Contemplating political positioning in the wake of the Trump victory…  Because.  Sure.  Welcome to the new Republican Party, old Republicans..

I’m really curious about Marco Rubio.  His point in running for the Senate was to have a place to run for president in four years.

Speculating that Tim Scott would run for South Carolina governor, aiming for the president.  That assumes the path to the presidency is in traditional politics these days.

Ben Sasse has this to say.
We are not North Koreans, swearing a loyalty oath to the ‘Dear Leader.’ Nor are we the French Resistance, plotting against the new regime from day one. Rather, we should hope for his personal flourishing and his wisdom, and we should simultaneously vigorously debate his ideas.
Yeah.  Speak for yourself.

Meantime, making their way into the establishment, and things get scary and wacky.  Yes, there’s Steve Bannon — who — will really take it to the “Establishment” (who is — um?) … and into a new media universe with… the suddenly mainstream, Alex Jones.  Now in a position not before conceivable — one that will makes it a deal harder to consider the next terrorist or other tragic act of violence a “false flag”.

It does appear the incoming president lacks many deep convictions.  I suppose, if you follow through on that which got him elected… reworking trade deals and immigration restriction…

Either watered down now or made more cost effective into the big “fence“.

Health Care?  No biggie.

On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace grilled Trump’s campaign manager over Donald’s apparent flip flop on Obamacare, saying he may amend the healthcare law instead of repealing it and Kellyanne Conway replied, “We don’t know.”
Days before the election, during a speech in Philadelphia, Donald Trump said this about Obamacare, “If we don’t repeal and replace Obamacare, we will destroy American health care forever.”
Chris Wallace responded to Trump’s interview with the WSJ, where he said he’s open to keeping two signature parts of the ACA intact.

What happened appears to be that he was just coming out from speaking with Obama, who suggested that whatever Trump does… please consider keeping them.  Likewise, Trump’s emphasis on infrastructure — “big time jobs” — not only harking over to “what he knows”, but it too has to be what Obama just suggested to him, echoing as it does what Obama has been saying Hillary Clinton can accomplish that he couldn’t.

Not to say too much.  Mark Pence is either going to be the most powerful vice-president in the United States history, tied as such, or narrowly second – competing with Dick Cheney.  But at such, any Democrat or liberal (or the UAW getting him to make do on his trade agreements) trying to influence policy would be wise to arrange a meeting, make the suggestions, and get Trump onto a television camera immediately before Pence can dump it.

Hm.  Trump is still tweeting.  Something to do with my experience of sitting on a public bus on a bridge as one grouplet overwhelms the streets.

Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!

The phrase “Professional protesters” has that ring of Breitbart logic to it.  There is, I suppose, a sort of truth in it — I muse that they come across as the “Committee to Re-elect the Next President”, and some swarths of them do have the concept of starting a national mass strike at the point of Fascism.
“Incited by the media” has us back at another odd canard — No.  They’re their own thing.

But then again, they’re just following Trump’s tweeting suggestion from 4 years ago.  There’s enough hypocrisy swarthing in every direction on this one.

Trump then changes his mind.

Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!

It’ll be an interesting four years.

I got the feeling last October, when I largely but not entirely defended them, that these kids in Montana had a satirical idea, humor in bad taste as opposed to bad humor, which — as a matter of course — dumped Trump in there as a signifier — speaking to his support amongst various hate groups.

Now elected, we get to this.

Two students from Silverton High School have been suspended, accused of intimidating and threatening behavior at a pro-Trump demonstration at the school on Tuesday.
Before classes and during both the school’s lunches, 30 to 40 students gathered on and around their trucks, waving Trump signs and American flags.
At least one student was waving a Confederate flag, but took it down after the school’s principal, Justin Lieuallen, spoke to him.
Lieuallen said the students were expressing their own views, but there were a couple of incidents where students overstepped their bounds.
Witnesses reported phrases such as “Pack your bags, you’re leaving tomorrow” and “Tell your family good-bye” being shouted at Hispanic students.

It is that dilemma in “teaching the kids” respectful reverence to your country’s next leader who cited an Eisenhower era dragnet program to deal with illegal immigration, while keeping a politically neutral stance on free assembly.

Yeah.  I remember this one.  As the numbers came in, and the popular votes cast lagged behind the electoral count, four years back.

He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012

The phoney electoral college made a laughing stock out of our nation. The loser one!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2012

And so it goes, 4 years later.

If only states that began with vowels counted…

Trump would have really, really cleaned up.

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah.  Meanwhile all Clinton has is Indiana and Oreon.

It’s an electoral firewall with the vowel states tat the Clinton camp could not overcome.

I don’t know what the Democrats need to do to break through this front.  Perhaps propose some vowel pandering program?  I know, for instance, that Obama carried the Rust Belt states that swung over Trump’s way with the “GE Bail-out” and by dent of the Rich Guy he was running against was not as crass and so “like them” as the rich guy Clinton had to run against.

Perhaps the answer lies in introducing the word “New” into the states.  New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico — Clinton swept the “New States”.  Think about it, some enterprising Democratic state legislator in one of those states.  You could sell it as a way to reinvigorate the economy.

A greater proportion of educated women, a smaller proportion of uneducated men, a greater proportion of and a higher turn-out of Hispanics and a lower turn-out of Black voters.  And a larger swarth of a third party vote that keeps everyone under 50.

And so goes Hillary Clinton’s coming — likely — win over Donald Trump as opposed to Barack Obama’s win over Mitt Romney.

I don’t know if this is “Generic Republican” versus “Generic Democrat”, in a race whose polling has shown greater volatility than typical — bumping from a “dead heat” to seemingly with Hillary Clinton just about to break out to a thumping maybe she doesn’t warrant but certainly Trump does.  A decent amount of noise in the numbers, where partisan poll responses shy away a tad when their loosely aligned candidate has current bad news, with the “For the Love of God — don’t you remember why you were pulling away from Trump a week ago?” exhaustion.

And maybe the latest cloud of dust being cleared, Anthony Weiner’s email cache not changing the verdict you decided was either just or sweeping under the rug on Hillary Clinton, means the slight break-free for Hillary Clinton is at last coming to pass, and she can outdo Obama from 4 years ago…

… While losing Ohio and Iowa, but winning North Carolina.