After president-elect Donald Trump's 10-15 minute scheduled get-to-know-you with president Barack Obama ran an hour and a half, too many of my friends who ought to know better contacted me with some variant of "maybe everything really is going to be OK after all."
Speaking in Greece on his valedictory trip to Europe as president, Barack Obama struck a familiar theme: "(W)e are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude form of nationalism, or ethnic identity, or tribalism that is built around an 'us' and a 'them' ...
Hillary Clinton lost the election in the Midwest. Donald Trump won 50 Midwestern electoral votes that went to Barack Obama in 2012 -- Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio -- plus 20 more in Pennsylvania, where the two-thirds of voters beyond metro Philadelphia are Midwestern in culture and concerns. Trump could have lost Florida and still won.
Now that we’ve had a week to digest the results of the 2016 election, here are some observations about what happened and what the results might tell us about the future:
For eight years after America elected her first black president, Americans were accused of being racist for pointing out President Obama’s insufferable arrogance.
News flash, kids: Things aren't free. Things cost money. And "free" things provided to you by the government cost other people's money.
However Donald Trump came upon the foreign policy views he espoused, they were as crucial to his election as his views on trade and the border.
The good news is that we dodged a bullet in this election. The bad news is that we don't know how many other bullets are coming, or from what direction.
One of the issues President-elect Donald Trump says he wants Congress to act on is immigration. That's not entirely surprising, given that he spotlighted just that issue, in incendiary terms, after gliding down that escalator in the Trump Tower and announcing he was running 17 months ago.
"In victory, magnanimity!" said Winston Churchill.
Astounding. That's the best word to describe the tumultuous election night and the (to most people) surprise victory of Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton hoped to win with votes of Northeasterners, including those who have moved south along Interstate 95 to North Carolina and Florida (44 electoral votes). Instead, Trump won with votes along the I-94 and I-80 corridors, from Pennsylvania through Ohio and Michigan to Wisconsin and Iowa (70 electoral votes).
Well, what can we say — we blew it.
Here is what eight years of President Obama's "post-racial" reign have wrought.
NEW YORK — Yes, Hillary, this revolution is real.
Tens of millions of voters cast ballots Tuesday for Hillary Clinton. Except for a relative handful of wealthy and connected people, nobody actually wanted to vote for her.
Let's talk sense about the election. Nothing is to be gained by refusing to face the hard facts. What are those facts?
"If I don't win, this will be the greatest waste of time, money and energy in my lifetime," says Donald Trump.
Among the many complaints I have seen about this squalid presidential election -- the most dismal choice of major-party nominees since 1856 -- there's one that I find missing: that it shows how our politics have become less republican.
Hillary Clinton, they say, is the most qualified person ever to have run for the presidency. They are, of course, mistaken. But one week away from an election that, for once, really may prove to be the most important of our lives, what boggles the mind of those of us who are paying attention is just how terrible a candidate Hillary Clinton has proven to be.
If Hillary Clinton is elected president on Tuesday, and if what Bret Baier is reporting from FBI sources on Fox News is true, America is headed for a constitutional crisis.
In my Nov. 1 column, I looked at the presidential election through the lens of the old children's radio show "Let's Pretend" -- examining how things would look if it turned out that Donald Trump ends up winning.
