Here Comes Biden!

I don’t know when you normally read this blog, but at some point today, Joe Biden is going to become a candidate for President of the United States. No, you shouldn’t expect a big crowd all cheering as he stands in the Rose Garden. There won’t be balloons and fireworks and confetti. It’s a rather low-key affair.

He’s going to announce, like a lot of candidates do these days, on the internet.

He produced his announcement a few weeks ago. He’s waited to announce for some unknown reason. Back in the fall, he said he would be making the big move sometime after the holidays. That became after the State of the Union speech in February. When that didn’t happen, it got moved to March, then to now, but there were rumors it wouldn’t take place until the fall sometime.

So the question on my mind is why the delaying tactic?

The answer is really pretty clear. Here you have a politician with approval ratings hovering around the 40% mark. He’s been as low as 38% according to everything I’ve been able to dig up. His VP is at 36% and has become an even bigger joke than he has, even in his own party. Over 70% of the people in the country don’t want him to run. Some 60% of the people in the Democrat Party would favor others over Biden. And then you’ve got the brewing scandals involving Hunter, the laptop, and of course, Joe coercing Ukraine and China to give his family millions of dollars. I mean, how does a politician, sent to do “the people’s work” in Washington DC, who had a net worth in 2009 of only $30,000 to now be worth, according to Forbes, around $9 million? So in 14 years, Biden managed to increase his net worth almost $9 million? How does that happen?

And so the rumors start spreading that he was doing some rather nefarious things when he was Vice President. He’d never really been accused of much more than plagiarism while he was a Senator. So it all had to happen from 2009 through 2016 and beyond, right? That’s when Hunter Biden started cropping up with drug use, and sitting on boards of directors of Ukrainian companies getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with no knowledge or experience of the companies he was sitting on.

You’ve got a president today that was always known as a rather moderate Senator. He was a guy that could indeed work across the aisle. He learned the political game, and got to be a pretty decent player in it. Doing the people’s work? Nah. That was a rouse. It was a stepping stone to making sure all of those still living in his family were going to be set for life. And his net worth rose incredibly in a relatively short period of time…and continues to rise to this day, even though he has just a $400,000 a year salary and has to buy his own food when he’s not entertaining world leaders.

Joe Biden has made mistake after mistake. His biggest had to be the botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan. He’s tried to blame that on Donald Trump, but let’s face it, he was the guy that pulled the trigger on that one, despite warnings from Pentagon generals that the Taliban would take over quickly. He just didn’t realize how quickly. He didn’t realize that he had thousands of Americans and Afghans that had helped America over the past two decades that needed to get out. A lot of those folks are still in hiding there. Robert Gates, the former Defense Secretary, has said that Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of every foreign policy issue since he’s been in the Senate. That’s an incredible admission if you think about it. Over that time, I’m positive you or I could be in that position and get ONE thing right!

No, Joe Biden is going to run for president again…and that announcement will become the top news story today. So we have both contestants from 2020 ready to do battle again. Will it be the same results, and more importantly, will it even matter?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

But What Does He Run On?

California Governor, Gavin Newsome says that he’s not in the race in 2024, but he’s going to support Joe Biden. You’d never know it by his travel schedule. Newsome has been flitting around the country like someone that’s getting ready to announce their candidacy. So, one of two things are happening. Either he’s positioning himself as the “go to guy” for 2028, or he’s getting ready to jump into the race if Biden decides that he’s too old and too feeble to run again. That seems more and more likely since he keeps pushing his candidacy announcement back. Now I’ve heard, and you probably have too, that it’s going to be in the fall sometime.

And Newsome just keeps circling.

But my over-riding question on Gavin Newsome is, what does he run on? Yes, he’s the Governor of the largest state in the union. And yes, he overcame a recall campaign and won a second term for that office. But what’s he done that has been a positive to the point you can stand on a debate stage and crow about it? Crime in Cali is out of control and nobody seems to want to do anything to stop it. You’ve got a homeless and drug problem there that are pretty much second to none anywhere in the country. There are currently around 160,000 homeless in The Golden State. That’s about a third of all of the homeless people in the country (about 500,000 nationwide). And nobody is doing anything about it.

You have a ton of businesses leaving California because of crime, drugs, homelessness not to mention high cost of living and an out of control tax structure. And over the past two years, over a half million people have left California for other safer, less liberal climates, moving to Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Texas. That’s basically about 1.3% of the state’s population! That’s a lot to lose in 24 months just because of bad policies.

