Mr. Trump’s presidency has delivered what those voters wanted on policy, the economy and the judiciary. But exit polls and Tuesday’s suburban results suggest he hasn’t delivered what many of them want in a presidential persona.
Category Archives: Congress
Trump’s Speech
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President Trump’s speech from the oval office was short and sweet. He demanded five and a half billion for a border wall, or barrier, or something sticking out of the ground, but didn’t declare a national emergency.
Base Fear
Marc Theissen thought it was great. Trump reached out to Americans beyond his base.
But Chuck and Nancy thought otherwise. Nancy says the wall is immoral. Chuck said Trump used the oval office to manufacture a crisis. And they both looked stiff and uncomfortable.
Could be they were looking to reach beyond their base too.
1980s Want Foreign Policy Back
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The day before he reported for duty as a freshman U.S. Senator, Mitt Romney turned in his grades on the Chief Executive. In a Washington Post column Romney gave President Trump passing marks for some of his policies. But he flunked him for presidential character.
But, on balance, his conduct over the past two years, particularly his actions last month, is evidence that the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.
He also marked Trump down for failure to co-operate with allies. He noted:
The alternative to U.S. world leadership offered by China and Russia is autocratic, corrupt and brutal.
1980s Want Foreign Policy Back
Romney’s been consistent about Russia as our number one threat. And President Obama mocked him for it in their 2012 debate.
“And, the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because, the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”
Trump responded that if Romney had stood up to Obama’s taunts he might be president today.
Shutdown Timeout
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Trump says $5.6 billion isn’t much for border security.
Pelosi says, “We are giving the Republicans the opportunity to take yes for an answer,” “Senate Republicans have already supported this legislation, and if they reject it now, they will be fully complicit in chaos and destruction of the President’s third shutdown of his term.”
But no money for a wall.
They’re meeting this afternoon in the situation room.
Real Oval Office Guests
Public Political Bickering
Pelosi and Schumer visited Trump and Pence in the Oval Office. At least I think Pence was visiting. He was plastered silent and motionless into a chair.
After the photo-op no one shooed the press away. So they stayed. This was more transparency than Nancy could bear and she kept asking them to leave. But they stayed anyway and recorded the four – okay, three – of them bickering about five billion dollars for the Mexican wall.
No one asked the Mexicans to cough up the cash, but the president said he would be proud to shut down the government until he gets the money from Congress.
Republican Senators later did some public political bickering of their own and backed away from Trump’s threat, but The Donald got the last word.
Democrat’s Suburban Shift
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David Montgomery at CityLab has a killer map showing suburban congressional districts represented by Democrats. They’re a big chunk of the country. And he says almost all of the 33 seats Democrats picked up on Tuesday were in suburban districts:
Democrats retook the House of Representatives on the back of a suburban surge Tuesday, remaking a once rock-ribbed Republican bastion into a Democratic stronghold.
Though some districts remained undecided Wednesday afternoon, Democrats had picked up at least 33 seats in Congress, almost all of them predominantly suburban. These suburban districts, once closely divided, are now twice as likely to be represented by a Democrat than by a Republican. Democrats even lost some seats in rural areas, but picked up at least 22 seats that CityLab’s Congressional Density Indexclassifies as “sparse suburban” or “dense suburban.” Add that to Democrat gains in almost all of the remaining Republican-held districts with major urban populations and you have a new, blue majority.
Suburban Shift
Here’s what some others have to say about the Democrat’s suburban shift.
The reality is that Mr. Trump’s 2016 “base” included many traditional, suburban Republicans. Some voted for him, some against Hillary Clinton and some for a conservative Supreme Court majority.
Democrats have won back control of the House of Representatives, slicing through Republican-held suburbs where President Donald Trump has proven toxic to undo a Republican majority once thought to be impervious until the next round of redistricting.
And Trump should be terrified that Democrat Stacey Abrams won 56% of Gwinnett County, with 920,000 people the largest suburban county in Georgia, in the state’s still-undecided governor’s race. Gwinnett rarely if ever voted Democratic for president before Hillary Clinton, who won 51%, and has grown by 115,000 people since 2010. Nearby Cobb County,with 755,000 people and Newt Gingrich’s old geographic base, gave Abrams almost 54%.
