well, that was fun. Thought a narrow victory was possible and narrow it was when you look at popular vote. Key for me was GOP holding the senate – GOP now has a huge opportunity to start undoing the immense damage of the Obama years – but if Trump tries to govern the way he campaigned that opportunity will turn to dust. It’s now all about a wait and see – who does he name to key cabinet posts, what does he signal he’s gonna do in his first hundred days, who does he nominate to the Supreme Court – once those things become clear we can adjust our expectations accordingly. Right now, with extremely guarded caution, I’m hopeful. But this could all go horribly wrong.

Much will depend on how good Pence is at ‘guiding’ Trump’s decision making. Paul Ryan may be set to become the most important politician in the country – if he can find a way to work in a constructive way with Trump that would be an extremely positive sign – on the other hand if Trump indicates he’s not going to wholeheartedly support Ryan as Speaker that would be the first indication of the Trump presidency going in the wrong direction.

Most surprising thing – looks like Trump won about 30% of Hispanic vote and 35% of Asian – much better than Romney – not huge numbers but given his rhetoric you’d have expected something else - don’t know how to interpret that but it’s definitely interesting.

Without TV and an internet connection hard for me to gauge so far just how nuts this result is driving the left – no doubt they’re blaming Comey. Comey no doubt played a part – but that’s entirely Hillary, the DNC and the corrupt Obama DOJ’s fault – not his. She clearly broke the espionage law – from leaked emails it also looks like she broke racketeering laws – the liberal elite bet that media bias would protect her from being too damaged by this corruption and the many lies she’s thrown at the problem – they were wrong.

That Obamacare is turning into the dumpster fire conservatives predicted certainly didn’t help – nor did Hillary promising to fix it by doubling down on it. Nor did it help Obama going before the cameras last week and saying that the problems were overstated – this as close to 10 million Americans are about to see their premiums increase by as much as 50% and insurers are leaving the program in droves. Arrogant dissimulation like that, which Obama excels at, really pisses people off.

I’d be tempted to say Obama’s horrible foreign policy practice is a contributing factor – but tend to agree most people don’t pay much attention to foreign policy – except in this case when it comes to Islam. Trump’s popularity really spiked after he threatened to ban Muslims from the country – most interpret this as a consequence of racism – not surprisingly, I never saw it that way – rather what I saw was a reflection of people thinking it absurd and dangerous that Obama continues to think that Islam has nothing to do with the consequences of Islamism, a patently ridiculous point of view that the left clings to in a desperate attempt to avoid acknowledging how flawed their ideas are.

In the end, Trump wins because Clinton was an awful candidate representing everything people hate about Washington, elites and the media and many in the electorate were very much in the mood to take a giant shit on those things, and for very justifiable reasons – and because it looks like indeed there were a lot of untapped white votes out there. Would Rubio have done as well, worse, or better without those hidden white votes? Might have been a blowout win with Rubio at the top of the ticket – but who knows.

In short, for this to work out Trump will have to give his supporters just enough to keep his base in line while at the same time showing the willingness to disappoint them – otherwise it will prove a Pyrrhic victory – the Rush Limbaughs of the world will claim this win proves them right, a spurious yet not entirely unjustified claim - Trump will feel much pressure from these people, if he caves don’t expect good things will ensue. Pulling this off will not be easy to do – maybe impossible. But Pence working in unison with Ryan might be able to do it. Rush et al will interpret this as a mandate – when you lose the popular vote it clearly is not a mandate. Yes, much of the left has clearly gone insane – but Trump will have to keep moderate liberals and independents ‘interested’ otherwise his winning coalition will be undone when it faces someone not as compromised as Clinton – and just as Obamaism didn’t work without Obama it’s very likely Trumpism won’t work without Trump. Conservatism is still facing a demographic time bomb possibly only momentarily defused – ignoring that reality will not lead to good results.

If Trump blows this it will ruin the GOP and possibly pave the way for a president Elizabeth Warren in 2020 - something that would truly be a disaster.

To all those foreign news agencies out there who can’t fathom this outcome and think America has just taken leave of its senses, I ask only this: name one thing Obama has done right, one policy initiative of his that has worked out. Can’t be done. Other than the Trans Pacific trade agreement there’s absolutely nothing there – and even when it comes to the trade pact he utterly failed in convincing his own party to support it. Just an awful president – so why are you surprised by Trump? Might want to try stepping outside that little left wing echo chamber you’ve mired yourselves in.

And finally – how dangerous an ex-president will Obama be? I’ve been saying for a while that he will be an extremely active ex-president, and that will not be a good thing. Just heard him make his remarks re Trump and he was very generous – that was a complete lie and classic Obama – act as if you’re a completely pragmatic moderate in order to cover for your ideological orthodoxy, outrage and overreach down the road. You know the media’s gonna play along – the media can enable so much bad behavior – and I expect a lot of bad behavior from Obama. Which is why I believe Ryan and possibly Pence, who I’ve heard are close friends, are about to become the most important politicians in the country – so much will depend on how well they manage the various forces tumbling down the road towards them.

