I played soccer this morning in some pretty suboptimal conditions. Wet field, light rain, high winds. And it did no favors to my right ankle which hasn’t had any attached ligaments since some moron tried to take a mid-court charge in a Los Angeles pickup basketball game in 1990 and pinned my foot to the asphalt while I was in a full run. I can barely see straight right now because of the bone-on-bone pain. It’s always worse in cold, humid conditions, but I must have done something to it because it usually only hurts after I’m done exercising, but today it was causing blinding pain before the end of the match. So, I’m sitting here icing it, but it’s impossible to concentrate. I’m going to have to make a tough decision soon on whether it’s worth it to keep playing. Maybe I should go see what my surgical options are, but that seems extreme for preserving what amounts to a twice-a-week soccer habit. On the other hand, I can see this actually crippling me in a decade or two if I don’t do something about it.
Anyway, ordinarily I’d have more insights into the news.
This political environment is very easy to snark, but it’s a real challenge to understand. There are so many moving pieces, so much at stake, and not much history to serve as a guide. I need my thinker thing free of searing pain to try to work through it.
I was just looking over some of the demographics out of Pennsylvania polling, most of which were collected before Trump’s sexual assault tape was divulged, and it looks like the Keystone State was already solidly out of his reach. After the new revelations, it may be curtains for Sen. Pat Toomey, too.
It looks like Trump is now shifting his attack to the Republican Establishment, so that adds a new wildcard into these downticket races. It’s pretty close to Trump telling his supporters to defeat any Republican who has criticized him.
So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers – and elections – go down!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2016
If his supporters get the message and decide to make it a priority to vote for Trump and against his Republican critics, that could doom candidates like Kelly Ayotte and John McCain who were so reticent to allow any distance between them prior to this weekend.
In any case, it will be harder to coordinate any messaging against Clinton and downticket Democratic candidates because the GOP will be spending the next month engaged in friendly artillery fire.
Meanwhile, the seeming collapse of the Libertarian ticket is another factor here. Johnson is still a logical place holder for Republican supporters who can’t crossover to Clinton, but he has less and less appeal as his running mate seems to have lost any heart for the fight. It’s hard to say whether this will help Clinton or Trump more, but I suspect that it depends on the state.
Evan McMullin and Mindy Finn are on the ballot in only eleven states and have write-in status in only twenty more. They will be on the ballot in Utah, however, and they (along with Johnson) will help bleed Trump of votes. Utah could definitely go to Clinton if she can build enough support to top a three-way split of the right.
These are just some initial ideas. I’m going to go get some fresh ice packs for my ankle.
