House Republican Backs Hillary Clinton, Calling Donald Trump ‘Unfit to Serve’

Representative Richard Hanna, Republican of New York, broke ranks with his party to endorse Hillary Clinton for president on Tuesday, denouncingDonald J. Trump’s attacks on the Muslim parents of a soldier killed in Iraq and calling Mr. Trump “unfit to serve.”

Mr. Hanna has long said he would not support Mr. Trump in the general election. By throwing his support to Mrs. Clinton, he becomes the first Republican member of Congress to go beyond disavowing Mr. Trump, and join forces with the Democrats against him.

Mr. Hanna announced his plans in an interview and opinion column onSyracuse.com. He cited Mr. Trump’s disrespectful comments about the soldier’s parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, among the reasons for his defection. For the full article click here 

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Hillary Clinton and Democratic Party raise nearly $90 million

Hillary Clinton campaigned in Ohio on Sunday with her vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine. They criticized Trump’s “dark” and “pessimistic” rhetoric, while praising the optimistic message from last week’s Democratic National Convention. (July 31) AP

WASHINGTON — Talk about a convention bounce.

Democrat Hillary Clinton soared to her best fundraising month of the election in July, raising nearly $90 million for her campaign and the Democratic Party as she formally accepted her party’s presidential nomination, her campaign announced Tuesday.

She started August with more than $58 million in cash reserves as she and RepublicanDonald Trump hurtle toward what will be an expensive and bitterly fought general election.

Clinton’s haul swamps the $35.8 million Trump has said he and the Republican Party raised last month. His campaign has not disclosed how much money he has remaining in the bank. For the full article click here 

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Memorable moments from the Democratic, Republican National Conventions

This year the whole country watched the Republican National Convention, or RNC, and the Democratic National Convention, or DNC, with a mixture of awe, confusion, sadness and anticipation. While our last shred of hope that the RNC would somehow be able to overstep the public and elect literally any nominee other than Donald Trump was shamelessly and hopelessly dashed, we were at least able to cheer ourselves up with endless videos and images of Bill Clinton frolicking among the beautiful balloons celebrating Hillary Clinton’s nomination.

If you didn’t get to watch, we at the Clog have conveniently rounded up our favorite, most memorable quotes from both conventions.

From the RNC:

“We cannot afford to be so politically correct anymore.” — Donald J. Trump

“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” — another doozy from our pal, Donald J. Trump

“In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate.” — Donald J. Trump (not so judging from your rallies)

“Who says nothing good comes out of reality TV?” Representative Sean Duffy asked us all as he stood next to his wife, whom he met on the “Real World.” For the full article click here 

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Democratic Senators Have BDS Reform Issues

That came in a letter to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, according to the Invest in Broadband for America coalition, which was formed to urge the FCC to “get its facts right” before proceeding.

In their letter, the senators, from rural states, said: “As you work toward a final rule, it is especially important for the Commission to use all the available data, including the data submitted earlier this year by the major cable operators, to both measure competitive markets accurately and ensure that the regulations for noncompetitive markets are based on the real cost to provide service, especially in low-density, high cost rural markets.”

They are only the latest to suggest the FCC needs to incorporate that information into its proposed reforms of what used to be called special access but has been rebranded. For the full article click here 

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Hillary and Bill Clinton attend funeral today for Democratic activist Mark Weiner

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, as well as the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. are among those attending the funeral today for Mark S. Weiner, a Democratic activist and fundraiser.

In a sign of how much Weiner meant to the Clintons, Hillary Clinton stepped off the campaign trail to attend today’s service.

The funeral was set to begin at noon at Temple Beth-El in Providence. Hillary and Bill Clinton walked down center aisle to take a seat in front, around 12:16 p.m. For the full article click here 

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US PRESIDENTIAL BETTING: The Democratic National Convention was great for Hillary Clinton

Political pundits often talk about the “convention bump” that Presidential hopefuls get when they officially accept their party’s nomination. Bookmakers think Hilary Clinton had a great one if her new odds are anything to go by.

Most bookies give her odds of 4/9to win the November Presidential election, shorter than the 1/2 odds she had last week before the Democratic National Convention (DNC) started.

Her Republican rival Donald Trump, meanwhile, saw the odds he had since his own convention bump lengthen slightly, from an average of 13/8 to 7/4.

