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2018 US Midterm Elections

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Barbadians have a strong interest in what unravels in the United States. We may debate why this is the case- an abundance of US news feeds streaming into our homes via FLOW, DIGICEL and Internet devices 24b hours a day, family members living in the USA, we travel there to further our studies and on recreation the list is long.

The BU household also has a keen interest in the outcome of the midterms later tonight, it will be a referendum on Trump’s tenure for sure.

US 1US2

Source: Two Charts Show Trump’s Job Gains Are Just A Continuation From Obama’s Presidency

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649 responses to “2018 US Midterm Elections”

  1. John Avatar
    John

    Here is the problem with these numbers, same type of issue with the polls, they don’t ring true.

    Trump came forward in 2016 at a time when apparently the economy was climbing.

    Hilary said up front that she would continue Obama’s policies …. you would think this meant she would continue the economic growth.

    The Press, which supported her to the hilt and sought to kill off Trump, no doubt sold the growing economy to the hilt.

    Yet somehow, this message of this growing economy never got across!!

    Can’t believe that!!

    So why did Hilary get rejected out of hand?

    Clearly she can’t understand it and still appears as a sore loser.

    No Democrat seems to accept the loss and appear as sore losers.

    Is it the “it is the economy stupid” was informing their thinking?

    But yet, out went Hilary.

    So is it that “it wasn’t the economy stupid”?

    Why on earth would Americans reject the Democrats in 2016 if “it was the economy stupid”?

    So, … besides the economy … what else could it be … stupid?

    Perhaps economic growth is not a function of Presidents and parties but determined by the people who make the economy work and people know it!!

    So what was and is it about Trump that so galvanizes America?

    Drain the Swamp perhaps ….

    The Wall … perhaps …

    His hair.

    His eminent good looks, character and bearing?

    Conventional wisdom seems to have been turned on its head if these numbers are to be believed!!

  2. David Avatar
    David

    Hilary was a bad candidate John, worse than Trump if we can believe it! That said she gained 3 million more votes than Trump.

    #2badcandidates

  3. John Avatar
    John

    But Hilary committed to continuing all of Obama’s policies, Trump up front promised to get rid of them … and he is delivering.

    So everybody would have known upfront Trump was going to dismantle Obama’s economic growth!!

    Was it all then about Obama perhaps?

    If the Democrats win tomorrow the polls for the last year have been right.

    If they lose and the Republicans win, then the polls got it all wrong as they did in 2016!!

    There then must be something fishy about the numbers presented in this blog.

    Something is missing in the equation.

  4. John Avatar
    John

    David
    November 6, 2018 12:50 AM

    Hilary was a bad candidate John, worse than Trump if we can believe it! That said she gained 3 million more votes than Trump.
    #2badcandidates

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++

    So do you think Bernie would have won?

    … you can’t be serious!!

  5. David Avatar
    David

    She committed but it does not change the fact she brought her garbage to the ring. She was a bad candidate.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    Bernie was a bad candidate as well for the socialist bent he espoused in a country where capitalism is a way of life for most Americans.

  7. John Avatar
    John

    So who … Pocahantas?

  8. John Avatar
    John

    Trump actually was actually the perfect candidate.

  9. David Avatar
    David

    You may have the last word of course.

  10. John Avatar
    John

    Look at these numbers showing viewership of news networks.

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/373814/cable-news-network-viewership-usa/

    Total, less than 10 million prime time viewers in total!!

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cnn-and-msnbc-ratings/

    “Fox News is well above both CNN and MSNBC in television viewership and has picked up viewers since the 2016 election. “

  11. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    David as usual I commend your fortitude …🤣

    Clearly the first blogger above has no interest in establishing clear standards and a factual basis as a jump off as you attempt with the graphical data and your follow on points.

    Politics is always (as the NY Mayor campaigned) a tale of two cities: the have and have nots, the facts and obfuscation and the heads or tails coin flip. Thus, contradictory tho the arguments may be the candidate who better presents the shinier side of the coin wins the citizens’ acclaim.

    1.Hilary was indeed a bad candidate with her political baggage although just as rationally her gender, deep intelligence of govt and awesome name recognition made her an attractive option.

