NEWS AND OPINION:
FAITH AND THE ELECTION
While pollsters and the news media are still wondering how President-elect Donald Trump won the White House, evangelist Franklin Graham now cites the influence of faith and prayer in the outcome of a historic election.
“Did God show up? In watching the news after the election, the secular media keep asking ’How did this happen?’ ’What went wrong?’ ’How did we miss this? Some are in shock. Political pundits are stunned. Many thought the Trump/Pence ticket didn’t have a chance. None of them understand the God-factor,” Mr. Graham wrote in a Facebook post in the election aftermath.
“Hundreds of thousands of Christians from across the United States have been praying. This year they came out to every state capitol to pray for this election and for the future of America. Prayer groups were started. Families prayed. Churches prayed. Then Christians went to the polls, and God showed up,” he continued.
“While the media scratches their heads and tries to understand how this happened, I believe that God’s hand intervened Tuesday night to stop the godless, atheistic progressive agenda from taking control of our country,” Mr. Graham said.
In the days leading up to the election, the pastor asked Americans to pray for the nation and for the candidates and other elected officials.
“President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence are going to need a lot of help and they will continue to need a lot of prayer,” Mr. Graham added. “I pray that President-elect Trump will surround himself with godly men and women to help advise and counsel him as he leads the nation. My prayer is that God will bless America again.”
TRUMP AND CLINTON VOTERS: STARK DIFFERENCES
The nation’s pollsters are still dithering over errors they made in election predictions. Maybe it is a teachable moment. Maybe not. Meanwhile, there is much discord in the aftermath, on American streets and across social media. Some of that could be explained by new findings which reveal “fundamental differences” between voters who favor President-elect Donald Trump, and those who side with Hillary Clinton. They are stark and telling. A huge majority of the Trump voters, for example, describe themselves as “typical Americans”. The Clinton voters? Not so much.
59 percent of Trump voters say “honor and duty” are their core values; 35 percent of Clinton voters agree.
“Even beyond the political and ideological divides between Trump and Clinton supporters, the two cohorts showed striking differences in how they describe themselves, both in terms of attributes, lifestyle and personal affiliations. The survey asked respondents to check each description that applied to them,” reports a new Pew Research Center poll.
“Notably, the widest gap in views between Trump and Clinton supporters was over whether the term ’traditional’ described them. About 7-in-10 Trump voters said it did (72 percent), compared with just 31 percent of Clinton voters,” the pollster notes. Find more numbers in the Poll du Jour at column’s end.
THANKSGIVING HANDBOOK FOR PATRIOTS
A laudable new book has arrived offering some Thanksgiving insight in a refreshing, straightforward way. Nothing mawkish here, and no politically correct revisionist tendencies afoot either.
“Thanksgiving: The holiday at the heart of the American experience” by Melanie Kirkpatrick is handsomely packaged and offers uncommon resources — such as suggested readings to be offered at the Thanksgiving table. Those readings include the 100th Psalm from the Bible, plus a soldier’s letter home, written in 1776.
The author is the former deputy editorial page editor for the Wall Street Journal and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, Ms. Kirkpatrick has drawn on newspaper accounts, private correspondence, historical documents, and even very old cookbooks to craft her portrait of the day, which includes the role of U.S. presidents and civic-minded dynamics in the holiday’s heritage.
Also of note: historic culinary references include menus for a “Civil War Dinner for Wounded Soldiers” as printed in the old Washington Evening Star newspaper in 1864 plus a recipe for oyster stuffing issued by the Interior Department in 1954. The new publication is from Encounter Books.
WHY PRESS AND POLLSTERS FAILED
Journalists and pollsters tripped and fell all over the election. But why did they fail?
“We tend to surround ourselves by like-minded people who codify one another’s misconceptions. We bury our noses in the propaganda and rhetoric of political parties and corporations, adopting their narratives, instead of picking up our heads and observing what’s really going on around us,” says Sharyl Attkisson, host, of “Full Measure,” a weekly investigative news show.
“I will say that I’m not a political expert. But the reason I long said Donald Trump would win had to do with recognizing and ignoring the narratives being fed to us — and trying to see the real world around us. I’ve gotten pretty good at dissecting ’AstroTurf’ and the narratives fed to the public and press,” she adds.
Her program is seen nationwide on Sinclair broadcast stations, and streamed at FullMeasure.news
A TRUMP FAMILY INTERVIEW
Noisy coverage about President-elect Donald Trump will erupt all weekend. But at least one offering includes the whole family. Mr. Trump, first-lady-to-be Melania Trump and Trump siblings Ivanka, Tiffany, Eric and Donald Jr., have granted an extensive interview to “60 Minutes,” to air on CBS on 7 p.m. EST Sunday. Lesley Stahl will be in the interviewer’s chair; the encounter will take place at the Trump’s Fifth Avenue residence in New York City.
CRANKY MEDIA PEERS AT TRUMP WHITE HOUSE
The race is on to staff a brand new White House. The transition must be precise and war room-ready in just over two months. The press is busy speculating on the possibilities — likely a therapeutic activity following assorted journalistic failures on election night.
At least a half-dozen major news organizations now claim that Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus is a likely choice for President-elect Donald Trump’s chief-of-staff. Now comes word from rival sources that Jared Kushner — husband of Ivanka Trump and a real estate entrepreneur in his own right — is under consideration for the role.
Mr. Kushner was among Trump team insiders who visited the White House on Thursday. Buzz grew shrill when current chief-of-staff Denis McDonough was spotted given Mr. Kushner a personal tour of things. The buzz grew so loud, in act, that #JaredKushner became a trending Twitter topic, and the news cycle gyrated plenty.
But it’s complicated. The New York Times now appears convinced that Mr. Trump’s close adviser and media maven Stephen Bannon is also on the short list to become chief of staff, along with campaign manager Kellyanne Conway. Both are veterans in their fields and very nimble indeed.
WEEKEND REAL ESTATE
For sale: “House of Tomorrow,” built in 1940 on Intercoastal Waterway in Palm Beach, Florida by modernist architect Belford Shoumate. The streamlined design was featured as the one-and-only “House of Tomorrow” at the 1939 World’s Fair. Five bedrooms, five baths; 5,645 square feet, designed to appear like a oceanliner. Original built-ins and fireplace, portholes, steamship railings, custom furnishings. Pool, oceanfront cabana, deepwater dock, two car Y-shaped garage. Priced at $7.9 million through Corcoran.com; find it here
POLL DU JOUR
72 percent of voters who support Donald Trump say they are a “typical American’; 49 percent of voters who support Hillary Clinton agree.
72 percent of Trump voters say they are “traditional”; 31 percent of Clinton voters agree.
69 percent of Trump voters support the NRA; 8 percent of Clinton voters agree.
64 percent of Trump voters say they are “open-minded”; 87 percent of Clinton voters agree.
59 percent of Trump voters say “honor and duty” are their core values; 35 percent of Clinton voters agree.
58 percent of Trump voters say “compassion and helping others” as core values; 75 percent of Clinton voters agree.
Source: A Pew Research Center poll of 1,531 voters who support Donald Trump, and 1,897 voters who support Hillary Clinton conducted Oct. 25-Nov. 8.
• Neighs, nays, yeas and yays to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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