Here’s the Choice

Absent a “November surprise,” this will be my last post about the 2016 Presidential race.

A friend shared a litany that pretty well sums up Donald Trump’s bona fides:

Donald Trump is facing multiple charges of defrauding students at Trump University, one case with a Court date set for November 28, 2016.

Donald Trump is facing a December 16, 2016 Court date to answer for claims he raped a 13 year old girl.

Donald Trump is the subject of multi-state investigations, uncovering fraud and self-dealing related to his Trump Foundation.

Donald Trump has a history of thousands of lawsuits against him over his business practices, in which he bankrupted small businesses and cheated employees.

Donald Trump has a long and well-documented history of harassing and disrespecting women.

But by all means, let’s talk about Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Despite the loose use of the word “scandal,” what Clinton continues to be criticized for was her use of a private server for non-classified official emails, a use inconsistent with State Department rules. Period. Not for leaking state secrets, not for dereliction of duty, not for any sort of malfeasance. (Ironically, James Comey is currently being criticized for precisely the same behavior–ignoring agency rules.) The reason Clinton’s server use was an issue was concern about the possibility of a security breach caused by either the use of that server to transmit classified material (which would have been illegal) or a successful hack; thanks to the FBI investigation, we now know no such breach occurred. (It is yet another irony that the State Department’s network has been hacked, and more than once.)

Let’s stipulate that–as Clinton herself has admitted– she shouldn’t have made that decision, and she shouldn’t have been defensive about it when it was discovered.

Hillary Clinton may be the most-investigated public servant ever, and despite having been the object of right-wing conspiracy theories for over thirty years, she has never been found to have violated any law. She has had a distinguished career as a lawyer, in the United States Senate and as Secretary of State and has been a tireless crusader for women and families.

To paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke, when she’s been wrong, she’s been wrong within normal parameters.

Voters in this election have a choice between a highly qualified woman who–being human–has made mistakes of judgment, and a thin-skinned narcissist with zero relevant experience or knowledge and a documented history of fraud, sexual assault, unscrupulous business practices and frightening volatility–a man with no discernible policy positions who has based his entire campaign on insults, ludicrous assertions of his own superiority, and not-so- thinly-veiled appeals to racism, xenophobia, misogyny and anti-Semitism.

There is no equivalence. This is not a “lesser of two evils” choice. One candidate is amply and demonstrably qualified; the other is simply unthinkable.

If Hillary Clinton had killed Vince Foster, she would still be the better choice.

34 Comments

  1. The fact that this race is even a race makes me think our country has gone off the rails. So depressing!

  2. Already we see the Republicans vowing to block ANY Supreme court justice nominated by HRC.
    HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? If they are running to work in the Senate, then they should agree to do the JOB of Senator. This is getting (no has gotten) crazy.

  3. Keeping in mind that I must rely totally on closed captioning for all information; what I gleaned from “Morning Joe” on MSNBC this morning puts Comey in an even worse light. It will do nothing to stop Trump’s lies; the undeserved damage to Hillary’s presidential campaign cannot be undone no matter what Comey, other FBI officials or the DOJ officials state regarding this last minute attack. Also keep in mind the fact that I am not thrilled with Hillary as the Democratic nominee but will vote for her; the only action I can take AGAINST Trump.

    It is my understanding from Joe’s comments and responses from his interviewees that months ago Comey had to decide whether to use three separate sources of information linking the Russians to Trump’s presidential campaign which would tarnish his reputation (LOL) or make public Comey’s loyalty to democracy. We all saw, heard or read the gossip and know his decision to ignore the information he had received.

