Tag Archives: trump

John Oliver Explains Why Tuesday’s Elections—Not Trump or 2016—Demand Your Immediate Attention

by KenReesemy Posted on November 2, 2015

Mother Jones

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As he bluntly told Stephen Colbert a few weeks ago, John Oliver truly couldn’t “give less of a shit” about Donald Trump or the 2016 election.

Yet, as the Last Week Tonight host lamented on Sunday, the national conversation remains fixated on presidential candidates, largely ignoring several key races that could ultimately determine the expansion of Medicaid and Obamacare in their states. It’s an issue, according to Oliver, all Americans should pay close attention to, even if you don’t live in one of these three states.

“There are American lives at stake here, because a number of these elections could determine whether hundreds of thousands of people remain in or even fall into what’s known as the Medicaid gap,” Oliver said.

“I know that sounds like a terrible clothing chain where you can buy khaki hospital gowns sewn by children in India, but amazingly, it’s even worse than that.”

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John Oliver Explains Why Tuesday’s Elections—Not Trump or 2016—Demand Your Immediate Attention

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A Defense of Becky Quick

by lepsacazare Posted on October 31, 2015

Mother Jones

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CNBC’s Becky Quick has come in for some criticism for being unprepared during Wednesday’s debate. To refresh your memory, here’s what happened during an exchange with Donald Trump:

QUICK: You had talked a little bit about Marco Rubio. I think you called him “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator” because he was in favor of the H1B.

TRUMP: I never said that. I never said that.

….QUICK: My apologies. I’m sorry.

In fact, Trump had said that in his own immigration plan. Why didn’t Quick know this?

I think we all know what happened here. Someone on Quick’s staff prepared some notes that included the quote, but didn’t specify where it came from. So when Trump denied saying it, Quick was stuck.

Now, sure, the staffwork here was bad, and Quick should have been better prepared. But that’s not the real problem here. The real problem is that Quick was unprepared for bald-faced lying. She expected Trump to spin or tap dance or try to explain away what he said. She didn’t expect him to just flatly deny ever saying it. That’s the only circumstance that would require her to know exactly where the quote came from.

This was a real epidemic on Wednesday night. Candidates have apparently figured out that they don’t need to tap dance. They can just baldly lie. Trump did it. Rubio did it. Carson did it. Fiorina did it. They know that time is short and they probably won’t get called on it. The worst that will happen is that fact checkers will correct them in the morning, but only a tiny fraction of the viewing audience will ever see it. So what’s the downside of lying?

Future moderators are going to have to be aware of this sea change. Modern candidates understand that they don’t need to bother with spin and exaggeration any more. They can just lie, and etiquette limits how much debate moderators can push back. I don’t think debate etiquette is going to change, so this probably means that moderators are going to have to learn to ask questions a little differently. We live in a new era.

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A Defense of Becky Quick

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Here Are the Ridiculous Post-Debate Overnight Online Polls

by KristieE36 Posted on October 29, 2015

Mother Jones

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Is it worth reporting the results of the overnight online polls following the debate? Sure. Why not? We all know that online polls are mostly garbage, but we also know that if you aggregate them we can turn dross into gold. So let’s do it! The chart on the right shows you the average of three online polls from Drudge, Time, and CNBC.

Let’s also check out Betfair. Unfortunately, I’ve never been quite sure I know how to interpret their trend charts, but if I did it right this time it looks like Cruz is up, Trump is even, and Rubio, Carson, and Bush are down. Since this is probably all meaningless, I suppose it doesn’t matter much if I’m interpreting the betting results right. Still, one of these days I guess I should figure it out for real.

If this stuff has any legitimacy at all, I’d say that (a) Cruz did well, (b) Rubio might have helped his cause, (c) Carson is ebbing, (d) Jeb is toast, and (e) nobody else changed their standing much. I’m ignoring the huge number of people who thought Trump won the debate because I refuse to believe it.

