What does his election tell us about who we are as a people and as a city . First of all, it tells us that you cannot trust pollsters. You simply cannot. This was he was the fireball. He was thrown into this. Everyone, when you look at first of all, speaking of fire, women were supposed to be hillarys firewall, and the majority of women, white women, voted for donald trump. The he had the same percentage of women, more or less, that mitt romney did overall, so this whole idea that women were not gonna vote for donald trump was completely wrong. He had a coalition of individuals that probably you simply you didnt know where they were coming from because they werent actually on the radar screen for most of the pollsters the hillbilly elegy people, the people who the blue collar, those who felt disaffected, those who the a lot of white collar im sorry white bluecollar workers. So i think he basically completely defied the odds and defied the pollsters. I still feel like a couple months out from the election, people are still having a hard time actually pinning down who voted for him and why, but theres not one sterling reason, that its still a hodgepodge of reasons. When you look at the whole thing, i mean, true, there are a lot of bluecollar voters, and when they always say women, they usually mean white women, cause black women did not vote for donald trump. Lets be really clear there. Most women of color did not vote for him. However, when you drill down a little bit more, it really speaks to the cynicism in this nation. A lot of people looked at it and said, eh, not so much. There were people who didnt vote a lot of people who did not vote. Half the electorate. Yeah, and that was really the more troubling aspect, and i think that is really the gauntlet thats out there for elected officials, for politicians, for any kind of civic leader to reengage people, because any time you look at donald trump, who has had really no meaningful impact in the public sphere that was outside of anything that was not selfserving, and they say, okay, yeah, whatever. Let him be president , thats a troubling aspect of where we are as americans, and i think thats a need for us to stop and reflect, truly. Sam, is the polling wrong or is just the polling has to change the days of getting people over dinner on the landline are just gone, and we kept trying to do that . Well, the sampling is wrong, and if you cant reach people on their cellphones, if you cant get them to answer the phone people dont you see an 800 number pop up on your screen, youre not gonna answer it. You know its telemarketing or a robot call, so i think that the underlying premise of polling has completely fallen apart in the digital age, but, also, the media and the news media, particularly, missed the story. When they went out to trump rallies, 15,000 people in a hall, 5,000 people waiting outside, they saw the fistfight, they saw the sucker punch, they saw the neonazi or the skinhead, but they didnt see the person who had voted for obama, who was there frustrated, having lost their job or their child is living in their basement, or they cant afford the student loans, and all of this was reflected, but not covered, because it wasnt the story of the narrative of who donald trump was, and im not defending him cause i certainly didnt do that during the course of the last year, but there was a story going on out there that everybody missed because the nature of reporting today was to get the visual story, and i just think of that sucker punch in North Carolina when the guys going up, and, bam, somebody whacks him, thats the story, but, meanwhile, there are 15,000 people, and there are people waiting to get in, and that hasnt happened in american politics. Lets talk a little bit about the press, ajay, because that seems to be where the story goes forward. Theres now a lot of debate about what is news, what is fake news, what is news that is credible. Sources that you never would have questioned before, its now all up in the air. Where do people go for their Walter Cronkite if its here, its real moment in 2017 . Well, its not just the fake news. Its also lumping together real news and making it look like fake news. I think all of us are now sifting through maggots, trying to piece together a cadaver of an explanation of why clinton lost the most winnable election in history, and there are many reasons for that, but, to me, the three things that really stood out one, was that Hillary Clinton was trying to cash in a rain check from 2008, and that sense of entitlement that was viewed as arrogance by the electorate, and they rejected that. Number two, the dataobsessed clinton Team Absolutely missed the enthusiasm deficit in key states like wisconsin, pennsylvania, and michigan, where she should have spent more time with the voters, especially the workingclass voters that sam and christina are talking about than miss that. And number three, i think all of us got it wrong. We just missed the zeitgeist of the american public, the ones who, since 2008 great recession, have been suffering. People like me who speak as though they know everything just got it wrong. We just got it wrong. We are not connected with the regular american. Theres something to be said for man or woman out of time, and its hard for somebody to tell. You know, a year before when people were sending around the secretary of state memes of her on her phone, and everybodys going, youre a rock star, you could see why she said, lets run. Now a lot of people are saying, joe biden, come back, saying certain other people should get in. How should somebody going into 2017 2018 assess whether or not they should stand up and try to say, i want to be a standardbearer for the Democratic Party . One thing is, we can all agree that she was probably the most prepared and qualified candidate in american history, but she wasnt the candidate for the here and now. All of these folks who are being prepped for the next round, we are now in a realitytv mode, the celebrity mode, and the traditional candidate is no longer what the public wants. They want antiestablishment. But you know what, also . I just want to say, when you were talking about this whole thing about the press. The press focused actually, the press tried to have us focus on things that, quite frankly, those who voted for donald