Conservative strategist Evan Siegfried joined MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle yesterday, prior to having even one vote counted in Ohio (a race still officially too close to call, but Repub likely to eek out victory under 1%), the last special election prior to November’s midterms.
He certainly has reason to be terrified. The Republican hold on the House is nowhere near out of reach, at 26 seats. With respect to vulnerable districts, the Republican apparatus worried most about districts which Hillary Clinton won, but the Republican incumbent also succeeded in 2016 – those districts certainly remain extremely “vulnerable.” The next category in the “worried” column were the districts in which Trump slipped through with a narrow victory, along with a Republican House member. But, those districts that Republicans had considered safe were those that Trump won by double digits and supported the Republican candidate.
Except the special election in Ohio involved one of those districts, one that Trump won by double digits, yet it now appears the special election could even be headed for a recount. But, even if the Republican “wins” this special election by the narrowest of margins, the seat is still up for grabs in November, when the same two will pair off, and in which Democrats tend to head to the polls in greater numbers.
Meanwhile, Trump remains either completely clueless as to reality in politics, or hopelessly self-absorbed and incapable of seeing the writing on the wall:
When I decided to go to Ohio for Troy Balderson, he was down in early voting 64 to 36. That was not good. After my speech on Saturday night, there was a big turn for the better. Now Troy wins a great victory during a very tough time of the year for voting. He will win BIG in Nov.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2018
No one is really sure where he got those imaginary poll numbers, no one believes that he assisted in pulling out the election. Simply put, Jesus himself stumping for a candidate (and he would not stump for one wanting to cut services for the poor, rewarding the rich, and treating minorities/Democrats – fellow citizens as “the enemy.” See, Gospels, to wit: Beatitudes, Parables Good Samaritan, Going Shitstorm insane with money lenders at Temple.), Jesus himself could not raise a candidate 28 points in 3 days, indeed some sources I read indicated that the candidate didn’t want Trump coming out.
Clueless:
…..Congratulations to Troy Balderson on a great win in Ohio. A very special and important race!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2018
This is a seat held by a Republican since 1980! In that sense, as a canary in the coal mine, it sure is/was an important race. It has Republican party big-wigs in crises mode looking at the gap made up and thinking about all those districts that Trump did not carry by 11 points.
The Republicans have now won 8 out of 9 House Seats, yet if you listen to the Fake News Media you would think we are being clobbered. Why can’t they play it straight, so unfair to the Republican Party and in particular, your favorite President!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2018
One thing this president forgot to mention is that these special elections all occurred in seats held by Republicans who got the hell out, knowing what may well be coming down the pike. You don’t see Democrats bailing their careers at this point, only Republicans.
Can we just note for the billionth time the stunning arrogance of the man at the top? “Your favorite president? I am not sure his approval ratings ever cracked 50, maybe his first week, and since then, even the most generous polls had him at 46% approval ratings. Trump has succeeded in driving Obama’s ratings up to from 45% beginning his last year as president, and now retrospectively, people longing for simple “normalcy” and decorum had his ratings at 60% last January. And, we’re not even speaking of Reagan, Truman, FDR (elected 4 times – by majority vote, no less) during 2 of the nation’s worst crises) and on and on. Favorite president? Pftft. If he means “right now” – he’s the only president. IF someone has a favorite, it’s a category of one.
Trump’s obliviousness and contempt for anything but praise of himself, is part and parcel of the Republican terror. Particularly with suburban women, Trump does nothing but ensure votes for a Democratic Congress that can stand up to him.
I still remain weary of “the blue wave” predictions. We STILL have no idea how deeply Russia has penetrated our woeful, inexcusably vulnerable, voting infrastructure. This particular voting district relied on electronic voting. I wrote a week ago about the ease of hacking these systems. Each extremely narrow Republican win, while symbolic of the danger, worries me that more might be going on. That doesn’t make me a conspiracy theorist, Robert Mueller charged Russians with hacking a voting software company. What possible reason could motivate Russian hacking a voting software company? Well, ensuring that Republicans have just enough votes (just like Trump).
Our intel community has all but cried in warning us that the attack remains ongoing, with no official plan led by the White House to protect our republic. IF votes are being changed, and it is discovered through House investigations or a future president, Democrats would have every reason to stack the Supreme Court with 2 new justices added to the court (nothing in the constitution says there must be 9 justices, 11 is manageable) because the Court is too important in our system, especially of late when the two parties do nothing to work together, to have swayed for 35 years by a falsely elected president.
To summarize a too-long, but somewhat necessary analysis, Trump remains perfectly oblivious to political reality as to be dependably destructive, the RNC grows increasingly terrified, signs of the blue wave remain beyond encouraging, yet the wildcard, Russia and what it could do, its full capability, and motivation – they couldn’t possibly have more to lose by a House investigating everything seriously, poses tremendous danger.
