The Monster Is Revealed

Happy Halloween, Friends,

Not only did the ambiguous letter from FBI director James Comey about 'additional emails' related to Hillary Clinton's private server throw a wrench in this election, but it also may violate the Hatch Act, which bars the FBI from influencing elections.

That may be litigated in the future, depending on the election's results. Most of the offense will be forgiven should Hillary win. The poop will absolutely hit the fan if Trump takes the election.

In the latter scenario, I see YUGE repercussions for Comey--including federal charges--in the lame duck Obama presidency

In any scenario, there is no way that Comey keeps his job.

But what I find really scary about this whole mess is how Donald Trump is completely demagoguing it. It's become the focal point of his campaign without there being one shred of evidence that any of the emails in question are incriminating.

Again, Trump is making a huge assumption based on nothing. And this time, he could swing an American presidential election on his bullshit.

This is Trump's M.O.--shoot first, ask questions later. I want to be sarcastic here and say it's exactly the quality we need in our President. But this is too serious a matter to joke about.

For Halloween, Donald Trump has decided to drop the pumpkin
makeup and crazy hair and go as himself.

I said it in a post months ago after Trump immediately blamed this past May's EgyptAir Flight 804 crash on terrorists (it turned out to be an electrical fire in the plane's avionics system). We can't have a President who jumps to conclusions.

If you remember, he did the same thing with the horrific Orlando nightclub shooting, blaming it immediately on foreign Islamic terrorists. That turned out to be one American Muslim shooter born in Trump's own hometown.

But the danger of this man is that he never learns from his mistakes--and never backs down.

He's still insisting that the Central Park Five--whom he demanded be put to death for raping a white woman, but who were later completely exonerated--are still guilty. This, even after New York City paid each of the innocent black men, who spent 13 years in prison, $8.2 million.

Perhaps Trump believes the city could have saved the $41 million if the then teenagers had been executed, as he demanded in a full page ad in the New York Daily News.

Only a true monster never backs down in the face of irrefutable facts.

I understand the rage of white working class Americans who've seen their jobs lost to foreign countries and their white privilege melt away. They want the old days back, and Trump is promising this to them.

But the fact is, the only thing that won't change in life is change. So either embrace it, or be left in the dust.

A monster can't save you. Monsters kill people.

The Math Never Lies

Only eight days to go, Friends,

The latest Hillary Clinton email controversy may turn out to be a true 'tempest in a teapot'. If anything, it may be a good idea for Hillary to put Huma Abedin, her closest confidant, on paid leave until after the election,

But, as of this morning, not much has really changed in the dynamics of this election. And I can't see the trends moving much. unless the FBI goes public with an email from Abedin's computer that's an absolute bombshell. I doubt that will happen.

So here's the fact: Hillary Clinton is poised to win this election by a comfortable margin, if not an absolute landslide.

No matter what the numbers are indicating, don't sit on the sidelines.
Get out and vote!

I base this exclusively on the math.

I spent hours poring over the numbers this weekend, and base my above statements only on actual votes in the moderate-turnout presidential election of 2012.

One hundred twenty-six million voters cast ballots in that election, and I predict at least an equivalent turnout in this one. A larger turnout would favor the Democrats, an unlikely smaller turnout the Republicans.

Early voting indicates more than a moderate turnout.

The make-up of the electorate has changed since 2012 with millions more minority and left-leaning millennials registered to vote. They are not likely Trump voters.

We're not going to even factor this in because. despite these trends to the left, the raw numbers tell the whole story. The media and the Democrats would prefer you don't know them--each for their own reasons.

This election is over, but the media doesn't want you to know it for selfish reasons.Who'd still be watching?

The Democratic party doesn't want to acknowledge it publicly for fear of discouraging voter turnout.

But here are the numbers:

Of the at least 126 million who will cast votes, fewer than 92 million will be white--42.5 million men and 49.5 million women. Black, Latino, and Asian voters will tally at least 15 million, 14 million, and five million respectively.

Assuming that Hillary will only get 25% of the white male vote (and there are more registered Democrats than that), 55% of the white female vote (and she's killing those numbers), 90% of the black vote, 60% of the Latino vote, and 80% of the Asian vote, Hillary will win by nearly a million votes.

All of my estimates above are conservative and below actual polling. Hillary is even trending at better than 90% of the black vote--and the case for a margin of victory of 11 million votes can easily be made within the current trends and using the same numbers.

That's the actual math, and those numbers don't lie. And they're likely to be even better for Mrs.Clinton than I've stated.

So, if you're not a Hillary supporter, read them and weep.

Trump--Out of Touch Old Man

Really, Friends, TGIF,

Thank goodness we're just 11 days away from the presidential election. I don't think the American public can stand too much more of it.

We've been finding out this morning about how the Clinton Foundation operated, thanks to our 'good friends' the Russians' hack into Clinton campaign director John Podesta's emails.

We now know that Bill Clinton hired lobbyist Doug Band to create a scheme to solicit large donations from foreign  governments and big business for the Foundation's charitable works, while both Band and Bill each received a little 'taste' (amounting to millions) for themselves.

None of it was illegal. It was all just sleazy.

I may have a sheepish grin, but it belies my calculating
mind. Don't worry. I won't ever be running for President
 again. Just hope I don't taint Hillary.

As I said earlier in the week, the Clintons have been in the same business as Donald Trump for the past 15 years...selling their name.

And Band helped Bill Clinton amass a fortune of more than a quarter of a billion dollars.

Interestingly, Hillary doesn't seem to have been part of the scheme. And there's no evidence that any of the Foundation's clients paid and got access to Hillary while she was Secretary of State.

It is true that Bill Clinton would return to the White House in a Hillary administration.

But his fundraising for the Foundation would stop, and, with that, at least the appearance of influence peddling.

As always, in the leaked emails Bill has emerged as the true scoundrel of the political couple.

While Hillary was organizing her next run for President, Bill was amassing the personal fortune that would legitimize the working class Clintons and allow them to play on the same field as the world's heaviest of heavyweights..

At least one reputable analyst said he didn't think the Clintons really even cared about the money they've accumulated. It was just a means to their political ends.

Meanwhile, in his campaign rallies Donald Trump is now openly calling African American urban communities "ghettos," a pejorative term that went out with his youth and is patently false.

And though the term isn't playing very well with the people he claims to want to "help," his nearly solid-white base seems to be eating it up.

The new strategy is not helping him attract the additional undecided voters he'll need to win the election.

And though it may be too much to hope for, maybe this out-of-touch nasty old man will finally dry up and blow away on November 9th.

The solid trouncing he deserves would, at least, knock him off his game.

Repeating It Over & Over Doesn't Make It True

Just 12 days left, Friends,

We've got a presidential race based on truthiness, not truth. And, with every day that passes, we find out something else despicable about one or the other of our major party candidates.

It's like a continual game of 'Can You Top This?' on their race to the bottom.

