotten under Obama and the Demcorats..
You have a few facts that paint a rosy picture.. I grant you that.. I acknowledge those facts..
But you have to acknowledge that those few facts DO NOT tell the whole story...
Ask Joe and Jane Sixpack if their lives are better now...
They will tell you NO!!
THAT is the ONLY fact that has relevance here..
Michale
If things are really as well as you would like to paint them, how do you explain Trump BEATING Clinton???
Michale
So, why do Democrats, generally speaking, have a hard time talking about their economic success stories and their pro-growth tax and fiscal policy?
That is an excellent question, and one I have no answer to. I've always wondered myself, personally... sigh.
The answer is simple...
Their "economic success stories" exists only in their dream world...
DETROIT... BALTIMORE... and every other hellhole from Portland Maine to Portland Oregon...
THAT is the reality of Demcorat "success".... :^/
If the Demcorat Party had even a modicum of the success that ya'all think they do???
Trump wouldn't even exist as a candidate, let alone a candidate that is actually WINNING....
Michale
Ask Joe and Jane Sixpack if their lives are better now...
They will tell you NO!!
THAT is the ONLY fact that has relevance here..
And how do we KNOW that Joe & Jane Sixpack would say HELL NO to the question??
Because upwards of *80%* of Americans want the direction of this country to change...
You simply CANNOT reconcile your claim that EVERYTHING-IS-AWESOME with the *FACT* that over 8 in 10 Americans want to change direction..
8 in 10 Americans are SICK of Demcorat rule....
That's the relevant fact here...
Michale
To any who might be interested: if you go back and look at CW's column from 9/15/12, you will notice that the comment section has been hijacked with redundant spam that is remarkably similar to the cut and paste Trumpbart spam featured above right down to the unsurprisingly incorrect prediction of who would win the election. Shocking, I know. It's almost as if a chatbot pukes it up.
John From Censornati [70]
Thank you for this! I think every new person to the site believes that they can maybe help him to see how flawed his arguments are and how he wrongly attacks everyone for doing things that they do not actually do. This makes it incredibly clear that there is ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE of him changing -- so I need not bother anymore.
It's still clear as mud to me.
you will notice that the comment section has been hijacked with redundant spam that is remarkably similar to the cut and paste Death's Door Clinton spam
Com'on.. Don't pick on Paula like that. She can't help that she has her head so far up Clinton's ass....
Liz,
It's still clear as mud to me.
Where exactly are you confused?? I'll be happy to clarify any point you do not understand..
It's quite simple, people..
Ya'all have claimed over and over and over and over that Trump is toast, that his campaign is imploding, that he has already lost..
And yet, Trump is WINNING in battleground states and has cut Hillary's national poll lead to nothing...
Ya'all can attack me all you want...
But the FACTS are the FACTS...
And the FACT is, ya'all have been wrong EVERY TIME you have predicted Trump's demise...
EVERY.... TIME....
Michale
This makes it incredibly clear that there is ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE of him changing -- so I need not bother anymore.
Why should I??
Son, I have been here for over 10 years and I have not changed a bit..
It USED to be that everyone here enjoyed the back and forth and there were real friendships here...
So, what HAS changed??
I'll tell you.. It used to be that ya'all had logical and cognizant arguments to make. But, because it's painfully obvious to anyone with more than 2 brain cells to rub together that Demcorats have run this country into the ground..
NOW ya'all don't have a moral, logical or ethical leg to stand on in defending Demcorats..
So, ya'all get pissy and simply attack me because ya'all don't have anything GOOD to point to about Demcorats..
Most of your comments deal with attacks on me than they do defending Demcorats...
That's because ya'all have NOTHING to work with.. So ya'all get frustrated...
I understand, I really do...
Once President Trump is sworn in, I am sure things will get back to normal around here.. :D
Something to look forward to...
Michale
And MORE Bad News For Clinton
WASHINGTON – A month after it appeared the race for president in Michigan might be all but over, Republican Donald Trump has cut deeply into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s post-convention lead, with an exclusive new Free Press/WXYZ-TV poll showing Trump has moved closer to tying Clinton in a state that hasn't backed a Republican nominee since 1988.
Clinton, whose lead in some national polls also has disappeared lately after a successful convention this summer in Philadelphia, still leads Trump 38%-35% in Michigan, according to the poll done by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA for the Free Press, WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) and their outstate partners. But that is within the poll’s 4-percentage-point margin of error, and a significant drop from her 11-point lead last month.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/15/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-michigan-poll/90381296/
The vaunted Clinton juggernaut is collapsing..
