Politico: “Trump’s poll numbers remain dire, but he can point to at least one ray of hope for a turnaround: Republicans have continued gaining ground in recent months in voter registration in Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Iowa, while the late surge in Democratic registrations relative to Republican registrations that occurred in battleground states the final months of the 2012 election had not materialized in numbers released in early August.”
Should Democrats Go Big?
“Democrats are starting to fight about what they want Hillary Clinton’s win to look like: Play it safe and focus on beating Donald Trump in the states that will decide the election, or try to run up the score and clobber him?,” Politico reports.
“For strategists preparing for the final phase of the campaign, this is a question of how to allocate money, staff, attention and operations. But it’s really a question of confidence and appetite for risk. Democrats looking at good polls now are torn between being nervous they’ll regret going big and nervous that they’ll regret not going big.”
Quote of the Day
“This is the demise of the Republican Party. This is an opportunity, I think, for the Libertarian Party to become a major party.”
— Gary Johnson, in an interview on CNBC, on Donald Trump’s candidacy.
3 Attack Lines on Clinton That Trump Is Missing
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Giuliani Stokes Theory That Clinton Is Sick
Rudy Giuliani said the media “fails to point out several signs” of Hillary Clinton’s “illness” adding that “all you gotta do is go online,” Politico reports.
Said Giuliani: “Go online and put down ‘Hillary Clinton illness,’ take a look at the videos yourself.”
Is Trump TV the End Game?
Former Breitbart News spokesman and political strategist Kurt Bardella on CNN:
There is no doubt that there is a broader plan at play to extend the Trump brand and a conversation that they’re initiating right now beyond the November election. When you have a person who up until a week ago was running a major audience-driven media entity [Breitbart chief Steve Bannon], when you know he’s obviously having regularly conversations with Roger Ailes who helped build FOX News, there’s not doubt that you don’t bring people like that into your orbit versus traditional campaign personnel who know how to run national campaigns.
He’s making the case every day of when he loses this election, it will be because the media had it out for him and we need an alternative to make sure this never happens again.
For members: Maybe Trump Isn’t Trying to Win
Clinton Reserves $80 Million In New TV Time
“Hillary Clinton has reserved nearly $80 million in additional television advertising across eight key states in coming months… offering both a window into how the Democrat sees the presidential contest shaping up and a reminder of her dominance on the airwaves in the the race against Republican Donald Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“The campaign is targeting Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In addition, Clinton is continuing to advertise in the Omaha market in Nebraska, one of only two states that awards its electoral votes based on performance in congressional districts.”
“The Trump campaign, by contrast, launched its first general-election TV ad last week, saying it planned to spend $4.8 million on a 10-day buy in four states: Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.”
CNN: “Two states that the Clinton campaign will not air local ads in through September and October: Virginia and Colorado.”
Trump Begins Preparing for Debates
Donald Trump “began preparing on Sunday for his first general election debate against Hillary Clinton, with a meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.,” the New York Times reports.
“Roger Ailes, the former Fox News chairman who helped prepare George Bush to debate Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race, is advising Mr. Trump as he begins to focus on the debate, scheduled for Sept. 26 at Hofstra University on Long Island.”
Clinton Runs Against the ‘Vast Right Wing Conspiracy’
New York Times: “For the better part of two decades, the invocation of a ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ against the Clintons — as Mrs. Clinton famously called it when allegations of sexual misconduct engulfed her husband’s administration — has elicited eye rolls even among some of the couple’s allies.”
“It was not worth amplifying such attacks by responding to them, advisers often reasoned. And any discussion of a secret plot to undercut the Clintons risked sounding like paranoia, peevishness or just an attempt to duck responsibility.”
“But with Mr. Trump’s appointment of Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of the conservative website Breitbart News, as his new campaign chief, Mrs. Clinton and her extended orbit have sensed an unfamiliar opportunity: The so-called vast right-wing conspiracy might actually be lending her a hand.”
Sean Hannity Advising Trump Campaign
Jim Rutenberg in the New York Times:
“But Mr. Hannity is not only Mr. Trump’s biggest media booster; he also veers into the role of adviser. Several people I’ve spoken with over the last couple of weeks said Mr. Hannity had for months peppered Mr. Trump, his family members and advisers with suggestions on strategy and messaging.”
