Victor Davis Hanson: The 2016 Presidential Race Just Keeps Getting More Weird

Investors Business Daily ^ | October 20, 2016 | VICTOR DAVIS HANSON

[expat_panama]

A presidential campaign is figuratively called a "race." Two runners sprint toward the Election Day finish line for the prize of the presidency.

But the 2016 presidential campaign has spawned lots of weird races.

The first sprint is one between embarrassments and scandals.

Will another WikiLeaks disclosure confirm that Hillary Clinton is a dishonest and conniving hypocrite? Or will yet another open-mic tape, disgruntled beauty queen or old Howard Stern interview remind us that Donald Trump's private life was -- and perhaps still is -- uncouth?

The winner will be the candidate leaked about the least by Election Day.

Here, Trump might have an odd edge...

...Another race is between the relative health of the two candidates.

At 68, Clinton seems too frail...

...Or will we become even more exhausted by Clinton's inadvertent depiction of the aggravating Nurse Ratched character...

...two final races, the most important of all: money and time.

The billionaire wheeler-dealer Trump oddly has raised far less cash than the supposedly progressive, anti-Wall Street Clinton.

More valuable than even money is time. Clinton is ahead, sitting on her lead. Trump is behind, in need of another two weeks beyond Election Day.

The money and the clock races usually trump all others.

Mostly reliable traditional polls -- Gallup, Reuters, etc. -- seem to be assuring us of a Clinton landslide. A few quirky outlier daily-tracking surveys -- such as those of the L.A. Times and Rasmussen -- on some days have the race about even or have Trump slightly ahead.

In this outlandish year, the winner will be the survivor who crawls barely alive over the Nov. 8 finish line -- without having been blown up..

[expat_panama]

Someone told me that the winner of the last debate was the moderator because he asked both about the fed debt and neither candidate was prepared to address it.

[wastoute]

I think they both did. Trump has said right along tax cut, economic growth is the only way. Hillary promised to eat the rich. Twice.

[Arm_Bears]

Had Bill Clinton been held to the same standards as Donald Trump, there never would have been a Clinton administration and the US would be much better off.

[corkoman]

That has to be VDH’s worst column ever. Nothing to offer but some lukewarm Hillary fanboy rant. Embarrassing.

[Russ]

Another BS piece to discourage Trump supporters and further the cause of the establishment. I can’t understand how posting articles like this is necessary.

[bert]

——Two runners sprint——

The concept is fallacious. Marathon would be more proper for a race several years in length.

Regarding the debt, there is not adequate consensus to overcome the political risk for addressing the task

Politicians seldom act. In the case of the debt, when it gets bad politicos will react.

[ScaniaBoy]

I am very fond of VDH but he really should not even in jest write a sentence like this: "But any more leaks about Clinton could shatter the crumbling facade depicting her as a highly respected and ethical establishmentarian."

[Pietro]

This election isn't about Trump.

It's about a bodyblow to an entrenched elite that is of, for and by the government.

A system that has disenfranchised the American people.

It's about an entertainment complex that serves that elite by the propagation of lies and filth.

This election is The People vs The US Government.

And if the People should lose this election, well, the next phase of this fight will not be pleasant.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“This election is The People vs The US Government.”

And Trump keeps needing to say, “and Hillary is th US government.”

[Popman]

That has to be VDH’s worst column ever.

Yeah...I normally look forward to reading VDH, but I was very disappointed...

Guess you can't bat 1000 every time...

[vekzen]

Awful column. Hanson wrote:

“Mostly reliable traditional polls — Gallup, Reuters, etc. — seem to be assuring us of a Clinton landslide.”

Well, Gallup polls on lots of things, but it no longer polls on presidential elections. Hanson needs to find another example — or reconsider his premise.

[Flavious_Maximus]

Not a single one of Trump scandals are crimes.

Nearly ALL of Clinton scandals are felony crimes.

That is the big difference that stupid, idiot, imbecile Clinton supporters ignore.

[Chickensoup]

Well, this is a column that reeks: Captain Obvious

[wastoute]

VDH is usually pretty good.

I wonder how much our perspective is influencing our perception in these final weeks. Perhaps VDH is just trying to compensate for this a bit. Certainly none of us sees Hillary for anything but the conniving criminal we know her to be. A good deal of her supporters IMO share our perception and consider her to be “thier conniving criminal” but there have to be, out there, somewhere, people who both support her AND believe her to be competent and honest. As delusional as that perception is.

Just about everyone in the country is going to be able to say on November 9th “I don’t know anyone who voted for that moron.”

Question is, what will they do about it?

[Blennos]

Very poor essay by a flailing VDH.

[Dr. Sivana]

Well, Gallup polls on lots of things, but it no longer polls on presidential elections. Hanson needs to find another example — or reconsider his premise.

You beat me to that one. +1 for you.

The only thing I would add is WHY Gallup left the presidential race polling business. It is impossible to get good results.

[expat_panama]

A very happy and easy going Friday to all!  We got yesterday's stocks flat in lower volume going into this morning's flat futures trend, and we got metals slightly up yesterday w/ futures predicting a slight return.  Something for everyone!

No econ stats today either; one thing that caught my eye this week was inflation.  The CPI came in slightly higher than before last Tuesday (+0.3% up from +0.2%) but it was largely from short term say, oil/commodities etc.  The 'core' rate came in lower than expected, just +0.1%.

We need to keep up on this:

Economists Are Blind to How Little They Know - Jeffrey Snider, RCM
"Secular Stagnation" Versus "Technological Stagnation" - Noah Smith, BV
A Completely Different Reason to Sell Stocks - Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
An Opportunity to Bolster the Tax Reforms of 1986 - James Gould, RCM
The Risky Free Trade Political Backlash - Otaviano Canuto, Project Syndicate
You Don't Have to Love Trump to Hate the 'Experts' - John Tamny, RCM

[PGalt]

Talk about weird. The popped skank Madonna had to make an offer to secure Hillary’s husband’s vote.

[Former Proud Canadian]

I really like VDH but, like many others, he suffers from "normalcy bias". I don't think he can believe what is really going on in terms of the level of corruption and traitorous behavior because it is so far out of the norm.

He is describing the election in normal terms, as if the US was still a democratic republic where everyone was equal under the law and the fourth estate were not willing propagandists.

Instead you are facing an election where one of the candidates is a sick quasi-Marxist whose crimes run from bribery to fraud to treason and God knows what else. The FBI refuses to prosecute, even in the face of massive evidence of her corruption. Her party is engaged in a massive vote fraud operation to try and get her elected. The media and the president deny that this obvious vote fraud exists, even when confronted by direct video evidence.

This is not a normal election conducted by a consensus society. This is a coup perpetrated by the democrats, the press, and most members of the 1%. If they succeed a chaos will envelop the land unlike anything seen since the middle of the 19th century. There will be suffering and blood, lots of it.

[IWontSubmit]