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Clinton Hopes to Rally Both Sides Against Trump

July 29, 2016 at 10:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democrats marked a decisive turn in their campaign against Donald Trump this week, moving to recast the 2016 race not as a conventional battle between left and right but as a national emergency that requires voters of all stripes to band together against a singularly menacing candidate,” the New York Times reports.

“Abandoning their standard critique against conservative Republicans, allies of Hillary Clinton argued that Mr. Trump was not merely another champion of right-wing ideas, deserving of rejection for his views on the environment or health care.”

“Instead, in an onslaught of astonishing ferocity led by President Obama, they used their convention to portray Mr. Trump as a dangerously unstable figure and a friend of foreign despots like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Some Democrats suggested Mr. Trump might have authoritarian impulses of his own: Prominent in Mrs. Clinton’s acceptance speech Thursday night was a pointed reminder that the American system was designed to prevent the rise of a dictator.”

Khizr Khan Had No Written Speech

July 29, 2016 at 10:27 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “That was the beginning of a 7-minute speech that became an instant sensation—eloquent, emotional and notably original, coming as it did at the end of four days of highly processed political cliche. Khan, a 66-year-old immigration lawyer from Charlottesville, told the story of his son’s death in combat in Iraq, but he turned that elegy into a viral rebuke of Donald Trump: ‘You have sacrificed nothing!'”

“And Khan delivered his broadside without using the teleprompter. There was nothing to put on it, because he had written nothing down.”

Clinton Leads Nationally By 6 Points

July 29, 2016 at 7:21 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by six points, 41% to 35%, with another 25% picking “other.”

“The presidential tracking poll reflects a slight change of wording from previous surveys, replacing the ‘Neither/Other’ option given to respondents with just ‘Other.’ An internal review had found the word ‘Neither’ has, at times, siphoned support away from one or the other candidate.”

For members: What to Watch For In the Next Wave of Polling


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Trump Says He’s Run a ‘Flawless Campaign’

July 29, 2016 at 7:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Donald Trump fired back at Hillary Clinton a day after she accused the Republican nominee of being too thin-skinned to have control of the country’s nuclear arsenal, ABC News reports.

Said Trump: “I think I have a great temperament, I have a temperament where I know how to win. She doesn’t know how to win, she’s not a winner. She doesn’t know how to win. And this country, if they choose her, this country will not be in good shape.”

He added: “I’ve had a beautiful, I’ve had a flawless campaign. You’ll be writing books about this campaign.”

Trump’s Speech Was Worst Gallup Has Polled

July 29, 2016 at 6:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Gallup: “Trump’s speech got the least positive reviews of any speech we have tested after the fact: 35% of Americans interviewed last weekend said it was excellent or good. Of the nine previous speeches we have rated, the top one was Barack Obama’s in August 2008, which 58% of Americans rated as excellent or good.”

Clinton Campaign Was Also Hacked

July 29, 2016 at 6:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The computer network used by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign was hacked as part of a broad cyber attack on Democratic political organizations,” Reuters reports.

“The latest attack follows reports of two other hacks on the Democratic National Committee and the party’s fundraising committee for candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.”

The New York Times says the intrusion “appears to have come from Russia’s intelligence services.”

Exchange of the Day

July 29, 2016 at 6:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

From Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs, covering a Donald Trump rally in Colorado:

Audience: “Lock her up!”

Trump: “I’ve been saying just beat her on Nov. 8 but you know I’m starting to agree with you.”

Koch Brothers Reject Effort to Meet with Trump

July 29, 2016 at 6:05 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Top Donald Trump donors tried to set up a meeting between the GOP presidential nominee and Charles Koch in Colorado Springs on Friday, but Koch aides rejected the entreaties,” Politico reports.

“Koch and his brother David Koch, who helm an influential network of advocacy groups and major conservative donors, have been sharply critical of Trump’s rhetoric and policy stances and have indicated they do not intend to support his campaign.”

Wisconsin Voting Restrictions Overturned

July 29, 2016 at 6:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A federal judge ruled that restrictions on early and weekend voting implemented by Wisconsin Republicans over the last five years are unconstitutional, the Madison Cap Times reports.

Fox Employee Was Harassed by Ailes for 20 Years

July 29, 2016 at 5:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Gabriel Sherman: “The morning after Fox News chief Roger Ailes resigned, the cable network’s former director of booking placed a call to the New York law firm hired by 21st Century Fox to investigate sexual-harassment allegations against Ailes. Laurie Luhn told the lawyers at Paul, Weiss that she had been harassed by Ailes for more than 20 years, that executives at Fox News had known about it and helped cover it up, and that it had ruined her life.”

