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Two Southern conservative newspapers bolt from Trump
Dallas Morning News endorses Hillary Clinton; Richmond Post-Dispatch opts for Johnson
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
DALLAS (CFP) — Two major Southern newspapers that are normally stalwartly Republican on their editorial pages have broken with the party for the first time in decades in refusing to endorse Donald Trump for president.
The Dallas Morning News endorsed Hillary Clinton, the first time Texas’s largest newspaper has endorsed a Democrat since before World War II. The Richmond Times-Dispatch endorsed Libertarian Gary Johnson, ending a string of Republican presidential endorsements stretching back to 1980.
The Morning News editorial board not only endorsed Clinton, it ran a separate, scathing editorial calling Trump unqualified to be president and urging readers not to vote for him.
“Donald Trump is no Republican and certainly no conservative,” the editorial said. “We have no interest in a Republican nominee for whom all principles are negotiable, nor in a Republican Party that is willing to trade away principle for pursuit of electoral victory.”
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton
While Clinton has “real shortcomings,” including showing “poor judgment” in using a private email server when she was secretary of state, the paper told its readers that, in comparison, Trump is worse.
“Unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has experience in actual governance, a record of service and a willingness to delve into real policy,” the editorial said. “For all her warts, she is the candidate more likely to keep our nation safe, to protect American ideals and to work across the aisle to uphold the vital domestic institutions that rely on a competent, experienced president.”
Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson
The Times-Dispatch endorsed Johnson in a September 4 editorial, despite the fact that Virginia’s junior U.S. Senator, Tim Kaine, is Clinton’s vice presidential running mate.
“Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton meets the fundamental moral and professional standards we have every right to expect of an American president,” the editorial said. “Fortunately, there is a reasonable — and formidable — alternative.”
The Richmond paper called Johnson, a former two-term governor of New Mexico, “a man of good integrity, apparently normal ego and sound ideas. Sadly, in the 2016 presidential contest, those essential qualities make him an anomaly.”
The paper also said that while Kaine’s presence on the Democratic ticket “flatters” Virginia, “it is futile to vote for a presidential candidate because one likes the vice presidential nominee.”
The Times-Dispatch has endorsed every Republican presidential candidate since 1980. The GOP candidate carried Virginia in every election from 1968 until 2008, when Barack Obama moved the Old Dominion into the Democratic column.
The last time the Morning News did not endorse the GOP standard-bearer was in 1964, when it remained neutral in the contest between Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, a Texan running against Republican U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. It had not endorsed a Democrat since throwing its support to Franklin Roosevelt in 1940, as World War II loomed.
A Democrat has not carried Texas in the presidential race since 1976.
Poll: Clinton up by 9 points in Florida; Rubio holds his own in Senate race
Trump hurt by huge gap with minorities, women
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
GAINESVILLE, Florida (CFP) — Buoyed by a whopping 50-point margin among minority voters, Democrat Hillary Clinton has opened up a comfortable lead in the key swing state of Florida, a new poll finds.
But a Monmouth University survey released August 16 found that Clinton’s coattails were not reaching down to the U.S. Senate race, where Republican Marco Rubio held a small lead over both of his possible Democratic opponents.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton
Clinton was the choice of 48 percent of likely voters in the poll, compared to 39 percent for Republican Donald Trump, 6 percent for Libertarian Gary Johnson and 1 percent for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Clinton’s lead of 9 points was well outside the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Florida, with its 29 electoral votes, is very nearly a must-win state for both Clinton and Trump. No candidate has won the White House without carrying the Sunshine State since 1992. No Republican has won without it since 1924.
Key demographic results within the polling data show that Clinton’s lead is largely the result of Trump’s weak support among minorities and women.
Trump was the choice of just 19 percent of black, Latino and Asian voters in the poll; Clinton ran 50 points ahead, at 69 percent.
Clinton also held a 30-point lead among women, a gap twice as large as Trump’s 15-point lead among men. The poll also showed Clinton with a 10-point lead among white women, a group Republican Mitt Romney carried by 17 points in a losing effort in 2012.
Trump’s lead among white voters in the poll was 14 points. By contrast, Romney carried white voters by 24 points in 2014.
Trump also continued to suffer from lingering dissent to his nomination within the GOP. Just 79 percent of Florida Republicans polled said they would support Trump, and he was losing 12 percent of the GOP vote to Clinton.
Clinton did much better among Florida Democrats, getting 94 percent support. Just 4 percent of Democrats in the poll said they would vote for Trump. Clinton also held a 17-point among voters who identify as independents.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio
In the U.S. Senate race, the poll showed that Rubio–who changed his mind and opted to run for re-election after losing to Trump in the GOP primaries–is outperforming the top of his party’s ticket.
Rubio polled 48 percent to 43 percent for Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, who is running against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson for his party’s Senate nomination. Rubio’s lead over Grayson was larger, 50 percent to 39 percent.
Grayson and Murphy will square off in an August 30 primary, in which Rubio will also face businessman Carlos Beruff.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine goes after Donald Trump in convention address
Virginian calls GOP standard-bearer a “one-man wrecking crew”
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
PHILADELPHIA (CFP) —U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia made his national debut as a vice presidential candidate in a speech to the Democratic National Convention in which he derided Donald Trump as not only trustworthy but as a threat to the Republic.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine
“Our nation, it is just too great to put in the hands of a slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew,” Kaine said in a prime-time speech July 27.
Kaine, the only Southerner on a major party ticket this year, also offered effusive praise of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, saying she was ready to step into the White House.
“She is ready because of her faith. She is ready because of her heart. She is ready because of her experience. And she is ready because she knows that in America, we are stronger when we are together,” he said.
