Two weeks after Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination for president, I flew to Little Rock, Ark., to visit a woman named Gay White. White is the widow of Frank White, a conservative Little Rock banker who in the spring, summer and fall of 1980 toured all 75 counties in Arkansas in a quixotic attempt to unseat the incumbent governor, Bill Clinton. Frank had no previous experience campaigning, but he proved to be an enthusiastic retail politician. Gay, then 32, accompanied him on his statewide tour of cattle auctions, courthouse squares, Walmart parking lots and chicken-processing plants. "Hi, I'm Gay White," she would tell the people they met. "My husband's running for governor, and I'd sure appreciate your vote."Though that entire year was a momentous one for the Whites, one detail had stuck with White 36 years later. "I cannot tell you the number of times they would say to me, 'If your husband wins, are you going to keep his last name?' " she told me. "I heard it over and over and over."It had not occurred to the Whites or their campaign advisers that attitudes toward the governor's wife, Hillary Rodham, might be what Gay White would later term an "undercurrent" in the 1980 election. They knew, of course, that Arkansas had seen no first lady like Rodham, a Wellesley graduate who wore bookworm spectacles and a hairdo that was not blown out in the Southern manner. At 32, she was a full partner at one of the nation's oldest law firms. She had never changed her name, and Rodham was how her clients knew her.While Gay White dutifully barnstormed alongside her husband, Clinton's wife had her own pursuits, as well as an infant daughter whom she was determined not to use as a political prop. "Frank and I went to every festival in Arkansas," White told me. "I had lots of people say, 'Hillary's never been here -- and she's the first lady.' I think the fact that she did not go to these little county fairs and that she was seen as not embracing that role caused people to resent her, right or wrong."The White campaign focused on Bill Clinton's tax hikes, his willingness to accept Cuban refugees and -- as White's former campaign chairman, Curtis Finch Jr., told me -- "the perception among people older than he was that he was just young and arrogant and brought in all these people who had beards and long hair." If Hillary Rodham's feminism was part of this picture, Frank White didn't feel the need to campaign on it overtly. Still, the Republican candidate knew that voters would get the joke when, after criticizing Clinton for allowing married couples to hold state-government positions, he could not resist adding: "How many husband-and-wife teams has he hired? It's hard to find out, because they don't have the same last names."Six weeks before the election, Clinton enjoyed a 41-point lead over the challenger, who entered the race with only 2 percent of the public knowing who he was. But on Nov. 4, Frank White beat Bill Clinton, 52 percent to 48 percent. At an election post-mortem a few weeks later in Little Rock, Rodham spoke on behalf of her husband, who was still devastated by the stunning upset and did not attend. Explaining the election results, the governor's wife observed somberly, "It's more easy to enthuse people if they think there's going to be a change, instead of more of the same."Rodham may not have been on the ballot, but Gay White remains convinced that "how they perceived her was very much a factor." Two years later, when Clinton ran again against White, he ran a television ad apologizing for his mistakes. And, Gay remembers, Rodham "changed everything: her whole appearance, her wardrobe. She started wearing makeup. She took Bill's last name. They did the things they needed to do."Bill Clinton won the rematch in a landslide. The Clintons returned to the Governor's Mansion in 1983. Neither of them has lost a general election since."I get that some people just don't know what to make of me," Hillary Clinton said in her speech accepting the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July. It was a rare acknowledgment by the candidate herself of what has been the defining paradox of her career: She has been a presence in American public life for more than a third of a century, and yet for all her ubiquity she remains a curiously unknown quantity to many voters.It's possible to glimpse the origins of this paradox in the time between Bill Clinton's 1980 loss and his 1982 victory. Upon facing the electoral judgment of her persona for the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton began what has gradually evolved into a precarious shadow game with the American public -- a ritualized series of reveals, retreats and resets, each iteration seemingly more freighted with recrimination and self-doubt than the one preceding it. It was the moment when Hillary became "Hillary" -- a collaborative creation by herself and her political enemies, both a reflection and a source of the uncertainty and mistrust with which the public has so often regarded her.
