The Election

If you listen to the Democrats and liberal media, you would never have thought that Trump won the election on his own.  First, they say Trump won because FBI director Comey re-opened his investigation into the Clinton email scandal.  
 

Then it was Russian hacking. There was never any proof that election machines were hacked by anyone.  Nor was there any proof that the DNC or Hillary Team’s emails were doctored in any way. At no time did Podesta, Clinton, or anyone in the DNC deny the content of the emails. Then it became that Trump appealed to racism, xenophobia, and bigotry. 

Clinton raised over $581 million and spent $132 million in the final weeks. Here in AZ it seemed that every 20 minutes there was another negative Trump TV commercial.  In contrast, Trump raised only $340 million including his self-funding, and spent $94 million in the final weeks. Clintons campaign staff – over 900 people -  and travel expenses far exceeded Trump’s campaign.  Nevertheless, Trump won so it could not be his money that did it.

Then there was the media.  Almost every newspaper endorsed Clinton.  Certain newspapers such as The New York Times devoted almost every issue to something negative about Trump.  The media companies such as NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN were solidly for Clinton.  CNN eventually became known as the Clinton News Network.  In fact, after a while it became evident that Clinton was given special treatment by being supplied debate questions in advance.  Further, whenever Clinton appeared on TV it was always in front of her allies such as former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos who fielded her softball questions.  The only TV media that was positive for Trump was Fox.  Despite what President Obama may claim, Fox does not have an audience as large as all the pro-Clinton media. Hollywood liberals were solidly for Clinton giving her vast sums of money and being at public events for her.  

In the postmortem discussion, there have been articles which talk about how Clinton was not liked, that she did not have a clear message, that she limited her campaign appearances to places where Democrats always had an advantage such as large cities.

One factor that is overlooked and is important is the economy.

Clinton basically promised to continue the Obama legacy including his economic programs – and that in my opinion was her greatest downfall.

Some figures to ponder:

·       Under President Obama there has been a record number of quarters following a recession where we have had economic growth of less than 2%.

·       GDP growth under President Obama has been less than 3% - the worst record since Herbert Hoover.

·       President Obama claims the unemployment rate has turned around.  However, the reason for that is that many of the unemployed have given up looking for jobs.  The labor participation rate is now 62.7% with 94.5 million out of work and no longer looking for work – he worst figure in 4 years. The US has lost 11,472,000 since Obama took office.

·       Real family income has declined by more than $4,000 during the past eight years

·       Home ownership is at a 48-year low.

·       People on food stamps has almost doubled since 2007.

Why Clinton would run on a promise of more of the same is a mystery to me.

There are some other interesting factors.

President Obama claims that he has created jobs.  The problem is what kind of jobs have been created and who got them.  More than 300,000 manufacturing jobs have left the US since Obama became president.  These higher paying jobs have been replaced by lower paying part-time and full-time jobs in various service industries. Of these lower paying jobs created, 56% went to Hispanics and 29% went to African-Americans. Whites who made up 81% of the workforce in 2007 under Obama have suffered -9% of the net job gains.  Since September 2014 more than 191,000 coal miners have lost their jobs due to Obama’s policies.  Wind mills and solar panels will not make up for this job loss and Clinton’s promise to end coal completely, cost her big.

President Obama says his policies have kept inflation down.  Yes, inflation is down except for two critical areas: health insurance and rent.

Under Obamacare health insurance premiums will increase an average of 25% in 2017!  In Arizona that figure is +116%.  For some, health care premiums are almost as high as housing expenses. Plus, there is no way to avoid these expenses since they are mandated.   

Rent costs also have risen at a higher rate.  In 2013 rents increased by 3.3%.  In 2014 the rate jumped to 3.9% and in 2015 that figure was 4.6%.

In brief, as Bill Clinton said when he ran for office: it’s the economy, stupid.  Or as Ronald Reagan said when he ran against then President Carter: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago.”

Conservative commentary from Jim Pirretti