Hit with an tsunami of sexual complaints from 11 women and a 2005 Access Hollywood video talking about groping women, 70-year-old GOP nominee real estate mogul Donald Trump hit the skids a month before Election Day. While denying all charges, Trump’s polls have sunk so far in crucial battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, prompting respected University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato to predict Oct.20 that Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will win over 350 electoral votes, only 270 needed for the White House. Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway admitted today that Trump’s running behind but could still win if all the stars line up on Nov. 8, something so improbable, it’s not much better at this point than winning the nation’s Powerball lottery.
When deeply red states like Arizona and Utah now look in play, it shows recent allegations of sexual impropriety have hurt Trump’s campaign. Hillary’s team takes nothing for granted while they hunker down before Nov. 8, dealing with a barrage of embarrassing WikiLeaks disclosures showing corruption at the highest levels of her campaign. Faced with picking the lesser-of-two evils, Hillary’s pulled away from Trump, making his path to victory all-but-impossible. “We are running a coordinated campaign, working hard with gubernatorial, Senate and House candidates,” said Hillary’s campaign manager Robby Mook. Mook prays that Trump’s negative coattails flip the Senate to Democrats, something that would at least prevent Hillary from losing an impeachment trial, should she eventually get prosecuted for obstruction of justice in her email scandal.
Winning the White House keeps FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, both refusing to indict Hillary July 3 for sending-and-receiving classified emails. Comey never looked at obstruction of justice related to deleting at least 33,000 emails, potentially revealing a pay-to-play scheme at the State Department where Hillary met routinely with Clinton Foundation donors. Whatever the situation, a Hillary victory on Nov. 8, whether the Senate flips or not, gives her leverage to skate the email scandal for the time being. Trump was not able to make the case in three presidential debates that Hillary won’t get anything done if elected with a Republican House and Senate. Most Republicans, led by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have looked beyond November, realizing Trump has a snowball’s-chance-in-hell of winning the White House.
Talk of Trump dragging down the Republican Party was largely hype, as most GOP voters know that his insurgent campaign wasn’t really tied to the Party. If Republicans hang onto the House and Senate, Hillary faces gridlock even worse than President Barack Obama. Republicans won’t feel inclined to work with her on fixing Obamacare, approving her Supreme Court picks or any other foreign or domestic policy. Hillary might find common ground with Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on starting WWIII, setting up a dangerous no-fly zone in Syria, threatening to shoot down Syrian and Russian jets. Trump finds himself a few weeks before the election looking more irrelevant. “We are behind,” said Trump’s Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway. “We’re not giving up. We know we can win this,” blowing more smoke.
Trump’s downward spiral has less to do with Hillary than the candidate himself self-destructing, especially over the Access Hollywood tape and numerous women giving it more credibility. Trump’s vast plans to battle Washington corruption and fix the economy have fallen on deaf ears. Whether admitted to or not, Trump’s failure comes down to, “it’s not the devil you know, it’s the devil you don’t know.” Most voters will hold their noses on Election Day, picking deeply flawed Hillary Clinton, precisely because she’s a known quantity. Hillary’s campaign has done a good job of attacking Trump’s fitness for duty, leaving voters to pick corruption over the unknown. Whether Hillary had Barack and Michelle Obama or Vice President Joe Biden camapaiging or not, she’d still be heading for victory Nov. 8 because of Trump’s too-numerous-to-count mistakes
Trump’s campaign hopes voters somehow see the light before stepping into the voting booth. Lagging behind in the polls, Trump hopes, like the June 23 Brexit vote, that left-leaning polls don’t mirror the will of voters disgusted with Washington’s incompetence and gridlock. Truth be told, Trump won the GOP primaries because voters were indeed disgusted with GOP elected officials. Trump failed in the general election as more damaging publicity sank his candidacy. It wasn’t that voters waited and never got presidential behavior from Trump. Voters got too much bad publicity, forcing them to stick with the status quo over Trump. Had the Access Hollywood not surfaced or 11 women not come forward with sexual complaints, Trump might have given Hillary a run for her money. As it stands now, Trumps looks to be an aberration in GOP politics, the year voters said they were fed up.
