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JULY 28,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:50 P.M. ET: 

HILLARY'S SPEECH – I actually watched it.  Consider this a sacrifice on your behalf.  All expressions of sympathy will be accepted.  It was a professionally crafted acceptance speech, which Clinton delivered with greater skill than she usually shows on the stump.   Like all speeches of its type, it contained the usual checklist of promises and ideological oaths.  But the tone was clearly designed to appeal beyond the true believers in the hall, and certainly beyond the left-wing base of the Democratic Party.  There were paragraphs praising the armed forces and police, noting the disaffection of working men, generally a codeword for working white men.  In addition, the Hillary people flew in a huge quantity of American flags, giving a patriotic image to a convention that was standard left-wing stuff for the first three nights.   The speech will be forgotten by next week, but I suspect Hillary will get a small bounce from it.

ANOTHER BLOW IN A FAMOUS CASE – FROM THE HILL:   Federal prosecutors announced Thursday that they were dropping the case against a man accused of killing Chandra Levy, an intern in Washington, D.C., in 2001.  The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said that it believed it could no longer prove the murder case against Ingmar Guandique "beyond a reasonable doubt" and moved to drop the case "based on recent unforeseen developments that were investigated over the past week."  It didn't elaborate.  This was a sensational case, discussed endlessly on TV talk shows.  One media observer coined the phrase, "All Chandra all the time."  Some suspected a U.S. congressman, others thought of international intrigue.  The case now returns to the "unsolved" column.

FBI AND E-MAILS, TOGETHER AGAIN – FROM FOX:   The FBI is looking into a computer hack targeting a fundraising organization for Democrats running for Congress, according to published reports.  Reuters, citing four sources, reported Thursday that the intrusion at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) may be related to an earlier cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee.  A Democratic aide told the Associated Press that House Democratic leadership had been informed of the investigation.  The new report broke on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The opening of the gathering was overshadowed by Wikileaks' release of hacked emails showing DNC staffers supporting Clinton when they were publicly promising to remain neutral during the primary elections between her and rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.

July 28,  2016     Permalink

BALTIMORE CHARGES DROPPED, PROSECUTOR GOES CRAZY – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  All remaining charges against the six officers charged in the death of prisoner Freddie Gray have been dropped.

The prosecution lost all the cases it brought up to this point in trials before an African-American judge.   The judge, Barry Williams, roundly criticized the prosecution for failing to prove its points.  You'll recall that the officers were charged after Gray died in a police van being transported to a police facility.

Marilyn Mosby, the prosecutor, made inflammatory remarks at the time, suggesting that she was answering the mob's call for "justice."   Yesterday, she went ballistic.  From CNN: 

In a fiery address to reporters Wednesday, Mosby said she still believes Gray's death was a homicide. But now, she said, she realizes the criminal justice system needs "real, substantive reforms" to hold officers accountable.

What she didn't say is that "homicide" is a legal term for a death caused by outside forces, not by disease or natural causes.  It doesn't automatically mean murder.

"We could try this case 100 times, and cases just like it, and we would still end up with the same result."

Mosby said the case showed "an inherent bias that is a direct result of when police police themselves."

Absurd.  She ran her own prosecution.

"There were individual police officers that were witnesses to the case, yet were part of the investigative team, interrogations that were conducted without asking the most poignant questions, lead detectives that were completely uncooperative and started a counter-investigation to disprove the state's case," she said, shouting into a microphone as she read her remarks.

Mosby, who comes from a long line of police officers, told reporters she isn't anti-police.

COMMENT:  Well, maybe she isn't, and there may be some truth to her concerns.  But the fact is, she just didn't have the evidence, as the judge pointed out.  Why did she even bring the cases to trial?  Because that's what the mob demanded.

July 28, 2016       Permalink

WOMEN AND HILLARY – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  It appears that many American women are relatively indifferent to the idea of "the first woman president."  From Daily Caller:

A recent Wall Street Journal article reveals while Hillary Clinton’s presidential nomination is historic, many women voters are “indifferent.”

