Tag Archives: Kamala Harris

national news

It’s the brevity … stupid!

Just suppose for a moment or two what the public reaction to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign would be had she been in the hunt for, oh, the past year and a half.

Do you think we’d still be as excited about the energy the vice president has brought to the race? Would she wear us out with her exuberance, her enthusiasm, her energy?

I want to offer a notion that might not go over well among some readers of this blog. It is that Harris’s late entry into the campaign after President Biden pulled out of the race has filled the air with excitement that might not have the staying power that many of the VP’s allies say it would.

Vice President Harris launched her campaign from a dead stop with fewer than 100 days to go before Election Day. Joe Biden’s horrible debate performance got tongues wagging about his mental acuity. He stood firm, said he would stay in, then, in an instant he was gone.

Harris stepped up with the wind blowing hard at her back.

Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are in a dead sprint toward the finish line, which is just 70 days from now. My strong hope is that Harris and Walz win, that they vanquish Donald Trump and JD Vance to history’s dust bin and then deliver on the myriad promises they are making.

A part of me, though, just might always wonder if the brevity of this campaign could have been the decisive factor in her victory.

Whatever. A win is a win.

political news

Biden made unprecedented move

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I want to bask for just a little while longer in the afterglow of the Democratic National Convention, which wrapped up Thursday and sent its presidential and vice-presidential nominees to fight the Republican ticket.

My point is to echo the praise we heard from the convention podium about the selflessness exhibited by President Joe Biden as he dropped his re-election bid, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him … and he did this on his own.

I won’t quibble or quarrel over what motivated him to take that dramatic action. Biden said he loves being president but added quickly that “I love my country more.”

Indeed, when you ponder it for just a moment, the act of voluntarily giving up political power has to rank as one of the most improbable acts imaginable.

Could the president reverse his political fortune and defeated the GOP ticket? I believe it was possible. The seamless handoff to Kamala Harris, though, has energized Democrats beyond all expectation.

I also agree with Biden about the imperativeness of keeping Donald Trump away from the Resolute Desk … forever!

If that was Joe Biden’s primary motivation in surrendering power, then I’m all in on that effort.  I also join others who have hailed this act as one of high political courage.

As former President Obama said at the end of his stemwinding speech at the DNC: Let’s get to work!

national news

Run from behind!

Michelle and Barack Obama laid it out in plain language last night; indeed Kamala Harris has been saying it since the moment she emerged as the Democrats’ frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election.

Do not believe for a second that Donald Trump, their Republican foe, is going away quietly as this campaign revs up.

Yes, Democrats are feeling high and mighty right now as the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket takes shape and prepares its fight plan for the White House. And, yes, Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have floundered, flailed and flubbed their way along since Joe Biden dropped out of the contest.

Let us all remember 2016. Every politician and pundit on Planet Earth “knew” that Hillary Clinton was going to win that election. Then, suddenly, she didn’t.

This sudden and invigorating reversal of fortune does feel different. It does feel unique, as if it’s something none of us has ever experienced. If it is the real thing, then Harris, Walz and their enthusiastic army of supporters need to just remember how we thought we would welcome President Hillary Clinton to power in January 2017.

Yes, last night was inspiring in the extreme. Just a word of caution: Do not count Donald Trump out until after every ballot is counted!

Joe Biden

Getting ready for curtain call

Many readers of this blog perhaps can recall a time or three when I have revealed that I can be a bit of a sap when my emotions get the better of me.

Therefore, when I turn on my TV Monday to watch the Democratic National Convention, I am prepared to lapse into my sappy mode that evening.

Democrats are going to stand and cheer the incumbent president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., and likely won’t stop cheering for a good while. They are going to thank the president for the job he has done during his term in office … and thank him for stepping aside and handing the party nomination to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Of course, I will be far from the Chicago convention site; I’ll be watching from my North Texas living room. I might even join the crowd in giving the president my own expression of thanks. It’ll make me feel better.

Joe Biden had vowed to stay in the contest after his godawful debate performance in Atlanta. Then he decided to put his country first by stepping aside and delivering to Harris his blessing as she transformed in an instant from loyal VP to the party’s standard bearer in the effort to keep Donald Trump as far away from the White House as is humanly possible.

But … first things first. President Biden is going to stand before the nation and the world Monday night in Chicago and receive the raucous curtain call he so richly deserves.

May the emotions flow.

national news

What about Trump’s laugh?

True story: I really hate “what aboutism,” which often surfaces when your candidate gets jabbed by a foe and you respond with, “Well, what about your guy?”

Kamala Harris’s reportedly annoying laughter has been drawing some flak from foes of the vice president who’s running for the presidency. Rather than picking apart policy matters, her foes have taken to reminding us of the laugh that annoys them.

Here comes the “what aboutism.”

What about Donald J. Trump? What about his laugh? Indeed, has anyone ever heard him laugh out loud? That’s the rejoinder making the rounds on social media.

I confess I haven’t heard anything that sounds like laughter coming from the indicted/convicted/twice-impeached former president.

I have long thought that Trump had zero discernible humor. He’s a crabby sorehead who cannot stop relitigating matters over which he has zero control. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is having the time of her life … and this is an American patriot who enjoys seeing a presidential candidate exhibit such joy.

Keep laughing, Mme. Vice President.

national news

A landslide in the making?

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Let’s get to the first thing I must say … which is that I dare not even try to predict the outcome of the 2024 election for president of the United States.

I can, however, offer an opinion of what I believe might be playing out as we speak.

What was beginning to look like a Donald Trump rout over President Biden might be turning in a 180-degree reversal, with Vice President Kamala Harris coming out on the long end of an electoral landslide.

