Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/742248
TheGettysburgAddressitwasn't. With little more than two weeks remain- ing for him to seal the deal with voters still skeptical of his candidacy, Republican Don- ald Trump journeyed to an iconic spot in American political history to deliver what was billed as a broad and sweeping vision for his first 100 days in office. "Itismyprivilegetobe here in Gettysburg, hallowed ground where so many lives were given in service to free- dom —— amazing place," Trump said Saturday. "Presi- dent Lincoln served in a time of division like we've never seen before. It is my hope that we can look at his exam- ple to heal the divisions we are living through right now. We are a very divided nation." And then he promptly stepped on his own message. In a rambling, nearly 15-minute-long preamble, Trump unleashed blistering attacks on his critics and the "corrupt" media he accused of collaborating with Demo- cratic nominee Hillary Clin- ton. He complained of unspe- cific and unproven voter fraud in a "rigged" system in- tended to rob him, and by ex- tension, the voters, of a vic- tory on Nov. 8. He argued Clinton wasn't fit for the presidency. And on cue, his supporters chanted "Lock her up! Lock her up." In a truly classy move, he vowed to sue the 11 women who have come forward to accuse him of improper ad- vances that crossed over into likely sexual assault. And because he's Donald Trump, he promptly whined the next day that the corrupt press was ignoring his meaty policy agenda to focus on the superficial aspects of his speech — as if someone had held him down and forced him to unleash his venomous and offensive tirade. But imagine for a moment if Trump had skipped his opening primal scream and cut right to the issues. To his eternal surprise, he might have found that quite a few voters agree that Washington is a swamp in need of drain- ing. Among other things, he proposed a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Con- gress; a lifetime ban on lob- bying by former White House officials on behalf of foreign governments; a 5-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and ex-White House officials and a total ban on foreign lobbyists rais- ing money for domestic elec- tions. They might have liked his familiar, and well-parsed plan, to reform and simplify the tax code, perhaps hand- ing a "35 percent tax reduc- tion" to the average, middle- class family (never mind that its underlying math has re- peatedly been found want- ing). Voters might even have been receptive to his empha- sis on school choice and his pledges to level the playing field on international trade and to revive the manufactur- ing and energy sectors. And they might even have found something to like in his vow to rebuild the mili- tary and appoint conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead of running six points behind Clinton nation- ally, and by wider margins in such key battleground states as Pennsylvania, Americans might have been treated to an entirely different kind of presidential campaign. Instead, they got Trump. And, evoking the true spirit of Lincoln, perhaps the most voters can hope for is that "the world will little note nor long remember" what the Re- publican nominee said in Gettysburg over the weekend. The problem for Repub- licans, of course, is that Trumpism will outlast Trump. And if they lose the White House and U.S. Senate on Election Day and see their majorities in the U.S. House eroded, they'll be looking at an entirely different part of Honest Abe's speech. That's the one where they fret about making sure that the Grand Old Party, as they currently know it, does "not perish from the earth." Anaward-winningpolitical journalist, Micek is the Opinion Editor and Political Columnist for PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek and email him at jmicek@ pennlive.com. JohnMicek Trumpburies ideas behind insults and attacks Cartoonist's take What if all, even most, of the polls are wrong? The bet- ter question is "What if the polling averages and poll-driven narratives are bi- ased—more im- portantly, inten- tionally skewed to the point of in- accuracy?" What is the likelihood that such skew- ing is designed to portray a seemingly insurmountable lead for Hillary Clinton; and that the dispirited reaction among Republican voters and conservative thought-leaders is actually the intended result? Hang in for a few revelations on polling. I then want to focus on what, to majorities of voters, are the manifest disqualifica- tions of Hillary Clinton to hold office. Vast numbers of Demo- crats, while agreeing in the par- ticulars, dismiss the logical con- clusions of the manifest flaws in her character and record. In general, most voters, including many Democrats, simply don't trust Clinton, consider her to be duplicitous and cannot name a single major accomplishment— not from her time as First Lady, her U.S. Senate term nor her reign as the architect, the Sec- retary of State, of America's for- eign policy. First, I'll summarize hours of mathematical dissection of NBC (with the Wall Street Journal or Survey Monkey), ABC/Washington Post, and Quinnipiac University polls. They are over-sampling Dem- ocrats (by 20 to 30 percent), women over men (53 to 47 per- cent), union-households (at 21 percent, twice the actual rate of unionized workers), and mi- norities; and they somehow marginalize the tendency of Independents to favor Trump. Just one revealing question in an NBC poll, on page 24 question F1b/c, asks for whom they voted in 2012. The sample of voters, used by NBC, voted for Obama 59 percent, to 41 percent for Romney (after re- moving those