trump didnt care about. They didnt care about chubby miss universes you know, latina miss universes who were being attacked by donald trump in the past. They didnt care as much, unfortunately, about some of the misogynistic things that were said on a bus. They heard those things. They said, ew, icky guy, but this has nothing to do with the economy, this has nothing to do with my pocketbook, this has nothing to do with what hits me in my home, so this whole idea that the press sort of i think the press we are responsible, also. People who write columns, people who are on the radio, people who are on tv focusing so much on things that the rest of the electorate said, we want to hear about issues, people. We dont want to hear about miss universe. I want to bring up this point because youre a communications executive. Many of these moments in the past would have been defining moments. Theres a reason why the press keys in on these moments because it would have been a collapsing moment any other time for a campaign. Well, you know, the other thing that we have to look at, and the reality, is that there has been a poisoning of the well, realistically, as far as what is actually news. We talk about the mainstream media, and all of this has been put out there to sow the seeds of distrust of the most veritable institutions that are out here. So with that being said, that created a perfect storm for donald trump to rise up and say, oh, dont trust those people. They dont know what theyre talking about. You know, trust me. Trust my twitter feed. You know, dont trust what you read, dont trust the facts. You know, trust me. I mean, facts suffered in this election. I have to say that. Across the board, people are more likely to listen to whatever was on their echo chamber, on their facebook feed, their twitter feed, or what somebody said that they heard, and blah, blah, blah. There was no independent reporting that came out often enough. There was too much of the washingtoninsider corps. The Washington Press corps likes to glom on to the little things, but, i mean, what other modern president has not released his or her tax forms . Though these things, i mean, you dont have to. Its just. No, but its a standard its an operationtype thing, and its one of those accepted cultural norms, but we have dismissed all cultural norms because we have looked and said, oh, that doesnt matter. Pooh, pooh, pooh, pooh. You asked at the outset of the question, what does it say about us . And i think it reflects our declining commitment to citizenship and to being knowledgeable about our government, being knowledgeable about the world, and to having the point of view that may or may not be consistent between different groups, but at least its founded on some basic understandings of how we operate, who we are, and the institutions that help keep democracy strong, all of which took a bath in this do we get it back, or is it just gone . We may get it back because pendulums swing, and, of course, you know, look. Were gonna talk about all these people that are coming up next year, or whatever all of it will depend on how trump performs as president. If trump is a strong president , and is consistent to the principles, whatever those might have been, that he articulated during the campaign, hes gonna be very, very difficult to contend with cause hes a much better street fighter than anybody else in the game, and it is a streetfighting kind of game. Well, lets talk about this, because you also heard people say politicians are corrupt, the institutions are corrupt, there was a wholesale. And listen to these facts. People this year watch chaka fattah get 10 years of a sentence, kathleen kane, Pennsylvania Attorney general, 10 to 23 months just in the newspaper in the last couple of days, two more philadelphia judges, after a string of local and state judges being kicked off the bench. At a certain point, does it catch up with you when people look around, and it just feels as though all of these people, politicians, judges right here in front of you, who are supposed to be the best of you, and they dont do what theyre supposed to do, they dont believe anything . But it goes back to what sam was saying earlier, and i will tell you, after this election, i had to dig into the federalist papers, i had to jump back into the constitution. I mean, i really i had to go back into the foundational documents and kind of get a sense of this nation. Its always been rockets when we got started, but theres a responsibility that we also hold. When we talk about people that are shady grady on the court, whether theyre in congress, wherever they are, its our responsibility as citizens, because we instill these people there. Its not just, oh, its out there. Its someone elses. We have to take responsibility for the leadership that we have, and we have not done that, and we have abdicated it. So, on the other hand, when you see their stories, and youre reading about this, yes, one after another sounds like, oh, my gosh. Everythings falling apart. How many members of congress are there, and were talking about. . 536. And were talking about one guy, right . How many judges are there out there . How many have served for years and years . We dont take that context because were not thinking and were not analyzing as individuals. Interesting point. Lets talk about somebody who had a pretty good year, you might say. That was jim kenney first year as mayor. Many people thought he was not gonna be able to get the soda tax through. He did. Hes been able to hes saying that hes going to fight on sanctuary cities. You can do any number of things in the city. Schools he got some of the money that he wanted for kindergarten seats, or i should say prek seats. When you look at him in total stopandfrisk. Well, those are the things that could come back on him. Right. Stopandfrisk being a key one. How should we assess him, and also the rebuild program. A lot of people saying theyre waiting to see how much diversity is in it when it really gets going. How would you assess him yearend . I would say hes had a very good year, but i also think that being mayor of a city, you get defined by a crisis, whenever that crisis comes, and it hasnt come for jim kenney. Early on in mike nutters tenure, the countrys economy collapsed. He had an opportunity to do some