Clinton Planning How to Deploy Obama

President Obama is a one-of-a-kind resource and Hillary Clinton intends to make good use of him. The two of them just had a discussion about where to have him campaign. First they have to decide where he will go and then they have to decide what audience he will aim at. Since Clinton is having a lot of trouble with young voters, he is likely to focus on them, at least initially. Most likely the two of them will appear separately at events so they can cover twice as much territory in a day. (V)

Sanders Meeting With Campaign Insiders This Weekend

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has returned home to Burlington, and he will meet there with his key advisers to assess the "state of the race." It will reportedly be "a broad-ranging discussion."

Needless to say, figuring out the state of the race does not require people to travel thousands of miles, nor does it require a broad-ranging discussion. Ergo, it seems likely that the main subjects on the table will be how to wind down the campaign, and what concessions to exact from Hillary Clinton and the DNC. So, all signs are pointing to a Democratic Party that will be unified behind its candidate very soon. (Z)

How Honest Is Hillary Clinton?

Jill Abramson, best known as the first female editor of the New York Times, has covered the Clintons for two decades. And at the behest of the British newspaper The Guardian, she has written an op-ed with her assessment of how honest Hillary Clinton is. In it, Abramson points out the following:

1. She is not at all transparent, and keeps things close to the vest
2. She often shades the truth
3. She shifts positions on issues

However, as Abramson notes, these things are part of being a politician, and except for the lack of transparency, Clinton isn't even particularly egregious in these areas. In fact, among the 2016 candidates, she is least likely to bend the truth, at least in the judgment of Politifact (Bernie Sanders is almost as honest; Donald Trump, not so much). The ultimate conclusion: "Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest and trustworthy."

If this is the case, then it raises the question of why such a large percentage of the American public (about 40%) believe Clinton to be dishonest. Abramson has an answer to that, one well-supported by the research of Harvard's Colin Diersing and many other scholars, though it will not sit well with Clinton critics: It's because she's a woman. The argument is that women are held to a different standard than men: They are expected to be "pure," and when they engage in the standard political bag of tricks, it taints that purity. It's a provocative argument, and one that won't likely be appearing on the Glenn Beck Show anytime soon. (Z)

How Honest Is Google?

Speaking of suspicions about honesty, some rather conspiracy-prone folks at SourceFed have been looking at Google's search function. More precisely, they have been looking at Google's auto-fill, how it deals with Hillary Clinton, and comparing that to other search engines like Bing. Their results have been posted to YouTube, and their conclusion is that Google is manipulating things to protect Hillary Clinton. The video has gotten about 400,000 views, and has attracted the attention of Donald Trump, who described the situation as a "disgrace."

SourceFed's main test—really, their only test, judging by the video—was to input a few ambiguous search strings like "Hillary Clinton crim" into various search engines. Google auto-completes that string with things like "Hillary Clinton crime reform" and "Hillary Clinton crime policy." Bing, et al. complete it with things like "Hillary Clinton criminal" and "Hillary Clinton criminal record." So, obvious liberal bias on the part of Google.

Or, maybe not. Google has responded to the video, and explained that there are two reasons for the phenomenon that SourceFed observed. The first is that Google, in general, prefers not to suggest negative terms in its auto-fill ("Donald Trump crim," for example, returns "Donald Trump criminal justice" and "Donald Trump Crimea.") The second is that the auto-fill is based on the actual links that past searchers chose. People who like Hillary Clinton and want more positive/substantive information tend to search by her full name. People who dislike her and want more negative/scurrilous information tend to search by only her first name. And indeed, a search for "Hillary crim" produces results like "Hillary criminality" and "Hillary criminal email." So, it's much ado about nothing. (Z)

RNC Will Run Trump's Campaign Operation

Donald Trump's campaign operation consists basically of his phone and his Twitter password. Professionals at the Republican National Committee are afraid this will not do the job, so they are going to do all the things campaigns normally do. This includes setting up and staffing field offices, running the data operation, and handling the digital part of the campaign, plus much more.

