Tag Archives: 2024 election

national news

Friendships suffer grievous collateral damage

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Quiz time, kids: What part of our political existence has suffered the most grievous example of collateral damage from the current political climate?

Time’s up. I’ll offer my own belief. The greatest casualty happens to be, in my view, the political friendships that at one time survived whatever political differences existing between politicians.

The wounds being inflicted these days almost appear to be mortal in nature. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump calls Kamala Harris “not very smart.” He questions her ethnicity. The convicted felon accuses the current president, Joe Biden, of being the most corrupt politician in history.

For her part, Harris will not let anyone forget about the disgraceful conduct Trump endorsed during his term as POTUS.

There once was a time in this country when losing presidential candidates would lick their wounds, concede to the winner and then pledge to work with the winner to solve the nation’s problems. Trump brought us a whole new element into how not to lose an election. He never conceded he lost to Joe Biden in 2020 and then commenced to sic the mob onto Congress to stop the certification of the 2020 electoral result.

I will presume that Harris wins this election. Can you imagine Trump doing anything different from what he did in 2020? Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, even had the good taste and grace to offer to work with Trump as he sought to build his administration. So did Mitt Romney and John McCain, who lost to Barack Obama in 2012 and 2008, respectively.

These days political foes have become mortal enemies.

I much prefer the time when foes would batter each other with hammer and tong … and then shake hands when it ended. It’s the democratic way.

 

national news, political news

Harris seeks to continue ‘normal behavior’

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Joe Biden promised us in 2020 when he decided to run for president a return to what we all think of as “normal behavior” in our head of state.

The former vice ;president was appalled at the Charlottesville, Va., riot launched by Klansmen and Nazis and declared he would campaign for the “soul of our country.”

By and large the president has succeeded in restoring normal behavior and in recapturing our national soul.

He now wants to hand those tasks off to Vice President Kamala Harris, the current Democratic presidential nominee.

I, too, share in the desire for Harris to continue to trek toward normal behavior and I want her also to keep the scrub brush handy as she fights to restore a national soul damaged so egregiously by Donald Trump’s hot pursuit of an authoritarian presidency.

When you watch and listen to Harris and Trump side by side, it becomes — to my ear — literally impossible to believe that Trump’s inarticulateness ever can lead to anything good. Donald Trump does not have an original thought in that brainless skull of his.

I have to mention, too, that Trump cannot string enough sentences together to deliver any sort of cogent thought. Kamala Harris is fully capable of weaving thoughts into the fabric of sensible policy. That ability by itself sets her apart from the incompetent foe she faces as this campaign winds down to its finish.

media news, national news

Harris, Walz seek to clear the air

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Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic Party presidential ticket, have been criticized unfairly because they haven’t been interviewed extensively by the national media.

Oh, my ….

Republicans have seized on this as a campaign talking point, suggesting that Harris and Walz are too afraid to field “tough questions” from the media on their various policy positions.

They will be put to the test Thursday when they sit with CNN anchor Dana Bash.

This is a bit of a gamble for Harris and Walz. Why? Because Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, their GOP foes, are going to allege — and you can take this to the bank — that they were given softball questions. Trump plays that joker card all the time. Vance, the loyal VP nominee, no doubt will buy into that specious notion.

I continue to hold Harris and Walz in the highest esteem. They have energized their Democratic Party. Harris’s sudden and dramatic emergence as the frontrunner after President Biden ended his candidacy has been a sight to behold.

If I were to place a wager on why the delay, I would suggest that Harris and Walz needed some time to hone their policy positions before facing the national media. Harris only has been running for president for a few weeks and Walz, well, came out of virtual nowhere to emerge as her VP running mate.

Will Bash challenge Harris and Walz if they lie to us? You can bet your oldest child that she will.

