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"We made America more respected around the world, took on the mantle of leadership in the fight to protect this planet for our kids, and much, much more," Obama added. "By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we first got here." "I'm hopeful we'll build on the progress we've made in the years to come," Obama said

Isn't it interesting that it took an electoral barnyard beat-down to get the Democrats interested in Russian hacking? A drubbing by Donald Trump has done wonders to focus their minds. How ironic that Democrats became apoplectic about Trump's alleged coziness with Russia during the campaign when they've been Russia's apologists for years. They are the ones (through Sen. Ted Kennedy) who clandestinely asked the Russians for help to beat Ronald Reagan in 1984. They are the ones who lambasted GOP 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney for being too tough on Russia. They are the ones (through President Obama) who secretly...

Now that the 538 electors have voted -- and, with only the most minor of exceptions, for the expected candidates -- we can marvel at how such a huge difference in public policies can be made by just a few votes, the 77,744 votes by which Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the 46 electoral votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump's narrow victory means a significantly more conservative Supreme Court, a rollback of Obamacare and reams of regulations, abandonment of policies disfavoring fossil fuel usage -- and hundreds of consequences that can only be guessed at. This isn't the...

“Even after all 50 states have certified their results and Trump officially won in the electoral college, many Democrats—including alumni of the campaign—are still coming to grips with the reality that, one month from today, he will be sitting in the Oval Office,” reported James Hohmann in the Daily 202. “Many Democrats say that it still feels like a bad dream,” he wrote. “They wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat as the reality of a Trump presidency sinks in a little deeper, as they realize that this is not Groundhog Day and that there...

During an interview with KNPR on Wednesday, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) relayed a story from his daughter-in-law that his 10-year-old granddaughter said Trump bumper stickers make her “tense.”

The student group behind Barnard College’s “trigger warning wall” is back with a new art exhibit that invites student to write their thoughts about the election on Post-it notes. The project, called “Reacting to the Election,” asks students to answer the questions “How are you?” “What do you need?” and “Where do we go from here?” on notes and post them on the wall. About 200 have been posted since the exhibit went up last month.

Their implication is that funds could dry up if sitting chairman Matt Borges, who is aligned with Gov. John Kasich, wins re-election. Kasich refused to back Trump in the general election, and Borges offered support only reluctantly. "While 2016 was a challenging one for many Ohioans, once the nomination was settled, Chairman Borges had the duty to fully support the Republican Party nominee and his campaign. He did not fulfill that duty. His actions split the state party leadership and could have cost us one of the most important elections of our lifetime!" the letter reads.

If you’re thinking about hopping on the protest bandwagon, here are some major Inauguration Related Protests Coming Up: January 14, 2017: We Shall Not Be Moved March . . January 20, 2017: Protest Against Trump on Inauguration Day: Fight Racism, Defend Immigrants! . . January 20, 2017: #DISRUPTJ20 . . January 21, 2017: Women’s March on Washington . . January 21, 2017: Women’s March on Washington Sister Marches

A record high portion of people see reporters as low or very low ethical standards, after a year in which the winning president-elect made trashing the media's honesty a centerpiece of his campaign. A new Gallup poll said 41 percent of people polled said the media have low ethical standards. That's 10 points higher than the prior high of 31 percent of those who held the same view of the press in 2008 and 2009. Trust in college teachers has also slipped.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh expects President Obama will "create all kinds of unrest and disunity" once President-elect Trump takes the oath of office next month. "The first moment that Trump does anything that is the unraveling of an Obama agenda item. Obama's going to be on TV," Limbaugh said Tuesday on "The Rush Limbaugh Show." "They'll give Obama as much time as he wants to rip into Trump and to warn the American people."

Sour grapes. That’s how Donald Trump’s closest advisers see Democrats’ complaints that Moscow hacked their private emails this election season in a bid to sow discord among their supporters and sway the election toward Republicans. The pushback comes ahead of the Electoral College vote, which was expected to make official Trump’s election win and pave his way to take office on Jan. 20. “Let’s assume it’s true,” Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, said Sunday of Russian interference in the election. “There’s no evidence that shows that the outcome of the election was changed because of a couple dozen...