The hardest part will be convincing Trump that he needs to run an actual campaign operation. He has a tendency to say: "I spent only $56 million in the primary and I beat 16 opponents. Why do I need all this?" But if Trump and the RNC don't trust each other, it will be difficult for the RNC to run Trump's campaign. (V)

Koch Brothers Won't Support or Attend the Republican Convention

In 2012, David Koch gave $1 million to help pay for the Republican National Convention. This year, he and his brother Charles are giving nothing and aren't even going to attend. Charles said this week that Donald Trump would have to change his stance on a variety of issues before he could support the Republican nominee. He specifically said that Trump's racist comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel are unacceptable. The Koch brothers were planning to spend $900 million on this year's elections, but Trump's nomination definitely throws a monkey wrench into the works. (V)

There's Still Talk of Dumping Trump

After Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) departed the presidential race, talk of convention shenanigans quieted down. But now, things are heating up again. Trump is so disliked by the GOP elite, and his rhetoric is so reckless, that the nuclear option is being bandied about again, at least in some Republican circles.

So, how would it work? Well, the Party is essentially free to do whatever it wants, and they could pass any variety of new rules that would torpedo Trump. For example, the Rules Committee could adopt a rule declaring that delegates do not have to support a candidate if doing so goes against their conscience. Or, perhaps even easier, they could create a requirement that the Party's candidate have a minimum of, say, two years of service in public office. The possibilities are endless.

At this point, GOP leadership thinks of the White House as a lost cause. So, any machinations would be undertaken with a view towards (a) downballot races in 2016, and (b) the future of the Republican Party. The calculation is fairly straightforward: Will the Party be hurt more by infuriating Trump supporters, or by allowing the Donald to drive minorities, women, etc. into the Democratic fold? If Priebus, et al. decide that it's probably worth it to dump Trump, however, they need to be sure they can actually pull it off. A failed attempt to jettison the billionaire would be the worst of both worlds: They would still be stuck with Trump, and they would have alienated his supporters for future elections. For this reason, the GOP is likely to just stay the course. (Z)

Evangelical Group Supports Trump

The Faith and Freedom Coalition gave its support to Donald Trump at its conference yesterday. He was presented to the delegates as a principled choice, despite his complete lack of support for virtually everything they believe in and his manifest lack of interest in any kind of religion. The chairman dismissed the fact that by any normal standards Trump is completely unacceptable to the group by pointing out that the only person in history who was perfect was Jesus Christ. To say that Trump is not perfect by evangelical standards is a bit of an understatement since he has been pro-choice most of his life, was and is pro-gay, and has no problem with transgender people using whatever bathroom they like. The Donald is hardly a model of Christian charity; there's nothing in the Bible about complementary rounds of golf. He also frequently swears in public, something evangelicals aren't supposed to like, and has committed adultery (and bragged about it), which evangelicals definitely don't like. Their endorsement of Trump basically tears away the facade that they are a religious group. They are simply a conservative political group that uses religion as a cover when it is convenient. In reality, Hillary Clinton is much more religious than Trump and frequently talks about her faith, but the evangelicals don't like her politics so her religion is irrelevant to them. (V)

Trump Wants Warren as Hillary's Veep

Yesterday, Donald Trump tweeted his support for "Goofy Elizabeth Warren" as the Democratic vice presidential nominee. This is potentially one of those "be careful what you wish for" moments. Warren has taken laser-like aim at Trump of late and is extremely effective at getting under his skin. She has attacked him as a loser whose "insecurities are on parade: petty bullying, attacks on women, cheap racism, flagrant narcissism." She will no doubt continue to go after him until the election, but as the veep candidate, her tweets and speeches would get even more coverage and could do even more damage. (V)

McConnell Says Trump Doesn't Understand the Issues

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told Donald Trump that he needs an experienced running mate because, "he doesn't know a lot about the issues." It's unprecedented for one of the top leaders of either party to basically say that the party's candidate doesn't know anything, but here we are. McConnell also advised Trump to read scripts from a teleprompter rather than just cut loose and say things that cause him grief afterward. If he were to read scripts written by a professional speechwriter, he wouldn't be Trump, though, so it is unlikely he will pay any attention to McConnell. McConnell also said that he expects the Republican platform to be pretty much what it has always been, which almost certainly means Trump will completely ignore it. In short, McConnell is extremely unhappy with Trump but can't do much about him. (V)

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---The Votemaster and Zenger