Still No THERE There August 26, 2016August 25, 2016 Trump “guarantees” that by the end of his first term “more than 95%” of blacks will vote to re-elect him. This is so absurd — Obama got only 93% of the black vote — it suggests nothing he says should be taken seriously (not that we didn’t already know that) — yet his pronouncements lead the news every night . . . and his followers lap it up. Especially as it regards his opponent. Yesterday, his having called her “a bigot,” Hillary responded. If you missed it, I urge you to read the transcript. Yesterday, also, VOX bolstered my view that there’s no “there” to the Clinton Foundation story. (Quick: somebody tell “Morning Joe.”) What kind of world do we live in where war-hero John Kerry is swiftboated and Dan Rather — not George Bush — loses his job? Where Al Gore is ridiculed for saying he invented the Internet,* not lauded for being its Senate champion? Where 70% of those who voted to re-elect Bush thought Iraq attacked us and a majority of Republicans still doubt Obama’s citizenship? Where the Senate Majority Leader – devoted to seeing the President fail — can say that “by any standard Barack Obama has been a disaster for our country”? Nate Silver sees only a 16% chance Trump wins. I find that terrifying. Roughly the same odds of dying in Russian roulette. One of the things we can tell all our friends in blue states like California and New York is that this time your vote really does matter. In addition to winning the Electoral College, we need to show an enormous win in the popular vote. First, to minimize the chance Trump will be able to persuade people the election was “rigged” and that, really, he was the people’s choice. Second, to show the world America has not lost its mind. *He did not actually say that.