RUTHFULLY YOURS

Political suicide is a terrible thing to witness. But that’s what Texas Senator Ted Cruz might have done with his disastrous speech at the GOP convention last month:

A new poll suggests there is at least one fellow Republican who could unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018: Rick Perry.

The former Texas governor would beat Cruz by 9 percentage points, according to the forthcoming survey from the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling. Set to be released later today, the poll found Perry would get 46 percent of the vote and Cruz 37 percent, with 18 percent saying they are not sure whom they would support.

Perry is the only challenger that PPP tested who would defeat Cruz. The poll indicates he would trounce two other Republicans talked about as potential opponents, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick by 22 points and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul by 32 points. He would also beat two Democrats, U.S. Housing Secretary Julián Castro and former gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, both by 12 points.

In general, the poll shows Texas Republicans want Cruz to be their candidate for Senate again in 2018 — but not overwhelmingly. Fifty percent said they would like Cruz to be the nominee, while 43 percent said would like someone else to carry the banner.

Hardly surprising. Cruz didn’t win many friends during this past primary season, and may well have made himself some unnecessary enemies instead. There is much to admire about the Texas senator and his professed fidelity to the Constitution, but whether he has the personality or temperament to run for national office is yet to be determined.

Hillary Clinton may regret her attempt to tar Donald Trump as a racist by linking him to the alt right movement (whatever that is – no such formal organization exists). She went full Southern Poverty Law Center on the Trump campaign, tarring people she disagrees with as racists. (As AT readers know, the SPLC has made a lot of money soliciting contributions from well-meaning people, but has been running out of racists to fight (because racists on the left are invisible to it). So it has resorted to tarring Dr. Ben Carson on its “extremist watch list,” an allegation so absurd that it was forced to issue a totally unconvincing apology.)

In Hillary’s judgment, she use the tactic of guilt-by-association to connect Trump to Steve Bannon to articles published by the website Bannon headed, and those headlines back to Trump. Normally, guilt-by-association is a tactic the left decries as unfair – for instance making any connection between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers.

The problem Hillary faces is she is giving the al right exactly what it wants: attention. And once the alt right gets attention, it starts raising questions in the minds of people that Hillary and the left would prefer remain unspoken.

If there is anyone who can be seen as a spokesman for the alt right, it would be Milo Yiannopoulos, two of whose headlines on Breitbart articles she quoted in her Reno, NV (interesting choice of venue: the city that first gained fame as “America’s divorce capital”).

Milo has fired back in characteristic fashion:

This is precisely what the alt-right is responding to. They post offensive memes because they know it’ll wind up boring, grouchy grannies like Hillary. The speech codes and political correctness of the Left are what has given rise to this vibrant new movement, what has given rise to Donald Trump’s extraordinary popularity, and what gives rise to me — and my fabulous headlines!

What exactly made the Clinton campaign go “race card” on Trump?

It seems a bit early for such a card. After all, isn’t she supposed to be leading by 10 points and headed for a landslide?

Do you recall Reagan ’84, Nixon ’72, or even Clinton ’96 sounding so desperate or attacking their opponents like this? They usually said little or had their helpers engage in attacks.

So what’s going on? Let me give you a couple of theories:

1) The Clinton campaign must have internal polling that it is a lot closer than the national polls suggest, or at least some information that her lead is melting because of all the bad news. They may also (and that’s speculation on my part) have polling that shows that there is zero excitement in the African American communities for her campaign. In other words, she will get 90% but the turnout may be very low! I remember analyzing the 2016 Texas primary on Telemundo Dallas last spring and we spent much of the night talking about the lousy Hispanic turnout. Excitement and Hillary Clinton do not go together!

2) The Clinton campaign may fear some bad news coming. Julian Assange told the media that bad stuff is coming. He may be bluffing or engaging in self-promotion. However, the recent AP story suggests that Assange may put the bow on this scandal. My guess is that some emails may confirm that the State Department and the Clinton Foundation were just a bit too close for comfort. At some point, even the friendly media will call on her to answer some questions!

According to most polls taken since last month’s party conventions, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton enjoys an insurmountable lead over Republican nominee Donald Trump. Consequently, a number of commentators on both sides of the partisan divide have declared the race over. Clinton, they say, has won.

There are several problems with this conclusion.
First of all, the “official campaign,” won’t begin until September 26, when Clinton and Trump face off in their first presidential debate. Clinton is not a stellar debater and Trump, a seasoned entertainer, excels in these formats.

