Tag Archives: Politico

national news, political news

Government isn’t like a business, Mr. President

It’s become a throwaway line for politicians to toss around.

“I’m going to run this government like a business,” they tell us. Many folks buy into it. “That’s my guy!” they say. “He’s going to turn things around because that’s what he’s done before … in business.”

Donald J. Trump might be learning the hard way that the presidency of the United States is far more complicated than any business he’s ever run.

Politico is reporting that many of the new president’s aides and allies have become perplexed at Trump’s frustration with the pace of change he promised when he took office.

As Politico reports: “The administration’s rocky opening days have been a setback for a president who, as a billionaire businessman, sold himself to voters as being uniquely qualified to fix what ailed the nation. Yet it has become apparent, say those close to the president, most of whom requested anonymity to describe the inner workings of the White House, that the transition from overseeing a family business to running the country has been tough on him.”

Trump seeks simple answers to complex questions. That’s been the view of those interviewed by Politico. The president’s inability to find those simple answers has frustrated him early in his term.

My sense is that Trump needs to buck up and get ready to understand the complexities of the job he sought — and then won!

He talked tough during the campaign. He “told it like it is,” in the words of those who voted for him. He bragged about doing for the country what he did for his business empire; he didn’t mention, of course, the many failures his business interests have produced.

The point, though, is that the massive federal government is a complex machine. It’s a labyrinth of agencies — some of which compete against each other. The president is the chief executive of the government, but he cannot run it like a CEO.

He must be a team player. He must learn to cajole, not coerce.

Will this president learn the lesson? Can he overcome the obstacles he didn’t see laying before him? Can this man actually learn to govern and run a government with which he had zero prior contact?

Believe it or not, I hope he succeeds.

I just am doubting he can rid himself of the temptation to “run the government like a business.”

International news

GOP wonders: Is the president really one of us?

Donald J. Trump’s doubling down over whether Russian strongman Vladimir Putin deserves his “respect” has drawn criticism from expected and — in the eyes of some — unexpected sources.

The surprise seems to be coming from congressional Republicans who are none too happy with the president’s equating U.S. and Russian behavior.

Some have called Trump’s seeming defense of Putin’s history of murder and mayhem an indefensible position.

According to Politico: “He’s a thug,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of Putin on Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The Russians annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine and messed around in our elections. No, I don’t think there’s any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does.”

There’s also that issue of alleged murder of journalists and dissidents in Russia.

Trump’s interview with Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly has been broadcast tonight and it appears to illustrate quite graphically the president’s misplaced priorities in our geopolitical relationships. Putin is a bad guy, but the president wants the United States to “get along with Russia.”

Politico reported further: “I’m not going to critique the president’s every utterance,” the Senate leader said. “But I do think America is exceptional, America is different. We don’t operate in any way the way the Russians do. I think there’s a clear distinction here that all Americans understand, and I would not have characterized it that way.”

Trump doesn’t get it. He isn’t going to acknowledge the United States’ continued status as the greatest nation on Earth. He has vowed to “make America great again.” I would submit that giving the Russian thugs who run things in the Kremlin a pass on their behavior is no way to restore a level of greatness that’s not been lost.

Are the Republicans in Congress finally going to start asking themselves: Is this what we really want in a commander in chief?

national news, political news

‘Rigged election’ talk creates serious concern

trump

It’s been said many times by historians that the United States is the world’s model for peaceful transition of power from president to president, particularly in times of crisis and tragedy.

* 1963: John F. Kennedy was gunned down and Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office shortly after doctors announced the death of the president. We didn’t skip a beat.

* 1974: Richard Nixon resigned from office in the midst of a profound constitutional crisis and Gerald Ford became president, declaring “Our long national nightmare is over.” The beat went on.

* 2000: George W. Bush won election by the narrowest margin imaginable over Al Gore. The Supreme Court settled it in accordance with constitutional law. The government continued to function.

Three earlier presidents — Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley — were murdered while they were in office; their vice presidents took power, also without incident.

That history of relative tranquility is being threatened in 2016 by an ominous drumbeat from Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, who keeps harping on a “rigged election” determining who will become the next president. He continues to foment anger among his supporters who talk openly about “revolt” against the system if — and/or when — their guy loses to Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/donald-trump-rigged-elections-republicans-229846

This is nasty stuff, man.

According to Politico: “Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to lose on Nov. 8, refuse to concede the election, and teeter the country into an unprecedented crisis of faith in government. Republicans and Democrats, in Washington and beyond, fear that the aftermath of the 2016 election will create a festering infection in the already deep and lasting wound that the campaign is leaving on America.”

