One of Donald Trump’s favorite “attack lines” against his opponent is that with Hillary Clinton, you get “four more years of Barack Obama.” While this kind of rhetoric works well with Trump’s base of misguided Obama-haters, it doesn’t play well with swing voters and independents.

According to a Fox News poll of independents conducted October 10, President Obama’s job approval rating is at an all-time high: 54% view his performance favorably compared to 42% who do not.

So, Mr. Trump, why wouldn’t voters want four more years of President Obama?

With Republicans on record as having said their number one priority after his inauguration was to obstruct our new president at every turn (even opposing legislation they themselves had once championed), he has nevertheless been able to get things done.

Here are just a few of the things Americans got with Obama in the White House:

1. Best job growth in 18 years
2. Strongest dollar in three decades
3. Gas at about $2 a gallon
4. Unemployment cut in half
5. Annual Bush deficit cut by two-thirds
6. Recovered housing market
7. Growing exports
8. Nearly tripling of stock market
9. End of the war in Iraq
10. Elimination of Osama Bin Laden

Trump’s insistent blather that Obama has been the worst president in American history may reinforce what conservative media outlets have been offering up their followers for years, but it does not comport with the facts. It certainly does not expand Trump’s base of voters needed to win a general election.

While some Americans may not see the awesomeness of an Obama “third term,” our foreign neighbors surely do! When President Obama addressed the Canadian Parliament earlier this year, members applauded him, chanting “four more years,” following his speech on defending progressive values.

Although our law forbids a president from seeking a third term, an extension of Obama’s legacy through a Hillary Clinton presidency will have to do!

Trump and his surrogates love to say if you want more of the same, vote for Hillary. Judging from his sinking poll numbers, it appears many voters are heeding Trump’s advice.

Photo | qz.com

If elected president, Donald Trump would be the first commander in chief never to have been elected to previous office, or have served as a high-ranking military officer, or have served as a federal government official.

But beyond his lack of experience, Trump would perhaps become the president with the least amount of knowledge of the United States Constitution and its workings. He gives every indication he does not understand the brilliant concept devised by our Founding Fathers, the separation of powers.

Trump has often stated his admiration of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

Last night, Trump actually said that if he were elected president, one of his first jobs would be to jail Hillary Clinton. Could there be more red meat for his base than this?

“If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation because there has never been so many lies, so much deception,” Trump said to Clinton during the second presidential debate.

Clinton replied, “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.”

The man with no self-control interjected, “Because you’d be in jail.”

American’s do not elect a dictator, or even a quasi-autocrat like Putin, to lead the country. A fifth grader with minimal knowledge of our system of government would be able to tell you that.

“Be afraid of any candidate who says he will order DOJ/FBI to act on his command,” said Eric Holder, who served as Attorney General under President Obama.

The activist Michael Moore tweeted, “Never has a candidate threatened to jail his opponent. This happens in dictatorships. Scariest man ever to run for WH.”

What makes Trump so dangerous is he seems to have no interest in learning about a government he seeks to run. Equally dangerous is that his uninformed supporters believe Trump would be able to do all the things he promises to do even though most are clearly not within a president’s powers or are flat out unconstitutional.

Trump is a graduate of the distinguished Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania. He either never took the required civics class or was able to avoid the requirement through some sort of “son-of-a-rich-man” deferment.

Photo | slate.com

The predication that Donald Trump would self-immolate in tonight’s second presidential debate proved to be wishful thinking on the part of the Democratic faithful. The Trump campaign lives to see another day!

With all the negative press surrounding Trump following the release of the now infamous Hollywood Access “sex” video, many analysts thought this topic would consume the debate and prove fatal for Trump.

Yet very little time was spent on the video or Trump’s treatment of women. The reason for this is that the debate was held in a town hall format where audience members ask prepared questions of the candidates. Many different questions were asked; many different topics were discussed.

The most interesting question of the night came at the very end of the debate.

Carl Becker asked the candidates, “Regardless of the rhetoric, would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another?”

Hillary Clinton answered first. “I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and devoted and I think that says a lot about Donald,” Clinton said.

For his part, Trump paid a huge compliment to Hillary, whether wittingly or not. The man who loves winners and fighters said, “I will say this about Hillary. She doesn’t quit. She doesn’t give up. I respect that.” Trump called his opponent a “fighter.”

To me this was a most unexpected answer from Trump. I had to ask myself if I really heard Trump’s words correctly. I did.

I don’t know how that answer will play with a base that believes Hillary is the devil incarnate, but Trump’s gracious, seemingly sincere compliment might sit well with many undecided voters or independents. But not enough, I believe, to swing the momentum of the race in Trump’s favor.

One could almost see the Clinton camp preparing an ad with Trump’s kind words being used against him.

Whether the Access Hollywood video will continue to have legs going forward remains to be seen. Whether more unflattering tapes from Trump’s past are made public also remains in doubt but, with the many videos of Trump over the years, you can bet it’s a good possibility.

Rejoice. There will be a third and final debate!

Photo | chicagotribune.com/Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

During an appearance on The Dr. Oz Show earlier this week, Donald Trump revealed he weighs 236 pounds and stands at 6’3” tall. As such, Trump is clinically overweight.

But many doubt both his weight and height.

There is strong speculation that Trump’s weight is greater than he claims. In fact, earlier reports, including an article in The New York Times, put his weight at 267 pounds.

What difference does an extra 31 pounds make? Big difference. It would move Trump for slightly overweight and into the obese category. Who wants that?

