Someone found something interesting on U-Tube.  Last night Hillary Clinton claimed ISIS was using propaganda videos containing Donald Trump.

First, here is Clinton’s claim – along with CNN quickly trying to divert attention away from it: “we’ll leave that aside”:

No-one has been able to substantiate Hillary Clinton, leading to many anticipating Team Clinton working furiously today to create a video they could point to and claim was the one she mentioned.

However, Perhaps this is the video Hillary was referencing; and if so, it would appear she misinterpreted the message (that’s typical of a Clinton though): (more…)

.@JebBush: "To get praise from Vladimir Putin is not going to help Donald Trump" https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/6T57DyWj5G

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 18, 2015

“Here’s the thing, when you’re dealing with a world leader, you wonder whether or not he’s telling the truth,” Bush told reporters Monday. “I’ve never had to worry about that with Vladimir Putin. Sometimes he says things I don’t want to hear, but I know he’s always telling me the truth.”

~ George Bush 2007

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CBS coordinated with YouGov to present three “battleground state” panel polls today.  The polling methodology is rather peculiar because it’s not random sample polling, but rather targeted specifically to prior respondents of same, albeit earlier, YouGov polling.  They fill in the non-repeat respondents from other prior contacted buckets.

The downside to this panel-approach is it’s essentially like taking a focus group and tracking their trend over-time, filling in those who don’t show up for the next interview by reaching out to other focus groups to fill the void.  This type of on-line polling is not scientific and prone to flaws and/or manipulation by the interpreter of the data.

The pollster is reaching out to a specific data-set, and in order to achieve the needed total number they need to reach out to ‘known sub-sets‘ within their data-base.  In order for this approach to be useful – the integrity of the people gathering the data has to be beyond reproach.  (more…)

Chuck Todd has a ‘splodey because Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are in agreement to deal with ISIS first, then focus on Syria’s leader Bashir Assad after ISIS is removed from influence.

The worst moment for Chuck Todd was anticipating Trump to walk away from Democrat Sanders, just because Bernie’s a Democrat, but Trump stood firm – “sometimes even a Democrat can be right once in a while”….

GospelLK 1:39-45

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “2016 Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Presidential Race and/or any of the candidates therein.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

A few conversations this week have made me remember some of my long ago favorite Christmas toys, and I thought it might be fun to reminisce, Top9Rated did a piece on this. Do you have memories of a favorite toy or present from when you were a child? How about the favorite gift you have ever given? Tell us the story, and don’t spare the details! For example mine was a scooter I got as a child, I had tons of fun with that thing ridding everywhere in my neighborhood now you can get those at https://www.myproscooter.com, in case you want your kid to have that much fun.

Jeff Weaver with the Bernie Sanders Campaign discusses the ongoing issues with the DNC:

Live video and replay of Donald Trump’s speech at the rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Saturday, December 19, 2015. See it in real time via live stream video below starting at 2 p.m. CT local time (3 p.m. ET). Thereafter check back for the full replay video:

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