Thanks to Russian hackers and WikiLeaks (whose behavior should not be condoned but is another issue), we now know for certain that just about everything we ever suspected about Hillary Clinton is true. She's two different people--a private Hillary and a public one.

We really can't believe much of what she's said about her personal email server, deleted emails, or the apparently cozy relationship between The Clinton Foundation and her Department of State.

Even Hillary's own staff criticized her for having "terrible instincts," And at 69 years old, Hillary's not likely to change her ways very much.

Honestiness is always the best policy. Thank you, Stephen Colbert for
giving the English language 'truthiness', the one word that sums up
this presidential election.

Hillary Clinton could not defeat virtually any other candidate in the original GOP field of 17, except for one. And he wound up hijacking the nomination and the entire Republican party.

Donald Trump's campaign is based on a stack of oft-repeated lies that have now passed into the purgatory between truth and falsehood that Stephen Colbert dubbed "truthiness."

It started with Trump calling illegal Mexican immigrants "rapists." And that, somehow, you can't be a war hero if you're a POW.

The latest canards are that his once-beloved polls--which now have him losing--along with the media, and the election in general, are all "rigged" against him.

Trump has no evidence to support any of this, but, through repetition, he's manipulated these wild accusations from complete lies into truthiness. And that's as good as truth to his supporters.

Oh, Trump also claims with conviction that he's going to win all the battleground states and thus the general election 'big time.' Sounds like it's true, but again, it's truthiness. He's lying.

Inside reports this morning say his staff's own internal polls show that it's pretty much hopeless for The Donald. He can't win the election. He falls short of the necessary 270 electoral votes even if he wins all the swing states.

His campaign's new plan is to try and suppress the Democratic vote. Good luck with that.

Early voting, which is now going on in the vast majority of states, has overwhelmingly turned out registered Democrats. And turnout is strong.

That's bad news for Trump. He'll start election day already trailing.

The writing is on the wall for him, and all the truthiness in the world won't change that.

Everyone Wants This Over

Only one more Hump Day to go, Friends,

We are actually only 13 days away from the end of this spectacle of an election. And virtually everyone I've talked to just wants it to be over.

Even popular singer Sheryl Crow is so fed up with how long this mudfest has gone on that she's started a movement to shorten the presidential election cycle.

Donald Trump declared his candidacy back in June, 2015 and has been stumping ever since. And it seems like Hillary Clinton has been running since 2007 (and for all intents and purposes she has).

If our presidential elections were like they were in past decades, we'd have nodded off to sleep by now. Imagine a year and a half of pure policy debate.

But the contentiousness of this election has gripped the national psyche...in an insidious way.

Its name calling, dog whistling, and outrageous twisting of reality--mainly by the GOP side--has created a violent faction of know-nothings with a big arsenal and an itchy trigger finger.

Cliven Bundy and his American goons have already taken up arms against the U.S.
government once. Who knows what will happen if their boy doesn't win the presidency.

Our 'fragile democracy' has had a tradition of accepting our presidential election results regardless of how people felt about them. But Donald Trump has told his cohort to break that tradition if he loses.

Most won't follow his advice. But if just a fraction of one percent do, we've got an armed contingent of hundreds of thousands of very angry people who need little additional prodding to revolt.

I actually thought that inciting violence was a crime. Clearly, the law doesn't apply to Donald Trump.

From what I personally observed here in Nevada, early voting lines are long. And the actual tally so far indicates that Democrats are far outnumbering Republicans--and Democrats are clearly not voting for Donald Trump.

Nevada is the classic swing state, and its population is a true microcosm of the United States as a whole. If early voting here is any indication, Hillary will win decisively.

While everyone is ready for this election to be over, let's not ignore what could happen the day after.

Hope that cool heads prevail.

Trump TV Start Validates August Prediction

Dearest Friends,

Regular readers of this blog know that its premise is that you'll read it here first and then see it on the news sometime in the future.

If you happened to read a couple of my August posts, especially this one from August 21st, you'd have known months ago about what quietly started after the third presidential debate and is now a daily occurrence--Trump TV.

In the August post, I jokingly called it Trumpbart TV, in honor of Trump's then new campaign executive director Steve Bannon, who took a leave at the Alt Right Breitbart News Network to work for the Trump campaign.

If you'd have been talking about Trump TV back then, people would have thought you were full of crap.

But when I started this blog, I promised to give you inside information that would make you look like a genius...and I've delivered.

I was the first pundit to call Donald Trump the certain GOP nominee back in January, and the only one to predict Trump TV.

Check it out. The pictures are the same on all the TV sets. Just
exactly how it will be after Trump TV gets rolling and The Donald
somehow gets elected.

And the latter call was a full two months out in front of the current story. which is only now making the mainstream news. Back in August, the same media would have absolutely poo pooed it.

What I can't understand is why the news networks still haven't asked me on their air. It's not like they don't know about me.

It's also not that I have no TV experience. I began a 30-year-long career as a TV news reporter and anchor in 1977, and that's before most of the people you now watch every day on the tube were even born.

I was even inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters' Hall of Fame back in the summer of 2005.

Some 16,000+ people read this blog and among them are operatives at all the campaigns, the White House, and producers at CNN, MSNBC and FOX News.

They use material from Lew's Views all the time. President Obama even borrowed my "stop whining" line about Donald Trump a few days ago

My wife watches the 24-hour news networks and is amazed at how much they lift directly from me.

For all this I'm extremely flattered and grateful, but I want my 15 minutes of fame.

I have an HD home TV studio with high-speed Skype all set up and ready to go from a previous gig. And I work cheap.

Maybe its just that the media is too insecure to let a relative unknown show them up.

And, by the way, I know you're reading this.

Not Calling Election Honestly Is Dangerous

Good morning, Friends,

Republican strategist Matt Dowd raised an excellent point yesterday morning. He said that calling this election as 'close', right down to the wire, could cause the country genuine harm when Donald Trump inevitably loses.

Barring some earth-orbit-altering event between now and November 8th, that is what's going to happen.

The numbers bear it out, just as they did in Hillary Clinton's primary against Bernie Sanders.

Polling has become extremely scientific--in our country at least--and the math doesn't lie.

And though there are plenty of lies flying around in this election, the numbers don't participate in them. The numbers speak only truth.

And as erstwhile Republican pollster and Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway would tell you--if she had a shred of honesty left in her--her boss is headed for a cataclysmic loss.

Do you know me? I'm the most annoying and disingenuous person
in the USA! Hey, at least I'm loyal. What's that? Eva Braun was
loyal? Who's she?

In visible pain, Conway admitted to NBC's Chuck Todd yesterday morning that the Trump campaign "is behind."

Yesterday's ABC Tracking poll showed Hillary now up by 12 percent. But even more significantly, she garnered 50 percent of the vote for just the second time, while Trump fell to 38 percent.

This is the first poll to show Trump's support eroding below his typical 42 to 44 percent. It's not a real stretch to predict that others of the more reputable polls will follow suit.

