Beltway Republican David Winston for Roll Call wants 2016 to have been about the economy when it was about illegal immigration

 

This slight-of-hand reasoning is how Trump got co-opted by the GOP in 2017 in the first place, and it's how they're going to co-opt him again should he win. Beltway Republicans love, love, love immigration, so the top issue cannot, must not, be that.

 In 2016, the economy was the top issue, just as today . . ..

Here.

Trump's controversial 2015-2016 message was immigration, immigration, immigration for 14 straight months, until Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway got a hold of him in August 2016.

Trump barely won.

Trump's unfavorables were indeed high, but not because Hillary drove them there as Winston says. People forget that Trump did that all by himself. He ended up underperforming John McCain 2008 in 12 states and DC.

Trump was an insurgent candidate who exploited division within the GOP to capture the nomination. The 2016 primary popular vote for Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich exceeded Trump's 13.3 million.

That division has subsided, but it has never gone away, and Winston is one of the other side's smooth operators who still want to change the subject to anything else but the issue staring everyone in the face, from working class Americans now competing with 8 million new illegals for wages to upper class suburban denizens of Massachusetts being told to cope with hordes of new students in public schools they never designed to accommodate this flood.

That's the issue confronting voters, not Trump's Kangaroo Kourt Konviction, about which David wrings his hands.

If there's any vengeance in American politics about which we should be upset in 2024, Joe Biden's open southern border is surely it.

Kellyanne Conway baldly lies on The Rush Limbaugh Show, claims over 7 million jobs created

You don't lose control of the US House after creating over 7 million jobs in just over two years.

These people are blind, but the voters are not.

There is NO measure which comes even close to over 7 million new jobs.

Total nonfarm payrolls (Establishment Survey) between Nov 2016 and Jan 2019 are up 5.3 million, seasonally adjusted, 1.7 million not seasonally adjusted.

Civilian employment (Household Survey) is up 4.5 million seasonally adjusted, 2.6 million not seasonally adjusted.

The sum of usually full time and usually part time (Household Survey) is up net 4.5 million seasonally adjusted, 2.6 million not seasonally adjusted (mirrors civilian employment level).

The employment-population ratio is up from 59.8% to 60.7%, an increase of 4.6 million jobs from 152.2 million to 156.8 million.

And 78% of these new jobs have gone to minorities, not to the white majority.

Kellyanne Conway Calls to Preview the President’s Speech

CONWAY: . . . He’s going to talk about the booming economy, and it is the Trump economy. Over seven million jobs created, wages are up, unemployment is down, small business formation is going well. People are just… They’re back to work. We’re a country that works.

Trump already compromised on The Wall, and that's the problem

Trump gave away 80% of what he wanted without getting anything in return.

It's political malpractice. 

Even worse, he's shut down the government now over the remaining 20% at the most politically inopportune time, having nothing left to bargain with.

The time to have done this was when Republicans were in control of Congress, in January 2017, or February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January 2018, February . . ..

Forgive us for thinking he was never serious about The Wall, at all.

The Wall is now and may always have been simply a political tool, like opposition to abortion. He stopped being serious about it in August 2016 after the immigration issue secured him the nomination, when this "advisor", Kellyanne Conway, came on board from the Ted Cruz campaign, which likewise was never serious about The Wall. Ted had one throwaway line about immigration in his entire speech announcing his candidacy, that's it. It was Trump who completely blindsided him and the rest of the Republican field with the issue. But ever since it's only red meat for the base. He never made it a priority, and fired the only person actively pursuing immigration reform in his administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That's how unimportant The Wall has been to the president. 

The Wall riles up the news, keeping Trump in it, that's all.

Kellyanne Conway: Trump "Already Compromised" On Border Wall Funding, Originally Asked for $25 Billion:

I believe the president has already compromised. He originally asked for $25 billion. The House is at $5.6 billion. They did their job. The Senate has to come back. It is a modest investment.

The Rush Limbaugh lie of the day: "Drain the swamp" is why Trump was sent to Washington

"Drain the swamp" was a late development in the campaign, courtesy of the libertarian Steve Bannon and former Cruz campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, also a libertarian. Arguably if Trump had dropped that rhetoric and pretended to make nice with the Establishment after he'd won we'd see far more of the things Trump ran on accomplished by now than we do.

Trump distinguished himself from every other candidate in the primaries by making the border with Mexico the central issue from the time he walked down that elevator until mid-August 2016, which, when solved, would help to solve many other problems, like drugs, disease, and crime. After Bannon and Conway came on board replacing Manafort, however, that message began to be played down, to the point that Trump's campaign nearly cratered in the Arizona town hall in late August with Sean Hannity when Trump wavered badly on the issue, polling the crowd for its opinion. That was not the same man we had been seeing for an entire year.

Rush Limbaugh is also a libertarian, and characteristically doesn't give a damn about the border. He never has. He just licked his finger and checked the wind in his support of border security under Trump. But illegal immigration was never on Rush's radar, just as it wasn't on Ted Cruz' either. Rush was for that dual citizen, remember?

Here is Rush today, still trying to co-opt the Trump base:

That’s why at every Trump rally, what is the No. 1 sign they see, outside of Make America Great? What’s the number one sign you see at a Trump rally, Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) Nope. “Drain the swamp.” “Drain the swamp” is the No. 1. “Build the wall,” No. 2. (“Lock her up” is really a chant.) But “drain the swamp” is why Trump was sent there, and declassifying these documents would be a giant step for mankind in draining the swamp. 

Wikipedia gets some things right:

In the final month of his campaign, Donald Trump used the phrase "drain the swamp" in his rallies, pledging his supporters to "make our government honest once again." Trump said he originally "hated" the phrase, but when people reacted positively to it, he began "saying it like I meant it".