On top of what he’s been saying about “rigging” the election, he asserts that Clinton should be thrown in jail. Due process? Presumption of innocence? Forget about it!

There’s this, also, from Politico: “And, they say, only Republican leaders who speak up will have any chance of stopping it.”

They’re quiet — so far.

There needs to be a dialing back of this crackpot rhetoric. Trump likely will ignore all pleas to restore some semblance of reason. After all, he said recently he’s been “unshackled” by House Speaker Paul Ryan’s declaration that he no longer can “defend” Trump over the accusations that he assaulted women sexually.

Trump’s foes have declared him to be a demagogue who presents a serious “danger” to the United States of America.

Trump is proving them to be absolutely correct.

legal news

Stop and frisk: let’s hold on

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Donald J. Trump wants American police officers to institute the “stop-and-frisk” policies that a judge has ruled to be unconstitutional.

That doesn’t matter to the Republican presidential nominee.

He’s the “law and order candidate” for president … he says.

We’ve entered another difficult time. Police shot an unarmed man to death in Tulsa, Okla. Charlotte, N.C., residents are protesting tonight in the wake of another fatal incident involving police officers. And yes, the shooting victims were black; the officers are white.

We’re on edge once again.

Trump’s response is to double down on that “stop-and-frisk” idea.

A judge in New York said the practice appears to discriminate against Americans based on the color of their skin. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch weighed in, contending that the practice wasn’t an effective law enforcement tool.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2016/09/loretta-lynch-trump-stop-and-frisk-228533

Yes, some communities are experiencing terrible spikes in violent crime. GOP partisans not surprisingly are blaming Democratic municipal administrations for incompetence and for adhering to policies that create such an environment.

C’mon, folks. Let’s be rational and reasonable.

As Politico reports: “Lynch, who spent two stints as chief federal prosecutor in Brooklyn before being nominated as attorney general, said she wasn’t opposed to stop-and-frisk techniques under certain circumstances.

“‘As with every police procedure we want to empower law enforcement to be responsive to community needs. We want to empower them to protect the community. We want to give them the training they need in order to do it in a way that is constitutional, safe and effective and promotes trust,’ Lynch said. ‘It’s not really a yes or no answer.'”

The concern about stop and frisk is its widespread use. Trump, as is his tendency, wants to bring the policy to bear across the board.

I’m going to stick with the AG’s more reasonable and rational approach.

media news, national news, political news

Clinton stiff-arming of media needs to end

hillary and media

It’s safe to say — I truly believe — that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn’t feel “protected” by the so-called “liberal media.”

She doesn’t believe the media have given her a break in all her years in public life. Nor does she believe broadcast and print journalist Ajust stand around looking at their shoes when the subject of the myriad controversies come up regarding her life on the public stage.

Why else, do you suppose, does she keep the media at such a distance?

My response to all of that is: too bad, Mme. Secretary; it’s time you start letting the media do their job.

According to Politico, Clinton’s relationship with the media is about to undergo a fundamental change. I believe it’s for the better.

After Labor Day, the media will be allowed aboard “a ‘Stronger Together’-wrapped 737 from New York to Ohio to Iowa, and remain flying companions for the final stretch of the campaign.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-reporters-press-227700#ixzz4JD3z5zXd

Clinton distrusts the national media, believing that they have been unfair in covering her and her husband, the 42nd president of the United States. Until now, she has flown separately from event to event without the media aboard her campaign plane. She can afford the luxury of doing so, given the huge amount of campaign cash she has socked away.

She remains the favorite to win the election this year and become the nation’s 45th — and its first female — president.

But those of us in the media — and that includes those of us who used to work in this field full time — want her to speak to the public through the media. It’s been damn near a year since she had a full-blown news conference where she fields tough and probing questions from reporters.

I don’t need to lecture Clinton on this matter, but I’ll say it anyway: The media serve as the public’s eyes and ears on matters of public policy. Seeking the highest political office in the nation is of compelling public and national interest. The media are entrusted with reporting how these candidates seek to govern and the only way to get anything resembling a definitive answer is to ask them directly.

Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, to his credit, has been more accessible to the media than Clinton. Indeed, he’s gladly seized the spotlight as Clinton has been content in recent weeks to let Trump’s troubles dominate the news cycles.

Hillary Clinton certainly cannot govern this way if she’s elected. Nor should she be think she can continue to stiff-arm the media as she campaigns for the world’s most visible and powerful public office.

So, she thinks she’s been mistreated?

Get over it. Talk to us … through the media.

national news, political news

Trump likely to lose … but might not accept it

OB-VG717_Romney_G_20121107020041

I’m glad to be not alone in fearing what might happen on Election Day, which occurs on Nov. 8.

Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump could lose the election to Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton in a big way.

He might get buried in an Electoral College landslide. For that matter, it could even be a popular vote landslide.

But just a little while ago, Trump laid down a frightening notion.

He might not accept defeat the way losing candidates traditionally have done. Remember when he said the “only way I am going to lose” is if the election is “rigged.” He said the only way for “Crooked Hillary” to win is to fix it so she gets more votes than he does.

What’s going to happen, then, if — after the news organizations declare Clinton the winner — and Trump fails to make the phone call to the president-elect, offering his congratulations and then stands before his supporters to concede defeat?

Eli Stokols, writing for Politico, thinks it’s entirely possible that Trump won’t concede. He won’t acknowledge what the rest of the world would have just witnessed.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-concede-succession-227252

Stokols writes: “Among the values most necessary for a functioning democracy is the peaceful transition of power that’s gone on uninterrupted since 1797. What enables that is the acceptance of the election’s outcome by the losers,” said Steve Schmidt, the GOP operative who was McCain’s campaign strategist in 2008.

Trump’s insistence that a “rigged” election would result in his defeat seems to put that tradition into imminent danger.

As an American who rather likes political tradition, I see this as a potentially terrible development.

Again, as Stokols writes: “The damage this is going to do to various institutions is going to be long term,” said Charlie Sykes, a prominent conservative radio host in Milwaukee who has been one of the country’s most outspoken and consistent anti-Trump voices. “How do you restore civil discourse after all of this? He is a postmodern authoritarian who’s in the process of delegitimizing every institution — the media, the ballot box — that can be a check on him.”

Are you scared yet? I am.

national news, political news

Character takes center stage in campaign

here-are-the-top-vice-president-picks-for-donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton_1

Michael Dukakis once declared during the 1988 presidential campaign that the issue that year was about “competence.”

Pure and simple, the Democratic nominee said. The voters would judge whether he or Vice President George H.W. Bush was competent enough to run the country.

Voters went for Bush.

This year, according to a Politico report, the issue is “character.”

It’s also about trustworthiness, which is an element of character.

Republican nominee Donald J. Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton are busy trading barrages over who between them is fit — or unfit — to become commander in chief.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/does-anyone-care-about-issues-anymore-or-only-whether-trump-is-crazy-214150

So far it’s clear to me that the GOP nominee’s fitness poses the greater concern.

He fluffs a response to a question about the “nuclear triad.” He says he won’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons. He gives his tacit blessing for other nations to acquire nukes.

Then we have his litany of insults, put-downs and mocking of others. A reporter with a physical disability. His various nicknames and childish rejoinders. His statements about women, a distinguished U.S. senator/war hero. His assertion that a judge cannot adjudicate a case involving Trump University simply because of his ethnic heritage. His ridiculous and gratuitous attack against a Gold Star family.

Character? Does this suggest a candidate with character?

Sure, Hillary Clinton is hardly the paragon of virtue. She has her own character issues with which to deal. Again, though, to my eyes they pale in comparison to the astonishing demonstrations that Trump has put forth.

Character will become the signature issue of this campaign.

As Politico reports: “To be clear: The candidates’ brands of invective are not equivalent. Nothing can quite compare with Trump’s endless—and seemingly spontaneous—flow of crude characterizations of anyone who would cross him. For better or worse, Clinton’s attacks are much subtler, and probably more strategic, since her own high negative poll ratings make it imperative that she portray Trump as so unpredictable, and even unstable, as to be an unacceptable choice for president.”

This campaign is getting uglier by the day.

national news, political news

‘Widespread chatter’ that Trump should drop out?

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donald

I remain extremely dubious of a notion that’s being kicked around about Republican Party presidential nominee Donald J. Trump.

It’s that Republican “insiders” are telling Trump to drop out of the race and give the nomination to someone who at least can help the GOP retain control of at least the Senate, if not the House of Representatives as well.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/insiders-to-trump-drop-out-226689

Let me be as clear as a mountain spring on this: It will not happen …. not like that.

Trump won’t drop out because someone is telling him to do so. If he were to drop out of the race, I am beginning to believe it would be because he had planned to do so all along.

Trump’s fans — the numbers of whom seem to be shrinking — have been fond of telling us how “unconventional” his campaign has been.

You want unconventional? Not a single thing would surprise me about what this guy might do. He’s already said things about political foes that in a normal election year would have gotten him tossed to the side of the campaign trail. It’s almost as though he has wanted to lose the GOP primary fight.