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Here Are the Ridiculous Post-Debate Overnight Online Polls

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The Carson-Trump Slugfest, Plus Nine Other Things to Watch at Wednesday’s GOP Debate

by Valorie99B Posted on October 27, 2015

Mother Jones

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It’s that time again: The third Republican presidential primary debate is upon us. On Wednesday night, the 14 top candidates will gather in Boulder, Colorado, for a showdown over the economy hosted by CNBC. The 10 candidates with the highest polling averages—Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rand Paul—will appear in the main debate, preceded by a junior varsity debate with the four candidates whose lagging poll numbers disqualified them from the main show: Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, Bobby Jindal, and Rick Santorum.

Here’s what to look for Wednesday night.

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The Carson-Trump Slugfest, Plus Nine Other Things to Watch at Wednesday’s GOP Debate

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The Ben Carson Bandwagon Is Killing Trump in Iowa

by rgjkubacu Posted on October 26, 2015

Mother Jones

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Oh FFS:

The Monmouth University Poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers finds Ben Carson has taken a double digit lead over Donald Trump….When Iowa Republicans are asked who they would support in their local caucus, Ben Carson (32%) tops the list, with Donald Trump (18%) holding second.

What’s left to say? Sure, the Iowa caucuses are still three months away. I suppose Carson will fade. And historically, winning the Iowa caucuses has hardly been a reliable predictor of future success. Still. On the bright side, it gives me an excuse to quote Josh Marshall on Carson:

I’ve been a little mystified that no one seems to bring this up. But in the debates he frequently strikes me as half-lost or sedated. Gut check me here, am I really the only one who has this impression? Is it just me? Again, like Trump, I think he’s judged by a different standard because people don’t think he’ll ever be the nominee. But he seems like he’s not quite all there or thinking out loud in a way that is vaguely endearing but not at all what people look for in a head of state.

Actually, Carson’s sleepy-eyed persona has been a pretty common topic of conversation. True, I don’t think anyone has suggested he’s sedated or suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s or anything. But yeah: he’s a right-wing conspiracy-theory-loving loon and he talks as if someone just woke him up at 3 am. Even for Iowa, he’s a very strange GOP frontrunner.

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The Ben Carson Bandwagon Is Killing Trump in Iowa

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Donald Trump Just Accidentally Gave His Opponents an Attack Ad

by CarmineHayes25 Posted on October 26, 2015

Mother Jones

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On Monday morning, GOP front-runner Donald Trump inadvertently gave his opponents a ready-made attack ad. During an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer on Today, the billionaire, who often gives the impression that he built his fortune from scratch, even though he hails from a wealthy background, explained the challenges of building his real estate empire. “It has not been easy for me,” he said. “It has not been easy for me.” He said his father, real estate developer Frederick Trump, had given him a “small loan,” which he repaid with interest, and which enabled him to begin buying properties in Manhattan. The size of the loan? It was for a paltry $1 million.

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Donald Trump Just Accidentally Gave His Opponents an Attack Ad

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Whose Tax Plan Is Best For Millionaires?

by BeatrisPerrett Posted on September 29, 2015

Mother Jones

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So here’s where we stand. Marco Rubio has a tax plan with a top rate of 35 percent that promises to boost our economic growth rate to 3.5 percent per year. Jeb Bush then came out with his plan, which has a top rate of 28 percent and a growth rate of 4 percent per year. Then Donald Trump announced his plan, which has a top rate of 25 percent and a growth rate of 6 percent per year.

Who’s next? Carly? I advise her to announce a plan that has a top rate of 20 percent and promises growth of 8 percent per year. Ridiculous? Sure, but who’s going to call her on it? I mean, what’s Bush going to do? Get into an argument about whose supply-side growth assumptions are the most out of touch with reality?

Besides, she has to compete with Ben Carson, who doesn’t have an official tax plan but has vaguely said he likes the idea of a flat 10 percent tax based on the Biblical practice of tithing—though he’s been a little wobbly on whether his tax rate would really be exactly 10 percent. I guess even God can be improved on.

