GOP KEEPS CONGRESS IN 2016 ELECTION; REFERENDUM ON CORRUPTION

GOP MAINTAINS CONTROL OF CONGRESS IN 2016:

IT'S A REFERENDUM ON CORRUPTION.

THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN.

Sources: CNN, Bloomberg Politics, YouTube


**** Republicans keep control of Congress

Republicans won virtually all the battlegrounds needed to keep the Senate majority
The Donald Trump wave helped several incumbents hold on to their seats
Republicans pulled off a political stunner Tuesday night -- running the table down-ballot and keeping control of the House and Senate, CNN projects.

In a year when the GOP was almost entirely on defense, the party's incumbents -- many outspent and hobbled by struggling campaigns -- managed to survive a political landscape that long appeared all but certain to cost them the Senate.

Democrats believed they had the perfect mix: Near-locks in blue Illinois and Wisconsin. Top-grade recruits in red states Indiana and Missouri to get them close. And Donald Trump would drag down Republican incumbents in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and North Carolina.

Then, on Tuesday night, everything went wrong for them.

The biggest surprise is that Trump was no drag on the GOP ticket at all -- and might have even helped carry the party.

Trump's margin of victory matched or exceeded those of Todd Young in Indiana and Sen. Richard Burr in North Carolina. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who embraced Trump despite expectations the GOP nominee lose his historically Democratic-leaning state, surged late in the race and benefited from Trump's stunning performance there. Incumbents Roy Blunt in Missouri and Pat Toomey won as well, CNN projects.

As of 3 a.m. ET, Republicans held 51 seats to 47 for the Democrats.

The Democrats' lone bright spots were knocking off Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk and holding retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's seat in Nevada with a victory by Catherine Cortez Masto. There is still a chance in New Hampshire, where GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Maggie Hassan were neck-and-neck at votes were still being counted.

But there's nothing that will lessen the sting for Democrats.

The Republicans easily held the House, and on a night party officials were confident they'd tip the balance of power in the Senate, Republicans not only remain the majority party -- but appear to head into the 2018 midterms with a map so favorable that a filibuster-proof, 60-seat supermajority is within reach.

The magnitude of the GOP's down-ballot victories was stunning. Its incumbents held seats most Republicans began the 2016 election cycle assuming were lost in some states and overcame weak campaigns in others.

In Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio -- whose late decision to seek re-election after his failed presidential bid was a boon to the GOP's chances of keeping the Senate -- will best Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, CNN projects. Republican Sen. Rob Portman will also win re-election in Ohio, CNN projects. He ran what's likely the best Republican campaign of the cycle -- turning what was expected to be a close race with Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland into a likely blowout.

Indiana delivered major a blow to Democrats' hopes. Former governor and senator Evan Bayh's late entry was expected to turn the state into a guaranteed pickup -- but scrutiny over his residency and lobbying work catapulted Republican Rep. Todd Young to victory, CNN projects.

Democrats picked off one of the five seats they need when Tammy Duckworth defeated Republican Sen. Mark Kirk in Illinois. That race was always a challenge for Kirk, who won Illinois in the 2010 Tea Party wave in the mid-term elections.

(CNN)Republicans pulled off a political stunner Tuesday night -- running the table down-ballot and keeping control of the House and Senate, CNN projects.

In a year when the GOP was almost entirely on defense, the party's incumbents -- many outspent and hobbled by struggling campaigns -- managed to survive a political landscape that long appeared all but certain to cost them the Senate.

Democrats believed they had the perfect mix: Near-locks in blue Illinois and Wisconsin. Top-grade recruits in red states Indiana and Missouri to get them close. And Donald Trump would drag down Republican incumbents in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and North Carolina.


Then, on Tuesday night, everything went wrong for them.

The biggest surprise is that Trump was no drag on the GOP ticket at all -- and might have even helped carry the party.

Trump's margin of victory matched or exceeded those of Todd Young in Indiana and Sen. Richard Burr in North Carolina. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who embraced Trump despite expectations the GOP nominee lose his historically Democratic-leaning state, surged late in the race and benefited from Trump's stunning performance there. Incumbents Roy Blunt in Missouri and Pat Toomey won as well, CNN projects.

As of 3 a.m. ET, Republicans held 51 seats to 47 for the Democrats.

The Democrats' lone bright spots were knocking off Illinois Republican Sen. Mark Kirk and holding retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's seat in Nevada with a victory by Catherine Cortez Masto. There is still a chance in New Hampshire, where GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Maggie Hassan were neck-and-neck at votes were still being counted.

But there's nothing that will lessen the sting for Democrats.

The Republicans easily held the House, and on a night party officials were confident they'd tip the balance of power in the Senate, Republicans not only remain the majority party -- but appear to head into the 2018 midterms with a map so favorable that a filibuster-proof, 60-seat supermajority is within reach.

The magnitude of the GOP's down-ballot victories was stunning. Its incumbents held seats most Republicans began the 2016 election cycle assuming were lost in some states and overcame weak campaigns in others.

In Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio -- whose late decision to seek re-election after his failed presidential bid was a boon to the GOP's chances of keeping the Senate -- will best Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, CNN projects. Republican Sen. Rob Portman will also win re-election in Ohio, CNN projects. He ran what's likely the best Republican campaign of the cycle -- turning what was expected to be a close race with Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland into a likely blowout.

Indiana delivered major a blow to Democrats' hopes. Former governor and senator Evan Bayh's late entry was expected to turn the state into a guaranteed pickup -- but scrutiny over his residency and lobbying work catapulted Republican Rep. Todd Young to victory, CNN projects.

Democrats picked off one of the five seats they need when Tammy Duckworth defeated Republican Sen. Mark Kirk in Illinois. That race was always a challenge for Kirk, who won Illinois in the 2010 Tea Party wave in the mid-term elections.

View this interactive content on CNN.com
Control of the Senate will be key to the early successes of a Trump administration. In theory, controlling Congress and the White House will let the GOP swiftly pass legislation that reverses many of Obama's policies.

Republicans holding their own

Republicans faced a daunting task at the outset of the 2016 election cycle: They held 24 of the 34 seats on the ballot -- meaning many more to defend.

But strong GOP candidates have helped the party pull some contests in presidential swing states off the board such as Florida and Ohio.

In Florida, Rubio's loss in the presidential primary turned out to be the GOP's gain, as he held on to that seat.

Two other former GOP presidential candidates also won their Senate re-election bids, CNN projects. Sen. Rand Paul won in Kentucky, as did 2008 nominee John McCain in Arizona.

In Georgia, Sen. Johnny Isakson was struggling earlier in the year, but he will defeat Democratic challenger Jim Barksdale, CNN projects.

Two more Republicans who were expected to be safe -- Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr -- found themselves in closer races than expected.

In North Carolina, Burr's late fundraising start -- combined with the Clinton campaign's focus there -- allowed Democrat Ross to turn the state into a toss-up, but he won impressively.

And in Missouri, Secretary of State Jason Kander has run one of the strongest Democratic campaigns -- punctuated by a TV spot that featured the military veteran rebutting attack ads from the National Rifle Association by assembling an AR-15 rifle while blindfolded. But it doesn't appear to be enough to defeat Blunt.

Blame Comey?

Clinton's recent troubles, including the late focus on her email server, may have hurt Democrats down ballot.

House Democrats remain frustrated with FBI Director James Comey, who made a revelation 11 days before the election that the bureau was once again looking into emails potentially tied to its investigation of Clinton. Democrats believe his announcement provided down-ballot Republicans an opportunity to shift topics and attack Clinton, rather than defend Trump.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that Comey "became the leading political operative in the country -- wittingly or unwittingly."

Pelosi blamed Comey for costing Democrats a shot at winning Republican seats across the country, saying he created "more of an obstacle that we hope to overcome" but adding, "it's difficult."

TRUMP WINS 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL RACE - IT'S A REFERENDUM ON CORRUPTION

DONALD J. TRUMP WINS 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL RACE; HILLARY CONCEDES:

TRUMP'S VICTORY WAS A REFERENDUM ON CORRUPTION.


Sources: Bloomberg Politics, CNN, Fox News, Youtube


Donald Trump will become the 45th president of the United States, CNN projects, a historic victory for outsiders that represents a stunning repudiation of Washington's political establishment.

The billionaire real estate magnate and former reality star needed an almost perfect run through the swing states -- and he got it, winning Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.

The Republican swept to victory over Hillary Clinton in the ultimate triumph for a campaign that repeatedly shattered the conventions of politics to pull off a remarkable upset. Clinton conceded to Trump in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Speaking at a victory party in New York, Trump was gracious toward Clinton and called for unity.

"We owe (Clinton) a very major debt of gratitude to her for her service to our country," Trump said. "I say it is time for us to come together as one united people."

He added: "I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans."

Trump won with 288 electoral votes compared to 215 for Clinton, according to CNN projections.

Trump's supporters embraced his plainspoken style, assault on political correctness and vow to crush what he portrayed in the final days of his campaign as a corrupt, globalized elite -- epitomized by the Clintons -- that he claimed conspired to keep hard-working Americans down.

His winning coalition of largely white, working-class voters suggests a populace desperate for change and disillusioned with an entire generation of political leaders and the economic and political system itself.

Now, Trump faces the task of uniting a nation traumatized by the ugliest campaign in modern history and ripped apart by political divides exacerbated by his own explosive rhetoric -- often along the most tender national fault lines such as race and gender.

Trump is sure to follow his own playbook

Trump will be the first president to enter the White House with no political, diplomatic or military executive experience. His victory will send shockwaves around the world, given his sparse foreign policy knowledge, haziness over nuclear doctrine, vow to curtail Muslim immigration and disdain for US alliances that have been the bedrock of the post-World War II foreign policy.

His promises to renegotiate or dump trade deals such as NAFTA and to brand China a currency manipulator risk triggering immediate economic shocks around the globe.

Global markets already began tumbling late Tuesday.