One evening in early May, Sen. Ben Sasse sat at his home on the banks of the Platte River just outside Fremont, Nebraska, and began writing a message "to majority America." Donald Trump had just become the de facto Republican presidential nominee. As Sasse explained in a Facebook post that would soon go viral, two things had happened that day that he couldn't shake. His phone had been flooded with voicemails from party leaders asking the first-term Republican to get on board with the GOP's candidate. And he had gone shopping at Walmart.Sasse had been critical of Trump throughout the primaries--mocking his insecurity about the size of his hands, crashing a private meeting between Glenn Beck and Fox News' Sean Hannity to assail the latter's Trump coverage as "bull," and even traveling to Iowa to warn voters that Trump talked like a man who was running to be king. Trump, for his part, retorted that the 44-year-old Sasse looked like a "gym rat." But as Sasse navigated the aisles of Walmart, his shopping trip became a rolling public forum. Shopper after shopper approached him, he wrote, with the same refrain. They were fed up with both parties; they were sick of Trump as well as Hillary Clinton; and mostly, they were tired of Washington punting on its responsibilities.And so Sasse, putting off his kids' bedtime bath to keep writing, proposed an alternative. What if there were someone else--a candidate running on a minimalist platform that promised to focus on three or four things, like entitlement reform and fighting terrorism: "I think there is room--an appetite--for such a candidate."To the chagrin of the party's Never Trump rump, Sasse made clear that he himself would not be that candidate. Nevertheless, as his colleagues one by one climbed aboard the Trump train, Sasse steadfastly withheld his support from the GOP nominee. On Saturday, after a tape of Trump boasting of sexual assault was leaked to the Washington Post, Sasse became one of the first Republican senators to call on the GOP nominee to leave the presidential race. Dozens of Republicans, tired of defending their erratic figurehead's bigotry and reality TV antics, rescinded their endorsements of Trump. But what set Sasse apart from his peers is that he had never wavered in his opposition, even as pressure mounted to fall in line. Most of the few Republican lawmakers who have renounced their candidate are retiring or fighting to hold on to blue-leaning seats--that is, they had nothing to lose or potentially something to gain. Sasse isn't up for reelection for four years, and his state is as reliably crimson as his ubiquitous Cornhuskers polo shirt.A Trump loss would bring a moment of reckoning for Republicans, one that could put Sasse in a position of unusual influence for a first-term senator--poised, perhaps, to refocus the identity of the GOP in the way that Paul Ryan and Newt Gingrich did before him. As a longtime scholar of the Protestant Reformation and a self-described "crisis turnaround guy," he has spent his life studying what happens when major organizations become unmoored from their mission. The Republican Party may be his biggest project yet.
The papers offer rare insights into how the group governed and sought to win over the population and erect a satellite state in Libya.Detailed lists of prisoners with their offenses and corresponding punishments show how the militants enforced their austere vision of Islamic rule. Tax documents show how they tried to curry favor with some residents by confiscating money and jewelry from the wealthy to distribute to the needy, while also filling their own coffers.The paper trail also reveals the pedestrian bureaucracy behind the group's brutal rule in Sirte, the largest city Islamic State has ever held outside Iraq and Syria.The last names of the militants or of civilians featured in the documents found, such as prisoner lists or tax forms, have been redacted. Attempts to reach Abu Bakr and others whose names appear in the documents were mostly unsuccessful, as phone lines across Sirte largely have been cut off.At the headquarters of the group's Hisbah, or morality police, a spreadsheet listed crimes and punishments. One prisoner got 10 days in jail and 10 lashes for "transporting a woman" who wasn't accompanied by a male relative or guardian.A meticulous tax code found at another office showed how Islamic State funded itself at locals' expense. Farmers were to turn over a calf if their herd reached 39 cows, for instance, and a four-year-old camel if they owned up to 79 camels.Those who didn't pay were hunted down through warrants issued to checkpoints around the city. One warrant, on Islamic State letterhead, sought a cattle-herder named Salem from the al-Jiza neighborhood who drove a Toyota, detailing his license-plate number.In Libya, Islamic State was able to establish and run a state with tax-collection offices, police, courts and even an immigration office to support foreign recruits, a highly organized venture otherwise seen only in Iraq and Syria, where its leaders are based, U.S. officials say.With the Libyan government's battle for Sirte all but won and militants holed up in a last redoubt by the shoreline, the extremists' hopes to extend the caliphate to within some 350 miles of Europe have dimmed.