A Morning Consult poll released on Sunday gave Clinton a 43% to 40% lead over Trump following the DNC , a 7-point flip from its last poll just after the Republican convention. Clinton made particular gains with independent voters and men, beating Trump by one point in the latter category. For the full article click here 

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Surveys: Clinton Regains Edge over Trump after Democratic Convention

U.S. political surveys are showing that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has regained her edge over Republican contender Donald Trump in the aftermath of last week’s Democratic convention where she and a raft of other speakers attacked his credentials to be the American leader.

Trump, a real estate tycoon seeking elected office for the first time, enjoyed a similar bump in polling against Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state, after the Republican convention two weeks ago with its barrage of taunts against her.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton walk through the falling balloons during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 28, 2016.

But now that both of the quadrennial conventions are over, CBS News said Clinton leads Trump 46 percent to 39, similar to her 43-37 lead in mid-June. The television network’s poll in the days after Trump claimed the Republican nomination more than a week ago showed the race tied at 42 apiece.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes the stage during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 21, 2016.

CBS also said its latest survey shows that voters continue to hold unfavorable views of both Clinton and Trump, although both of their standings were somewhat improved after their respective conventions. Voters now hold a 36 percent to 50 percent favorable-unfavorable view of Clinton, while Trump is at 31-52. For the full article click here 

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The Top 100 Quotes From the Democratic Convention

Last week’s Democratic National Convention was, among other things, a battery of rejoinders prepackaged for Twitter from a lineup of the party’s most popular lawmakers and supporters. By analyzing the millions of tweets that included one of the common hashtags for the convention, TIME was able to identify the top 100 most popular lines, as measured by the number of times people tweeted them.

Since not everyone transcribed the same quote verbatim, we combined quotes that referred to the same line with small variations. By this method, Nominee Hillary Clinton led the pack with 27 of the top 100 quotes, followed by President Obama with 14.

1. “Don’t boo. Vote.”
President Obama, repeating a familiar refrain from his reelection campaign

2. “When they go low, we go high.”
First Lady Michelle Obama

3. “Malarkey.”
Vice President Joe Biden, referring to Donald Trump’s alleged concern for the middle class.

4. “I believe in science.”
Secretary Hillary Clinton

5. “When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit.”
Secretary Hillary Clinton

6. “The system is rigged”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren

7. “America, we will rise!”
Sen. Cory Booker

8. “He has no clue, period.”
Vice President Joe Biden, referring to Donald Trump.

9. “Deal me in!”
Secretary Hillary Clinton, co-opting accusations that she plays the “woman card.”

10. “I’m a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg

For the full article click here 

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Democratic Senate candidates draw a bright line against Trump’s attacks on the Khans

Donald Trump’s vicious, Islamophobic attacks on Khizr and Ghazala Khan were the story of the weekend, and, with Republican leaders refusing to repudiate Trump even as they claimed to oppose his comments, Democrats running for Senate seats across the country made clear that one party, at least, will not accept that kind of ugliness.

Some pointed out that their opponents’ words supposedly denouncing Trump are hollow as long as they keep endorsing him. “As long as Senator Portman is continuing to support Donald Trump for president his words are feeble, empty and meaningless.” Ohio’s Ted Strickland said. “Ohioans must be wondering which Portman to believe: the one who said just a week ago he was ‘all in’ for Trump, or the cowardly, calculated politician who—after 48 hours of silence—is trying to desperately distance himself from his own endorsement of the most toxic and divisive presidential nominee in modern history.”

New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte claimed to be “appalled” by Trump’s comments, but her Democratic opponent, Gov. Maggie Hassan, nailed it when she responded that “Moral indignation isn’t something one can have both ways. Donald Trump’s attacks on veterans, Gold Star families, Americans with disabilities, and the most vulnerable in our country aren’t just random incidents for Kelly Ayotte to selectively distance herself from—they are who Donald Trump actually is, and yet Kelly Ayotte continues to support putting him in the White House.” For the full article click here 

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Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Democratic Party

The Democratic Party’s current dilemma is a bit like a challenge faced by U.S. diplomats back in 1929. That year, the new Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimpson, cut State Department funding for military intelligence. His reasoning has since become famous: “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.”