    2.The economy was not the issue but then it was too… Obama as your graphic showed, oversaw a continuous and pronounced economic revival after a debilitating recession but the Republicans and then the candidate spoke negatively about the lowest growth (around 2.5% year over year) of recent decades; they spoke of low wage growth and so on…and let’s not get even into the lying narrative of the candidate who dismissed the low job numbers but IMMEDIATELY embraced them when he became POTUS.

    3.Politically the country was due a change after eight years of Obama and Trump, obnoxious tho he was, galvanized that desire to refresh the linen…consider another booming economy under the other Clinton and Gore still lost…chads apart!

    The parsing of the US political scene is quite comprehensive so there is no excuse for specious prose.

    …Dems are no more sore losers than Repubs were shocked winners …as Obama asked recently why are winners heckling (and staging terroristic acts) if they are so confident and happy.

    One can add to that… why with such superb continued economic growth does a president promote divisiveness and racist toned ads!

    The numbers are REAL and whatever actually happens tonight will simply add to better poll ANALYSIS….for example, there has been more early voting (some 36 million) than ever before: is that a function of better ‘get out the vote’ efforts, younger folks coming into the fray, more tech availability for voting or what? Does it favor D or R?

    There is NOTHING wrong with “conventional wisdom” or the polls…….but everything wrong with fact challenged presidents and analysts.

    “…Another myth is that Trump’s victory represented some sort of catastrophic failure for the polls. Trump outperformed his national polls by only 1 to 2 percentage points in losing the popular vote to Clinton, making them slightly closer to the mark than they were in 2012. Meanwhile, he beat his polls by only 2 to 3 percentage points in the average swing state….

    “…Certainly, there were individual pollsters that had some explaining to do, especially in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Trump beat his polls by a larger amount. But the result was not some sort of massive outlier; on the contrary, the polls were pretty much as accurate as they’d been, on average, since 1968.” N. Silver Jan 2017.

  12. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Hmmmmmm ………

    According to the US State Election Offices, the final popular vote count of the US 2016 presidential elections revealed 65,853,516 (48.18%) people voted for Clinton (and REJECTED Trump)………

    ………….. when compared with 62,984,825 (46.09%) people who voted for Trump (and REJECTED Clinton)….. resulting in Clinton defeating Trump by 2,864,974 votes.

    When the above information is taken into consideration, your comments re: ““Yet somehow, this message of this growing economy never got across!!” and “So why did Hilary get rejected out of hand?” are clearly untrue.

    Clinton was NOT “REJECTED out of hand.”

    “Can’t believe that!!??” …………….

    As Martin Lawrence would say: “DAAAMN!!!!……. YA BETTER BELIEVE DAT!!!!”

  13. 45govt Avatar
    45govt

    Artax – the Clinton criminal WAS rejected – the Americans have an electoral system which rejected her overwhelmingly. Of course those who lose by any particular system are vociferous about changing it until they get into power, and hey presto it is suddenly OK. This is a recurrent theme with Britain;’s First Past The Post system.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    You are correct it is the system. However there is no perfect man made system.

  15. 45govt Avatar
    45govt

    What this thread is missing is the foaming victim of TDS, or Trump Derangement Syndrome, our very own blog clown PLT.
    I hope he is not more unwell than usual from his affliction, as these must be trying times for the poor little tyke.

  16. David Avatar
    David

  17. 45govt Avatar
    45govt

    CNN David? Really?? Fake news old chap. You might as well give heed to the BBC ( aka the Biased Bullshit C***s) or even worse Channel 4..
    I didn’t bother watching it – I could read a comic more profitably.

  18. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @45govt
    I am very well thank you. I do not expect that the Republicans will lose the Senate in the midterm vote because the voter suppression tactics that they use are quite effective against poor people or people of color.

  19. 45govt Avatar
    45govt

    Ah – so it’s racism again? Quelle surprise my little one-trick-pony… What will it be if you are wrong…anti-white racism?
    Don’t forget that the useless muslim plant The Obomination got 98% (yep, that’s right) of the black vote and 55% of the white, Who were the racists, those dumb whites, or the vote-for-your-own blacks.
    Needless to say I am delighted you have not yet succumbed to your illness.

  20. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    Aaaammmm does anyone recall the fact that there was a rumour about election rigging,

    All uh wunna got amnesia?

    Everyone talking bout 2016 like it was an even playing field!

    Whuloss

    Hilary loss for 3 reasons.

