HNV 9.3.2016: Obama, Bernie, Plouffe, state of the election

I apologize for this morning’s HNV. Hurricane Hermine swept through our area. Luckily we didn’t take on damage, but we had to take in two families whose homes took on flood damage. We have taken in 2 families until they can return to their homes, which should be by Tuesday. The house is packed with adults and kids, and we had to work deep into the night to get the temporary shelter going, buy and prepare food. Next week’s HNV will be filled with news stories again.

Here is a very abbreviated HNV for now:

Stumping for Hillary Clinton, Obama Will Urge His Supporters to Get Out the Vote

Most of President Obama’s appearances for Hillary Clinton will be timed to coincide with voter registration deadlines. CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

One of President Obama’s top priorities during his last months in office is to help make sure that Hillary Clinton succeeds him. To do so, the president will make at least a dozen campaign appearances in battleground states from now to Election Day on Nov. 8.

Mr. Obama’s task is not to try to persuade independents or Republicans that they should choose Mrs. Clinton over Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, according to White House officials and the Clinton campaign. Instead, he will urge his most enthusiastic supporters — young voters and African-Americans — to register or to be sure to turn out to vote for Mrs. Clinton.

“The president’s focus is on getting the Obama coalition to the polls,” said Jen Psaki, the White House communications director.

Road trip: Bernie Sanders hits the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton

Former Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders will campaign for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire this weekend, as the Democratic Partycontinues to unify in ways that have eluded the GOP.

The senator will stump for his former rival at a Labor Day event at Lebanon High School where he'll talk economics in what promises to be a fiery speech.

Sanders will contrast "Clinton's plan to building an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, and Donald Trump's plan, which would benefit himself and other millionaires and billionaires," the campaign said.

NBCNews is giving Hillary advice on how to handle the final days of the Presidential election, and, while well meaning, it is also presumptuous and ill-advised. Hillary is running an excellent campaign, she has assembled as good a campaign team as can be imagined. These arm chair quarterbacking attempts by reporters who have never run a campaign are…. interesting:

Here's Hillary Clinton's Back-to-School To-Do List

Labor Day may no longer be the kickoff of to presidential campaigns, but it now marks their homestretch: Americans come back from vacations, spend more time watching TV (including political ads, news and debates), and begin to focus on the election.

Heading into the holiday, Hillary Clinton enjoys some obvious advantages over Donald Trump that most presidential candidates would kill for: She's ahead in the polls, has raised more money, has run more ads, built the bigger ground game, enlisted more bold-named allies, peeled off more defections from the opposing party and inherited a better electoral college outlook.

But….

But as the past two weeks have demonstrated, Clinton also faces some major persistent challenges, which help explain why many Democrats closer to Clinton remain nervous.

So, we need a list on what Hillary must do. If you read through it you’ll see mostly items that are common sense, already being done or will take care of themselves. Oh well, at least this one wasn’t dripping with sarcasm or strongly critical, but meant well.

Clinton advisors see multiple paths to a commanding win

“Hillary Clinton has many paths to 270 electoral votes, more than any candidate in a generation,” said Jeff Berman, a paid consultant to her campaign. | AP Photo

Advisers to Hillary Clinton’s campaign have identified so many paths to an Election Day victory they are now focusing not only on the one or two battlegrounds that would ensure a win but on opening up the possibility of an Electoral College landslide.

“Hillary Clinton has many paths to 270 electoral votes, more than any candidate in a generation,” said Jeff Berman, a paid consultant to her campaign.

….

“She is sitting at 269 electoral votes guaranteed right now,” said David Plouffe, the architect of Barack Obama’s two victories and an outside adviser to Clinton’s campaign, including the battleground state of Pennsylvania in his count. “I would argue she is sitting at 347 but for argument’s sake we can suspend reality for a moment.”

“The Clinton campaign is smart to have such a wide playing field,” he said. "It increases your margin of error, forces Trump to play defense in the Georgia, Utah, and Arizona — and preserves the chance for an Electoral College landslide.”

Inside Trump Tower: Facing grim reality

The plan to get to 270 electoral votes remains unclear. The battleground state deployment plan is a work in progress. Money from big donors is slowing to a trickle. And aides are confused about who’s calling the shots.

Donald Trump’s campaign is teetering, threatening to collapse under the weight of a candidate whose personality outweighs his political skill. And now, with 22 days until the start of early voting, the GOP nominee is running short on his most precious commodity: time.

…

Republicans say Trump still has time — but not much.

“It’s hard to see how the Trump campaign gets to 270 where they are today,” said Russ Schriefer, a veteran strategist of presidential campaigns who served as a senior adviser to Romney in 2012. “It’s not impossible, but it would take some external factor and some very lucky breaks for that to happen.”

“They have to reset the entire race and the entire dynamic,” he added. “They have a lot of things left to do and a very short amount of time left to do it.

Ok, I leave you all with the latest Hillary tweets from the last 24 hours:

"They have to go."Trump has been perfectly clear about his intentions for millions of immigrants. pic.twitter.com/kZ6hdDWrFt

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 31, 2016 x

Donald Trump's plan on immigration has been clear all along: demonize immigrants, "build a wall," deport millions. https://t.co/uSSd7XigYp

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 3, 2016 x

America needs leadership in the White House, not a liability. https://t.co/dnhGjfKMRx pic.twitter.com/JnwS6k6SSC