    Last week Comey was again faced with a decision as to whether to release information of POSSIBLE additional Hillary Clinton E-mails which he had virtually no information or proof of anything illegal but sent that letter to Congress KNOWING it would be immediately made public. As it turns out; the E-mails in question are on Anthony Weiner’s LAPTOP which had been used by his wife who happens to be a top Hillary aid. “Weinergate” scandal was outed in 2011; did Comey not know Weiner had a laptop, did he not investigate the possibility – or did he ignore that fact and thousands of E-mails? The world is aware of Comey’s decision whether to further tarnish HIllary Clinton’s E-mail dilemma, a closed investigation (maybe?), or his (dis)loyalty to democracy. The fact that Comey is a Republican appointee, appointed to his lofty position as head of the FBI by President Obama as a trusted and qualified leader, shows where his loyalty lies. Democracy be damned; full speed ahead to provide Trump with more grist for his lies.

  4. If you haven’t seen it yet, please consider watching Michael Moore in Trumpland. He has it available on Amazon and itunes for 4.99 and select theatres. Like JoAnn and Moore, I am a reluctant Hillary voter but that guy is bat-shit crazy. I worry about her safety no matter if she wins or not. The “lock her up” that is yelled at every rally of his makes me want to ask them – For What? I’ll never forget 2008 and January 2009 when Obama became President. I was just as worried about his safety as I am about hers and there are more guns now than back then available to the followers of that orange man. One more week of this crap and I can’t wait to see the first woman President. What history that will make!

  5. There must be some legal recourse if Repubs refuse to even consider justices (even lower court slots aren’t being filled). I hope HRC is ready & willing to play hardball, she may need to ramp things up to LBJ-level hijinks. I hope behind closed doors she swears a blue streak & threatens peoples families. It would only be appropriate.

  6. Why do you expect more from the NUTTY FASCISM via the Republican Party?

    I refer you to the outdated “Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America” by Bertram Gross(Boston: Southend Press, 1980).

  7. “When they go low, we go high.” That has been the cry from the Obama camp and much of the Democratic party for years now. All well and good except that it accomplishes nothing except allowing the speaker to feel superior to their opposition. It is useless in the face of a Republican gerrymandered country and House of Representatives where the conservatives fought dirty everywhere and dragged the country’s politics into the gutter where it has remained for over a decade.

    The Republicans don’t hate Hillary… they fear her. They know that unlike Obama she will put on the hip boots and wade into the gutter for the fight. And she knows how to fight. It won’t be pretty, but by God it will be real.

  8. I would have liked to share your blog, as it sums things up nicely… but I can’t due to the last sentence, which I believe is offensive and distracting. We must always take the higher ground… because that is who we are. I know this campaign season is frustrating… but making a joke about killing someone is unjustified and dangerous.
    Thank you for all of the information you have provided during this arduous election battle.

  9. First, let me state that I have already voted; I voted for Clinton; nothing that has occurred in the past month or so tells me that I made the wrong decision. That being said, I think its important that people accurately report the concerns those people who have issue with Clinton; not doing so negatively impacts any argument they may have that her Republican counterpart is not a fit choice for the office. In that vein, the issue that people have with Clinton’s email is that she DID have confidential information, making the information susceptible being disseminated, and that his constitutes a criminal mishandling of confidential information. This IS a serious issue and the FBI’s conclusion was not that she was innocent of that charge, only that there was not evidence that would make for a successful prosecution of such a charge. It is also important to note they have other concerns that are real. The lack of security at the Embassy in Libya is a fact and she was the Secretary of State at that time; as such she has to bear responsibility for the events that occurred there. No amount of pointing out that her predecessors had similarly incidents without being castigated, no amount of deflection onto the Republican controlled Congress that reduced the ability to adequately secure all of the Embassies by over $500,000, no amount of accusation of the pointing out the “lynch mob” nature of the Congressional investigation changes the fact that buck for the security of the Embassies stops at the Secretary of State. She has changed messages and political stances since declaring her candidacy and this gives a strong impression that her real positions are hidden behind a political facade. There is a strong appearance that her family profited from their foundation, even if that profit was not direct; as such, the appearance that people got access to her by making contributions to the foundation and/or giving them huge sums for speaking engagements is something to consider when making a choice for President. Denying these concerns, and I believe they are real, only hurts ones arguments against Trump as it destroys the integrity of the person making the argument. In effect, it reduces the Clinton supporter to level of the Trump supporter. Accordingly, I would urge anyone who supports Clinton to understand these issues and the very real concerns those who do not support her have…vote for her because she is the best choice we have, because she has the experience and knowledge necessary to be President, because she has a history on which to judge her positions, but don’t hide your head in the sand regarding her short-comings.