But here’s the fun part, even if Trump weighs 236 pounds but is not 6’3”, as he claims, he would still be classified as obese!

According to HowTallis.org and a number of other sites, Trump is 6’2”. Based on the Body Mass Index, a weight of 236 pounds with a height of 6’2” puts you into the obese category.

As with everything Trump, facts are hard to come by.

Why is the media making such a big stink over this issue? Trump’s true weight and height does not, and should not, have any bearing on his competency to occupy the Oval Office.

The reality is that Trump could be as fit as an Olympic athlete and he still would be unfit, temperamentally and in almost every other way, for the office of president of the United States.

As Hillary Clinton once famously said, “What difference at this point does it make?”

Photo | sportingnews.com

The party whose candidate has dished out some cutting insults against almost every group of Americans, except for perhaps white males, is offended by Hillary Clinton labeling half of their presidential nominee’s  supporters a “basket of deplorables.”

After Clinton’s remarks at a fundraiser this Friday, the aggrieved Trump team soon mobilized into full attack mode. Predictively, their fake indignation did not even come close to representing what Clinton actually said.

Vice presidential candidate, Mike Pence, said, “Hillary Clinton said last night at a big fundraiser in New York City that the American people, the millions of Americans who are supporting my running mate…[they] were described in the most deplorable of terms.”

Pence went on to say, “She referred to those people as irredeemable… [Someone who has] such a low opinion of people who support this campaign should be denounced in the strongest possible terms.”

Of course Clinton did not accuse “the American people” of being deplorable nor did she refer to them as “irredeemable.” But facts have never stood in the way of some good talking points for Republicans.

What Clinton said was that “you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”

About the only thing in her statement you could quibble about is the percentage that occupies that basket of deplorables. Is it less or more? One thing that can’t be argued is that a significant number of Trump supporters gleefully revel in their hatred of fellow Americans not like them.

In this basket of deplorables you will find those supporters Trump boasted would still love him even if  he shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue. They are what some might call a solid base or others, a lost cause.

But Clinton also talked about the other half of Trump supporters who actually might be redeemable.

“But the other basket … of people,” said Clinton, “ are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different … Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.”

While Clinton was right to recognize this group of desperate Trump supporters, it is unlikely many will abandon their revered savior. Trump, like all good snake oil salesmen, is offering up his secret elixir called “Hope” and that shiny bottle has them all mesmerized.

Photo | latimes.com

During his keynote speech at last month’s Democratic National Convention, President Obama heaped a whole lot of praise on his party’s new presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.

“I can say with confidence,” said the President, “there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.”

Just more campaign hyperbole, right?

No, not really. If you look at Hillary’s resume for the job of next commander in chief, you will realize what Obama said was not idle flattery.

Here is a list of Hillary Clinton’s accomplishments:

• First ever student commencement speaker at Wellesley College.
  •Intern at the House Republican Conference
  •Distinguished graduate of Yale Law School
  •Editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action
  •Appointed to Senator Walter Mondale’s Subcommittee on Migratory Labor.
  •Co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families
  •Staff attorney for Children’s Defense Fund
  •Faculty member in the School of Law at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
  •Former Director of the Arkansas Legal Aid Clinic.
  •First female chair of the Legal Services Corporation
  •First female partner at Rose Law Firm.
  •Former civil litigation attorney.
  •Former Law Professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law.
  •Twice listed by The National Law Journal as one of the hundred most influential lawyers in America
  •Former First Lady of Arkansas.
  •Arkansas Woman of the Year in 1983
  •Chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession
  •Twice named by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America
  •Created Arkansas’s Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth
  •Led a task force that reformed Arkansas’s education system
  •Instrumental in passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
  •Promoted nationwide immunization against childhood illnesses
  •Successfully sought to increase research funding for prostate cancer and childhood asthma at the National Institutes of Health
  •Worked to investigate reports of an illness that affected veterans of the Gulf War (now recognized as Gulf War Syndrome)
  •Helped create the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice
  •Initiated and shepherded the Adoption and Safe Families Act
  •First FLOTUS in US History to hold a postgraduate degree
  •Traveled to 79 countries during time as FLOTUS
  •Helped create Vital Voices, an international initiative to promote the participation of women in the political processes of their countries.
  •Served on five Senate committees:
  -Committee on Budget (2001–2002)
  -Committee on Armed Services (2003–2009)
  -Committee on Environment and Public Works (2001–2009)
  -Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (2001–2009)
  -Special Committee on Aging.
  •Member of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
  •Instrumental in securing $21 billion in funding for the World Trade Center site’s redevelopment
  •Leading role in investigating the health issues faced by 9/11 first responders.
  •In the aftermath of September 11th, she worked closely with her senior Senate counterpart from New York, Sen. Charles Schumer, on securing $21.4 billion in funding for the World Trade Center redevelopment.
  • Middle East ceasefire. In November 2012, Secretary of State Clinton brokered a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
  •Introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act, intended to protect children from inappropriate content found in video games.
  •First ex-FLOTUS in US History to be elected to the United States Senate (and re-elected)
  •Two-term New York Senator
  •Former US Secretary of State
  •GRAMMY Award Winner
  •Author

Despite such an impressive resume, Republicans still like to perpetuate the myth that Hillary Clinton is a woman without accomplishments.

If Democrats get their wish, Hillary can add the most groundbreaking achievement yet… first Madam President.

List of accomplishments courtesy of Candace TX of the dailykos.com