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A recap of Hillary's speech and John Podhoretz makes the most clever of comments as follows:
It would appear Hillary is running against herself. (See 1 and 1a below.)
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We were in Hilton Head and upon my return I got a lot of responses to various comments and postings I have made in previous memos. Here are a select few:
"Renie and I just returned from seeing Hillary’s America. It’s a great history lesson and a terrific film. Every American needs to see it.
Dinesh D’souza is a very talented guy and certainly understands what America has to offer. He got a raw deal and learned from that experience.
“Crooked Clinton” is very appropriate for Hillary and both, Bill and Hill should be in jail. F-----"
==="
Dick,
I’d like to believe the Democrats just walked in to a trap set by Trump, to wit:
1. Step 1. The Dems accuse Trump of asking Putin to hack into Hillary’s server and turn over any documents found there.
Assume that’s true, though he’d have to be a lot smarter and a lot more Machiavellian than I think he is to try such a thing. This presumably has already taken place.
2. Step 2. Not surprisingly, the Democrats promptly cry foul, saying that such an attempt by Putin would be dangerous and put America’s national security at risk. Already done.
3. Step 3. To be done quickly. Trump quickly responds that “Hillary has been saying all along that her server contained nothing that was classified or contained any information at all that related to, or threatened, our national security. Are you, and by inference Hillary, now saying there WAS or IS information on her servers that is classified and if it falls into the hands of the Russians, it will endanger our national security?”
4. Step 4. Republicans immediately ask via a widely televised Monday evening prime time news conference, “Which is it? Is Hillary’s server safe and free from any national security risks and thus perfectly safe to reveal to Mr. Putin all information about her wedding dress, Chelsea’s baby, dinner engagements, etc. which is what you’ve claimed all along?” “Or, conversely, does the server, in fact, contain classified information which you’ve disclaimed all along and which if revealed to Mr. Putin would put America’s national security at risk. Further in the news conference, Republicans state, “Either you (Democrats) and Hillary have been lying to us all along about what’s in those servers or you’re crying wolf now about your concerns for the importance of Mr. Trump’s tongue on cheek request of Mr. Putin to hack into Hillary’s servers. Take your choice. Which story do you want the American people to believe?” If there’s nothing in the servers but what Hillary has claimed all along, why the concern for Putin finding out what Hillary wore to Chelsea’s wedding? It seems axiomatic that if your concern is valid, those servers must per force contain enough classified information to be of genuine concern for American safety if revealed to Mr. Putin.
Dick, I think Trump would have to be a modern day Machiavelli to have dreamed up such a scheme. But how delicious would it be if he were. And how stupid of the Democrats to have fallen right into the trap. Either the Democrats are incredibly stupid or Republicans are clueless about how to wage political war on a relentless enemy. Somehow, I think there’s a story here. E-"
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One summer evening long ago I caught a whiff of something foul. Nearby a fly buzzed the lamp, bumping into its shade as flies do. The flies were more numerous and the odor more intense the next evening. The stench could only be emanating from beneath the house.
The next morning I crawled under the house to investigate. An adult possum had found his last resting place beneath our floor boards. The carcass was in advanced decay. The stench was overwhelming.
My young son and his buddy had positioned themselves outside, watching me in wonder. I scooped the animal up in a shovel and carried the rotting body out into the sunlight for burial in our backyard.
The boys marveled at my ability to perform this distasteful task. The stench kept them 10 yards away. But I focused and got through it. I believe I climbed a notch on their list of heroes that morning.
It was not a difficult job but it did require one thing - an awareness of the stench. That may sound trivial but it’s not.
In this silliest of political seasons which cynics would say is a no win scenario for the American voter, there is a clear difference between the two major party candidates. It is the only difference which matters.
One is aware of the stench emanating from Washington while the other proposes to build on it. One is putting on work gloves and grabbing a shovel, the other is spraying air freshener.
P----"
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A man in a Florida supermarket tried to buy half a head of lettuce.
The very young produce assistant told him that they sell only whole heads of lettuce.
The man persisted and asked to see the manager.
The boy said he'd ask his manager about it.
Walking into the back room, the boy said to his manager: 'Some asshole wants to buy half a head of lettuce.'
As he finished his sentence, he turned to find the man standing right behind him, so he added, 'And this gentleman has kindly offered to buy the other half.'
The manager approved the deal, and the man went on his way.
Later the manager said to the boy, 'I was impressed with the way you got yourself out of that situation earlier. We like people who think on their feet here. Where are you from, son?'
