Jen Psaki: Kamala Harris is as likable as Hillary Clinton

I hope so, but I repeat myself.

A lot of people don't know who Kamala Harris even is.

Still more don't know who Jen Psaki is.

But everybody remembers Hillary, right?

 

Democrats still have not learned the Revulsion Election lesson of 2016

 

Black Dems in PA admit revulsion for Hillary made them not vote in 2016

Some Pa. Democrats regret not voting in 2016 - they say they'll be sure to cast a ballot in 2020

More than a dozen African Americans who said they usually vote Democratic - but didn't vote at all in 2016 - blamed unease with Clinton's candidacy. They also expressed support for Biden, frequently citing his past as Obama's vice president as a major positive, and occasionally others. ... Jason Saffore, 43, an African American Democrat working in Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market, said he couldn't bring himself to vote for Clinton in 2016 and so didn't vote at all. Next year, he said, will be different. "The guy we have in office now is not serving our country and it's time for a change," he said, as he arranged a stack of onions in a crate. "We need a president who is for all Americans. Last time I didn't really care for the Democratic field at all, so I stayed out of the mix. I think a lot of people did."

WaPo in March: 7% of Obama 2012 voters stayed home in 2016 (4.4 million), 1.6 million of them black

WaPo spins this, chalking it up to 1) Russian voter suppression of stupid people (pretty damn condescending!);  2) Republicans (!) dredging up Hillary's own 1996 statement that blacks = super predators to suppress their vote (naw, she's not racist); 3) Obama wasn't on the ballot, suppressing the black vote!

 

But why blame blacks, WaPo? Kinda racist of you to put it all on them, especially in Michigan and Pennsylvania. 2.8 million others stayed home, too, you know. Their votes count just as much as black votes, don't they? Don't they? Well let's hear it for the young, disaffected voters for Bernie in the primaries! They didn't show up either, apparently. Why? They also found Hillary quite revolting. Trump revolted them too, but that goes without saying. What matters is the Democrat candidate suppressed all these votes, but WaPo and the Democrats, but I repeat myself, just can't bring themselves to utter this truth.

 

Anyway, it's nice of WaPo, and The New York Times, finally getting around over a year and a half later to pointing out what we were pointing out only days after Election 2016:

 

Hillary sucked more than Trump did. 

 

4.4 million 2012 Obama voters stayed home in 2016 — more than a third of them black: 

 

Exit polling suggests that black voters made up 12 percent of the electorate in 2016, down slightly from 2008 and 2012. Trump’s claim that many black voters stayed home ... is correct. ...

 

Eleven percent of black Obama 2012 voters stayed home. ...

 

In 2016, black turnout was down eight points from 2012, helping contribute to that lower percentage that black voters made up of the overall electorate. ...

 

About 5 million white Obama 2012 voters supported Trump; about 1.6 million black voters stayed home.

Amy Siskind remains blind to Hillary underperforming Barack Obama 2008 by 3.65 million votes

The sign of a growing movement is building on past achievements, at which Hillary miserably failed.

She didn't even beat Obama 2012, but hey, go for alienating the voters again with her.

And there's your slogan for 2020, too: "I'm (alienating the voters again) with her".

Myth of the white supremacy surge: Rather than a 4-point decline in the white vote for Republicans from 2016 to 2018 per the NYT, a better comparison is 2018 vs. 2014 showing a 6-point decline

It's better to compare midterm election with midterm than it is midterm with general.

Whatever Trump and the Republicans have been doing, it's not causing the white majority to vote for Republicans in greater numbers when Trump most needs them to do so to advance his agenda.

Arguably every racial group is running away from what Republicans stand for under Trump. 

Contrary to Richard Spencer who says Trump has made inroads with minority communities, Trump has alienated minorities from the Republican Party since 2014, the black vote by 1-point, the Latino vote by 7-points, and none more than the Asian vote, by a whopping 27-points, partly a function no doubt of Trump's (correct) anti-China rhetoric.

Trump's prospects for reelection in 2020 do not look good at all. Whatever "movement" he thinks he had was nonexistent, and instead of growing his support it's going the other way.