So, what does Gavin Newsome run on? He can’t run on any accomplishments that he’s had can he? After all, this is the guy that has pushed mask mandates, shutting down schools and keeping people locked down during the pandemic. He’s pushed for Critical Race Theory to be implemented in his state’s schools. He’s welcomed all sorts of illegal aliens into his fold. And he’s tried to limit what powers police have in keeping the streets safe. Newsome also has championed reparations for blacks, even though California never allowed slavery, and he’s in favor of a universal income for everyone.

What I find amazing is that 17% of California’s residents are living under the poverty line. By the way, if you weren’t aware, that’s one of the highest poverty rate of any state in the country! The poorest is Mississippi with a poverty rate of about 20%. It doesn’t seem to me that there is that much “golden” in the Golden State!

So, again, I ask the question, what does Gavin Newsome run on? Well, he has given us a peek at his playbook already. He went to Florida to lambaste Ron DeSantis. And that’s about all he can do. He’s not going to be able to build up his own case, but he’ll try to tear down the other guy (or gal). He’s been touring the country slamming conservative ideas as “radical”, when he is the one that has been dreaming up incredibly bad ideas. These ideas, by the way, are to the left of what crazy Joe Biden has been talking about. Remember…California has already banned the sale of combustion engine vehicles as of 2035. And yet, when it comes to the 39.5 million residents of that state owning electric vehicles, Newsome himself warned residents last year, not to plug in their EV’s because the electric grid couldn’t take it. Am I the only one thinking that is such a terrible idea?

No, Gavin Newsome is about as wrong for America as Joe Biden is. And I think one thing would happen if he were to run and get elected (he would be probably one of the best looking candidates out there, and that is something a LOT of people base their vote on!). He would set this country on a path of a depression that would make the 1920’s look like a bad day on Wall Street.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Scott’s In… Sort Of. Does He Have A Chance?

South Carolina Senator, Tim Scott (R-SC) sort of threw his hat into the ring earlier this week to become the 47th President of the United States when he announced an exploratory committee has been formed.. The question that people all over the country are asking, not just of him but of the three other contenders that have entered the race after Donald Trump is, does he have a ghost of a chance of succeeding?

Well, the same question was asked back in 2016 about Trump. In fact, I remember very clearly that early on in that primary battle, when everyone thought Jeb Bush was going to win the nomination just because of his pedigree, that the guy named Donald Trump had no chance to win. I think the first person that said she thought Trump was going to win the nomination AND the election was Ann Coulter.

So, if it can happen with Trump, can it happen for the likes of Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, and Asa Hutchinson, it can happen for Tim Scott.

I rather like Scott and his approach. He does have a demeanor about him that is very presidential, and you can’t argue with his politics. There is nothing in there that suggests he’s anything but a conservative.

That said, it’s a long way from 0% to the Oval Office, and that’s where Scott starts out at. But he’s done his due diligence, and has his team together. Now it’s a question of whether America will tune into his message, see if he can differentiate that message from the rest of the field, and become the most likeable guy on the block.

As I look at the field, I’m still waiting for the 800 pound gorilla to enter the fray. That would be Ron DeSantis. His entering officially would most certainly give him a boost in the polls, most likely at the expense of Trump. If he chooses not to get in, then the nomination is Trump’s to lose. And I really don’t think that any indictments from any of the various investigations going on will sway that. Republican voters see this anti-Trump hatred as something that is in Democrats’ minds only. It’s not necessarily a real thing. And if it goes to the Supreme Court (as it very likely could), just on jurisdictional issues, it could most certainly be in Trump’s favor seeing how he nominated three of the nine justtices!

But back to Scott. He says that this “is a fight we must win”, and he’s absolutely correct about that. Scott aptly made his announcement at Fort Sumter, comparing the situations then and now, “On this day, April 12, 1861, in this harbor, the first shots of the Civil War were fired and our country faced the defining moment: Would we truly be one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. America’s soul was put to the test – and we prevailed,” 

There is no denying that Scott is a stateman. There’s no denying his conservative values. And while he has a ways to go to beat someone like a Donald Trump or a Ron DeSantis, I think he’s likeable enough to do that if his message resonates with the public. That will be the key. Well, that and fundraising. You have to be a genius at fundraising these days to become president. Either that or a billionaire!

