Tag Archives: Joe Biden

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Perfect end to campaign might produce chaotic transition of power

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My version of a perfect world includes Donald Trump losing the presidency of the United States to Joseph R. Biden in about, oh, 62 days.

It includes a significant Biden victory in both the actual ballots cast and in the Electoral College. Trump, though, is sending plenty of signals that he well might not go silently into the night, concede the contest, offer his full cooperation and then let the new team take over.

I have retired my trick knee, the one that betrayed me badly by allowing me to predict a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016.

So I want to offer this observation of what might occur if my perfect world plays out in November and we elect Joe Biden the next president.

The transition is going to be a cluster fu** of the first magnitude.

Does anyone really expect Trump to provide a smooth transition from one administration to the next one?

I am trying to imagine Joe and Jill Biden arriving at the White House to be greeted by Donald and Melania Trump. Do you see the couples smiling at each other, posing for the cameras?

Moreover, something tells me that no one should be surprised if Donald and Melania Trump don’t even attend the inaugural of the next president. Yes, I believe that Donald Trump is that much of a sore loser, that he would decide to forgo the boos that would rein down on him as he watches Biden take the oath of office.

Donald Trump’s entire presidency has been a case study in chaos and confusion. Why would anyone expect a transition to the next president to be anything other than what we have witnessed.

It won’t be pretty. However, political perfection need not always be a thing of beauty.

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Going to vote early … on the first day

(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

I cannot even believe I am saying this, but I must blurt it out.

Texas opens its polling places for early voting on Oct. 13. I intend to be among the first in line to cast my ballot for president of the United States of America.

I will be wearing my mask. I’ll have my spray-on hand sanitizer in my pocket. I will keep a socially distant space between myself and the total strangers with whom I intend to be standing.

You see, this represents a monumental sea change for yours truly. I am one who is wedded to the pageantry of voting on Election Day. I have enjoyed Election Day voting since I cast my first ballot in the spring of 1972 when I voted in Oregon’s Democratic primary.

Every presidential election year since has seen my wife and me troop to the polls on Election Day.

Not this year.

The coronavirus pandemic has me worried about getting infected. My wife is even more militant about the measures we need to take than I am. Texas isn’t likely to join several other states in requiring mail-in voting, given our state’s political leadership and its fealty to Donald Trump, who suggests — wrongly, I have to say — that mail-in voting is fraught with corruption. He’s lying.

So my wife and I will troop to the polls on Oct. 13. We will cast our votes as early as possible. We want them logged into the high-powered electronic system they use in Collin County. I heard this week that the Allen Event Center will open as a voting center for county residents. It is a spacious venue that will enable voters to practice social distancing while casting their ballots. I will be there among those early voters.

You know who will get my presidential vote. It won’t be the incumbent. Joe Biden wasn’t my first choice among the huge field of Democrats running initially. Indeed, I really never found anyone among the field who stood out.

Biden is the last man standing. He endured the grueling process. He won a key endorsement on the eve of the South Carolina primary, which he then won handily … and he never looked back.

So now I’m all in for Joe.

The process through which he gets my support, though, is the element I want to underscore. We live in perilous times as the nation battles a pandemic that continues to kill Americans at a heartbreaking rate. I do not want to risk becoming infected.

So, if voting early enables me to do my civic duty proudly while staying safe from a killer virus, that’s the way it’s going to be.

national news

Is the POTUS going bonkers?

We hear this nonsense about Joe Biden’s mental acuity coming from political allies of Donald Trump.

It makes me laugh out loud. Why?

Well, Donald Trump — to my eyes and ears — is exhibiting some signs his own self of going slightly nuts. I do not mean to suggest he is certifiably nutty, or even that he has lost a step or three in the mental acuity department.

I do mean to ask out loud why Trump is fomenting conspiracy theories about “rigged” elections. Have you watched Trump speak at those rallies of late? The guy cannot craft a cogent message. He has yet to tell us what he intends to do in a (God forbid!) second term as president.