Election 2016 remains The Revulsion Election, and if Trump's not careful he'll be on the receiving end of the revulsion instead of Hillary come 2020.

CNN 2018 exit poll

CNN 2014 exit poll

Priceless: Yale historian Timothy Snyder blames Democrats for Hillary's loss

Here, on May 1, 2017, in Historian Timothy Snyder: “It’s pretty much inevitable” that Trump will try to stage a coup and overthrow democracy:

 '"On Tyranny" is a suggestion of things that everyone can do. ... [T]he other lessons — such as supporting existing political and social institutions, supporting the truth and so on — those things will then come relatively easily if you can follow the first one, which is to get out of the drift, to recognize that this is the moment where you have to not behave as you did in October 2016.' 

Funny how he lets that little slap slip at the end of an interview about his fears. It is the great, unacknowledged truth of Election 2016.

The rest of it reminded me of myself in 2009.

When I saw how leftists started trashing Obama one year in to his presidency it dawned on me that the tyranny I had feared from an Obama presidency had been a misplaced fear. Then the stories of Obama's laziness started to surface, and the personal details about his penchant for watching sports on TV, traveling, fine dining and playing golf. The guy got captured by the trappings of the office. Only then was it clear that there was nothing existential to fear. And then the guy punted on Obamacare, letting the House and Senate duke it out, creating a grotesque. And after reelection, he actually made the Bush tax cuts permanent and fixed the AMT.

Wow. What a revolutionary!

If Snyder breathed into a paper bag for a minute or two, he might realize that Trump's first midterms are upon us and only now is Trump starting to realize what presidential power is all about. The thing is, it's way too late. He has already squandered his political capital in year one, failing at job one, which is to get the order of the agenda correct. This was partly the result of making lousy appointments across the board in the first place, many of whom have gone on to blow up like so many Clinton bimbo eruptions but without the sex. By generally being incompetent like any true outsider would be in Washington Trump was at a huge disadvantage from the start anyway. But the people who could have helped him didn't because Trump got elected in part by insulting them.

This presidency is already much like Obama's, a creation of the House and Senate, not of the president. Recourse to executive orders to get what you want but can't get the ordinary way is a sign of weakness, not strength. It shows that the master is the slave. 

Few presidents get three important things done. Trump has one major accomplishment but it wasn't the one people remember the fearless leader championing at every venue of 2015 and 2016. So far the corporate tax cut is not translating into unequivocal results for the people. As a percentage of civilian population, employment remains over 6 million behind the pre-Great Recession average.

"Hillary isn't president" is something to be truly grateful for, but sooner or later it will dawn on the Trumpists that Trump isn't either.

Kim Strassel ably summarizes Hillary's larger role in The Revulsion Election

Here:

The parties gave the country a choice between two unpopular people, and the country disliked her more. 

Peter Berkowitz agrees with us that Hillary Clinton was the worst candidate since Mondale

Here:

Although Hillary Clinton won the 2016 popular vote, her Electoral College loss—the only result that is constitutionally relevant—to Donald Trump inflicted a trauma for Democrats comparable to 1984. True, Mondale’s margin of defeat was enormous, but he ran against a popular incumbent president and gifted politician whose policies were credited with reviving a moribund economy. And yes, Clinton fell a mere 70,000-combined votes short in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. But the embarrassing scandal for Democrats was that a race between their former secretary of state/former senator/former first lady and the major-party candidate with the highest disapproval ratings and the least political preparation in American history was even close.

But losing 20 states in 2016 to your party's loser from 2004 isn't just embarrassing. It's a sign of popular revulsion. 

On top of coming in 8th out of 8 since 2004 in 13 states, Hillary came in 7th in nine, 6th in two, and 5th in three, losing them all to Trump

Hillary 7th out of 8 since 2004: Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Wisconsin (where Trump barely won coming in sixth in the last four races there).

Hillary 6th out of 8 since 2004:  Utah and Michigan (where Trump barely won coming in fifth in the last four races there).

Hillary 5th out of 8 since 2004:  Georgia, Pennsylvania (Trump third) and Texas.

In other words, half the country found Hillary revolting.

