Wondering, on Wednesday (v64)

Hydrating Hillary, 1995/Getty Images

And what to my wondering eyes did appear, this Wednesday?

This slide show from Politico, in which we are offered a chance to enjoy Hillary Clinton hydrating with water, soda, or beer, or preparations for Hillary Clinton to hydrate, with water and a cough drop. I wonder how the heck I survived the past few years without having seen these pictures?

We learned about the #basketofdeplorables, which was remarkable only in that, according to polls, Clinton under-grossly-generalized - it's actually closer to 60% on some issues. And I wonder, does anyone else find it funny that Donald Trump can say whatever the hell he wants, sometimes changing the point he's sort of maybe thinking about trying to make several times in the same sentence, and nothing sticks to him, but Hillary makes an honest statement, only half of which is reported, and she becomes pilloried Hillary?

First, let's look at the entire comment Hillary made about that basket:

You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to have only 11,00 people - now 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of these folks - they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

But the other basket - and I know this because I see friends from all over America here - I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas - as well as, you know, New York and California - but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what will happen to their lives and their futures, and they're just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says, but the seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead end.  Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well. 

Now, I think we all know that if Trump had been the one who said the first part about the basket when he was talking about Hillary supporters, he would have been cheered by his fans, and the press would have done their best "there he goes again, and that would have been it. Here, if you're wondering whether that's true, is someone's collection of the Top 25 Most Offensive things Trump has said. And, in case you're still wondering, here is another collection, this one of Every Donald Trump Insult, which I'm sure is not even close to a comprehensive list.

One more thing I'm wondering about: why we need to know what Colin Powell thinks about either Trump or Clinton? He's a private citizen who had the misfortune of having his email hacked. That he thinks Trump is an international pariah, or a racist, or a national disgrace? Yeah, lots of people think that.  That he would rather not have to vote for Clinton? Yeah, lots of people think that, too. Publishing the hacked emails doesn't serve any real purpose, other than to get eyes to websites and newspapers. It doesn't advance the conversation, at all.

By the time many of you read, this we'll be under 54 days until Election Day. I'm wondering, finally, when we will learn something that will really be useful in helping us make our decision.