There have been some tell-all tales published of late that disclose reports of shady business dealings, of how the first lady and the first daughter cannot stand the sight of each other.

My goodness, I cannot keep up with the madness I am witnessing in the White House.

Trump is out of control. Just think that this is the guy in control of the nuclear launch codes.

But … his fans think he’s the bee’s knees. Go figure.

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No signs or bumper stickers

I had hoped since I became a “civilian” who had retired from daily print journalism that I could place a bumper sticker on my vehicle and a sign in my front yard proclaiming my support for a presidential candidate.

Then I took on a freelance gig writing for a weekly newspaper company. So … my “civilian” days are over for the time being.

There’s another concern that I am a bit reluctant to divulge, but I will anyhow. It’s a concern over whether my stated preference for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket for president/vice president would attract vandals.

We happen to live in Trump Country, which is home to some extremely zealous admirers of the current president of the United States. I don’t begrudge them their zeal on behalf of their guy. I do begrudge how some of them might react to the other part of the country that favors the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

The last bumper sticker I put on my vehicle was in 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy ran for president. I wasn’t old enough to vote then, but I wanted my friends and neighbors in Oregon to know I wanted RFK to be elected president that year.

Fate, tragically, intervened.

I went into the Army that year. I came out in 1970. I enrolled in college and became involved in the 1972 campaign of George McGovern. I didn’t display a bumper sticker.

Then I went to work for newspapers. I stayed the course for nearly 37 years. During that time I adhered to the mostly unwritten rule that I shouldn’t reveal my political bias with a bumper sticker or a yard sign. Reporters are supposed to present the image of political neutrality.

So here we are, much farther down a long and winding road. I will honor the unwritten neutrality rule that reporters should follow for as long as I am reporting on the community to which I am assigned.

These are extremely contentious times, too. So I will protect my motor vehicle or my home from being damaged by those who disagree with my choice for president and vice president.

national news

Biden hits back … hard!

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Joseph R. Biden Jr. today emerged from his Wilmington, Del., basement and delivered what I believe could become a theme in his attempt to unseat Donald Trump from the presidency of the United States.

His message, in summary, is that the violence we are witnessing in some communities are not the product of a future Biden administration; it happening now, in real time, during the Trump administration.

And yet Trump and his fellow Republicans are seeking to portray Democratic presidential nominee Biden as a grim reminder of what might happen if he is elected president in November.

Biden stepped onto the stage in Pittsburgh today and said, in effect: What the hell are you talking about? The nation today is unsafe and it’s happening on Donald Trump’s watch!

Well, this is the kind of response that Biden will need to deliver as the presidential campaign heads toward its final sprint.

Trump wants to change the narrative from the pandemic, which he is ignoring while it continues to kill about 1,000 Americans daily. He wants us to talk instead about protests that, sadly, have turned into riots. But … wait! It’s happening now! Donald Trump vowed to protect Americans. Is he doing it? No. He is doing nothing of the sort! Nor is he doing anything to correct the economic collapse that has wiped out all the jobs created in the past decade.

I am the very last person on Earth to give a professional politician any campaign advice. I just sit out here in the Peanut Gallery, wringing my hands while worrying if the candidate I prefer is able to persuade enough of my countrymen and women that he is the one we should elect to the nation’s highest office.

What I heard today from Joe Biden suggests to me that the guy I want — that would be Biden — is up to the task at hand.

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Conway delivers parting gift

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Thank you, Kellyanne Conway, for the parting gift you delivered as you prepare to return to some semblance of a private life.

The soon to depart senior adviser to Donald Trump has said out loud what many of us have thought all along, which is that that more rioting, looting and violence occurs the better it is for Donald Trump’s re-election chances.

According to Business Insider: “The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order,” Conway said during an interview on “Fox and Friends.”

Gosh who do you think to whom she refers? In other words, according to Conway, Trump wants the rioting to continue.

Let’s roll that around for a brief moment.

