Turnabout is Fair Play

If it is okay to compare Trump to Hitler, then it is okay to call Kamala Harris mentally disabled.  The gloves have been off for decades when it comes to Democrat attacks on Republicans (I can't remember a Republican presidential candidate who wasn't compared to Hitler), but when Trump replies in kind, everyone freaks out.  The milquetoast Republicans like Lindsey Graham are joining with Democrats to complain about the rhetoric.  This notion that Trump's name-calling is tearing the country apart, but Democrats calling opponents fascists and racists is acceptable is ludicrous.  Let the voters decide whether the rhetoric is appropriate or not.

As for claims that Kamala Harris is mentally disabled, have you listened to her responses to questions?

Kamala Interview

VP Harris granted a 10-minute interview to a local reporter in Pennsylvania.  It went so well that the Trump Campaign posted it, stating that the latest ad was out.  Well, I've got to see this.  Overall, it was okay.  Again, a lot of what she said was aspirational and non-specific, but she did offer some idea of what her administration might be like.

First, when asked what she would do about high prices and general affordability issues, she repeated her spiel about growing up middle-class among other hard-working middle-class people.  The American people are ambitious, aspirational, and have a wonderful work ethic.  By the end of her statement, she had not addressed the question of high prices and affordability.  Unless you consider that her mother saving to buy a house when Kamala was a teenager as a prescription.  She did suggest a $50K tax credit for starting a small business, but was off topic.  Well, maybe it was on topic as it might make buying/starting a small business more affordable.  Kind of a niche population for that.  Ditto for the $25K home buying assistance.  Fine, that might help with buying a home (actually, it won't; much like how all the government funding of higher education has just made education more expensive, it will do the same for housing), but what about the grocery bill, utility bills, and so forth?

Next, she was asked how she is different from Joe Biden.  Well, obviously she's not Joe Biden.  Okay, I'll take that as a joke.  She wants to focus on things that haven't been focused on because she is a new generation of leader.  Here was the $6K tax credit.  Americans have dreams and aspirations.  In other words, policy-wise, she offered virtually no space between herself and President Biden.  Of course, this is a trick question because she doesn't want to attack or criticize the sitting president, but he was losing badly so she can't just be more of the same.  Yes, it's a tough question but she needs to craft a better answer.  Also, what is this 10 to 20 year horizon?  You have 4 years to prove yourself or out the door you go.

The gun control question arose, and she was even given credit for being a gun owner.  She noted that her running mate was also a gun owner and believed in the 2nd Amendment.  "We're not taking anyone's guns away."  Great.  But common-sense gun laws and an assault weapons ban are good ideas that she will pursue.  So, she will take away some guns?  Maybe she should have said, "No one is coming for all your guns, just some of your guns."  Well, unless you only own an AR-15, in which case it will be all your guns.

When asked about the Trump appeal and how she would talk to his voters, she said that Americans have more in common than we realize.  She said we should put country first.  I'm sorry, what was that?  You mean like America First?  That's a policy of your opponent.

When asked what she wants Americans to know about her that they might not already know, she really struggled.  She loves her family, she loves to cook, and she never asked a victim their party affiliation but rather 'Are you okay?'

To the average viewer, this will play well.  To the news junkies (like me), this confirmed some of Trump's accusations (i.e., she is stealing his policies - country first, and is a gun grabber) and also painted herself as a 2nd Biden term.  How it is interpretted will depend on the viewer.

President Kamala Harris: Day 1

After more than a month as the nominee, Kamala Harris final agreed to an interview.  Dana Bash started off by asking, "What would you do on day one?"

Well, there are a number of things. I will tell you first and foremost one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class. When I look at the aspirations, the goals, the ambitions of the American people, I think that people are ready for a new way forward in a way that generations of Americans have been fueled by — by hope and by optimism.

I think sadly in the last decade, we have had in the former president someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans — really dividing our nation. And I think people are ready to turn the page on that.

 

Okay, that was a non-answer.  It prompted Dana Bash to a follow-up question: "So what would you do day one?"

Day one, it’s gonna be about one, implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy. I’ve already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we’re gonna do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we’re gonna do to invest in America’s small businesses, what we’re gonna do to invest in families.

For example, extending the child tax credit to $6,000 for families for the first year of their child’s life to help them buy a car seat, to help them buy baby clothes, a crib. There’s the work that we’re gonna do that is about investing in the American family around affordable housing, a big issue in our country right now. So there are a number of things on day one.

 

At least this time she offered a policy: $6000 tax credit for a newborn.  Then we have a return to the vague aspirations of her administration.  This is so unspecific that it could come from either a Democrat or a Republican.  That is not accidental.

The funniest thing about her interview was that it gave the impression that Trump was the incumbent and she was the challenger.  Things are tough but we'll sort them out when she is president.  Huh?  Why not sort them now when she is VP?  Then she had her line about the last decade being contrary to the country's spirit.  Even Bash had to point out that she has been VP for the last 3 and a half years of that contrarian decade.