  10. Sheila – may I post just this part of today’s blog on my fb page and provide credit to you for this quote?

    “Voters in this election have a choice between a highly qualified woman who–being human–has made mistakes of judgment, and a thin-skinned narcissist with zero relevant experience or knowledge and a documented history of fraud, sexual assault, unscrupulous business practices and frightening volatility–a man with no discernible policy positions who has based his entire campaign on insults, ludicrous assertions of his own superiority, and not-so- thinly-veiled appeals to racism, xenophobia, misogyny and anti-Semitism.

    There is no equivalence. This is not a “lesser of two evils” choice. One candidate is amply and demonstrably qualified; the other is simply unthinkable.”

  11. We saw the same Republican reluctance to approve judicial nominees when Bill Clinton was in the White House. It took an excoriation of that policy from Chief Justice, William Rehnquist, an extremely conservative Republican appointee, to get Republicans to make a deal to start approving nominees. During that time, we fell so far behind in judicial appointees that we still hadn’t caught up at the end of W’s term. When the Republicans took back the Senate, they again started to block Obama’s nominees. Last week, Justice Thomas took Republicans to task for blocking nominees, including Mr. Garland. He doesn’t have the gravitas of Rehnquist, but he is a darling of the tea party.

    Let’s have a little fun with some speculation. If a group doesn’t like government, why would said group want so badly to be in charge of that government? The easy answer is to kill government. They are in charge of Congress and Congress now only works 1/3 of any given year. When they do work, they accomplish nothing. They have effectively killed the legislative branch. Non-action on judicial nominees hampers the judicial branch, making it less effective each year. Soon they will have effectively killed the judicial branch. Now, they present us with a demogogic tyrant as a Presidential candidate. If he is elected, he willl seek unfettered power. If he achieves that goal, they will have killed the executive branch. Dream realized!

    Vote for Hillary and vote for Democratic Senators as if our democracy depended on it, because it just might.

  12. Here is a very frightening thought:

    If Trump wins hw will be far too busy with his own lawsuits and running his empire to have time to be President. That will leave Pence to run the country. To me, that would be even worse than Trump running the country.

    Those of you who are not Hoosiers may not understand how much damage Pence would do to our entire country. If you do, please educate your Republican friends before they go to the polls to vote.

  13. Sheila, you have laid it out in a nutshell. There has never been a fall candidate of any political party as unqualified for the office of the presidency as this real estate promoter who sells ignorance as virtue while selling hatred of women and minorities and while living high off you and me as taxpayers by paying nothing due to Republican-induced quirks in the internal revenue code. He makes McKinley, Buchanan and Nixon look good. At bottom, and though we have personalized this race a week from now, this election is not about Trump v. Clinton; it’s about whether we are to have what is left of our democracy and its institutions and values; whether we vote for mob rule by torchlight or reasoning together in representative fashion as in the Athens of long ago. Trump is in a perpetual rule or ruin mode whether the victims are women, immigrants, minorities, wives, bankers who loaned him money, workers and vendors who were stiffed by his bankruptcies, junk bond holders who financed his casinos etc. The list is long, and now he would have us add democracy to it. As I have often blogged, democracy is one of the last few things worth dying for, but let’s avail itself of its blessings at the polls and not in the streets. Let’s show up next Tuesday with a massive vote for democracy and sweep this obnoxious welfare recipient into the dustbin of history.