    The rigging of the voting.

    She did not visit more states

    And Obama started to support her late due to his own turmoil per her campaign against him

    Else, baggage or not, she would have won.

    Hilary scuttled her own ship

    But I seem to be pun de wrong blog

    Trump will win this one too.

    Americans are seeing too many faces that are not in their version of the Emma Lazarus ideal

    America is for Americans heheheheh

  21. 45govt Avatar
    45govt

    Piece – if the godawful scheming criminal Killary HAD visited more states, she would ha\ve lost by more. She is a turn-off, and not just for Bubba.

  22. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    you forgot about bill campaigning for her with “obamas awful legacy of the last 8 years”

  23. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @45govt
    If you are up to reading and understanding any of the deeply researched postmortems of voting motivation in the 2016 election you will comprehend that racism was the single most important factor among Trump voters.
    http://electionstudies.org/project/2016-time-series-study/

  24. John Avatar
    John

    pieceuhderockyeahright
    November 6, 2018 6:59 AM

    Aaaammmm does anyone recall the fact that there was a rumour about election rigging,
    ++++++++++++++

    Sho’ nuff … but it was Trump who was alleging rigging, not the Hildebeast!!

    … and it was no rumour, Trump clearly stated it on national TV.

    The Hildebeast and press then reacted with righteous indignation at Trump’s answer to the question … would you accept the results of the election?

    As it turned out the righteously indignant were the ones who did not accept the outcome!!

    This little stupid inconsistent foible has probably done more to alienate voters from the Democrats than many other things.

    Meanwhile, Trump cruises.

    Here in Barbados the people I knew who automatically knew that Trump would win before the election were from the lower socio economic class.

    For the ones I came into contact with it was simply a given.

    They enjoyed laughing at the higher ups and better offs when he won because they turned out to be the smart ones and they picked the winning horse.

    … and still the idiot press and Democrats seek to belittle the Trump supporters because they do not understand what happened.

    The Trump supporters are the bedrock of society.

    Trying to humiliate them is a bad bad idea!!

  25. John Avatar
    John

    Just listen to Rush Limbaugh and you will understand what most people are incapable of understanding on their own!!

    It is so frigging simple!!

  26. Freedom Crier Avatar
    Freedom Crier

    All lies. Read Saul Alinsky. That’s what Leftist do. They Accuse the Opposition of what they do.

    Lying and Deceit is their Norm!!

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=454051335122505&set=gm.296224444372930&type=3&theater

  27. John Avatar
    John

  28. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @Pieces, if you are using such a rubix cube (complex puzzle) of reasons then you surely must add: Teflon Don awesome qualities.

    At no time in any election in the modern era has any candidate brushed off adultery, sexual predation, tax evasion and flying canards of lies so brazenly and yet won … certainly not at the national level….that is a special gift owned for the moment only by this man….why is the $$ question, but he had it!

    Now, you predict he still has that mojo and more to get him over the line again…I say nope.

    Lying does have consequences. Demagoguery can go only so far for so long.

    Trump is the face of this election by his choice so if you see Madame Lazurus and that centuries old
    ‘epigram’ touting life, liberty and a balm for tortured souls as having reached its end days I respectfully say it has not….the US remains a bastion for hope and change in its different, multi faceted ways …no one president will change that long standing tradition …NOPE!

    Upheavals are as natural as earthquakes…and can be as devastating but the essential ethos of those affected is never so easily shattered.

    Trump will NOT win.

  29. Lexicon Avatar
    Lexicon

    John who really wants to listen to Rush Limbaugh … he is a Right-Wing Extremist commentator…?

  30. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @John
    Trump supporters are the bedrock of American society because racism is the bedrock of American society; it was so before 1864 and remained so afterwards.

  31. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/04/the-american-civil-war-didnt-end-and-trump-is-a-confederate-president

  32. John Avatar
    John

    The confederates were Democrats.

    That’s kind of the fly in the ointment.

    What are the confederates/democrats doing trying to get rid of their president?

  33. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    If 60+ million people voted Republican and a similiar number (larger in reality) voted Democratic then on what well reasoned basis is one half more bedrock than the others…surely there are deplorables on both sides and too lots of patriotic Americans.