Oh come on, the only thing this picture shows is that for a 50-year old dame Kellyanne Conway is still very flexible: She must be taking good care of herself

Trump can still win this thing if his supporters don't lose heart and Americans can be convinced not to vote for the criminal alternative, Hillary Clinton

Consider the consensus of polling controlled by the pro-Democrat, liberal media interests as represented by the Real Clear Politics polling average today.

With just over 2 weeks to go until the election, Clinton is ahead 47.7 to Trump's 41.9 with an average margin of error of 3.46 points. Consider that this was almost exactly how things looked on August 17 when Trump handed over his campaign to Kellyanne Conway & Co. (Trump 41.2 v. Clinton 47.2). One can complain that Trump hasn't made any progress since then, but the same thing can be said about Clinton.

In view of what we know from Wikileaks demonstrating how the media aren't telling the truth and are simply part of the Clinton campaign, the truth is closer to the possibility of Clinton actually losing to Trump 45 to 44 in the popular vote despite the onslaught of character assassination going on against him, which is the only thing Democrats have going for them. That and the Republican traitors of #NeverTrump.

And that's what the daily tracking polls have been telling us, too, all along.

Rasmussen has consistently shown this to be a one or two point brawl for many months, often with Trump ahead. Same with IBD since the beginning of September. And the LA Times poll is virtually unchanged also since August 17 with Clinton +1 then and Trump +0.3 this morning.

As some headlines have suggested, Trump could win the popular vote and end up losing the election like Al Gore.

The reason is the toss-up states, but also the "leaners". Keep in mind that nationally the consensus of the liberal polling establishment has Clinton winning this by 6 points when it could actually be Trump by +1. In the states presently leaning Clinton her average lead is +7.35 but in her five toss-ups just +3.22. Trump's average lead in his leaners is +6.04 and in his toss-ups +3.25.

The race is much closer than the media which overwhelmingly support Clinton want you to believe.

Donald Trump cucked himself and his followers a week ago on deportation: Today he'll try to uncuck himself

Video here on FOX, where Trump actually polls the audience and comes down on the side of legalization of otherwise law-abiding illegal aliens because people everywhere supposedly keep telling him that's what they want, not what he originally stood for in the debates.

What were the primary debates about then, how brown you like your marshmallows?

Trump cucked himself because a week prior to these remarks he caved to open borders libertarians Rebekah Mercer, Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway. That's all there is to it. 

Legalizing 11 million or whatever the number is law-breakers yet again will only encourage more law-breaking, undermining whatever else a president Trump might be able to pass to stem the tide of illegal immigration. As Donald Trump might say, Not good!

Trump is compromising long before he has to, which tells you that as president he will roll over on lots of other promises also and get very little of what he has claimed he wants.

Pragmatism in the face of vice is no virtue. 

Trump is imploding on deportation, delays speech again

The speech was supposed to happen this week in Colorado. The new manager Kellyanne Conway put a stop to that.

The speech was then delayed until next week in Arizona.

Now it's delayed maybe two weeks.

Story here.

Trump started his campaign A YEAR AGO centered on illegal immigration and he still needs more time to get his act together on deportation?

One day after Rebekah Mercer, Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway took over the campaign, Trump started apologizing

They took over August 17th.

Here was Trump, August 18th:

“Sometimes, in the heat of the debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues." 

Not exactly the Trump of July 2015:


Moderator Frank Luntz asked Trump whether he has ever asked God for forgiveness for his actions. "I am not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don't think so," he said. "I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't."

Trump's new campaign manager as of Aug. 17, Kellyanne Conway, was all in with Zuckerberg's fwd.us in 2014

Kellyanne Conway participated in the fwd.us effort, here, which concludes:

There is a strong sentiment in the country that undocumented immigrants should not be granted amnesty; this immigration reform proposal addresses that issue by requiring that undocumented immigrants pay a fine, taxes owed, learn English and wait at least thirteen years until they can become citizens.

Americans across party lines believe this is not amnesty, but rather a fair and equitable way of dealing with the eleven million undocumented immigrants in the country. Hitting the 70 percent mark nationwide, this proposal wins broad support from the electorate.

Finally, this generates a more positive electoral environment for Republicans, as it creates an opening to a significant number of swing voters for GOP candidates.

Hard libertarian billionaire daughter Rebekah Mercer is behind Trump's shift to Bannon and Conway, away from deportation

The price of consensus for Mercer's "help" in retrospect was obviously that Trump soften his deportation stance. Bloomberg's story here in June completely misses the signficance of the Mercers' libertarianism.

The Hill had the story already on August 17, here, the day Trump shook up his campaign by hiring Stephen Bannon as CEO and Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager, detailing Mercer's links to Stanford, the Heritage Foundation, BREITBART, the Ted Cruz campaign and libertarian think tank CATO:

“The Mercers basically own this campaign,” said a source who has worked with Rebekah Mercer in her political activities. “They have installed their people. ... And now they’ve got their data firm in there.” ... Little has been written about the Mercers because they avoid the public spotlight, but conservative sources who know the family, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described them as “kind, civic-minded people and consensus-builders.” ... But that source, who has worked with Mercer in some of her other political ventures, said it was a surprise to some people that the Mercers had swung so forcefully behind Trump, given her ideological bent. “She identifies as a libertarian. At least she always did,” the source said, adding that Mercer was a big supporter of libertarian think tanks like the Goldwater Institute and Cato. “With Bekah you always had to prove your libertarian racing stripes,” the source added. “This seems really strange.”

Ted Cruz' revenge: It took this woman only eight days to destroy the candidacy of Donald Trump