  14. Nancy,

    “That will leave Pence to run the country. To me, that would be even worse than Trump running the country.”

    You’re so right. He’s political enemy #1. He becomes much more dangerous if Trump wins.

  15. Theresa Bowers; Amen! My first thought was that old saying, “Talk is cheap.” It certainly is when it is not backed by action, which we have been witnessing from the Democratic party for too long. Front page headline on the Indianapolis Star today, “Poll: Bayh loses lead in Senate contest”, authored by Maureen Groppe of Indystar Washington Bureau, owned and operated by Gannett, Inc.

    On the other hand, that old saying, “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me.” has been disproven 24/7 throughout this disastrous 18 month long election “year”. The Republican words are coupled with those “sticks and stones” often at Trump rallies; both are breaking bones of Democratic candidates and the Democratic party. Front page headline in the Indianapolis Star this morning, “Poll: Bayh loses lead in Senate contest”. Authored by Maureen Groppe of the Indystar Washington Bureau, according to a Monmouth University poll. Of lesser news value in her estimation, “John Gregg has maintained his lead over Lt. Eric Holcomb, despite a tightening of that race.” Scare tactic?

    Sheila’s partial list, more of a minor “by the way” mention considering Trump’s lengthy list of business, personal and moral “sins” (many which we will never know); will only be found on blogs such as Sheila’s. The complete list would require a separate publication, with indices and footnotes included. With Hillary; her wheel returns to that single server and those E-mails which have proven not to be illegal, with side notes concerning Bill’s fly problem and questions about the Clinton Foundation. ..which deserves answers. All charitable foundations, including Trump’s in case the media has forgotten it’s less than honorable reputation, need to be questioned and closely monitored.

    Only mentions of Hillary in Section One of the Star today are the unfunny cartoon by Gary Varvel and Eugene Robinson’s column, “October surprise won’t change the outcome”. His last paragraph reads, “But those who want to see Clinton win and those who want to see Trump lose also should be newly energized and motivated. They have a clear advantage in support. They have a vastly superior get-out-the vote operation. They have far more viable ways to assemble the necessary 270 electoral votes.” I am going to accept Gene’s writings as telling us that; however long or short the published list of Trump’s illegal and immoral activities we see; voters ARE watching and reading.

  16. Great summary of the choices for President. I would add to your list the many possibilities of conflicts of interest that Trump’s business interests present both domestically and with respect to US foreign policy.

    If it is ever proven that Hillary Clinton has committed a crime, I will re-evaluate my position. Until then, I’m with HER.

  17. I would suggest everyone read the analysis by the GUARDIAN on the link Sheila provided on Donald Trump that “claims he raped a 13 year old girl.”

    The analysis is entitled: Will Hillary Clinton lose the election because of the FBI email investigation?—Pollsters and observers think not , but as election day looms the Democratic nominee is losing support as Donald Trump is experiencing a resurgence. Make sure you take a look at “Read more.”

    In addition to all-out support for Hillary Clinton, we must ALSO prepare for the unfortunate eventuality that Donald Trump will be elected President.

  18. The earliest “Meme’s” about Hillary: She is a lesbian who had her lover, Vince Foster killed. Why don’t the Right Wing get Irony?

  19. Rick Zeckel, the compound at Benghazi was not the U.S. Embassy in Libya. The U.S. Embassy in Libya is in Tripoli, the capital, and it is and was adequately secure.

    The Benghazi compound was conceived as an intelligence-gathering depot by the CIA from the start. Google ‘2012 Benghazi attack’, choose the Wikipedia link or the any of the many reports and books listed. Just pointing out that little errors like this have their own insidious way of further mucking up the narrative against Hillary Clinton.

