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Home » Call it for Trump, call it a night, call it an election for the century

Call it for Trump, call it a night, call it an election for the century

The New Neo Posted on by

Although networks have not formally called the election yet, Hillary Clinton has just called Trump to concede the race, and Mike Pence is speaking, with Trump about to speak.

The fat lady is singing up a storm, telling Hillary Clinton it’s over. And not just Clinton herself, but the Democrats’ hopes of gaining control of the Senate. This is one that will be analyzed and discussed for a long, long time. So get used to hearing a lot more jaw jaw.

Trump supporters are happy, and “happy” probably doesn’t even begin to describe it. Hillary supporters are in mourning, and most are very scared as well. As for me, I’ve said for a long time that I would be worried for the country whoever wins. And I am worried, for so many reasons, including the poisonous atmosphere that has been building for years.

I’m happy about the GOP win in Congress—that was very important to me, and it was important for the GOP to have held the Senate if there was to be any chance of Trump’s promised conservative SCOTUS appointments being approved.

Those rust belt states were the key to Trump’s victory, as many projected

I’ll have a lot more to say about it tomorrow, but right now it’s over and out. Goodnight, and may God bless America. We’ll need it.

Comments

Call it for Trump, call it a night, call it an election for the century — 145 Comments

  2. Exactly a week ago the Chicago Cubs won the World Series ending a 108 drought. Today Donald Trump won the presidency, probably more historic than Obama’s election.

    The W flag was flown.

    Donald Trump is winning.

    Perhaps America is winning as well.

    What an interesting and exhausting seven days.

  3. “This is one that will be analyzed and discussed for a long, long time. “

    One thing seems to have become evident – that the GOP after action report on 2012 was a big miss.

  5. It was a gracious and conciliatory speech.

    I’d suggest Presidential, even.

    …my prayers are the next 4 years are nothing like – not even close to – the disastrous last 8 years.

    And that’s a wrap. I wish you all a good night (or a good morning).

  6. Expect the next six months to be filled with trump news rather than what else important is going on in the world.

  8. I am happy! I did break for him at the end of it all and I’m glad I did. I felt relieved and happy after the vote. I still DID NOT think he would win. Shocking.

    I will stay with that happiness tonight and hope for the best going forward, that he will be his best self. He gave a good speech about unity and so on.

    Of course, I don’t have stars in my eyes, but hey– it is real change and historic and — yes, the GOP won control of Congress too. Good news!

    It is shocking this happened. Amazing –

  10. Big Maq – I guess Hillary’s “ground game” wasn’t exactly reminiscent of Jim Brown’s.

  11. Gracious speech, yes.

    I am exuberant at Clinton’s loss, and the one thing I feel fairly certain Trump will do – appoint conservative Supreme Court justices.

    The rest I don’t know. Pence is an extremely solid VP, and I would hope Trump is self-aware enough to know that he should listen to Pence and others in building a cabinet and setting policy.

    I am reasonably sure Obamacare will be repealed and replaced. That makes me warm inside.

    Everything else is a big question mark. Depends on Trump.

    But all of that aside – I am ASTOUNDED at Trump’s victories in wisconsin and Pennsylvania (and very likely Michigan). I can’t quite process that. I always said “hey it’s possible” but I never really believed it.

  13. hallelujah!

    While Trump was not my first choice – and, although, I did vote for him reluctantly; I still want to say hallelujah!

    For whatever may come, the 8 long nightmare years of Obamanation are finally over.

    We will have to put up with the whining from Hillary supporters; but, at least we won’t have to put up with their gloating. (I’m not sure which is worse a leftist sore loser or a leftist sore winner)

    Trump’s presidency may pleasantly surprise. After all, few thought he would win the nomination when he first ran, few thought he would win the election. But, he did both and he did it HIS way.

  14. Thank you, God! We had a prayer vigil from coast to coast pulling for this very result last night at 9 pm. A lot of us have been on our knees bothering the Lord quite a bit.

    I do hope that Mr. Trump’s detractors will acknowledge that he was far from ‘the worst possible candidate’ after all. The man won Pennsylvania — PENNSYLVANIA! — which has been declared impossible for R’s for years. And he won in the teeth of a hailstorm of abuse, slander, libel, opposition from all of the ranks of Death.

    I say again, thank you, God. We’ll need this man’s toughness.

    If any of you have accepted at face-value the ugly attacks on this man, you owe it to yourselves, and to our nation, to watch at least one of his speeches from the last month of campaigning — that’s the only way you’ll have any idea what he’s proposing to do, as the God-damned media has kept it under a total blackout.

    Peace out, folks.

  15. Stunned. Just stunned.

    My prediction appears to be spot on. But honestly, friends, I had serious doubts.

    No gloating here (though I wouldn’t mind seeing a few posters acknowledge how wrong they were). Just shocked.

  16. Ackler, I acknowledged in an earlier thread how wrong I was, but I’ll do it again here. You deserve it.

    I was wrong. I won’t say I was completely surprised but I was definitely wrong about where I thought our country was and what it would take to win. I wasn’t wrong about one thing – what an awful candidate HRC waa

    While I am still having to get used to this, and I know there will be lots to talk about going forward. I hope I continue to be wrong about Trump.

    I’m working toward getting on the bright side. I did care about SCOTUS so now there’s hope there. I didn’t expect the kind of complete rejection of the Democrats and they certainly deserve it, so that’s good. Perhaps there really is a path to repeal and replace now. And defending planned parenthood (I don t expect this but who knows)?

    I hope Trump can bring the country together. All of us from all races, faiths, lifestyles, etc. We’re all Americans. I’m personally very tired of the rancor in our country.

    As a believer I know God is in control, and as someone who reads the Bible I hope this is one of those times he uses a flawed person to do his will, and not one of those times when he gives the nation what they wanted as a judgment on them. Time will tell.

    You guys were right. I was wrong. Enjoy the victory and let’s hope and pray for better days ahead!

  18. What comes now is politics. How sweet that word is upon my tongue. We have a Constitution, and this is the frame in which we can engage in our political process. The vile Hillary will not be able to gut the First and Second Amendments. We’ll get some things right, and some of them wrong, but we have a means of correcting ourselves, and that is what has won, tonight. Thanks be to God!

  19. I expected it to be a wave election. I was wrong: it was a tsunami election, and this tsunami has enough momentum to go around the globe, like 1989 smashing of Communist regimes. It is not about Trump, it is about more powerful historical forces which operate all across Western world. Just like Brexit was not about Nigel Farage. Domino will began to fall all across the Europe.

  20. I was really stunned by Trump’s stamina. When things look bad for him, he was full of hope, like angry, wounded bull. A berserk warrior!

  21. I’ve seen CNN define this in terms of college educated vs non college educated, pro or con immigration, and pro or con free trade. I think this is far too narrow. I think Trump nailed it as the anti-PC candidate.

    Whether it is gay wedding cakes, transgender bathroom use, live birth abortions, criticism of La Raza or CAIR, or climate change, people are fed up that they can’t express their feelings or even question the received wisdom. People are fed up that all lives matter has been supplanted by black lives matter, especially when those black lives are criminals rather than kids who can’t read. Basically, I think people know that you can’t solve the problems we face until everyone gets a chance to talk about them honestly. I think many feel that Trump will give them that chance and that supercedes any specific issue.

  22. I just like to say: I, myself welcome our new Trump overlords and I feel I can be perfectly useful in rounding up all disloyal conservatives that said any disparaging things about our new glorious leader….

  23. I pulled for Trump yesterday evening. This puts me in an unprecedented position – I think I’ve only ever voted for the eventual presidential winner once before in my life. So now I feel a certain responsibility.

  24. Where’s your god nate silver and his precious “polling” you regurgitated for the past two years now, Neo?

  25. Gracious.

    Trump was, indeed…

    Gracious.

    My religious tradition states that we are saved by faith and God’s incomparable grace, not by any specific works we have done or can do here on Earth to escape the realm of despair that awaits those who are lost.

    God Bless America. May His Grace continue to bless us through the coming days. Let us keep our faith in this experiment in freedom.

    Gracious.

  26. Cheer up Neo. We survived a lot worse with Obama than whatever hidden evils you perceive to lurk beneath Trump.

    I avoided this site for a year; since the last time we argued about Trump (and previously Romney) about the issue of compromise – voting for the candidate who can win, versus the one who can’t. I think this one should at least prove that your position on throwing away a vote for a candidate out of anger or frustration, as you have characterized it, has a statistical chance of winning. All it takes is a majority of people to ignore the ”play it safe” advice, which has failed more frequently than it’s succeeded in history. Whether it’s sports or warfare, audaces fortuna iuvat. History is littered with battles that were never supposed to be won by the unconventional general.
    Boldness is a winning strategy. Look how close a shrike came to taking the white house in spite of overt criminal behavior; or how a guy like Obama who has thumbed his nose at the law has succeeded to transform this country.
    Now we can just argue about how bad you think Trump will be.