Trump, 70, will be the oldest president ever sworn in for a first term and will take the helm of a nation left deeply divided by his scorched-earth campaign. His victory was built on fierce anger at the Washington establishment and political elites among his grass-roots voters, many of whom feel they are the victims of a globalized economy that has resulted in the loss of millions of jobs.

His victory ends Clinton's crusade to become the first woman to ever rise to the nation's highest office. It's a humiliating chapter in the long political career of Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Trump's win also deals a painful rebuke to President Barack Obama, whom he pursued for years with his birtherism campaign built on the false premise that Obama was born outside the United States. Now Trump will have the power to eviscerate Obama's political legacy -- including the Affordable Care Act, the latter's proudest domestic achievement.

But there are deeper, more fundamental questions about Trump's presidency that will be key to his capacity to unify a deeply divided country and appeal to Americans who will feel outraged and disgusted by his victory.

He's got the attention of the whole world

Trump's campaign was built on rage, falsehoods and singling out culprits for the ills of modern America, including undocumented migrants, foreign nations such as China and Muslim immigrants.

He mocked a disabled New York Times reporter, vowed to use the power of the presidency to put Clinton in jail and pledged to sue women who accused him of sexual assault.

Trump has promised to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it, and to deport undocumented migrants. He has vowed to reintroduce interrogation methods for terror suspects that are more extreme than waterboarding.

So the demeanor that Trump will adopt as president and the manner in which he will behave will be closely watched -- not just in the United States, but among nervous leaders abroad.

One of the many uncertainties about Trump's coming presidency is how his White House will interact with Republicans in Congress — and whether he and GOP leaders will heal their rift from the campaign.

Republicans repelled a Democratic bid to recapture the Senate, giving the GOP control over Capitol Hill and the White House.

That means it would fall to the GOP either to rubber stamp policies likely to mark a break from conservative orthodoxy or to provide a check on the power of Trump, who has shown every sign he will use executive power aggressively.

House Speaker Paul Ryan will face intense pressure from pro-Trump members of his own coalition to cooperate with the new president.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to hold Trump's feet to the fire to ensure he lives up to his promise to appoint justices who could ensure a generational conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Clinton apparently failed to reassemble the diverse coalition that helped Obama win the presidency in 2008 and 2012.

The events of Clinton's terrible final week on the campaign -- the revival of her email controversy by FBI Chief James Comey and a damaging drip, drip, drip of revelations by WikiLeaks which her campaign says was orchestrated by Russian intelligence -- could have helped consign her to defeat.

There also is the question of Trump's temperament. Clinton repeatedly warned that he was unfit to control the nuclear codes because he could be baited with a tweet.

Obama passionately denounced Trump as intellectually and temperamentally unfit to succeed him in the Oval Office.

But now, he will be forced to greet his successor on the morning of Inauguration Day in January, and look on while he is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

VOTING IN NC - DIRTY DEMOCRAT POLITICS (ABSENTEE BALLOTS)

VOTING IN NC - DIRTY DEMOCRAT POLITICS (ABSENTEE BALLOTS):

GET OUT AND VOTE - NOV 8, 2016.


Sources: NCvoter.org, Youtube


For the 2016 General Election my husband and I faxed our Absentee Ballots from Hawaii to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Elections.

We voted for the REPUBLICAN Party because we are born again Christians.

However North Carolina DEMOCRATS are still using Dirty Politics to discount ballots cast for the GOP.


***** What if I can’t vote in person?

If you can’t make it to the polls on Election Day, you have the option to send your vote via mail using an absentee ballot.

To request an absentee ballot, you or a near relative must submit an Absentee Ballot request form to your county Board of Elections (be sure the request is signed).

This request can be made as early as 50 days before the election, but it must be received at the county Board’s office at least 7 days before Election Day, by 5 PM.

http://www.ncvoter.org/voting-in-nc/

ANOTHER ENDORSEMENT FOR DONALD TRUMP (GREENVILLE, SC DEBATE)

GOP GREENVILLE, SC DEBATE: FEBRUARY 13, 9:00pm ET:

ANOTHER ENDORSEMENT FOR DONALD TRUMP (2016 GOP TSUNAMI)

THE GOP'S PLATFORM REPRESENTS OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL.

While covering the most recent GOP Debate in the beautiful city of Greenville, South Carolina, I announce my official endorsement of Donald Trump for U.S. President.

In the event Mr Trump is not the nominee, my endorsement of the GOP's 2016 platform will not be revoked.

The GOP's national represents Opportunity for all.

As we approach the general election in November, I encourage other BLACK voters to dismiss any negative, Racist rhetoric they've heard about the Republican Party and strongly consider showing support for a political party that wants to see all American citizens experience Success versus waiting on the Federal gov't to prop them up.

2016 is a year of Tsunami Victory for the GOP.

BLACK voters need to wake up and join a Winning team before it's too late.

**** How To Watch Tonight's CBS News Republican Debate In South Carolina

On Saturday night, the remaining Republican presidential candidates will gather in Greenville, South Carolina for their first debate since this week's New Hampshire primaries.

This will be the last debate before South Carolina's Republican primary on Feb. 20, and it will take place at the Peace Center in Greenville, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.