‘Canada, sir,' the boy replied.
'Well, why did you leave Canada?'the manager asked.
The boy said, 'Sir, there's nothing but whores and hockey players up there.
‘Really?' said the manager. 'My wife is from Canada.'
‘No shit?' replied the boy. 'Who'd she play for?
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British Aplomb
For my friends who appreciate the finer points of the English language used correctly.
His Lordship was in the study when the butler approached and coughed discreetly.
"May I ask you a question, My Lord.
"Go ahead, Carson," said His Lordship.
"I am doing the crossword in The Times and I have found a word I am not too clear on."
"What word is that?" asked His Lordship."Aplomb," My Lord.
"Thank you, My Lord, but I'm still a little confused."
"Let me give you an example to make it clearer. Do you remember a few months ago when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived to spend a weekend with us?"
"I remember the occasion very well, My Lord. It gave the staff and myself much pleasure to look after them."
"Also," continued the Earl of Grantham, "do you remember when Wills plucked a rose for Kate in the rose garden?"
"I was present on that occasion, My Lord, ministering to their needs.
"While plucking the rose, a thorn embedded itself in his thumb very deeply."
"I witnessed the incident, My Lord, and saw the Duchess herself remove the thorn and bandage his thumb with her own dainty handkerchief."
"That evening the hole that the rose made on his thumb was very sore. Kate had to cut up his venison even though it was extremely tender."
"Yes, My Lord, I did see everything that transpired that evening."
"And do you remember the next morning while you were pouring coffee for Her Ladyship,
Kate inquired of Wills with a loud voice,
Darling, does your prick still throb?'
And you, Carson, did not spill one drop of coffee?
THAT, Carson, is complete composure or aplomb.”
===
A man in a Florida supermarket tried to buy half a head of lettuce.
The very young produce assistant told him that they sell only whole heads of lettuce.
The man persisted and asked to see the manager.
The boy said he'd ask his manager about it.
Walking into the back room, the boy said to his manager: 'Some asshole wants to buy half a head of lettuce.'
As he finished his sentence, he turned to find the man standing right behind him, so he added, 'And this gentleman has kindly offered to buy the other half.'
The manager approved the deal, and the man went on his way.
Later the manager said to the boy, 'I was impressed with the way you got yourself out of that situation earlier. We like people who think on their feet here. Where are you from, son?'
‘Canada, sir,' the boy replied.
'Well, why did you leave Canada?'the manager asked.
The boy said, 'Sir, there's nothing but whores and hockey players up there.
‘Really?' said the manager. 'My wife is from Canada.'
‘No shit?' replied the boy. 'Who'd she play for?
+++
British Aplomb
For my friends who appreciate the finer points of the English language used correctly.
His Lordship was in the study when the butler approached and coughed discreetly.
"May I ask you a question, My Lord.
"Go ahead, Carson," said His Lordship.
"I am doing the crossword in The Times and I have found a word I am not too clear on."
"What word is that?" asked His Lordship."Aplomb," My Lord.
"Now that's a difficult one to explain. I would say it is self-assurance or complete composure."
"Thank you, My Lord, but I'm still a little confused."
"Let me give you an example to make it clearer. Do you remember a few months ago when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived to spend a weekend with us?"
"I remember the occasion very well, My Lord. It gave the staff and myself much pleasure to look after them."
"Also," continued the Earl of Grantham, "do you remember when Wills plucked a rose for Kate in the rose garden?"
"I was present on that occasion, My Lord, ministering to their needs.
"While plucking the rose, a thorn embedded itself in his thumb very deeply."
"I witnessed the incident, My Lord, and saw the Duchess herself remove the thorn and bandage his thumb with her own dainty handkerchief."
"That evening the hole that the rose made on his thumb was very sore. Kate had to cut up his venison even though it was extremely tender."
"Yes, My Lord, I did see everything that transpired that evening."
"And do you remember the next morning while you were pouring coffee for Her Ladyship,
Kate inquired of Wills with a loud voice,
Darling, does your prick still throb?'
And you, Carson, did not spill one drop of coffee?
THAT, Carson, is complete composure or aplomb.”
===
Surs,
I apply for the secretary job I seen in t
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Dear Peggy May:
Start on Monday, we have spell check.
<><>By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.- Socrates
<><>I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.- Groucho Marx
<><>My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.- Jimmy Durante
<><>I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back.- Zsa Zsa Gabor
<><>Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was SHUT UP .- Joe Namath
<><>We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.- Will Rogers
<><>Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.- Winston Churchill
<><>By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere.- Billy Crystal
<><>
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1a)
Hillary’s One-Candidate Race
She’ll try to disqualify Trump because she loses if the election is a referendum on her.
Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Oct. 22 22, 2015. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Conventions are useful for clarifying elections, and this week’s Philly confab notably so. A week of speakers—Democrat after Democrat beseeching the nation to please know thatHillary Clinton really is a good gal—has made something clear: This is, essentially, a one-person presidential race.
It’s Hillary against Hillary. This November is about whether Americans can look at 40 years of Clinton chicanery and nearly a decade of broken Obama promises, and still pull the lever for her. Not that Donald Trump doesn’t matter. He does, in that he can help sharpen those concerns. But Hillary is the main event.
The polls bear this out. Aside from his recent convention bump, Mr. Trump’s numbers have been largely consistent. Whether he leads or trails, and by how much, is mostly a function of voters’ shifting views on Mrs. Clinton. Lately her poll numbers have been devastating.
A CNN survey this week showed 68% of voters say she isn’t honest and trustworthy—an all-time high. CBS found virtually the same number: 67%. In the CNN poll, meanwhile, only 39% of voters said they held a favorable view of Mrs. Clinton. This is lower than any time CNN has polled Hillary since the spring of 1992—before she was first lady.
Mr. Trump’s poll numbers also bear this out. He is currently leading in the Real Clear Politics average despite no real ground game, little real fundraising, little policy message, a divided conservative electorate, and one of the messiest conventions on record. As of June 30, Mrs. Clinton and her allies had raised a stunning $600 million, which is already being spent to trash Mr. Trump. Yet to little or no effect. Mr. Trump is hardly a potted plant, but even if he were . . .
Mrs. Clinton’s problem is Mrs. Clinton. She is running against her own ethical morass. Already she was asking voters to forget about cattle futures and fake sniper fire and Whitewater and Travelgate. Then she chose to vividly revive the public nausea with her self-serving email stunt and her Clinton Foundation money grubbing.
Oh, she tried to roll out the usual Clinton defense: that this was just part of a renewed attack by political enemies. Yet the neutral inspector general of the State Department slammed her handling of official email; the FBI director (who works for Barack Obama) attested that she was careless with classified information; and she was caught on tape telling a series of lies about the situation. All of which makes it tough to blame the vast right-wing conspiracy. Tim Kaine’s many assurances that he “trusts” Mrs. Clinton was the campaign’s public acknowledgment that almost no one else in the nation does.
Hillary is running, too, against the reality of President Obama policies, which she promises not only to continue, but to build on. The president’s glowing appraisalWednesday night of his time in office bore no relation to the country most Americans see—one in which health care costs more than ever, they struggle to pay the bills, and terror attacks on Western democracies are a weekly event. The state of the country might not be quite so grim as Mr. Trump painted it in Cleveland, but the mood is much closer to that grimness than to Mr. Obama’s forced optimism.
The president’s policies, which Mrs. Clinton now owns, have alienated significant tranches of voters that she needs this fall—in particular blue-collar Democrats. Coal communities are rejecting Hillary outright. Many union workers are too, whether they be Teamsters for Trump, or police officers appalled by the Democratic Party’s attacks on their profession.
Mrs. Clinton is trying to win back that blue-collar support by moving sharply on issues like free trade, but she’ll be hard pressed to out-populist Mr. Trump on that score. Whatever Bill says, Americans do not look at Hillary and see “change”—at least not the kind of change they are after.
Mrs. Clinton will continue to warn that her opponent is a threat, to try to worry voters enough that they overcome their misgivings about her. Mr. Trump can certainly make that job easier for her. Conversely, he can help his own numbers and campaign by focusing precisely on her vulnerabilities, and by presenting a stronger policy agenda of his own.Hillary is also running against her own party, which has moved left without her. She has chased after progressives, adopting one position after another from Bernie Sanders,feting Elizabeth Warren, working “progressive” into every sentence. But this week showed that her party’s liberal wing is unconvinced, still feeling the Bern. Yes, she has done some uniting in Philly, and will likely get her own bump. At the same time, 45% of Democrats who voted in the primary told that CNN pollster they still wish Sanders were the nominee.
Mrs. Clinton is ultimately banking that a significant number of Americans won’t be able to vote for Mr. Trump. Certainly some won’t. But a dislike of Mr. Trump does not imply a like of Mrs. Clinton—and certainly not a vote for Mrs. Clinton.
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