The Political Week That Was — October 10, 2016

This week is pretty easy to sum up – it’s the week that Hillary Clinton won the presidency. Sure, there’s still a month to go before the calendar confirms the obvious, but Hillary has this thing wrapped up. It’s time for First Spouse Bill Clinton to start thinking about how he’ll redesign the First Family quarters in the White House, and for Hillary Clinton to set the agenda for her first year in office.

Ironically, we have Donald Trump to thank for America having its first ever women president. Yes, the same Donald Trump who thinks women are nothing but play toys that exist only for his pleasure and are incapable of independent thought or action. All Trump had to do was ‘be Trump’ to set the stage for Hillary’s inauguration on January 20.

If you’re one of the ten people in the country who has not yet  heard what Donald Trump said while taping a show for Access Hollywood in 2005, here’s summary of his remarks as reported by The Wall Street Journal:

You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.…And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.…Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.

Within hours of the release of the recording, Republicans started deserting Trump’s sinking ship in droves. Supporting Trump has suddenly become a guaranteed way to lose a race in your home district, and many GOP incumbents are looking for a way out. Many of those calling for Trump’s withdrawal want Gov. Mike Pence to take the top spot.

However, for Pence to take the top spot Donald Trump would have to withdraw, and so far Trump has shown no sign of doing so. Even if Trump agreed to exit the race, there would be an avalanche of problems with someone else taking over the ticket less than a month before the election. Thousands of votes have already been cast, and most ballots have already been printed or formatted across the country.

For a few hours on Friday, it looked like Hillary Clinton might be facing some problems of own from another batch of illegally hacked emails from WikiLeaks. Some hacked emails belonging to campaign chairman John Podesta were released by WikiLeaks. The emails contained excerpts from speeches Hillary had made to Goldman Sachs and other financial groups when she was a private citizen.

During the Democratic primaries, Sen. Bernie Sanders had repeatedly called on Hillary to release transcripts of her speeches, which she refused to do.  Clinton’s stand was that the speeches made while she was a private citizen should remain private.

However, the hacked emails made it clear that the issue about her not releasing her speeches is much ado about nothing. Sure, Hillary was more friendly in meeting with groups that were paying to hear her opinions, but there was nothing earthshaking in what she had to say. While some of her comments would have generated criticism from the progressive left, they were nothing different that what her positions had been while serving as a U.S. Senator from New York. Indeed, moderate Republicans should find some comfort in her comments, and it may give some the added boost they need to vote for her next month.

Sunday night’s debate was a fascinating piece of political theater. It was clear that Hillary Clinton has completely lost any respect for Trump and the two refused to shake hands at the start of the debate. As The New York Times characterized it:

It was a deeply ugly moment in American politics, featuring the sort of personal invective rarely displayed by those who aspire to lead the nation.

Trump made a lame attempt to deflect attention from his abusive remarks towards women by trying to argue that Hillary was somehow complicit in the infidelities of her husband while he was President. The vast majority of America has long since given its forgiveness to President Clinton, and few have suggested that Hillary Clinton should be held responsible for her husband’s actions.

A quick poll by CNN confirmed that consensus that Hillary won the debate by a margin of 57% to 34%.