RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://pjmedia.com/election/jstreet-withdraws-endorsement-after-palestinian-candidate-for-congress-pushes-one-state-solution/

In a first for the organization, JStreet withdrew its midterm election endorsement of a former Michigan state legislator poised to become the first Palestinian-American member of Congress after Rashida Tlaib said she wants a one-state solution in the Middle East.

Tlaib, running to fill the seat vacated by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), is all but a lock for Dems, as Republicans didn’t put forth a candidate. She would be one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, and perhaps the first depending on how other Muslim women candidates fare in their races.

A socialist Dem in the mold of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tlaib is running on a platform to abolish ICE, provide Medicare to all and establish a $15 hourly minimum wage. New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaigned for Tlaib.

JStreet, the most prominent progressive organization among Capitol Hill Israel-related lobbying groups, had stated on their website that Tlaib supported a two-state solution — Israel and Palestine, side by side — and “supports all current aid to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.”

Some Palestinian activists criticized Tlaib, and she recently stated that the solution “has to be one state” because “separate but equal does not work.” That one state would mean all Palestinians being absorbed into Israel, including with right of return.

Tlaib also supported BDS activists who try to punish Israel with boycotts and sanctions, and told Britain’s Channel 4 that she is “absolutely” in favor of cutting U.S. military aid to Israel “if it has something to do with inequality and not access to people having justice.”

“For me, U.S. aid should be leverage,” she added. “I will be using my position in Congress so that no country, not one, should be able to get aid from the U.S. when they still promote that kind of injustice.”

JStreet said in a statement today that “after closely consulting with Rashida Tlaib’s campaign to clarify her most current views on various aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we have come to the unfortunate conclusion that a significant divergence in perspectives requires JStreetPAC to withdraw our endorsement of her candidacy.”

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/08/18/headwinds_facing_gop_might_not_be_so_strong_137835.html

With 80 days to go before the midterm elections, the conventional wisdom is that the Republicans will be hard-pressed to hold their majority in the House. The generic ballot is against them, Donald Trump’s job approval rating isn’t where Republicans would like it to be, and midterms are historically difficult for the incumbent president’s party anyway.

However, all the wind is not in Republicans’ faces. There are countervailing trends at work, too, including these eight:

Critics of the president may still be underestimating the strength of the Trump movement, as they did in 2016. Trump rallies are still standing room only, with lines out the door. The GOP is fully behind the president, whose his approval rating is about 85 percent among his base. Most of the candidates he’s endorsed in primaries have won. Moreover, his support has boosted voter turnout.

Trump is a stronger candidate than he was in 2016. One of the most important predictors of a midterm election is a president’s popularity. On Election Day in 2016, Trump’s approval to disapproval differential was 21 points and today it is nine points according to the RCP polling average. In other words, despite the pummeling he takes in the press, Donald Trump is more popular today than he was on Election Day 2016.

With a shove from progressives with 2020 presidential ambitions, most notably Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Party has veered left in the 2018 season primary season. Universal health care, free college tuition, and a guaranteed basic income may play well in some Democratic primaries. But there’s little evidence that this is what independent voters are looking for, and independents are the key voting bloc in competitive races in swing districts.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/08/16/trump-approval-rating-african-americans-rasmussen-poll/1013212002/

Even as cable news networks debate reports of the existence of a recording of President Donald Trump using a racial slur, a new poll from Rasmussen Reports says that the president’s approval rating among African-Americans is at 36 percent, nearly double his support at this time last year.

“Today’s @realDonaldTrump approval ratings among black voters: 36%,” Rasmussen said in a tweet. “This day last year: 19%.”

That is a staggeringly high number for a man who only won 8 percent of the African-American vote in 2016.

It is even more unexpected given the president’s rocky history on matters related to race, including his current nasty feud with former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who has alleged Trump said “n word” on the set of the reality-TV show “The Apprentice.”

Conservatives celebrated the poll as a sign of trouble for Democrats in upcoming elections.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative campus group Turning Point USA, cited the poll as evidence that Trump “is breaking the Democrat party as we know it.”

https://freebeacon.com/columns/agenda-dare-not-speak-name/

The Democrats have decided that agendas are overrated. Back in May, the party unveiled its “Better Deal” program, calling for expanded broadband access, an increase in the minimum wage, and paid family and sick leave. Voters didn’t bite. So last month the Democrats came up with “For the People,” which simplifies the platform to infrastructure spending, lowering health care costs, and draining the swamp. Again, crickets.

What to do? Party leadership has declared that it’s every cis-het man for himself. “We trust our candidates to know their districts and the challenges facing their communities better than anyone,” House campaign chair Ben Ray Luján tells the New York Times. Translation: If you are Conor Lamb, run as a gun-friendly champion of the working class. If you are Rashida Tlaib, feel free to announce that you would vote against aid for Israel and to call for bi-nationalism that would end the Jewish State. Texas Democrat Colin Allred, following Hillary Clinton, says everyone should be able to buy into Medicare. Maine Democrat Jared Golden, following Bernie Sanders, says, “We need to move towards a universal health care system, like Medicare-for-all.”

Such diversity of approach troubles the philosopher kings of Forty-First Street. Discarding a “Washington platform,” write Sheryl Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos, is “a risky strategy.” It leaves unanswered the question of what the Democratic Party stands for. It “could raise questions among voters about how Democrats would govern.” Questions to which there are few substantive answers.