Love him or hate him, Trump doesn't dodge the press or offer empty platitudes.  He'll tell you his policy, even the wreckless and ill-considered ones.  Government funded IVF?  Really?  We don't have enough government funded items?  Trump talks unfiltered for hours while Harris has a 20-minute sit-down with her VP nominee at her side.  This is the 2020 hide-in-the-basement strategy.  Let's avoid making errors and hope Trump implodes.  Let's leave the electorate uninformed about us and hope they paint a rosy picture, like they did with Joe Biden.

Why Not Switch Again?

Donald Trump spent most of the last year attacking President Biden and his handling of the country.  Part of a campaign is defining your opponent and outlining how you would do things differently.  When Biden withdrew from the race, all the effort spent defining the opposition went away.  It was no longer important.  Biden's not the nominee.  Flush all that opposition research and campaign strategy.  A fresh nominee, largely untouched by Trump's long campaign against her predecessor, suddenly surged in the polls.  Where Biden was headed toward almost certain defeat, VP Harris is currently polling in the toss-up range.  Dumping Biden was strategic brilliance by the Democrats.  That astonishingly early presidential debate now looks like a Democratic ploy to sink Biden rather than inform the public.

It has been less than three weeks, and the Harris-Walz Campaign has stalled.  It's still in toss-up territory, but the Republican criticisms are sticking.  Walz may not have been the best choice for VP.  Harris is dodging the press, not having done an interview since her ascension to the top spot on the ballot.  What if she starts sinking?  She was such a weak candidate in 2020 that she withdrew from the campaign before the voting even began.  She is not a strong nominee and is only doing as well as she is because she's not Biden.  What if she is just a place holder, another false nominee for the Republicans to waste their ammunition on?

Are Joe Biden's delegates committed to Harris?  When the Democratic Convention convenes and the delegates vote, what is to stop them from picking someone else?  We are in uncharted waters with this nomination.  Do the rules say that the VP nominee automatically gets the delegates if the Presidential nominee drops out?  If not, it could be a free for all.  Here is another opportunity to dump a candidate that the Republicans have spent a month attacking.  A new nominee would clean the slate yet again.  With the election then less than 3 months away, the Republicans would have to once again adapt their strategy while the Democrats have been attacking the same person all along.

I think it is 50-50 that the Democrats choose a different nominee at the convention.  They need someone with less baggage than either Kamala Harris (Willie Brown's most favored mistress) or Tim Walz (the Afghanistan veteran who didn't go to Afghanistan).

President Biden Explains

On Sunday, President Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential Campaign.  Today, he addressed the American people to explain why.  First off, it's been his greatest honor to serve as president.  In fact, he holds that his performance in the job clearly merited a second term.  On the other hand, democracy is at stake!  As such, he is handing the baton to a younger generation, namely Vice President Kamala Harris.  It is up to the American people to preserve democracy, honesty, justice, and unity by voting for VP Harris.

President Biden explained nothing.  He could not admit to deteriorating health without thereby justifying his removal by the 25th Amendment.  He indirectly admitted that he dropped out because he was likely to lose, and 'Democracy' is too important to risk.  I'm sure all those primary voters who voted for Joe would have instead voted for Kamala, right?  Joe was ousted by his own party, but he can't say that either.  Though the speech was only 11 minutes and the teleprompter clearly reflected in the window behind him, he still had trouble getting through it.  Who is really calling the shots?

"A republic, if you can keep it."

A republic is not a democracy.  The speechwriter either doesn't know that or thought the two are interchangeable.  The republic has already suffered some serious damage and the Democrats champion further demolition with talk of ending the electoral college, censoring 'hate' speech, letting non-citizens vote, including non-residents in census, expansion of the federal government to the detriment of state and local governments, etc.

Grumpy Old Men, 2024 Edition

This week, both Trump and Biden have secured the nomination of their parties by accumulating over half the delegates available.  When the conventions start, they each already have more than 50% of the voting delegates to prevent a brokered convention.  Now, they just have to be around for the convention.  Biden (81) and Trump (77) are not spring chickens.  We have the oldest president ever running against the 3rd oldest president ever (Reagan is currently the 2nd oldest).  Whoever wins, he is destined to be the oldest president ever.  If Biden, he retains the title.  If Trump, he will surpass Biden by the end of his term.

Maybe we should have an amendment that says you cannot be in government after the government-established retirement age.  If Social Security states that the retirement age is 67, then you leave government at 67.  The nice thing about such an amendment is it would be hard to break.  Those who want to remain in government would have to raise the retirement age for the whole country, which will be a hard sell.  This age limit should go for elective offices, appointed positions, and even everyday bureaucrats.  Yes, even the Supreme Court.  Out the door.  Go back home and suffer under the rules you have inflicted upon the rest of us.