Michale
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton_vs_johnson_vs_stein-5952.html
And Clinton's national collapse continues...
Michale
Liz,
Welp, it doesn't look like Clinton is going to follow your advice and change her campaign strategy..
Hillary Clinton faces a major dilemma in the wake of her controversial “basket of deplorables” comment: keep hammering Donald Trump on race or pivot to other issues.
Democrats are divided on the best course of action following her remark last week that “half” of Trump’s supporters are “irredeemable” and fit into a “basket of deplorables” that includes racists, sexists, xenophobes, homophobes and Islamophobes. The former secretary of State subsequently said she shouldn’t have spoken in such sweeping generalizations but stopped short of apologizing and vowed to call out Trump’s “bigotry.”
But doing so could keep the deplorables comment in the news, and some Democrats feel like she should move on.
“I think there’s a sense of disappointment that she went down in the mud and stooped to Trump’s level,” one Clinton surrogate told The Hill. “So I wouldn’t expect her to go down that road again.”
But sources close to the campaign say Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, stands behind the substance of her remarks and intends to focus on the issues of race and discrimination.
The Clinton campaign will continue pounding Trump, the Republican nominee, for running what they view as a divisive and hate-filled campaign that has galvanized the “alt-right” movement and attracted support from polarizing figures such as former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
“You won’t see some big change,” one source said.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/296031-hillary-clinton-faces-dilemma-following-deplorables-remark
So, I guess we are in agreement that Trump will likely win the Presidency, eh? :D
Hillary can't talk up her own successes because she has none and she can't talk up her policies because they are the same old tired Odumbo policies that Americans have rejected...
So, her only option is to attack Trump.
And she will lose there, as every other candidate has in the past...
Michale
Basically Death's Door Hillary is going to stick with the er... uh.... let's call it "strategy" of attacking Trump supporters..
THAT will push the fence-sitters into Team Trump's waiting arms... :D
Go DD Hillary!!! :D
Michale
Chicken Boy,
To any who might be interested: if you go back and look at CW's column from 9/15/12, you will notice that the comment section
So, you are actually cataloging a chat bot's comments??
Or are they so memorable, you have them memorised?? :D
Awwwwww, KFC... Iddn't dat speeshal...
"I am fatter... er... FLATTERED.."
-Eddie Murphy, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR
:D
"Don't cross brains with Spock. He'll cut you to pieces every time.."
-Ensign Hikaru Sulu
:D
Heh
Michale
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
Trump is DECIMATING Clinton....
Here, I'll even help ya'all out...
"Polls don't mean squat!!"
-WPG
There, I just saved ya'all a ton of posting...
Ain't I a peach... :D
Michale
Exclusive: Hillary Clinton Campaign Systematically Overcharging Poorest Donors
Wells Fargo fraud department inundated with calls from low-income Clinton supporters reporting repeated unauthorized charges
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is stealing from her poorest supporters by purposefully and repeatedly overcharging them after they make what’s supposed to be a one-time small donation through her official campaign website, multiple sources tell the Observer.
The overcharges are occurring so often that the fraud department at one of the nation’s biggest banks receives up to 100 phone calls a day from Clinton’s small donors asking for refunds for unauthorized charges to their bankcards made by Clinton’s campaign. One elderly Clinton donor, who has been a victim of this fraud scheme, has filed a complaint with her state’s attorney general and a representative from the office told her that they had forwarded her case to the Federal Election Commission.
“We get up to a hundred calls a day from Hillary’s low-income supporters complaining about multiple unauthorized charges,” a source, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of job security, from the Wells Fargo fraud department told the Observer. The source claims that the Clinton campaign has been pulling this stunt since Spring of this year. The Hillary for America campaign will overcharge small donors by repeatedly charging small amounts such as $20 to the bankcards of donors who made a one-time donation. However, the Clinton campaign strategically doesn’t overcharge these donors $100 or more because the bank would then be obligated to investigate the fraud.
http://observer.com/2016/09/exclusive-hillary-clinton-campaign-systematically-overcharging-poorest-donors/
On top of everything, Death's Door Hillary is also a thief....
I wish I could say I was surprised...
Michale
Where exactly are you confused?? I'll be happy to clarify any point you do not understand..
You missed my point, completely ... I was trying to be funny, you know ... :)
"So, you are actually cataloging a chat bot's comments??"
