Happy Flag Day…in Bolivia. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.
► Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has made some major changes at the top of his campaign as the candidate pledges to increase his level of Trumpiness in the final months of the election cycle. As Chris Cillizza writes for “The Fix”:
“I am who I am,” Trump said. “I’ve gotten here in a landslide and we’ll see what happens.”
What that quote — and the subsequent staff moves — should tell you is that Trump believes he made a mistake in bowing to establishment pressure and bringing in a veteran hand like Manafort to oversee things. Trump sees his current problems in the race as deriving not from being too much of himself but from not being enough of himself.
What moving out Manafort and elevating Conway and Bannon should tell you is that Trump has decided that he is going to run the last three months — or so — of the campaign on his own terms. Win or lose, he is going to go out being himself.
If you come across a Republican weeping quietly in the fetal position today, try to give them an encouraging pat on the back or something.
And if you see Sen. Cory Gardner, it’s probably best that you just not use the “T” word. Gardner quietly announced his support for Trump on Friday, but the lede was so buried that the original story didn’t get widespread attention until Tuesday.
► New polling results from Quinnipiac University show that Hillary Clinton maintains a double-digit lead over Donald Trump in Colorado. Quinnipiac has Clinton up 49-39 in Colorado; 47-44 in Iowa; and 50-38 in Virginia. Quinnipiac’s numbers in Colorado are in the same ballpark as the Real Clear Politics polling average of Clinton +11.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
► The Aurora School Board continues to do everything in its power — which isn’t much, sadly — to try to compel con-artist Eric Nelson to resign his seat. As the Aurora Sentinel reports:
Former APS Superintendent John Barry, who moved on from the district three years ago, reiterated Tuesday what the majority of the school board and several community members have already made clear this summer: Nelson should cease his work on the school board because of his fictitious resume and falsified military record…
…Later in the board meeting, Board directors voted 5-2 to officially censure Nelson for the remainder of his time on the board. Nelson was elected to a four-year term in 2013. Yamrick and Nelson cast the dissenting votes on the censure.
Brandon Eyre, legal counsel for APS, said at a previous APS board meeting that the censure is largely symbolic. The board previously stripped Nelson of his duties as the board’s secretary and prohibited him from identifying himself as a member of the school board at public functions, among other sanctions.
Serving on the Aurora School Board is an unpaid position, and Nelson has zero political future in Colorado (or anywhere else), so it’s hard to see why he still insists on being little more than a nuisance at this point. Nelson has even been prohibited from publicly identifying himself as a school board member.
► A group of Progressive political organizations has come out in opposition to Amendment 69; critics say the single-payer health care proposal is well-intentioned but flawed in its wording.
► Larimer County Republicans are concerned that President Obama is forcing children to “Pray in Muslim.”
► Colorado voters will get to vote on a ballot measure about other ballot measures. As the Denver Post reports:
A state constitutional amendment to make it harder to amend the Colorado constitution will appear on the November ballot, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office announced Tuesday.
Backers of the “Raise the Bar” campaign submitted nearly 184,000 signatures on Aug. 5. A 5 percent random sample of the signatures projected the number of valid signatures to be greater than 110 percent of the total number of signatures required for placement on the ballot, the secretary of state said.
The initiative will be called Amendment 71 on the ballot.
“Coloradans are tired of seeing their constitution pummeled with the latest fad ideas and bloated with permanent, unworkable schemes,” campaign co-chair and Summit County Commissioner Dan Gibbs said. “The voices throughout Colorado agree, it’s time to raise the bar and make it more difficult to amend our constitution.”
The point of Amendment 71 is not to restrict citizen initiatives in general; rather, the idea is to make it more difficult to make Constitutional changes through ballot measures.
► There’s plenty of out-of-state money flowing into Colorado over a ballot measure that would raise the minimum wage to $12-per-hour.
► The month of July set a new record for travelers passing through the Eisenhower Tunnel in Summit County.
