New Harvard poll finds Millennials turning out in large numbers for Hillary Clinton.

Courtesy of Harvard IOP: 

A new national poll of America’s 18 to 29 year olds by Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, finds Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 28%. Clinton captured 49% of likely young voters’ support while Trump received 21% in a four-way race. Gary Johnson garnered 14% and Jill Stein received 5%, with 11% remaining undecided. Clinton is also polling ahead of President Obama’s 2012 polling numbers among key groups within this demographic. 

The IOP’s newest poll results – its 31st major poll release since 2000 – also show that a majority of 18 to 29 year olds are fearful about the future of America. When asked about the future of the country, 51% of young Americans feel “fearful” and 20% feel “hopeful.” 

49% of 18 to 29 year olds indicate that they will “definitely be voting” in this election, one point higher than the 48% who indicated the same in 2012. Notably, 51% of young females indicate they will definitely vote (up from 45% in 2012), whereas 47% of young males indicate the same (down from 51% in 2012). Compared to 2012, young Hispanics are 8 percentage points more likely to vote (2016: 39%; 2012: 31%), Independents are 7 points more likely (2016: 36%; 2012: 29%), while Republicans are 9 percentage points less likely to vote in the upcoming election (2016: 56%; 2012: 65%). 

When likely voters were asked their preferences in a four-way match up, Clinton received 49% of the vote, compared to Trump’s 21%, Johnson’s 14%, and Stein’s 5%. 11% indicated that they were still undecided. In a two-way match-up between Clinton and Trump, Clinton received 59% to Trump’s 25% among likely voters. Comparing these results to Obama’s position in the Harvard IOP Fall 2012 survey, Clinton is performing better among female voters (+14), white voters.

 Well that has to be welcome news for the Clinton campaign, especially after there was so much talk of Bernie supporters going third party or simply skipping the election out of frustration.

I also find it interesting that there seem to be slightly higher numbers in this demographic planning to vote, than came out in support of Obama back in 2012.

That is a little surprising considering how inspirational many found his presidency.

In other news it appears that there might actually be a landslide in this election cycle.

New @FoxNews electoral map: @HillaryClinton at 307, @realDonaldTrump at 174. Iowa now moved from "leaning GOP" to "toss-up." pic.twitter.com/PGId8o007T

— FoxNewsInsider (@FoxNewsInsider) October 25, 2016

307 to 174 according to Fox News?

If this is how this election plays out it will DESTROY Donald Trump's brand possibly forever, and send shock waves through the Republican party that will shake it to its core. 

Personally I think those are more than adequate reasons to make sure that this is exactly how the election plays out.

This is how you get out the vote. For the OTHER guy.

I don't think that Paul Ryan clearly understands the Bernie Sanders phenomenon.

If he thinks that arguing for conservative voter turnout by pointing out that Sanders might end up in charge of the Senate Budget Committee is going to be more effective for his side than for the Democrats, he must have been in a coma during the Democratic primary.

I can guarantee that every Bernie supporter who has been depressed about Hillary winning the nomination, and unsure if they would even bother to vote, will be given renewed purpose after seeing this.

And if the idea of Hillary Clinton in the White House, and Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Al Franken as part of the majority in the Senate does not fire you up to vote, well then you do not recognize victory when you see it.

Sad Ted Cruz working the phone bank for Donald Trump may be the most pathetic thing you will see all day.

Here's that video of #TedCruz working phone bank at GOP office in Fort Worth. This time with watermark for @dallasnews, the content owner. pic.twitter.com/7D4rTGcXJu

— G.J. McCarthy (@gjmccarthy) October 6, 2016

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

If you were asked to imagine a portrait of a man swallowing his pride, it might look a lot like this picture of Ted Cruz. 

The Dallas Morning News shot some video of Cruz phone-banking for Republicans on Wednesday.

By Thursday, the video was making the rounds on Twitter, as people poked fun at the idea of Cruz making calls for a man who attacked his wife on multiple occasions and suggested his father might have been involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination.

You might notice that Cruz can't quite bring himself to actually mention Trump's name.

All he can do is urge the person on the other end of the line to come out and vote, for exactly who he will not specify.

Actually now that I think about it I am not at all convinced there was even somebody on the other end of that line, which means that Cruz was really only talking to himself and a making a video of it because he was forced to by Trump and the Republican party.

You know if it were possible for me to feel anything toward Ted Cruz other than a deep seated sense of loathing, I might feel sorry for the Zodiac Killer. (As some people call him.)

Texas sovereign citizen claims his attempt to ambush the police and firefighters was really just a "get out the vote" campaign. Oookay.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A 60-year-old Texas man accused of setting up an ambush against police and firefighters said he set up the attack as both a protest against police shootings and a way to encourage people to vote. 

“This is a get out the vote campaign,” Douglas Leguin told KXAS-TV on Thursday. “You have to do something big to get attention in this country.” 

Leguin spoke to the station from Dallas County Jail, where the self-identified “sovereign citizen” is being held on $350,000 bail. He is charged with seven counts of aggravated assault against a public servant for allegedly setting fire to a dumpster near a North Dallas home, then allegedly shooting at firefighters with an AK-47 during a brief standoff. 