I probably would slip Scott into third place at the moment behind DeSantis and Haley on my lineup card of who I could support. He’s close to beating out Haley, but we’ll have to wait and see about that. And, being from South Carolina, he most certainly is likely to test the will of the South Carolina voters, seeing how he and Haley hale from the same state.

It’s going to be a long fight, and it will be interesting to see how many others, besides DeSantis decide to throw their hat into the ring. I would tend to agree with most of the talking head pundits that the more candidates there are in the primaries, the better the chances are for Donald Trump to win the nomination because the votes and the delegates will be split among more people. And we’ve already seen how well Trump does at picking off opponents one by one. It’s just a question of who is he going after next.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

What A Difference A Day Makes

It was just yesterday I was talking about how I wasn’t sure Joe Biden would run for reelection. And the fact that if he chose not to for whatever reason he decided to give us, there really aren’t many qualified and potential candidates left on the Democrats’ side.

OOPS!

And then Joe Biden comes out yesterday during the day (I usually write these around 4am MST), and said that he was going to put off making an announcement on his candidacy until the fall. THE FALL? Yup. He’s going to wait until one year or so before the election to make his move.

That’s going to do one of a couple of things.

For any Democrat, other than Marianne Williamson, who’s already in, that was considering running, it puts them in a terrific bind. Either they go ahead and decide to run and enter the fray regardless what Biden’s decision is, which means they are going to run against Biden (not a bad idea in my brain), or they sit on the sidelines, not putting together a staff, not getting a national organization together, not fundraising like they should, for the next five or six months. Talk about being behind the eight ball.

What this decision of Biden’s does is basically tell the world that he’s had it with hearing that his own party doesn’t want him to run for reelection. He’s willing to stick it to anyone else that was considering running against him, at the threat of actually losing the election next year, just to narrow the field significantly. Well, there ARE reasons for it.

First of all, is Donald Trump. With Trump’s arraignment yesterday, and Lord knows how the trial is going to go because the judge is not one of the less bias judicial persons in the state of New York, Biden may want to wait and see what happens. If the whole thing gets thrown out because it’s not much of a case against Trump, or because the fact (as I write this), Trump shouldn’t even be in this position if not for an over-zealous prosecutor who obviously didn’t graduate at the top of his class. Biden realizes that the Georgia election investigation, the January 6th investigation, and the Mar-A-Lago secret document investigation all are more serious cases for Trump. And if the Mar-A-Lago case goes forward, Biden could also be in a world of hurt.

Second is Biden’s health as I mentioned yesterday. Don’t forget, Biden had some sort of cancerous lesion removed when he had his annual physical. They say they got it all, but when was the last time a physician examining the president came out and told us that they were in terrible health, or that they were worried? Can you remember a time? I can’t. So, it may be a health issue for Biden.

And it my be tied to his poll numbers. Biden’s numbers suck. He’s facing some incredibly bad news with OPEC announcing production cuts, which means gas prices are going to rise. And he’s already depleted the Strategic Oil Reserves. An increase in gasoline costs will indeed affect the inflation rate. Maybe not the “official” rate, which doesn’t include gasoline. By the way, those of you keeping score, gasoline included, prices rose 10% in March after a 14.8% increase in February.

So, there are any number of reasons why Biden would want to wait. He has that luxury. He doesn’t need to fundraise. The Chinese will take care of that. He doesn’t need name recognition, not as one of the most recognizable names in the world. And he doesn’t think he needs to campaign since he believes that all of his programs are working wonderfully. Maybe it was a smart move on his part after all. The only problem is, the problems that Americans are facing aren’t going away…they’re getting worse. And there’s only one guy that will take the blame for that, and it’s not Donald Trump.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Will Biden REALLY Run?

That’s the real question as we are already into April. Of course, there is still plenty of time for Joe Biden to announce his candidacy, and to decide whether he’s going to hoist K-baby Harris onto his backside and try and drag her across the finish line one more time. But is he really going to run?

I have my doubts.

I know Biden WANTS to run. I know he SAYS he’s going to probably run. I heard what Jill Biden said. I know what K-baby has said. None of it means anything more than a warm bucket of spit. What matters is what Biden DOES. And as I write this, there is nothing he is doing to further his campaign for 2024.

