Whom Americans would rather have a beer with
Of all the ways to assess two presidential candidates, proclaiming which one you’d most like to have a beer with is among the most superficial.
But replies to the question do reveal something about how we view a candidate’s relatability, or even likability, and those are important — if intangible — qualities. Rasmussen Reports, a conservative-leaning national polling firm, recently asked 1,000 voters whom they would rather drink a beer with: Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The national telephone and online poll found that voters, especially men, would rather have a beer with Trump. Forty-five percent of likely U.S. voters would prefer to have a beer with Trump. Thirty-seven percent would rather sip suds with Clinton. Eighteen percent were undecided.
But when Rasmussen Reports asked the same voters whom they would rather invite home to dinner, Clinton nearly pulled even. Forty-two percent of respondents said they’d prefer to invite Trump home to dinner and
41 percent chose Clinton. Seventeen percent were not sure, according to Rasmussen.
For what it’s worth, Trump has said he doesn’t drink alcohol, so the chance of drinking a real beer with him would seem especially slim.
POOR TASTE? A pair of email solicitations from Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., to her supporters this month asked them to sign a petition demanding that the Republicancontrolled Congress renew the assault weapons ban that expired in 2014.
But the letters also contained information about how to donate to Lujan Grisham’s re-election campaign, a fundraising tactic that some in the past have decried as unseemly.
One letter, which referenced the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which left more than 20 dead in 2012, contained an electronic “contribute” button at the bottom that when clicked led to a donation page, in addition to a separate button that asked for names and email addresses that would be added to a petition. The congresswoman’s email referencing the Orlando shootings this week contained an electronic button to sign the petition, with contribution information — but no button — below it.
A spokesman for Lujan Grisham did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is in charge of recruiting and promoting Republican candidates, declined to comment on Lujan Grisham’s emails. Republicans have been criticized in the past for fundraising appeals that referenced the Benghazi disaster that led to the deaths of four Americans in a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya in 2012. JOHNSON ON CNN: Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign is going prime time.
CNN announced this week that Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, will participate in a town hall meeting on the national network at 9 p.m. Wednesday. The format, aired live and hosted by Chris Cuomo, will allow voters to ask questions of Johnson and Weld, a former Massachusetts governor.
Johnson, who is mounting his second bid for president, has long complained about a lack of media coverage for his campaigns. He contends that more extensive coverage would give him a better chance to reach a 15 percent polling threshold required for inclusion in the presidential debates.