Igor Sechin, Russia's most influential oil executive and the head of state-controlled energy giant Rosneft, said his company will not cap oil production as part of a possible agreement with OPEC.His comments underline how difficult it is for Russia to get its oil companies to freeze or cut output as part of a potential deal with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries designed to support oil prices.President Vladimir Putin told an energy congress on Monday that Russia was ready to join a proposed OPEC cap but did not provide the details."Why should we do it?" Sechin, known for his anti-OPEC position, told Reuters in Istanbul on Monday evening, when asked if Rosneft, which accounts for 40 percent of Russia's crude oil output, might cap its production.
A Chinese academic, jailed for life two years ago for campaigning for the rights of the Muslim Uighur people, has won a prestigious annual human rights award, organizers said on Tuesday.Ilham Tohti, who is an ethnic Uighur, was selected from three finalists for the Martin Ennals Award, whose jury is composed of 10 activist groups, including Amnesty International, where Ennals was an early secretary-general.
When Donald Trump was one of more than a dozen would-be Republican candidates for the White House, his initial forays into savaging his opponents, calling for a ban on Muslims in the U.S., announcing his intention to build a wall on the Mexican border to keep out the killers and rapists, were met with astonishment. But as the outrageous statements continued--mocking a military hero like John McCain should have been enough to disqualify him among Republicans -- Americans became somewhat inured to his behavior. Some wrote him off as a buffoon, more a form of entertainment than a political force. Watching him in debate was like watching a gross reality TV show -- who knows what he'll say next? How can we turn away? The longer he was tolerated, the more difficult it became for Republican leaders to stand up to him. And now, after all the exposed falsehoods, refusal to apologize for outrageous racist and biased statements against minorities and women, after witnessing his lack of discipline, substance and self-control, after seeing him lash out at critics and former allies alike -- even his loyal vice presidential candidate -- we are faced with a pivotal moment in American history.Never before has a candidate so ill-equipped for the demands of the Oval Office -- in temperament, experience, character, compassion and humility -- been so close to its doors. [...]This newspaper has not endorsed political candidates in the past. But this election is an exception. It's not just about politics. It's about character, competence and compassion. It's about values that are American, and rooted in the Bible: Seeing all men and women as created in the image of God, having empathy for "the other" among us, recognizing the power of community, building bridges rather than walls.We endorse Hillary Clinton not only because Donald Trump presents a danger to this country but because we believe she shares that biblical vision and strives for those goals. For the past year we have seen a Trump who believes his own lies, whose campaign is based on instilling fear in Americans, doubling down on divisions among us, describing virtually every aspect of society as broken, corrupt, defeated. He is too self-centered to listen to others, see beyond his own interests, or appreciate the need for self-reflection.In his long career Trump has embodied only the first half of our sage Hillel's famous adage: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? IfI am only for myself, what am I?"We deserve more -- for ourselves, and for others. We who have allowed our hearts to be hardened to the anguish of a Syrian refugee child, multiplied by the tens of thousands, need to open ourselves up to what we can accomplish as a caring society. Donald Trump is incapable of fulfilling such a vision; Hillary Clinton has the ability and promise to do so. That's what can continue to make America great.
If Donald Trump lost his second smackdown with Hillary Clinton, it's because the Jews sabotaged him or spun his performance to their own advantage, say his most ardent backers in the "alt-right" blogosphere.
It's one way to get amnesty passed finally.Trump and Bannon are attempting to carve out an audience post-election loss, and they're deliberately sinking the Republican Party and any ability to resist Hillary in order to do it. That's best case scenario for them: the GOP goes down in flames, Hillary dominates, Trump and Bannon blame all of the backstabbers on the home front for losing the election, then pose as the secret rebellion. And you can be part of the secret rebellion too, all for the low, low price of $9.99 per month!This campaign is no longer about defeating Hillary; for Bannon and Trump, it never was. It is all about burning down anyone who opposes Bannon and Trump, even if it means handing total power to Hillary. Especially if it means handing total power to Hillary: Trump has to avoid blame for that, so he'll need a fall guy.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage stood by Donald Trump in a radio interview on Tuesday, saying that the United States might need someone like the GOP nominee to show "authoritarian power," and dismissing concerns over an audiotape leaked last week that showed Trump describing how he forces himself upon women.
On Monday, economist Larry Kudlow, who was instrumental in crafting Donald Trump's economic plan, made remarks on CNBC that seemed to indicate he might choose Hillary Clinton over Trump, pointing out of Trump, "He's so negative." Kudlow also chastised Trump for the "vile remarks" from the infamous "p***y" tape.Kudlow stated: "If he continues to drop into these rabbit holes, I will write in Mike Pence ... I hope Mr. Trump gets his act together." He dismissed Trump's excuse that his lewd comments were typical locker-room banter, stating bluntly, "I've been in a bunch of locker rooms. You might see a pretty woman and say something nice about it. But this other stuff is beyond the pale."