There are several reasons to feel Biden may not run. First and foremost are the polls. They have consistently been upside down. I don’t think he has ever been above 50% in approval polls so far in the first two-plus years of his presidency. Maybe at the beginning, but it died pretty quickly. And when asked if they want him to run, people in his own party say no. They want someone different. Their only problem is, there IS no one different. Democrats have left themselves with a very short bench. If you’re telling me that the best they have to offer is either K-baby Harris or Pete Buttigieg, I’m thinking Biden almost HAS to run.

Second, you’ve got the whole Hunter Biden stuff going on. Republicans in the House are starting to scream about getting their investigations ramped up. And there are more than rumors that it will end up including Joe Biden getting money from less than legal sources as it concludes. That’s something you don’t want to hit as you’re in the final days of a run for the presidency. Joe is waiting in part to see what all the GOP in the House can uncover regarding Hunter. I don’t really think Biden himself is concerned about what happens to him in the investigation, but he is concerned as to what it will mean regarding his chances for reelection. Merrick Garland isn’t about to indict Joe Biden, period.

Then you’ve got the age and health issue. Running for president takes a lot of energy. It means you’re on the road for weeks at a time, giving several stump speeches in various parts of tons of states. And it means you need to be at your best, mentally and physically. He wasn’t at his best in 2020, but he can blame that on COVID. What excuse does he use this time when his audience is a dozen people?

Steve Forbes, himself a two-time presidential candidate doesn’t think Biden is going to be running. He said that neither Biden, nor Harris will be getting the nomination, because very few people in the Democrat party want that to happen. So, if the party doesn’t want it to happen, where do you turn? They really don’t have many people that are primed to step into the spotlight, and I can tell you, Marianne Williamson isn’t one of them.

Personally, I think that Biden has tasted the “good life” of being president. He likes the attention, and he likes having people come to him with all sorts of ideas. His handlers take care of all of the details in his life, so all he has to do is show up and pretend to shake someone’s hand that isn’t there. They tell him what time to be somewhere, what to say, where to go, and who it’s important to talk to. When he does a press conference, they tell him who to call on and who to avoid. Basically, they treat him like a five year old. But as people get older, isn’t that the way they are treated at his age? More and more it seems like it in his situation.

No, Joe Biden may want to run for president again. He may have to take K-baby Harris with him. But that doesn’t mean that is going to excite the party, and get people to rally around him. He’s in the same position for 2024 that Donald Trump was in during the 2016 campaign. What worked back then isn’t going to work again. Remember, he said he was a “transitional president”? Someone that would be a placeholder and get rid of Trump. Then he can leave and someone better can take over. Well, we’re waiting, Joe!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

It’s BAAACK!

It seems that I’ve said this time and time again, and I have to say it yet again. If the left and by definition most of these folks are in the Democrats’ camp, can’t win through fair and legal means, they will do whatever they need to do to secure a victory at the polls. And they are not above cheating, or changing the rules of the game in order to gain victory. We’ve seen that in the past.

And we’re seeing it again.

Yes, the fact that the elections have become so close that it takes weeks and weeks to determine winners in all of the races is something that does not make the uber-libs happy. They want to show America that they have a mandate! And if they can’t get the mandate through the ballot box, they need to do something that will show that to be the truth. And they are re-opening an old play from their playbook.

They want to do away with the Electoral College to the point that in it’s current form, it’s useless.

The left has opened up the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. This is kind of akin to what the right tried doing a few years back in getting a Convention of States so they could make abortion illegal. The left is hoping that they can get the majority of states, or at the very least, a majority of the Electoral College votes (270) to say that they want the federal election for president to be decided by a popular vote, not the Electoral College vote. And currently 15 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to make that happen. Those states represent some 195 Electoral College votes.

So, what happens if they reach the 270 mark? Well, as it currently stands, if the Compact takes over, let’s say Donald Trump is running for president against Joe Biden. And let’s say that for the sake of our discussion, Trump beats Biden in the popular vote nationally. All of those deep blue states like New York, California, Rhode Island, Washington, and Oregon would have to cast their Electoral College votes for Donald Trump. This is yet another case of “be careful what you wish for, it may end up biting you in the butt!”

Can you imagine a situation where these states have gotten together and decided that they are going to use their Electoral College votes based on the final national total, and Donald Trump wins that? How many of these states would quickly pull out of the “compact”. As it stands now, with the exception of Nebraska and Maine, the presidential candidate that wins that state’s popular vote, gets their Electoral College votes. This basically says it doesn’t matter who in the state votes for Trump, they can all vote for Biden. But if Trump ends up winning the popular vote over Biden, then that state that had zero popular votes for Trump would have to vote for him when the Electoral College meets.