  27. Right now Hillary has a teensy lead in the popular vote; I wonder if any of her supporters are going to refer to the electoral college as “a rigged system”.

  28. Another aspect of this stunning result, is that it should NOT have been stunning. Maybe the MSM will finally admit its extreme bias and actually go out and do real reporting instead of playing at being Pravda. If they had not ignored all the deplorables in the heartland and the rustbelt, they might have had a clue.

  29. Yes, he can be gracious, when needed. He also can be rude, when needed. And can be everything the situation requires. A great actor – and dramatist too. Now he can begin impersonate Reagan, convincingly enough.

  30. I am stunned. Wish I could say that I am happy, but I’m not. I literally decided to pull for Trump yesterday morning (on my way to vote). I did it because the polls were tightening up here in Pennsylvania, and I felt a responsibility to direct my swing state vote toward keeping the criminally negligent, corrupt Clinton away from Supreme Court appointments.

    I am willing to give Trump a chance. I hope he steps up. But honestly my doubts and worries about President Trump (gad!) are still there.

    I will say that watching the results this morning makes me proud to be an American, as corny as that sounds. For better or worse, the people have spoken and our political system worked the way it’s supposed to work, and that’s a beautiful thing to behold. As Ben Franklin said, “A republic, if you can keep it…”

    And now I am heading to my office (at a small university) where I plan to continue to keep my vote under wraps.

  31. Quick report from Germany: Merkel’s reaction was typical Merkel–reminder of a longlasting friendship with America and planning to work with Trump. The SPD (Vice Chancellor Gabriel, a total idiot who rushed off with a bunch of businessmen to Iran 2 days after Obama’s agreement, and Foreign Minister Steinmeier) were not happy. The Greens accused us of giving up on human rights.

    This was much like the reaction after Bush won. German media gets its news about America from the CNN and NBC teams, and they pass it on to the populace. Expect the next Michael Moore book to sell more copies here than in America. They loved Fahrenheit 9/11.

  32. Amazing diversity of roles he can play. The man is bigger that he seems. Like Scandinavian god Loki who could impersonate any creature and turn on charms. Like Harry Houdini, can escape from impossible situations and come dry out of water.

  33. If he get to sit on talks with Putin, I would recommend Vladimir to count all his nails after talks.

  34. My gut feeling tells me that those who held their nose to vote for a moron were conned and got Cardinal Richelieu instead.

  35. It’s November 9th again.

    1918 end of German Empire
    1938 end of alleged humanity in Germany, Kristallnacht
    1989 end of communism, fall of the wall
    2016 end of …

  36. Expat – I’m absolutely convinced your analysis is, to a very large extent, why we won.

    Sergey – I pray and I feel that you’re right that this could be the election, after Brexit, that finally starts the worldwide surge to get the ruling elite out of power. Let’s keep the ball rolling with Germany tossing out Merkle next.

    Neo – You’ve been very patient with all the heated commentary. Even though I’ve been reading you for many years I’ve been really impressed with the quality of the debate in this overheated environment. This is one of the very few places where sanity and civility have continued to prevail. Having a place for serious debate is essential to our form of government.

    Big Maq & Bill – We all agree he’s a deeply flawed person but he’s going to try to be the president for all the people. We can all push him to rise above his baser instincts but he will need a lot of encouragement and help. Let’s all try to guide him with the ultimate goal in mind, of making this nation great again. It’s possible, but will take all of us to make it happen.

    Everyone – The most important thing we can all do is to forget how we got where we are and to concentrate on making the way forward what we want it to be. We’re all starting even because almost none of us really expected this outcome.

    Ryan made a very gracious congratulatory statement last night and started on the right path going forward. We have a chance to come together now if only we’ll take it. After all, we all have wanted the same thing, we just disagreed on how to make it happen. We need to keep that in mind in the next year especially. The right attitude is that we all won!

  39. It is dark and raining outside and it is a beautiful morning having had less than three hours sleep.

    We won, us young and old, middle class and professional class, women and men, NRA gun shooting, church going folks showed up and we voted.

    Last time around two of my three grown, married with families, children voted Democrat, this time they saw the light, made their own decisions, as late as yesterday, and then called me on a conference call at three am to tell me how pleased they were with the election.

    Bill Clinton always understood about us fly over people clinging to God and our guns and Hillary stepped right in it to please the big blue states. Guess that was not the best idea.

    Now let’s hope and pray Trump picks a knowledgeable cabinet and then he plays the role of the executive and lets the other two branches function as they should.

    Lots of folks are happy today some are sad, life goes on and we need to treat each other with respect.

  40. Trump broke the stupid role GOP candidates have felt obliged to play. The Romney/ McCain nice guy approach is dead.
    Actually, knowingly or not, he campaigned from Alinsky’s playbook: isolate her, personalize her, destroy her. That has worked so well for so long for the Left.

    Because the Left will not change, and keeps on coming like a Hydra-headed monster, Trump’s win may have changed the GOP playbook. And we will see more of this.
    With Republican control of Congress and the presidency, flushing Obama’s crap should occur, though the Ryan/ McConnell crowd can be expected to work to maintain said crap to some extent.
    I think we will see a president who will speak to the people like Roosevelt did with his Fireside Chats. The corruptocrat MSM will dog and distort his every step, so don’t look for lots of pressers.

  41. America decided that actions are more important than words.

    Trump will continue to be a loud arrogant boor, but as long as he is a loud arrogant boor that works to Make America Great Again, he can count on my support, even if his inauguration speech contains fouler language than the JayZ Hillary Clinton concert.

  42. Wow!

    A week ago Bill Murray implored Cubs fans to be as good as winners the same way we had been good losers.

    Those of us who were President-Elect Trump – my how sweet that sounds – supporters might do well to heed the same advice.

  43. Its a great day. Trump being a savvy business man, I hope he can simply explain to Americans that our current federal government represents a grotesque overhead on USA inc.

  44. A little Crow on toast might not be too bad this morning. I really did not think that with his baggage and unconventional campaign he could win against the Clinton/Demo machine. Obviously, he understands the frustration in America, and the dynamics of political campaigning in 2016 better than a lot of us–including most of the experts.

    I have posted my reservations many times; but, turned to him rather reluctantly because of —Hillary. And SCOTUS. Confession–I actually made a tiny contribution early on.

    I thought his speech last night struck the right mood. Much too long–but, let’s not quibble. I was rather encouraged, actually.

    The earth just wobbled a little bit; which could be a very good thing at this point. Would love to be a fly on the wall in the inner sanctums of governments around the world. I will watch the Democrat circular firing squad with amusement. After that, the survivors will turn their fire on Trump. I hope he is ready. The media has been thoroughly exposed. Wonder how they will react.

    I do not think it accurate or wise for the Trumps followers to trash the GOP. It is not dead. It still controls both branches of Congress, the majority of State Houses, and legislatures. It is strong–and Trump accurately, and graciously acknowledged the contributions of the RNC to his victory.

    Finally, I wait with bated breath for all of the celebrities and other notables to depart the country, and for a large percentage of the federal work force to quit. Or were those the usual empty threats?

  46. My FB feed is blowing up with vileness and hatred from friends who are on the far left. The insults are shocking…. but but not surprising. The Trump supports are pretty graceful, all things considered.

    This will be a long 4 years.

  47. One thing I’d like to note: the GOPe was not put out in the slightest last night. They are still the major player in the party, and Trump will have to deal with them.

    If Trumpkins’ sometimes-stated goal was to destroy the GOPe, then they failed.

  48. Welp. That was a shocker. I had given up hope, and only was pulled to the TV set by txt msgs from friends.

    I will say this, you trumpkins better acknowledge that the rest of us, meaning Cruz/Rubio/ etc voters went to the polls and voted for our party nominee. Alot of those states are still red because of us, and there was a lot of tight races in states that should not be close at all. Georigia and Arizona should not be close. North Carolina either.

    If 2018 rolls around and we see trumpkins even whisper about trying to take down Cruz, I am gonna be livid. I expect I will not be alone. Fair warning. We held our nose and followed your lead in the end.

    Anyway, the song from the wizard of oz has been in my head since last night, ding dong the witch is dead. It wont stop. Damn munchkins, and rhymes with trumpkins as well, very weird times.