  34. John Avatar
    John

    peterlawrencethompson
    November 6, 2018 8:16 AM

    @John
    Trump supporters are the bedrock of American society because racism is the bedrock of American society; it was so before 1864 and remained so afterwards.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    The bedrock of American Society/most societies is precisely where racism does not exist!!

    That’s because that’s where you fill find an abiding faith in God!!

    … and the reason is … simple … the bedrock of society has it the toughest and what gets them through is their abiding faith in God.

    That’s why the intelligentsia can’t figure it out …..they don’t recognize or take into account faith in God!!

    Where the racism resides is in the intelligentsia …. these are the people who look down on those at the bottom without realizing how much better off those at the bottom are to them!!

    All you have to do is close your eyes and listen to their utterances.

    In the eyes of the intelligentsia. the two races are the intelligentsia and the bedrock, …. us and them.

    It is not about colour, it has nothing to do with what is on the outside, it is all about what is on the inside.

    To understand who is a racist based on this all you have to do is listen to the words!!

    Anybody who says Trump’s supporters are racists, idiots, bigots … whatever …. is the racist.

    You never hear Trump supporters with the us and them talk, just the racists who oppose them!!

    Trump supporters just get on with the life God gave them …… and it drives the intelligentsia bananas!!

  35. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    The Republican Party excels at racist theft of people’s voting rights. Take North Dakota for example: a Democratic Party senator won by less than 3,000 votes six years ago, so over the past few years the state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a law that requires North Dakota residents to show identification with a current street address while at the same time they changed the regulations for postal addresses on Native American reservations to forbid them from using street addresses, forcing them to use postal box addresses instead. Presto: racist disenfranchisement of thousands of likely Democratic voters.

  36. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ PLT
    If you are up to reading and understanding any of the deeply researched postmortems of voting motivation in the 2016 election you will comprehend that racism was the single most important factor among Trump voters.
    ++++++++++++++++++++
    Understatement of the week.

    Boss, if you are understanding the grand scheme of things, then racism is the SINGLE most influential motivator that drives most of human endeavours. Except that racism is now much more complex than simple ‘black’ and ‘white’. It is more about our natural social predispositions.

    No need to look beyond BU for confirmation.

    Black people are paying a great price for turning their backs on their natural community-centric predispositions…and instead, trying to mimic the albino-centric philosophy of greed and selfishness – which looks attractive when labeled as ‘Capitalism’ …but the end of which is death and destruction as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

    We are merely reaping the fruits of our forefathers’ choices, and we are unable – ON OUR OWN STEAM – to overcome the inertia needed to reverse directions…..

    The NATURAL albino-centric experts are merely defending their territories (as is their wont) against all intruders – which in their view does not translate as ‘racism’, but simple business as usual…..

    We cannot expect to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds ….. and expect full acceptance from hounds and hares.

  37. John Avatar
    John

    What is amazing is that regardless of the high levels of intelligence possessed by the intelligentsia, they are utterly blind.

  38. Lawson Avatar
    Lawson

    Cruz said it best when taking on the jerry Lewis wannabe vampires must be liberal cause everyone one knows the dead vote democrat

  39. John Avatar
    John

    racist disenfranchisement of thousands of likely Democratic voters.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    If my logic is right, it is more likely they will be Republican voters because all they have is their faith in God to get them through.

  40. David Avatar
    David

    @John

    You noted that even FOX news pull that racist video targeting Stacy?

    It is a racist place!

  41. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    This immigration issue might give the republicans the edge
    There many in the USA both black and white who have remained silent on the issue
    Many of whom agrees with Trump policies of closing the door on immigrants seeing the influx as job threatening
    ###:###self interest trumps all interest

  42. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @John
    “Trump’s supporters are racists, idiots, bigots … whatever …. is the racist.”
    ++++++++++++++
    Honestly John, you could do better than this when you were 12 years old. The 12 year old John would have been able to understand studies like this one from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, http://www.pnas.org/content/115/19/E4330. Or this one from Political Science Quarterly, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/polq.12737. What about this one from the Public Religion Research Institute? https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-economy-trade-immigration-election-donald-trump/ And this one in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology, https://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/750

    Why do they all agree? It’s NOT the economy, it’s the racism, stupid.

    Sure, the decline of well-paying working-class manufacturing jobs drove some support for Trump. But resentment over the changing racial make-up of the nation and racist animosity toward those groups who have traditionally been marginalised played the overwhelmingly dominant role in his victory.