The biggest problem, WSJ explains, is that so much progress has already been achieved by women that this latest “glass ceiling” does not really resonate with some female voters. As more women become heads of companies like IBM and General Motors, and 40 percent are considered the main breadwinners in their homes, women may become “indifferent.”

The WSJ reports Clinton has had trouble winning support from middle-aged white women. A poll from Wall Street Journal/NBC News from July shows 52 percent of registered women voters — both Republican and Democrat — support Clinton. For white women ages 50-64, 36 percent support Clinton, while for white women ages 35-49, 34 percent support Clinton.

“It never occurred to me that a woman couldn’t be president. I don’t feel like I have to vote for a woman just because she’s a woman,” Susan Willes, a 53-year-old Democrat who is undecided, told The WSJ.

The groups of women registered to vote who most support Clinton come from those 65 or older and those between the ages of 18-34.

COMMENT:  This really isn't all that surprising.  A number of political observers have said that, once we had a black president, everything else seems an anticlimax.  Nancy Pelosi is warning Clinton not to overplay the "woman" card, and she's right.  That alone won't get Hillary elected.

July 28, 2016        Permalink

STUNNING – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  The new USC Dornsife/LA Times poll shows Donald Trump gaining during the Democratic National Convention.

Trump is now up almost seven and a half points in the daily tracking poll.  It's 47.4 to 40.1.

This is the exact opposite from what you'd expect.  While it's only one poll, the trend is clear:  Trump is gaining as Americans watch the "inclusive" circus from Philadelphia, and a lot of people don't feel included.  The convention makes it plain that there are in-groups and out-groups, and most Americans are in the out-groups.

It's also being reported that Fox News ratings are down for the Democratic National Convention.  That's understandable.  The Fox News audience tends toward the conservative, and a goodly number have little interest in watching the Obama Hit Parade.

We'll be seeing other polls shortly.  Don't be shocked if some show Hillary getting a small bounce from her convention, but I don't think it will be more than that.

July 28,  2016     Permalink 

JULY 27,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

SANDERS SKIPS OUT – FROM HEATSTREET:   The nomination was barely sealed up at the Democratic National Convention before Bernie Sanders, who had campaigned against Hillary Clinton for the party’s nod, went back to being an Independent.  Sanders, who considers himself, officially, an Independent in Congress because his views lean further left than the Democratic party’s platform, caucuses with Democrats. But until declaring an intention to run for the presidency in 2015, he had rarely, if ever, identified as a member of the Democratic Party (he’s been in politics since 1979).  And now, despite pleading with his base to support Hillary, even though they’re concerned that she’s too moderate, Sanders will return to Vermont and to his seat in the Senate, and he’ll do it with no official party affiliation.  What's going on?  What kind of political process do we wherein a guy can come in, rent a major political party, almost wreck it, and then leave?  This is a very unstable situation.  Both parties must tighten their rules.  They are private organizations and can establish their own standards for candidates. 

GOOD POINT – FROM AP:  Fox News' Tucker Carlson was bothered by Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine occasionally using Spanish phrases in his speech; time spent in Honduras made Kaine fluent in the language. Carlson said Kaine was, in effect, endorsing bilingualism. "I think this is symbolically important and something we should think about," he said.  We should think a great deal about it.  We are an English-speaking nation.  We make provisions for people who are not yet fully functional in English, but we have limits.  A major leader's speech should be in English.  Translations can be provided.  Of course, I'll be accused of bigotry and cultural oppression for writing this, and I don't really care.

OH NO! – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Donald Trump confused Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, with former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, accusing one of them Wednesday of hiking taxes."Her running mate Tim Kaine, who by the way did a terrible job in New Jersey — first act he did in New Jersey was ask for a $4 billion tax increase and he was not very popular in New Jersey and he still isn’t,” Trump told a press conference in Doral, Fla.  Reporters corrected him and Trump acknowledged the gaffe.  “What? I mean Virginia,” Trump said.  This kind of thing can't go on.  Every time Trump holds a news conference, he makes some kind of embarrassing mistake.  He has to understand that the press is a Hillary press, and is out to sink him.  Unfortunately, he cooperates.