  49. I am pleasantly surprised to note that I was wrong; I went yesterday morning and voted for Trump, as I promised I would all along, thinking that he had no serious chance to win, then watched the results come in during the evening with at first astonishment and then a sense of relief. Clearly, a sufficient number of American voters have had enough of Democrat stupidity, shading in recent times to lunacy, to stand up and say “No more!” in the form of ballots, the way it was meant to be.

    I distrust Trump’s motives and character, but in the end, we all know that with Clinton the outcome was dead-set certain, whereas with Trump, the future is unclear. We can hope that given this unprecedented mandate by the American people, Trump – the ultimate non-politician – steps up and generally does right by our battered and bruised nation.

    We have a four-year respite from Democrat idiocy, including two of which that, for the first time in years, will be fully owned by the GOP. Let’s see what he makes of it.

  50. Not gloating. He was not my first choice. I was a Cruz fan. BUT… this puts a finger in the dike and gives us space to save the Supreme Court – fingers crossed. I have never, ever been so shocked and amazed as I was when I woke up from my depression nap at 11:00 pm last night! I voted in NC. Feel like it made a difference.

  51. I live in a beautiful and remote part of the country. It’s thinly populated, so my local votes matter, and that’s just one more thing that makes me happy to be here. I vote in national elections as a matter of principle. Somebody wrote that not voting is like littering in a national park, and that’s the way I look at it. Like millions of others, I never thought Trump would beat Hillary. Now I’m glad no one listened to me, that my little voice was lost in the numbers.

    I grew up in Iowa. Trump’s style, personality, and character are utterly contrary to what Iowans generally respect, so when he did well there, I thought he had a good chance of winning the GOP nation. Much later, when the polls showed Hillary comfortably ahead, I planned to vote for Evan McMullin. I thought that would be a vote against Trump, a vote for de-Trumping the GOP in preparation for the next election. At best, I hoped for a win in the Senate and four years of praising the virtues of divided government.

    Late in the race, when the polls tightened, I decided to vote for Trump. I don’t trust that he’ll support conservative positions, but he can’t possibly do worse than Hillary on Supreme Court appointments and Mexican immigration, and those two issues were enough for me. Still, I’m genuinely worried about Trump’s decisions on foreign policy, fiscal policy, the Federal Reserve, and international trade. Both war and depression could well be on the horizon.

    For now, it’s important to remind myself that lots of research and careful analysis can be a thin disguise for my own ignorance. A little humiliation can be bracing, and sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

  52. expat:
    “I think Trump nailed it as the anti-PC candidate.”

    Politics are downstream of culture … and culture is a function of activism. The general will of We The People is a function of activism.

    Frog:

    Trump broke the stupid role GOP candidates have felt obliged to play. The Romney/ McCain nice guy approach is dead.
    Actually, knowingly or not, he campaigned from Alinsky’s playbook: isolate her, personalize her, destroy her. That has worked so well for so long for the Left.

    Because the Left will not change, and keeps on coming like a Hydra-headed monster, Trump’s win may have changed the GOP playbook. And we will see more of this.

    Indeed. The activist game is the only social cultural/political game there is.

    I re-up my comment at Neo’s recent “uncouthness” post with my cautionary advice to NeverTrump and NeverHillary conservatives.

    Most Trump voters have a grasp on what they voted against in Clinton, the Democrats, and the Left’s Gramscian march. But they’re murky on what they voted for in Trump.

    That being said, we do know that Trump won POTUS via Left-mimicking alt-Right activists who engineered the Trump phenomenon. We know the alt-Right is intent on establishing their own Gramscian march.

    Will President-elect Trump now dump his proven alt-Right allies and their agenda in favor of mainstream conservatives? That seems unlikely.

    Recall 8 years ago, when many ‘establishment’ Democrats and some Republicans claimed the similarly insurgent and enigmatic Obama would tack to “pragmatic” governance. We’re hearing echoes of that hope being said about Trump now.

    While Obama kept established politicos in his administration, Obama did not dump Left activists and their agenda. Instead, Obama used established Democrat politicos who had proven their malleability while disingenuously opposing Bush (no Joe Lieberman in the Obama admin) to advance his team’s agenda, including radical deviations in domestic and foreign affairs.

    Like President-elect Obama 8 years ago, there’s much we don’t know about President-elect Trump’s actual agenda.

    However, like Obama’s winning team, what we do know about the Left-mimicking (at this point in their evolution, ‘Left-adapted’ is more fitting) alt-Right activists who engineered the Trump phenomenon is disturbing. With that of course, Trump’s affinity for the Putin Russian worldview, which is a hallmark of the alt-Right, is disturbing, too.

    We also know the arena of American politics is now clearly dominated by Democrats-front Left activists versus Left-adapted Trump-front alt-Right activists. The JV has graduated to the varsity.

    If Left activists have been restored to the inherently stronger insurgent position by Trump’s win with the means acquired over their Gramscian march still intact, then the game is on. Left activists won’t moderate. With essentially the same schema, neither will alt-Right activists. Their similar themes and tactics will amplify each other and, between their activist machinery, fundamentally alter American society.

    The only hope to save the nation is center-right conservatives becoming a viable 3rd option in the activist game for American society.

    Conservatives are the last line and they’re on their own. No more passing the buck on the activist game to the GOP. Center-right liberals have been subdued by the Democrats-front Left. If conservatives don’t organize as sufficiently competitive activists urgently and rapidly, the “cucks” will likewise be subdued by the Left-adapted Trump-front alt-Right, and with conservatives silenced, America’s hope will be extinguished.

  53. “Alan W Says:
    November 9th, 2016 at 7:36 am
    Right now Hillary has a teensy lead in the popular vote; I wonder if any of her supporters are going to refer to the electoral college as “a rigged system”.

    That will probably continue to increase as the results from
    Coahuila, Nuevo Leé³n, and Mexico city, continue to drift in.

  54. Oops at November 9th, 2016 at 10:07 am. Fix:

    Conservatives are the last line and they’re on their own. No more passing the buck on the activist game to the GOP. Center-right-left liberals have been subdued by the Democrats-front Left.

  55. “Big Maq — I guess Hillary’s “ground game” wasn’t exactly reminiscent of Jim Brown’s.” – FOAF

    You are right, ground game wasn’t enough.

    127M votes in 2012 vs 118M votes in 2016

    = 9M FEWER VOTERS from 2012.

    Yes, there are some states that are not quite complete their vote count, but doubtful any remaining count could bridge that gap, unless there’s been a huge mistake in reporting so far.

    YET: 10.7M new eligible voters

    As population grew, so has eligible voters, since 2012.
    http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/03/2016-electorate-will-be-the-most-diverse-in-u-s-history/
    .

    Some initial analysis here from NYT on who were the voters and how that compares to prior elections:
    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/08/us/elections/exit-poll-analysis.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=ts-item%204_of_5&module=span-abc-region&region=span-abc-region&WT.nav=span-abc-region
    .

    Bottom Line: The range of uncertainty around this election because of the high negatives, though I acknowledged them, I underrated.

    Mind you, and ironically, that is precisely the thing I was saying wrt what we will see with trump.

    There is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding him, but with far graver consequences, than voters are acknowledging.

  56. Trump has become President against the concerted opposition of both American political parties, the majority of the global media, most of the business community, and most international organizations. This is a one-man-against-the-world victory not seen since Reagan (and Reagan had an easier opponent in Carter).

    This does not prove Trump is a good man, or a true conservative, but it does prove that he is no fool, and can accomplish anything he wishes to.

    It remains to be seen if there’s anything he wants to accomplish as much as winning this election.

  57. “One thing I’d like to note: the GOPe was not put out in the slightest last night. They are still the major player in the party, and Trump will have to deal with them.

    If Trumpkins’ sometimes-stated goal was to destroy the GOPe, then they failed.” – Matt SE

    Fact is, the trump campaign itself was not at all well prepared, and it relied heavily on the RNC organization to carry the day.

    Question is, can anyone realistically replicate this “model” in future for a consistent win, or was it a confluence of several factors that created a door trump largely only had to walk through? IDK.

  58. Ditto what Janetoo said in terms of surprise and sentiment.

    A sister in her same state texted me at 12:30 am asking if I was watching the news. I wasn’t.

    She’s overjoyed: in the way one is over a narrowly avoided catastrophe, if for no more positive a reason. Her professor in-laws will no doubt be placed on suicide watch.