Presidents of the United States usually seek to calm roiling waters. They usually seek to quell national tensions with speeches that appeal to our better angels. They want stability, calm, peace and quiet in our cities.

Not this clown. Not Donald Trump. If we are to believe Kellyanne Conway — who is leaving her office this week to spend more time repairing the damage done to her family — Trump is so damn concerned about re-election he wants to fan the anger that simmers in places like Portland, Kenosha, Minneapolis. Trump refuses to speak to the protesters or to even say the names of the individuals who have died at the hands of rogue cops.

Many of us out here in Flyover Country are left to wonder about what is going through what passes for Donald Trump’s mind. Well, we don’t need to wonder any longer. Kellyanne Conway has laid it out there for us in plain view.

Donald Trump wants the chaos to continue.

I wish Conway well as she steps away from the White House. I also want to thank her for telling us what I believe to be the truth about what motivates Donald Trump effort to stay in power.

I hope it helps derail the Donald Trump re-election train.

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Swift Boat fiends are back

You’ll recall how 2004 Democratic Party presidential nominee John Kerry was defamed by those who sought to portray his heroic Vietnam War experience as a falsehood.

The term “Swift Boat” became a verb. You know, how Kerry was “Swift Boated” by the liars who launched the scurrilous attacks on the former Navy officer’s heroism while patrolling the rivers of South Vietnam.

Well, guess what, ladies and gents. The folks who engineered that hideous campaign are getting back into the game. They are planning a multimillion-dollar ad campaign aimed at bringing down the candidacy of the current Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.

Granted, Biden didn’t serve in the military, but he well might be receiving his version of the Swift Boat treatment from the political action committee that wants to support Donald Trump’s re-election.

They call themselves Preserve America. They will start advertising in swing states where Trump reportedly is vulnerable. As Politico reports: Preserve America’s first commercials will begin airing Tuesday in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Iowa, and Georgia. Roughly $25 million of the total buy will be invested on TV, a figure that nearly matches what America First Action and Priorities USA have spent on the airwaves over the course of the entire election cycle. The remaining $5 million will appear on digital platforms.

This is a frightening new aspect of this campaign, which everyone expects to head straight into the gutter as Trump’s mud-slinging machine kicks into high gear.

The Swift Boat defamation effort launched against John Kerry was despicable on its face. I am saddened to say I became acquainted with one of the Swift Boaters’ major benefactors, the late Texas oilman Boone Pickens. I regret terribly to this day never asking Pickens why he chose to underwrite the lies that Kerry’s enemies told about him and his valiant service during the Vietnam War. Well, that was then.

The here and now offers a stern warning about what lies ahead for the race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

My advice to the Biden team? Be ready to respond quickly and with all due vigor when they spread the lies we know are certain to come.

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Who has ‘moral authority’?

Moral authority isn’t written in the presidential oath of office specifically. However, it’s implied throughout the oath. Thus, when a president places his hand on a Bible to swear “so help me God” that he will perform the duties of his office faithfully, well, there’s a moral equivalence to be found.

The Dallas Morning News today published a lengthy editorial, part of a series of issues discussions preceding the presidential election. The DMN chose this way of examining the contest rather than endorsing one candidate over the other.

That leaves outside observers to draw their own conclusions about the issues at play. The topic of today’s piece is “moral authority” and how a president should use the authority given to him.

Hmm. Wow. That’s pretty heavy stuff to ponder.

I will state categorically one more time — and surely not the last time — that Donald J. Trump lacks moral authority at every possible level. The Morning News reminds us that moral authority helps guide the president to a “greater purpose.” How in the world does this president find that purpose? How does he dispense his moral authority? How can he even pretend to possess any semblance of moral authority to do anything?

Joe Biden, the Democratic challenger, seeks to expose the president’s lack of such authority while campaigning to restore “the nation’s soul.”

