If the Donald selects Pence as his veep choice, he adds zero to the ticket.
What he needs is a younger man who could go toe-to-toe with him in a debate.
Trump should take a second look at the Republican senators he trounced in
the debates, perhaps someone who can help him with minorities and women.

[QUOTE=davar55;438165]If the Donald selects Pence as his veep choice, he adds zero to the ticket.
What he needs is a younger man who could go toe-to-toe with him in a debate.
Trump should take a second look at the Republican senators he trounced in
the debates, perhaps someone who can help him with minorities and women.[/QUOTE]
Too late. Thoughts are that he selected Pence to court Evangelical voters.

Billary chooses [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-36870441"]Citizen Kaine[/URL]

Perhaps [quote]Mr Kaine speaks fluent Spanish and could help the Clinton campaign maintain its support among Hispanic Americans - a growing voting bloc.[/quote] may be relevant.

[QUOTE=xilman;438579]Billary chooses [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-36870441"]Citizen Kaine[/URL]

Perhaps may be relevant.[/QUOTE]
It is so strange that the Republicans let themselves get so adversely positioned against Hispanic Americans. George W. Bush spoke some Spanish as does his brother Jeb Bush who also has a Mexican-born wife. They were decently positioned to work some acceptance or to harvest some gains if they made a party effort to capitalize on that. Ted Cruz speaks a little Spanish. Marco Rubio Speaks Spanish. We haven't had a president fluent in a second language since [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multilingual_presidents_of_the_United_States#Table"]Franklin Roosevelt[/URL] so even a little effort would have gone a long way. They even had that demographic mission statement that they concocted after Obama was elected about needing to grow their base.

But instead they got a demagogue in direct confrontation and even before him the party in general had blown up the border security issue into a litmus test that reinforces conflict.

I saw someone on the convention feed holding up a handmade sign saying Hispanics for Trump and it reminded me of the fake handmade signs waived during Trump's escalator ride although the message was new if not credible.

[URL="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/this-years-most-awkward-job-latino-republican-outreach"]THIS YEAR’S MOST AWKWARD JOB? LATINO REPUBLICAN OUTREACH[/URL]
[QUOTE]In the background of the discussion was an issue that runs deeper than Trump: for all its talk of reaching out, the Republican Party has taken steps that actually appear to be suppressing the Latino vote. The Party has tried to pass stricter voter-ID laws across the country, even though studies have found that fraud is exceedingly rare and the laws have a disproportionate effect on minority turnout. (A recent study found that Latino turnout is 10.8 percentage points lower in states with strict photo-ID laws.) Lori Montenegro, a Telemundo correspondent, questioned whether voter fraud was being hyped by Republicans, saying, “I haven’t found evidence that there has been an overwhelming fraud.”[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://www.stonekettle.com/2016/07/the-decider.html?m=1"]The Decider[/URL]
[QUOTE]Strategically, Kaine is from Virginia. If Clinton wins the White House, Virginia’s democratic governor will appoint Kaine’s replacement in the Senate. If Clinton had chosen Elizabeth Warren or Sherrod Brown, their replacements would have been Republicans – in a Senate with a Republican majority.[/QUOTE]

It's all The Putin's fault!

[url]http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2016/07/24/hunt-red-trump-tober/[/url]
[quote] This election is rapidly turning into one of those unintentionally campy anti-Communist movies from the 1950s. A recent “story” in the increasingly ridiculous Daily Beast is headlined: “Trump Invites Putin to Invade Melania’s Home Town,” which brings to mind the classic 1949 film “I Married a Communist!” Only in the case of that epic, the studio were too embarrassed to release it under its original title, and changed it after the previews to “The Woman on Pier 13.” The Clinton campaign and their neocon fellow-travelers, lacking the capacity for embarrassment, have no problem with plainly enunciating their McCarthyite theme.

This tidal wave of hysterical cold war era propaganda depicts Russia – a ramshackle nation in decline, with a plummeting birth rate, a crippled economy, and a military budget that palls in comparison to that of the US and its NATO allies – as practically all-powerful. Just look at the list of recent developments and political personalities the Kremlin is said to be manipulating: not only the victory of Donald Trump, but the triumph of Brexit, the success of Jeremy Corbyn, the DNC leaks, the rise of Hungary’s Victor Orban, the rise of the European far right, the rise of the European far left, the rise of the National Front, the views of the President of the Czech Republic, and the actions of the Republican platform committee.[/quote]
As long as we're clear that the dastardly Rooskies did all of the above evil, sneaky, bad, wicked, naughty, evil (I know I already said 'evil' but it's *so* evil it deserves repeating) stuff, but there is no possible way that they hacked Hillary's privatized and profligately insecure e-mail server.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;438753]It's all The Putin's fault!

[URL]http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2016/07/24/hunt-red-trump-tober/[/URL]

As long as we're clear that the dastardly Rooskies did all of the above evil, sneaky, bad, wicked, naughty, evil (I know I already said 'evil' but it's *so* evil it deserves repeating) stuff, but there is no possible way that they hacked Hillary's privatized and profligately insecure e-mail server.[/QUOTE]
An excellent article!

Hunter S. Thompson is alas no longer with us, but thankfully there are still a (very) few independent journalists carrying the torch of weapons-grade anti-establishment snark:

[url=www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/28/night-of-the-hollow-men-notes-from-the-democratic-convention/]Night of the Hollow Men: Notes From the Democratic Convention[/url] | Jeffrey St. Clair, [i]Counterpunch[/i]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;438945]Hunter S. Thompson is alas no longer with us, but thankfully there are still a (very) few independent journalists carrying the torch of weapons-grade anti-establishment snark:

[URL="http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/28/night-of-the-hollow-men-notes-from-the-democratic-convention/"]Night of the Hollow Men: Notes From the Democratic Convention[/URL] | Jeffrey St. Clair, [I]Counterpunch[/I][/QUOTE]
Just when you think it could not be more grim.....

Nice tidbits about Thompson, though.

[url=www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/02/khizr-khan-and-the-triumph-of-democratic-militarism/]Khizr Khan and The Triumph of Democratic Militarism[/url] | Counterpunch

And another link which will threaten to make many Dem-tribalist's heads exlode, by longtime peace activist Cindy Sheehan, a.k.a. the crazy lady - at least that's how much of the Big Media portrayed her - who lived in a one-woman peace encampment outside George W. Bush's Texas ranch for years to protest his warmongering.

[url=http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2016/08/cindy-sheehans-statement-on-trump-vs.html]Cindy Sheehan's Statement on Trump vs. Khan[/url]

Thanks for the eye-opening commentary.