Democrats continue to ignore the revulsion Democrat voters felt for Hillary

It's not like they didn't have information about this in 2008 when primary voters ended up picking Obama over Hillary in the first place.

Here:

[N]ew information shows that Clinton had a much bigger problem with voters who had supported President Barack Obama in 2012 but backed Trump four years later. ... Turning out the base is not good enough, the data suggest. 

But Hillary didn't turn out the base in 2016 anymore than she did in 2008. Every single story from the Democrats ignores that Democrats revolted against Hillary in 2016 just as they did in 2008. Just as they did in 1993. 

Just look at the top vote-getters by state since 2004.

Trump 2016 was the top-vote-getter in AL, AZ, AR, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, MO, MT, NC, ND, SC, TN, TX, WV, and WY for a total of 26.4 million votes. Seventeen states, two of them swing states.

But eight years ago Obama 2008 is still today the top-vote-getter in CT, DE, HI, IL, IA, ME, MI, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, VT and WI for a total of 28 million votes. Eighteen states.

Hillary 2016 was the top-vote-getter only in CA, CO, DC, MD, MA, NV and VA for a total of 16.6 million votes, over half of which were in California. Six states and DC.

Obama 2012 was top-vote-getter in WA, Romney 2012 in ID and UT, McCain 2008 in AL, MS and OK, and Bush 2004 in KS, NE and SD.

That's all fifty states plus DC.

Trump is somewhat weak with his base in 8 states going back to 2004, but Hillary is far weaker with hers.

That's the story which has been ignored over and over again since election night. Hillary underperformed Obama 2012 in 34 states, but Obama 2008 in 39.

They weren't with her. Ever.

Obama pollster Cornell Belcher gets one thing right: Hillary failed to hold the Obama coalition

Or as we say, 5.1 million former Obama voters in 39 states from 2008 didn't vote for Hillary in 2016.

Do Belcher's math. He estimates from exit polling data that about 7% of the non-white millennial electorate voted third party, allowing Trump to squeeze in. Hillary's total of 65.85 million popular votes supplemented by the 5.1 million in 39 states who didn't vote for her is 70.95 million, 7% of which is 5 million.

Belcher, who is black, racializes the whole thing from there, complaining that Democrats failed to make the race about race. But obviously these non-white millennials still voted for whites, so it wasn't about race for them either. It was about young progressives being unable to bring themselves to vote for two loathsome candidates, one of whom turned out to be more loathsome to more people than the other.

As they say in the legal profession, hard cases make bad law. Election 2016 was a hard case, and we shouldn't draw the wrong conclusions from it as both Democrats and Republicans still seem to be doing.

Belcher, here in Salon:

Demographics are destiny. What happens to a centrist Democrat quite frankly who can’t hold that Obama coalition? Donald Trump is a president who did not win a plurality of the public. In fact, one of my reports was leaked to the New York Times, saying that millennials were rejecting the binary choice of the lesser of two evils.

When you look at the exit data, you have 8 or 9 percent of younger African-Americans voting third-party. You have 6 or 7 percent of younger Latinos voting third-party. Hillary is almost off Barack Obama’s winning margins by the same percentage of our young people voting third party. So that’s how [Trump] squeaked in.

Again, Trump didn’t expand the Republican tent. He didn’t bring in all these millions upon millions of new Republican voters. This was about Democrats losing, more so than Trump remaking the electorate and winning in some sort of profound and new way. It should not have been a winning percentage, right? ...

When you look at battleground state after battleground state, Hillary was off Obama’s margins by five or six points and Trump was, at best, one or two points up in Michigan or Wisconsin or Florida. Again, it wasn’t like he was four, five points better than Mitt Romney. It was that she was five or six points below what Barack Obama did.

Of course Trump had the biggest electoral win since Reagan because no one expected the Hillary defections

Just as America turned its back on incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980, so did America to Hillary Clinton, heir apparent, in 2016.

Trump was expected right up to the eve of the election to lose by between two to four points, and did end up losing by two points, except that he won enough states to win in the Electoral College 306-232 before faithless electors had their say.

