Recent news could provide Trump path to victory
Today is Oct. 26, 2016. It was on this day exactly 36 years ago that Gallup reported Jimmy Carter held an 8-point lead, 47 percent to 39 percent, over Ronald Reagan with less than two weeks to go. Reagan won in a landslide and took 44 states.
Democratic Party apologists will tell you there were unique factors that changed America’s mind to catapult Reagan past Carter in such a short period. “What are those factors that will change everything for Donald Trump?” they ask.
First, I don’t believe Trump is down by 8 points. The polls I trust most are Rasmussen and Investor’s Business Daily (the most accurate poll of the 2012 election). They both show Trump winning or tied with fewer than two weeks to go.
Second, as RJ readers know from my previous columns, I believe this is our Brexit. Polls cannot measure the anger or volatility of this year’s electorate.
But there are three factors breaking Trump’s way that could dramatically catapult Trump to victory — even if he is trailing badly right now.
1. Obamacare is imploding. Not only are all the Obamacare exchanges going bankrupt or bleeding massive losses — not only are premiums bankrupting the middle class and forcing small businesses to close in record numbers — but the announcement that could change the election happened on Monday.
The Obama administration reported Obamacare premiums are going up an average of 25 percent. A 25-percent increase from the terrible place where we are now, fewer than two weeks before the election, fresh in voters’ minds. That’s “the October Surprise” of all time.
Hillary has played prevent defense for the past six months, defending Obama, defending the economy, defending Obamacare. The charade is over. This Obamacare sticker shock will be fresh on voters’ minds as they walk into the voting booth over the next 13 days.
2. The shocking revelation that the entire FBI investigation into Hillary’s emails was a gigantic fraud. Bribes were offered to FBI agents and a massive $700,000 bribe certainly appears to have been paid to the wife of the lead FBI investigator. The entire mess stinks to high heaven. The fix was in. The process was rigged.
What exactly would you call a Clinton aide offering FBI agents better jobs at the State Department if they changed an email from classified to nonclassified?
What exactly would you call the Clintons’ best friend and former chief fundraiser arranging more than $700,000 in donations from his Super PAC and the Virginia Democratic Party to the wife of the lead FBI investigator, who was running for Virginia state Senate?
If that isn’t bribery of an FBI agent, then what is the definition of bribery?
3. Finally comes the WikiLeaks revelation that DNC chief Donna Brazile admitted via email to Hillary’s campaign manager that the Obama economy is horrible — that people are in despair like never before — and all the supposed jobs created are low-wage jobs. The DNC chief just admitted everything I’ve ever warned about the Obama economy has been true all along.
Democratic leaders aren’t naïve, ignorant or delusional. They knew the truth all along, but tried to frame critics like me as liars, “racists” or conspiracy theorists. Isn’t that fraud? Some might call it pure evil. Americans were suffering while Democrats whistled past their graves.
Trump will win if … he lays out this case like a prosecutor to the American people. If handled correctly, it’s enough to turn a 8-point defeat into a landslide victory.
Just like Reagan.
Wayne Allyn Root is a best-selling author and host of “WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Show” from 3 to 6 p.m. daily at 790 Talk Now. His Review-Journal columns run Wednesdays and Sundays.