really big things. He did none of them, and that defined his mayoralty. You know, john street had his issues, and kenney will have his. He hasnt had it yet. The soda tax was a reflection, in my opinion, of a very shrewd politician who knew how to Work City Council and who was willing to trade with city council, which nutter was unwilling to do. I think kenney has his crisis, which is a broken school system, poverty, and i think hes dealing with it, which even the stingiest of kenney critics will say that he had a good year. The soda tax well become the first city in the country to have that. His ability to work with City Council Berkeley was the first city. Well, but one big city. The ability to work with city council, which the former administration did not i mean, that, to me, is a second hat trick. And number three, when you talk about bringing inclusion in, still keeping that coalition patchwork alive that i did not expect i think you have i did not endorse the guy, but we have a very low bar in philadelphia. When we say raising taxes is a good thing for philadelphia, i have to say i have to be the republican at the table. [ laughter ] i do not endorse kenney, but ill say this. Every word that i said that the other candidate might do, kenney is doing, and you have to even the stingiest of his critics has to acknowledge that hes off to a rocking start. Well, you know what . Actually, i do think that hes i agree with sam. I agree with you, as well, ajay, by the fact that hes able to work well with city council. Hes one of the first mayors that really has had that great relationship, although street did, in a way. Street and rendell both had it, too. Its not a high bar to have a working relationship with city council. The one thing i want to say is, his tone has to be a little bit different here. When one of the city solicitors was found to have been that whole graffiti situation. He needed to come out more strongly instead of just come and say, well, you know, everybody makes mistakes. Right. I mean, this was not just a mistake, and this was on his watch, and this was his city solicitors office. His city wants to hear strongly a more conservative city, yes, but his city, which is heavily democratic, did they want that . Ill tell you. That was a shameful event, but i will also say that kenney has managed to hold on to the public. You know, hes captured their imagination, and he hasnt let any of those people fall off the plate so far, right . And as long as he can continue to keep the trust of the city and people feeling, okay, genuinely hes in my corner, hell do well. All right. Well, when we come back, were going to assess the governors, wolf and christie, and see what 2017 looks like for them. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Start the car start the car the ikea winter sale. Wooooooo get up to 50 off select items. Now through january 10th. Ikea start the car start the car the ikea winter sale. Wooooooo get up to 50 off select items. Now through january 10th. Ikea welcome back to inside story. Some people used to say that bill clinton was so popular because he was the mayor in chief, that he came up with smallbore things that affected peoples daytoday life that they liked. So listen to these things that Governor Wolf has done that affect your daytoday life, and in the upcoming year, if medical marijuana is something youre interested in, youll be able to get it. In our area, you can get wine shipped to your house. You can catch an uber or a lyft, and theres probably more money for your public school. He should be riding high, but the sense is that Governor Wolf is more than a little bit vulnerable. Whats going on here . Well, hes more than a little bit vulnerable, and his performance as a chief executive in a big state, a complex state, and a diverse state has been disconnected from the political reality of the state. His inability to effectuate some compromise with the legislature through the first nine months of the budget crisis last year, the fact that he had to throw in the towel on the major increases in funding and equalization formula, the fact that he had a monstrous tax increase proposed, he got virtually none of it i think all of these things signal vulnerability, political vulnerability. Hes a very smart and nice guy and a very ineffective leader of the commonwealth, and hes exposed himself, i think, both in his own party, although i doubt because of his own wealth, that hell get a primary, but if you see trump winning pennsylvania by 60,000 votes, and youre a democrat in a state where the democrats enjoy a 1million registration advantage, or a 900,000, youre looking at democrats who are very comfortable voting republican. If trump performs well, scott wagner will be a very ferocious candidate and a very difficult opponent for tom wolf. I guess thats the big question Going Forward into 2017, into 2018 will we be talking about a governor wagner in two years . Its a possibility. The things that you talked about impact those urbane pennsylvanians, but those other pennsylvanians that are living in the smaller towns and the rural areas, i mean, i dont really think they care that much about wine being shipped in. I mean, thats not the biggest thing on their docket. Or catching an uber. Or catching an uber yeah. Go on down to the cow patty. Im going down to this other cow patch over here. But, i mean, at the end of the day, you have to have those big policy points. We still have pension reform thats completely necessary, and its not being touched in an effective way, so the big issues have not defined this particular governor, and his inability to really work with the legislature in a substantive way its going to be a problem. Hes got to get back in the jeep and start selling himself a lot better, but weve now got a good look at him. Do you see him doing it or no . You know, i was out in york county yesterday, his home base i was out there for work and, i mean, i think that there is a disconnect between those of us who are here in the eastern part of the state and the more rural, the more you know, the pennsylvanians that you see up in sullivan county, the pennsylvanians who dont necessarily have as priorities things that philadelphians would have. I think the problem is, hes seen as not understanding, even though he comes from york county understandi