Monday, February 03, 2020
Sunday, February 02, 2020
The Des Moines Register Cancels Release Of Its Poll
I had planned to use this space to report the results of the Des Moines Register Poll. That poll is considered the "gold standard" of Iowa polls, and would have been the final Iowa Poll before the caucus was held. But on Saturday, the day the poll was to be released, the newspaper canceled the poll's release.
Here is how the newspaper reported its cancellation:
Nothing is more important to the Register and its polling partners than the integrity of the Iowa Poll. Today, a respondent raised an issue with the way the survey was administered, which could have compromised the results of the poll. It appears a candidate’s name was omitted in at least one interview in which the respondent was asked to name their preferred candidate.
While this appears to be isolated to one surveyor, we cannot confirm that with certainty. Therefore, the partners made the difficult decision to not to move forward with releasing the Iowa Poll.
Clinton Remarks On Sanders In 2016 And 2020
In a podcast interview last Friday, Hillary Clinton had the following to say about Bernie Sanders and his followers:
I mean, you had, unfortunately, a very different outcome in the 2016 primary, where I won by four million votes. I won overwhelmingly in delegates. There was no question about who was going to be the nominee. But unfortunately, you know, his campaign and his principal supporters were just very difficult and really, constantly not just attacking me, but my supporters.
We get to the convention. They’re booing Michelle Obama, John Lewis. It was very distressing and such a contrast between what we did to unite in ’08.
All the way up until the end, a lot of people highly identified with his campaign were urging people to vote third party, urging people not to vote. It had an impact.
That cannot happen again. I don’t care who the nominee is. I don’t care. As long as it’s somebody who can win, and as long as it’s somebody who understands politics is the art of addition, not subtraction.
I think people need to have to really think hard about who can beat Trump. And it’s not the popular vote, as I learned to my own grave disappointment. . . So I just want us to be really focused on winning. That’s all I care about.
Saturday, February 01, 2020
GOP Senators Vote For Cover-Up Instead Of Fair Trial
Republican Majority Leader said before the Senate trial of Donald Trump that he wanted a short trial with no witnesses and a quick vote to leave Trump in office. He has now gotten most of that.
On Friday, 51 Republican senators voted to not have any witnesses called. All 45 Democrats, both Independents, and 2 Republicans (Collins and Romney) voted to call witnesses.
The American people knew that witnesses were required to have a truly fair trial. Poll after poll showed over 70% of them wanted senators to hear from witnesses (especially John Bolton who was in position to know exactly what had happened. The refusal to hear witnesses by Republican senators is a slap in the face to American voters.
They now have until November to explain to the voters why they opted for a cover-up instead of a fair trial. I don't think they can do that. I think the vote they took will help Democrats in the general election.
Growth Of Productivity Is Not As Good As Trump Claims
While in Davos a few days ago, Donald Trump claimed:
“The United States is in the midst of an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before.”
The charts above (from The New York Times) shows that is a lie. The top chart shows the quarterly growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The second chart shows the yearly growth of GDP.
Note that while there is still positive growth, that growth has slowed -- and for the last three quarters has barley topped 2%. It was also only slightly more than 2% for the entire year of 2019. That is far from "an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before".
This is just more proof of the failure of the Trump/GOP tax cuts. They were supposed to provide enormous economic growth and higher wages for workers. They did neither.
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