“I know what I did was crazy, but I’m going to pay for that,” Leguin told KXAS. “I just got to do something to wake up America, man. I got to do something to get people out there voting. We got the perfect tool to change the government. We can completely overhaul the government. But everybody has to vote.”

You typically we just send out flyers.

You know like the ones that Joe Miller sent out.

But you know perhaps this Leguin guy has a point.

After all thanks to his actions, and the actions of others just like him, I personally am planning to make damn sure that I cast MY vote for any candidate who is NOT associated with this kind of lunatic fringe, or supports their right to carry guns, or thinks that they are anything but domestic terrorists waiting to lay siege to the White House.

Though unable to steal the election for Mitt Romney, Florida Republicans DID manage to cost the President 11,000 votes.

Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel:  

As many as 49,000 people across Central Florida were discouraged from voting because of long lines on Election Day, according to a researcher at Ohio State University who analyzed election data compiled by the Orlando Sentinel. About 30,000 of those discouraged voters — most of them in Orange and Osceola counties — likely would have backed Democratic President Barack Obama, according to Theodore Allen, an associate professor of industrial engineering at OSU. About 19,000 voters would have likely backed Republican Mitt Romney, Allen said. This suggests that Obama's margin over Romney in Florida could have been roughly 11,000 votes higher than it was, based just on Central Florida results. Obama carried the state by 74,309 votes out of more than 8.4 million cast.

Keep this in mind when you hear Republicans spouting off about patriotism or wanting to take this country back to "traditional values." One of those traditional values was the idea that everybody's vote counted and that American's right to vote was sacrosanct. (Well except for the female vote and the black vote of course. Those took a little longer to seem important to the white males running the place. And clearly to some they are still not terribly important.)

You know maybe it is just me, but I would NEVER be able to hold my head high if my candidate only won an election by cheating.

I guess that is yet another thing that separates me from the Republicans. Apparently THEY have no problem with it at all.

Mitt Romney: What a guy!

Just in case there were a few of you who did not despise the very ground that Mitt Romney walks on.

Remember folks, early voting is happening now!

Politically for Democrats it is a beautiful day and the sun is shining bright, however there are dark clouds on the horizon.

Ricky Watson hugs President Obama in gratitude for the repeal of DADT. Watson is a gay man who was kicked out of the Air Force 25 years ago

Currently there is nothing but good news concerning the 2012 presidential election.

Just look at these numbers courtesy of Esquire:

Not only that but the President's premier policy decision, the Affordable Care Act, is having a very positive impact and becoming more and more acceptable to the people of America. Especially the young people of America:

In all, over 3 million young adults age 19-25 now have health insurance thanks to a provision in Obamacare that lets parents keep their young adult children on their plans up to age 26.

Essentially if the election were held tomorrow, the President would DESTROY Mitt Romney.

That is of course, if the Republicans were planning to let the people decide this election.  And as we have seen time and time again, the Republicans have NO interest in the will of the American people.

This from Greg Palast, the man who discovered Karl Rove's "voter caging" strategy:  

Karl Rove - "Turdblossom" as Bush called him - has a computer-data-mining system called DataTrust, which he's joining up with a data-mining computer system set up the Koch brothers called Themis. These are voter-eating machines, designed to juice the attack on voter rolls by GOP secretaries of state. Ready for this? Over 22 million names were purged from voter rolls in the last two years. Those figures are from the US Election Assistance Commission - hidden in plain sight. And who gets purged? 

Black voters, Latinos, Native Americans. In Colorado, the Republican secretary of state purged 19.4 percent of voters - that's one in five! In the book, she's the Purge'n General. Obama took Colorado in '08. He can kiss it goodbye. 

My co-investigator and I, Bobby Kennedy, called the secretary of state of California, a Dem, who told us her GOP predecessor blocked 42 percent of new voter registrations because they had "suspicious" names - like Mohammed. For this reason, despite massive voter drives and the increase in Latino citizenship, Hispanic registration has dropped by 1 million since 2008. Caramba! 

In all, 5,901,814 legitimate votes and voters were tossed out of the count in 2008. In '12 it will be worse. Way worse.

This is why it is imperative that we are EXTREMELY vigilant and make sure that not only do WE vote but that we help others, such as minorities and the elderly, get the opportunity to vote as well. And that includes Romney voters as well. We should not discriminate.

We are in a war my friends, and stakes are to protect the foundations on which our nation was built.

The Republicans are constantly pimping their version of "freedom" and "values" but they care about none of that, virtually every decision they make is to retain power. And if they cannot hold onto it legitimately, well then they will use every dirty trick at their disposal.

In 2000 they used the Supreme Court, in 2004 they used Diebold machines, and now they are trotting out aggressive voter suppression. All to retain power and block the implementation of laws that would keep their corporate overlords from making obscene amounts of money.  Money that is then spent willingly on THEIR reelection campaigns.

And the cycle continues.

Remember "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. and then you're a Republican."

Probably the best advice the President can give us. "Don't boo, vote!"

I really like this clip because I think it cuts right through all of the noise about how best to fight back against the SuperPAC's and GOP dirty tricks to what is essentially the only REAL solution, and that is to get as many people to the polling places as possible.

I think we have seen that if we have enough votes on the Democratic side that the easily hacked Diebold machines, voter suppression techniques, and attacks from the Right Wing will have a much limited effect.

Personally I am hoping for the implementation of a Helen Reddy strategy.