Tag Archives: 2020 election

national news

POTUS won’t commit to accepting results if he loses? Wow!

Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard a presidential candidate, let alone the incumbent president, say he cannot commit to accepting the results of a free and fair election if he loses.

OK, I’ll concede that we’ve heard it said once: Donald Trump made the same threat four years ago when he was one of two non-incumbents running for the office.

There he was today, on Fox News Sunday, telling reporter Chris Wallace that he cannot commit to accepting the results if he loses to Joseph R. Biden Jr. this fall.

As I think of that statement, all I hear is the president of the United States saying he doesn’t trust a government system of which he is in charge.

Trump told Wallace that since he didn’t commit to accepting the 2016 results if he lost that his saying the same thing now is no big deal. Actually, it is a big bleeping deal.

Trump has been hurling unfounded and unwarranted allegations of voter fraud for as long as he has been president. He declared that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in 2016, which provided her with the 3 million popular vote lead over Trump. He is asserting much the same thing this time, with Biden’s team conspiring to collect illegal votes.

Trump alleges that mail-in voting is fraught with corruption, even though the states that conduct such balloting now stand firmly behind the integrity of their electoral systems.

Trump wants to suppress the vote. He doesn’t want to open the system up to every eligible voter. He has said that mail-in voting would make it damn near impossible for Republicans to win the presidency … ever again!

Donald Trump is sowing the seeds of suspicion on a system that works. For the president to in effect condemn that system by refusing to commit to accepting the results is yet another exercise in shameful demagoguery.

Still, I chuckled when I read the response from the Biden campaign. The Biden campaign responded: “The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

You know, that might be worth waiting to see if it occurs.

political news

Shakeup = stability? Seriously?

What in the name of counter-intuitiveness am I missing?

Donald John Trump keeps insisting that his campaign is rockin’ and rollin’ along. That his team is well-oiled, well-groomed and well-positioned to guide Trump to a re-election victory.

Why, then, if Trump’s command structure is so awesome does he change the man who runs it? He replaced campaign manager Brad Parscale with Bill Stepien.

Oh, it must be that Trump is trailing former Vice President Joe Biden — the presumptive Democratic nominee — by double digits. Or it was that disastrous Tulsa, Okla., rally that was supposed to overfill the arena, but drew a crowd that comprised about one-third of the arena’s capacity.

Where I come from, those things tell me that the campaign is in serious trouble. Hence, Donald Trump shook it up.

Time will tell, I suppose, whether this latest rumbling at the top of the Trump campaign team rights the ship. I am highly skeptical. I mean, the team has a boss who’s out of control.

Weird.

national news

You have to watch it to believe it

I am not going to buy into the half-baked notion that Donald Trump is losing his marbles, much like the bullsh** that Trump’s team is peddling against Joe Biden, his presumptive Democratic Party opponent this fall.

Still, when you watch Donald Trump stand before reporters in front of the White House and then listen to his incoherent and incomprehensible riff about this and that, you start to wonder whether the president of the United States is afraid of losing.

I am sensing a serious fear factor weighing on Trump.

I see poll after poll suggest Biden is pulling farther ahead. I am not taking them to the bank just yet. You need to remember that President Hillary Clinton and President Michael Dukakis enjoyed wide margins against their foes in 2016 and in 1988; it didn’t work out well for them.

However, when you watch Trump make virtually no mention of the pandemic that has gripped the world and then launch into a campaign-rally riff at the White House, well … you get the picture, yes?

What’s even more amazing is how little connection all the myriad points he seeks to make have to each other. It all becomes a stream-of-consciousness tirade.

He boasts about what a great job his administration is doing to fight the pandemic, ignoring the 136,000 individuals in this country who have died from COVID-19. A nation with 4 percent of the world’s population has recorded 25 percent of the COVID infections and about the same percentage of deaths from the disease. That is success? Really?

Well, the campaign has begun. No need to wait for the traditional Labor Day kickoff. Trump is in full re-election campaign mode. Joe Biden is ramping up his effort to unseat Trump.

I will remain puzzled and baffled no doubt to the end, though, wondering how in the world Donald Trump can cling to the base of supporters who listen to the same nonsense that flows from this clown’s mouth that I hear.

They hear the Gospel according to The Donald.

I hear so much crap.

Go figure.

national news

Wondering about post-Trump era

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 REUTERS/Sarah Silbiger

I admit it freely and without reservation: My mind tends to wander during its idle moments.

My wife and I took a dip in the pool today to fend off the 100-degree heat and while soaking myself I began to ponder the post-Donald Trump era in U.S. politics.

First I shall stipulate, as if it needs stipulation, that I hope that era begins in January 2021 and not January 2025. We have an election coming up and as of this moment, the trend is looking good for the challenger, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

But … you know what they say about a week being like a lifetime in politics. Still, I cannot turn the mind-idle off.

What would happen if Donald Trump is staring at the reality of losing an election, that Biden has racked up enough Electoral College votes to win? Does he pick up the phone, call Biden and wish him well? Does he say, “You fought hard and well, Mr. President-elect. I will do what I can to assure a smooth transition”?

