Del's take

From my friend Del: Well, as they were wrong in the UK about the Brexit vote, the polls were wrong here too, as one of the British commentators I heard several weeks ago predicted they would be.  He said that what happened in the UK was that people came out to vote that the pollsters never get to, and they made the difference.

What happened here was not a victory of rabid Far Right activists and capitalist manipulators, but basically a rejection by so many Americans of the Obama legacy, which Hillary would have continued.  Far, far more people voted against Hillary than for Trump, and it was, as always, the Independents who turned the balance.  Because enough of them decided that with all his faults, Trump was the less dangerous alternative for the future of the nation.  And it seems enough of some special groups that the Democrats counted on did not vote to add to the difference; my guess is that they would not vote for Trump, but didn't feel positive enough about Hillary to come out and vote for her.

Now we all have to pray, and pray hard, that Trump will actually rise to the occasion when he takes office, and appoint a lot of good, knowledgeable, and strong people as advisers, strong enough to not be yes-men, strong enough to give him solid advice and argue for it.  And that Trump is smart enough to make sure there are more than just older White men among those advisers, so that people can see it is a government that represents all the people.  People do sometimes adapt to a new job, a different challenge, and we can only hope President Trump becomes presidential, does come through with some good, effective policies, and doesn't make more than the normal share of mistakes.  If he can make good on even some of his promises and the nation does start to make progress and heal, he can become a real American success story, much more important than just being a super rich guy.  He will be in my prayers every night for sure.