These candidates have been invited to the debate: businessman Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

The candidates will face off just days after New Hampshire's nominating contest, where Trump swept the competition with 35 percent of the votes. Kasich came in second with 16 percent, Cruz finished with 12 percent. Bush and Rubio were the only other candidates to garner double-digit support, with 11 percent each.

Since the New Hampshire primaries, former tech executive Carly Fiorina, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore have withdrawn from the race.

"Face the Nation" host and CBS News political director John Dickerson will serve as the main moderator for the debate. He will be joined by two panelists: CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett and The Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel.

CBS News will offer multi-platform coverage of the debate, with extensive coverage before, during, and after the debate via CBSN, the network's 24/7 digital streaming news service.

CBSN will also offer a special 9:00 PM broadcast of the debate that will include enhanced graphics to showcase real-time Google Trends data and a curated Twitter stream.

To catch a preview of Saturday's debate stage, take a look at this 360-degree view of the stage, taken from Donald Trump's center podium.

Sources: CBS News, The Hill, YouTube

CONSERVATIVES ARE DESTROYING GOP'S CHANCES OF REGAINING WHITE HOUSE IN 2016 (NATIONAL REVIEW)

@NationalReview

CONSERVATIVES ARE DESTROYING GOP'S CHANCES OF REGAINING WHITE HOUSE (NATIONAL REVIEW):

CONSERVATIVES WANT TO DETER BLACK VOTERS FROM SUPPORTING TRUMP.

ATTACKING TRUMP IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE & FOOLISH.

WHO IS PAYING OFF CONSERVATIVE LEADERS TO SABOTAGE GOP?


Conservatism or the Conservative movement originated in the 15th century.

Traditional values are the bedrock and foundation of the Conservative movement.

Some founding fathers of the Conservative movement are Edmund Burke, Qutin Hogg, Richard Hook and François-René de Chateaubriand.

Conservatism is a far right-wing faction of the Republican Party, just as Liberalism & Progressives are the far left-wing of Democrats.

During the elections of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush we didn't hear much about Conservative, Liberal or Progressive voters in the Mainstream Media.
Only Democrat and Republican Party voters.

However during the 2008 and 2012 elections when OBAMA was campaigning to become U.S. President suddenly Liberals, Progressives and Conservatives were introduced in American politics.

Following the 2008 election, Conservative leaders now require all GOP Presidential and Congressional candidates to pass a "Conservative litmus test".

It's clear such divisive factions of both major political parties do more harm than good during general elections because these factions create Political Civil Wars.

As we approach the 2016 general election, Conservative leaders and a popular Conservative publication (National Review) threatens to destroy the GOP's real chances of regaining victory.

Conservative leaders and the National Review are attacking presumptive GOP Presidential nominee DONALD J. TRUMP.

Without invoking any Conspiracy Theory rumors, there appear to be some possible Dirty Politics at play.

For example: Promises or deals discussed behind closed doors to help Hillary Clinton win by default.

So is it more important for GOP leaders and GOP Supporters to actually WIN in Nov 2016?

Or is it more important for a small group of GOP leaders and GOP voters to have their own way and risk losing EVERYTHING in Nov 2016??


*** Conservatives Against Trump

As the election of 2008 approached, America was in crisis.
And as we would soon learn, that crisis would not go to waste.

Years after Bill Clinton disingenuously claimed that the era of big government was over, Obama won his party’s nomination by promising its furious revenge.

For constitutional conservatives, the Republican contest functioned less like a primary and more like an abandonment.
Politically orphaned by their party, conservatives were forced to either stay home or hold their noses and vote for a progressive Republican.

There was a silver lining, however. Rising out of the ashes of that electoral defeat came the Tea Party.
The media struggled to explain it away as racist, xenophobic, and jingoistic. But the truth is, the Tea Party did not arise because Barack Obama defeated his opposition. It arose because there was no opposition.

Over the years, there have been endless fractures in the façade of individual freedom, but three policies provided the fuel that lit the tea-party fire: the stimulus, the auto bailouts, and the bank bailouts. Barack Obama supported all three.

So did Donald Trump. While conservatives fought against the stimulus, Donald Trump said it was “what we need,” praising Obama’s schemes of “building infrastructure, building great projects, putting people to work in that sense.”

While conservatives fought against the auto bailouts, Donald Trump claimed “the government should stand behind [the auto companies] 100 percent” because “they make wonderful products.”

While conservatives fought against the bank bailouts, Donald Trump called them “something that has to get done.” Let his reasoning sink in for a second:

“[The government] can take over companies, and, frankly, take big chunks of companies.” When conservatives desperately needed allies in the fight against big government, Donald Trump didn’t stand on the sidelines.

He consistently advocated that your money be spent, that your government grow, and that your Constitution be ignored. Sure, Trump’s potential primary victory would provide Hillary Clinton with the easiest imaginable path to the White House.

But it’s far worse than that. If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, there will once again be no opposition to an ever-expanding government.

This is a crisis for conservatism. And, once again, this crisis will not go to waste.