Then we have the issue of where Trump would go. One of these days — and I damn sure hope it’s soon — he’ll walk to the helicopter on the White House lawn and fly away. Will he go to Mar-a-Lago, Fla., or to Bedminster, or to Trump Tower? What will he and Melania discuss on their first full day as civilians?

This question perhaps is most maddening of all: Where does Donald Trump plan to build a presidential library? Even more puzzling is what in the world is going to be his overarching theme? Economic revival? Fighting disease? Seeking to kick illegal immigrants out of the country? Ending the Affordable Care Act? Ridding the nation of anything associated with President Barack Obama?

Former presidents often receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Obama bestowed it on Presidents Bush 41 and Bill Clinton. He didn’t do the same for President Bush 43, but I wish he had done so. Would a President Biden honor Donald Trump in this fashion? Hah! Not a chance, given the defamatory epithets that Trump has hurled at Biden.

Trump vowed to be a “different” kind of president. I suppose you could say he’s delivered on that promise in spades. I don’t know what kind of former president he will become. All I am hoping for at this moment of idle time is that we’ll know sooner rather than later.

national news

Oh, for an end to the chaos

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I told you this would happen.

Yes, I called it. I will stand by what I said would be the result of Donald John Trump serving as president of the United States.

It would be that he would bring chaos and confusion from the campaign trail straight into the Oval Office; that his ignorance of government would be on full display almost daily; that his background of self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment and narcissism would become evident in a man with not a single moment of public service experience.

Many of you didn’t listen to what your humble blogger said would occur. Had there been a 40,000-vote flip in three critical states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — we would be free of this madness.

And I do mean “madness.”

Donald Trump’s commuting of Roger Stone’s federal prison sentence because he is so very loyal to Trump wouldn’t have happened. We wouldn’t have witnessed the entire array of bizarre rulings, policy pronouncements and the revolving door spinning wildly as officials are fired/resigning.

All of this was visible and predictable the moment Donald Trump rode down the escalator to declare his intention to run for president. To be honest, I thought in the moment he was performing some sort of publicity stunt. Silly me. That’s what I got, I guess, for thinking.

I believe firmly we cannot afford any more of this chaos. I want a change in our national leadership, but that’s no surprise to readers of this blog. I want to elect a politician who (a) knows the Constitution, (b) appreciates the limits of executive power in our government and (c) can express authentic empathy for the pain we are enduring.

national news, political news

Wishing media could dial back Biden’s poll reporting

The media are having a field day reporting on Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s spectacular poll ratings against Donald J. Trump Sr.

Biden is leading Trump by double digits, the media tell us. Biden is leading Trump in virtually all the critical “swing states,” they report. Biden might already have enough Electoral College votes in the bank to assure his election in November, the reporting continues.

I want the media to dial it back. Why? Because it is beginning to fill me with a sense of hope that might not hold up as we head down the stretch toward Election Day.

My memory is vivid on some things. One of those matters involves what the media reported at this stage of the 2016 campaign. They said Hillary Clinton would cruise to an easy election.

I bought that narrative four years ago. I was so confident that I attended an election-night watch party with my wife at some friends’ house in Amarillo. We went there expecting Hillary Clinton to make a victory speech upon getting the concession call from Donald Trump.

Uhh, it didn’t happen. My worst political nightmare came to pass on election night 2016.

I am acutely aware that Joe Biden doesn’t carry nearly the negative baggage that Clinton did against Trump. I also am aware that much of Trump’s message that sold against Clinton is hitting the deck with a thud against Biden.

We have an economy in collapse, the nation’s response to the pandemic has been disastrous. Trump is campaigning against his own record as president, if you allow me to parse the rhetoric he keeps using.

I know the media have a role to play and a job to do. Part of all that is to tell us what the polling is telling us about the race as it develops. It’s just making me nervous.

legal news

SCOTUS delivers needed gut punch to POTUS

Well now, this is judicial independence at its finest.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a stunning 7-2 ruling, has told Donald John “Lawbreaker in Chief” Trump that he is not above the law and that a New York-based prosecutor is on solid legal footing in seeking Trump’s financial records as part of an ongoing investigation.

Why is this so remarkable? Two conservative justices nominated by Donald Trump, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, sided with the majority in declaring that the president of the United States is “not above the law.”

What does this mean? Well, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. gets to proceed with a probe into whether Trump broke the law when he wrote a stripper a $130,000 check to buy her silence over an allegation that she and Trump had a one-night affair prior to Trump taking office as president.

Vance is going to obtain Trump’s complete financial record as part of his probe and then we might learn about those mysterious tax returns that Trump has refused to release to the public for its review.

Donald Trump has been fighting all of this hammer and tong, as you might expect. He staked his argument on a notion that a president is not subject to grand jury inquiry. The high court said “no so fast, Mr. President.” Indeed, Justice Kavanaugh made the specific point that the president is not above the law.

The next question now is whether Cyrus Vance will move quickly in obtaining that information and will it become known prior to the Nov. 3 presidential election. I won’t offer a prediction, but instead will express my desire that the public is given a chance to review Donald Trump’s financial dealings prior to deciding whether he deserves another term in office.