Iowa Caucus 2024

Donald Trump has won 98 of 99 counties in Iowa, garnering a majority (51%) of the votes.  The one county that he did lose, Johnson County, he lost to Nikki Haley by 1 vote.  It should be noted that many Democrats participated in the caucus by changing their voter registration on the day of the caucus.  Such voters invariably chose Haley.  Though Haley won a county, DeSantis was second with 21% of the votes, Haley was 3rd with 19%, and Ramaswamy - my favored candidate - was last with 8% of the vote.  Ramaswamy suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump.

With Ramaswamy out of the race, that leaves three going into New Hampshire.  Haley is expecting a strong showing and has already announced it is a two-person race after Iowa.  In fact, polling in New Hampshire indicates Trump will win with 40% of the vote and Haley will have a strong showing around 30%.  If that holds, Haley will hope for an upset in her home state of South Carolina.  If Trump wins both New Hampshire and South Carolina, the campaign is over.

Will it be Trump v. Biden again?  If so, I would expect Reagan's question: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?"

Fletch and the Man Who

Fletch has been called by his old commanding officer, Walsh Wheeler, to fill in as a press secretary for his father's presidential campaign.  Fletch accepts the position and arrives to discover crime reporter Freddie Arbuthnot - last seen in Fletch's Fortune - among the press.  She is investigating murders that have occurred on the fringes of the Wheeler campaign.  Fletch has been given strict instruction to not let the murders get associated with the campaign, as that would be the kiss of death.  His idea of calling in the FBI is dismissed as that would be the story of the campaign from thence forward.  Very quickly, Fletch finds he likes Governor Caxton Wheeler, the Man Who could be the next president of the United States, and wants to protect his chances by exposing the murderer before it unravels the campaign.  There are a surprising number of suspects.  When not surreptitiously investigating, Fletch mingles with those on the campaign trail.  There's is the Man Who, his driver, his wife, the speech writers, the strategists, and a sea of journalists from various papers and magazines.  He even has conversations with his predecessor, who had been abruptly fired but still wants to help the Man Who could be president.

An entertaining yarn that explores political campaigning and offers some background to Fletch's military past.  He had some outside-the-box thinking to keep his platoon alive, something that Lt. Walsh Wheeler well-remembers.  Fletch is back to his quirky self and this is a fun entry in the Fletch series.

Recommended.

Republican Presidential Contenders

Incumbent presidents do not usually face primary challengers; the party likes to stay in power and primary challenges to a sitting president usually lead to the other party winning.  For example, Reagan challenged Ford in 1976 and Carter won.  Ted Kennedy challenged Carter in 1980 and Reagan won.  Pat Buchannan challenged George H W Bush in 1992 and Clinton won.  Challengers never get the nomination and usually sabotage the general election.  This is well-known, which means the challengers are spoilers.  The three challengers thus far are:

 

Joe Walsh is a one-term Congressman who was elected to the House in 2010 and lost in 2012 after his district was redrawn.  He has no other elective office experience.  He has spent most of the years since as a radio talk show host.  He admitted to saying 'racist things' on air, which is going to sink him in an instant.  He's going nowhere but maybe he can raise some cash and increase his name recognition.

 

Mark Sanford is the former governor of South Carolina who went 'hiking' but was discovered having an adulterous affair in Argentina.  He dodged impeachment but was censured 102-11 by the South Carolina House.  He has served in Congress since 2013, managing to make a political comeback though it was a demotion; he had previously served in Congress from 1995 to 2001.

 

The most formidable of the bunch, Bill Weld is the former governor of Massachusetts (1991 to 97).  Despite a huge re-elect margin in 1994, he decided to run for Senate against Kerry in 1996.  He lost.  Then he accepted a nomination by Bill Clinton to be Ambassador to Mexico.  Didn't get it.  He resigned his governorship with 18 months left.  Boy, I'll bet the voters loved that.  Then he moved to New York and ran for governor there!  Mercenary politician.  In 2016, he was the VP nominee for the Libertarian Party.  He's a Republican like Bernie Sanders is a Democrat.  He is older than Trump and nixes age as a factor.

 

All three of these men would have been bottom tier candidates during the 2016 campaign.  Trump's overall approval ratings have hovered between 40% and 50% but are phenomenal among Republicans, the very voters who will participate in choosing a nominee.  Even if everything goes awry for Trump, primary challengers never win the nomination.  This is the longest of long shots.

Good Old Joe

Sometimes, politicians say stupid things.  It's inevitable.  If you talk for hours and days on end, there will be time when you get tongue-tied or speak before you think.  Of course, these verbal blunders can haunt politicians.

 

"I'm not a crook" President Richard Nixon

 

"I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" President Bill Clinton

 

"I'm not a witch" Christine O'Donnell, Republican Tea Party Candidate for Senate in 2010

 

"I want to be clear, I'm not going nuts."  Former VP Joe Biden, Presidential Candidate

 

That one is going to show up in a campaign ad before too long.  Joe may not be going nuts but senile is another matter.  Joe once explained how FDR got on TV in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash.  Then there is his recent proclamation that he chooses "Truth over facts."  Though he has been in the lead since he announced, I suspect Joe isn't going to make it far in the primaries.