Sources: National Review, Newsmax, Youtube

REINCE PREIBUS IS CONFIDENT ABOUT BLACK & LATINO VOTER OUTREACH; PROMISES NO PARTY COUP

** REINCE PREIBUS IS CONFIDENT ABOUT BLACK & LATINO VOTER OUTREACH; PROMISES NO PARTY COUP:

DONALD TRUMP'S CHARISMA ATTRACTS MINORITY VOTERS TO GOP.

GOP'S 2016 GROUND GAME FOR NON-WHITE VOTERS IS EXPANSIVE.

~ Republican Party Chairman Says Donald Trump Is Among ‘Varsity’ Candidates

Reince Priebus also promises to be an honest broker at convention

Donald Trump may be giving some in the Republican establishment heartburn, but Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus claims he sees no reason for concern in the bombastic GOP front runner’s candidacy.

“Look at our debates. We’re blowing the doors off these debates,” Priebus told TIME of the Republican nomination race this cycle.

“They’re becoming like World Series–type events that we could never have predicted.

And that will be a good thing for our party, we have to break into the culture of America and we’re doing it.”

Calling Trump a “varsity” candidate, Priebus predicted in advance of this week’s meeting of the 168 members of the RNC that Trump would acquit himself well in a general-election matchup, maintaining that Trump has been a positive force within the GOP primary. “I think that we’ve got sort of the varsity team of candidates out there,

” Priebus said of the 12-person field, adding that the entertainment value has increased the party’s visibility. “I think any one of our candidates can plug into what we’re building and win a cultural vote in this country.”

Priebus’ support comes even as Trump has torn up the 2013 Growth and Opportunity Project report Priebus commission to lead the party back from defeat in 2012.

The document called for more aggressive outreach into minority communities, particularly to Hispanic voters, and explicitly called for comprehensive immigration reform — a position at odds with Trump’s hard-line stances.

In response to the report, the RNC has invested tens of millions of dollars in a permanent field and data operation, which Priebus confidently argued is larger than Hillary Clinton’s vaunted operation. “I think we’re bigger,” he said. “We’ve got more.”

Priebus also maintained he’s unconcerned that the rancorous primary will affect the ultimate nominee, saying it will be “ancient history” in just a few months. “We don’t event remember what happened in August [2015],” he said.

“In a vacuum everything gets over-analyzed, but in the long run I think once you get to a nominee we’re going to have an eternity to bring everything together and get everybody on the same page.”

TIME:  Do you have the sense that this primary process is affecting the party’s chances in the general?

Reince Priebus: We’re charged with putting the ground game and the data operating and the turnout operation together whether voters are excited about the election in 2016 or they’re not excited about 2016.

So, by staying out of the primary, we’ve sort of reaped the benefits from the overall excitement of the base.

Now whether that’s for one candidate or the other is a different story. Those disagreements probably deserve a different analysis.

But as far as recruiting volunteers to get the work done that we need to do, our interest and the interests of our volunteers is off the charts.

And in terms of the rhetoric, you seem unconcerned.

Yeah, I’m confident pulling the party together on message and in elbow grease when this is all over.

Because you know the truth is, when you get to June, July, August, September, October, a month is like a year and a week is like a month. And it’s like an eternity.

And so while we bite our nails and wonder about whether a tough primary is bad for our general-election prospects, or some people think it’s good.

The truth is, I don’t think it matters because there’s so much time involved once you get to a nominee that it’s all sort of ancient history.

Even as I sit here today, July and August is like ancient history.

We don’t event remember what happened in August.

So my point is, in a vacuum everything gets over-analyzed, but in the long run I think once you get to a nominee we’re going to have an eternity to bring everything together and get everybody on the same page.

Does the Clinton operation keep you up at night?

No, because I think we’re bigger. We’ve got more.

And it doesn’t keep me up at night because I know that even if we were able to get to parity with Obama, Mitt Romney would have won.

Even if Romney was able to get to 60%, he would have won.

The problem we’ve got is that if you don’t have a data operation that’s worth a dime, and you’re not in Hispanic, black and Asian communities on a year-round basis, and you’re not targeting your base voters and faith voters and veterans on a year-round basis, you can’t win.

Certainly you can’t win if it’s within a field goal.

You have to get the race within a field goal, and then a sophisticated infrastructure can take you over the top.

So that’s what we’re trying to make sure, that we never embarrass people again with an operation that isn’t up to par with our opponents and that’s what we’ve done.

And we’ve done a good job of it, and no RNC has done better — ever — not even in a presidential year have they done what we’re doing, even by a long shot.

So you need the right candidate to get you in field-goal range. Are you worried that any candidates now can’t get there?

No, I think it’s the opposite. I think that we’ve got sort of the varsity team of candidates out there.

I think any one of our candidates can plug into what we’re building and win a cultural vote in this country.

And that’s our job.

Our job is to make sure whoever that they’ve got something that’s far better than what we had four, eight years ago, and we do.

You’ve said that a lot of the turmoil in this cycle is due to the number of candidates. Is that still the case?

Yeah, certainly, when you have 12 varsity candidates left it makes everything a little bit more complicated, there’s no doubt and I can’t deny that that’s not true — it is true.