The truth, though, is that the Democrats do have an agenda. They just can’t say it aloud. The reason Democrats seek power in 2018 is to obstruct President Trump wholly and without exception, to tie down his administration using the subpoena powers of a dozen committees, and ultimately to lay the groundwork for his impeachment. The Democratic grassroots expects nothing less.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/17/nice-ladies-leaving

Democrats are leaving their party more in sorrow than in anger, but leaving it they are, sickened by the Democratic Party’s hard left turn. Tens of thousands are telling their stories on the #walkaway movement’s public Facebook page. Their YouTube videos are a fascinating window into the innermost thoughts of kind, thoughtful people across America—all former Democrats.

My personal favorites are what I call “nice ladies driven away by Democrat hate.” During and after the election, many women stopped buying what the Dems are selling. They come from every generation, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and region of America. These women warm my heart because I have been waiting and hoping that ordinary Democratic voters would be revolted by their party’s embrace of vitriol and violence. It appears to be happening at last. They are walking away from Democrat politicians, cultural and media icons. The treatment of Trump and his voters has been a step too far.

Bottom line: these nice, normal women don’t feel comfortable being members of a club full of haters.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/16/queer-eye-star-warns-democrats-are-done-for-if-they-go-too-far-left/

“Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness angered liberals Wednesday in a tweet urging the Democrat Party not to go “too left.”

According to Van Ness, Democrats need to push moderate candidates in the 2018 midterms that will win over undecided voters, or the party is “done for.”

“Luckily a lot to extreme right people won yesterday, meaning that if we can come up w center left candidates we can take back the house & senate, not to mention many state legislatures,” he tweeted. “It is so important for the left to not go too left or we are done for.”

The popular Netflix show features five gay men who help other men reform themselves by changing their habits. The series has a 93 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has been called “earnest and endearing.” For his part, Van Ness focuses on self-care — teaching men how to take care of their hair and skin.

Some of Van Ness’s followers pushed back on his tweet, saying that going centrist with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2018 resulted in Donald Trump winning the presidency. Van Ness responded by saying that “demanding all or nothing” is what elected Trump.

Shortly afterwards, Van Ness posted a video explaining his positions. He opens saying, “[The Left and the Right] are really being played by people in newsrooms who are just writing things for headlines.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/making-connecticut-grow-again-1534374994
Making Connecticut Grow AgainThe GOP nominates a businessman reformer to rescue failing Hartford.

Democrats again showed their eagerness to send a message against President Trump in Tuesday’s primaries, which threatens GOP control of statehouses. But perhaps the most intriguing result came in Connecticut, where businessman Bob Stefanowski won the GOP nomination for Governor on a bold reform platform to save the sinking state after years of failed public-union governance.

In Wisconsin, Democrats nominated state schools Superintendent Tony Evers to take on GOP Gov. Scott Walker. Unions are hoping to deny Mr. Walker a third term and take the statehouse so they can overturn his famous collective-bargaining reforms. Early polls give Mr. Evers a small lead, but Mr. Walker’s reforms have reduced property taxes, and unemployment is 2.9%.

Mr. Trump narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton in the state, but he remains a polarizing force. This was evident by state Sen. Leah Vukmir’s seven-point victory over former Marine Kevin Nicholson in the Senate primary. Mr. Nicholson tied himself to the President, but Ms. Vukmir cleaned up in the Milwaukee and Madison suburbs with endorsements from Gov. Walker and Paul Ryan. Ms. Vukmir is a long shot against Sen. Tammy Baldwin, but Senate Republicans shouldn’t leave her hanging like they did Senator Ron Johnson in 2016 if polls tighten.

Republicans are angling to pick up the governorship in Minnesota, which has been trending right in recent elections. Mr. Trump lost the state by fewer than 50,000 votes, and Republicans control the state House. Tim Pawlenty stood a good shot. He was a rare blue-state GOP Governor to survive the Democratic wave in 2006 and compiled a strong economic record during eight years in office.

Ned Lamont who defeated Incumbent Democrat Senator Lieberman in 2006 went on to defeat when Lieberman ran as an Independent is back running for Governor.Lamont is a millionaire Socialist who wants National Obamacare and Addressing Climate Change and Expanding Renewable Energy and all those lefty feel-good issues. However, he could not be worse than the Present Democrat Governor Dannel Malloy who has ruined the economy and infrastructure of Connecticut. rsk

Trump Twitter Support Is a Boon in GOP Primarieshttps://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/08/15/trump_twitter_support_is_a_boon_in_gop_primaries.html By Sally Persons

Donald Trump has taken a lot of grief for his tweeting habit from critics who view his use of the social media platform as decidedly unpresidential. He’s receiving only gratitude, however, from Republican candidates he’s endorsed on Twitter – candidates who’ve ridden Trump’s endorsement to decisive primary victories.

With over 50 million followers on Twitter, the president’s outreach spans a far greater cross-section of voters than the standard political database — though not all of his followers are Republicans or even politically engaged. He has endorsed 44 campaigns so far and many say they’ve seen a tangible difference after a getting that seal of approval on Twitter. His input elevates the candidates’ national profile, increases donations, and can even help change the outcome of some races.

In last month’s Republican gubernatorial primary runoff in Georgia, Trump’s surprise endorsement may have been the key to tipping the tight contest in the favor of Secretary of State Brian Kemp. He entered the July runoff as the underdog and ended up winning by a double-digit margin.

“The president’s endorsement was like pouring gasoline on a fire,” Kemp told RCP. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle had been widely considered the favorite throughout the race and had the support of Georgia’s GOP establishment, including term-limited Gov. Nathan Deal. Cagle won the first round of voting in May by 13 points but did not top 50 percent, forcing the runoff; he ended up losing to Kemp in July in a landslide after the president weighed in.