President Barack Obama reportedly will go on a “farewell tour” in mid-January. In light of Democratic losses since 2009, he may want to fly over some states.
Washington Post political commentator Chris Cillizza recently wrote:
What Democrats expected to be the historic election of the first female president was instead a devastating loss — for Clinton, Obama and their political vision. That reversal of fortune was palpable in the days following the election as Democrats reeled from a knockout blow that they never even saw coming.
When President Obama passes the baton to President Donald J. Trump, Democrats will be left with memories.
I am a founding member of the Election Verification Network. The membership includes University of Michigan computer science professor J. Alex Halderman, the computer science expert who sparked Jill Stein’s petition for a recount in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Since its founding, EVN has pushed for voter-verified paper ballots and a forensic audit of every election. So it’s not surprising that Alex and other members have latched on to calls for recounts in three states.
But Jill Stein’s vanity recount is not advancing election integrity. Instead, it’s setting back electoral reform.
Maybe ‘democracy’ will be served by Jill Stein’s quixotic moralizing. More likely, Jill Stein and the Green Party will be served.
Jill Stein may actually believe that demanding a recount of presidential tallies in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania will ensure that “democracy” is served.
More likely, she believes the Green Party will be served by her audacious PR stunt.
Either way, the Stein recounts are a colossal waste of money and energy when there is not a shred of credible evidence of fraud or error and when the final vote in these three states likely will not change very much.
Stein’s quixotic moralizing damages the credibility of the very institution she claims to protect — the sanctity of the ballot box.
Those who donated to Recount 2016 did so voluntarily. Stein paid the state of Michigan $787,500. But taxpayers could end up paying $5 million in additional costs. So Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed a lawsuit to halt the “dilatory and frivolous” recount:
Michigan voters rejected Stein’s candidacy by massive margins but her refusal to accept that state-verified result poses an expensive and risky threat to hard-working taxpayers and abuses the intent of Michigan law. We have asked the court to end the recount which Stein is pursuing in violation of Michigan laws that protect the integrity of our elections. It is inexcusable for Stein to put Michigan voters at risk of paying millions and potentially losing their voice in the Electoral College in the process.
Meanwhile, the Green Party has withdrawn its lawsuit for a statewide recount in Pennsylvania. Although Stein has raised over $7 million, they claim the petitioners “cannot afford to post the $1,000,000 bond required by the Court.”
In a tweet, Stein asks, “How odd is it that we must jump through bureaucratic hoops and raise millions of dollars so we can trust our election results?”
What’s really odd is that the candidate who received less than 1% of the vote is pushing for a recount in Pennsylvania rather than the candidate of the 1%, Hillary Clinton.
Facing long odds in Pennsylvania, the nutcase is taking her case to federal court. If the case winds its way through the federal court system and makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court, President Trump’s pick will be there waiting for Dr. Jill Stein.
Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” The 2000 presidential election came down to Florida. Trailing George W. Bush by 537 votes, Al Gore pressed for a recount in four cherry-picked counties. He pressed his case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The Supremes stopped the recount.
Fast forward to today. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s share of the vote barely registered in Wisconsin (1.04%), Pennsylvania (0.81%) and Michigan (1.07%). Still, in less than 48 hours, she raised over $4.7 million towards the cost of recounts in the three battleground states.
In Pennsylvania, petitions are filed by voters not candidates on a precinct-by-precinct basis. In Philadelphia County alone, there are over 1,600 precincts. The deadline (November 21) to file the petitions has passed. So a lawsuit is Jill Stein’s only option.
It should be noted that only 17 counties have any form of paper trail. Voters in these counties represent roughly 20% of the total vote in the Keystone State. In vote-rich Philadelphia and Allegheny (Pittsburgh) counties, there are no paper records to recount.
There are countless reasons why people are upset about the results of the 2016 presidential election. The final tallies in the critical states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were extremely close. But we cannot help noticing that Green Presidential candidate Jill Stein’s fundraising goals for recounts in these three states keeps rising as she brings in more money. The initial goal was for $2.5 million. That was bumped up to $4.5 million. Now it has been raised again to $7 million.