The landslide might manifest itself only in the Electoral College. What do I mean? I am going to speculate that the popular vote of all Americans might not meet or exceed landslide proportions, which generally is about a 10% or greater margin of victory.

The Electoral College could be a different matter. Polling data released since Biden ceded the nomination to Harris tells us the VP is making serious headway in many swing states, that she is either tied or leading Trump that the GOP nominee was leading over Biden.

Political experts across the spectrum who once said the race was “Trump’s to lose” now say the tide is turning dramatically in Harris’s favor.

I am just a spectator to all of this in the middle of what once was called Trump Country.  I am not going to venture any guesses on what I think will happen, I am left only to offer what I hope occurs on Election Day …. and my hope is looking more realistic all the time.

A landslide might be developing, but not in the manner to which many of us have grown accustomed.  All eyes will be turned on the Electoral College.

business news

Looking for votes? Well … yeah!

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A brief lesson in political context seems to be in order, as I must respond to a statement from a frequent critic of this blog.

I wrote something the other day calling attention to Kamala Harris’s support of an idea first pitched by Donald Trump: to end the rule requiring taxes on income received from tips for service workers.

My critic just couldn’t leave the issue well enough alone. He couldn’t just endorse Harris’s support of an idea first promoted by her presidential campaign opponent and then move on to the next point of contention.

No … instead he said something about how Democrats blasted Trump for the idea, saying he was just angling for votes.

In an election year? A candidate is looking for ways to win favor with voters? Who knew?

Here is the lesson. Listen up. In an election cycle, every single proposal offered by candidates is done with one primary goal in mind: to win votes! It makes no difference which politician does it, or which party to which he or she belongs. They all do it and they all have the same motive in mind.

I just want to make clear that we should understand the context at play here. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are of like minds on the principle of banning taxes for tips. They both want voters to believe them over the other person.

As for my critic. Pipe down, dude!

national news, political news

GOPers for Harris channels an earlier mutiny

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They call themselves Republicans for Harris, believing that the Democratic nominee for POTUS is suited better to hold the job than the Republicans’ own presidential nominee.

It is far too early — and the view from my perch doesn’t allow me to predict anything with accuracy — to know what this means in terms of determining the outcome of the election.

This Republicans for Harris movement designed to bolster the election of Kamala Harris over Donald J. Trump has a certain ring that I recall vividly from my first political campaign.

Flash back for a moment to 1972. Democrats nominated Sen. George McGovern for president. He ran against President Richard Nixon. McGovern wanted to end the Vietnam War. So did I, so I signed on as a campaign worker. I was aligned with the Democratic Party in my early years. My wife, Kathy Anne, and I were newly married and we both became involved.

Not all Democrats were enamored of the effort the nominee was making to obtain an early-as-possible exit from the bloodshed in Vietnam.

Thus, the Democrats for Nixon movement was born. One of its leaders was the late Big John Connally, the former Texas governor who was wounded seriously that day in Dallas when President Kennedy was murdered. Democrats for Nixon grew to a huge following of disaffected Democrats.

Nixon won that election with 520 electoral votes to McGovern’s 17; Nixon carried 49 of 50 states, winning 61% of the popular vote.

I smile these days when I recall those results, hoping that this Republicans for Harris movement could contribute to the same level of victory for the candidate I want to become president, Kamala Harris.

I cannot predict an outcome, even though Harris’s momentum continues to build. Trump continues to struggle.

Maybe it’s a long shot, but I am going to cling to some notion that history just might be able to repeat itself.

national news

Who’s lost his mind?

All that idiocy about whether President Biden’s butter has slipped off his noodle seemingly ignored a more critical issue facing voters in this presidential election year.

It is whether the guy nominated by the Republican Party has flipped his wig, gone ’round the bend, booked a one-way ticket to la-la land.

Biden resolved the issue about whether he was a drag on the Democratic ticket by stepping away from his re-election bid. He handed the frontrunner mantle to Vice President Kamala Harris, whose rollout was flawless; she has picked an outstanding running mate in Tim Walz and the two of them have been wowing the faithful ever since.

Then comes this nugget of nonsense from Donald Trump: He accuses Harris and Walz of faking the huge crowd sizes at all those rallies through the use of artificial intelligence. Yep, those thousands of cheering partisans were AI creations. They weren’t real, according to the Madman in Chief.

I don’t know what part of that moronic declaration is most astonishing.

  • That Trump would say it out loud.
  • That he would believe anyone would take it seriously.
  • That millions of Americans would swallow that bait.

I’ll go with all three.

The Republican Party nominee for POTUS has lost his mind.

economic news

Harris, Trump agree? Wow!

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Who’da thunk this could happen, that Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump would agree on a significant public policy issue?

Both candidates for POTUS agree that service workers who rely on tips shouldn’t have to be taxed on that portion of their income.

Trump tossed the idea out there first. Harris has followed suit. Trump, though, is contending that Harris “stole” the idea from him and is trying to win favor with voters by casting this notion as her own.

Holy taxman!

I happen to agree that tip income need not be taxed. If you’re working as a server in a restaurant, you’re already earning something below the national minimum wage. Tips are meant to supplement the meager wage these folks are earning.

Harris wants to take the issue a step further. She wants to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, something that Trump opposes. Spoiler alert: I support Harris’s idea.

But really, there’s no “theft” involved in one candidate endorsing an idea pitched by an opponent. Then again, I tend to believe Donald Trump is going to take a lot more credit that he doesn’t deserve on issues that Harris endorses along the way.