NEWS AND OPINION:
She can make polished speeches and frequent the campaign trial. But it does not appear that Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton can escape the taint of those old State Department emails, which have sunk into the public mindset for better or worse. Mostly worse. Yes, there’s a Gallup poll that measures the effect.
“In the verbatim responses from about 750 U.S. adults familiar enough with Clinton to offer an opinion of her, the word ’email’ came up 329 times, phrased variously as ’email,’ ’emails,’ ’email scandal,’ ’email scandals,’ ’that email thing,’ ’email stuff’ and ’private emails.’ Relatedly, there were 83 mentions of ’server.’ All of these refer to the controversy involving Clinton’s use of private email servers to conduct government business while she was secretary of state,” the new poll reports.
“By contrast, there were few mentions of the substantive themes Clinton has talked about on the campaign trail. For example, ’economy’ appeared on the list only four times, the same number as for ’the middle class.’ ’Gun control’ appeared seven times, with even fewer mentions of ’college’ and ’capital gains tax.’ Even the catchall descriptions ’policy’ or ’policies’ were mentioned just nine times,” Gallup notes.
Needless to say, the poll found Republican responses “overwhelmingly negative” toward Mrs. Clinton, with plenty of references to the Benghazi terrorist attacks. But alas. Mrs. Clinton’s allies are also wavering. “Even when the responses of the 279 Democrats and Democratic leaners surveyed are isolated in a word map, ’email’ trumps everything else,” the poll noted.
BACK TO WORK
The debate? What debate? Here’s where the Republicans hopefuls will be on the day after their second official encounter with one another before the nation. Only hours after their campaign combat, the hopefuls are back to the business at hand. Among them: Donald Trump will be in Rochester, New Hampshire for a town hall meeting. Sen. Rand Paul will attend a “Stand with Rand” student rally in Reno, Nevada. Jeb Bush will be at a breakfast fundraiser in Bakersfield, California. And that is just Thursday. The weekend is the land of very crowded schedules for all. Check this space Friday.
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WE THE PETS
Thursday is Constitution Day, marking the anniversary of the moment when the nation’s founding fathers signed that basic and revered document in 1787. Well, huzzah. Many Americans are not aware of the anniversary, however, and they also appear to be Constitutionally challenged. For example, what’s in the Bill of Rights — the first 10 amendments to the Constitution?
About one in 10 Americans — 12 percent — say the Bill of Rights includes the right to own a pet,” according to a new survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
With apologies to all the Labrador Retriever fans, dogs and their ilk do not appear anywhere in the Constitution.
A third also think that the Bill of Rights guarantees the right to own your own home, while one in four thinks that it guarantees “equal pay for equal work,” the survey found. The public is also unfamiliar with basic facts about their government, the pollsters say. Only one in three Americans (31 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, while just as many (32 percent) could not identify even one. The survey was conducted Aug. 27-31 among 1,012 U.S. adults.
MARCO’S BIGGEST FAN
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“Trust me. I know a good investment when I see one. When this guy walked into my shop, I knew he was the real deal,” says Rick Harrison, host of the History Channel’s Pawn Stars and owner of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.
He is speaking of Sen. Marco Rubio, who indeed visited the Las Vegas shop during a recent campaign stop in Nevada. The owner was impressed. Mr. Harrison has since declared his support for the Republican hopeful in the great 2016 campaign, which may or may not involved any pawned items.
The ebullient Mr. Harrison journeys all the way to Michigan on Saturday, in fact, to voice his loyalty for Mr. Rubio during the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan. The shop owner says the candidate’s policies makes him an easy sell to potential voters.
“I don’t have to show them the value for the family, their business, their future. They get it,” Mr. Harrison observes.
OH BEHAVE
“Lawmakers are expected in the coming days to receive protocol guidance ahead of Pope Francis’s Sept. 24 address to a joint session of Congress. The guidance comes amid fears that the first-ever papal address to Congress could spark a State of the Union-like atmosphere given the pontiff’s politics, where one-half of the chamber stands to cheer on the pope while the other sits on their hands, grim-faced,” reports Cristina Marcos, who covers the U.S. House for The Hill.
“Francis is famous for making political audiences uncomfortable, and his calls for global leaders to reduce inequality and to act on climate change might sound like an address by President Obama to some Republican lawmakers,” she notes. “At the same time, the pope’s opposition to abortion rights could make some Democrats uncomfortable and lead to GOP cheers, especially given the charged debate over federal funding for Planned Parenthood that’s threatening to trigger a government shutdown at the end of the month.”
SAVAGE DOES NOT FEEL THE BERN
Talk radio host Michael Savage is not convinced that Democratic hopeful Sen. Bernard Sanders is the most practical choice for the White House at this point.
“What has Bernie Sanders ever managed that would permit him to be a decent manager of a nation? Look what we’ve got with President Obama, who never managed a lemonade stand. He didn’t even work his way through grade school. Nothing. He doesn’t understand profit and loss. He prints money when he needs it. No consequences to his behavior. Exactly what a liberal is,” Mr. Savage told his 7 million listeners on Tuesday.
“So, Bernie Sanders gets up and says, ’I’m going to work to end massive income inequality.’ What does that mean? Where did the massive inequality come from? What percent of the people don’t work at all? What percent are able-bodied? What percent of illegal aliens cash in the minute they get here? Why should I pay another dime in taxes, moron?” Mr. Savage declared.
PERILS OF THE PAIL
OK, that’s 535 bottles, but they are made of recycled plastic, so that makes it all right. Or something like that. The always imaginative People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will deliver “special water bottles” to every congressional office at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, to illustrate their latest complaint. The group now blames the drought in California on animal farms. Methane-loaded cow burps and chicken waste pollution are not the cause of the moment, it’s the amount of water the critters use — 4.79 trillion gallons last year for cows alone in the Golden State, the organization says.
“It takes 13 times more water to produce chicken than it does to produce an equivalent amount of vegetables,” they note.
“Our representatives can help abate the water crisis by going vegan themselves,” says Ingrid Newkirk, president of the animal rights group.
POLL DU JOUR
• 60 percent of likely Republican primary voters say it’s most important that a presidential nominee agrees with them on issues; 35 percent say it’s more important that the nominee can win the 2016 election.
• 48 percent say they most value a candidate with experience in business and the private sector; 9 percent prefer someone with experience in politics and government.
• 41 percent says neither aspect “matters to them.”
• 36 percent say they would support Donald Trump for president “with reservations.”
• 35 percent say they would “enthusiastically” support Mr. Trump.
• 15 percent would not support him, 12 percent would support him because “he is the nominee.”
Source: A New York Times/CBS News poll of 1,021 registered U.S. voters conducted Sept. 9-13; the sample included 376 GOP primary voters.
• Snickers, sighs of weariness to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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