The magnitude of that was overwhelming because it was unexpected. We even had people predicting Trump would win the popular vote but end up losing to Hillary in the Electoral College.

It turned out exactly the opposite. Every honest person who stayed up until three in the morning watching it all unfold knows how unexpected was Trump's win in the Electoral College. Everyone on our side expected the worst . . . a decisive Hillary victory.

The fact remains: Hillary underperformed Obama 2008 in 39 states because the people disliked her more than they disliked Trump.

And that's quite an accomplishment.

Revulsion Election Update: Kansas City Star survey discovers revulsion for Hillary top reason people voted for Trump

Told ya.

Here:

Last week, I asked those who cast their vote for President Donald Trump to explain their choice in their own words. And respondents weren’t shy in the least. I was inundated with thoughtful replies — almost too many to read. It was Wednesday before I could come up for air.

It would be a serious understatement to say readers offered a wide variety of reasoning, but three general schools of thought stood out:

It’s the Clintons, stupid

Ron Gullickson put readers’ No. 1 reason most succinctly: “Let’s be clear. My vote was not a vote for Trump, but it was a vote against (Hillary) Clinton. Shame on both parties.”

Nancy McDowell wrote, “I voted for Donald Trump because I couldn’t stomach the Clintons back in the White House. ..."

Bryan Bauermeister wrote that he voted Trump “because I did not want Hillary Clinton as president of the United States. That’s what it boils down to. …"

Jan Bentley’s reasoning was varied . . . "I did not want to vote for him but the choice was horrid, so I voted against Hillary. Because I want the next Supreme Court justices to be conservatives. Because of Clinton fatigue. The Clintons are far too ethically challenged.”

Mike Henggeler . . . "So why did I want to stop the Clintons so badly? I was born in 1954, raised by staunch Democrat parents and, until a few months ago, was registered as a Democrat (now independent). The Democratic Party of today bears little resemblance to what it used to be. It doesn’t stand for anything except itself and what it thinks it needs to do to win. And right there you have the Clintons, who have shown time and again that they will say anything and steamroll anyone who gets in their way.”

Jean Atwell cited Hillary Clinton’s reaction to her husband’s affairs. “I might have considered Clinton if she hadn’t stayed with a man who publicly humiliated her and her daughter,” she wrote. “She tells women that it is all right to stay with a man if it can possibly get you further in politics.”

Revulsion Election update: Electors pledged to Hillary in MN, ME and WA today refused to vote for her

Democrats really did not like Hillary Clinton in 2016. 5.1 million former Obama voters didn't vote for her, and now her electors won "fair and square" are balking.

You can't make this stuff up.

From the MarketWatch story here:

In Washington state, three Democratic electors voted for Colin Powell and one for Faith Spotted Eagle, who has been fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, instead of Clinton. ...

In Minnesota, elector Muhammad Abdurrahman didn’t vote for Clinton and was replaced by an alternate who did. According to the Los Angeles Times, Abdurrahman was a delegate for Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention.

In Maine, elector David Bright tried to vote for Sanders but was rebuffed and ended up voting for Clinton, according to the Associated Press.

Revulsion Election update: Hillary underperformed Obama 2008 in 39 states by 5.16 million votes

This updates my look at 2016 candidate underperformance relative to 2008 from almost three weeks ago. The total picture for Hillary improved by about 440,000 votes in the interim, or about 11,000 votes per state on average, but doesn't change the conclusion. Hillary was far and away more revolting to the voters in 2016 than was Trump. Hillary still lags Obama 2008 by 3.7 million votes net and Obama 2012 by 74,000 votes. For his part Donald Trump has surpassed George W. Bush 2004 by 940,000 votes with 62.98 million votes, the most for any Republican in any presidential contest.