It seems that we learn more about Trump’s lack of moral fitness daily. We can start with his well-chronicled marital infidelity; then we can look at the way he conducted his business and how he treated those who got in his way; we can examine how he handles government appointments and the manner in which he disposes of individuals; we can look at the absence of any public service on his record prior to running for president; let’s examine this individual’s faith and its authenticity.

I hope you get my point here.

The DMN won’t offer a specific recommendation for the upcoming election: Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Instead, it is examining in detail the issues it believes should drive this election. Read the editorial here.

The DMN opines: So what’s at stake in our presidential elections is more than who will hold the office. What’s at stake is whether the person who wins in November can marshal the moral authority necessary to unite the country, prioritize national problems, and rally our political system to carry us through perilous moments ahead.

“Marshal the moral authority necessary to unite the county.” Imagine that. Have we seen any semblance of unity coming from this president? No. We haven’t.

That, right there, serves as all the evidence I need as an American voter to cast the incumbent aside.

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Settle down, nerves

Am I allowed to express a bit of nervousness? Sure I am! This is my blog and I can say whatever I deem appropriate!

So, here goes …

I am getting slightly nervous that Donald Trump, on whose watch we have seen a pandemic rocket out of control and producing an epic economic collapse, could actually be re-elected to a second term as president of the United States.

Do not misread this nervousness. I am not predicting it will happen. Nor am I going to predict that Joe Biden will end our long national nightmare with an Election Night victory over Trump.

I just listen to Trump’s bellicosity, his anger, his in-our-face declarations that Biden will lead us straight to hell and I am filled with dread that Trump’s base of supporters is getting fired up. Worse, I am shuddering at the prospect of Trump persuading those few undecided voters out there that he’s their guy.

He is playing into many Americans’ fears about the unrest that is boiling up in cities across the nation.

Joe Biden can point to Trump’s abject incompetence in his early handling of the pandemic. Trump, though, is seeking to portray Biden as being soft on the violence that has erupted on many city streets.

Dare I remind anyone that all of this is happening … on Donald Trump’s watch? There. I just did.

Trump managed to trash Hillary Clinton in 2016 sufficiently to eke out an Electoral College victory. I am not going to suggest a similar event will occur this time, with Trump losing the actual vote by even more than he did four years ago but still winning the Electoral College.

I am going to express my fear that it could happen. The very idea of a second Donald Trump term is likely to cost me more than a few sleepless nights.

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‘You won’t be safe … ‘

Vice President Mike Pence issued a stern warning to Republicans who believe Donald Trump deserves to be re-elected president of the United States.

“You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” Pence intoned with all the seriousness and gravity he could muster at the GOP convention this week.

But wait! How safe are many Americans today … in Donald Trump’s America? Not very. Especially if you’re black and you are unfortunate enough to get into an argument with a police officer. What about the concern for those Americans, Mr. VPOTUS and Mr. POTUS?

Well, Pence isn’t wading into that thicket. He chooses instead to follow Trump’s lead, suggesting that the “suburbs” will come under attack by inner-city residents who move into the ‘burbs to escape the criminals who do damage to all Americans.

Hey, it’s a race thing. We all know the game that Trump and Pence are playing. They want to suggest that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominees, are going to loose the criminal element on society. They will go soft on criminals, they will throw open our borders to illegal immigrants, they will seek to dismember the Second Amendment and disarm Americans.

It’s all a bunch of horse dookey. You know it as well as I know it. Yet Trump and Pence would have us buy into the crap they’re peddling that Trump’s America is a safe haven set to be overtaken by hordes of criminals if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are elected president and vice president.

The plain truth is that Donald Trump’s America ain’t so great at this moment. We’re fighting that pandemic, which has killed 182,000 Americans with more to fall victim. Racial unrest has reached a boiling point and Trump is doing not a damn thing to soothe our nation.

That isn’t how Trump is portraying the state of play in the U.S. of A. He tells lies about what he has allegedly has done to curb the pandemic and all he has done for African-Americans.

What’s more, he paints a grim picture of what life will be like if he gets booted from the presidency. I am one American patriot who believes that occurrence will be cause for joy.