MORNING MESSAGE
Clinton
and Trump had three ninety-minute debates. That’s four and half hours
altogether. Four and a half hours with no detailed discussion of economic
inequality. Four and a half hours with no in-depth talk about long-term
unemployment, under-employment, or stagnant wages. Four and half hours without
exploring the generation-crushing burden of student debt, or the retirement
crisis faced by millions of aging Americans.
TRUMP UNDERMINES DEMOCRACY AT FINAL DEBATE
GOP
senators rip Trump for refusing to accept Election Day results. The Hill:
“‘.@realDonaldTrump saying that he might not accept election results is beyond
the pale,’ tweeted [Sen. Jeff] Flake. And [Sen. Lindsey] Graham tweeted a
statement saying that if Trump loses, he will have no one to blame but
himself.”
Republicans
fear Trump is destroying down-ballot candidates. Politico: “While many
candidates have taken a hit since the release of the bombshell ‘Access
Hollywood’ tape, party operatives maintain that the bottom hasn’t completely
fallen out and that a down-ballot landslide isn’t necessarily in the cards. Yet
many Republicans were eager to see Trump deliver a steady performance …”
Is
Trump trying to win? Politico: “Donald Trump is ready to undermine American
democracy to protest a loss even his own team now privately predicts … To the
Clinton campaign, Trump doesn’t look like he’s trying to win anymore. And its
frightening them … Is the next step protests, or even riots, her team worries.
Or is it an extended resistance to Clinton if she’s sworn in as president?”
Republican
voters pick Trump over Paul Ryan, in Bloomberg poll: “When asked which
leader better represents their view what the Republican Party should stand for,
51 percent of likely voters who are or lean Republican picked Trump, while 33
percent picked Ryan … Likely voters who are Democrats or lean that way were also
split on the future leader of their party if their nominee loses, dividing
between Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders and, to a lesser extent, Senator
Elizabeth Warren.”
WALLACE KNOCKED FOR CONSERVATIVE QUESTIONS
Media
Matters criticizes Chris Wallace’s slap at the stimulus: “…Wallace alleged
that Clinton’s economic agenda closely resembles ‘the Obama stimulus plan in
2009,’ which he falsely claimed was responsible for ‘the slowest GDP [gross
domestic product] growth since 1949’ … 36 of 37 economists surveyed by the
University of Chicago’s Initiative on Global Markets agreed that the stimulus
was directly responsible for lowering the unemployment rate, and 25 agreed that
the economic benefits of the law exceeded its costs.”
Media
Matters also challenges Wallace’s debt questioning: “Fox News host and 2016
presidential debate moderator Chris Wallace used the last question of the
presidential debate to push both the Democratic and Republican nominees into
accepting a past GOP proposal — harmful cuts to vital entitlement programs as
part of a national debt-reducing ‘grand bargain.'”
ThinkProgress’
Joe Romm slams debate moderators for ignoring climate change: “Thus the 2016
election continues the inexplicable tradition begun in the 2012 election in
which presidential and vice presidential debate moderators remained silent on
the gravest preventable threat to the health and well-being of all
Americans.”
TRUMP TV?
“Seriously,
It Looks Like TrumpTV Just Launched” reports Mother Jones: “There’s a ‘news
crawl,’ broadcast graphics, pretty decent audio, campaign ads, and a
200,000-plus audience. As the candidates prepared for a monumental political
tussle on-stage in Las Vegas for the third and final presidential debate, Donald
Trump posted this Facebook Live video, with the accompanying comment: ‘If you’re
tired of biased, mainstream media reporting (otherwise known as Crooked
Hillary’s super PAC), tune into my Facebook Live broadcast.'”
The
Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel blames the media for the rise of Trump, in WWD
interview: “He’s a creature of a media age in which the lines between media
and news have been slowly blurred, if not obliterated … A lot of the media
thrives on the concept of division…”
OBAMA TO DEFEND OBAMACARE
Obama
delivers health care speech today. The Hill: “…Obama’s highly anticipated
speech in Miami will also serve a broader purpose – soothing the rising anxiety
within his own party about the fate of the healthcare law … He is likely to
speak at length about [public option] on Thursday…”
Enrollment
expected to increase next year. AP: “Some 13.8 million people are expected
to sign up for 2017 coverage, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell
said. That would be an increase of a bit less than 9 percent … Premiums are
going up by double digits in many communities, and some major insurers have left
the program, leaving consumers with fewer choices next year. The administration
says taxpayer-provided subsidies designed to rise alongside premiums will
cushion most of the pocketbook impact.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
Clean
drinking water advocate George McGraw alerts America to problems of access, in
NYT oped: “Nearly 24,000 Native American and Alaska Native households
somehow manage without access to running water or basic sanitation, according to
2015 figures from the Indian Health Service … About a half a million American
households lack basic plumbing amenities … low-income and undocumented farm
workers living in trailer parks endure open sewage ditches and contaminated
drinking water … Pockets of water poverty exist in nearly every state…”
Wells
Fargo facing criminal investigation in CA, reports AP: “California’s
attorney general is leading a criminal investigation into the sales practices
scandal that has rocked San Francisco-based Wells Fargo bank. A search warrant
released Wednesday by the state Department of Justice shows that agents sought
evidence related to allegations that bank employees created up to 2 million bank
and credit card accounts without customers’ approval in order to meet sales
goals.”
Chamber
of Commerce turns on Evan Bayh. NYT: “…the nation’s leading business lobby
is going all out to defeat Mr. Bayh, the former Democratic senator from Indiana
trying to reclaim his old seat. The chamber is doing so despite the fact that
Mr. Bayh, considered a business-friendly centrist, was on the chamber payroll as
recently as June…”
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