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Today’s Hillary News & Views begins with coverage of the big post-DNC Convention bounce that Clinton is enjoying in the polls.
First, released this morning:
NBC reports:
Following the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton now leads Donald Trump by 8 points — 50 percent to 42 percent — up from a single-point difference last week, according to the latest NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll.
Clinton's gain also comes after a series of controversial comments made by the Republican nominee this past week regarding the family of a fallen American soldier and Trump's suggestion that Russian hackers should seek out deleted Clinton emails.
Yesterday also brought some stunning state polls, showing Clinton competitive in states that have been reliably Republican for decades.
KUTV reports:
A new Hinckley Institute-Salt Lake Tribune poll shows the two are virtually tied with 35 percent for Donald Trump and 36 percent for Hillary Clinton. That is as close as a Democratic candidate has been to victory in more than half a century.
Utah has been the most Republican state for 40 years but that could change with Trump's run toward the White House.
WSB-TV reports:
A new poll shows Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received a bump after the Democratic National Convention and is now tied with Republican candidate Donald Trump in Georgia.
The exclusive Channel 2 Action News poll conducted by Landmark/Rosetta Stone polled nearly 800 likely Georgia voters. The poll, conducted over the weekend, found Trump and Clinton deadlocked with 45 percent of the vote.
The polls above continue the post-DNC trend.
FiveThirtyEight reports:
Initial polls conducted after the Democratic National Convention suggest that Hillary Clinton has received a convention bounce. In fact, it appears likely that Clinton’s bounce will exceed Donald Trump’s, which measured at 3 to 4 percentage points. Thus, Clinton will potentially exit the conventions in a stronger position than she entered them, perhaps also making up for some of the ground she lost to Trump earlier in July. This is good news for Clinton, but we’ll need to wait a few weeks to see if she can sustain her bounce before we can conclude that the race has been fundamentally changed.
So far, however, the post-convention polls have been strong enough for Clinton that there isn’t a lot of need to worry about semantics. They suggest that she possibly holds a lead over Trump in the mid- to high single digits, instead of being tied with him.
White male elites who drive the media narratives may not notice, but Clinton continues to be an inspiration for those who are marginalized. Reflecting on how the Khan family represents America, my favorite writer notes that they are in good company.
Melissa McEwan writes for Blue Nation Review:
As I was thinking about this lamentable reality, and sitting inside the thought of what it means that the Khans, despite this reality, raised a son who was willing to die for this country, and took to the stage at the Democratic convention to declare their deep patriotism, I began to consider the company they were in, in that space.
They were in the company of the Mothers of the Movement – Black women who have lost children to gun violence and police brutality. Whose grief and desperation for accountability was ignored, they say, by virtually everyone in power except Hillary. Whose lives, like all Black women, have been marked, every day, by entrenched racism and misogyny.
They were in the company of Anastasia Somoza – a disabled woman whose life has been a fight for access, whose work is advocating for access for disabled people across the country. Whose life, like all disabled women, has been marked, every day, by entrenched disablism and misogyny.
They were in the company of Sarah McBride – a trans women who made history by being the first out trans person to speak at a national party convention. Whose life, like all trans women, has been marked, every day, by entrenched transphobia and misogyny.
They were in the company of Rev. William Barber – a Black man who founded North Carolina’s Moral Monday movement to help amplify the voices of people who are marginalized, and their allies. Whose life, like all Black men, has been marked, every day, by entrenched racism.
They were in the company of Hillary Clinton – a woman whose journey to the precipice of the U.S. presidency has been littered with obstacles, and whose life has been marked, every day, by entrenched misogyny. Who has been told so many times that she isn’t good enough, but just keeps showing up anyway. Who continues to petition for an opportunity to serve a country that is filled with people who hate her.
That, too, is the story of the Democratic convention. Not just its diversity, and not just its optimism, but the numbers of people who took to the stage on behalf of a hopeful, aspirational, audacious vision for the future of a country that is often not very kind to them.
In an interview with Vox, Pastor Ray Shawn McKinnon, a Bernie Sanders delegate, reflects on why he’s with Clinton and spurning the Bernie or Bust approach:
As a Sanders delegate, why do you believe supporting Jill Stein is such a mistake?
RM: I had so many conversations this week about people who said that they were supporting Jill Stein. And to them I’ve tried making this point clear: I don’t have the privilege of supporting Jill Stein.
I’m black, and I have four black sons. Some white liberals have the privilege to pretend that Jill Stein is going to be taken seriously. I don’t. If Donald Trump wins, he's more likely to appoint judges that oppose Black Lives Matter and criminal justice reform, and who think that police officers — who can kill black people without being charged — already don't have enough power. That means if my kids get shot, the officers who did it would become less likely to be charged. A lot of white liberals don’t understand that they have the privilege of a protest vote that will hurt the people they purport to stand for — black people, immigrants, LGBTQ folks, and so many people who will be affected adversely if Trump wins.
If they stay home or vote for a third party — particularly in swing states — these folks are gambling with real lives. Because here’s the reality: They won’t be affected by the fallout. Their privilege will inoculate them to it, but minorities won’t be. I don’t understand how they could not see that.
So I don’t have the luxury of conviction. I can’t afford four years of tyranny. Trust me, I would love if Hillary had every position that Bernie has. But I live in the real world, and in the real world — even if Hillary isn’t 100 percent where I want her — at least I trust that she will be better than Trump for the people I love.
