SIGN UP FOR OUR Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.
By Britt Nelson
A Canadian billboard, source, Facebook.
While Democrat Hillary Clinton takes a few days off the presidential campaign trail supposedly to prepare for Wednesday’s final debate, rest up and attend fundraisers, Republican Donald Trump is holding capacity political rallies everywhere he goes non-stop.
For instance, on Saturday Trump held rallies in New Hampshire and Maine. His New Hampshire rally held at 1 pm in Portsmouth was packed with about 7,000 supporters while several thousand more couldn’t get in. But other numbers tell a different story. This rally was broadcast simultaneously with live-streaming on Trump’s Facebook page and on Fox News’ Facebook page. This is social media news without mainstream media bias from CNN, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and others. Both pages simply broadcast the event without interruption, commercial free with no political commentators running at the mouth.
On Trump’s Facebook page the Portsmouth rally received 1,226,016 views, plus some 178,346 people left comments and it was shared 21,621 times. All this social media activity occurred during the 1-hour live feed that took place on a day and time when college football is broadcast to the nation. Fox News’ Facebook page recorded 218,615 views, more than 17,000 comments and 1,360 shares covering the same event. Under the comments more than 90 percent favored Trump, which is to be expected being broadcast on Trump’s Facebook page and Fox News.
The Maine Trump rally, held later Saturday, recorded 539,000 views, 44,230 comments and 3,322 shares on Trump’s Facebook page.
In contrast, Clinton has not been on the campaign trail since Oct. 11 when she appeared with former Vice President Al Gore during a rally in Miami. This event was live-streamed on her Facebook page. It is still recording views and comments, unlike Trump’s New Hampshire rally. Since Oct. 11 the Clinton-Gore rally has recorded 1.1 million views in six days on Clinton’s Facebook page.
The difference is Trump is receiving much more social media activity than Clinton. Trump’s numbers took one hour to reach more than 1.2 million views while Clinton’s took 6 days to reach 1.1 million. So what you say?
Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor” on Oct. 14 finished a non-scientific poll of 250 Democratic likely voters and 250 Republican likely voters in all 50 states. The results are jaw-droppingly stunning. Trump beat Clinton 84 percent to 16 percent. For disbelievers, go to http://www.billoreilly.com/poll-center under presidential predictions.
For Democrats the mere mention of Bill O’Reilly causes their eyes to roll back with laughter. But in journalistic circles O’Reilly, 69, is not small potatoes. He has worked for ABC News, CBS News and Fox News. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also the author of many best-selling books.
With only days before the third and final Clinton-Trump debate, the mainstream media is still abuzz with various women making sexual misconduct claims against Trump that he continues to deny. At the same time, more stolen emails hacked by WikiLeaks are being released which appear to show collusion between the Clinton campaign, mainstream media, the Clinton Foundation, the U.S. Department of State and the FBI regarding their investigation of Clinton’s on-going email scandal. The Clinton campaign is not denying these new emails are fake, but the mainstream media is spending much more time reporting on the blonde bimbos rather than the shady emails.
The 3rd Clinton-Trump debate is set for Oct. 19 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time from Las Vegas, Nevada, with moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News. Wallace has his work cut out for him as he asks questions of both Clinton and Trump with both of them responding to each other’s statements.
Consider this: In the months previous to the 1980 presidential election incumbent Democrat President Jimmy Carter – in his bid for a second term — held a substantial lead in the polls over former Republican California Gov. Ronald Reagan by as much as 60 percent to 30 percent. But that year Reagan won the presidency in a landslide victory carrying 44 states leaving Carter in the dust, according to Wikipedia.
As of Monday, nationwide polls show Clinton ahead of Trump by 5.7 percentage points in a 4-way matchup that includes Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, according to Real Clear Politics poll averaging. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal general election poll released Sunday has Clinton ahead by 11 points.
But other polls show Trump with a slim lead over Clinton, such as the LA Times/USC nationwide poll showing Trump ahead by 1 point while a Rasmussen Reports poll shows Trump up by 2.
Trump is holding two or three political rallies every day before and after the debate, while Clinton has scheduled no rallies up to the debate and beyond. The www.hillaryclinton.com website and the www.hillaryspeeches.com/scheduled-events website are showing no scheduled events featuring the Democratic candidate up to Oct. 28, nine days after the debate. What the heck is going on here?
Democratic rallies are being held daily by everyone but Clinton including vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine, daughter Chelsea Clinton, former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, former President Bill Clinton and President Obama. But where is candidate Clinton in this mix? Is over confidence and/or arrogance coming into to play involving Clinton’s absence on the campaign trail? Or is it her health? Or is it the path of least resistance for Clinton having not to answer any more direct questions prior to the Nov. 8 general election?
Two things lead to over-confidence and/or arrogance: one is when you’re wrong and can’t face it like Clinton; the other is when you’re right like Trump but nobody else can face it.
About the Author
Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.
Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.