But civility quickly surrendered to necessity, and the gentlemanly conduct of foreign affairs didn’t last. Global spying on one’s allies is routine these days; Stimpson seems foolishly naïve.

Democrats find themselves at a Stimpson-like crossroad: They want to take the high road, and they also want to win. At last week’s Democratic convention Michelle Obama urged her party to win without sacrificing its dignity. “When they go low, we go high,” she said. Those are words to live by. We encourage self-restraint in our children when they face provocation by assuring them that “We’re better than that.” We teach them a math of justice, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” These are unquestionably good values, but can they work in politics? For the full article click here 

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Fox News skipped some big moments at Democratic convention

When Gen. John Allen, the retired four-star Marine general and former commander of American forces in Afghanistan, stepped on stage at the Democratic National Convention to deliver an impassioned argument against Donald Trump, Fox News didn’t broadcast it.

Never mind that it was a primetime address on the final night of the convention, and that the speech marked a rare moment in American politics when a normally non-political four-star general felt compelled to make a public appeal to the nation.

Instead, Fox News aired a pre-taped interview with Gen. Allen, followed by a rebuttal from Gen. Michael Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. “I honestly don’t know how John Allen can look at himself in the mirror and say why he supports Hillary Clinton,” Gen. Flynn told Fox’s Megyn Kelly.

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Clinton leads Trump by 6 points after Democratic confab: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a 6- percentage-point lead over Republican rival Donald Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll with new wording that was released on Friday, the day after she formally accepted her party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 election.

Nearly 41 percent of likely voters favor Clinton, 35 percent favor Trump, and 25 percent picked “Other,” according to the new July 25-29 online poll of 1,043 likely voters, which overlapped with the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia

The poll has a credibility interval of 4 percentage points.

The presidential tracking poll reflects a slight change of wording from previous surveys, replacing the “Neither/Other” option given to respondents with just “Other.” An internal review had found the word “Neither” has, at times, siphoned support away from one or the other candidate. [nL4N1AB4I6]

Former Secretary of State Clinton delivered an upbeat keynote address at the Democratic convention on Thursday night, as she became the first woman to accept the presidential nomination from a major party. [nL1N1AD041] For the full article click here 

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Local Democratic delegates find unity at convention

After a tumultuous primary campaign, local Democratic delegates found inspiration and optimism at their party’s national convention in Philadelphia this week.

“I’m ecstatic, elated,” said Sheila Comar, a delegate from Granville and chairwoman of the Washington County Democratic Committee, on Friday. “I’m just so happy that this actually happened.”

Hillary Clinton had officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president the night before, capping off the four-day convention with a speech that made her case for the presidency, the last of a marquee lineup that included President Barack Obama.

A longtime supporter, Comar was a pledged delegate to Clinton, one of two from Warren, Washington and Saratoga counties. Three other delegates from those counties were pledged to Bernie Sanders, who endorsed Clinton after losing the primary and moved to nominate her at the convention. For the full article click here 

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Lessons from Democrats’ rowdy presidential convention in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA By the time tens of thousands of red, white and blue balloons cascaded down on Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine at the end of the Democratic National Convention, history had been made, political shots had been fired and the general election had begun.

Democrats held a far more conventional convention this week in Philadelphia thanRepublicans did last week in Cleveland — an expected contrast reflecting the differences between Clinton, the establishment Democratic presidential nominee, and Donald Trump, her insurgent Republican counterpart.

Philadelphia, however, still managed to deliver an astonishing amount of news for such a scripted event. Taken together, it’s difficult to remember another pair of recent conventionsquite as tumultuous. If conventions are supposed to present a sort of dialogue between the nation’s top two political parties, then what Cleveland and Philadelphia offered was more of a shouting match — in which each side yelled completely past the other.

Welcome to the ‘anti’ election. Both candidates know many voters don’t want to be for Clinton or for Trump. No matter. Perhaps they’ll be persuaded to be against one or the other. For the full article click here 

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FBI, Justice Department investigating cyberattacks on Democratic Party

With just 100 days until Election Day, there are concerns over hacking and the presidential election. The FBI is investigating another cyberattack.

According to the Clinton campaign, a computer service it used was hacked as part of a larger breach of the Democratic National Committee.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee claimed it had an intrusion as well.

CBS News correspondent Marlie Hall reports the FBI and Justice Department were investigating the hacking that has shaken up the Democratic Party.