No candidate in American history has made up a 12-point gap with fewer than 15 days remaining until Election Day.

Not to say that Trump can't make history again--as he did in the primary. But I don't believe he's that charmed.

And continuing to mislead his followers that the election is close--and anyway otherwise 'rigged' --may cause thousands or even millions of the most 'deplorable' of them to actually make good on an already iterated threat of armed revolt, should Clinton win.

Trump is well aware of what he's doing, and he either naively believes that not one of his sycophants will make good on the threat, or he tacitly supports it.

Either way, what he's doing is dangerous and seditious. And if he continues to whip up his minions once he's back in private life, he probably should be the one who gets locked up...not Hillary Clinton.

I've talked about how Trump's M.O. is projection. Every valid, despicable thing his detractors accuse him of he fends off by reflecting it back on that accuser.

It's the defense we all learned as a child, but unlike other adults he still uses, "I'm rubber, you're glue..."

Remember Trump's "no, you're the puppet," in debate number three?

The Donald, however, needs no instigation. He telegraphs what he's thinking or feeling about himself whenever he calls a rival an unprovoked name.

Of all the many, many candidates who were in this race from the many parties, he's obviously the biggest liar and crook, and probably the littlest in other ways besides his hands.

But back to the point. Some think that Trump continually calling the election "rigged" will suppress GOP turnout and cause a Clinton landslide--a paradigm of the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Let's hope that's the case, or that we can trust that the scientific polls are correct and Mrs. Clinton will get a YUGE mandate. Either way, it's important to call things as they actually are, not say the election is "close" to avoid the appearance of overconfidence.

The numbers tell us conclusively that voters will wake up to a decisive Clinton victory on the morning of November 9th.

And that's the way it is.

The End Is Near

It won't be long now, Friends,

I voted yesterday.

I got one of these stickers yesterday, and I was proud to be one of the first early voters in
Nevada. I'm not going to even try and be funny in this caption. I just wanted to remind you,
"Don't waste your vote!"

It was the first day of early voting here in Nevada, and I got to the polling place at a nearby Albertson's supermarket about an hour after it opened.

The line was long--hundreds of people and growing.

And the buzz was all about how horrible Donald Trump was and how Hillary wasn't a really great option.

But the dozen or so people around me had turned out early on a Saturday morning to vote for her...as had I.

And though the line moved quickly, it took a good 45 minutes for me to just get out of the already hot sun and inside the air conditioned building, let alone into the voting booth.

But the hour I spent on line yesterday morning was well worth it. Especially since I didn't waste my vote.

This post is really a message to all of those "never Trump" voters out there who also simply can't vote for Hillary Clinton.

If you vote for anyone else on the ballot besides her, the 'inconvenient truth' is that you're voting for Donald Trump.

I'm going to keep the message that simple for this Sunday morning.

If you're serious about keeping a narcissistic psychopath out of the Oval Office, you have one choice.

It's the old adage come to life, "if you're not for her, you're against her."

A vote for anyone else but Hillary Clinton helps Donald Trump, and he simply must be stopped--and stopped decisively--if we want any kind of national healing over the next four years.

If the election is close, we're in for a firestorm, starting with a painful contest in the courts. And that's the last thing we need after finally beginning to see the light of day following the worst economic debacle since the Great Depression.

Let's give ourselves a break. We deserve it.

Debates Fail on Issues, Accomplish Mission

Another week comes to an end, Friends,

An old friend and producer of mine from my days at N.C. Public TV shared an interesting New York Times article on Facebook this morning.

It stated that the presidential debates were a failure of journalism. The sub-headline whined that not one question was asked about global warming.

Indeed, we really didn't get a much better understanding of where either candidate stands on the issues, beyond what we already knew.

This would be a YUGE problem for voters, if we hadn't already known so much about the two of them.

We already knew Donald Trump's simplistic positions on immigration, free trade, 'beating the crap' out of ISIS, lowering taxes to help the super rich, limiting Muslim immigration, denying climate change, overturning legal abortion, bromancing Vladimir Putin, and creating a 'law and order' police state for blacks and Latinos.

The only thing these two 'Republicans' have in common is funny hair.

Hillary's public positions were also well known, and the party platform is a long progressive wish list. We have scant idea what her private positions actually are, but, thanks to WikiLeaks, we do know that they're probably different from her public ones.

No matter. As long as she pursues only her public policies, that's fine. And it would be hard for her not to.

As President, she'd be under extreme scrutiny. And she and Bill are somehow already fantastically wealthy anyway, which makes any personal malfeasance in office less tempting.

So since we basically know where the candidates stand on the issues--and conventional debates would have served only to poke holes in their policies--conventional debates were absolutely not what were called for in this unique election.

We simply needed to determine one candidate's temperament and suitability to be President, and if we could trust that candidate to handle the world's most important job--especially with control of the nuclear codes.

On that level, the debates were a smashing success.

True, we didn't get many if any of our policy questions answered. But to the biggest and most important one we got our answer loud and clear.

Donald Trump is a lying, vain, thin-skinned, angry and vindictive maniac, and he's proven it to us three times. He poses an existential threat to both this country and indeed the entire world.

And he's the first major presidential candidate in history to openly undermine our most sacred democratic institutions and threaten the smooth transition of power. He's truly a nihilistic monster.

He's not a patriot, and a legal case could be made that he's seditious.

Now imagine if the debates had been strictly focused on policy--no drama, just a calm discussion.

Polls show that the country is split right down the middle on the major issues.

Hillary Clinton is such a personally flawed candidate, after three normal debates she'd most likely be trailing a more sedate Donald Trump. And the Democrats would be in a panic with just over two weeks to go until the election.

Yes, our journalistic curiosity might have been more satisfied, but the wrong candidate would wind up in the Oval Office.

So, on a public service level, the debates absolutely accomplished what the American public needed them to do.

Thanks to these three three-ring spectacles, most sane people were convinced that the closest Donald Trump should ever get to the White House is his new hotel down the street from it.

And since he may not concede the election when he loses it, even that may be too close.

Trump Loses, I'm the Winner

The debates are over, Friends,

Donald Trump showed what a self-centered little child he was last night. We now know this election is all about his vanity. He announced that if he doesn't like the results, he won't accept them.

This is antithetical to our Democracy and not only poses a threat to our nation but also destabilizes an already dangerous world.

Since when do we nominate major-party candidates who don't care about the sacred conventions of our democracy? Whose ego is so enormous that it's more important than the world's stability?

Aside from an awkward pivot away from the content of her hacked emails to the Russian espionage that caused them to see the light of day, Hillary had a near-perfect debate performance.

For the first 35 minutes, so did The Donald. But he started coming off the rails when Chris Wallace began a line of questioning about Trump's temperament. Then, the maniac came out.

This about says it all.

It was all downhill from there for him.

By the end of the debate, Trump looked like Alec Baldwin doing an impression of Trump doing an impression of Alec Baldwin doing an impression of Trump.