“So involved is Mr. Hannity that three separate denizens of the hall of mirrors that is Trump World told me they believed Mr. Hannity was behaving as if he wanted a role in a possible Trump administration — something he denied to me as laughable and contractually prohibitive in an interview on Friday.”
Trump Tests Senate Race In Reliably Republican Georgia
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) “insists he won’t be a ‘volunteer apologist’ for Donald Trump or anyone else who utters something stupid, but that defiant independence is being sorely tested by the GOP presidential nominee’s sinking support and Democrat Hillary Clinton’s push into surprisingly competitive Georgia,” the AP reports.
“Recent polls show Trump and Hillary Clinton locked in a tight race as the Democrat opens a campaign office in the state and invests in a field organization. Isakson holds a single-digit lead over first-time candidate Jim Barksdale, a wealthy investment manager whose opposition to trade deals and calls for a higher minimum wage has attracted backers of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate.”
New York Times: Why Hillary Clinton might win Georgia.
Trump Catches Clinton in New Tracking Poll
“Donald Trump has gained ground against Hillary Clinton, according to the latest findings from the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times national tracking poll of the presidential race.”
“The uptick for Trump follows a broad-based decline in early August and suggests a possible narrowing of the race… As of Sunday, the tracking poll showed Trump at 45% and Clinton at 43%, within the survey’s margin of error. Those results are far closer than most other polls, which use different methodology and almost uniformly show Clinton ahead by several points.”
Nate Silver: National polls show the race tightening, but state polls don’t.
Quote of the Day
“It’s very hard to find someone to mimic the reckless temperament and the hateful instincts and divisive instincts of Donald Trump.”
— Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, quoted by Politico, on not yet finding someone to play Trump for debate preparation.
Trump Steps Up Rhetoric on Rigged Elections
New York Times: “Since 2010, Republican governors and Republican-held state legislatures have fought for stricter voter identification laws, which Democrats argue are intended to hinder turnout by the poorest voters, many of them black and Hispanic, who tend to vote Democratic.”
“But Mr. Trump’s language has moved beyond his party’s call for rigid identification requirements and the unfounded claims that polls are “skewed” to predictions of outright theft of the November election. And his warnings have been cast in increasingly urgent and racially suggestive language, hinting that the only legitimate outcome in certain states would be his victory.”
Trump Is Out of Time to Build a Modern Campaign
Donald Trump “is leaning heavily on Republican Party organizations to provide crucial campaign functions like getting out the vote, digital outreach and fund-raising, at a time when some leading Republicans have called for party officials to cut off Mr. Trump and focus instead on maintaining control of Congress,” the New York Times reports.
“Despite an influx of campaign cash from small donors in July, Mr. Trump’s operation still largely resembles the bare-bones outfit that he rode to victory during the primary season, more concert tour than presidential campaign, according to interviews and documents filed with the Federal Election Commission through Saturday night. And some Republicans believe he is effectively out of time to invest in the kind of large-scale infrastructure that the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, will bring to the polls in November.”
Powell Says Clinton Trying to Pin Email Scandal on Him
Referring to Hillary Clinton’s personal email troubles, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told People that Clinton’s staff is “trying to pin it on me.”
Said Powell: “The truth is, she was using the private email server for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.”
More Turmoil Coming in the Trump Campaign?
CNN: “Political director Jim Murphy and pollster Tony Fabrizio are among a handful of Trump staffers known to have expressed frustration to close friends in recent days — suggesting the new team has pushed them out of the loop to the point that they have learned of some new campaign plans either from the media or by watching the candidate on television.”
“Will they head for the exits? Stay tuned. National GOP leaders are worried more departures will cause more questions about a campaign team already considered not up to the challenges of the final months of the campaign.”
The End of Political Journalism
Matt Taibbi: “Like the old adage about quarterbacks – if you think you have two good ones, you probably have none – this basically means we have no credible news media left. Apart from a few brave islands of resistance, virtually all the major news organizations are now fully in the tank for one side or the other.”
“The last month or so of Trump-Hillary coverage may have been the worst stretch of pure journo-shilling we’ve seen since the run-up to the Iraq war. In terms of political media, there’s basically nothing left on the air except Trump-bashing or Hillary-bashing.”