Clinton has accepted an invitation declined by Trump: to speak to a gathering of Black and Latino journalists.
BuzzFeed reports:
This year, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists are holding a joint convention in Washington, D.C., and Clinton will make remarks Friday, sources said.
“It is notable that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has recognized the 2016 NABJ-NAHJ Convention as a vital gathering to discuss her platform and the issues impacting black and Latino communities,” NABJ President Sarah Glover said in a statement released early Monday. “Presidential nominees and U.S. presidents from both parties have attended NABJ annual conventions, including President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush, and presidential nominees Barack Obama, Bob Dole and Al Gore. We’re ecstatic to add the first woman nominee to our list.”
Said NAHJ President Mekahlo Medina, “Throughout her campaign, Hillary Clinton has placed an emphasis on inclusion and has shown support for communities of color. Her decision to support this event further shows her commitment to diversity, and we welcome her just as we’ve welcomed President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox to previous conventions.”
This year, Clinton won her primary on the strength of her support from a coalition of black, Latino, and older voters. In her general election matchup with Trump, her campaign hopes to turn out that same coalition of black and Latino voters to carry her to victory. Clinton spoke to the League of United Latin American Citizens in July.
A growing list of Republicans are putting country before party and supporting Clinton in November.
Washington Post reports:
Richard Armitage, Henry Paulson, Brent Scowcroft. Three big-name former George W. Bush administration officials in the past few weeks have announced that they are supporting Hillary Clinton in 2016 — all because Donald Trump is simply a bridge too far for them.
"When it comes to the presidency, I will not vote for Donald Trump," Paulson wrote in The Washington Post last week. "I will not cast a write-in vote. I’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton, with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and our place in the world. To my Republican friends: I know I’m not alone."
He's not. And below are the big names that are with him — or, perhaps more accurately, with her.
Add Star Jones to that list, too.
Variety reports:
What did you think of Hillary’s speech?
I thought it was wonderful. I knew there were huge expectations being built around the speech, and she had to knock it out of the park or people would have seen it as a failure. Not only did she rise to the occasion, there was substance in it. There’s always substance behind what she has to say.
Did you get emotional watching it?
I cried the whole entire time. I understand from my parents who were watching at home, that there were a couple of crowd shots. I had no concept of it, because I was very much in the moment. As a professional woman in the 1980s, I was a young female lawyer at the time dedicated to public service. I really did look to other women lawyers for my inspiration. I have to tell you the legend of Hillary Rodham was front and center in my circle. All I can say to everybody is: Please watch your feet, watch your step. There’s about to be glass all over the floor, when we break the ultimate glass ceiling.
There were some comments on Twitter that she should have been smiling more during her speech. Do you think that’s sexist?
You don’t hear it when it comes to a male candidate. You don’t hear about what color suit they wear. I’m not looking for Hillary to smile, giggle, and hold my hand. I’m looking for her to be the leader of the free world. When I watched what the RNC did the week before, I almost got depressed. It was doom and gloom. It was divisive and non-inclusive. At the DNC, we had over 1,000 delegates of color. When you look around the room, it looked like America. Joining me at the convention was my guy and his son, who has become like my own kid. At 11, he knows that the president of the United States can be a black man and now a woman. Isn’t that amazing?
On the campaign trail, Clinton drew an important distinction between coal and steel.
KDKA reports:
Can you be very specific? What is it you’re going to do for those coal miners, those steel workers, and others who have lost their jobs?
First, I am really proud to have been endorsed by the steelworkers. We are going to have the biggest infrastructure program to create new jobs — to build roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, water systems, that we’ve had since World War II.
Can we bring back coal jobs as Donald Trump says? Can we bring back steel jobs?
Well, we can certainly bring back steel jobs because once we really handle the unfair trade practices that have undercut our steel industry causing layoffs and plant closures, we’re going to make it really clear to the rest of the world we’re not sitting by and watching our steel industry go any further down.
But what about coal?
Coal is a different issue because we’ve got to figure out — is there a technology that can create clean energy from coal?
If we put our minds to it, we’re going to revitalize coal country. Towns that have been knocked flat, we’re going to help them get up. We can do that with infrastructure, with advanced manufacturing. We can do that with clean energy. So I’m excited because there are lots of examples of what’s working. Pittsburgh — look at the way Pittsburgh has reinvented itself. I remember what Pittsburgh looked like 30 years ago, Jon. I was here, and I’m thrilled.
Finally, whether Clinton or Trump are elected, we will get “extreme” Supremes, according to FiveThirtyEight:
Clearly, the court will take a different shape under a President Trump than it would a President Clinton. But just how different, and how quickly? Very different and, if Clinton wins, very quickly. If Donald Trump is elected president, the Supreme Court may, seat by vacated seat, move rightward toward its most conservative position in recent memory. If Hillary Clinton is elected, the court may quickly become the most liberal it’s been in at least 80 years.
Clinton’s Supreme Court leverage lies in the short term: She could appoint a left-leaning justice to replace the solidly conservative Scalia, at which point the median justice would almost certainly become either Justice Stephen Breyer or Clinton’s appointee, either being reliably liberal. Prior to Scalia’s death in February, the moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy was the median justice.
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Crossposted at HillaryHQ, an independent, progressive blog committed to the electing Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States.