Saturday Night Live writers will have a really easy job for this week's show.

He actually interrupted Hillary and called her "such a nasty woman" for making a minor point on his Social Security plans that ruffled his sensitive feathers.

Again, as in debate number two, I know what I saw, and Trump lost..."biggly."

He came across as a nasty old man in complete denial of his own demeanor. He doubled down that nine women accusing him of sexual assault are lying--one of whom has seven witnesses.

He made no inroads into expanding his support beyond his rabid base.

Hillary did exactly what she needed to do and smoothed the path to her now near-certain election.
She was last night's winner, but so was I.

The premise of this blog is that you read it here and then see it in the news. It can show up in the media even a couple of months after I write it.

And I can, in all modesty, say that the vast majority of my predictions have been dead on, and they've shown up in the media. Today, one of them from last summer is a front page story.

Back in mid August, I posted that Trump had no real desire to be President. He was in the race to whip together a reliable audience and promote his new Alt Right news empire.

I invite you to read the front page of The New York Times this morning. Thank you NYT.

I also blasted Donald Trump on Twitter, calling him a "whiner" and telling him to man up. That was on Monday. The President repeated my line on Tuesday, and last night so did Hillary.

I pumped my fist and yelled "YES!" when that happened.

I have written 240 posts before today's, which was ironically the same as the age of our great nation. Self-absorbed Donald Trump doesn't care if this country makes it to 241, but I have personally reached that milestone.

And I hope the prediction in my 241st post is my most solid and keeps my record of accuracy intact: Donald Trump will lose this election, and he'll lose it 'big time'. Buhlieve me.

The President Stole My Line

Good morning from Las Vegas, Friends,

I live literally 10 minutes from the site of the final presidential debate, but I'll be watching it on TV along with everybody else. The world is tough on semi-retired journalists.

Even though I requested a media ticket to the debate many weeks ago, and I've been an honored member of the Nevada Broadcasters' Hall of Fame since 2005, my request was ignored.

It sucks getting old.

And yesterday, to add insult to injury, President Obama stole my line.

Everybody steals lines from everybody. Melania steals from
Michelle, and Barack steals from me.

When Donald Trump went on a Twitter tirade two days ago over our "rigged election," I replied to one of his tweets that he should "stop whining and man up."

It's well documented in the ether, and I re-tweeted the original this morning to prove my claim.

Someone in the White House obviously read my tweet and liked the concept.

And 'stop whining' got into the national discourse yesterday when President Obama repeated it verbatim in his Rose Garden press conference.

I was flattered. But I'm still anonymous.

I can honestly claim ownership of these words because for several years back in the early 1990's, my co-workers and I were beaten over the head with them by a manager named Jeff Katz. He refused to hear any carping from any of his mid-managers--like me--even legitimate gripes. To him, it was all just "whining."

And we were constantly admonished to stop it. I literally had dreams about Katz's scoldings to "stop whining."

I've never heard anyone in the public eye ever use the words...until I did from Mr. Obama yesterday. You're welcome, Mr. President, and you can also thank Jeff Katz

But the fact is that Trump will not stop whining--ever. That's what schoolyard bullies do when they don't get their way.

And he's not being treated the way he wants to by most of the public and the media. Not to mention that he can't stand losing--even if he doesn't want the prize.

And he doesn't.

The way he's gone off the rails lately, he's made it clear he doesn't want to be President--he just wants to win the race. God knows what he'd do if he actually had the job.

The rest of the media is coming around to what I predicted about Trump months ago, His true objective is to sit atop a new Alt Right media empire.

The 'tell' will be how Trump performs tonight. Another over-the-top debate performance like the last two, and we'll know for sure he's lost interest in the presidency.

Hillary as Crooked as Trump Says - #H4andOUT!

Happy final debate eve, Friends,

I hate to admit it, but Donald Trump is right about one thing--Hillary Clinton is crooked. The Wikileaks documents prove it.

No matter how they came into the public domain, the thousands of hacked documents prove what everyone has ever suspected about Hillary Clinton. She is duplicitous as hell.

So far, though, nothing she's done rises to the level of illegality.

She is, however, as broken a Washington insider as it gets.

Hillary and husband Bill have become fantastically wealthy from a life of public service, and this should not even be possible.

Bill Clinton seems to be the mastermind behind their pot of gold. He and Hillary went from broke on leaving the White House to--15 years later--having a quarter of a billion dollars in the bank.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but President Clinton never produced a product or employed a significant number of people or even owned as much as a haberdashery. He and Hillary got rich the same way Donald Trump did, by selling their name.

We will never really know for sure--since Donald Trump won't ever release his tax returns (as I predicted back in May)--but the Clintons may actually have more liquid cash than Trump does. And their net worth may actually be far greater than his.

That would be the ultimate embarrassment for Trump, so we'd probably have to pry that kind of information from his 'cold, dead hands'. And we'll have to wait for that.

Even Benito Mussolini says to hold your nose and
vote for Hillary Clinton.

But we've known for months that in November we face possibly the worst binary choice for President in any of our lifetimes. We must either select a complete "crook" or a textbook narcissistic psychopath who hearkens Benito Mussolini.

I'm not ready to let Donald Trump tear apart a fundamentally good system--that's taken 240 years to build--and become our country's first dictator.

That's not hyperbole.

Consider that Trump has spent the last solid week inciting his adoring followers to violence, should he lose this "rigged election."

And short of a miracle for him beginning at tomorrow night's debate, lose Trump surely will.

This is the epitome of a 'lesser of two evils' election, and the answer as to which candidate has earned that dubious title is fairly obvious. Hillary Clinton is at least mentally stable.

But she is awful.

So, I say there is only one tolerable solution. And I've started a hashtag on Twitter for it--#H4andOUT,

I invite you to leave your thoughts there.

Let's just succumb for now, and give Hillary her place in history and four years in the Oval Office.

Then, Hillary (and Bill), be gone for good!

A Clear and Present Danger

Dear Friends,

I spent quite a bit of time with the late Republican Senator Jesse Helms. Remember him?

He was a really charming guy. I'm not kidding.

I shadowed him for a full day once for a Public TV documentary I was doing on the New Right...back in 1984.

Jesse knew every single employee of his Senate office building by their first name and stopped to warmly chat with any one of them he'd encounter. He'd talk about details of their lives that only someone who genuinely cared would even remember.

Ironically, at least 80 percent of these people were black.

For those who don't remember Jesse Helms, he was an unabashed racist and arch-conservative--at least publicly. He was without a doubt the most mean-spirited demagogue of his time and was considered as polarizing a figure as George Wallace.

But Helms was more powerful than Wallace ever was because he was a senior member of the Senate and a powerful committee chair who carried clout. Legislation he disliked rarely got past the upper house of congress.

Flash forward 30 years, and we have Donald Trump. He's right out of Jesse Helms' playbook.

