Glenn Greenwald: Democrats screaming "Putin! Russia!" is an implausible tactic, a sign of desperation

Here:

Obama spent eight years saying Russia is not a scary threat, he mocked Mitt Romney in 2012 . . .. Democrats, like a lot of Americans, including myself, are sort of dioriented, still in shock, and are grappling for explanations. Screaming 'Putin!' over and over and accusing critics of being Kremlin stooges, I think that is a byproduct of this desperation more than anything else.

One month since Election 2016: Trump edges up 0.2 million votes in the last week, Hillary 0.3 million

Trump remains the king of the Republican hill in the popular vote:

Trump 2016: goes from 62.6 million a week ago to 62.8 million now

Romney '12: 60.9 million

McCain '08: 60.0 million

Bush '04: 62.0 million

Bush '00: 50.5 million

Obama remains the king of the Democrat hill in the popular vote, and also the absolute king in the popular vote with no one scoring higher:

Hillary 2016: goes from 65.1 million a week ago to 65.4 million now

Obama '12: 65.9 million

Obama '08: 69.5 million

Kerry '04: 59.0 million

Gore '00: 51.0 million

3 weeks since Election 2016: Trump has now won more popular votes than any previous Republican

Trump 2016: 62.6 million

Romney '12: 60.9 million

McCain '08: 60.0 million

Bush '04: 62.0 million

Bush '00: 50.5 million

Meanwhile, Hillary still hasn't bested Obama 2012, and three weeks since Election 2016 remains 4.4 million votes behind Obama 2008:

Hillary 2016: 65.1 million

Obama '12: 65.9 million

Obama '08: 69.5 million

Kerry '04: 59.0 million

Gore '00: 51.0 million

I have a daydream: Trump appoints Romney to . . .

. . . reduce the cabinet from 15 to 5.

Flashback to Mittens in March: 'He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat.'

Craig Shirley: Trump considering Romney for ANYTHING can only be bad for conservatism

Huckabee is right: Romney is a toxic choice unless he publicly apologizes for savaging Trump

[W]hen you go after the person who is the nominee of your party, who has been duly nominated by the voters and then you're savaging the voters, you're not just savaging Donald Trump. It would be an insult to all those Donald Trump voters who worked really hard . . ..

Revulsion Election 2016 update, two weeks out

Turnout

2016: 133.3 million

2012: 129.2 million

2008: 131.5 million

Popular Vote

Trump/Clinton: 62.0m/63.7m

Romney/Obama: 60.9m/65.9m

McCain/Obama: 60.0m/69.5m

-------------------------------------

5.8 million who turned out for Obama in 2008 didn't for Hillary in 2016

Hillary Loses to Trump in 2016 Underperforming Obama 2008 by

424,000 in PA

623,000 in OH

606,000 in MI

294,000 in WI

-----------------

1.947 million votes out of total underperformance of 5.8 million, or 33%; another 1.9 million didn't bother showing up for Hillary in California (800K), New York (700K) and Illinois (400K).

Trump Margin of Victory in

PA: 66,000

OH: 455,000

MI: 13,000

WI: 24,000

From Trump's 306 Electoral College votes peel off MI, he'd have been at 290.

Peel off WI he'd have been at 280.

Peel off PA he'd have lost with 260, despite winning OH handily and also FL.

This election really came down to those 66,000 votes in Pennsylvania, and the hundreds of thousands of people in the Rust Belt who were alienated from the Democrat Party.

Trump interviews with the likes of Cruz and Romney are designed to do just one thing

Keep him in the headlines.

You'd think they'd catch on by now.

But no, this is serious, right?

Figures one week on show almost 300,000 Wisconsinites in 2016 withheld their vote from Hillary, allowing Trump to eek out a victory by 25,000

Clinton polled 1.382 million in 2016 vs. 1.677 million for Obama in 2008, a deficit of 295,000 votes. The Hillary deficit from Obama 2012 was 238,000 votes.

Overall turnout in 2016 was flat at 2.98 million, the same as in 2008. Turnout had climbed in 2012 to 3.07 million.

Turnout for Trump 2016 is currently 1.40703 million vs. 1.40797 million for Romney in 2012, indicating no surge in support for Republicans.

Democrats elected Trump in Wisconsin in 2016.

The narrowness of the Trump victory in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania

Trump's narrowest wins:

Michigan: 13,000 votes

Wisconsin: 24,000 

Pennsylvania: 66,000

The next three:

Arizona: 95,000

Florida: 115,000

North Carolina: 177,000

For Donald Trump, 103,000 votes in the three narrowest states meant the difference between winning with 306 Electoral College votes and losing with 260 despite winning Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.

The win in Michigan looks entirely due to lower (Democrat) turnout in 2016. As of this hour turnout is down 220,000 from 2008. In Wisconsin turnout is identical. In Pennsylvania turnout is up only 20,000.

Compare Trump's win in Ohio, which was by 455,000 votes. Turnout there was down by a whopping 340,000 from 2008. Trump's net from that is 115,000 votes. Recall Romney lost Ohio by a similar sum: 167,000 votes.

Democrats in Rust Belt states look like they abandoned the field. Turnout was either down big or stagnant from 8 years ago despite population nationwide increasing 20 million.

It was revulsion for Hillary. 

Revulsion Election update, one week after the election: Hillary missing 7.6 million Obama voters from 2008, Trump on the verge of outperforming Romney

Turnout

2016: 130.0 million

2012: 129.2 million

2008: 131.5 million

Population has increased about 20 million over the period.