Hillary 2016 underperformed Obama 2008 in:

MI by 603,000 votes (and lost to Trump by 11,000)

OH by 546,000 (lost by 447,000)

MO by 371,000

PA by 350,000 (lost by 45,000)

IN by 341,000

IL by 328,000

WI by 294,000 (lost by 22,000)

NY by 257,000

TN by 216,000

MN by 205,000 (won by only 45,000)

IA by 175,000 (lost by 147,000)

KY by 123,000 

WV by 115,000

CT by 100,000

*KS by 88,000

*NM by 87,000 (won by only 65,000)

AL by 83,000

*OK by 82,000

*MS by 70,000

*NJ by 67,000

ME by 64,000 (won by only 22,000)

HI by 59,000

MT by 54,000

SD by 54,000

NE by 49,000

ND by 47,000

ID by 46,000

RI by 44,000

AR by 42,000

*VT by 40,000

NH by 36,000 (won by only 3,000)

OR by 35,000

WY by 27,000

DE by 19,000

*UT by 17,000

*WA by 8,000

*AK by 8,000

SC by 7,000

LA by 3,000.

That's 5.16 million former Democrat votes alienated from Hillary Clinton in 2016 in 39 states, 57% of which came from the 8 Great Lakes states (2.924 million), according to the latest numbers this morning, almost six weeks since Election 2016.

Trump underperformed John McCain in only 12 states and DC and by just 792,000 votes, 67% of which were in California alone:

In CA by 527,000 votes

*UT by 81,000

*AK by 31,000

*KS by 29,000

*NM by 27,000

*MS by 24,000

MA by 18,000

MD by 17,000

*NJ by 12,000

*OK by 11,000

*WA by 7,000

*VT by 4,000

DC by 4,000.

*nine states where both 2016 candidates underperformed their 2008 counterparts 

Trump admitted in Grand Rapids Thank You Rally on Friday that low turnout [for Hillary] helped him win

Trump, quoted here:

"The African American community was great to us," Trump said. "They came through bigly." ... "If they had any doubt, they didn't vote," Trump said. "And that was almost as good. Because a bunch of people didn't show up, because they felt good about me." ... But with lower voter turnout in many urban areas, where there are more concentrated populations of African Americans, and high turnout in rural areas, the numbers would tend to support his claim.

Jennifer Palmieri should think about the over 5 million former Obama voters who rejected Hillary, not about who rejected Trump

Jennifer Palmieri still can't face what lead to the Hillary loss: A Democrat candidate more repugnant to Democrat voters than the Republican candidate was to Republican voters. Hillary was a magnet for words with a negative connotation while Trump was not at all. She was a horrible candidate. End of story. 

Here:

But it’s also important for the winners of this campaign to think long and hard about the voters who rejected them. I haven’t seen much evidence of such introspection from the Trump side. That’s concerning.

Did I mention 5.6 million Obama voters in 39 states didn't vote for Hillary?

Yes, yes, I did mention it.

People found Hillary so revolting in 2016 she underperformed Obama 2008 in 39 states

Count 'em.

Hillary underperformed Obama in:

NY by 655,000 votes

MI by 604,000

OH by 549,000

MO by 387,000

PA by 381,000

IL by 336,000

IN by 335,000

WI by 295,000

TN by 218,000

MN by 206,000

IA by 175,000

KY by 123,000

WV by 115,000

CT by 101,000

KS by 100,000

AL by 87,000

NM by 87,000

OK by 82,000

NJ by 78,000

MS by 71,000

ME by 70,000

HI by 59,000

MT by 54,000

SD by 54,000

NE by 50,000

ND by 47,000

ID by 46,000

RI by 44,000

AR by 42,000

VT by 40,000

NH by 36,000

WY by 27,000

DE by 19,000

UT by 17,000

OR by 11,000

WA by 10,000

AK by 8,000

SC by 7,000

LA by 3,000

That's 5.6 million former Democrat votes alienated from Hillary Clinton in 2016 in 39 states, 60% of which came from the 8 Great Lakes states (3.361 million), according to the latest numbers this morning, three weeks after Election 2016.

Trump underperformed John McCain in 13 states and DC by 1.1 million votes, 63% of which were in California:

In CA by 727,000 votes
NY by 113,000
UT by 81,000
KS by 44,000
AK by 31,000
NM by 27,000
MA by 26,000
MS by 25,000
MD by 25,000
NJ by 18,000
OK by 11,000
WA by 9,000
VT by 4,000
DC by 4,000