But it doesn’t mean that, by the end of March or mid-April, the end of April, that it isn’t going to be very clear.

There’s only so much money to go around, there’s only so long everyone can keep fighting, and at some point I think there’s going to be real clarity, and I think the timing is going to be similar to the timeframe that it’s been in the past.

I know the rules pretty well, I’m pretty confident in how delegates are allocated, I helped write a lot of the rules and I believe that clarity will come very soon.

But you’re planning for a multi-balloted convention.

You obviously prepare for any scenario.

Any serious organization would do something like that, and we’re confident in the process that is in place and also the rules governing the convention and the allocation of delegates.

But, the other thing is we’ve written the rules, we’ve argued over the rules for years, so we understand them.

It’s not like we’re sitting here in a vacuum in a world outside of our own universe.

In other words, we live this world every day.

We have a legal department, I was the former general counsel, I’ve been chairman for six years.

There aren’t too many people who know more about how the rules work than I do or my legal staff, so it’s not like I need some sort of expert help to understand our own governing rules or how our convention might run.

Some supporters of Donald Trump and others have suggested that the RNC could rig the convention.

Either way you’re putting a lot of faith in the convention committees.

Any candidate can come and get a lesson on what the rules are — the RNC and the convention.

The rules are the rules, they’re written, they’re clear, and they’re going to be followed.

There really isn’t — if someone has a majority of delegates in order to win the nomination, they’re going to be the nominee.

The only question is if that isn’t the case, then you’re taking floor votes. And I think that’s highly unlikely, but that’s what would happen if it did.

What of those concerns about fixing the system?

Ultimately if you’ve got the votes on the floor, you’re going to be the nominee. And I think people who’ve known me as chairman — now in my sixth year — I’m about as straight up as anyone that’s anyone that’s ever sat in this office.

I don’t think too many people look at me as a game player, and I’m certainly not hanging out on K-street at cocktail receptions.

A topic in the news today: Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Is he constitutionally eligible to be President?

Listen, I don’t get involved. I’m not going to get in the middle of all these candidate issues. It’s a bad place for me to be. I’ll let all these folks argue about this stuff, and I’m going to stay out of it.

Is there a lesson that the entire GOP can learn from the Trump phenomenon even if he’s not the nominee?

I certainly think that broad truths are something that people are starving for in the country, and I think people are looking for genuine and authentic people, and it’s really important to always be authentic and genuine.

But I also think there are some unique qualities that he has in that he can get earned media in ways that a lot of people aren’t able to do, and that may be unique to him too, so it’s not necessarily something that other people can simply copy.

I think the key is, we’ve got so many good candidates out there that as long as we get to a nominee and we bring the party together, which I’m confident we can do, having all of these unique voices all on the same page, I think that will be very valuable when you consider the fact that Hillary Clinton, her numbers are in the ditch.

From all the analysis and all the talking that’s going on in the Republican primary, the fact is, Hillary Clinton’s numbers are atrocious.

When you’ve got people who don’t trust you, who think you’re a liar, and now we’re getting more emails dumped from the State Department, she’s got big problems.

We’re in great shape to win and I think that one lesson that’s going to come from this primary is that drama and intrigue are a good thing in America today.

Boring and old news is a bad thing.

And so I think that’s the lesson that people are going to take from 2016.

*** GOP ESTABLISHMENT PLANNING A COUP TO BLOCK TRUMP'S NOMINATION (POLITICAL RUMORS):

DO ESTABLISHMENT LEADERS CARE ABOUT WHAT VOTERS WANT??

~ Commentary and Article below by The Young Turks & TIME Magazine

GOP leaders met this week to discuss what to do if they end up next year with a contested convention... if they have to use political tricks to block Donald Trump.

The GOP apparently doesn’t mind ignoring the will of their voters. Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola (Think Tank), Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show Podcast), and Mark Thompson, hosts of the The Young Turks, break it down.

"More than 20 top GOP officials discussed at a dinner on Monday the party’s strategy in the event of a brokered convention amid Donald Trump’s consistent lead in the polls.

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) listened as several longtime party members argued the establishment must lay the groundwork for a floor fight if Trump storms through the presidential primaries, five sources familiar with the meeting told The Washington Post.

The sources said Priebus and McConnell were mostly silent during the deliberation and did not signal support for an explicit anti-Trump effort.

But both men did acknowledge that a stalemated convention is something the party should be ready for.”*

Sources: Fox News, The Hill, TIME, TODAY, The Young Turks, Youtube

BLACK LOUISIANA SENATOR ELBERT GUILLORY SWITCHES TO REPUBLICAN PARTY

BLACK LOUISIANA SENATOR ELBERT GUILLORY SWITCHES TO REPUBLICAN PARTY:

HE WAS BORN BLACK, NOT A DEMOCRAT.

GUILLORY EXPLAINS WHY HE SWITCHED FROM DEMOCRAT PARTY TO SUPPORTING THE GOP.

Louisiana Senator Elbert Guillory (R-Opelousas) explains why he recently switched from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party. He discusses the history of the Republican Party, founded as an Abolitionist Movement in 1854. Guillory talks about how the welfare state is only a mechanism for politicians to control the Black community.