who didn't know or voted for someone else). Obama won by 4 points, 51 to 47 percent. So we are supposed to think that Hillary Clinton is way ahead based on survey respondents who voted over- whelmingly for Obama in the last election. In the Quinnipiac Univer- sity poll, Hillary was ahead by 6 points but heavily favored by Republicans and Indepen- dents. When I adjusted and equalized the number of re- spondents, Hillary was only ahead by 2 points. They "over- sampled" Democrats for Hill- ary's lead. The most accurate poll- ing (out of 18 pollsters rated by 538's Nate Silver) last elec- tion was by Investor's Business Daily, which had Trump ahead by 2 (Sat.), ahead 1 (Sun.), and tied on Monday. "LA Times/ USC Tracking" polling was done by RAND, the 4th most accurate pollster in 2012. That poll has had a small lead for Trump alternating with, as on Monday, a 1 point Clin- ton lead. Rasmussen and Re- uters polling has shown a 1 or 2 point Trump lead for most of the last week. Folks, the race is neck and neck, within the margin of error, or "tighter than a tick" as folksy Dan Rather (who peddled phony anti-George Bush documents) would say. Here are a few facts for you to take to heart before you even think about voting for Hillary Clinton (please remem- ber that liberals in general, Robert Minch in particular, think you are insane, unintelli- gent or both to vote for Donald Trump). In addition to plac- ing untold amounts of top se- cret, classified information on unsecured servers and devices and in hack-able emails, Hill- ary compromised methods, as- sets and undercover agents in brutal countries. An ambassa- dor and 3 Americans died be- cause she dismissed hundreds of requests for additional pro- tection. She lied to the faces of their families and lied about the phony culpability of an anti-Muslim video. As if to emphasize her fla- grant disregard for classi- fied information, Hillary Clin- ton revealed in the last debate the never-before-publicized se- cret "time to respond" to a nu- clear threat. National secu- rity experts across the nation were shocked at such irrespon- sibility. Look up "Hillary Clinton's Insidious Threat to Tradi- tional Christianity" by Tyler O'Neil. "Last April, Clinton in- famously declared that 'deep- seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed' in order to make way for abortion and other forms of 'reproductive health care.'" That is despotic, "vee vill make you" language about accepting all abortions, at every stage of pregnancy up to a day before delivery, paid by taxpayers, performed in church-owned hospitals— or else. If you are Catholic, numer- ous statements hateful to your faith have been made pub- lic. "Clinton and her associ- ates have demonstrated a con- tempt for traditional religious beliefs and an insidious ef- fort to change them by what- ever means necessary." Sandy Newman (Voices for Progress) wrote to John Podesta in Feb- ruary 2012, wanting a "Catho- lic Spring," as if the reluctance to accept "gender equality" (described elsewhere as "se- verely backwards gender rela- tions" i.e. traditional marriage) and the Pope-centric "mid- dle ages dictatorship" needed overthrowing—like the back- ward Muslim practices of the Middle East. Podesta bragged that he'd already tried to in- duce the rejection of long- standing doctrine through the George Soros-funded Catho- lics in Alliance for the Com- mon Good. "In a speech given in De- cember 2011, Clinton openly compared religious opposi- tion to the LGBT agenda to honor killings, widow burn- ing and female genital muti- lation." Similar beliefs were in emails from 2011 and 2012, and speeches in 2011 and 2015. Clinton told the LGBT maga- zine, The Advocate, this year that she will fight against laws written to protect religious conscience objections to trans- gender agenda acceptance. You will be made to agree. I urge you to look up "Hillary Clinton: Architect of Failure" by Lt. General (retired) Keith Kellogg. He makes the irrefut- able case against her horren- dous foreign policy record. A phone bank is set up at our party's office, 710 Main St. Volunteer by calling 864-6685. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it Question polls; race 'tight as a tick' But imagine for a moment if Trump had skipped his opening primal scream and cut right to the issues. To his eternal surprise, he might have found that quite a few voters agree that Washington is a swamp in need of draining. Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. That'sagreatthingbutifyoudon'tmakeall the dirty, rude druggies leave and stay away that live at the River Park and now over at Diamond Park, what's the point. I'm not talking about the people that are homeless due to mental illness or being down on their luck, I'm talking about the rude ones who beg and pester people... Amanda Roberts Roades: On upgrades to playground equipment approved for River Park I realize it was a piece of history. If it was that important why didn't the owner put money into it and repair it so it might still be standing today. I was raised in Corning and remember that building and the people that rented parts of it moved because the owner wouldn't do upgrades. It's sad that it's gone but now it's a piece of history? Linda Spencer : On the destruction of the Kaufman Building in Corning due to fire Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415393- 0707, fax 415393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510286-8537, fax 202224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 Your officials Don Polson OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, October 25, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4