“Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
Paul Krugman: Why Hillary Wins
Hillary Clinton is a terrible candidate. Hey, that’s what pundits have been saying ever since this endless campaign began. You have to go back to Al Gore in 2000 to find a politician who faced as much jeering from the news media, over everything from claims of dishonesty (which usually turn out to be based on nothing) to matters of personal style.
Strange to say, however, Mrs. Clinton won the Democratic nomination fairly easily, and now, having pummeled her opponent in three successive debates, is an overwhelming favorite to win in November, probably by a wide margin. How is that possible?
The usual suspects are already coalescing around an answer — namely, that she just got lucky. If only the Republicans hadn’t nominated Donald Trump, the story goes, she’d be losing badly.
But here’s a contrarian thought: Maybe Mrs. Clinton is winning because she possesses some fundamental political strengths — strengths that fall into many pundits’ blind spots.
John Leguizamo: ‘Too Bad You’re Latin’
A well-intentioned producer once said to me, “John, you’re so talented, but too bad you’re Latin — otherwise you’d be so much further along.” When I pitched a movie about Latinos, another producer said: “Latin? People don’t want to see Latin people.” This is not just my experience but a typical Latino person’s experience in America.
Donald J. Trump has done one good thing. He has galvanized a conflicted and diverse community. For years, activists and politicians have struggled to get Latinos to vote and show their power. But not until Mr. Trump’s racist rhetoric shone a light on anti-Latino sentiment did we feel the need to make our voices heard on the issues that matter to us: from proper funding for our schools, better infrastructure in our communities and financial aid, to health care that doesn’t consider poverty a pre-existing condition. [..]
Latinos need to demand our place in American history, and in corporate, political and social fields. We must demand an equal share of the American dream, and not accept a downgraded version of it. We need to stop accepting exclusion over persecution. In this critical election, and in the future, I urge you all to register and vote, to be counted and heard.
Eugene Robinson: Donald Trump, spoiled brat in chief
It is tempting to laugh at Donald Trump’s eruptions and outrages because he is such a cartoonish buffoon. But he gave chilling evidence Wednesday night of why he poses a grave and urgent threat to our democracy — and why he must be defeated. [..]
Debate moderator Chris Wallace gave Trump two opportunities to say that he would accept the people’s verdict. Both times he defiantly refused — and in the process disqualified himself as a candidate for the nation’s highest office.
Not that he hadn’t already given us a thousand and one reasons why he should never be president, mind you. But how can any Republican official support a man who so challenges the very legitimacy of our democratic system? To all who, like House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), have shown disdain for Trump but made the political calculation not to fully renounce him, I ask this: Why should anyone, ever again, take seriously your idealistic rhetoric about the United States being a “city upon the hill” and a beacon to the world? You are supporting a man who spits on your ideals.
Lorraine Berry: Trump dismissed Clinton as a ‘nasty woman’ — and now women will give him a nasty result at the polls
“Such a nasty woman.”
With those four words, Donald Trump confirmed for every thinking woman in America that all of his talk that “nobody respects women more than I do,” is as worthless as the bankrupt companies that litter his past. Near the end of the debate it became increasingly clear that Trump had lost the plot of the debate. And, as Trump watchers now know, when Donald gets angry and frustrated, he feels a need to dominate and punish the source of his humiliation.
As Trump uttered those words, every woman in America heard the voice of the last man who had tried to convince her that he knew more about something than she did, and then, discovering that she was right and he was wrong, called her a bitch — or worse — as a substitute for rational argument. Hillary Clinton became Everywoman on that stage last night. [..]
On November 8, every woman who has ever been called a bitch will be at the polls, and they will vote to make sure that the “nasty woman” gets into the White House. And then we’ll dance.
Heather Digby Parton: Has Donald Trump destroyed his brand and his business? The GOP nominee stands to lose more than the election
If the polls hold up and Republican nominee Donald Trump loses the election next month, America will have dodged many bullets. One of them will be the prospect of having a president who thinks he can avoid conflict of interest by turning his privately owned international brand and real estate business over to his children while he’s in office.
With the exception of one big story in Newsweek that issue has not been seriously pursued by the news media, even though it would have literally been impossible for Trump to properly carry out the duties of the office had he won, given the nature of his business and the legal problems that would have ensued if he tried to extricate himself from it. Trump would have had to unwind his businesses years before running for president to avoid being paralyzed by conflicts.
He may come to regret not having done so, even though he’s probably going to be back to full-time “dealmaking” in about three weeks. We don’t know how much he was worth when he started this campaign but reports are suggesting that it’s a lot less today. The Trump brand has a problem and it’s spreading beyond his consumer goods to his real estate holdings.
Recent Comments