    I cannot imagine what it will be like for the other kid sister in this state who also texted me is hopeful disbelief at the same time, as she heads off to the university med center this morning.

    Her colleagues must be grabbing scalpels and slashing themselves like the priests of Baal. She had better dab her coat with some fake blood or she will be lynched. Or just close the door to her department and pretend to be inconsolable.

  59. Jim Doherty,
    I just checked out Gateway Pundit and they are calling for Ryan to step down as Speaker. These Trumpster idiots don’t realize that Ryan probably delivered Wisconsin to them, and who knows what effect his outreach to black churches and community groups might have had. Trump needs to sit down with these arrogant fools and explain that you can’t unite a country when you call half the people on your side traitors.

  60. Big Maq:
    “You are right, ground game wasn’t enough.”

    “Data-driven ground game” was supposed to be the big innovation in the GOP primaries.

    It was apparent in the GOP primaries that GOP strategists went to school on the Obama campaign proper, but neglected to pick up the ulterior social activist movement that really won the election for Obama. Of course, Obama’s activism was supplied by the Left, not the Democrats as such. Similarly, activism wasn’t in GOP strategists’ lane. They could identify and even seek out activist support, but they needed the Right to supply it. Unfortunately, competitive activism was in short supply for the GOP due to the crippling activism aversion of conservatives.

    Like Trump’s GOP rivals, Clinton had a superior campaign proper, but unlike his GOP rivals, Trump went to school on the more difference-making activist piece. Left-adapted alt-Right activists supplied it while the campaign piece was pushed to the side. Trump won.

    Clinton campaign aside, to their credit, I didn’t think the ‘jayvee’ Left-adapted alt-Right activists would beat their varsity Left role models in the general election. But they did. The insurgent position provides a natural advantage in the activist game, and counter-activism is not quite the same gameplay as activism.

  61. “I feel strangely relieved.
    I hope Trump keeps at least half of his promises.”     – Matt SE

    It is strange, as I cannot be sad that clinton lost.

    But, simultaneously, there is the anxiety over the “reveal”. What will we find?

    I only hope that trump is not as bad as his campaign indicates he might be, and he turns out to be far more mature, gracious, and adept at his new role as POTUS.

  62. For Neo,

    For those friends of yours who will be completely uncomprehending as to how anyone could have voted for Trump, bring up the healthy secretary I mentioned, who is forced to pay, under penalty of Obama Care law, $650.00 a month for health insurance which affords her absolutely nothing until a 6 k deductible is reached; and which is scheduled to go up to $712.00 a month with the same deductible in January.

    If they are like the anti-Trump folks, both liberal and compassionate conservative to whom I mentioned this financial rape, they will just stare blankly as if in asking: “What’s your point? Why did she not join the 19 million of us who work for the government, or the millions more who sought places in large institutions? Why does she earn so little that it matters? Does she not understand some must be sacrificed for the benefit of others?”

    And when they do, you will finally understand that their supposed naivete and fundamental good will, was just an illusion all along.

  63. for the republicans and the german voters in flyover country… (they outnumber the two major minority groups, and often unpredictable)

    Comedian Harmonists – Wochenend und Sonnenschein – Happy Days are Here Again
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=v_oBX-Cz2fg

    and for the nevertrumpers
    After incumbent Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey in the 1948 United States presidential election despite many media predictions of a Dewey victory, the Washington Post sent a telegram to the victor:

    You Are Hereby Invited To A “Crow Banquet” To Which This Newspaper Proposes To Invite Newspaper Editorial Writers, Political Reporters And Editors, Including Our Own, Along With Pollsters, Radio Commentators And Columnists … Main Course Will Consist Of Breast Of Tough Old Crow En Glace. (You Will Eat Turkey.)

    And for the leftists, anarchists, liberals, malcontents, ows, blm, race groups, agit prop, etc

    R.E.M. – It’s The End Of The World
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY

    🙂

  64. expat:
    “I just checked out Gateway Pundit and they are calling for Ryan to step down as Speaker. … Trump needs to sit down with these arrogant fools and explain that you can’t unite a country when you call half the people on your side traitors.”

    See my comment at November 9th, 2016 at 10:07 am and my prior comment that I linked in the comment.

    They may be “arrogant” but they’re not “fools”.

    They’re setting out to play a different kind of game akin to the current, ready precedent established by the Democrats and Left. Applying the Democrats-front Left model has worked to advance the Trump-front insurgency this far.

    Whatever his actual agenda, I expect that Trump will use the executive reach expanded under Obama to advance it. If Congress balks, he’ll exercise other ways, also per established Left precedent, to apply the ‘political’ leverage needed to coerce the rest of government to make America great again, whatever that means to Trump’s team inasmuch the end game differs (if at all) from what it meant to Obama’s team.

  65. “Clinton campaign aside, to their credit, I didn’t think the ‘jayvee’ Left-adapted alt-Right activists would beat their varsity Left role models in the general election. But they did.” – Eric

    How much of that for the left was the “cry wolf” syndrome?

    They’ve demonized the GOP in the worst possible ways in the past such that when someone more fitting of their epithets the reaction from the public is “same old, same old”.

    On the other side, there was plenty of real issues to go after clinton with, well beyond most any other dem candidate for POTUS, in my memory, at least. Once trump concentrated his firepower on clinton, it was very effective.

    Another aspect was there was so much wrt trump in the 24/7 whirlwind, fatigue set in such that every new “outrage” became less “outrageous”, imho, whereas with clinton there were the few basic core awful things that got repeated over and over, keeping them on a “boil”. The hacked email releases, and their timing, helped out a great deal, on this count.

  66. I retract little of what I’ve said.

    Obviously I got the election wrong. I look forward to analyzing the numbers further in the months to come.

    However so far, it looks like Hillary lost, more than Trump won. Currently Trump has only 59 million votes. That number will go up as more votes are counted, but Romney won 61 million votes in 2012. On the other side of the ledger Hillary managed 59 mil this year while Obama won with 66 million.

    Unless the final numbers change greatly, this means I didn’t underestimate Trump supporters, I underestimated Democratic dislike or apathy for Hillary. She could not turn out the Obama coalition and that’s why she lost.

    Furthermore, would any fervent Trump supporter argue that Trump would have won had the election been held within a week after (1) Trump attacked the Muslim gold star couple, (2) Trump attacked an ex-beauty queen, or (3) the Trump recording revalead Trump’s boast of sexual assaulting a woman?

    And where would Trump have been without wikileaks, the news of Obamacare premiums soaring, and the constant rain of bad news about Hillary’s email server?

    Trump’s victory IMO is much less impressive than it seems. Running against a far weaker opponent and with the third term curse on her party, Trump could do no better than Romney.

    I can’t prove it, but I would bet that most of the other Rep primary candidates would have done better than Trump this year and with far less heartburn.

    It’s smarter to be lucky
    Than it’s lucky to be smart.

    –Stephen Schwartz, “Pippin”

  67. “Stunned. Just stunned.

    My prediction appears to be spot on. But honestly, friends, I had serious doubts.

    No gloating here (though I wouldn’t mind seeing a few posters acknowledge how wrong they were). Just shocked.” – Ackler

    Sure seems like the trump campaign may well have been stunned at their success too. priebus nearly admitted as much on tv news this a.m.

    We may never find out just exactly what the trump campaign knew about the numbers before hand, but if anyone should have been in a place to “predict” the outcome, it would have been them.

  68. So many great comments here. Thanks Neo, for maintaining a respectful forum during a difficult time of choosing. One thing I believe, those of us that read Neo love our country and want what is best for the future. I woke up late last night and my husband had Trump’s speech playing on his phone. I love that he ended it, “And I love my country”.

  69. What’s happened is amazing and, in many ways, beautiful. Trump has humiliated pretty much everyone on the American political scene. Pundits, party hacks, journalists, you name it, they all look like idiots now because they so drastically underestimated Furthermore, the fact that Trump has been so boorish through the whole campaign just makes all the more delicious. I have not been an enthusiastic supporter of Trump, but I I’m not going to lie: I am savoring this. My hat is off to the man.

  70. “the news of Obamacare premiums soaring” – huxley

    Yes, indeed! I forgot about this!

    Know some folks who saw a 58% increase (about $500+ per month) for a high deductible HMO plan.

    The timing was “perfect” for the election.

  71. Big Maq:
    “They’ve demonized the GOP in the worst possible ways”

    They accused Trump and the Trump phenomenon of charges that are SOP for the Left. It made me wonder what the fascist vs communist pre-WW2 contests looked like.