Now, do I believe that Trump has calculated an exit from the campaign? Do I believe he’s already made that decision?

No. I do not believe such thing.

Neither do I believe that Trump is going to do what others want him to do.

Politico reports that key Republican “insiders” took a survey about Trump’s candidacy. According to Politico: “The effect Trump is having on down-ballot races has the potential to be devastating in November,” added a Florida Republican. “His negative image among Hispanics, women and independents is something that could be devastating to Republicans. Trump’s divisive rhetoric to the Hispanic community at large has the potential to be devastating for years to come.”

Politico reports that Trump has made zero indication that he’s going to drop out.

What the heck? He won the GOP nomination fair and square. He knocked 16 other opponents out of the ring. He rolled up big vote totals. I give him credit for that. Honestly.

Still, there’s something amazingly unpredictable about this guy. He’s violated every political norm there is to violate. He’s still standing. But in the wake of his party convention and the convention that nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton, he has managed to make an unbelievable array of unforced errors.

He has invited Russia to hack into Clinton’s e-mails to see what she discarded; he has said Russia hasn’t occupied Crimea, when it has. He has decided to attack two Gold Star parents because they were critical of him at the Democratic National Convention.

And yes, his once-vaunted poll standing has plummeted.

Does anyone really expect this individual to do what other party leaders want him to do, such as quit the race?

No. If he does, it’ll be part of some grand plan he cooked up long ago.

But I don’t actually expect that to happen, either.

Unless …

national news, political news

Heed this guy Kristol, Democrats

kristol

William Kristol doesn’t want Donald J. Trump to be president of the United States.

The founder of the Weekly Standard conservative publication has been at the forefront of the Never Trump movement. He’s a neo-conservative ally of the Bush family and is a former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle.

It’s with that backdrop that I offer his warning to Democrats: Do not take Trump lightly.

I don’t know if he’s singing Trump’s praises or is seeking to gin up Democratic Party enthusiasm behind their nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Kristol told Politico: “She’s up like 5 points over Trump, who has made all these mistakes and he has more room to grow, I think, because he could reassure people if he runs a semi-intelligent, semi-normal campaign, whereas what’s she going to do? I mean, there’s no reintroduction of Hillary Clinton that could be possibly be made at this point, I think.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/bill-kristol-democrats-trump-226089#ixzz4FdvbzfvU

My hunch is that Clinton’s team and the Democratic Party brass has no intention of taking Trump lightly as they commence their campaign this fall.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to hear such advice from someone on the other side who, truth be told, is a sort of closeted ally.

As Politico reported: “Kristol, like most mainstream Republicans, underestimated Trump badly and assumed he would burn off like a bottom-shelf casino hangover and reason would prevail.”

So far, though, reason hasn’t yet prevailed in the Republican Party, as Trump’s nomination for president has shown. It’s that lack of reason, in my view, which should give Democrats reason to go full-bore after the GOP nominee.

national news, political news

Time for Clinton to meet the press … head-on

hillary

As one who used to make his living trying to hold politicians accountable for their words and deeds, I am perplexed by Hillary Clinton’s aversion to answer questions from the media.

Politico Magazine calls it her “phobia” of press conferences.

Count me as someone who believes the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee should stand firm in front of microphones and answer the tough questions she knows would come at her during a formal press conference.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/hillary-clintons-press-conference-phobia-214026

As Politico reports, Clinton hasn’t done so since December 2015. When CNN’s Jake Tapper asked her about that, according to Politico, Clinton “blithely” told him that she’d get around to it eventually.

Mme. Secretary, a lot has transpired since the end of this past year.

We’ve had the House Select Benghazi Committee complete its work. FBI Director James Comey announced just the other day that he won’t recommend bringing criminal charges against her in the e-mail controversy, which effectively ends that tumult. Republicans in Congress, though, plan to look some more into whether the FBI did its due diligence in examining the e-mail matter.

And oh yes, she’s got this presidential campaign and she ought to answer some of the weird insults that GOP candidate Donald J. Trump keeps tossing her way.

I get that politicians of all stripes are skittish when the press starts poking around. But hey, it’s their job to ask difficult questions when they need answers.

It’s also the politicians’ job to answer those questions when the media start asking them.

It’s not as if Hillary Clinton is a stranger to this exercise. She served as Arkansas first lady, then the nation’s first lady, then a U.S. senator from New York (which has a notoriously ferocious media climate) and then secretary of state.

She’s now campaigning for the most important office in the nation — if not the world!

It’s not going to get any easier for her from this moment on.

Inquiring minds, Mme. Secretary, are asking for answers to many serious questions.