Clinton tells Democrats not to be discouraged, divided

President Barack Obama gave his first press conference after his party suffered a shocking loss at the ballot box just last week, and appeared to needle Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign for not paying enough attention to rural voters that eventually handed President-elect Donald Trump the upset victory.

NA: But the electoral college is really a vestige of slavery, correct?

Trump then posted: “The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play”. After all, if only 38 percent thought Trump was qualified to be president, how could he win when the eventual victor would probably need at least 45 percent of the vote? As the California vote continues to roll in and Clinton’s popular vote margin continues to grow, acknowledging the importance of those votes within our national political discussion – even if it’s excluded from the Electoral College – is not insignificant. Since parties choose electors loyal to their party, it’s very unlikely the electors would vote for a different party’s candidate. Trump’s tweet was sent during that time, although once the votes were all counted, Obama ended up winning the popular vote.

“I know there was a good reason and there still is a good reason that we have electors”, says Rhymes. Knowing the words “president” and “Donald Trump” would finally go together complimentary, stunned me. America won last night. They’re the people who bought his “I alone can fix it” sales pitch, putting blind trust in a 70-year-old salesman who has never held consistent political views or spent a day of his life in public or military service. If we are going to throw norms out the window for the election, that new precedent provides a basis for electors to do the same. Echoed in calls by pundits, officials and President Obama for a peaceful transition and the country’s support of the incoming administration, Trump’s ask challenges us to think about tomorrow.

“We have to deal with inequality and economic dislocation and fears [among voters] their children won’t do as well as they did”, he said. You may think that that your vote wouldn’t make a difference, but when millions of people think that way, those votes could have made a difference.

“Could one or two of them not vote for Trump?”

“I think that’s awful”, says Rhymes when asked about people wanting electors to switch their vote.

This new President-elect Trump was impressed by “some of the really hard things that have been achieved” by Obama.

Gerry Broome | Associated Press Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts to the audience during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Nov. 8.

Meanwhile, Trump far outperformed Romney in those same counties, which served as a counterbalance to Clinton’s wins in the big urban areas. More like feeding the alligators. But, would it be fair for America’s chief executive to mostly be the product of a few urban centers in California, New York, and Texas?

It’s shaping up to be big-business as usual in Washington.

It is believed that many Trump supporters, often known as the “shy Trumpers”, may have been influenced by the “Bradley Effect” and were simply too afraid to speak their minds during live polls or telephone interviews.

While many statistics can easily be trotted out to demonstrate the economy is much better off today than it was in 2008, swing voters can’t take statistics to the grocery store and trade them for food.