Many cybersecurity experts and the president said they have little doubt that Russia’s government was the top suspect, and now more information from the Democratic Party could be compromised. For the full article click here 

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Democratic donors rip Trump for failure to share tax returns

The wealthy Democratic donors, many of whom run complex businesses, know firsthand how revealing tax returns can be. Perhaps that’s why they can’t stop talking about Republican nominee Donald Trump‘s refusal to release his.

From their suites at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, the finance hub at this week’s Democratic convention, and at the event’s auxiliary swanky parties, supporters of Hillary Clinton are sounding the alarm about Trump’s break with decades of presidential campaign tradition.

Clinton put out eight years of recent tax filings last summer, and her backers lament that voters don’t seem to understand why Trump’s refusal to do the same matters. For the full article click here

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This election isn’t just Democrat vs. Republican. It’s normal vs. abnormal.

What we just witnessed in Cleveland and Philadelphia defies our normal political vocabulary. We are used to speaking of American politics as split between the two major parties. It’s Democrats versus Republicans, liberals versus conservatives, left versus right.

But not this election. The conventions showed that this is something different. This campaign is not merely a choice between the Democratic and Republican parties, but between a normal political party and an abnormal one.

The Democratic Party’s convention was a normal political party’s convention. The party nominated Hillary Clinton, a longtime party member with deep experience in government. Clinton was endorsed by Bernie Sanders, the runner-up in the primary. Barack Obama, the sitting president, spoke in favor of Clinton. Various Democratic luminaries gave speeches endorsing Clinton by name. The assembled speakers criticized the other party’s nominee, arguing that he would be a bad president and should be defeated at the polls. For the full article click here

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Hillary Clinton’s convention speech: what she said and what she meant

Hillary Clinton: You [Bernie Sanders] have put economic and social justice issues front and center, where they belong. And to all of your supporters here and around the country: I want you to know, I’ve heard you. Your cause is our cause. Our country needs your ideas, energy and passion. That’s the only way we can turn our progressive platform into real change for America. We wrote it together – now let’s go out there and make it happen together.

Sanders, the runner-up for the nomination, appeared on the convention floor earlier this week to move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the Democratic nominee, playing the role she did for Barack Obama eight years ago. It was therefore imperative that Clinton return the compliment and draw a line under a bruising primary campaign that threatened to divide the convention. Her tent needs to be big enough to include Sanders diehards and ensure they do not vote Green, defect to Trump or merely stay at home. After a rocky start, the party emerged from its convention looking more or less united.

Hillary Clinton: America is once again at a moment of reckoning. Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. And just as with our founders, there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together. For the full article click here

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‘Feminist Christmas': World reacts to Clinton’s Democratic convention

(CNN)Hillary Clinton made history on Thursday when she became the first woman to accept the Democratic nomination for U.S. President, saying the “world is watching” the upcoming election.

In contrast to her rival Donald Trump who promised “Americanism, not globalism,” she pledged to stand by NATO allies “against any threat they face, including from Russia.”

“You want a leader who understands we are stronger together when we work with our allies around the world,” she told an enthusiastic crowd.

‘Feminist Christmas’

On social media, many women reacted positively to Clinton’s acceptance — what some users dubbed“feminist Christmas.”

Former talk show host Oprah Winfrey was among the scores of international celebrities who jubilantly tweeted their endorsement of Clinton’s speech, saying she always believed she’d live to see a female nominee. For the full article click here

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The Democratic convention’s most surprising argument: Christianity is a liberal religion

A lot of what seems inexplicable about Hillary Clinton often makes more sense when you realize her formative years in the public eye were largely spent in front of a religious right that spent a large portion of 1992 making television character Murphy Brown’s decision to be a single mother a national controversy.

Needless to say, there wasn’t much love for Hillary Clinton.

Everything from the title of her book to her supposedly wild and liberal political stances was dragged out for mockery. In some circles, she was trusted so little that essentially any goofy conspiracy theory that could be dreamed up attached itself to her with very little effort.

I have always taken this to be why the Clinton I first knew — the one who burst onto the scene in 1992 — has been replaced by a more halting and timid figure, who cloaks her progressive stances in what she believes is possible, and who seems intent on proving to everyone that she’ll be the toughest there is on questions of national security. For the full article click here

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