Update:
Well, It’s Wednesday now and it is still Texas.
Perhaps not a surprise after Tuesday’s blistering editorial against Donald Trump (below), but still unprecedented in recent history, the Dallas Morning News has endorsed a Democrat for president.
Claiming that it doesn’t make such decision easily, the newspaper that has “not recommended a Democrat for the nation’s highest office since before World War II — if you’re counting, that’s more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections,” simply says, “There is only one serious candidate on the presidential ballot in November. We recommend Hillary Clinton.”
Admitting that the Dallas Morning News has been critical of Clinton’s handling of certain issues in the past, it concludes, “Resume vs. resume, judgment vs. judgment, this election is no contest.”
Some of the Editorial Board’s arguments:
In Clinton’s eight years in the U.S. Senate, she displayed reach and influence in foreign affairs. Though conservatives like to paint her as nakedly partisan, on Capitol Hill she gained respect from Republicans for working across the aisle…
As President Barack Obama’s first secretary of state, she helped make tough calls on the Middle East and the complex struggle against radical Islamic terrorism…
Reviewing Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state and allegations of influence peddling surrounding the Clinton Foundation:
Those are real shortcomings. But they pale in comparison to the litany of evils some opponents accuse her of. Treason? Murder? Her being cleared of crimes by investigation after investigation has no effect on these political hyenas; they refuse to see anything but conspiracies and cover-ups.
On Trump:
Trump’s values are hostile to conservatism. He plays on fear — exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism and misogyny — to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best. His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness. And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control.
Thus, the Dallas Morning News concludes:
After nearly four decades in the public spotlight, 25 of them on the national stage, Clinton is a known quantity. For all her warts, she is the candidate more likely to keep our nation safe, to protect American ideals and to work across the aisle to uphold the vital domestic institutions that rely on a competent, experienced president.
Hillary Clinton has spent years in the trenches doing the hard work needed to prepare herself to lead our nation. In this race, at this time, she deserves your vote.
Original Post:
Well, with Labor Day weekend in the rearview mirror and only 64 days until elections, polls and the pundits are all over the place.
Our own Joe Gandelman discussed some of the polls here.
But in order to see how fluid and confused the polls and the pollsters are, respectively, one just needs to take a look at some of the headlines this morning:
• Fox News: Poll shows Trump edging ahead of Clinton amid tightening race
• Business Insider: Trump has vaulted into the lead in a new national poll
• Washington Post: A new 50-state poll shows exactly why Clinton holds the advantage over Trump
• Politico: Trump up 2 points over Clinton in national poll
• The Hill: Poll: Clinton has 6-point lead over Trump
• NBC News: Clinton Maintains Six-Point Buffer Over Trump: Poll
• Western Journalism: New CNN Poll Shows Major Shift In Presidential Race
• Politicus USA: Forget CNN’s Poll That Shows Trump Leading: A Look At The States Shows Clinton In Control
• The New Civil Rights Movement: New Polls: NBC Shows Clinton Beating Trump by 6 Points, CNN Shows Trump Beating Clinton by 2
• Guardian: Major 50-state poll shows leads for Hillary Clinton in key states
• The Daily Caller: Clinton Maintains Lead, New Poll Reveals
• No More Mister Nice Blog: A TRUMP WHO’S BEEN NORMALIZED BY THE MEDIA COULD STILL WIN THIS RACE
However, one of the truly big surprises this morning is the headline in my hometown newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, in turn quoting the Washington Post: “Washington Post poll: Clinton and Trump locked in dead heat in Texas.”
Yes, “dead heat,” like in Hillary leading Trump in Texas by one point — 46 to 45 percent.
The Statesman is referring to a new 50-state survey conducted by the Washington Post and the on-line polling concern, Survey Monkey.
Even the Post describes the Texas poll results — based on a survey of more than 5,000 Texans — as the “most unexpected” in the poll, conducted nationally between Aug. 9 and Sept. 1.
“Unexpected” may be an understatement for what might be happening in a state which, according to the Post, “has been a conservative Republican bastion for the past four decades” and a state which for Democrats “has been among the 10 to 15 worst-performing states in the past four elections.”
Perhaps Trump knew what he was doing all along when, a couple of weeks ago, he held a rally in Austin, the capital of a state which most political experts claim he is sure to win.
The Post adds:
Among men, Trump is doing slightly worse [in Texas] than McCain did eight years ago. The bigger difference is among women. McCain won a narrow majority of women in Texas while Trump is currently below 40 percent.
And concludes:
That’s not to say Texas is turning blue in 2016. Given its history, it probably will back Trump in November and possibly by a comfortable margin. But at this stage, the fact that it is close at all is one more surprise in a surprising year.
In another Texas surprise, the Dallas Morning News editorial board which for five or more decades has supported Republican candidates for president, in a blistering editorial this morning is telling its readers, “Donald Trump is not qualified to serve as president and does not deserve your vote.”
Under the heading, “Donald Trump is no Republican and certainly no conservative,” the newspaper attacks Trump, among others, on his positions on individual liberty, free markets, economic conservatism and national defense.
On the latter:
Trump pledges to make our military “so big, so powerful, so strong that nobody — absolutely nobody — is going to mess with us.” But what does he want to do with that military? He says he supports killing the families of Muslim terrorists and allowing interrogation methods “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” And if the military balks at obeying such orders? “If I say do it, they’re gonna do it,” he says.
His isolationist prescriptions put sound bites over sound policy: Invite the Russians into our elections. Bomb the Middle East into dust. Withdraw from NATO.
The Dallas Morning News concludes:
We have no interest in a Republican nominee for whom all principles are negotiable, nor in a Republican Party that is willing to trade away principle for pursuit of electoral victory.
Trump doesn’t reflect Republican ideals of the past; we are certain he shouldn’t reflect the GOP of the future.
Donald Trump is not qualified to serve as president and does not deserve your vote.
The influential Texas newspaper plans to endorse a candidate on Wednesday.
I believe we know for sure whom the newspaper will not endorse.