Popular Vote

Democrat

2016: 61.9 million

2012: 65.9 million

2008: 69.5 million

Republican

2016: 60.9 million

2012: 60.9 million

2008: 60.0 million

Trump has now matched Romney's popular vote in 2012 and bested McCain by about 1 million votes.

Hillary now undershoots Obama 2008 by 7.6 million votes and Obama 2012 by 4.0 million votes.

Vote totals remain significantly incomplete in Washington state (12% out) and Utah (11% out).

Democrats blame their own Bernie Sanders left for not showing up at the polls to elect Hillary, ignore that she was a horrible candidate

It's like Rush Limbaugh blaming 4 million phantom conservatives for not showing up to elect Romney, who bested McCain by a million votes, when the Democrats can point to 4.6 to 8.2 million actual Obama voters who abandoned Hillary.

When it comes to the establishment in the two political parties not getting it, the Democrats do it better as usual.

From "Seething liberals vow revolution in Democratic Party" at The Hill:

In an election determined by enthusiasm, some blame Bernie Sanders supporters for either not showing up or for suppressing turnout by refusing to rally behind Clinton at an earlier date.

“The Sanders people should be mad at themselves,” said one well-connected Democratic strategist. “If they had come out to vote, Donald Trump wouldn’t be president. If they were trying to prove a point, all they’ve done is further damage everything they claim to be fighting for. It’s somewhat typical of that crowd.” ...

“Progressives showed up,” [Jacob] Limon said, noting that the election in Texas was closer than it has been in 20 years. The problem, he said, was Clinton’s trustworthiness.

Hillary's horrible candidacy aside, Republicans should be worrying about stagnating popular vote totals

Bush 2004: 62 million

McCain 2008: 60 million

Romney 2012: 60. 9 million

Trump 2016: 60.5 million

Republican average: 60.85

Democrat average: 63.88 (John Kerry and Hillary Clinton 60.1; Barack Obama 2x 67.7)

Republicans are just one more articulate, bright, clean, nice-looking minority person away from another slaughter.

Ya think? WaPo: "It's possible that Clinton supporters did not show up on Election Day"

The latest tally shows Hillary not getting 8.361 million votes in 2016 which Obama got in 2008. No matter what Trump's coalition was in 2016, its size shows little variation from 2008 and 2012. There was no sea change of support for his candidacy.

The answer for Clinton's loss is in the disarray among Democrats because their candidate was so horrible, which is why the media have portrayed Trump that way. It's liberal projection syndrome all over again. Hillary Clinton was the worst candidate for president in at least a generation. "More sooty baggage than a 90-car freight train" was how Camille Paglia put it 3 years ago. Democrats should have listened to her.

WaPo, recognizing that the proper comparison is with 2008, not 2012:

Absent final turnout numbers, it is still too early to assess whether these shifting vote patterns are the result of differential turnout among Clinton and Trump supporters or the result of genuine voter conversion. It’s possible that a sizable chunk of Latino Clinton supporters, in addition to white women, African Americans, and Asian Americans, did not show up on Election Day. It’s also possible that a significant portion of these voters were willing to overlook Trump’s incendiary remarks and vote for him based on other factors, like the need to shake up “politics as usual.”

Revulsion Election update: Trump got lucky, underperformed Romney by 1.4 million votes, McCain by 450,000 votes

Hillary underperformed Obama 2012 by 6.2 million, Obama 2008 by . . . 9.8 million.

Democrats elected Trump by not voting for Hillary.

National Review contributor tries to make the case that Trump 2016 would have beaten Obama 2012

The author repeatedly mentions that he knows he's comparing apples to oranges but never adjusts his figures for population growth over the period.

As of this morning, Trump is underperforming Romney by 1.9 million votes, but the country has grown by 9 million since 2012.

The Trump performance figure in 2016 presupposes having so much more to work with from the increased population growth but still comes up short of Romney who had so much less to work with because of a smaller population. 

Trump toyed with the idea of competing in 2012 but wisely left Romney to do that and fail, knowing instinctively that the shiny, happy and clean novelty incumbent was going to be very hard to beat.

Obama was beatable in 2012, had fewer than 500,000 votes in four states east of the Mississippi gone a different way, but Romney possessed insufficient charisma compared to Obama, too few boots on the ground to make up for that, and the formidable problem of Obama's incumbency.

And on top of all that, Romney was a lousy candidate. His wife had to reassure us that "Mitt doesn't change positions".

As with all fortunes from Chinese cookies, always add "in bed" for maximum amusement. 

The revulsion election, Obama vs. Hillary, shows 10.25 million missing Democrat voters, and Trump underperforming both Romney and McCain

Obama garnered 69.499 million votes in 2008, so far in 2016 Hillary has just 59.245 million.

Trump is underperforming Romney by 1.912 million votes, 59.022 million to 60.934 million, and also McCain, who collected 59.950 million votes in 2008, by just shy of 1 million votes.

Expect changes to these spreads as the 2016 numbers finalize. 

Mark Levin waits until one week before Election 2016 to state that Donald Trump is more conservative than both John McCain and Mitt Romney on a host of issues

What a piece of shit Levin is.

At the end of the first half hour, tonight.

Rod Dreher blames the Republican rank and file who voted for Trump for the coming "mess"

Reminds me of Rush Limbaugh blaming the so-called four million Republicans who stayed home in 2012 for Romney's loss.

Yeah, like it's all of a sudden a government of the people, by the people and for the people when we lose, but the rubes never get the credit when we win.

Meanwhile the guys with the microphones and the high profile blogs get off scot-free.

Here:

"[T]he bitterness and spite among Republican regulars is going to blind them to their own role in creating this mess."