  72. Despite the Trump victory, I’m still depressed about where I live: CT. It went for Clinton as expected, and the idiots here returned the Dems to power in the state legislature despite many complaints about the state drowning in taxes, losing GE to Massachusetts, etc. They just cannot see what’s should be obvious as this once powerful little state with great industry (Colt, Winchester, many defense/aerospace industries) continues its decline.

    The one bright spot was that my town defeated a Dem initiative to change the town government to a town manager style from a board of selectman.

  73. “Whatever his actual agenda, I expect that Trump will use the executive reach expanded under Obama to advance it.” -Eric

    OK, you’re skeptical. You may be right in one sense. Trump will advance a pro-growth agenda, and he may use executive orders to implement that, considering half of Congress is fully in the hip pocket of Leftist billionaires and the other half are in the pocket of Wall St. billionaires.

    OK, that’s an exaggeration, but as has been pointed out the market and it’s value doesn’t directly correlate to GDP growth, in fact it may be an inverse correlation.

    Getting the economy moving is going to take some rather severe moves, including rolling back regulations. Which the left will oppose with every fiber in their being, as their leftist utopia can’t be realized with a healthy economy.

    Lowering the corporate tax to 15% will be a good start.

    The company I work for was negotiating an inversion with a European company, partly due to the higher costs associated with being a US company.

  74. SCOTUS…Obamacare Repeal/Reform… Armed Forces Recharged…100 Circuit Judges with Constutionalist Brains..
    State with Bolten (Please GOd)…On a HIGH!!

  75. The downside:

    with Trump’s election is that the battle for prominence in the Republican will continue.

    The upsides:

    Barbara Streisand will move to New Zealand

    30% of the federal bureaucracy promised to resign

    All in all, a good day for the country.

  76. I want to disagree with others here in saying that Neo botched this election in terms of blogging by focusing too much on Trump’s boorish nature while mostly ignoring the Project Veritas sting videos, the WikiLeaks revelations, and even downplaying the significance of the FBI investigation at the end. So far as I can tell, Neo never got around to blogging about the facts concerning the failed, warmongering, and corrupt/criminal politician that is Hillary Clinton. One would think from following this blog that the entire election was a referendum on Trump’s person, which is exactly what Hillary wanted people to focus on instead of her abysmal record as Obama’s SOS, hypocrisy as a feminist who enabled a sexual predator husband, and other rank criminality/corruption.

  78. I understand that Trump’s boorish nature offended Neo, but emotionally processing that offense in post after post was a bit much when there was so much more to analyze/discuss. The WikiLeaks material alone was a goldmine of incite into how the movers and shakers of our political class do their dirty work and manipulate the public, Until this election we never got to see this sort of thing from the inside (as it were), and Neo had almost nothing to say about it.

  79. Repeated from the previous thread;
    Well, that was quite a surprise. I knew the Reagan Democrats (blue collar workers, small business owners) were for Trump, but didn’t know if there were enough of them.

    Our daughter and her business partner are both ecstatic. They will, eventually, be able to buy health insurance that meets their needs, at a cost they can afford. It’s refreshing to see their sense of relief and happiness.

    My plans to adapt to a Hillary Presidency now have to be junked. I think I’ll sell my Ruger/S&W stocks. I may get back in the market. in a bigger way. Peter Navarro weighs in with this:
    “Donald Trump’s economic plan is all about rapid growth. He will cut taxes, reduce regulation, unleash our energy sector, and eliminate our growth-sapping trade deficits. This solid, Reaganesque recipe for growth and a new bull market puts Dow 25,000 within easy reach.”

    I just watched Paul Ryan’s speech this morning. He’s over the moon and very effusive in his praise for Trump. I see a good working relationship already beginning.

    It’s a start. My prayer is that DJT will be wise and strong. And that the Founders’ checks and balances will work if/when he isn’t.

  80. Trump did amazing well with white women.

    You might say he reached out and grabbed them by the p*ssy!

  81. It’s smarter to be lucky
    Than it’s lucky to be smart.
    —Stephen Schwartz, “Pippin”

    Ben Vereen was a family friend of my dad..
    such a great talent with such a sad life..

    from that play i prefer:

    “I wonder if all the fornicating i am getting is worth all the fornicating i get!!!”

    welcome back!

  83. I have to smile reading all the comments. Almost without exception they can be summed up “Ich bin ein Trumper”

    Half a league half a league,
    Half a league onward….
    Theirs not to make reply,
    Theirs not to reason why…

  84. Meh–I personally learned during this process not to adopt the cudgel and weapon designed by my sworn enemy (political enemy). I have a heightened sensitivity as to “where did this information come from?”, “who is broadcasting, repeating this charge?” The people I have personally (people I actually know) had the most difficulty with are those who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Trump and sounded exactly like the apparatchiks that make up Hillary’s cabal, and the useful idiots that have assisted in the overtaking of our Republic. Not one of them presented to me any cogent, logical reason for their repugnance. At the same time, they were utterly silent about the travesty that makes up the Leftist reality. I am strictly talking about actual exchanges with people, not online discussions. I’m listening more closely now.

  85. I find it interesting that those who opposed trump now are trying to minimize the victory they thought was not possible… meanwhile, he had his own party against him, the dems against him, the left and the internationals agianst him, the press against him (the daily news was horrid this morning… after telling us what to vote and breaking the law.. rather than say, hello to the chief, thye just kept going as if there could be more votes, and on and on… )

    the face of the left wont be forgotten soon
    its a horrid ONI..

    a kind of yōkai from Japanese folklore, variously translated as demons, devils, ogres, or trolls. They are popular characters in Japanese art, literature and theatre

    he word yōkai is made up of the kanji for “bewitching; attractive; calamity;” and “spectre; apparition; mystery; suspicious”.

    Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them. Often they possess animal features (such as the Kappa, which is similar to a turtle, or the Tengu which has wings), other times they can appear mostly human, some look like inanimate objects and others have no discernible shape. Yōkai usually have a spiritual supernatural power, with shapeshifting being one of the most common. Yōkai that have the ability to shapeshift are called bakemono (化物)/ obake (お化け).

    [one of the best puppets in the theater where the Kuroko masters are in black and you ignore them, was a beautiful maiden of most delicate features. Bunraku theater.. but upon squeezing the back of the face inside, parts shifted and flipped around much like transformers, and faster than the eye could follow, become a horned demon, then back again!!!]

    to see the bunraku girl, go here, and its at about 3:30
    Bunraku Theater
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4G68civvo8

  86. For example, when Neo wrote about the WikiLeaks material in this post on oversampling this is what she had to say:

    Once you are aware of what the technique of oversampling of minority populations is, you understand the Podesta emails better. His emails fit into the framework of what is being described here, and do not appear to have anything to do with faking data or deceiving anyone.

    Uh huh. Nothing deceptive about those Clinton +20 polls in the run up to the Michigan Democratic Primary that Podesta recognized were false in the WikiLeaks material. What other reason could there possibly be to “oversample” in this way, if not to discourage turnout among Bernie supporters? Yet Neo writes about oversampling as if it has nothing to do with “deceiving anyone.”

  87. The people I have personally (people I actually know) had the most difficulty with are those who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Trump and sounded exactly like the apparatchiks that make up Hillary’s cabal, and the useful idiots that have assisted in the overtaking of our Republic. Not one of them presented to me any cogent, logical reason for their repugnance. At the same time, they were utterly silent about the travesty that makes up the Leftist reality.[Sharon]

    Exactly! Spot on.

  88. Spengler: “The #NeverTrumpers showed elitist contempt for the American people and betrayed the interests of the Republican Party as well as our country. Magnanimity is not the appropriate response to this kind of betrayal. A new Republican intellectual core is forming around Claremont Review, the Journal of American Greatness and–with a word from our sponsors–publications like PJ Media.”
    See? Spengler endorses alt-right not just as allies, but as a replacement of traditional conservatives.

  90. For the record, Trump is not exactly a person that I felt all that comfortable voting for either. I badly wanted a more credible figure to challenge Trump’s monopoly on the immigration issue during the primary and was not satisfied with the insincere, mealy-mouthed rhetoric emanating from Cruz, Walker, etc. Cruz’s record in the Senate was not as unambiguous as that of a Jeff Sessions (contrary to what Neo has claimed) and could sustain multiple interpretations, while Walker was just not the populist I wanted him to be. Alas! But I put on my big boy pants and reflected upon the utter disaster that is Hillary Clinton and voted for Trump with a clear conscience.