Gee…I can’t see anything going haywire with that system, can you? Everything is going to go along fine until we reach the point where the pendulum swings to the right, and the GOP starts winning popular votes again. Don’t think it won’t happen, history has proven it to happen all the time. One party is more popular than the other, and then it changes for some reason. Same thing will happen here.

The overriding problem with this theory is that you aren’t going to find these states voting for someone they don’t want to win. Democrats don’t usually vote for Republicans, especially for president, unless their guy is a total loser (like Biden?) Then they quickly switch over to wanting to go back to the Electoral College system, and would instruct their representatives in that body to vote for their guy. It’s just the way the left works.

The Founding Fathers that came up with this idea did so for a reason. They didn’t want states like Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and Wyoming to be left out. If you’re dealing with a popular vote versus Electoral College vote, then only the top nine states would ever get visited. That gives the candidate 50% of the country. Forget about the other 41 states that don’t make that cut. You’d never see a presidential candidate in Maine, or Michigan, or North Carolina, or Arizona. There would be no need. If they could just get the deep blue states of New York, California, Illinois, and Georgia on their side, they are well on their way to winning the popular vote.

At least until the pendulum swings the other way!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

EXTRA! GOP Gets Sixth Person In Race For The White House

The Republicans have just added the sixth person to their list of candidates to run for the White House. Asa Hutchinson, the former Governor of Arkansas has just tossed his hat into the ring. Why? Well, as he said…

“I am going to be running. And the reason, as I’ve traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country, and I’m convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts. I believe I can be that kind of leader for the people of America.”

Hutchinson joins Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy in the race for the GOP nomination. One other candidate entered the fray to less than stellar media coverage back at the beginning of February. Steve Laffey, the mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island announced his candidacy on February 2nd. He hasn’t made a blip in the polls yet. And Michigan businessman, Perry Johnson announced his candidacy back on March 1st. Johnson is 75 and has zero political experience.

I don’t believe Hutchinson has shown up in any of the polls to date, and I don’t believe I’ve even heard of anyone mentioning him as a potential candidate. We still haven’t heard from people like Mike Pompeo, or Ron DeSantis, or Mike Pence, who are considering it.

We should all be able to agree at this point, at least according to the polls I’ve seen from several polling services, that Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are the only two people out there with any traction at all at this point. Now, it’s early, and a lot can happen, especially with Trump getting indicted in New York State. But everyone that has anything in the polls is in single digits except for Trump and DeSantis.

For anyone else to make a legitimate run, it’s going to take close to a billion dollars, name recognition out the wazoo, and a national network second to none to upend either Trump or DeSantis. And we’re hearing more and more scuttlebutt that DeSantis may just decide to wait until 2028 and run then. If Biden wins, he’ll be unable to run again, and if Trump wins, the same thing happens. Both will have served their two terms and will be termed out.

I would expect at the very least that there will be three or maybe upwards of four, five, or six additional announcements coming over the next four months or so. Either way, for any of them, it’s going to be an uphill battle the likes of which they’ve never seen before.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Can DeSantis Survive?

Think of this for a minute. You’re Ron DeSantis, the GOP’s new Golden Boy. You crushed Charlie Crist last November by 20 points or so in your reelection bid for Governor, and at the same time, basically retired Crist, the Republican turned Democrat from politics. Everyone is clamoring to have you step into the fight for the presidency. You take your time, stating that you have a legislative session you need to concentrate on, but you’re curious. You plan a few trips. Nothing major…just to Iowa, New Hampshire, and maybe South Carolina to test the waters.

And then Donald Trump gets wind of you wanting to run. And then the media wants to poke holes in you.

You recall back in 2016 when 17 people were vying for the GOP nomination after Bobo Obama’s run. One by one, Trump slammed his opponents. Oh, Jeb Bush was easy to crush. And Marco Rubio seemed glad to finish his run and get back to the Senate. Chris Christie, Rand Paul, and Mike Huckabee all fell by the wayside as did Carly Fiorina. And all at the hand of Donald Trump. Could that happen again?

It seems like it is.

DeSantis hasn’t even announced that he wants to run for President yet, and already the media is bashing him, Trump is calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious”, after praising him for the way he dealt with the pandemic, and his follow through after the hurricane that devastated Fort Myers. Soon, after Trump felt the heat coming from DeSantis, he became only “a fair governor”. And the barbs continued to fly. Campaign stop after campaign stop, Trump would slam DeSantis for anything he could.