Second, recent polls indicate that Trump is closing the gap. Whereas until this past week Clinton enjoyed a 6-8 point lead in the polls, in two polls taken this week, her lead had contracted to a mere 1-3 points.

Third, it is quite possible that Clinton’s problems have only begun. Her peak popularity may be behind her. Since her nomination, barely a day has passed without another stunning exposé of apparently corrupt behavior on the part of Clinton and her closest advisers. This week’s AP report that half of Clinton’s non-official visitors during her tenure as secretary of state were donors to the Clinton Foundation was merely the latest blow.

The continuous drip of corruption stories will have a corrosive effect on Clinton’s support levels. If the revelations to come are as damaging as many have claimed, their impact on Clinton’s candidacy may be fatal.

In light of Clinton’s weaknesses, Trump’s main hurdle to winning the election may very well lie with the NeverTrump movement. That movement encompasses much of the Republican establishment – that is, the political class of centrist elected officials, opinion-shapers, former officials and ideologues. Its members have vowed not to vote for Trump even if it means that Clinton wins the White House. The fact that so many prominent Republican voices continue to oppose Trump even after he has been nominated hurts his ability to build support among swing voters.

As far as the NeverTrumpsters are concerned, Trump carried out a hostile takeover of their party.

Hillary Clinton has met with leaders of a racist hate group responsible for torching cities and inciting the murders of police officers.

Deray McKesson, one of the Black Lives Matter hate group leaders she met with, had praised the looting of white people and endorsed cop killers Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal. The Black Lives Matter hate group had specifically made a point of targeting white people in “white spaces” for harassment. It would go on to incite the mass murder of police officers in Dallas and other racist atrocities.

Despite all this, Hillary Clinton has never disavowed the racist hate group. Instead she doubled down on supporting the hate group and its icons at the Democratic National Convention.

Now, after Trump’s appeal to the black community, Hillary is desperately trying to divide us by race.

Despite Hillary’s latest hypocritical and self-serving accusations, Donald Trump has never held a meeting with leaders of a racist hate group. Hillary Clinton has. And she has refused all calls by police unions to end her support for a vicious hate group that has championed the release of cop killers and endorsed BDS against Israel.

When an 83-year-old great grandmother is viciously beaten by racist thugs and then set on fire, Hillary Clinton has nothing to say. She has remained silent about the wave of racist violence by her political allies that is sweeping this country and leaving victims battered or dead.

Hillary is trading on accusations of racism to distract attention from her ugly record of pandering to racists to get ahead. As Trump has said, “It’s the oldest play in the Democratic playbook. When Democratic policies fail, they are left with only this one tired argument. You’re racist, you’re racist, you’re racist!”

It’s not Hillary Clinton who has a consistent track record of opposing racists, but Donald Trump.

In a speech largely aimed at moderate Republicans, Hillary Clinton declared that the “alt-right” running through Donald Trump’s campaign “is not conservatism as we have known it” and “is not Republicanism as we have known it.”

Speaking in Reno today, Clinton compared Donald Trump’s proposal for a religious test of immigrants to Islamic State policies, branded Russian President Vladimir Putin “the grand-godfather of this global brand of extreme nationalism,” and said Trump’s “real message seems to be ‘make America hate again.'”

“No one should have any illusions about what’s really going on here. The names may have changed, racists now call themselves racialists, white supremacists now call themselves white nationalists, the paranoid fringe now calls itself alt-right, but the hate burns just as bright,” Clinton said.

“Now Trump is trying to re-brand himself as well. But don’t be fooled. There’s an old Mexican proverb that says, ‘Tell me with whom you walk, and I will tell you who you are.’ So we know who Trump is.”

At the beginning of her address, Clinton panned Trump’s efforts in recent days to appeal to the African-American community.

“Trump has stood up in front of largely white audiences and described black communities in such insulting and ignorant terms. Poverty, rejection, horrible education, no housing, no homes, no ownership, crime at levels nobody has seen. Right now he said you can walk down the street and get shot. Those are his words,” she said. “But when I hear them, I think to myself, how sad. Donald Trump misses so much. He doesn’t see the success of black leaders in every field, the vibrancy of black-owned businesses, the strength of the black church. He doesn’t see the excellence of historically black colleges and universities or the pride of black parents watching their children thrive.”