That’s very fishy.
[…]
At best, I think this is basically a publicity stunt for Jill Stein. At worst, well … the ever-escalating goals speak for themselves. An election campaign really has no limit on how much money it can raise or spend. Recounts are finite. There’s only so much recounting you can do – even when you pile on ‘lawyers fees’ and fees for recount workers.
Hillary Clinton’s supporters have been crying since Election Night. When the farcical recounts are completed, they may drown in their own tears.
It’s Week Two of the reality of President-elect Donald Trump.
The pundits and pollsters who predicted Donald Trump would lose are now wondering, “What happened?” They are particularly at a loss to understand Trump’s support among black voters. So let me help them out.
I had long predicted that Trump would receive more support among African Americans than reflected in the polls. The reason: illegal immigration. I have written about illegal immigration since 2005. Until President Barack Obama, poll after poll found African Americans oppose amnesty. However, they muted their opposition because they are protective of the first black president.
When I’m out and about, I hear black men complain that they have been replaced by illegal immigrants on privately-financed construction projects and locked out by project labor agreements on public projects.
In 2009, African Americans were shoved aside as Obama’s “shovel-ready” jobs went to union members and unionized contractors (98% of black-owned construction companies are non-union). Black-owned businesses were shut out of stimulus-funded contracts.
The day before the election, the New York Times asked, “Are There Really Hidden Trump Voters?” The columnists smugly concluded:
Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, the respondents who appear to favor him — but not enough to say they will vote for him — are also more likely to believe that it may be better to just stay home. This result also suggests that instead of tipping the uncommitted one way or the other, late-breaking negative headlines may simply further decrease turnout among this group.
And so on Election Day, don’t be surprised if most hidden Trump supporters remain hidden.
In the privacy of the voting booth, black men who support Trump did not have to hide. They were among the cohort of voters whom Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway dubbed “undercover.” Indeed, 13 percent of black men who turned out on Election Day were “undercover” brothers.
For eight years, African Americans have had President Obama’s back. Still, I watched in disbelief as black Philadelphians cheered when he bragged that “more Americans are working, more have health insurance. Incomes are rising. Poverty is falling.”
Parenthetically, Philadelphia is the poorest big city in the country. The poverty rate is 26.3 percent; nearly 37 percent of children live in poverty. Philly has the highest rate of deep poverty (12.9 percent) of the nation’s 10 most populous cities. Roughly 200,000 residents have incomes below half of the poverty line.
Now, I’ve praised President Obama on his amazing management of the great recession as well as his consistent job growth and overall economic progress. However, that success, unfortunately, includes every race except for blacks. The unemployment rate for blacks is nearly 9 percent and remains twice that of whites.
As the unemployment rate for blacks has risen, the same stats for whites, Asians and Latinos declined in the latest October 2016 jobs numbers from the Labor Department. The youth unemployment rate for blacks ages 16-24 has been over 18 percent this year and is more than double the rate of the white youth unemployment rate.
One would hope that the healthy 16-24 year olds who make up our nation’s most underserved race would be a vibrant work force. Well, the fact is that nearly 60 percent don’t work at all.
The unfortunate reality is that, for a growing number of underserved blacks in this country have lost the American dream under Obama. Backing Obama’s economic policies did Hillary Clinton no favors with millennials and working class blacks when it came to jobs and the economy. Blacks also had to take into account that Hillary and Bill themselves amassed $100 million to $200 million in personal wealth.
Throw in Obamacare premiums rising at staggering rates and this had to push a number of black voters away from supporting the Clinton ticket, as they dealt with the realities of financial struggles.
Brewer continued:
I voted for a hope of making black America great again too. I voted for an end of 30 years of establishment rule in America. I voted for President Donald Trump, with hopes that God frees his mind of the bias and division long enough to do great things for blacks and all the citizens of our great nation.
I, too, voted for change. I voted for Donald Trump.
Tracking Change 