    As Henry Louis Gates wrote…”“In the course of a single conversation, I have been assured that Hillary is cunning and manipulative but also crass, clueless, and stunningly impolitic; that she is a hopelessly woolly-headed do-gooder and, at heart, a hardball litigator; that she is a base opportunist and a zealot convinced that God is on her side. What emerges is a cultural inventory of villainy rather than a plausible depiction of an actual person.”

  20. BSH; does this breakdown include statistical information regarding the number of rednecks who buy beer and insulting tee shirts and don’t donate to either party but will vote for Trump;-) Or does it only include the donor count? Some of my family and former neighbors would not be among those counted.

  21. The first consideration for qualification to be President, a Senator, a member of Congress or any other political office, is PATRIOTISM. You must love this country above yourself, above your political party, and above your campaign donors. Most politicians today fail this test. Trump wants to be President because it is the ultimate ego trip. He is not a patriot. Neither are those Republicans who refuse to even consider President Obama’s selection to fill Scalia’s seat, and who vow not to allow any judge chosen by President Hillary Clinton to be seated on the Supreme Court. They are undermining our entire political system. It is disgusting.

  22. JoAnn,

    “does this breakdown include statistical information regarding the number of rednecks who buy beer and insulting tee shirts and don’t donate to either party but will vote for Trump;-) Or does it only include the donor count? Some of my family and former neighbors would not be among those counted.”

    The footer on the web page listing the Hoosier financial contributions cites the source as the Federal Election Commission. It remains puzzling to me that the financial contributions from Hamilton County clearly favor Clinton; however, in my daily driving through Westfield, Carmel, and Fishers, I rarely see any campaign signs for Clinton and only a scattering for Trump. I do see a large number of Trump campaign signs whenever I’m in Noblesville.

  23. BSH; my attempt at humor to lighten the mood obviously bombed. Hillary’s humorous comment during her speech at the Al Smith Catholic Charities dinner didn’t get much of a laugh either – did you catch it? She referred to her supporters as “a basket full of Adorables” which I thought was hysterical. Let’s move back to doom and gloom; obviously the order of the day.

    “Hillary Clinton may be the most-investigated public servant ever, and despite having been the object of right-wing conspiracy theories for over thirty years, she has never been found to have violated any law.”

    If any male private citizen (which is what Trump is) or public servant had been as deeply and frequently investigated on any level for any number of reasons as Hillary has; would they have advanced in their political career as far as she has? Obviously; the answer is NO and they certainly would never have been nominated for the office of President of the United States of America. Look into the heart of the business world and the number of criminal and/or civil investigations, charges and often convictions, regarding male CEOs; their careers seem to advance even when found guilty, such as Trump has been regarding non-payment for services and labor in civil courts numerous times. How many law suits are pending against him and new charges being filed during his campaign, now in criminal courts regarding 12 (at last count) sexual abuse charges plus the old rape of a 12 year old scheduled for court in November. Also suspicion of possible past and current incestuous behavior with one of his daughters. Yes, yes, yes; I know, innocent till proven guilty.

    These decades of investigations and charges against Trump seem to have raised him to almost hero status, a good old boy and boys will be boys and here he is, the GOP nominee for president. No higher honor or position of power on this earth. Members of his family and the GOP have often stated “Donald will always be Donald.” and his support grows…no matter the number or amount of donations to Hillary. Remember Bernie Sanders record setting amount of donations and number of donors; not one from the corporate section and protected by Citizens United but all from hard working Americans who put their trust and their money on him. It didn’t get him the nomination.

  24. Can’t remember candidates with as poor judgement as these two…guess we get the government we deserve…fortunately, the oligarchy will keep them from doing too much damage

  25. Doug,

    “fortunately, the oligarchy will keep them from doing too much damage”

    Don’t bet too much on that. The exact opposite happened in Germany in the 30’s. The oligarchy lost all control.

  26. I could be wrong, but by Monday the Trump/Pence “Political Blitzkreig” should be playing excerpts from the Nazi propaganda movie: “The Eternal Jew.”

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