Politico: “Declaring he would consider it ‘a personal insult, an insult to my legacy’ if black turnout falters for Hillary Clinton, Obama did what he got reamed for doing almost exactly two years ago, in the heat of midterm elections where disdain for him was the defining force: Yes, he said, he is pretty much on the ballot in November.”
Trump Push Left on Key Women’s Issues
“Over the past week, Donald Trump has staked out positions on women’s issues that tack far to the left of his party and his running mate, a marked shift from Republican orthodoxy and the presidential nominee’s past comments about mothers in the workplace,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump, who has made inflammatory statements about women in the past and is lagging far behind in polls of female voters, released a plan to guarantee new mothers six weeks of paid leave and offer tax credits for child care. Trump also said that women should be able to access birth control over the counter, a direct contradiction of the platform his party adopted at its July convention.”
Clinton Struggles In Florida
“Hillary Clinton has vastly outspent Donald J. Trump on TV ads in Florida. Her 57 campaign offices dwarf Mr. Trump’s afterthought of a ground game. And Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular among Hispanics, who account for nearly one in five Florida voters,” the New York Times reports.
“Despite these advantages, Mrs. Clinton is struggling in the Sunshine State, unable to assemble the coalition that gave Barack Obama two victories here, and offering Mr. Trump a broad opening in a road to the White House that not long ago seemed closed to him. Mr. Trump is pressing down hard to win the state, campaigning in Miami on Friday and in Fort Myers on Monday, after a rally in Pensacola recently.”
State Poll Roundup: Sunday
Here are the latest state polls from the presidential race:
Pennsylvania: Clinton 40%, Trump 32% (Muhlenberg)
Minnesota: Clinton 44%, Trump 38% (Star Tribune)
Clinton Denounces ‘Hateful Nonsense’ Thrown at Obama
Hillary Clinton answered her opponent’s admission that Barack Obama was born in the United States with an ardent tribute to the president as a leader and a man of “class, grace, and integrity,” BuzzFeed reports.
Clinton did not refer to Donald Trump by name, but addressed Obama directly before an audience of thousands here in the Washington Convention Center, calling him “one of the best presidents our country has ever had,” even in the face of what she described as “hateful nonsense.”
She added: “I know I speak for not just everyone in this room, but so many tens of millions of Americans: Mr. President, not only do we know you are an America, you’re a great American. And you make us all proud to be Americans, too.”
For members: Why Trump’s Birther Charade May Finally Backfire
Has Trump Set a New Low for Candidates?
New York Times: “Routine falsehoods, unfounded claims and inflammatory language have long been staples of Mr. Trump’s anything-goes campaign. But as the polls tighten and November nears, his behavior, and the implications for the country should he become president, are alarming veteran political observers — and leaving them deeply worried about the precedent being set, regardless of who wins the White House.”
Said former GOP congressman Vin Weber: “It’s frightening. Our politics, because of him, is descending to the level of a third-world country. There’s just nothing beneath him. And I don’t know why we would think he would change if he became president. That’s what’s really scary.”
Trump Says Gates Likely ‘Has a Problem’
Donald Trump launched a series of fierce attacks against former Defense Secretary Robert Gates after the former defense secretary wrote an op-ed critical of him, the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “He’s a nasty guy. Probably has a problem that we don’t know about.”
Why Trump’s Birther Charade May Finally Backfire
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Debates Are on TV, But Advertisers Seek Viewers Online
Wall Street Journal: “Ten days or so ahead of the first presidential debate, political advertisers are planning to grab millions of viewers’ eyes—but with a difference. The candidate showdowns have no television commercials, so the focus will be online … To rise above the millions of tweets and posts expected about the debate, campaigns, super PACs and advocacy groups will pay for premium spots in online news feeds or search results, with the expectation that debate viewers will be checking their phones or laptops while watching TV.”
Cuban Offers $10 Million If Trump Can Explain Policies
After Donald Trump said Mark Cuban “is not smart enough to understand what we are doing,” Cuban challenged Trump to a four-hour interview concerning the candidate’s “policies and their substance,” offering to donate $10 million to a charity of Trump’s choosing if he accepted, the Huffington Post reports.
