US Opinion and Commentary

“VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussion and opinion on these policies.” — VOA Charter

Showing Archived Posts

Trump & Clinton: Holiday on the Hustings

Posted July 1st, 2016 at 3:02 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

Heading into the 4th of July weekend, the U.S. presidential race is still relatively close. The Real Clear Politics average of political polls puts Hillary Clinton 4.8 percentage points ahead of Donald Trump.

While it’s still too early to put much stock in polls, it’s notable that a Fox News poll shows a majority of Republicans would prefer someone other than Trump as their party’s nominee.

Trump spent the week blasting the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, taking on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, usually a reliable backer of Republican policies. He also said his former Republican presidential rivals should “never be allowed to run for public office again” because they are breaking a pledge to back the party’s nominee. Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Jeb Bush have yet to endorse Trump.

Clinton spent the week fending off two issues that claw at her credibility. Wednesday’s report from a special House of Representative committee investigating the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya and a meeting between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch as an FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server is still pending.

With party conventions scheduled for the last two weeks of July, Trump and Clinton are vetting possible running mates and trying to turn around what are still the highest disapproval ratings for any presidential candidate.

Hillary Clinton’s Emails

Posted May 26th, 2016 at 5:05 pm (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

Hillary Clinton is the target of criticism after Wednesday’s release of an internal report that says she failed to follow rules about the handling if her email while Secretary of State.
The report by the Office of the Inspector General for the State Department cited Clinton’s use of a private email account to conduct State Department addresses as inappropriate for record keeping; she failed to provide emails for the first few months of her tenure; and her use of a private server for her email was neither approved nor secure.
Clinton has previously acknowledged that using a private email server was a mistake and she would do it differently if she had to do it again. In an interview with Univision’s Los Angeles affiliate, she said “nothing has changed” regarding the email story and she used personal email “just like previous secretaries of state.”
The report has given Clinton critics new ammunition to question her judgment and veracity. And there still is an FBI investigation of whether she mishandled classified information because of the email setup.
And the issues of character and national security are at the center of this presidential election

Speed Up Investigation Into Clinton’s Email Server

Posted April 8th, 2016 at 9:50 am (UTC-4)
Comments are closed

Democrats have a special interest in reaching closure before picking their nominee. Even the most loyal Clinton supporters wonder if an indictment is more than right-wing wishful thinking.