In case you’re curious, here are the top tax rates on the rich from each of the leading candidates. The most dynamic defenders of free enterprise are at the top, while the losers are at the bottom:

Carson: 10-15 percent
Paul: 14.5 percent
Huckabee: ~17 percent (23 percent FairTax that eliminates the payroll tax)
Trump: 25 percent
Bush: 28 percent
Christie: 28 percent
Rubio: 35 percent
Fiorina: ?
Cruz: ?

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Whose Tax Plan Is Best For Millionaires?

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The Average Presidential Candidate’s House Is Twice as Big as the Average American’s

by DonGladejfdybow Posted on September 28, 2015

Mother Jones

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You don’t have to have a big or expensive house to run for the White House, but it is one thing that most of the Republicans and Democrats currently running for president do have in common. The average value of their homes is $5.4 million (or $1.5 million if you factor out Donald Trump.) More stats on the properties the candidates call home (and second home):

Sources: Property records and reported estimates of home values. Price of US house: Census Bureau
Does not include governors’ mansions. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s house is still under construction.

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The Average Presidential Candidate’s House Is Twice as Big as the Average American’s

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Donald Trump Once Again Shows That He’s Probably Never Cracked Open a Bible in His Life

by YvonneMacadam24 Posted on September 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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David Brody asks Donald Trump, “Who is God to you?…You’ve contemplated this before, or have you contemplated this?” Here’s his reply:

Here we are on the Pacific Ocean. How did I ever own this? I bought it fifteen years ago. I made one of the great deals they say ever. I have no more mortgage on it as I will certify and represent to you. And I was able to buy this and make a great deal. That’s what I want to do for the country. Make great deals. We have to, we have to bring it back….

Wait. A question about God produces a stock speech about what a great dealmaker Trump is? Yep. Then this:

….but God is the ultimate. I mean God created this points to his golf course and nature surrounding it, and here’s the Pacific Ocean right behind us. So nobody, no thing, no there’s nothing like God.

“There’s nothing like God.” Okey doke. It sounds like Brody has his answer: Trump has not, in fact, ever contemplated the nature of God.

Brody defends Trump’s lack of a “biblically thorough answer” and says that Trump may well appeal anyway to the “I’m Sick and Tired” evangelical voter. That’s good to know. I had no idea that it was so easy to appeal to evangelical voters. Using the Trump metric, I think I could do pretty well myself. I guess all I have to do is denounce abortion and praise the Bible as the best book ever written. That sounds easy.

You know, to this day it remains part of conservative legend that a Washington Post article 20 years ago described evangelicals as “largely poor, uneducated and easily led.” It’s one of the seminal wellsprings of white Christian grievance culture. I don’t happen to know if evangelicals, on average, are poor and uneducated compared to the rest of us, but if Brody’s take on Trump is correct, it sure seems as though “easily led” was right on the mark.

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Donald Trump Once Again Shows That He’s Probably Never Cracked Open a Bible in His Life

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Fiorina, Rubio Are Big Winners of Second Debate

by ColumbuPartain Posted on September 20, 2015

Mother Jones

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As usual, I’m more interested in which candidates are moving up and down than in which candidates are ahead—with one exception that I’ll get to. After all, it’s still more than four months before the first primary ballot is cast.

A new CNN/ORC poll shows that there were two clear winners from Wednesday’s debate: Fiorina and Rubio. Trump was the biggest loser. And Scott Walker? I’ll make an exception for him. Not only was he down five points, but he was down five points from his previous level of five percent. In other words, his absolute level of support is now officially zero. This has to be one of the fastest, most dramatic flameouts of a top-tier candidate ever.

Trump, Fiorina, and Carson are now the top three candidates, but I simply don’t give any of them much chance of winning. So the next three are more interesting: Rubio, Bush, and Cruz. Of those, Rubio is not only in the lead, he’s the only one who gained any ground this week. This makes him officially one of the front runners, and should mean that he starts getting a lot more attention. We’ll see whether that’s good or bad for him.

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Fiorina, Rubio Are Big Winners of Second Debate

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