Beck, the former extremely popular Fox News host who left the conservative network in 2011 to establish The Blaze, a right-wing multi-media platform, took to Facebook Monday to say that Trump is "an immoral man who is absent decency or dignity" and that "if the consequence of standing against Trump and for principles is indeed the election of Hillary Clinton, so be it."
Increasingly, moderate and conservative Christian women are speaking out about Trump's brand of misogyny and divisiveness, and condemning support for the nominee or silence about him from male evangelicals."When Christian women like Beth Moore choose to publicly speak about their own experience with sexual assault, it signals to me that they do not feel heard or understood by fellow Christian leaders who continue to support Trump," Katelyn Beaty told me. Beaty, until recently the print managing editor of Christianity Today, the country's largest evangelical Christian publication, is the author of A Woman's Place: A Christian Vision for Your Calling in the Office, the Home, and the World. "Moore and others are saying to their fellow leaders, the one-in-six statistic"--of women who have experienced sexual assault--"includes me. When will you believe me and stand up for me?"Beth Moore wasn't alone in her condemnation of Trump. Her comments sent ripples around the evangelical world and were seconded by Christian mega-speaker and author Christine Caine. Sara Groves, the Dove Award-nominated Christian artist, told me, "Someone like Beth can go a long way in helping Evangelicals recognize these major blind spots."Groves herself was impacted by Trump's remarks. "When I first heard the tape, I was shocked, and a bit surprised at how deeply it hit me," she said. "I immediately thought of my own experiences, and of friends who have experienced much worse."Dr. Russell Moore--head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and a leading conservative Christian voice against Trump--says he is hearing privately from women like Groves and Moore all the time."I have heard from many, many evangelical women who are horrified by Christian leaders ignoring this as an issue," Moore told me. He says these women leaders have "spent their entire life teaching girls to find their identity in Christ and not in an American culture that sexualizes and objectifies them"--and they are now disgusted that evangelical men are not standing up and speaking out. Nish Weiseth, popular Christian blogger and author said that when it comes to Christian men still supporting Trump, "Disappointed seems like too soft a word. It's devastating."These women see Trump's comments not just as a gender issue but also a theological one; as Rev. Lisa Sharon Harper, Chief Church Engagement Officer for Sojourners, shared with me, "Trump's offense is not only against a gender. His assaults on women are direct assaults against the image of God on earth." Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, the pro-life African American Christian leader, brought it back to scripture as well, noting that evangelical leaders are failing to "stand up, as Jesus did, against every form of racism and bigotry on open display almost daily by Donald Trump."
The woman who was supposed to take Donald Trump's coat wasn't hot enough.It was March 8, 2011, and Comedy Central's "Roast of Donald Trump" was set to film the next day.The plan called for Trump to be driven onto the stage in a gilded golf cart flanked by beautiful women. There, he'd hand his coat to another woman before taking his seat on the roastee's throne. But during the dress rehearsal, Trump grabbed Robert Ferkle, who served as the production's stage manager.The proposed woman, Trump said, was "not somebody he wanted to be associated with at that moment," Ferkle recalled. "In other words, she was not pretty enough."To appease Trump, Comedy Central moved the actress elsewhere on the stage, Ferkle said. The show went on.And what a show it would be.The Huffington Post interviewed most key figures in planning the roast, and obtained copies of draft jokes marked up by Trump's trademark black Sharpie.Just months before Trump would decide not to run in the 2012 presidential race, he was doing battle with roast producers over whether they could make fun of his hair. One of the most remarkable things about Trump is his seeming inability to laugh ― not just at himself, but period. Think about it. Have you ever seen Trump laugh?