  43. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @John
    “If my logic is right, it is more likely they will be Republican voters…”
    +++++++++++++++
    This is a bare faced lie and you know it. It is proven beyond any measure of doubt that Native Americans in North Dakota vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party.

  44. Lawson Avatar
    Lawson

    Why can’t people get it that people are tired of being called racist at the drop of a hat. It means nothing anymore I am more embarrassed to be called cheap. Mariposa seems to have good insight into what is going to happen tonight. Can someone tape don Lemmon crying as I will be out for dinner.

  45. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “…………the Clinton criminal WAS rejected – the Americans have an electoral system which rejected her overwhelmingly.”

    45govt

    Perhaps you may care to explain the above comment.

    I do not understand US politics……… but I’m curious.

    If the “popular vote” is the actual number of registered individuals that voted for a candidate, then how can you “say” Clinton was “overwhelmingly rejected” by the people when she defeated Trump by 2,864,974 votes?

    I understand the US also has something called the “Electoral College,” which consist of 538 electors appointed by each state to formerly elect the US president & vice-president.

    Of the Electoral College’s 538 votes, Trump received 304 to Clinton’s 227, while 7 electors voted for someone other than their party’s candidate. This means Trump actually won the presidency by 77 more Electoral College votes then Clinton.

    Please explain how 77 more EC votes could be interpreted as an “overwhelming rejection?”

  46. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Lawson
    I never call anyone “racist at the drop of a hat.” Donald Trump is celebrated as a racist by both the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan. In addition he has publicly called for the execution of Black suspects after they had been proven innocent by conclusive DNA evidence; that’s racist.

    Furthermore all the serious research into the motivations of Trump voters concludes that their primary reason is racism: studies like this one from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, http://www.pnas.org/content/115/19/E4330. Or this one from Political Science Quarterly, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/polq.12737. What about this one from the Public Religion Research Institute? https://www.prri.org/research/white-working-class-attitudes-economy-trade-immigration-election-donald-trump/ And this one in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology, https://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/750

  47. John Avatar
    John

    peterlawrencethompson
    November 6, 2018 9:16 AM

    @John
    “If my logic is right, it is more likely they will be Republican voters…”
    +++++++++++++++
    This is a bare faced lie and you know it. It is proven beyond any measure of doubt that Native Americans in North Dakota vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Wasn’t this also true of African American Voters?

    All you have to do is after Heidi Heitkamp is voted in or out tonight, tell us how many Native Americans voted and if they voted Democrat.

    Polls indicate that she is trailing 11.4 points.

    http://time.com/5444568/heidi-heitkamp-kevin-kramer-north-dakota-senate-election/

    If they are anything to go by she will lose!!

    But, who knows!!

    What percentage of Native Americans live in North Dakota and are registered voters?

    https://www.ndtourism.com/articles/north-dakota-american-indian-heritage

    “There are approximately 30,000 American Indians living in North Dakota and American Indians make up about 5% of the current North Dakota population. North Dakota American Indian tribes span the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, the Yanktonia, Sisseton, Wahpeton, Hunkpapa and other Dakotah/Lakotah (more commonly known as the Sioux) Tribes, along with the Pembina Chippewa, Cree and Metis.”

    So she is going to need a lot more than the Native American voters to win!!

  48. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    The values which will drive this election and which the republicans already own are related to people interest with job security being # 1
    Homosexuality with all its applied implications #2
    Immigration #3
    The pictures of thousands of immigrants heading for America.. as depressing it seems strikes fearful thoughts into the minds of native americans who see them as threats to a dwindling work market which is being overtaken by robots which bodes the question” What about us” enough is enough

  49. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    the beauty of retail and modern day elective politics is the ability of the politicians to turn the general voters attention away from what is essential and important and focus their attention on the “boogey man” in order to facilitate the advancement of their latent agenda.

    The narrative is more important than the truth.

    Facts are fake unless they encompass your view point.

    Your opponent is evil or non-american because he opposes you.

    The immigrant is your enemy their to steal yor job, whislt the “multinational/big business” who off-shores your job is your economic saviour.

    JMT

  50. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    People are tired being called what they are. Have you ever known a fool who wasn’t tired of being called a fool? That does not make it less true.

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