Back during July of this year, there was a special extra matinee performance of Hamilton, and it was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The tickets weren’t cheap. General seats were priced at $2,700; preferred seats were $5,000; premium seats and a photo reception with Mrs. Clinton was priced at were $10,000; one could have a premium seat and attend the wrap party for $33,400. “Event chair” sponsorships could be had for $100,000. The Hillary Victory Fund bought out the theatre (1,321 seats) and rented the theater. We don’t know how much money they raised or if they discounted some of the seats, but there can be no doubt that the producers and cast of Hamilton were firmly in the Clinton camp. What’s more, in November 2015, the Democratic Hope Fund hosted a performance of Hamilton as a fundraiser. So it came as only a slight surprise that the producers and cast prepared a statement of protest for Mr. Pence, which was read by Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr – who served, appropriately enough, as Vice-President under Thomas Jefferson (and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel). Here’s another delicious angle: Alexander Hamilton was one of the creators of the concept for an Electoral College, which would protect the interests of the smaller states, which reassured them enough to contribute to their ratification of the Constitution. The Electoral College is currently out of favor with the Democrats, who seem to be the greatest fans of Hamilton (or more accurately, the company of Hamilton is great fans of Democrats).
BY JOHN SHAFFER The smash hit Broadway musical Hamilton was visited by Vice-President elect Mike Pence and his family, and the cast and crew lavished Mr. Pence with attention unlike that received by most theater-goers
Back during July of this year, there was a special extra matinee performance of Hamilton, and it was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The tickets weren’t cheap. General seats were priced at $2,700; preferred seats were $5,000; premium seats and a photo reception with Mrs. Clinton was priced at were $10,000; one could have a premium seat and attend the wrap party for $33,400. “Event chair” sponsorships could be had for $100,000. The Hillary Victory Fund bought out the theatre (1,321 seats) and rented the theater. We don’t know how much money they raised or if they discounted some of the seats, but there can be no doubt that the producers and cast of Hamilton were firmly in the Clinton camp. What’s more, in November 2015, the Democratic Hope Fund hosted a performance of Hamilton as a fundraiser. So it came as only a slight surprise that the producers and cast prepared a statement of protest for Mr. Pence, which was read by Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr – who served, appropriately enough, as Vice-President under Thomas Jefferson (and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel). Here’s another delicious angle: Alexander Hamilton was one of the creators of the concept for an Electoral College, which would protect the interests of the smaller states, which reassured them enough to contribute to their ratification of the Constitution. The Electoral College is currently out of favor with the Democrats, who seem to be the greatest fans of Hamilton (or more accurately, the company of Hamilton is great fans of Democrats). By John Shaffer With Hillary Clinton having (at last count) some 766,000 more votes than Donald Trump (and her margin is increasing), her supporters are pushing hard to elect her. An online petition asking the Electors to vote for her has over 4 million votes; Senator Barbara Boxer has introduced legislation for an amendment to the Constitution abolishing the electoral college, replacing it with a popular vote system; and the oddest effort of all, the “National Popular Vote” campaign, which would require a state to give all of its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, which may not be the party that wins the popular vote of that state. Ten states and the District of Columbia have signed this pact, which might well disenfranchise their own voters. The NPV campaign would not take effect until states totaling a majority of the electoral votes have signed up. (Right now there are 165 votes in the pact, and it should come as no surprise to learn that they are pretty much the “bluest” of the “blue states: Hawaii, Washington, California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia. All voted for Hillary Clinton. And yes, it is true that Mrs. Clinton has 766,000 more votes than Donald Trump – but she has a staggering 3 million vote margin in California. That means that Mr. Trump has about a 2.3 million advantage in the other 49 states combined. Given the high probability that there might be a sizeable number of votes cast by non-citizens in the Golden State (after all, it does not have a voter ID law), we perhaps should not be too eager to abolish the Electoral College.
Senator Boxer says that her amendment would “make every vote count,” but of course it would do nothing of the kind: instead it would create a huge incentive for illegal votes, or votes by illegals; and it would be much easier to “steal” an election with illegal votes counted from one large jurisdiction than from hundreds of municipalities across the nation. By John Shaffer There’s an old saying that “close counts only in hand grenades and horseshoes,” but the 2016 Presidential election shows that close can count in elections as well. And Pennsylvania has been known as “The Keystone State” since the days of our War of Independence, and in this election, it truly was the Keystone to Mr. Trump’s victory. He is the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since George H W Bush in 1988; and incumbent Republican Senator Pat Toomey narrowly won his re-election race as well, which helped the Republicans keep control of the Senate.
Donald Trump seems to have held onto all of the states carried by Republican Mitt Romney in 2012 and managed to win several states that Mr. Romney was unable to carry – Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – and he is ahead in Michigan and New Hampshire and may carry one or both of them as well, but even if Mrs. Clinton wins both, Mr. Trump still has enough electoral votes to win. Although neither candidate had a majority of the popular vote nationwide, Mrs. Clinton has pulled into the lead and likely will outpoll the winner. It is interesting that the evangelical voters – many of whom sat at home during the 2012 and 2008 elections – overwhelmingly supported Mr. Trump. It is probable that this was less a reflection of support for him than it was a revulsion at the prospects of a Hillary Clinton presidency. The most divisive member of her husband’s presidential administration, she has done little since then to counteract that perception or to broaden her appeal. Apparently Mrs. Clinton was stunned by the results – so much so that she went home early (a relative term to be sure, given the length of time it took to arrive at a decision) and made no public statement, although she did phone Mr. Trump to concede and to congratulate him. By John Shaffer The election of 2016 is less than a week away, and since we have said about as much about the candidates for president as there is to be said, it’s a great time to look at how the “Big Three” TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) are handling the campaign. Let’s play “let’s pretend.” For instance, let’s pretend that we were just finishing up eight years of a Republican presidency, and Wikileaks released thousands and thousands of emails that were embarrassing to the Republican candidate. The drumbeat and pressure on that candidate from the mainstream media (particularly the Big Three television networks) would be irresistible. But the leaks are damaging , not to a Republican candidate, but to a Democrat, and it isn’t “let’s pretend,” so the Big Three are doing their best to downplay the impact of the disclosures. How about if we play “let’s pretend” about a hypothetical foundation that was set up by a former Republican president that had collected tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments, corporations and millionaires which were encountered in some fashion in the line of duty by a Secretary of State who happened to be a spouse or close relative. Can one imagine the reaction of a Democrat-led Congress or the Big Three TV networks? Of course one can, and it would be exponentially more intense and heated than their reaction to the current situation with a Democrat family, Secretary of State and candidate. It is impossible to imagine even the existence of a “Bush foundation” or a McCain or Reagan or Romney foundation that behaved identically to the real-life Clinton Foundation.
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