  92. The Achilles heel of conservative movement in USA always was that it never was an actual political movement but just a philosophical position, while Progressives spawned thousands upon thousands political activists everywhere. This asymmetry must be overcome to win public sympathy. This was the real reason of the rise of alt-Right, beginning with Breitbart and his provocateurs in disguise, who then included in their arsenal all leftist tricks from “Rules for Radicals”. Counter-march through institutions is the only way to take these institutions back.

  94. Re Sergey’s comment. At the moment the celebration continues, full of bonhomie, but once it’s settled down a bit it will be interesting to see the coming purge.

    I was neverTrump from the beginning and still stand by that. I hope I’m wrong, especially about his adherence to constitutional principles and my expectation that he will engage in executive overreach (although w a GOP congress he might not have to). What a turnaround For the Republican party. And what a repudiation of Obama!

    I’m in a strange place – relieved HRC lost, trying to wrap my mind around what’s happened, and wondering if the GOP is going to become a place for me again. I was wrong that the GOP wouldn’t win using Alinsky tactics and with what I saw as a negative outreach to minorities. Maybe it will thrive as a whites only party (am I overstating that? Someone help me out on that). I long for a truly limited government conservative party that is for all colors, all faiths. Liberal squish, I know 🙂

    For now, I’m hoping for the best even if I’m #purged

  95. Expat – D’accord! I think the culture war was the determining factor. The utter contempt the Left feels for the average American finally got to the point where it broke through people’s concern with the daily grind. It’s been building since Obama’s “bitter clingers” remarks, and it broke through with Hillary’s “I’m going to put you coal miners out of work” speech, which I think was the turning point of the campaign.

    That signaled the break between the old Democratic Party (which no longer exists) and today’s Social Democrats, and there turned out to be a lot more Democrats than Social Democrats. (Whether those Democrats become part of the new Populist Party is a whole ‘nother story.)

    The elites speak only to themselves and live only among themselves, so they didn’t see any reason that the flyovers would be angry at a baker being thrown in jail for not wanting to bake a cake for a single-sex wedding, that women as well as men would be disgusted with abortion for convenience and particularly partial-birth abortion, that savages could riot in the streets and Hillary would endorse them, that . . I could go on and on, but you get the idea.*

    I’m so looking forward to seeing the SoDems at work, around the neighborhood, and at synagogue repeating Paulene Kael’s lament about Nixon — “How could he have won — I don’t know a single person who voted for him!”

    *On the other hand, maybe it’s the sea air — just look at the map!

  96. Also, no one here could convince me that a politician like Cruz, Rubio, or Jeb could’ve done as well as Trump in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. I grant that Walker could’ve won his home state of Wisconsin, but I don’t see him doing as well in Pennsylvania and Michigan (or even Florida for that matter).

    I am not saying the other candidates didn’t have a strategy for getting to 270, but they could not have done it like Trump did.

  97. Bill–Early on I recognized the difference in responses to Trump’s successful run through the primaries. People who had a strong affiliation with the Republican party took it much harder than people like me that have long put up with the Republican party as “the closest to my point of view”, but strongly lacking. Every election for me has been country over party. Most Democrats I personally know, I would describe as party over country. I’ve never seen the Republicans w/rose-colored glasses, so in this process my focus has always been on what I believe is best for the Republic. As a family (my husband, me and 2 sons), we went from Cruz voters to reluctant Trump to quite honestly by the time we cast our ballots, thankful and happy to be voting for Trump. That is the God’s honest truth.

  98. Political ideas can not and should not for eternity dwell in realm of pure reason without coming out to the streets and recruit not philosophers but soldiers. To be realized they need boots on the ground, the storm squads. The time is now, as Trump phenomenon clearly demonstrates. Cultural revolution is ripe to unleash.

  99. One thing is certain, and that is, if trump and the GOP majority go about their business of governing in the same manner as obama had, using legislative maneuvers, vetoes, and executive action to impose their will, we will be in no better place come 2020 – it will be just as divisive.

    With what looks like millions of voters staying home from 2012, there isn’t a public mandate for all the changes coming, but there needs to be one built.

  100. Richard Saunders Says:

    November 9th, 2016 at 1:03 pm
    Expat — D’accord! I think the culture war was the determining factor. The utter contempt the Left feels for the average American finally got to the point where it broke through people’s concern with the daily grind. It’s been building since Obama’s “bitter clingers” remarks, and it broke through with Hillary’s “I’m going to put you coal miners out of work” speech, which I think was the turning point of the campaign. …

    The elites speak only to themselves and live only among themselves, so they didn’t see any reason that the flyovers would be angry at a baker being thrown in jail for not wanting to bake a cake for a single-sex wedding, that women as well as men would be disgusted with abortion for convenience and particularly partial-birth abortion, that savages could riot in the streets and Hillary would endorse them, that . . I could go on and on, but you get the idea.*

    Worth repeating, so I repeated it.

    The malicious and contemptuous hostility of the progressive toward the persons of their political adversaries, or even the non-compliant, is breathtaking to behold.

    Perhaps it’s the natural outcome of axiomatizing slogans such as “the personal is political” and “building the world we dream” – with no limits.

    Whatever the genesis, the self-anointed sensitive-class, is so sure of the justifiability of their program of moral, social and sexual reconstruction, that traditionalists and nay sayers, interested in a different life-way, are classified as obsolete human garbage; presently needed only until a replacement producer class, one more compliant, complaisant, and tractable, can be successfully imported.

    It is the totalizing aspect that is truly difficult to grasp – an anti-supernaturalist spiritual style fervor which seems to defy reason and logic; and even reasonableness – understood in the sense of moderation.

    It’s like they’re possessed – if there were such a thing as possession.

  101. Meh:

    I consistently said I thought Trump would lose but that I absolutely thought he might win, from a long long time ago, and that those who discounted the possibility were fooling themselves.

    Also, the post about oversampling was only about the Podesta use of the word, and was not about (as I wrote in the last paragraph here) polling in general and whether polls were using the right samples. As I also said many times, turnout of different groups is fiendishly hard to predict, and in this case even more difficult than usual.

    I give Trump credit for his win, but I see no reason to say that the others could have won even bigger. One piece of evidence is that most of the senators who won re-election for the GOP did even better in their states than Trump did.

    But we’ll never know—although lots of people will crunch numbers to try to find out.

    I also explained many many times that everyone here agreed that Hillary was corrupt, etc., so no need to argue about it, although I wrote many posts (in the “Hillary Clinton” category) on her many flaws. It was Trump people disagreed abput at this blog, and I have provided a forum for people to do that without tearing each other apart too much.

  102. The leftist dream of Utopia, is built on a philosophy that is so at odds with human nature, with reality– it’s incomprehensible to a rational person why it continues to resonate with so many.

    All one needs to do is look at Venezuela as the current poster nation for a failed ideology– and history is littered with these socialist dreams, yet there is some mental block to reaching a conclusion regarding them.

    The conservative movement, is also grounded on a philosophy, but it’s a philosophy that is continually tested by results. The concept of small government, freedom to fail, personal autonomy is a hard sell when compared with ‘something for nothing’.

    I think we do need to be careful what the voters message is. IMO, they want an economy revived from life support, creating a renewed middle class; they want secure borders, where the citizens decide who they wish to welcome in; and they want a Supreme Court that refrains from making sweeping societal changes. At least, that’s what I want.

  103. Strut and crow
    and say
    I told you so.

    Now the harder work begins. What will he do, BHO before he leaves, and DJT after he is inagurated?

    What will the “storm squads” want to do for the “good” of the country. And those who cheer on that prospect, it hasn’t worked all that well in the old country.

    Life is full of disappointments I’ve been told, expect some from DJT.

  104. Bill-
    re your “whites party” stuff, I suggest you tune out the MSM and extinguish your white guilt.

  105. I consistently said I thought Trump would lose but that I absolutely thought he might win, from a long long time ago, and that those who discounted the possibility were fooling themselves. [Neo]

    Not sure what you are getting at here, I never meant to imply that you thought Trump had no chance whatsoever. However, you did seem to think that other candidates would have had a greater chance of success than Trump and that seems to be a harder argument to make in light of what happened yesterday. I don’t think Cruz, Rubio, or Jeb are getting Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, or Michigan. So how would one of them get to 270 if they were the nominee? Beating the Democrat fraud machine in Clark County Nevada is tough for anyone, and I am not sure the social conservatives in Colorado are numerous enough to overcome the Hispanics in Pueblo/Denver and the progressives in Boulder. Trump’s masterful performance in the rust belt got him over the top and it’s hard to see how others could’ve duplicated it. I think that’s worth pointing out.