July 27, 2016       Permalink

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU... – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:   Have you been watching the convention?  You think there's anything odd there?

I mean, change the hair styles and fashions, and that convention could be taking place in 1968, and no one would know the difference.  It is almost nostalgic, including Bill Clinton's stroll down memory lane with his beloved spouse, presented to us as a saintly, gracious queen.  As one observer asked, if she's that great and wonderful, how come he abused her so much over the years?

And how about "inclusion"?  That's the big word this week in Philadelphia.  Tell me, do you feel included?  I certainly don't.  I get the feeling I'm excluded.  I got the sense that only certain groups popular on the left are included.  There is kind of an unseen list. 

And what about the "mothers of the movement" segment, featuring black mothers of young people who've been killed in police actions.  Of course we feel for them.  But there was absolutely no attempt to note that each of those cases was different.  Some may well have involved fully justified police action.  But, hey, let's not get bogged down with details.  And where were the widows, parents, and children of police officers?  Some Democrats were asked that, but the answers were always evasive.  Having a few token cops apparently sufficed.  We all know what the real answer is.  The Black Lives Matter movement, well represented at the convention, would never allow those police families on that stage.

I note that no speaker thus far has mentioned ISIS.  Who cares?  Not relevant to the agenda of the hard left, which dominates this disgraceful, irrelevant convention. 

The overall impression I get is one of overwhelming immaturity.  Those are not adults on my screen.  They're screaming babies, the kind who use words like "microaggressions." 

As for the role of the media, we're getting exactly what we expected.  Let the fawning continue. 

July 27, 2016       Permalink 

ISIS BOASTS OF NEXT TARGETS – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  London and Washington are targeted.  Will we wake up?  From London's Mirror: 

Images threatening attacks in London and other major world capitals have been posted on jihadi messaging app Telegram as counter-terror police issue advice to religious institutions in the UK.

London is on the next list of target cities for twisted jihadis, it has been claimed.

Images threatening attacks in London and other major world capitals have been posted on messaging app Telegram, according to analysts at SITE Intelligence Group.

One picture chillingly shows New York’s Statue of Liberty engulfed in flames but with the caption “Washington soon” - referring to the US capital 225 miles away.

The threat comes as security at British churches is being ramped up amid a new terror alert after ISIS knifemen forced a French priest to kneel before slitting his throat on camera.

The source of the threats against London and Washington and whether they are credible is unknown.

It comes after ISIS terrorists forced an elderly parish priest to kneel before filming themselves slitting his throat on Tuesday.

Father Jacques Hamel, 85, was made to get to his knees before he was brutally butchered at the Church of the Gambetta in Normandy today, says a nun who escaped the attack.

COMMENT:  I think wisdom requires us to assume that these threats are credible.  That is based on the record of ISIS over the last year – one attack after the other.   And we must be on guard against an ISIS attack designed to disrupt our election campaign.

July 27, 2016       Permalink

INCREDIBLE – AT 9:05 A.M. ET:  Is Trump actually gaining during the Democratic convention?  One major survey says yes.

Usually it's the opposite.  The party on the screen normally gains from its convention.  But a new University of Southern California Dornsife/LA Times survey, using new methods, is showing that Trump is gaining while the Dems are meeting, and that, according to this new method, he should win the election by seven points.

We caution that this is only one poll, and that others may show different results.  What is clear, though, is that the Dem convention is not, up to now, having the impact the Clinton people wanted.  We will be waiting, however, for polls that reflect the nomination of Hillary Clinton yesterday, the speech by Bill Clinton, and the upcoming speech by Barack Obama.  The new methodology is described as follow:

The 2016 USC Dornsife / LA Times Presidential Election Poll represents a pioneering approach to tracking changes in Americans' opinions throughout a campaign for the White House. Around 3000 respondents in our representative panel are asked questions on a regular basis on what they care about most in the election, and on their attitudes toward their preferred candidates. The "Daybreak poll" is updated just after midnight every day of the week.

COMMENT:  We'll update you on how this polling method compares with the others.

July 27,  2016     Permalink