In 1796, as George Washington set the precedent for a peaceful, democratic transfer of power, he also set a precedent by penning a farewell address to the American people. And over the 220 years since, many American presidents have followed his lead.
On Tuesday, January 10, I’ll go home to Chicago to say my grateful farewell to you, even if you can’t be there in person.
I'm just beginning to write my remarks. But I'm thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here.
Since 2009, we've faced our fair share of challenges, and come through them stronger. That's because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding—our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better.
So I hope you'll join me one last time.
You can join him via livestream here. For African Americans, Barack Obama’s parting will be such sweet sorrow.
The Electoral College meets today in state capitols and the District of Columbia. You wouldn’t know it from all the fake news about the popular vote, but since 1804, the winner of the presidential election is the candidate who gets a majority of the electoral votes.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s shocking victory over Hillary Clinton, Hollywood celebrities have become, um, “experts” on the Electoral College.
Get over it, says Washington Post editorial writer Charles Lane:
Her 2.8 million popular-vote margin is one of the largest for the electoral-college loser in American history, or will be, once the electoral votes are officially cast on Monday. Still, it is fallacious to invoke this statistical byproduct of Nov. 8 to question the legitimacy of Trump’s victory — as opposed to that victory’s desirability, which is questionable indeed.
As all concerned knew going in, the object of the presidential election game is to win the most electoral votes in what are essentially 51 state-level contests (the District included), just as the object of football is to score the most points. Gridiron teams would play differently under instructions to maximize yardage; candidates would campaign differently if maximizing national popular votes were the prime directive.
Aiming for 270 electoral votes out of 538, both Clinton and Trump focused on 13 swing states; Trump won that contest-within-a-contest by 816,000 votes.
Today the Electoral College Class of 2016 – 306 Republicans and 232 Democrats – officially votes to elect Donald J. Trump as president. Hillary can claim her “Most Popular” trophy as she exits the stage.
Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” The 2000 presidential election came down to Florida. Trailing George W. Bush by 537 votes, Al Gore pressed for a recount in four cherry-picked counties. He pressed his case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The Supremes stopped the recount.
Fast forward to today. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s share of the vote barely registered in Wisconsin (1.04%), Pennsylvania (0.81%) and Michigan (1.07%). Still, in less than 48 hours, she raised over $4.7 million towards the cost of recounts in the three battleground states.
In Pennsylvania, recount petitions are filed by voters not candidates on a precinct-by-precinct basis. In Philadelphia County alone, there are over 1,600 precincts; statewide, there are 9,163 voting precincts. The deadline (November 21) to file the petitions has passed. So a lawsuit is Jill Stein’s only option.
It should be noted that only 17 counties have any form of paper trail. Voters in these counties represent roughly 20% of the total vote in the Keystone State. In vote-rich Philadelphia and Allegheny (Pittsburgh) counties, there are no paper records to recount.
There are countless reasons why people are upset about the results of the 2016 presidential election. The final tallies in the critical states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were extremely close. But we cannot help noticing that Green Presidential candidate Jill Stein's fundraising goals for recounts in these three states keeps rising as she brings in more money. The initial goal was for $2.5 million. That was bumped up to $4.5 million. Now it has been raised again to $7 million.
That’s very fishy.
[…]
At best, I think this is basically a publicity stunt for Jill Stein. At worst, well ... the ever-escalating goals speak for themselves. An election campaign really has no limit on how much money it can raise or spend. Recounts are finite. There’s only so much recounting you can do – even when you pile on ‘lawyers fees’ and fees for recount workers.
Hillary Clinton’s supporters have been crying since Election Night.
When the farcical recounts are completed, they may drown in their own tears.
It’s Week Two of the reality of President-elect Donald Trump.
The pundits and pollsters who predicted Donald Trump would lose are now wondering, “What happened?” They are particularly at a loss to understand Trump’s support among black voters. So let me help them out.
I had long predicted that Trump would receive more support among African Americans than reflected in the polls. The reason: illegal immigration. I have been writing about illegal immigration since 2005. Until President Barack Obama, poll after poll found African Americans oppose amnesty. However, they muted their opposition because they are protective of the first black president.
When I’m out and about, I hear black men complain that they have been replaced by illegal immigrants on privately-financed construction projects and locked out by project labor agreements on public projects.
In 2009, African Americans were shoved aside as Obama’s “shovel-ready” jobs went to illegal immigrants, union members and unionized contractors (98% of black-owned construction companies are non-union). Black-owned businesses were shut out of stimulus-funded contracts.
The day before the election, the New York Times asked, “Are There Really Hidden Trump Voters?” The columnists smugly concluded:
Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, the respondents who appear to favor him — but not enough to say they will vote for him — are also more likely to believe that it may be better to just stay home. This result also suggests that instead of tipping the uncommitted one way or the other, late-breaking negative headlines may simply further decrease turnout among this group.
And so on Election Day, don’t be surprised if most hidden Trump supporters remain hidden.
In the privacy of the voting booth, black men who support Trump did not have to hide. They were among the cohort of voters whom Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway dubbed “undercover.” Indeed, 13 percent of black men who turned out on Election Day were “undercover” brothers.
For eight years, African Americans have had President Obama’s back. Still, I watched in disbelief as black Philadelphians cheered when he bragged that “more Americans are working, more have health insurance. Incomes are rising. Poverty is falling.”
Parenthetically, Philadelphia is the poorest big city in the country. The poverty rate is 26.3 percent; nearly 37 percent of children live in poverty. Philly has the highest rate of deep poverty (12.9 percent) of the nation’s 10 most populous cities. Roughly 200,000 residents have incomes below half of the poverty line.
Now, I’ve praised President Obama on his amazing management of the great recession as well as his consistent job growth and overall economic progress. However, that success, unfortunately, includes every race except for blacks. The unemployment rate for blacks is nearly 9 percent and remains twice that of whites.
As the unemployment rate for blacks has risen, the same stats for whites, Asians and Latinos declined in the latest October 2016 jobs numbers from the Labor Department. The youth unemployment rate for blacks ages 16-24 has been over 18 percent this year and is more than double the rate of the white youth unemployment rate.
One would hope that the healthy 16-24 year olds who make up our nation’s most underserved race would be a vibrant work force. Well, the fact is that nearly 60 percent don’t work at all.
The unfortunate reality is that, for a growing number of underserved blacks in this country have lost the American dream under Obama. Backing Obama’s economic policies did Hillary Clinton no favors with millennials and working class blacks when it came to jobs and the economy. Blacks also had to take into account that Hillary and Bill themselves amassed $100 million to $200 million in personal wealth.
Throw in Obamacare premiums rising at staggering rates and this had to push a number of black voters away from supporting the Clinton ticket, as they dealt with the realities of financial struggles.
Brewer continued:
I voted for a hope of making black America great again too. I voted for an end of 30 years of establishment rule in America. I voted for President Donald Trump, with hopes that God frees his mind of the bias and division long enough to do great things for blacks and all the citizens of our great nation.
I, too, voted for change. I voted for Donald Trump.
Poll after poll shows Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction. Donald Trump may not make America great again, but he’s now President-elect Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton fought the law (read: FBI) but the rule of law won.
