Daily Clips: October 6th, 2016
British PM Theresa May sounds populist: May is a conservative, but her rhetoric at a conference yesterday shows that at least one conservative party in the Western world knows how to appeal to populism. Check it out:
Workers’ rights – not under threat from a Conservative government.
Workers’ rights – protected and enhanced by a Conservative government.
And let me say something about tax.
We’re all Conservatives here. We all believe in a low-tax economy. But we also know that tax is the price we pay for living in a civilised society.
Nobody, no individual tycoon and no single business, however rich, has succeeded on their own.
That is a type of conservatism (even if it is just all rhetoric) that is extremely appealing. The day Republican politicians can make a speech like that, there is no doubt in my mind the Democrats will be out of the White House.
Obama approval rating hits new high: 55% baby.
The divided states of America:
The presidential candidates are also ignoring most of the country, instead focusing on the handful of swing states that always seem to take on outsize importance. In the 2012 presidential election, only four states were decided by five or fewer percentage points, and the median state-level margin of victory was a whopping 16.9 percent (in other words, not even close). Compare that with the 1976 presidential election, when 20 states were decided by five or fewer percentage points (and 31 were decided by eight percentage points or fewer), and the median state-level margin of victory was 5.9 percent.
Tweet of the day:
Just in: Paul Ryan and Donald Trump will campaign together Saturday afternoon at the local Fall Fest in Elkhorn, Wis.
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) October 6, 2016
