“More Americans than at any time in Barack Obama’s presidency now say that things in the United States are going well, a sharp uptick in positive views and the best reviews of the country’s trajectory since January 2007,” according to the latest CNN/ORC poll.
“Overall, 54% say things in the country today are going well, 46% badly.”
A must-read Businessweek piece explains how Donald Trump’s campaign has “three major voter suppression operations under way” aimed at three groups: idealistic white liberals, young women, and African Americans.
On Oct. 24, Trump’s team began placing spots on select African American radio stations. In San Antonio, a young staffer showed off a South Park-style animation he’d created of Clinton delivering the “super predator” line (using audio from her original 1996 sound bite), as cartoon text popped up around her: “Hillary Thinks African Americans are Super Predators.” The animation will be delivered to certain African American voters through Facebook “dark posts”—nonpublic posts whose viewership the campaign controls so that, as Parscale puts it, “only the people we want to see it, see it.” The aim is to depress Clinton’s vote total. “We know because we’ve modeled this,” says the official. “It will dramatically affect her ability to turn these people out.”
Cook Political Report: “Less than two weeks from Election Day, Democrats are on track to pick up between 10 and 20 House seats, a slight uptick in their fortunes but still well short of the 30 seats they need for the majority. Low enthusiasm for the top of the GOP ticket remains a concern for down-ballot Republicans, but Trump isn’t as much of a drag outside of well-educated suburbs, which could limit Democrats’ gains. View our full House ratings here.”
On the podcast: Can Democrats put more House seats in play?
After a disheartening presidential campaign, we could use more political ads like this one:
Businessweek: “Almost every public and private metric suggests Trump is headed for a loss, possibly an epic one. His frustrated demeanor on the campaign trail suggests he knows it. Yet even as he nears the end of his presidential run, his team is sowing the seeds of a new enterprise with a direct marketing effort that they insist could still shock the world on Election Day.”
“Beginning last November, then ramping up in earnest when Trump became the Republican nominee, Kushner quietly built a sprawling digital fundraising database and social media campaign that’s become the locus of his father-in-law’s presidential bid. Trump’s top advisers won’t concede the possibility of defeat, but they’re candid about the value of what they’ve built even after the returns come in—and about Trump’s desire for influence regardless of outcome.”
“Here’s a woman, she makes a speech for 15 minutes, she goes to home, goes to bed. Honestly, she has less energy than Jeb Bush. I mean it. I mean it.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) “again reversed his position on Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy on Wednesday night, saying he’d vote for the Republican nominee but wouldn’t endorse him,” Politico reports.
“Chaffetz is one of six Republican members of Congress who have recommitted to voting for Trump after yanking their support.”
New York Times: “Big crowds still mob Donald Trump when he comes to town, with fans waiting in long lines to attend his rallies, where they eagerly jeer his Democratic rival and holler happily at his message.”
“But beneath the cheering, a new emotion is taking hold among some Trump supporters as they grapple with reports predicting that he will lose the election: a dark fear about what will happen if their candidate is denied the White House. Some worry that they will be forgotten, along with their concerns and frustrations. Others believe the nation may be headed for violent conflict.”
Washington Post: “A growing number of prominent Republican women are worried that as members of their male-dominated party step up to defend Donald Trump against accusations of sexual assault, they are causing irreparable damage to the GOP’s deteriorating relationship with female voters.”
“The controversy also comes as the Republican Party continues to struggle to attract women, who make up a majority of the electorate and who have supported the Democratic presidential candidate in every election going back to 1992. President Obama won women by 11 points in 2012, and several polls show Clinton leading among women by an even bigger margin this year.”
“The Republican Party’s grip on U.S. state legislatures could loosen in next month’s election as Democrats seek to link Republican candidates to the sinking fortunes of the party’s White House candidate, Donald Trump,” Reuters reports.
“The bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) estimates 18 legislative chambers in 12 states could switch party control, including in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, Washington and Wisconsin.”
“In a vintage return to his confrontational style, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) indicated that Republicans could seek to block a Democratic president from filling the vacant Supreme Court seat indefinitely,” Politico reports.
Said Cruz: “There will be plenty of time for debate on that issue… There is certainly long historical precedent for a Supreme Court with fewer justices.”
“Two chief fundraisers for the Clinton Foundation pressed corporate donors to steer business opportunities to former President Bill Clinton as well, according to a hacked memo published Wednesday by WikiLeaks,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The memo, part of a cache of emails stolen from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, resurfaces an issue that she has had a hard time shaking: questions over the relationship between the Clintons’ charity work and their personal business.”
New York Times: “If the most likely scenario holds — a Hillary Clinton victory, a narrow Democratic majority in the Senate and a diminished Republican House majority — Republicans will have to make crucial and onerous decisions they are now beginning to confront.”
“Do they try to find a way to cooperate with Democrats and get something done after years of stasis in Washington, perhaps as a way to move beyond the Trump phenomenon? Or do they dig in against Democrats and the new president as a bet on a Republican comeback in the 2018 midterm elections, adopting a noncooperative strategy to recapture the Senate majority and pad their numbers in the House?”
A new AP-GfK poll shows Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 14 points nationally, 51% to 37%, followed by Gary Johnson at 6% and Jill Stein at 2%.
Rick Klein: “Team Trump is pleading with the Republican base to come home. Donald Trump himself is pleading with the public to … stay at his hotels? It’s a curious choice of campaign time for the Republican nominee. Now less than two weeks out, he’s following up a trip to one of his Florida properties – complete with testimonials from his employees – with a visit to the grand opening of his Washington hotel. (Isn’t it open already? Couldn’t any ribbons be cut, say, after Nov. 8?)”
“It’s part of the two-track operation that is the campaign at this late stage. There is actual campaigning going on. Then there is brand-building that might overlap with campaigning, complete with the new Trump TV-style operation. (Are there soft Trump supporters, or undecided voters, who are watching livestreams on Trump’s Facebook page at 6:30 pm?) Trump has been selling himself, and his brand, from the start. Up and down the ballot, though, Republicans might be expecting a little more campaign focus at this stage.”
A new video narrated by Morgan Freeman envisions this election through the eyes of children.
“Fox News host Sean Hannity doesn’t just want President Obama out of the White House come 2017. He wants him out of the country altogether,” Politico reports.
Said Hannity: “I have an offer for the president. I will charter a plane for you and your family. I will charter it to the country of your choice. You want to go to Canada? I’ll pay for you to go to Canada. You want to go to Kenya? I’ll pay for you to go to Kenya. Jakarta [in Indonesia], where you went to school back in the day, you can go back there.”
Hannity added one condition: “You can’t come back.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.