    Also, the post about oversampling was only about the Podesta use of the word, and was not about (as I wrote in the last paragraph here) polling in general and whether polls were using the right samples.

    We have no reason to believe that the sort of oversampling on display here is all that different from what Podesta had in mind in those e-mails. Podesta admits that they don’t pay attention to the public polls and rely on their own internals, so what other use does a guy like Podesta have for a public poll with oversampled demos if not to deceive and depress turnout by discouraging potential voters?

    One piece of evidence is that most of the senators who won re-election for the GOP did even better in their states than Trump did.

    The political dynamics are not the same. It’s not uncommon for Republicans to win senate seats in Pennsylvania, for example, but the same cannot be said for Republican presidential candidates vying for Pennsylvania’s votes in the electoral college.

    I also explained many many times that everyone here agreed that Hillary was corrupt, etc., so no need to argue about it, although I wrote many posts (in the “Hillary Clinton” category) on her many flaws. [Neo]

    We learned a lot more about Hillary during this campaign and you didn’t cover it very much. Just saying that everyone who visits this blog is in agreement that Hillary is corrupt, etc. is not the same thing as exploring the consequences of what her corruption/criminality would mean if she became president. That’s the sort of thing people need to think about (in my opinion) in deciding whether they should vote for Trump or someone else.

  106. Meh:

    Well, when you write your blog you can write about what interests you and your readers the most 🙂 .

    Since there was complete unanimity about her flaws here, I found it far less interesting to write about that, although I fully covered the important news and revelations as they came out.

    Trump was a fascinating story, and remains one. Hillary was a given. Now she can retire to private life, hopefully. I don’t need to see her prosecuted, although many may disagree with me.

  107. I agree with you Neo about Hillary. I wish her no ill and pray for her. I abhor her character and what she did in every political role, but it is clear that the Democrat subversion of office is A-OK with a large percentage of our fellow citizens. Noted. This is the reason they must be kept out of office. We will be assessing how we support the political realm. Looking into Judicial Watch.

  108. Neo:

    It appears that Trump is already backing off on the “she will be in jail” promise now that it has outlived it’s usefulness.

    Time will tell, a lot (or “ALOT” – Hyperbole and a Half) can happen between now and Jan 2017 when Trump takes the reigns.

  109. Trump was a fascinating story, and remains one. Hillary was a given. Now she can retire to private life, hopefully. I don’t need to see her prosecuted, although many may disagree with me. [Neo]

    We did not know what sort of danger Hillary posed to the global order as a decision-making politician until the consequences of the policies she advanced during her tenure as Secretary of State became clear in the last few years, with the chaos in Libya/Syria and the refugee crisis. Also, I am pretty sure that the degree of corruption, criminality, and dishonesty revealed in the WikiLeaks material was surprising even to cynical, media savvy conservatives. That her campaign paid goons to incite violence at Trump rallies in an attempt to insinuate that Trump encouraged this sort of thing when he did not was also surprising. There was a lot to digest there that you just ignored. Republican familiarity with Hillary as Bill’s pretend wife doesn’t mean your right-leaning audience fully appreciated the significance of all this.

    Well, when you write your blog you can write about what interests you and your readers the most [Neo]

    Fair enough. I just wish you would bring your incisive mind to bear on more interesting things than Trump’s boorishness, which you spent a lot of time blogging about during this election.

  110. Neo, I am on board with letting Hillary fade on off into the sunset and not wasting, time, energy and building sympathy among her followers. Of course the best way for that to happen would be some sort of Get-Out-Of-Jail pardon from Obama before he leaves office and give us one more reason to dislike his actions.

    I am now looking forward to many years of fun reading and discussion here. I kind of made a promise that I would send a few dollars your way if Trump won so I guess I had best do that today.

    Thank you and your readers for just being who you are.

  111. Brian E:
    “OK, you’re skeptical. You may be right in one sense. Trump will …”

    Will he?

    There’s a rush to impute what Trump will do that reminds me of Obama’s Nobel peace prize.

    Trump is Obama’s successor. Too many conservatives are already giving into their aversion to activism, which caused this mess in the first place, by acting like a vetted conservative Republican just won POTUS.

    Defeating Clinton doesn’t make Trump a conservative Republican. There’s a lot of accepting the in-time revision that doubts and differences can be forgotten as mere “boorishness” and Republicans can trust in elected GOP officials, including Trump, and relax now.

    Case in point – JJ:
    “My plans to adapt to a Hillary Presidency now have to be junked. I think I’ll sell my Ruger/S&W stocks. I may get back in the market. in a bigger way.”

    I wouldn’t relax like the storm’s been dodged just yet.

    Conservatives – not Trump, not the GOP – are the last line for American society.

    Liberals have been subdued. The Left isn’t defeated by Clinton’s defeat. They have fall back positions. The alt-Right is rising and still moving to displace conservatives like the Left displaced liberals.

    At minimum, conservatives need to actively constantly keep GOP officials, including the President-elect, responsible and accountable to the conservative agenda. Don’t assume Trump or the GOP anymore shares your agenda. Conservatives must acquire social political influence independent of the GOP that they haven’t built up yet.

  112. Meh:

    No, I actually spent very little time, relatively speaking, on Trump’s boorishness.

    I spent a great deal of time on his lies, foreign policy ignorance, con man history, and impulsive and narcissistic tendencies that gave evidence of a nature that might be way too unpredictable and vindictive for the presidency.

    Boorishness (or uncouthness, or whatever you want to call it) has been a very small concern of mine and a very small focus.

    I’ve written about that fact many times.

  113. I spent a great deal of time on his lies, foreign policy ignorance, con man history, and impulsive and narcissistic tendencies that gave evidence of a nature that might be way too unpredictable and vindictive for the presidency. [Neo]

    Alright, you spent too much time kvetching about his undisciplined/unpolished rhetoric. Whatever. I still consider that to largely be unhelpful since he’s changing before our eyes in real time as a politician. One of the more refreshing things about him is that he obviously wasn’t the sort of trained/disciplined liar we’ve all grown accustomed to.

  114. Sharon W Says: As a family …we went from Cruz voters to reluctant Trump to quite honestly by the time we cast our ballots, thankful and happy to be voting for Trump. That is the God’s honest truth.

    Which describes my wife and I to a “T”.

    Well, I was not reluctant at all, and always saw Trump as suitable to the purpose (keep in mind: I’m a “let it burn” type).

    I did read stories though, that gave me pause. Stories by common guys who’d met and interacted with him in business …saying what they were reading about him was crap: he was nothing like that, at all. Stories about his generosity to some poor schlubb’s misfortune that he handled on the down low, privately. Some stories his kids told, that rang with truth.

    I came to think his public boorishness was likely far less abhorrent than his private persona.

    People who worked for him, liked him. He seemed a good papa. He gave help, and didn’t publish it (re: these things are stored for you in the after-life); his campaign never used those stories. Those weren’t widely broadcast, you had to root around in odd places to read them.

    Stuff like that …impresses me. (It finally got me to vote for Romney in ’12, courtesy of neo highlighting them.)

    And I kept waiting for the Dems to come out with something actually revelatory and dark …and they never did. So there was nothing there. That …impressed me, too.

    Microsoft under Gates used to practice something called FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to keep competitors down in the marketplace. Especially when they had “nuttin'” to compare with said competitor.

    I think this was the FUD election writ large.

    So. Becoming optimistic again (2012 stunned me), I’m goin’ with: America’s back. FTW.

  115. crap: I came to think his public boorishness was likely far less more abhorrent than his private persona.

  116. Meh:

    No, of course it wasn’t about his rhetoric any more than it was about his uncouthness.

    You should know better than to say that. It was about his character and his deeds during his entire life, and some of that is what he said and did, including his past lawsuits and lies. That’s not mere rhetoric.

    I’m more than willing to give him a chance now to show a better side, and I always said I would be if he became president.

  117. Meh

    “obviously wasn’t the sort of trained/disciplined liar we’ve all grown accustomed to.”

    No just a congenital/undisciplined liar. Now “we” all have to deal with it. Your opinion may vary. Whatever.

  118. I think that you misunderstand what Trump will be like as President. He has spent his entire life as the CEO at the head of his own company. The goal of every businessman is to grow his company and increase revenues. I predict that he will see the US as his new company and pursue policies that will grow the economy. You can see the outline of that in his campaign issues of a 15% business tax and a great reduction in regulation. He’d love to be able to brag that his policies increased the GDP growth rate from its current anemic sub 2% to 4% and higher. Take that Paul Krugman, 2% is the new normal only if you are brain dead Keynesian economist.

