Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump addresses supporters at a rally on the tarmac of the Orlando-Sanford International Airport in Sanford, Florida on October 25, 2016.Gregg Newton/AFP / Getty Images
POLITICS BRIEFING
By Chris Hannay (@channay) and Rob Gilroy (@rgilroy)
The Globe Politics is pleased to include a roundup of news and opinion on U.S. politics, through until this year's election in November. As always, let us know what you think of the newsletter. Sign up here to get it by e-mail each morning.
U.S. ELECTION 2016
> What drives The Donald?: The New York Times on Tuesday published excerpts of five-plus hours of conversations between reporter and author Michael D'Antonio and Donald Trump. In them, "a powerful driving force emerges: his [Trump's] deep-seated fear of public embarrassment. … The recordings reveal a man who is fixated on his own celebrity, anxious about losing his status and contemptuous of those who fall from grace."
> Millennials make peace with Clinton: Vox.com says early fears in the Clinton camp that younger voters were abandoning her campaign – the "third-party revolution" – have "mostly if not completely dissipated. Young people considered Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and toyed with staying on the couch on Election Day – they have instead decided to come back into the Democratic Party tent."
> Why Obama's smiling: In The New Republic, Brian Beutler notes the glee that President Obama can barely hide these days over the fact that he spent almost his entire time in office warning Republicans of the extremism that threatened to rip their party apart. "His retooled stump speech is crafted … to overwhelm other Republican politicians with a sense of dread by making them recognize the huge mistake they made not listening to him."
> Trump's grey army: In the Atlantic, Molly Ball says Donald Trump's older supporters see the GOP candidate as their last chance to bring back the world of Beaver Cleaver. "Putting all this together, a portrait emerges of an older generation that is increasingly at odds with the rest of society, distinct in the world it remembers and the way it sees modern society … they are adrift in a world that no longer speaks a language they recognize – or they were, until Trump came along."
> Hats vs. polls: Polling drives modern campaigns – unless you're Donald Trump. Philip Bump looked at the candidate's recent election filing and discovered that "Trump has spent more on hats than polls and more on collateral than get-out-the-vote tools. The campaign in a nutshell." … Looking at the same Federal Elections Commission filing, Vice reports that Trump's children and companies have been paid $7.7-million during the campaign. "When it comes to payments to relatives or family-owned companies, the Trump campaign is breaking new ground."
> The worst generation?: Washington Post Gen-X'er Dana Milbank says baby boomers can't exit the electoral stage soon enough. "The idealists of the 1960s have come a long way from Woodstock. After a quarter-century of mismanaging the country, they have produced Donald Trump, who with his narcissistic and uncompromising style is a bright orange symbol of what went wrong with the massive generation."
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW IN OTTAWA
> The Brian Mulroney Institute of Government is coming to St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S. "I am absolutely convinced that this is going to get people off the highway, and drop in, and see the centre – the Mulroney Institute," university president Ken MacDonald told The Globe. "We don't want to say 'Go down that hall and you'll find something.' We're going to immerse it throughout the building. So wherever you're at, you'll hear and see and read and learn about what's the life of becoming a prime minister like."
> $1,500 is not enough money to buy influence, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in defence of his cabinet ministers' cash-for-access fundraisers.
> Malcolm Rowe, Mr. Trudeau's first appointee to the Supreme Court, spoke passionately about indigenous rights in a rare public grilling by MPs and senators yesterday at the University of Ottawa. "You have to look at it through the eyes and experience of indigenous peoples, otherwise you don't understand it. The first thing you do is listen," he said.
> Saudi Arabia says it is not considering sending blogger Raif Badawi to Canada, per Foreign Minister Stephane Dion's request.
> David Johnston is headed to the Middle East.
> And the Canada-EU trade deal is not looking good.
WHAT EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT
Tony Keller (Globe and Mail): "Our system of political fundraising is itself built on a long-standing conflict between two fundamentally opposed interests, namely, a politician's need to raise money to get elected, and her legal obligation to pretend that, once elected, she will be completely disinterested when dealing with the very people who just gave her large amounts of money. The law says it's possible. Human nature would beg to differ."
Nik Nanos (Globe and Mail): "Although some may argue that traditional Canadian values are a myth and that Canadians have become more divided, angry, self-interested and self-focused, the research suggests otherwise and confirms that for at least today Canadians more likely are spectators rather than participants in the angry, ugly politics that are consuming the United States, Britain and Germany." (for subscribers)
Lawrence Martin (Globe and Mail): "Canadians, as polls show, are not terribly unhappy with the voting system. Why get into this? If so, don't risk a referendum. Too dangerous. Look at Charlottetown and other examples. Liberal insiders say a consensus on a new voting formula emerging from all the different interest groups is unlikely. That will make moving ahead all the more difficult and could lead to them punting the issue to a second term, should they get one."
Tim Powers (Hill Times): "The government has shown discipline in many other areas of their politicking, but it is being very careless when it comes to fundraising practices. Likely a large part of that stems from the fact that the Liberals are starting to believe they are invincible. For more than a year they have seen public opinion polls that highlight their popularity. The Conservatives and the NDP are in leadership races. What outside criticism there has been has not dented the Liberals yet politically. But there is nothing more dangerous to the Liberal Party than a cocky Liberal attitude."
Susan Delacourt (iPolitics): "I'd be happy, in fact, if the government brought back the public subsidy for political parties, which was based on how many votes they received in the past election. It was a form of proportional representation, levelling the fundraising field somewhat for smaller parties, and it recognized that parties do public work. Without the subsidies, parties have been forced to become 24-7 fundraising machines, selling 'sticker packs' or whatever else the public may be keen to buy, just to keep the lights on in their offices. Moreover, under the subsidy system, every voter is equal, regardless of income. Whether you earn six figures a year or minimum wage, your vote counts for the same dollar or two in the party treasuries."