“This is the account of a woman who chose to go along with what Roger Ailes wanted — because he was powerful, because she thought he could help her advance her career, because she was professionally adrift and emotionally unmoored. Doing so helped Luhn’s career for a time — at her peak, she earned $250,000 a year as an event planner at Fox while, according to both her own account and four confirming sources, enjoying Ailes’s protection within the company. But the arrangement required her to do many things she is now horrified by, including luring young female Fox employees into one-on-one situations with Ailes that Luhn knew could result in harassment.”

Said Luhn: “He’s a predator.”

More Watched Trump’s Speech Than Clinton’s

July 29, 2016 at 4:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech last night for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination drew 27.8 million TV viewers, Bloomberg reports.

That was fewer than the 30 million who watched Donald Trump accept the Republican nomination last week.

Hollywood Reporter: “Updated returns for Clinton’s speech, delivered during the 10 o’clock hour on nearly all television networks, offer a tally of 33.3 million viewers from the four broadcast networks and three cablers with coverage. Trump brought in 34.9 million viewers across all nets carrying the speech.”

Most Americans Reject Trump’s Email Call

July 29, 2016 at 3:59 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new YouGov survey finds that 54% of Americans regard Donald Trump’s call for Russia to intervene in an election as inappropriate, while just 30% say that it was appropriate.

However, this conceals a significant partisan divide: 61% of Republicans thought it was acceptable and 80% of Democrats thought it was unacceptable.

Convention Dispatch: The Last Election of the 1960s

July 29, 2016 at 3:23 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Just for members: Leonard Steinhorn, Professor of Communication at American University and a CBS Radio News Political Analyst, offers this report from Philadelphia.

Leonard Steinhorn
Leonard Steinhorn

It may be 2016, but as the final night of the Democratic convention made clear, this election will be the last of the 1960s. Both parties are deeply rooted in the cultural conflicts and transformations of the Sixties — and the side of that decade that prevails in November will say a lot about where we go as a nation in the years ahead.

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American Heiress

July 29, 2016 at 3:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Out next week: American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin.

Angry at Mike Pence

July 29, 2016 at 2:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

David Brooks: “The Sanders people have 90 percent of the Democratic Party’s passion and 95 percent of the ideas. Most Sanders people are kind- and open-hearted, but there is a core that is corrupted by moral preening, an uncompromising absolutism and a paranoid unwillingness to play by the rules of civic life.”

“But the extremist fringe that threatens to take over the Democratic Party seems less menacing than the lunatic fringe that has already taken over the Republican one.”

“This week I left the arena here each night burning with indignation at Mike Pence. I almost don’t blame Trump. He is a morally untethered, spiritually vacuous man who appears haunted by multiple personality disorders. It is the ‘sane’ and ‘reasonable’ Republicans who deserve the shame — the ones who stood silently by, or worse, while Donald Trump gave away their party’s sacred inheritance.”

Flake Says Voters Won’t Take GOP Seriously

July 29, 2016 at 1:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) told WGN-AM that chants of “lock her up” at the Republican National Convention hurt the party’s case against Hillary Clinton.

Said Flake: “I had a bit of trouble with some of the chants, the ‘lock her up’ and what not. I don’t think that that, while it certainly appeals inside to that room, it doesn’t appeal much on the outside.”

Poll Finds Clinton’s Speech Was More Effective

July 29, 2016 at 12:52 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A CNN instant poll right after the Republican and Democratic conventions finds that Hillary Clinton gave a much more effective speech than Donald Trump.

  • 71% had a “very positive” reaction to Clinton’s speech, as opposed to 57% for Trump.
  • 82% believed Clinton’s policies would move the country in the right direction, as opposed to 73% for Trump.

Trump Says He Wanted to ‘Hit’ Several DNC Speakers

July 29, 2016 at 12:37 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Donald Trump told ABC News that he wanted to “hit” some of the Democratic convention speakers “so hard” while watching them.

Said Trump: “You know what I wanted to. I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard. I would have hit them. No, no. I was going to hit them, I was all set and then I got a call from a highly respected governor.”

He added: “I was gonna hit one guy in particular, a very little guy. I was gonna hit this guy so hard his head would spin and he wouldn’t know what the hell happened.”

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan 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.

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