The matter now rests in Cyrus Vance’s hands.

Let’s get busy, Mr. Prosecutor.

national news

Hoping for a President Biden … but not predicting it!

I learned a bitter lesson from the 2016 presidential election, which is that I am a terrible political prognosticator.

I predicted Hillary Clinton would be elected president. Late in the campaign I was foolish enough to think she’d win in a landslide. I couldn’t foresee the FBI reopening an investigation into that email non-story, nor could I predict that Clinton would ignore key swing Rust Belt states down the stretch.

Thus, the door was flung wide open for Donald Trump to traipse through. He won. I was horrified. I still am horrified at the prospect of this clown’s potential re-election.

Trump’s polling at this moment looks dire. He well might lose to Joe Biden, the Democrats’ presumed nominee. Biden is polling 10 to 12 percentage better than Trump. The president looks as though he is flailing.

However, I am not going to predict that this Biden advantage will hold up. I will hope for it. I might even pray for it.

Joe Biden was not my first choice to be the Democratic Party nominee. I wanted someone to jump out of the tall grass and surprise everyone, mimicking the way Jimmy Carter did in 1976. That never happened.

Biden’s campaign was considered so much road kill after the first two primary events. Then he got an endorsement from Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the leading African-American member of Congress; Biden won the South Carolina primary on the backs of black voters.

Now he stands on the verge of being nominated. I am all in.

Biden pledges to restore “the soul” of the nation that has seen its soul captured and re-created in the hideous image of Donald Trump. He now is talking about immediately reversing Trump’s decisions: on immigrants who were brought here illegally as children; on removing the nation from the World Health Organization; on removing us from the Paris Climate Accords; on restoring our commitment to the Iran nuclear deal.

Biden got beaten up during Democratic primary debates when he boasted of his ability to work with Republican legislators. I want him to bring that ability with him into the Oval Office. I am a firm believer in good government, not necessarily big government. Donald Trump doesn’t know how to cobble together a good government coalition. Joe Biden has many decades of experience working within Congress and the executive branch as vice president for two successful terms with the Obama administration.

Biden is no wacky socialist. He is, as Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham described him, “one of the finest men God ever created.”

I want Joe Biden to be elected president. I want to make that prediction, but I got burned in 2016. Therefore, I will rely on my hope that a better day will dawn once we count the ballots for president.

national news

Trump campaigns against … himself?

Cornell Belcher is a Democratic pollster, so I will acknowledge up front that he is a political partisan.

Still, he offered a fascinating analysis of Donald Trump’s re-election campaign strategy. Speaking on National Public Radio this morning, Belcher said, in effect that Trump is campaigning against his own record as president.

Belcher noted that Trump is painting a picture of a nation falling apart, that it’s crumbling before our eyes, that our social fabric is disintegrating. Is the president seeking to unify the nation? Is he calling on voters to support all the strength he has brought to the nation?

No. He is running as if he is the challenger seeking to defeat an incumbent who’s done a horrible job. Get it? How does that bizarre strategy work?

Belcher also noted that Trump’s re-election strategy is light years removed from President Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign theme that it was “Morning in America.” Reagan won a second term that year in a 49-state landslide.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is slipping farther behind his challenger, Joe Biden. Come to think of it, if this trend continues, we’ll see a new “morning in America” once we get all the ballots counted later this year … and Donald Trump can prepare to depart the White House for the final time.

national news

Hoping our national nightmare ends in four months

President Gerald Ford told us our “long national nightmare” ended the moment in August 1974 when his predecessor resigned from office and jetted off to oblivion.

I am hoping for a return of a similar moment when we get the ballots counted in November. My sincere hope is that Joseph R. Biden Jr. gets many more votes than Donald J. Trump Sr., that he wins a sufficient number of Electoral College votes to be elected president and that the incumbent will start packing up his belongings and jet off somewhere far away from the White House.

The process could get cumbersome if Trump decides to declare the election is “rigged” or that a foreign power “stole” it from the people of this country. The irony of such a declaration would be remarkable, to be sure, given what happened in 2016 when the Russians attacked our electoral system. Trump collected fewer actual votes than Hillary Clinton but garnered enough electoral votes to become president.

It’s been a disastrous run ever since. Trump can boast, brag and bloviate all he wants about what a “fantastic” job he’s done. He hasn’t. He has made a mess of our international alliances, torched every possible norm associated with the presidency, alienated the nation from the rest of the world and behaved like the first-class boor we all knew he was when he declared his candidacy.

There’s far more at stake than just the presidency. I want to see the Senate change hands, from Republican to Democratic control. I want to see a newly elected president work with lawmakers of both parties, something Biden has been able to do while serving in the Senate and then for two terms as vice president.

You see, we have received a real-time lesson in how the presidency is far too big a responsibility for someone who requires on-the-job training. What’s more, that someone at least needs to understand the necessity of learning about history, about government and about the limitations of power inherent in the office he inherited. Donald Trump has no interest in any of that. None!

I want a return to good government. Not necessarily big government. Just a government that works.

I hope we get it in just a little less than four months from now. I don’t want to wish my life away, but I also hope that time between now and Election Day goes quickly. I am weary of the chaos.