Kaine, little known outside Virginia before being selected by Clinton as her running mate, also introduced his family, including his father-in-law, Linwold Holton, a former Republican governor of Virginia whom he said would be supporting the Democratic ticket this year.
“He is voting for Democrats because any party that would nominate Donald Trump for president has moved too far away from his party of Lincoln,” he said. “If any of you are looking for that party of Lincoln, we have got a home for your right here in the Democratic Party.”
Embracing a vice presidential candidate’s traditional role as an attack dog, Kaine went after Trump, particularly over his habit of telling audiences that they should just believe that he can make major changes in Washington.
“Most people, when they run for president, they don’t just say, ‘Believe me.’ They respect you enough to tell you how they will get things done,” Kaine said.
“Not Donald Trump. He never tells you how he is going to do any of the things he says he will do. He just says, ‘Believe me.'”
Kaine, a fluent Spanish speaker who peppered his address with passages in Spanish, also sought to create a contrast with Trump by embracing American diversity.
“God has created in our country a beautiful and rich tapestry, an incredible cultural diversity that succeeds when we embrace everybody in love and battle back against the dark forces of division,” he said.
“We are all neighbors. And we must love our neighbors as ourselves.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wassermann Schultz out as Democratic chair
Florida congresswoman heckled by Bernie Sanders supporters at Florida delegation caucus
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
PHILADELPHIA (CFP) — Under fire for leaked internal emails containing critical comments about Bernie Sanders and his presidential campaign, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida is stepping down as chair of the Democratic National Committee.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
And after a raucous protest by Sanders supporters at a morning meeting of the Florida caucus, Wasserman Schultz abandoned plans to gavel in the first session of the Democratic National Convention July 25.
She told her hometown newspaper, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, that she canceled her appearance “in the interest of making sure that we can start the Democratic convention on a high note.”
The DNC had already decided to replace Wasserman Schultz as the permanent convention chair, a position normally filled by the party chair if the House Speaker is of the other party.
In a statement issued on the eve of the convention announcing her departure as DNC chair, Wasserman Schultz had said that she would open and close the convention and “address our delegates about the stakes involved in this election, not only for Democrats but for all Americans.”
She also said she would campaign for Hillary Clinton in the fall, whom she called “a friend I have always believed in and know will make a great president.”
The controversy over the emails generated an ugly scene at the Florida caucus meeting Monday morning, where Wasserman Schultz was heckled by Sanders supporters.
“So I can see there’s a little bit of interest in my being here, and I appreciate that interest,” she told the crowd as she struggled to be heard over the protestors.
When they would not stop, Wasserman Schultz finally fired back:
“We know that the voices in this room that are standing up and being disruptive — we know that that’s not the Florida that we know.”
Wasserman Schultz, who was Clinton’s campaign co-chair during her unsuccessful run for president in 2008, was appointed as head of the DNC in 2011 by President Obama.
Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders supporters complained that the DNC, under Wasserman Schultz’s direction, was showing favoritism toward Clinton in their intra-party tussle.
The internal emails, leaked by Wikileaks, added fuel to those complaints, with documents showing Wasserman Schultz questioning Sanders’ Democratic bona fides and criticizing some of his top campaign operatives.
The leaked emails also showed DNC officials — though not Wasserman Schultz — discussing whether to question Sanders about being an atheist.
Her contentious relationship with the Sanders campaign has spilled over in her race for re-election in Florida’s 23rd District, where she is being challenged in the Democratic primary by Sanders supporter Tim Canova, who has raised more than $2 million in an effort to unseat her.
The district takes in southern Broward County and Miami Beach.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is Clinton’s VP pick
Kaine is the first Virginian on a major-party ticket since 1840
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
MIAMI (CFP) — U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia has been picked by Hillary Clinton as her running mate in the coming battle against Donald Trump.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine
Kaine was unveiled as Clinton’s choice at a rally at Florida International University in Miami July 23, where he pointedly noted that he has never lost an election in a political career that began back in 1994.
“I’m 8-0, and I promise you, I’m not about to let that change, especially when Donald Trump stands in the way of progress on every single one of these issues that Hillary has laid out as part of her campaign,” he said.
Kaine, 58, is serving his first term in the Senate. He served as governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, lieutenant governor from 2002 to 2006 and as mayor of Richmond from 1998 to 2001.
He was also picked by President Barack Obama to head the Democratic National Committee in 2009, a position he held for two years.
A Roman Catholic, Kaine served as a Jesuit missionary in Honduras and speaks fluent Spanish. He and his wife, Anne, have three children.
Kaine’s selection as Clinton’s running mate ends a long drought for the Old Dominion in presidential politics. The last time a major party nominated a Virginian to a presidential ticket was in 1840, when John Tyler was nominated by the Whigs.
President Woodrow Wilson was a native Virginian, although he had moved to New Jersey by the time of his election in 1912.
Clinton told the Miami audience that Kaine “is everything that Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not.”
“He is qualified to step into this job and lead on day one, and he is a progressive who likes to get things done,” she said.
In his remarks, Kaine made a full-throated call for immigration reform, saying that immigrants make the country stronger, not weaker.
“Anybody who loves America this much deserves to be here,” he said, repeating the remark in both English and Spanish.
Kaine also enthusiastically embraced the traditional VP role as an attack dog, going after Trump, the GOP nominee.
“Donald Trump trash talks folks with disabilities, trash talks Mexican-Americans and Latinos, whether they’re new immigrants or governors or federal judges, trash talks women, trash talks our allies,” he said.
Kaine also said “from Atlantic City to his so-called university, (Trump) leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes.”
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