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« on: September 29, 2016, 05:02:34 PM » |
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________________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 9-27-2016 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription ________________________________________
Mid-Day Digest
Sep. 27, 2016
THE FOUNDATION
“Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” —Thomas Jefferson (1822)
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS Grading the First Debate1
As we have said before2, voters are tasked this year with electing a candidate who is less unfit than the other. That was abundantly clear in last night’s first, generally awful presidential debate between Hillary Clinton3 and Donald Trump4, the two most unpopular candidates in American history.
Trump began well enough, with measured temperament, hitting a number of the themes that won him the nomination. He landed good punches on several things — Clinton has experience but it’s bad experience, her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal came only after his, and especially how she and Barack Obama created the vacuum5 that allowed for the rise of the Islamic State.
Unfortunately, Trump was also his usual pinball self, giving wandering, sometimes downright incoherent answers. That meant he failed to land a couple of key blows against Clinton. For example, even though he slammed her email6 as “not a mistake,” he didn’t get to the core issue of her illegal and obfuscating behavior, or the systemic corruption that allowed her to get away with it. And though it was a brilliant stroke to demand Clinton release her 33,000 deleted emails in exchange for his tax returns, he also babbled on and on about being “extremely underleveraged” and so forth, sounding like an out-of-touch rich guy. Why not attack the Clinton Foundation instead? Worse, when Clinton accused him of not paying federal income taxes, he said, “That makes me smart.” He practically confirmed Clinton’s charge — she couldn’t have asked for more.
In general, Trump took way too much of the bait Clinton (and moderator Lester Holt) threw his way. In too many answers, instead of digging into the issues that resonate with Americans — the disastrous Obama-Clinton record of a lackluster economy and foreign policy disasters around the world — he ended up trying to explain the “small loan” ($14 million!) from his father, or why his insults of Rosie O'Donnell were exactly what she deserved. That only served to make him look like the rich snob and misogynist bully Clinton said he is.
All that said, the “vibe” he communicated was quintessential Trump, and it has served him well. The overall takeaway is that America is headed in the wrong direction and Clinton will only continue that path. Trump, on the other hand, can fix it.
As for Clinton, she clearly prepared well. She was so proud of her own preparation, in fact, that she openly boasted about it. Hillary rattled off a State of the Union-worthy list of federal programs and leftist grab-bag items she’d implement or grow. She harped on inequality and how Trump wasn’t for the middle class. She sounded like she knew what she was talking about. But for those of us who actually remember the details of her career, it was nothing but lies, sprinkled with divisive race-, class- and sex-bait. Trump “has a long record of engaging in racist behavior,” she charged. She might as well have called him deplorable7.
Arguably, Clinton prepared too well, because her vibe was one of robotic rehearsal. You could almost see her thinking, “This is the part where I smile and wait.” She awkwardly delivered insults (“Trumped-up trickle-down economics”) and was oddly impersonal in recounting her personal story of her father’s small business record. Hillary is a lying phony, and that came through loud and clear.
Finally, Lester Holt was both obviously and discreetly on Clinton’s side throughout the night. (What else would we expect from Leftmedia moderators8?) He ran interference for Clinton several times — twice with overt “fact checks” on Donald Trump, and once by admonishing the audience after many cheered for Trump’s attack on Clinton’s email. Holt did not similarly admonish the audience for cheering for Hillary. In one confrontation on “stop and frisk” policing, Holt was visibly angry with Trump as he challenged the candidate — and Holt misrepresented the facts, to boot.
Holt’s influence was also blatantly obvious in the topics he chose (and didn’t choose). He asked Trump about Obama’s birth certificate, Trump’s questionable position on the Iraq war (but not Hillary’s), and his tax returns. Holt did not ask either candidate about ObamaCare, immigration, the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi, Clinton’s email (except to invite her to respond to Trump) or her “basket of deplorables” slander of a quarter of the American population. Holt steered clear of anything that would be inconvenient for Clinton. More than that, one of his questions essentially boiled down to this: “Secretary Clinton is historically awesome. Why don’t you think so?”
Holt clearly got the Clinton memo appealing for such help, and he heard loud and clear the message behind the Left’s eviscerating of Matt Lauer after the NBC forum9.
All told, the debate was a complete disservice to the American people. A blatantly biased moderator faced off against one of two unfit candidates, neither of whom successfully made the case that they should be trusted as the leader of the free world. And we’re asked to sort it out. Welcome to 2016. Don’t Miss Patriot Humor
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BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
Stephen Moore: Bernie Clinton12 Thomas Sowell: ‘Favors’ to Blacks13 Todd Starnes: Walmart Workers Refuse to Make Cop’s Retirement Cake14
For more, visit Right Opinion15.
TOP HEADLINES
Federal Judge Tosses Union Wisconsin Right to Work Challenge16 Blue Cross Pulls Out of Tenn. ObamaCare Markets17 Clemson University Bans ‘Any Reference to Harambe’18
For more, visit Patriot Headline Report19.
The Reason Clinton Was Never Indicted20
By Paul Albaugh
Move along, nothing to see here. That is what Hillary Clinton hoped would happen regarding her gross mishandling of classified information and her illegal use of a private email server. In July, FBI Director James Comey declared the FBI investigation complete21 and announced that there would be no charges. Let’s just move along with the election process, shall we?
As baffling as this fiasco is to most Americans, there didn’t appear to be any logical reason why the FBI didn’t recommend charges against Clinton. But on Friday, following 189 additional pages of reports from the FBI’s yearlong incursion into the scandal, the reason has been uncovered. And it should not bode well for the sitting U.S. president or for Clinton.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy reports22 that Clinton’s closest aide and confidante Huma Abedin was shown an email exchange between then-Secretary Clinton and a second person whose name she did not recognize. Abedin exclaimed, “How is this not marked classified?” Then the FBI agents did something that they should not do during an interview with an individual who is part of an investigation: They revealed the name of the pseudonymous person — the president of the United States, Barack Obama.
McCarthy reasons that this “obviously suggests that his recklessness may have been more widespread.” Further, he notes, “Still, the difference in scale is not a difference in kind. In terms of the federal laws that criminalize mishandling of classified information, Obama not only engaged in the same type of misconduct Clinton did; he engaged in it with Clinton. It would not have been possible for the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton for her offense without its becoming painfully apparent that 1) Obama, too, had done everything necessary to commit a violation of federal law, and 2) the communications between Obama and Clinton were highly relevant evidence.”
But because the president of the United States was involved, there had to be a massive cover-up. Some might even call it the “Hillary Coverup Operation23.” If Clinton were to have been charged for mishandling classified information then her defense lawyers surely would have pointed out that the president must be charged likewise. All they would have needed to look to was the case Nixon vs. the United States and they would have won the argument.
McCarthy notes that the FBI violated protocols by disclosing to Abedin the name of the person using the pseudonym. “The point of an FBI interview is for the interviewee to provide information to the investigators, not the other way around. If agents give information to potential witnesses, the government gets accused of trumping up the case.”
But, as McCarthy point out, this only becomes a problem if there is going to be a case. We now know why there never going to be a case. Because if there was, then there would have been public embarrassment and discredit brought upon Obama himself, as well as the Justice Department and the FBI. It might be a little late to be worried about that.
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