~ Elbert Guillory switches parties, now first Black GOP state senator since Reconstruction (CIRCA 2013)

Louisiana state Sen. Elbert Guillory has switched political parties to become the first black Republican senator in the state since Reconstruction. The now-former Democrat from Opelousas made the announcement Friday in Baton Rouge at the @large conference, an event aimed at attracting black conservatives to the GOP.

"Is it a surprise, or is it the worst-kept secret in Louisiana? I am, as of this day, joining Frederick Douglass as a Republican," Guillory said at the event, after accepting the group's "Frederick Douglass" award.

This isn't the first time Guillory has made the party switch -- he became a Democrat in 2007 when he first ran for the state House of Representatives. However, his voting record remained staunchly conservative.

Last year Guillory, who heads the Senate Retirement Committee, carried the bills containing Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposed retirement overhaul, which was strongly opposed by Democrats.

On Friday, Guillory said he had come to disagree with the direction of the Louisiana Democratic Party, which he referred to as "the party of disappointment." He expressed his opposition with the party's stances on abortion, the Second Amendment, education and immigration.

"Today, the party of disappointment has moved away from the majority of Louisiana.

They have moved away from the traditional values of most Americans," he said. "Their policies have encouraged the high teen birth rates, high school drop out rates, high incarceration rates and very high unemployment rates."

After the event, Guillory shed some light on his decision, saying remarks by the state party chair this week influenced his decision.

During debate Wednesday on a bill to expand Medicaid coverage in Louisiana, Sen. Karen Carter Peterson said fellow lawmakers had told her they based their opposition to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, on the race of the president and not on policy.

"The accusations of racism this week certainly helped push me over the edge. I thought that they were over the edge," Guillory said in an interview Friday. "It just showed me just how far out of tune I was, I am, with the Democrat Party."

The remarks were made Wednesday, the same day Guillory filed his paperwork to change parties.

Speaking after Guillory at the conference on Friday, Louisiana Republican Party Chair Roger Villere again called on Peterson to resign as head of the state Democratic Party.

"The bottom line is that it's never appropriate to demonize and even infer someone is racist for disagreeing with the president," Villere said. "Trust me, we have plenty of reasons to oppose Obamacare and race is not one of them."

The Democratic Party reacted swiftly to the announcement, characterizing Guillory's defection "a craven display of political opportunism" and calling on him to resign.

"This move isn't surprising given Guillory's record of saying one thing to his constituents and then voting another way," Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said in a statement Friday.

"He should do the right thing and step down from his seat immediately since he has chosen to abandon the Democratic Party values that the voters elected him to represent."

Katrina Jackson, head of the Legislative Black Caucus also responded to the news, saying Guillory remains a "full-fledged member" and that inclusion in the group is not based on political party.

Guillory will be the only Republican member of the caucus.

With just one week of the 2013 session left -- and with a conservative voting record as precedent -- it is unclear what impact, if any, Guillory's party switch will mean for this year's remaining legislation.

Republicans already held a majority of the 39 seats in the state Senate. With Guillory, their numbers will increase to 25.

Sources: NOLA.com, Youtube

BLACK OLDER DEMOCRATS HATE CHANGE - 2016 ELECTION (INSANITY POLITICS)

BLACK OLDER DEMOCRATS HATE CHANGE - 2016 ELECTION:

(INSANITY POLITICS)

The late Scientist Albert Einstein once defined the word "INSANITY" as doing the same thing over and over again, while expecting DIFFERENT results.

The word "CHANGE" is defined as Being DIFFERENT.

However for most BLACK Democrat voters the word "CHANGE" is a dirty word especially as it relates to Politics.

Most older BLACK Democrats appear to be resistant to CHANGE and lack Objectivity in their thinking.

Perhaps this explains why Pres OBAMA targeted Younger voters in 2008 and 2012.

In fact most Older BLACK Democrats would rather DIE from a terrible disease then to consider supporting a REPUBLICAN candidate, even if voting for that GOP candidate is in the best interest of BLACK voters.

Will Older BLACK Democrat voters open their minds to CHANGE?

Or will they allow their Stubbornness to Silence and Devalue the voices of future BLACK Democrat voters?

~ Blacks, Democrats, and Republicans (CIRCA 2011)

Thomas Sowell discusses Black voters’ allegiance to the Democratic party and the failure of the GOP to make a robust case for black votes.

Blacks have been the Democrats’ most reliable voting bloc for the last 50 years.

And let’s face it, with Barack Obama in the White House, that’s not going to change in the near future.

On the national level, Democrats typically get around 90 percent of the black vote, even when a black man isn’t running for president as a Democrat.

Al Gore got 92 percent of the Black vote in 2000; John Kerry got 88 percent in 2004.

These percentages aren’t just impressive; for Democrats, they’re imperative.

Since 1980, the percentage of white votes received by the Democrats’ candidate for president has usually hovered around 39 percent.

Unless Democrats maintain a vise grip on at least 90 percent of the black vote, the party’s presidential prospects usually fade to oblivion. Both parties know this.

