Donald Trump has toned down and found a new hair-doo, while Hillary Clinton...well, pick a catastrophe - health, pay-for-play, email, &c and so forth. Even the more reliable polls show the third-parties (Libertarians, Greens) are outstripping Clinton, while Trump looks to be headed to a landslide.
Some people may dismiss an ABCNews online poll, but look at it this way - all those "official" polls supposedly use landline telephones to reach respondents. How many people do you know who still have landlines? Most folks have gone completely to cell phones and those aren't listed in any "phone book" that I know of. Either this means that they are outright lying (not impossible), or they have a very non-representative sample of likely voters.
And I hand it to the Libertarians - ABCNews asked, "Who are you voting for?" The Libertarians quickly corrected the grammar to read, "For whom are you voting?" Snopes was quick to dismiss the poll, but I trust Snopes about as much as I trust a politician. For the record, I voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson...three times from different devices.
It should be noted that the ABCNews poll has been scrubbed. Though I have found a number of references, including a link in one of my previous articles, the actual link goes nowhere, and all Google results refer to third-party sites with screen shots of the results.
More to the point, most people have portable numbers now, so a nutcase living in Jakarta for the past nine years could have a Houston, Texas number, watch zero TeeVee and not really care who wins, since we all lose. So how can the pollsters be sure of any of their metrics, such as location, length of residency and likelihood of voting.
Bottom line is I am more likely to trust an online poll at a MSM website that shows Trump galloping over everyone else, than I am a telephone poll by Zogby any day. Besides, how many times in your life have you ever been randomly polled by anyone? Your friends and family? Their friends and family? In fact, has anyone you've ever know been randomly polled by any organization for any reason? Makes you wonder where the results are coming from.
There's also the matter of rally attendance, not to mention holding rallies.
Clinton's schedule looks like someone who either thinks she will win due to good rigging, or has given up due to health/reality.
Hard to know what Trump is doing. After half an hour proving I'm not a robot, his site only gave me August, so no apple-to-apple here.
If you go by butts in seats, Trump looks to be riding a massive wave of support. Videos that I have seen of various events slways show close-ups of Clinton and never pull out wide enough to see the crowd, while Trump videos make a point to show the full houses.
As for the upcoming "debates" (the definition of debate in US politics is rather fluid), it will be interesting to see IF they actually take place. The "health" theorists say that Clinton will find some way out of them. It will also be fun to see how Trump handles them, after all, it was his antics in the primary "debates" that propelled him to the nomination.
The Big Question is how honest and fair the election will be. Clinton, right or wrong, has a lingering reputation for fixing votes. Certainly, the ability and likelihood of computer voting terminal hacking has been proven many times, and there is no doubt that digital data can easily be manipulated with no physical, paper-based backup. If the ABCNews poll has any basis in reality, then any attempt to rig the election will be readily apparent and could lead to some rather nasty backlash.
Regardless of the outcome, the election has at least been entertaining. Given that the campaigns started over a year ago, and the conventions were held a month early due to the Olympics (that no one watched), people are just burned out. The world is scratching its collective head wondering if the US has finally gone round the bend with these year-and-a-half circuses for a job that pays $400,000/year. Sure, it's a lot of money, but how does one justify sending billions of dollars and vast amounts of resources to receive $1,200,000 for a single term. Both major candidates probably earn that a month through their businesses and (ahem) charitable foundations.
And speaking of charitable foundations, Clinton is catching a world of hurt on that issue. What no one seems to mention is that these "charitable foundations" are all over the place. Most US politicians have one, and movie stars too. They are a means to receive bribes while looking all warm and fuzzy at the same time. The foundations are basically the way First and Second World politicians hide the corruption that Third World politicians always get caught receiving.
The other means of doing this is for politicians to write books and some big donor step up to buy all the copies. Same result, but looks oh so squeaky clean and intellectual-like (see Dreams of My Father, which no one seems to ever have read).
The most interesting bit of this three-ring circus is the Trumpster. Back in the day, we called Ronald Reagan the "teflon" president, since no scandal seemed to stick to him. With Trump, it's an even more amazing phenomenon. Whatever scandal is thrown at him, it not only does not stick, but flies back in the face of the one casting it. Too bad this effect can't be patented and sold to all of us. Think how much self-esteem could be saved!
As entertaining as this has all been, it's becoming something akin to Nightmare on Elm Street sequels...can we just get this over with?
No matter what the outcome, there will be masses of unhappy people wanting recounts. In fact, we've probably got another year or so of reviewing the election results to come. And the worst part of it all is that just as everyone finally gets used to whoever gets elected, the process will start again and old wounds will be opened. Hell, Obama will finally go away in January, and we are still hearing about the birther mess. Sorry folks, have to wait for the deathbed confession to put that one to rest...unless the Trumpster is elected.
One thing is quite clear, at this point. The Clinton campaign, her "foundation" and anyone connected with the Democratic Party should stop sending email of any kind to anyone. It's starting to look like a hoe-down, what with all the folks shooting themselves in the foot. Apparently, all those "progressive" types haven't caught up with the 21st century, in terms of cyber security.
Just for kicks, the two biggies should jumble their slogans: Make Her Great Again, and I'm With America. Oddly fitting, doncha think?
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