Nov. 8, 2016, will be one of the most significant presidential elections of our lifetime. Presidential elections are always important, but this year one candidate has demonstrated over and over his inability to control his temper, his lack of understanding national, international and economic issues, his misogynism, racism and bigotry. No American can sit out this election. We need all citizens listening, analyzing issues and voting. We need to elect Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States. We share this conviction with millions of intelligent, patriotic Americans of all races, religions and sexual orientations.

 

President Barack Obama:  “I can say with confidence, there has never been a man or woman, not me, not Bill, nobody, more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America,”

The President said Trump is “unfit to serve” and “woefully unprepared to do this job.”

Houston Chronicle came out with early endorsement of Hillary Clinton:

“Any one of Trump’s less-than-sterling qualities – his erratic temperament, his dodgy business practices, his racism, his Putin-like strongman inclinations and faux-populist demagoguery, his contempt for the rule of law, his ignorance – is enough to be disqualifying. His convention-speech comment, “I alone can fix it,” should make every American shudder. He is, we believe, a danger to the Republic.”

“These are unsettling times even if they’re not the dark, dystopian end times that Donald Trump lays out. They require a steady hand. That’s not Donald Trump.”

First Lady Michelle Obama speaking at the Democratic National Convention:

“That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.”

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker:

“This understanding of love is embodied in the African saying: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.’ This is one reason I’m so motivated in this election. I believe it’s a referendum on who best embodies the leadership we need to go far, together.

Donald Trump isn’t that leader.

We’ve watched him try to get laughs at others’ expense; try to incite fear at a time when we need to inspire courage; try to rise in the polls by dragging our national conversation into the gutter. We’ve watched him cruelly mock a journalist’s disability. We’ve watched him demean the service of my Senate colleague. ‘He’s not a war hero,’ Trump said. ‘He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.’

We’ve watched him, with a broad and divisive brush, say that Mexican immigrants who came to America to build a better life are ‘bringing crime, they’re bringing drugs.’ He says many of them are ‘rapists.’ He said that an Indiana-born federal judge can’t be trusted to do his job because of his Mexican ancestry – a statement that even fellow Republicans have described as racist.

We’ve watched and heard him call women demeaning and degrading names. ‘Dog.’ ‘Fat pig.’ ‘Disgusting.’ ‘Animal.’ It’s a twisted hypocrisy when he treats other women in a manner he would never, ever accept from another man speaking about his wife or daughters. In a nation founded on religious freedom, he says ban all Muslims, don’t let certain people in because of how they pray.

Trump says he would run our country like he has run his businesses. Well, I’m from Jersey, and we have seen the way he leads. In Atlantic City, he got rich while his companies declared multiple bankruptcies. Yet without remorse, even as people got hurt by his failures, he bragged, ‘The money I took out of there was incredible.’ Yes, he took out lots of cash but he stiffed contractors – many of them small businesses, refusing to pay them for the work they’d done. America has seen enough of a handful of people growing rich at the cost of our nation descending into economic crisis.”

U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen:

“I know with her as our commander-in-chief, our international relations will not be reduced to a business transaction. I also know that our armed forces will not become an instrument of torture. And they will not be engaged in murder or carry out other illegal activities.”

U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk: “Given my military experience, Donald Trump does not have the temperament to command our military or our nuclear arsenal.”

Robert Reich: “Trump is a menace. He is not just unsuited to being the president of the United States – a bigoted narcissist who incites and excuses violence – but his presidency would threaten everything this nation stands for: tolerance, inclusion, freedom of the press, equal justice, and equal opportunity.”

Khizr Khan whose son U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, died fighting for America and protecting his men in Iraq:

“Hillary Clinton was right when she called my son “the best of America.”

If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America.

Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country.

We can’t solve our problems by building walls and sowing division.

We are Stronger Together.

And we will keep getting stronger when Hillary Clinton becomes our next President.“

 

This is a paid political ad financed by the undersigned

 

Illinois Sen. Dave Koehler

Doug Stephens

George & Elaine Hopkins

Ken & Cheryl Hofbauer

Marcella Teplitz

Esther Cohen

Phil & Nancy Salzer

Mary Patton

Linda Ringsby

Terry & Larry Matthews

Gene Humke

Rev. Michael Brown

Leslie Hiatt

Billy Halstead

Al & Mary Harkrader

Barry Robinson

Theo Kenyon

Pat Harris

Joyce Blumenshine

Sharon Maule & Ted Mathews

Linda & Gary Millen

Emil & Jan Deissler

Fay & Jim Martin

Fran Kepler

Jean Sanger

Joyce Harant

Jack Ryan