[along those lines watch for Obama doing something utterly incendiary at the UN regarding the Palestinian question – if he crosses that line, and there’s certainly indications that he’s flirting with the idea, then that will be a very clear declaration of just how dangerous an ex-president he intends to be]

Haven’t heard anyone float this idea – but what if Comey was willing to walk away from the illegal server for pretty dubious reasons because he knows they’ve got her on influence peddling at State? They’ve been investigating the ‘charity’ for I believe about a year now – which means they must have a good idea of what they’ve got – Obama’s DOJ has funneled the case to a court sympathetic to Lynch – since there were other courts much more fitting, sending the case to this court only makes sense if you’re trying to bury it – you’d only be trying to bury it if you feared there was something there that needed burying. 

One can understand why Comey would not want to involve himself in the election, especially if Obama’s DOJ had made it clear to him they would not prosecute – and thus him taking a pass on the server case – but from what I’ve read about Comey, I get the feeling he would only be comfortable with talking a pass, since she clearly broke the law, if he thought he had her on something else, a much bigger something else that doesn’t stick him with screwing with the election.

It’s a remarkable insight into the simplistic thinking of the average voter when you hear so many decry with outrage the ludicrousness of a Trump and then announce, without any semblance of understanding regarding the idiocy of their position, that neither are they a fan of Hillary since they voted for Sanders in the primary. In this election cycle, If based on ideas and experience Trump is buffoon number one, Sanders is a close second - indeed it may be a tie as Trump’s more disqualifying temperament is balanced out by Sanders’ more fantastically moronic ‘ideas’. There may be no greater testament to the reason we’re in this sad predicament - i.e. voters are stupid - than the spectacle of so many in the same somnolent breath repudiating the ridiculous Trump while extolling the ridiculous Sanders. But neither am I a fan of Hillary…

The voter is a necessary evil - in much the same way the separation of powers, the bicameral Congress etc etc are necessary encumbrances that allow for regular and peaceful change which establishes and sustains the right to liberty and freedom of speech - it’s how you correct for the inevitability of people acting imperfectly in pursuit of their own interests. Without the ability to make and accept change, democracy is impossible and the dynamism that comes of it is lost [which is why California is really no longer a democracy - unless George Clooney changes his political stripes, conservatives will never again hold the governorship or statehouse there - for all intents and purposes California is now a liberal oligarchy - let’s see if it survives the sclerotic effects of this loss of dynamism].

Still, can voters make such a demonstrably foolish decision that the failsafe is breached, toppled? Guess we’re about to find out - because this election isn’t just about voters making bad decisions - it’s also about voters being forced into a position where a bad decision is the only decision that can be made [look on the bright side, if Hillary wins at least impeachment proceedings should impinge on how much ruin she can shove down our throats].

It’s interesting, what Bret Baier revealed or reported on yesterday - that the FBI believes it’s a virtual certainty that Clinton’s private server was hacked by as many as five foreign agencies - it’s interesting in that I don’t remember Comey being that explicit when he testified to the House regarding how badly national security may have been compromised, which seems odd, not sure what that’s about - but also interesting in that if five foreign agencies, which must be ‘enemies’ otherwise why keep your actions secret, have the contents of the Clinton server before it was scrubbed of some 30,000 emails Clinton didn’t want seen - then they very likely have some very damning info based on how damning the emails we do have are - not just from the Clinton server but from the hacked Podesta email account as well. If so, why hasn’t this nasty stuff been leaked?

Three reasons I can think of. One, there’s no nasty stuff. That’s hard to believe - there’s no way she had 30,000 emails that were about nothing but yoga classes and wedding plans - that’s just not credible. Two, they don’t wanna see a President Trump - maybe the thought of such a thing is as scary to them as it is to us. Three, they’re keeping the nasty stuff back for use against a President Clinton - either to ‘leverage’ her in a direction they want, or to damage her presidency at a time that would be quite useful to them. To me, three is the most likely reason, which certainly doesn’t exclude two as a secondary cause.

Of course this is all speculation - but is it wild speculation? Doesn’t seem so. Yes, Comey may have ‘understated’ how badly Clinton’s private server compromised national security because we know who the five foreign agencies were and they’re all ‘friends’ of ours. Certainly possible. Does seem more likely though that China and Russia were of the five, maybe Iran - and quite possibly Israel. Israel would have ample reason to keep the hack hidden given how misguided and antagonistic to Israel’s interests Obama has been - if a President Clinton turned out to be just as misguided and antagonistic having leverage over her would be quite useful.

Obama has been an awful president - a failure in every respect - that he still talks about his Syria policy as if it were some brilliant stratagem is, I dunno, astounding - is that hubris the reflection of an arrogance so profound that it will brook no reality that doesn’t confirm it? Or is the guy an idiot? Or is that just him once again with perfect ease spinning lies? Usually only psychopaths can lie with such equanimity and aplomb - maybe the guy is just nuts. Regardless - point is, quite possibly the worst president ever - is it really possible the next one could be worse? Don’t know how a nation survives a malaise like that.