  119. OM – doesn’t matter as Trump is sure that Barry will pardon her, which, as I’ve said before, he has to.

  120. I really think Trump has only one underlying philosophy that he will try to be true to. As Silent Cal said “The business of America is business.” Trump isn’t silent but I’m convinced that’s his philosophy so expect him to take actions that further that goal. God knows we could use a president that actually respects and likes businessmen.

  121. Richard Saunders:

    Pardon her for what? Can Barry reach into the future and know what charges Hillary would be subject to? Or will it be a blank “Get Out of Jail” card, good for life, with no expiration date?

    For all possible misdeeds of the Clinton Foundation? Pretty broad scope, or just Emails, or perjury, or…….? Seriously.

    No Trump won’t drop the hammer on Hillary. He was just lying.

  123. Irv Greenberg:
    “I really think Trump has only one underlying philosophy that he will try to be true to. As Silent Cal said “The business of America is business.””

    That issue is critically important, but if your belief about everything else is true, that’s very worrisome for a President.

    And again, highlights the need for conservatives to be more vigilant and active in holding President Trump accountable and socially engineering desired outcomes than just hoping and giving the President a chance, especially if he’s only reliable and predictable in one area while who knows what he might do with everything else on his desk.

  124. Just expect him to consider the effects on business in all his actions. That should give you a clue where he’s headed since almost everything has an effect on business.

  125. OM and Neo, Nixon was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the prosecution of Haldeman et. al.

  126. And I thought Hillary was already above the law. “Get out of jail” card the GOLD version. It “Trumps” the race and gender cards.

  127. OM — it’s guaranteed. Aside from going to jail for violations of 18 USC 793, 798, and 1924 (under the Espionage Act), obstruction of justice, lying to federal officers, if she were convicted of violating 18 US 2071 (under the Public Records Act), she would be barred from ever holding a federal office again.

    And that doesn’t even count the Clinton Foundation bribery, racketeering, and tax evasion charges.

    She could be in prison for life.

    But more than all that, is that an investigation would fully reveal — that is to say, the media wouldn’t be able to bury it — the fact that Obama knew about the private server long before it was revealed in the press — he actually e-mailed her at that address, using a pseudonym!

    So, the Get out of Jail Free card is a virtual certainty.

  129. Richard Saunders:

    So why did Trump push the she’s going to jail, special prosecutor? I think you know. Some of his peeps are going to be disappointed. Oh well, they won’t remember, will they?

  130. Trump pushed for a special prosecutor because he was closing the sale.

    The sale is now closed. What he said to close the sale doesn’t matter anymore

    I happen to agree that prosecuting HRC will just open wounds. However, if we believe in the rule of law…

    “Bill-
    re your “whites party” stuff, I suggest you tune out the MSM and extinguish your white guilt.”

    From, I don’t watch/listen to the MSM. My desire for a party that reaches out to minorities is both pragmatic and moral. Pragmatic because I don’t think there’s a long – term future for a party that doesn’t (although I’ve certainly been proven wrong on that this cycle so maybe I’m all wet.) and moral because I believe a limited government message is a good one for people and leads to better lives for them, and I’m tired of the Democrats monopolizing the votes of people that I don’t think they are ultimately helping. I’ve also learned most things aren’t as simple as I thought.

    Open to discussing it but I think my opinion on it at this point is pretty irrelevant.

    I don’t suffer from white guilt. I do believe that as a white person who’s a Christian, part of a world wide eternal church that spans all colors, I ought to learn to listen to people different than me. I’m trying to do that.

    I’m just pretty cr@ppy at communicating it 🙂

  131. “From” right after Frog’s quote should be “Frog”

    I need to start previewing before submitting. Sorry.

  133. “I happen to agree that prosecuting HRC will just open wounds. However, if we believe in the rule of law… “

    Heard a comment from Frank Luntz that a common theme, which reaches beyond this election cycle, is the notion of “revenge”, to have the elites “get theirs”.

    We have to be very careful what our real motivations are on something like this.

    Like the Senate dems “going nuclear” on judicial appointments, sometimes going down certain paths open a pandora’s box.

    There had better be a ROCK SOLID legal basis for doing so, as the last thing we’d want is to have a political fiasco like bill c’s impeachment hearings that went nowhere. He then became a “hero” who survived a “partisan witch hunt”.

    And, imagine the legal firepower the clintons could bring to bear – making oj simpson’s team seem like chumps.

    I’ve said elsewhere, like it or not, the bar is much higher in such a high profile case to move forward and to prosecute.

  134. Sergey Says:
    November 9th, 2016 at 12:56 pm
    The Achilles heel of conservative movement in USA always was that it never was an actual political movement but just a philosophical position, while Progressives spawned thousands upon thousands political activists everywhere. This asymmetry must be overcome to win public sympathy. ..Counter-march through institutions is the only way to take these institutions back.
    * * *
    The big question is: how?
    I can see some paths, but they all go uphill very steeply.

  135. physicsguy Says:
    November 9th, 2016 at 7:43 am
    Another aspect of this stunning result, is that it should NOT have been stunning. Maybe the MSM will finally admit its extreme bias and actually go out and do real reporting instead of playing at being Pravda. If they had not ignored all the deplorables in the heartland and the rustbelt, they might have had a clue.
    * * *
    Some did a fairly decent mea culpa (saw them via PowerLine), but I think there are a lot of crocodile tears being shed, and more sorrow at getting caught being wrong in their biased predictions, than at what they did to throw the election to Clinton.

  137. AesopFan (responding to Sergey):
    “Counter-march through institutions is the only way to take these institutions back.
    * * *
    The big question is: how?
    I can see some paths, but they all go uphill very steeply.”

    How? Start moving and then take one step at a time.

    Learn. Adapt. It’s competition. So when you’re knocked back by superior adversaries, assess, learn, adapt, and move forward (and upwards) again.

    The biggest obstacle for conservatives is their own aversion to activism.

  138. The big question is: how?
    I can see some paths, but they all go uphill very steeply.

    The Leftist alliance will not allow their enemies to counter march through institutions that the Leftist alliance holds.

    Remember the Russian scorched earth tactic? Strategically, it was very effective.

    When the Tea Party tried to use tax free non profits to protect their investors, what happened? Did the Left Allow them to do what the Left did with such organizations? No, they did not. And how many here knew about it before 2012? Close to zero, probably. Didn’t know about it until they had finished annihilating the enemy.

    That is why I believe in 4th generational warfare, and not Eric’s activist path that seeks to compete with the Left. I do not seek a competition, I seek an absolute annihilation of the Left’s power, which does not mean copying the Leftist alliance.

  139. Also for those that believe in the Rule of Law, consider this. Hussein is still President and the President can pardon people. How many people did Clinton pardon before he got out?

  140. People who worked for him, liked him. He seemed a good papa. He gave help, and didn’t publish it

    Remember the patriarchs of the McCoys and Hatfields?

    They were also good leaders and family members. So how did a civil start between inter married lineages?

  141. Dudley Says:
    November 9th, 2016 at 11:21 am

    That comment reminds me of how the Southern people savored the caning of Senator Sumner.

    It’s another sign, as predicted, for CW2. Sure, people are fighting back, but that doesn’t decrease CW2’s chances, it increases it. Although that shouldn’t matter for something that is inevitable.

  142. But all of that aside — I am ASTOUNDED at Trump’s victories in wisconsin and Pennsylvania (and very likely Michigan). I can’t quite process that.

    Why are surprised at that?

    One of Trum’s 3 pillars of support I stated was former/current Democrats. How many white Democrats were in Penn and Michigan, who no longer have jobs?

    For all that people here and elsewhere look up on politics, I truly have to wonder what good this “knowledge” does them without some post analysis and crunching.

  143. OM – I really have no idea what you’re saying. Is it that Trump shouldn’t have a special prosecutor appointed? Is it that he should and ignore the pardon that Barry O’ will issue? Please clarify.

    Rudi Guiliani said something very cogent last night on Fox — when Barry pardons Hillary, he should also pardon Gen. Petraeus, Gen. Cartwright, and
    Petty Officer 1st Class Kristian Saucier.

  144. Rudi Guiliani said something very cogent last night on Fox – when Barry pardons Hillary, he should also pardon Gen. Petraeus, Gen. Cartwright, and
    Petty Officer 1st Class Kristian Saucier.

    Guess Rudy just wants a slice of that Overton Window, right. How great the power of DC is to corrupt the hearts of man.

  145. Ymarsakar — sad that you think such a just gesture is motivated by a desire for public attention. Rudi already has that, so why would he bother unless he meant it?

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