Totaling up Trump's reported income on that form at the highest end of the ranges does yield a figure near $694 million. (At the lower end, it's closer to $600 million.) But the income listed on the form appears to be largely revenue--that is, the money a particular enterprise generated, not the profit--and not Trump's personal takeaway. The $694 million isn't what Trump pocketed at the end of the day; it's how much cash his various companies brought in before they had to cover expenses. The Office of Government Ethics guide for filling out the form even explicitly states "definition of investment income for purposes of financial disclosure is not tied to the Internal Revenue Service's definition of income for tax purposes."There is no telling from this form what Trump truly made as income. But documents he filed overseas indicate there could be a great discrepancy between what he claimed at the debate and what he banked. These filings in the United Kingdom cover the operations of two Scottish golf resorts, one at Turnberry and one at Aberdeen. These courses are major enterprises in Trump's wide-ranging international golf empire.According to his FEC financial disclosure form, which was submitted in May, Trump collected $296 million in "golf related revenue"--a full 42 percent of the income he cited in the debate. But this figure did not take into account the costs of running all his courses and resorts. Most of Trump's businesses, including his golf courses, do not have to publicly disclose how much revenue or profit they yield annually. But there are three exceptions: his two Scottish golf courses and one Irish course. Corporations in the United Kingdom and Ireland must submit public reports that list revenue, expenses, and profit.Trump's FEC financial form noted that his two Scottish golf courses earned him a combined $23 million in "golf related revenue" last year, with Turnberry pulling in $18.1 million and Aberdeen making $4.8 million. But the public filings the courses submitted in the United Kingdom tell a much different story. Trump's prized course at Turnberry--where he made a much ballyhooed appearance right before the Brexit vote--reported $16.8 million in revenue in 2015 and $18.6 million in expenses. When interest, depreciation, and currency exchange losses are factored in, Trump's Turnberry course lost over $2 million in 2015. And the corporate filings in the United Kingdom show that Trump's Aberdeen course lost about $1.6 million.That means that Trump's reported income on the FEC financial disclosure forms regarding just these two projects is $26 million more than what they actually made. If these courses are representative of Trump's overall finances--$23 million in "golf related revenue" is really a $3 million loss--his declared $296 million in total "golf related revenue" may well be highly overstated.
Vladimir Putin has cancelled a visit to Paris after the Kremlin accused France of seeking to humiliate the Russian leader.
Outraged by Russia's intensified air strikes on rebels in Syria, the European Union is now less likely to ease sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine, diplomats say, and some in the bloc are raising the prospect of more punitive steps against the Kremlin.
A big turning point in Trump's campaign was the change of leadership that happened when Paul Manafort was fired and Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Bannon and David Bossie were brought on board. Each of the three new people had their own particular focus.Initially a lot of the news was about how Conway was working to better position Trump with suburban white women. That was when Trump started reading prepared speeches off of a teleprompter and initiated his so-called "outreach" to African Americans - which was all directed at white people. At that point, the press was consumed with the both-sider-ism of raising "questions" about the Clinton Foundation.That approach seemed to be having a bit of an impact when someone (we don't know who) decided to Rick-roll the press with Trump's announcement about his birtherism. Not only did that showcase Trump's racism and constant need to lie, it inspired the media to take a look at how he was manipulating them. That led to the launch of multiple investigations into Trump's foundation, business dealings and taxes. And it put Trump on the defensive for the first debate.When Clinton name-dropped Alicia Machado during that first debate, we witnessed the specter of Trump attacking a Latina for her weight, sexuality and heritage - including a middle-of-the-night tweet rage. We'll never know if there was any connection, but the next event was the release of a video/audio tape of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault.That brought the likes of David Bossie to the fore. He is one of the original members of the "vast right wing conspiracy" that has been going after the Clintons since their days in Arkansas. Here is how Conway described Bossie's role in the campaign.Bossie will also work on crafting attacks against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, mining past controversies involving her and former president Bill Clinton, and cultivating Trump's bond with conservative activists.Thus, we saw the spectacle of Trump appearing with Bill and Hillary Clinton's accusers prior to the second debate and his attacks on them during the proceedings. When you read that part about "cultivating Trump's bond with conservative activists," think about Laura Ingraham's response to the focus on the Clinton's past during the debate.To summarize: "We've been waiting for a Republican to beat up the Clintons for 30 years." In other words, it's time to rev up the Clinton haters. The candidate himself weighed in on that one last night.Trump warned against the release of more damaging tapes of his past comments, threatening to continue attacking the Clintons over former President Bill Clinton's alleged infidelities and Hillary Clinton's response to those women's accusations if more such tapes emerge.The third person of this trinity - Stephen Bannon - is stepping up to the plate now. As Martin just wrote, the battle is now turning against establishment Republicans. As the former chair of Breitbart News, that is his specialty area.