Liberals are condemning President-elect Donald Trump and his people for supposed links to Vladimir Putin, but there was a time when Democrats were ingratiating themselves to the autocratic Russian leader and his country’s money. Former President Bill Clinton, for example, took $500,000 in speaking fees in 2010 from a Russian finance company run by former KGB spies closely tied to Mr. Putin, a former KGB officer. At the same time, Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, was leading the way in urging U.S.-Russia business expansion, complete with an American high-tech delegation to Moscow and U.S. investments in Russian cyberskills. “We...

Despite a media blitz portraying fake news sites as having a real impact in national politics — and even capable of affecting the outcome of a presidential election — fake news sites struggle to reach any sort of real audience. Fake news site DenverGuardian.com, subject of coverage from the New York Times and the Washington Post, is ranked 91,688 in web traffic in the U.S., according to web analytics firm Alexa. To put that number in perspective: the site supposedly impacting the national political scene is more than 84,000 slots behind the website for a Virginia community college. On Sunday,...

Democrats who are having trouble getting out of denial aren't being helped by the fact that Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote has topped 2.8 million, giving her a 48% share of the vote compared with Trumps 46%. To those unschooled in how the United States selects presidents, this seems totally unfair. But look more closely at the numbers and you see that Clinton's advantage disappears. While Clinton's overall margin looks large, it is due to Clinton's huge margin of victory in one state — California — where she got a whopping 4.3 million more votes. California is the...

A Republican elector from Texas on Monday defended his plan to vote against President-elect Trump today, and it's time for others to follow in an effort to deny Trump the White House. "This is, unfortunately, the first time I think we've needed to use it as a nation, but it's time to pull the brake," Christopher Suprun said on CNN.

The Electoral College process defined in the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1 and the 12th Amendment, has numerous purposes and should be supported rather than dismissed. Its primary purpose is to maintain the principles of federalism upon which this unique nation is founded. We are a union of sovereign states which voluntarily sought to join that union under the condition that each state admitted would be co-equal with every other state. The Electoral College method of choosing the President and Vice President ensures each state, whether large or small in land mass, resources, or population, has some voice in...

With a statistical three-way tie in the presidential popularity polls as we began to research this article, the drums have been beating once more for change in the electoral college system of selecting the U.S. chief executive, with even direct popular elections being touted. Ominous scenarios have been raised to show the imminence of a constitutional crisis. This constitutional crisis, incredibly, would supposedly occur were we to continue following the Constitution which, in the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, has for more than two centuries provided quite proficient means to handle elections.Much of the dilemma has been caused by a...

President Obama is dishing out a much rockier transfer of power to Donald Trump than he received from his predecessor eight years ago, from accusing the president-elect of being aided by Russian hackers to first lady Michelle Obama’s complaint that the nation has lost hope. The Obama administration’s bitterness and disappointment over Hillary Clinton’s loss erupted into the open last week... . . . In an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Friday, Mrs. Obama said of her husband’s departure that Americans “will come to appreciate having a grown-up in the White House.”

The first few weeks after President-elect Clinton won the election set the tone for what she expected would be the next eight years, and that tone was neither gracious nor inclusive. She wasted no time in flaunting her 306 electoral votes and the Democrats’ 52 seat Senate majority. “America has decisively rejected the hate embodied by Donald Trump and his deplorable supporters,” Hillary bellowed, as she gripped the podium unsteadily, still woozy from her 80 proof election night “party.” She went on: “I have a massive mandate to impose fundamental change and usher in a new America! And let me...

Electors in Michigan are in line to obey state law and vote for Republican President-elect Donald Trump. The state requires the 16 members of the Electoral College ... to vote according to the results of the Michigan's presidential election,... most state electors were interviewed by The Associated Press, and all of them pledge their support for him regardless. "We have a process, I'm respecting the process and he won by that process," said Joseph Guzman, an elector and assistant professor at Michigan State University's... "He's my candidate. If there were no rules, I would vote for him, too." ... in...