If  I didn't know better I'd say when this man died, his spirit took over Donald Trump.
Hopefully, he'll wind up as a footnote to American history once again..

A big daddy type who is charming as hell in private, but has a heart of black publicly. His race baiting and xenophobia is the same as Helms'. Trump's demagoguery is on the same par.

But a couple of things about Donald Trump are far more frightening than anything about Jesse Helms ever was.

Senator Helms was an honorable man and was genuine. Trump is a total fraud. And to him, there is no empirical truth. There is just truthiness.

Whatever he says, is the reality of the moment. He is a complete crazy-maker and has no personal character or love of country. He is completely transactional and always does what is expedient for him. He projects his own character flaws onto his rivals.

Continuing to denigrate the United States and its greatness, and insisting that our election system is rigged, is not befitting of a presidential candidate.

As a poll worker myself, I resent this complete fool's accusation. I can personally testify to how much integrity is built into our election system. But I'm sure Donald Trump has never worked at a polling place, so he really has no clue.

His claims are inciting the most deplorable of his followers to violence if he loses. And don't be surprised when it happens.

Just listen to the vitriol at his rallies and his promises to jail Hillary Clinton if he's--by some fluke-- elected. Trump's even implied that she should be assassinated if he's not.

Why does this old man, who refuses to age gracefully, seem to want an armed revolt? Hasn't he gotten enough fun out of his nihilistic life? Does he have to take the world down with him as he passes from it?

His narcissism tells him yes.

Trump's supporters seem completely blind to him. And though they are in actuality just a loud minority, it's a thoroughly dangerous cohort.

He has them whipped up and believing anything he says. He continues to pee on their leg, tell them it's raining, and they buy it.

Back to '1984'.

The Election Is NOT Rigged

Dear Friends,

I was going to write a different post this morning. It was going to be a post about Mike Pence, and how he is either the world's dumbest man or completely disingenuous.

He'd better be praying it's the former. Because if it's the latter, his prayers won't matter. Liars can't be Christians, and vice versa. And we know how much Pence values being a Christian.

Friday morning, Pence incredulously said that while he respected our First Lady, he couldn't "understand" why his running mate's self-admitted and widely corroborated history of sexually assaulting women upsets her--in her own words--"to the core."

This is either the dumbest man on the planet, or the most disingenuous.
Take your pick. Neither makes for a very good Christian.

Then, Pence assured us on Friday morning that irrefutable evidence discrediting the now 11 women who've come forward (two more than the media is reporting) is on its way--probably "within hours."

How many hundred hours? We're still waiting for it--along with Trump's tax returns.

Trump's only defense has been that it's all a giant media conspiracy and international banking cabal victimizing him (another of Trump's anti-Semitic dog whistles).

Poor bubbie.

One thing I can tell you for certain. As a lifelong journalist, I can guarantee that journalism is a straight up profession, and we don't conspire. The explanation for the apparent Trump pile-on is that those of us with any grip on reality pretty much see things the same way.

And Trump does something to steer the narrative almost every day. He is a crazy-maker, and that's an existential threat when you're on the stage of international politics.

He is also a clear and present danger.

Calling the American election process "rigged," as he has been doing on the stump, is a complete lie.

There is some evidence of petty voting fraud in a handful of precincts around the country. But for Trump to use this petard to stir up a group of his supporters, who he knows are on the verge of violence, is inexcusable and probably illegal..

Mr. Pence had to calm one down the other night who said she's ready to rumble (with real guns).

Trump is responsible for this woman. He is inciting his followers to violence if the election doesn't go his way. And he knows it.

He is evil, and I don't use this term loosely because you don't see true evil often.

Donald Trump's obligation as a loyal citizen is to accept the results of our presidential election and honor the smooth transition of power. That is what makes this country great.

Short of that, he is a traitor and should be treated as such.

World's Biggest Phonies--Evangelical Trumpsters

A Friday morning thought, Friends,

I used to like Dr. Ben Carson.

Though I didn't agree with virtually any of what he said politically, I thought he was accomplished, intelligent, and an awfully nice guy.

Now, I'm not so sure about the latter two, and I'm starting not to like him very much. What's worse, I no longer respect him.

Despite an absolute deluge of evidence (including his own confession), that Donald Trump is something that should shock any person of faith--an active sexual predator--Carson is still behind the GOP nominee.

Though he rationalizes why he stands by Trump, the truth is, it's purely for political expediency.

Dr. Carson is just further evidence to me of a law of nature I learned the hard way after living in the Bible Belt for 23 years, "The bigger the Bible thumper, the fewer the scruples."

I was slapped in the face by this axiom for the first time when I was a poor young TV reporter living in Raleigh, N.C.

Shopping for a doublewide mobile home to live in (which was all I could afford at the time), I spotted one I liked at one of the many dealerships lining the Eastern and Southern approaches to North Carolina's capital city.

The sales manager was an exuberant erstwhile itinerant Baptist preacher who actually had a Bible sitting on his dashboard. He was a big burly tree trunk of a man; slicked back hair and squeaky clean--a man of God...and a total thief.

I'll cut to the chase. He absconded with my cash downpayment and those of several others, which amounted to many thousands of dollars. And that was a lot of money 35 years ago.

Two State Bureau of Investigation agents came knocking on my door a few days after I had given this man my hard-earned cash, wanting to know if I had any knowledge of his whereabouts.

Though I had a contract, I was screwed. The dealership's owner wasn't going to honor the stolen funds.

It all worked out for me after several months of complete hassle, but many incidents like this one have recurred over the years and corroborated the Bible thumper principle. Remember Jim Bakker?

Now, Ben Carson--true to form--is reaffirming it. And he's got a lot of company.

Remember me? I was a famous film director. Then I slept
with a teenage girl, and I've been on the run for 35 years. I'm
thinking about 'running' for President in 2020.

Take Jerry Falwell, Jr. Yesterday, members of his student body at the Evangelical Christian Liberty University--founded by his father--openly revolted against Junior's continued backing of  the morally bereft Trump. At least a few hundred of the many thousands of students at Liberty University still have some integrity.

At my count, seven women have come forward so far, corroborating Trump's self-accusations of sexual assault. But the most religious of his supporters, including running mate Mike Pence, are still solidly behind him.

This is so ironic since these are usually the first people to shrink and flee from any hint of sexual impropriety. Now, their champion is the King of Deviance, and his C.V. includes allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl. In other words--pedophilia.

Trump will have to answer to those charges in federal court on December 16th, but you're not hearing much about it because many important people are tangentially tainted by this scandal. This includes Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, England's Prince Andrew, and even Stephen Hawking.

Fortunately for us, but not for Trump, he is not only accused by the victim but also by an eyewitness who has already testified under oath that Trump raped the 13-year-old repeatedly.

So, here's to the Rapist-in-Chief. May you and all your so-called 'people of God' get exactly what's coming to you.