► Jefferson County Republicans are opening a new field office for the Trump/Pence Presidential campaign this weekend. Make sure you get a tetanus shot before you enter this particular building.
► Donald Trump is striking out in his bid to appeal to Mormon voters.
► Swimmer Missy Franklin is back in Colorado after a disappointing finish in the Rio Olympics.
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If and when we achieve a landslide, I hope Democrats don't let their shorts droop and find the need (once again, natch) to be all bipartisanshippy, to be the "adults" in the room and to give Republicans half – or more than half – of what they want(ed) just cuz……….It would be stupid, another betrayal of its base, and ignorant of what these last several months have been all about.
I'm tempted to encourage Dems to do what Repubs would do: they would wholeheartedly screw their philosophical nemeses, enact everything they've talked about the last 30 years – with a complete disregard for this bipartisan bullshit, stomp on their necks, spit on them and curse them out in Latin (h/t Scalia), and then cut off their tabs at the congressional commisary.
But I won't propose that because I'm a nice guy.
Wanna bet dollars to donuts that will happen? That what happens when a party/movement can only see as far as the next election.
Unless we win BOTH houses. Zappy, we still need to reach across the aisle.
The Republicans manage to drive the agenda more effectively in a divided legislature than do the Dems, although perhaps its just that being an obstinate obstructionist is a more difficult tactic to navigate around.
They haven't "driven" anything but obstruction. Too many Dems in the Senate.
I am talking of longer duration than the last two years. Over time conservatives have driven much of the agenda with the Democratic Party on a steady rightward tact over the past few decades.
Perfectly true. In the post Reagan era Dems became terrified of being seen as pinkos and ceded to the right, promising to be almost just like conservative Republicans only a little more liberal (and I mean a little… remember the Defense of Marriage?) on social issues.
But times, as evidenced by such recently unheard of new realities as marriage equality, LGBT rights of all kinds including to serve in the military, heck, a black president, something that people still didn't see coming in our lifetimes a few years before it happened, public support for for living wage, changing demographics including the imminent end of the white majority, indicate that we're at a tipping point and Dem pols need to grow a pair and grab it.
exactly. There are a few good articles out there that broke the whole thing down and it is not flattering to Dems.
Unless we win both houses and have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. And even then, unless we get every Senator to go along. Remember 2009?
Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but what the heck: The first test will be the Supreme court nomination(s). Assuming Dems do not retake control of the Senate (or even if they do and the Repubs threaten a filibuster), does Hillary send up Garland? He is imminently qualified but old(er) and more centrist than other candidates. When the Repubs obstruct (and you know they will), will the Dems compromise (negotiate with the terrorists) or stand their ground.
I think we will learn very early whether the Dems will be intent on "being the adults" in the government or will attempt act on their "mandate."
I hope we do it with a calm voice and pleasant demeanor😃😀😀
Love ya, Gray, but no…calm and pleasant are not on my agenda. The Republicans have always counted on the civility of Democrats to allow them to kick our asses. I have no kind words for the asshole party that nominated a fascist.
I have only slightly less contempt for a candidate who would pick a corporate suck-up like former Secretary Salazar to fill such a critical and influential position.. In most other areas, I have always gotten along with Ken, but his apologist behavior and fawning devotion to the most rapacious industry on the planet will prevent me from ever supporting Ken for any decision making post. He should remain an industry lobbyist so that no one can ever misunderstand his motives.
I am missing that someone else commented on Ken Salazar running HRC's transition team? I thought he was buried long ago. When he voted to screw everyone with a loan by voting for the credit card companies I was done with the guy. Even as a secretary is was not that great, but at least he was no longer able to mess up people's lives.
Colorado Independent has those provocateurs of political polling, quininipac, finding nearly a quarter of Colorado voters supporting 3rd party candidates. Hard to believe because they are such an unreliable source.
Unreliable for sure but Ross Perot did well in Colorado compared to a lot of other states too. Doesn't change HRC's lead here which isn't much smaller with Johnson than without. And one 15+ poll won't get him into the debates.