If the GOP peeled off just 5 or 10 percent of the black vote, Democrats would be in perpetual electoral jeopardy, and not just at the presidential level.

Dr. Sowell discusses a few of the reasons why blacks who support Democrats are voting against self- interest (and makes a more persuasive case than Thomas Frank did in What’s the Matter with Kansas? regarding Kansans’ support of the Republican party).

There are many more reasons. Consider just the following: Large, Arbitrary Minimum Wage Increases.

Milton Friedman once said that “We regard the minimum wage as one of the most, if not the most, anti-black laws on the statute books.” (A good argument can be made that the minimum wage vies for this title with the Davis-Bacon Act — uniformly supported by Democrats — mandating that prevailing wages be paid on government construction projects and passed for the express purpose of preventing blacks from competing with whites on public-works jobs.)

Sharp increases in the minimum wage price unskilled workers out of the labor market, a dislocation that falls most heavily on young black males.

Such increases impair the ability of unskilled workers to get the entry-level jobs that are the first rungs on the ladder of upward job mobility.

As someone once said, a wage, minimum or otherwise, presumes a job. Public Education and School Choice. Millions of black kids are trapped in medieval public schools that are insulated from competition and suffocated by union rules.

Yet Democrats resist meaningful choice, insisting instead on that infallible remedy, “full funding.” ‪#‎more‬#They’re encouraged, apparently, by how well that solution has worked in places like Newark, which spends $18,000 per student — among the most of any major public school system — but where only 30 percent of 8th graders can pass the annual proficiency test in math.

Or perhaps they’re brightened by the example of the D.C. public-school system, which also has among the highest per-pupil expenditures in the nation yet perennially returns among the lowest test scores.

Less than 25 percent of black 17-year-olds can read as well as the average white 17-year-old. 

Nearly 90 percent of black 17-year-olds score below the average white 17-year-old in math.

More than 90 percent of black 17-year-olds score below the average white 17-year-old in science.

The average black 17-year-old has the academic proficiency of the average white 8th grader.

These figures have proven impervious to increased spending. In fact, in some cases the gap has widened as public school spending — in constant dollars — has increased.

But Democrats, beholden to unions, continue to oppose school choice and meaningful reform, thereby consigning another generation of blacks to educational purgatory. Affirmative Action.

Democrats are champions of racial preferences (see Eric Holder’s directive to the Dayton Police Department).

Since racial preferences in, e.g., college admissions most heavily favor blacks, it would appear, at first blush, that black votes for Democrats are indeed self-interested.

But evidence continues to accumulate that affirmative action may be one of the greatest scams perpetrated on blacks.

Studies by, for example, the Center for Equal Opportunity show that the racial preferences employed by some college admissions offices boost a black applicant’s odds of admission over a similarly-situated white comparative by a factor of 200, often much more.

This results in what UCLA law professor Richard Sander calls the “mismatch effect” — i.e., black students being admitted at schools in which they’re poorly qualified to compete.

Consequently, black students are more likely to perform poorly and flunk out.

For example, Prof. Sander found that 50 percent of black law students settle in the bottom 10 percent of their respective classes.

Black law students are two and a half times more likely than whites not to graduate, four times more likely not to pass the bar exam. Welfare and the War on Poverty.

Were this a shooting war, the Democrats would have surrendered in 1965.

As it stands, after 45 years and several trillion dollars, misguided if well-intended liberal policies have contributed to a toxic culture of grievance and dependency that, while not confined to a particular race, has been especially damaging to the black underclass.

The list of issue conflicts between Democrats’ policy positions and the interests of black voters goes on and on: illegal immigration, abortion, Social Security reform, to name a few.

But don’t expect any noteworthy changes in black voter allegiance in the near term.

A comment made by a black law student after an affirmative-action debate in which I participated a few years ago illustrates just one of the many obstacles faced by Republicans.

The student acknowledged that affirmative action often harms its purported beneficiaries and that its proponents are, as he put it, “condescending and insulting.”

Even so, he asked. “How can we (blacks) support Republicans given the Republicans’ history toward blacks in this country?”

I pointed out that it wasn’t the GOP that had opposed Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Nor was it Republicans who opposed the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting slavery or the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing equal protection or the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing voting rights.

It wasn’t Republicans who opposed Teddy Roosevelt’s anti-lynching legislation, or that filibustered or otherwise opposed more than a dozen anti-lynching bills in the last century.

Republicans didn’t institutionalize Jim Crow or implement school segregation, poll taxes, or literacy tests. Bull Connor, Lester Maddox, Orval Faubus, and George Wallace weren’t Republicans.

A higher percentage of Republicans voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act than did Democrats.

The student and the other black students gathered around looked surprised.

One confessed that she would’ve bet that “Democrats” should be substituted for “Republicans” in each of the examples.

The GOP’s record concerning blacks is far from unassailable, but that doesn’t explain Black allegiance to Democrats.

That allegiance won’t change — Allen West and Tim Scott notwithstanding — as long as President Obama is the Democrats’ standard bearer.

And as long as Republicans don’t make an effort for the vote.

Sources: National Review, Mediaite, Youtube