Cuban even said that Trump could keep the money: “If you need it, I’ll write you the check and you can keep the money rather than give it to charity.”
Narrow Win Now Forecast for Clinton
“An election analysis conducted in the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project shows that the race has tightened considerably over the past few weeks.”
“If the election were held today, the project estimates that Clinton has a 60 percent chance of winning by 18 electoral votes. Last week, the project estimated that Clinton had a 83 percent chance of winning the election.”
In a separate national Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll, Clinton continues to lead Trump by 4 percentage points, 42% to 38%.
‘Mr. Trump Is Beyond Repair’
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates writing in the Wall Street Journal:
Mrs. Clinton has time before the election to address forthrightly her trustworthiness, to reassure people about her judgment, to demonstrate her willingness to stake out one or more positions on national security at odds with her party’s conventional wisdom, and to speak beyond generalities about how she would deal with China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, the Middle East—and international trade. Whether and how she addresses these issues will, I believe, affect how many people vote—including me.
At least on national security, I believe Mr. Trump is beyond repair. He is stubbornly uninformed about the world and how to lead our country and government, and temperamentally unsuited to lead our men and women in uniform. He is unqualified and unfit to be commander-in-chief.
A $1 Trillion Lie
New York Times: “A few hours after Donald J. Trump publicly backed away from a $1 trillion tax cut for small businesses, campaign aides on Thursday privately assured a leading small-business group that Mr. Trump in fact remained committed to the proposal — winning the group’s endorsement.”
“The campaign then told the Tax Foundation, a conservative-leaning Washington think tank it asked to price the plan, that Mr. Trump had indeed decided to eliminate the tax cut.”
“Call it the trillion-dollar lie: Both assertions cannot be true.”
Quote of the Day
“We got played again.”
— CNN’s John King, after Donald Trump staged another media spectacle before announcing he agreed that President Obama was in fact born in the United States.
Democrats Now Worried Clinton Can Lose
New York Times: “For both parties, every election can feel like the most vital of a lifetime, the one day standing between a still-proud nation and its imminent demise. Among liberals, there is an especially rich tradition of bed-wetting, as even some practitioners call it, at the faintest sign of shakiness from their candidate.”
“But as Hillary Clinton lurches toward Election Day, her supporters at times seem overwhelmed by a tsunami of unease, exacerbated by Mrs. Clinton’s bout of pneumonia and a slow-footed acknowledgment of the illness. They are confronting a question they had assumed, just a few weeks ago, they would not need to consider in a race against the most unpopular presidential nominee in modern times: Could Mrs. Clinton actually blow this?”
Nate Silver: Democrats should panic… if the polls still look like this in a week.
Trump Suggests Clinton Bodyguards Disarm
Donald Trump “once again raised the specter of violence against Hillary Clinton, suggesting Friday that the Secret Service agents who guard her voluntarily disarm to ‘see what happens to her’ without their protection, the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. I think they should disarm. Immediately.”
He went on: “Let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away, O.K. It’ll be very dangerous.”
Why Did Trump Stick to a Birther Lie?
New York Times: “The essential question — Why promote a lie? — may be unanswerable. Was it sport? Was it his lifelong quest to court media attention? Was it racism? Was it the cynical start of his eventual campaign for president?”
“It might not matter. He kept doing it, even as his most senior aides assured the public that he had long since abandoned the fallacy.”
“He had not. He was disingenuous until the very end, telling a Washington Post reporter just 72 hours before that he was unready to concede the president’s place of birth. But he treated the weighty topic, as he does so much else, like a television cliffhanger, promising a major declaration on Friday.”
Washington Post: Trump’s stance on display: Never wrong, and never loved more by his supporters.
‘Time for Some Traffic Problems’
With the trial of two key allies of Gov. Chris Christie set to begin — and last for six weeks — the Wall Street Journal offers a readers’ guide to the trial based on conversations with defense attorneys and former federal prosecutors experienced in public-corruption cases.