I long have thought of Dana Bash as a journalism pro. She is there to seek the truth. Whether the candidates deliver the whole truth likely will be determined by the bias of those Americans who will watch … and listen.

local news, political news

We aren’t a battleground yet

Democrats in the state where I have lived for the past 40 years keep crowing about how we are becoming a “battleground state” for the candidates seeking the U.S. presidency.

Spoiler alert: Texas is not a battleground state. At least not in this election cycle.

How do I know that? Because if we truly were up for grabs, we would be seeing Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent as frequently as they are being seen in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.

It’s not happening. At least not yet.

Now, this isn’t intended to denigrate my wish that we would become a place where Democrats can compete statewide against Republicans. We’re inching closer to that day.

In 2020, Joe Biden lost Texas to Donald Trump by about 5 percentage points. That is tantalizingly close to the margin of error in most reputable political polls. I live in Collin County, just northeast of Dallas County, which — and this might be difficult to believe — has become a Democratic stronghold. 

Yes, I was aware that a lot of Democrats got all wound up when Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced he is a Republican. My reaction: B … F … D! He is elected mayor as a non-partisan; that’s all that should matter to the residents who are concerned about potholes and police protection.

I am going to presume that Trump will get Texas’s 40 electoral votes. I will be curious and anxious to see how the final results roll in.

If only Kamala Harris could get it through the thick and vacuous skulls of the MAGA cultists here about the danger of putting Trump anywhere near the Resolute Desk. If we continue to close the gap between Ds and Rs, then I might be able to accept that our days as a battleground state are closer than I fear at this moment.

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!

Donald Trump

How is this contest still close?

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I consider myself to be reasonably well-educated, with above-average intelligence, one who is still alert at my advanced age and who has a deep love of the country of my birth.

OK, now … someone will have to explain to me how a twice-impeached former POTUS who wants his old job back is still in the race to win the 2024 election.

Bear with me while I review where we stand.

He served a single disastrous term as president; he lost re-election in 2020; he had been impeached twice by the House for high crimes and misdemeanors. He then was convicted on 34 felony criminal counts, found liable in the sexual assault of a journalist. Federal and state grand juries in four jurisdictions have indicted him on a range of alleged criminal acts, including the Jan. 6 assault on the government that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

All the while, he has hurled insults at veterans, Gold Star families, immigrants, gay people, women of all stripes, a physically challenged reporter for the New York Times and admitted to grabbing women by their private parts because he’s a “celebrity.”

These issues don’t even touch the myriad cluster-fu** acts that he committed as POTUS.

We fired this guy four years ago. We told him he wasn’t fit the job he had. Now he wants it back.

How in the name of all that is sacred, holy and sane does this add up?

I’m sure some High Plains Blogger critics will see fit to tell me I don’t get it. They are right.

I don’t.

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!

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

Crowd size doesn’t matter

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Donald J. Trump keeps crowing — apparently falsely — about the size of the crowds to which he has been speaking.

He calls them “the largest anyone’s ever seen.” His critics, led by Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz, accuse him of (what else?) lying about the size of the crowds.

Allow me for just a brief moment to put the issue into another perspective.

Crowd size doesn’t matter. Size might matter in a lot of different contexts — if you’ll take a moment to ponder them — but not the size of crowds.

When I returned home from the Army in 1970, I got politically active. I guess you could call me a member of the “Vietnam Vets Against the War” in Vietnam. In 1972, we rallied behind a candidate who vowed, if elected POTUS, he would end the war.

Sen. George McGovern spoke to huge crowds all across the land. They were gigantic. They set unofficial records, as I recall.

In Portland, Ore., where I grew up, McGovern held a rally in downtown Portland. Huge crowd, man! Thousands of people gathered. I was one of them.

McGovern got us all fired up. We were ready to kick ass and take names … you know?

You’ll remember what happened on that Election Day. Sen. McGovern lost 49 of 50 states to President Nixon.

This is my way of saying that Donald Trump’s empty boast about big crowds means absolutely nothing …. particularly when he lies about it!