Trump's Right, Everyone ELSE Is Crazy

Dear Friends,

The women now coming forward to corroborate Donald Trump's self-told story of his serial sexual assaults are--according to him--all "liars."

That's what he and his lawyers are claiming this morning, as The Great Orange Sex Offender is threatening to frivolously sue The New York Times for what looks to be very meticulous reporting of two of his victims' stories.

Another victim. Traci Dixon, has stepped forward to verify Trump's own claim of his being a Peeping Tom. This happened when she was in the Miss Teen USA pageant, which he owned.

Trump paid a surprise visit to the young women's dressing room--just as he boastfully described to Howard Stern he did often at all his pageants--when many of the teens were naked.

Now, he says that Ms. Dixon is also a liar.

It's shocking to me that the only person who isn't lying is a known pathological liar.  And he's on tape proving his lies beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Is this who anyone wants as their President?

Sadly, the answer is yes. But I believe that's now about to change.

Take a picture of this now because soon you won't be seeing  a
building with this on it anywhere (except perhaps on a federal prison).

When Trump flies squarely in the face of the facts, he sadly just solidifies his base. They adore everything he does, admire his behavior, and many would act the same way themselves if they could get away with it.

Think about it. If just 10% of the American population is rotten to the core (and I'm guessing it's more than that), that's 32 million people!

And I guarantee that virtually none of them are planning to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump is on a fast track to defeat, but he's taking down everyone he can with him. And once he loses the presidency, he'll be on the warpath to take out the Clinton administration.

The ramping up of a new Alt Right media empire, with Trump at its helm, is happening even as Trump's presidential campaign crumbles.

This portends a very dark four years ahead for our country, with Donald Trump as its shadow evil emperor stirring up his loyal Second Amendment-loving base to do God-knows-what.

He is truly the monster that's not gonna die.

Unless...

There is one little item that's not getting much attention yet but could potentially take The Donald down with a massive figurative head shot, if it gets just a little more light of day. Quite frankly, I don't understand why it isn't--especially after the Billy Bush tape was uncovered.

We can thank one Jane Doe for it, and it will deal the Donald a mortal blow with such ripple effects that the 'TRUMP' signs will be removed in disgrace from all of his flashy buildings.

Trump is accused of raping Jane Doe when she was just 13, and he's got to answer for it in federal court on December 16th.

There's no question that he attended parties held by convicted billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Unsuspecting teenage girls were rounded up by an unnamed woman for those parties, where they were subsequently raped. The only thing in question is did Trump partake.

There is a deposed eyewitness who says Trump raped Jane Doe "repeatedly." Some enterprising reporter has probably already located her.

If this story breaks big before Election Day, and Trump is found to have participated in pedophilia, it would be the absolute end of him. No one has ever recovered publicly from something so egregious.

Pedophiles are considered the worst of the worst, even in prison, and many don't even survive their sentences. That's how reviled pedophiles are.

In light of all his pathological lies--and that he paints anyone who accuses him of anything as a liar--Trump is likely guilty as charged.

Say buh-bye to Donald Trump. Soon, he'll be just a footnote.

Trump Pivots...Again

Dear Friends,

As I write this, Donald Trump is launching a full frontal Twitter attack on fellow Republican and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

Trump is pulling away from the party that he heads and has gone full-tilt boogie on the warpath against the very people who he'd need in his corner if he's in the White House.

Yesterday, Trump's campaign rallies were flashbacks to the early primary: unscripted and nasty, and aimed at anyone--regardless of party--who wasn't with him. And that number is growing by the thousands literally by the minute.

Trump has pivoted once again. He's now saying that the "shackles are now off of him," and he's opened up a second front in the election--this one against his own party.

He's come to the realization that he can't win the White House, and he's circling his wagons. He's solidifying his looney-tune base for his nefarious future plans.

Trump is totally off the rails, which seemed to be triggered by his odd debate performance.

Did you ever have one of those mornings? This is how
a lot of folks are feeling in Trump Tower today.

And the big orange child in a major temper tantrum intends to take the entire Republican party down with him.

At least, thanks for doing that.

But as much as I've disliked where the Republican party has been heading for decades, I hate to see it brought down this way--by a clown.

Okay, I admit I'm kind of gloating inside.

If Trump keeps this up, Hillary Clinton could waltz into the Oval Office with both houses of congress in her pocket. And there's no reason to believe he'll come back into the Republican fold before Election Day.

This could all be very good for the Democratic agenda, which I happen to support, even if I've got to put up with four years of Hillary.

One thing that's also pretty obvious by now is that none of the third-party candidates will be a factor in the race. Their presence will not even cause a blip in the results.

This is an easy prediction. Barring any major catastrophe or death of either candidate, Hillary Clinton will be our next President.

Let's make sure she's gone in 2021. #H4andOUT!

No Knockout Benefits Hillary

Good Monday to you, Friends,

Why is it that Hillary Clinton didn't finish Donald Trump off last night?

Despite what any of the spin says, Hillary had complete control over last night's 'town meeting' debate. She was again poised, prepared, calm and relaxed and Snorting Donald came into the debate more damaged than he'd been in the entire campaign.

Trump went on several rambles, and never showed any remorse or genuine apology over his admission to repeated sexual assault in the now well-known Access Hollywood outtake video that dropped on Friday.

He doubled down on calling his disgusting recorded remarks "locker room talk."

In those remarks, Trump boasted that his celebrity gave him a pass to grab a woman's "pussy," among other sexual privileges.

The tape has been the most damning glimpse into Trump's true depravity and misogyny because it was the only instance to date where he didn't know he was being recorded.

Many Republicans were expecting a genuine apology and some contrition from their candidate. They didn't get either.

Even so, Trump's "Christian-first" running mate, Mike Pence--whose support was in limbo while he waited to see something resembling remorse from The Donald--inexplicably fell back in line.

The bigger the Bible thumper, the fewer the scruples. After 63 years on the planet, I can say with certainty that this is one of nature's laws.

I hate everything you say, Donald Trump. But please, stay in the race!
(Van Jones of CNN)

Be that as it may, I've got to hand it to a rising star among pundits and one of my absolute favorites--Van Jones of CNN. This is a guy I respect immensely, and his insight often cuts right to the essence of an issue.

Jones said something after the debate last night that was right on the money and something I hinted at in yesterday's post.

While some of the other pundits on CNN's post-debate team wondered aloud why Hillary Clinton didn't just put Donald Trump away when she had the chance--and she certainly could have--Jones had it pegged.

He said that Hillary actually benefits from Donald Trump staying in the race. She needs him.

I wrote yesterday that The Donald is the only Republican candidate Hillary can defeat, and apparently Jones agrees with me.

Hillary can't afford for Trump to drop out now or for him to be replaced by the GOP leadership.

So, no matter how Trump and his supporters think he did in the debate, it's a moot point. He's taken the bait again. She rope-a-doped him into staying in the race.

Hillary won, and she won big in a couple of ways--she put in a strong debate performance while keeping her 'easy mark' in the race.