LOL! That's what a chatbot would say. Something idiotic.
No need for me to catalog your cut and paste spam. CW does that. I just chose a date exactly four years ago. It was easy and took no effort at all because you provide have no original content, just spam.
LizM [72],
Well, I suppose that explains your Groundhog Day routine of swearing off playing with the gaslighter and then coming back for more.
You missed my point, completely ... I was trying to be funny, you know ... :)
Ahhhhhh :D My mistake...
Michale
No need for me to catalog your cut and paste spam. CW does that. I just chose a date exactly four years ago. It was easy and took no effort at all because you provide have no original content, just spam.
The mere fact that you actually go back that far to find my comments indicates yer obsession.. :D
Having fun researching and losing debates to a "chat bot"?? :D
Michale
ChickenBoy,
Well, I suppose that explains your Groundhog Day routine of swearing off playing with the gaslighter and then coming back for more.
Was she talking to you, son??
Confine your personal attacks to me..
Liz is way WAY out of your league...
Michale
Listen,
Thank you for this! I think every new person to the site believes that they can maybe help him to see how flawed his arguments are and how he wrongly attacks everyone for doing things that they do not actually do.
I'll give you the same offer I gave Kick..
Provide some FACTS to support your BS..
Kick ran away after he got pwned...
I expect the same from you...
Michale
It was easy and took no effort at all because you provide have no original content, just spam.
I have plenty of original material..
Unlike you who only has incoherence.. And I am not the only one here who has noticed.. :D
Michale
Looks like the poll-tumble resulting from Hillary's near death collapse is happening just as I predicted it would...
True patriotic Americans don't want a POTUS who is at Death's door and who can't sit for 2 hours without collapsing into dead weight...
Overheated my left arse cheek.... 80F @ 40% humidity w/ 8mph winds is not "overheating" weather by ANY stretch of the definition...
But people with Parkinsons apparently are a lot more susceptible to things like heat exhaustion, I guess...
Michale
I got my birthday present picked out.. :D
http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.257884811.6605/ra,tank,x3104,101010:01c5ca27c6,front-c,570,550,900,975-bg,f8f8f8.jpg
Michale
You have a birthday coming up?
Oh, wait ... :(
:-)
You have a birthday coming up?
Yes, we do... :D
Michale
Would you like the same present I am getting?? :D
Michale
That tank doesn't fit.
How about a Michale-Free day here in Weigantia... Would that be a good present?? :D
Michale
If I recall correctly, it's Monday.. Monday is my day off and I am usually very prolific on Mondays..
But, for you?? I'll make it happen, Cap'n... :D
Michale
Michale,
Provide some FACTS to support your BS..
I haven't BS'd, so there isn't anything for me to defend.
Keep on trollin'!
I haven't BS'd, so there isn't anything for me to defend.
TRANSLATION: I have no facts...
You've been pwned... :D
Michale
"Boom, boom, boom... Another one bites the dust... And another one down and another one down.... Another one bites the dust..."
-Queen
:D
Michale
TRANSLATION: I have no facts...
Trust me, we all know that you have no facts!
[96] Elizabeth Miller,
That tank doesn't fit.
Of course it doesn't because that's a tank for a blameshifting loser.
This is a tank:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LnbskjJ_MU
Listen,
Trust me,
Trust the guy who simply CANNOT admit when he is wrong??
Sheeya right... :D
we all know that you have no facts
Yea, that's what you keep saying. Yet you have absolutely NOTHING to back it up..
PWNAGE!!!! :D
Michale
How about a Michale-Free day here in Weigantia... Would that be a good present?? :D
No, that wouldn't seem right.
It would be nice, though, if we just refrain from calling each other names and slaves to party ideology and just stick to supporting one candidate or the other on the basis of that candidate's stand on the issues that really matter in peoples lives.
If we do this, not just on my birthday or on yours, but every other day of the year in Weigantia, then we might just - all of us - make an important contribution to the serious discussion that is so desperately needed in the lead up to the presidential election.
Happy Birthday, Michale!!
It would be nice, though, if we just refrain from calling each other names and slaves to party ideology and just stick to supporting one candidate or the other on the basis of that candidate's stand on the issues that really matter in peoples lives.
I'm game for that...
But I would be the ONLY one who would be game for that... Well, besides you, of course. :D
Happy Birthday, Michale!!
Happy Birthday, Liz... :D
Michale