So, where do we go from here?

In a few days, the next big Trump bombshell will drop. Buhlieve me.

Trump's Swansong

Good Sunday morning, Friends,

The climax of this election came at around midday last Friday. That's when we got our first look at Donald Trump giving the Bush family's foul first cousin Billy a graphic off-the-cuff deposition on his history of committing sexual assault.

It was first dismissed by the candidate as eleven-year-old "locker room talk."

I'm sorry, but even in the 'middle class' locker rooms that I've been exclusively around, I've never heard anything as gross or downright criminal as what came out of Trump's mouth. And he wants to be the Chief Executive of the United States?

Let me remind him, felonies are THE only reason U.S. presidents are impeached. He admitted on tape to a long pattern of assaulting women including "grabbing their pussy."

Don't worry, buddy. I'll be out here rooting for you tonight.

Thank goodness we're less than a month from the election. Trump has to go the distance now.

He is, after all, virtually the only GOP candidate that Hillary Clinton can beat, and she needs him to stay in the race.

Unless Trump steps down voluntarily, it's nearly impossible for the GOP to replace him.

He claims he will NEVER drop out of the race, and I believe him. He'd sooner limp to the finish line and take the GOP down with him.

And while the climax of the election came on Friday, the denouement will be tonight's debate. This is where Trump will finally crumble.

One thing for which I will give him credit: he's going to show up.

In tonight's town hall format, he's going to face some pretty angry Inquisitioners. In the audience of 40 true undecided voters, I'd be surprised if any of the women who question Trump will let him off the hook.

The issue tonight will be one thing only.

Is Donald Trump of suitable character to be President?

Unless everything we know about him so far is false, tonight will give us our answer with certainty.

It could be the most monumental event in U.S. political history--the night the worst candidate ever to be nominated by a major party for President completely goes off the rails.

I believe it will happen, Tonight will be Donald Trump's swansong.

HILLARY 4&OUT!

Is Trump Capitulating?

We've made it to another Friday, Friends,

With Hurricane Matthew churning its way up Florida's coast this morning, Hillary Clinton is preparing for Sunday's debate in seclusion.

Her campaign carries on with a YUGE array of heavy-hitting surrogates--including both the President and First Lady--blanketing the swing states.

By comparison, the Trump campaign is limping along with just Governor Mike Pence and The Donald himself as its advocates. Trump simply has no GOP stars to rally voters.

This election is truly a battle of David and Goliath. But what ended the right way in the days of yore would be the worst result today. We actually need to root for Goliath.

This may be what everybody will call him after Sunday's debate.
But Trump's future plans don't include actually being President. At
least, let's hope not.

Trump is doing a lot to make the desired outcome happen for us. Once again, he appears not to be preparing for his next debate with Hillary Clinton.

What was billed last night as Trump's important rehearsal for this weekend's event--a town hall meeting in New Hampshire similar to this coming Sunday's format--turned out to be completely useless.

It was a small gathering of loyal Trump supporters who threw him fewer than half a dozen softball questions. One report said that he'd even seen the questions in advance.

Trump was out campaigning again this morning. So unless he's found a way to be in two places at one time, he's not preparing.

We all witnessed what happened when only one of the two candidates was ready for the first debate. After just a half hour of the 90 minutes, Trump had virtually left the building. At least his coherence did.

He may actually be planning another monumental meltdown. This one would seal the deal on his defeat to Hillary in just a month hence.

Virtually all the polls are already pointing this way after his drubbing at Hillary's hands in the first contest. With less than 72 hours until the next one, I don't see how Trump can be ready for it.

For those who refused to obey mandatory orders to evacuate the Florida coast, now that the storm surge is about to hit, it's too late for them. It's now also too late for Trump to be ready for Sunday's impending deluge.

Another performance like his last one will be Trump's end. But with no preparation, there's virtually no chance of any other outcome for him.

Donald Trump has to know this.

And that's why Sunday's debate will be his tacit--if not overt--capitulation to Hillary Clinton.

In fact, there won't be any third debate for Trump and Clinton after Sunday's looming pummeling.

If you're a regular reader, you know I believe he wants it this way.

Off the Trail Today

Good Thursday morning, Friends,

Both candidates are off the campaign trail today preparing for Sunday's vitally important debate.

Donald Trump is holding a town meeting tonight in the style of the debate for practice, and we can probably count on him to give a measurably better performance Sunday than in his first go-round with Hillary Clinton last week.

Meanwhile, the ratings for Tuesday's one and only vice presidential face-off  was the lowest rated since Dick Cheney debated Joe Lieberman in a less-than-memorable event. I can't remember one moment of that one.

At least Tuesday's debate gave us a line that will go down in history as the most oddly comical of any ever delivered at such a high level. It came when Governor Mike Pence responded to Senator Tim Kaine, "You've whipped out that Mexican thing again."

The veep debate is out of the news cycle already as Hurricane Matthew bears down on Florida's main population centers.

Most of my family is there, including my 86-year-old mother, and buhlieve me, I've got a lot more than politics on my mind this morning.

It's hard to focus on politics when the strongest hurricane to ever
hit the United States is looming off Florida'a coast.

I hope everyone stays safe and the strongest hurricane to ever threaten the United States passes in time for you all to enjoy the political storm that is still scheduled for Sunday.

If the hurricane doesn't interrupt it, we can expect a well-prepared Trump to hold his own only a bit longer than he did in the first debate. Hillary will still get under his skin, and this time Trump's meltdown could be monumental.

Perhaps it will come over a question on climate change--in which he still claims to not believe.

My thoughts and prayers are with you, South Florida. I hope tomorrow turns out to be a sunny day.

VP Debate Will Have No Impact

Good Wednesday morning, Friends,

If Governor Mike Pence were at the top of the GOP ticket, I'd be a little worried right now. He clearly cleaned Tim Kaine's clock in the VP debate last night--and came across as 'presidential'.

It wasn't so much what he said (most of which was false), but the clear, cool manner in which he said it. He was smooth and polished, and came across as clearly the more worthy candidate on his GOP ticket. Admittedly, that bar is pretty low with Donald Trump at the top of it.

Be that as it may, Senator Tim Kaine initially came on like he'd had one too many Starbucks. Even though he basically stuck to the facts, he interrupted Pence incessantly--more than 70 times--and seemed abrasive, if not combative.

Tim Kaine obviously missed this road sign on his way to
last night's debate.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews reminded me of something the other day. He said political debates should be watched with the sound off. With no audio, it's pretty easy to tell who the winner is.

That's absolutely true for this debate.

First, the debate production was set up incorrectly. When the candidates were both listening to moderator Elaine Quijano of CBS, on the split screen they were looking in opposite directions off screen and away from the home audience...whoops!

The same happened when they spoke to Ms. Quijano directly. The candidates were looking off screen and away from the home audience. And Tim Kaine's weird camera angle was far worse than Mike Pence's.

Pence seemed to quickly figure out the quirky camera set up and where to look for best effect, but Kaine never did. And it hurt him.

This production was rehearsed with stand-ins all day long, and I can't believe this ridiculous error wasn't caught. Interestingly, the only other pundit that said anything about it was my idol, David Gergen.

So, the production was lousy, and especially so for Kaine as it exacerbated his poor performance. And he didn't help himself by being overly energetic and somewhat frenzied--especially at the offset.

But no worries, in fewer than four days' time, we won't even remember the debate whose only really memorable line was this from Pence to Kaine: "You've whipped out that Mexican thing again."

Sunday evening marks round two in the three-round presidential slugfest.

Reports are coming in that Trump is seething this morning over his veep's upstaging performance and Pence sidestepping several opportunities to defend his boss.

The question really is this. Did Trump learn anything about debating from his running mate?

We'll have the answer to this question on Sunday. My guess is that Trump will still be Trump.

The One Civil Debate

Tip top Tuesday to you, Friends,

Tonight is the one and only vice presidential debate of this election. Two governors will face off in what will seem a complete throwback to the way American politics used to be...a civil discourse.

We will see two very experienced, principled, and genteel politicians face off in what will be a relative snoozefest compared to what we've witnessed from the top of their tickets, especially on the GOP side.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence will have the unenviable task of defending the circus that has been Donald Trump. We've seen Pence in this position for months, and time after time his cleanup spin for the boss has been cringeworthy.

It will be fun to watch him have to fend off not just one, but a bevy of tough questions about The Donald's over-the-top behavior.

Compared to the circus at the top of the ticket,
tonight's vice presidential debate will seem a lot
more like this.

Pence will be on the hotseat for the entire debate, and a win for the GOP will be for the good governor to survive the 90 minutes intact.

I expect that the questions to former Virginia Governor and current U.S. Senator Tim Kaine will be easier, since Hillary Clinton's problems are not with her current behavior and very well-oiled campaign, but over her past indiscretions and trustworthiness.

These issues have been so hashed and rehashed we've already heard the answers and know all we're going to know about them.

Kaine should breeze through the debate tonight.

He may simply perform his vice presidential duties and show his competence while causing no harm, but he could actually surprise us and go after Pence and Pence's Geppetto.

That would make for some interesting TV but poses an unnecessary risk. One of the two candidates could come away from that a big loser, and it would be silly for Kaine to make an unforced error.

The smart money says to plan on 90 minutes of very professional, intelligent,and civil--but relatively boring--political discussion. If we're lucky, we may even get a couple of memorable moments.

Ah, the good old days!

Hillary 4&OUT-->

Good morning once again, Friends,

With Donald Trump becoming less and less of a viable President virtually by the minute, we have several woeful options.

Now that we know for certain that billionaire Trump pays less income tax than hard-working Americans living just above the poverty line (as I predicted we'd discover back in May) any thoughts of his picking up Independent voters have vanished.

That, combined with his continuing insults of women and Latinos, clearly makes him anathema to the voters he needs to win over to supplement his unshakable base and win this election.

He's apparently not courting new voters. On the contrary, he seems to be intentionally repelling them. And as I've written about previously, he's signaling that he really doesn't want the job.

As an option, I've liked Libertarian Gary Johnson. But he hasn't resonated with enough voters to make it to debate number two on Sunday. And his flimsy grip on foreign affairs has weakened him.

His running mate, Gov. Bill Weld, is publicly praising Secretary of State John Kerry, and calling Hillary Clinton the most experienced candidate in the field. That almost sounds like an endorsement.

Without getting into the debates, the Johnson/Weld ticket has no chance. And that's pretty much a direct quote of the candidate himself.

The other choices, Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, and conservative Evan McMullin, are throw away votes at best, or votes for Donald Trump at worst.

I'm afraid, Friends, we're down to a binary choice, like it or not.

I'm not sure where that arrow is pointing, but I think it
should be toward the 'Exit' sign.

Hillary is awful. But at least she's not a racist, and I've got to believe she's no misogynist. I am going to hold my nose and support her...sort of.

I've come up with an idea I believe I can live with.

And I think it accomplishes the historical goal of electing our first female president, while satisfying at least some of the needs of anyone who's got a stake in this presidential race, which is basically everyone on the planet.

I can support Hillary for one term, but then she's gotta GO!

At this stage in my life, four years has pretty much become a blip in time. And for most people beyond the age of 35, four years goes by pretty darn fast.

Hillary's not going to do anything much in four years to destroy our country. Donald Trump, on the other hand, is so thin-skinned he could get us incinerated--literally.

So I'm starting my own campaign of ambivalence for Hillary Clinton. I'm calling it: 'Hillary 4&OUT'.

I'd somehow like to incorporate Hillary's own red arrow, which seems to be pointing to the door anyway, into my logo for this new movement.

I hope you'll join me in it. Maybe someone out there even can come up with a slick design for a bumper sticker.

For me, and maybe for you, it's now: HILLARY 4&OUT!

Trump Secures Base for New Venture

Good Sunday to you, Friends,

Donald Trump became completely unglued last night while on the stump. He accused Hillary Clinton of cheating on husband Bill, based on nothing, and decided to cast his fortunes to the low road. There's no turning back for him now.

Meanwhile, the New York Times got its hands on a late 1990's Trump tax return that showed he took nearly a $1 billion loss. This virtually assured he would no income tax for up to 18 years, and that period is still running, which means he pays none.

Why is it that Trump gets to keep all his money, but my wife and I had to pay thousands in 2015? You probably did too. Do you have a private Boeing 757?  Yeah, me too.

These two things alone will put the final nails in his coffin with only five weeks left in the campaign. He's digging a hole for himself that not even he can get out of...and he's perfectly happy about it.

He's loving the run-up to the election, and all the adoration he's getting from his 'basket of deplorables', but his hyper focus on needlessly pandering to them exclusively seems counter-intuitive, unless you consider this: as I've said over and over again since August, Trump has no desire to be President.

He's after the audience.

Who, but a marketing genius like Donald Trump, could start a new media empire with a built-in Alt Right audience of at least 14 million people?

If you didn't believe it before last night, you should now.

I'm going to drop some names: Roger Ailes, Stephen Bannon, David Bossie, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Bill O'Reilly, David Pecker, and even son-in-law Jared Kushner.  These are among the heavy-hitting right wing mediaites already either working for Trump or with close ties to him.

"I wuv oo Woger."  "I wuv oo too DonDon!"

Is there really any doubt now that Trump is pivoting to this new venture? If not, why would he be lining up such YUGE talent? I've even named it Trumpbart, in honor of Breitbart News Network's CEO Bannon.

Simultaneously, Trump's busy torpedoing his candidacy with women and most sane people with an IQ above 110.

I was worried last week about Trump actually getting elected. Now I'm convinced that he doesn't stand a chance because he won't let himself.

Watch Trump dive even more deeply into the bizarre.