And DeSantis decided he would follow Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment…never bash another Republican. So, he was silent as Trump kept leveling shot after shot across his bow.

And my question is, can DeSantis survive where others have fallen?

Make no mistake about it, Donald Trump is the undefeated champion of the world when it comes to insulting his competition. And it’s been a very long time since the political scene has witnessed the full-frontal attack, which Trump is very good at. But can Ron DeSantis mount a campaign after both Trump and the media take shots at him before he even decides to get into the race?

I’m hoping so, but the latest polling, which as we all know can be woefully wrong, says differently. According to the latest Fox News poll, Trump now has over 54% of the respondents on his side, which is amazing this early on, and DeSantis has slid to 24%. That is a 30 point lead for Trump. Now, as I said, it’s way early. Anything can happen. And it can be the littlest thing that causes a campaign to wither and die. A misplaced scream, or an open microphone. Maybe it’s an affair that pops up from the past, or even a campaign ad that doesn’t get the intended message can throw the best plans right out the window.

But the question still remains. Can Ron DeSantis finish his legislative session in Florida, and get into the race, and make up the difference and defeat Donald Trump? I’m not sure at this point…but it IS early.

I think the even bigger question is how the populace on both sides of the aisle will feel if Donald Trump wins the GOP and goes up against Joe Biden for round two. Will anybody really care enough to vote? Most people, like upwards of 70% of their own party don’t want either Trump or Biden to run again. Both are. But can both make it through the primary? Biden will have the easier path to the nomination being the sitting president. But he is going to have at least one challenger. Trump is hoping he’ll have 17 or 18 again, because with 54% of the people rooting for him already, he’s already got the lion’s share of the party, even though 70% don’t want to see him run again.

And then there is DeSantis. Will he cut into Trump’s early lead once he gets on the trail and starts campaigning in earnest? All will be answered in the coming 12 months!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

What If Nobody Won?

I just saw the latest approval numbers for Joe Biden and K-baby Harris. Biden slipped 7 points from 45% to 38% according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Harris is worse than Biden. She currently sits at 36% according to the same poll.

Donald Trump doesn’t fare much better. His approval numbers according to Five Thirty Eight sits at 41%. And when asked if they wanted Joe Biden to run for office, only 27% said yes. When they asked the same question for Donald Trump, it was slightly higher at 28%.

So, my question is, what if they held an election and nobody won?

It seems to me that nobody wants either Joe Biden nor Donald Trump to be the nominee in their respective parties. Or at least very few people do. If that is the case (and frankly I’m not sure how much credibility I can put in polls any more), then one would have to come to the reasonable conclusion that neither should be seeking the nomination. If anyone decides to run against them, they should be defeated, right?

But that’s not the case. This whole thing in New York with Alvin Bragg trying to decide whether or not to indict Trump over paying hush money to a porn star for an alleged sexual affair actually boosted Trump in the GOP primary. And Biden has had a very difficult time in his own party after he signed the Republican backed bill to deny Washington DC’s city council or district council, or whatever they call themselves, their crime bill that called for an “easing” of prosecution for crimes like car-jacking, which is at an all-time high in our nation’s capital.

Trump is currently leading Ron DeSantis, who sits in second place among GOP hopefuls 54% to 28% according to a newly released Morning Consult poll. So, to understand this (and it’s difficult to grasp logically), only 28% of Republicans want to see Donald Trump run again, yet when paired against a whole slew of Republicans that either have announced or possibly could announce their candidacy, Trump basically has doubled up on the guy in second place? Where is the logic in that?

Of course, Biden is looking at trying to sew up his nomination and reelection by running to the center. He’s trying to take a page out of the Clinton playbook. Speaking of Clinton, while the GOP will be looking at possibly twelve people running for the nomination, Democrats have very few. Marianne Williamson is the only announced Democrat to run against Biden so far, and she doesn’t even show up in the polls. But something interesting is happening. A lot of these polling firms are putting out “what if” scenarios. For instance…if Hillary Clinton ran against K-baby Harris, Harris wins by 13%. If Michelle Obama runs against Harris, she beats Harris by 5 points. But if Biden runs against Obama, Joe wins by 7%. So much for being the savior of the Democrat party!

And what if Biden runs against his own Vice President? Don’t laugh. It has happened before. But it was a long time ago. Thomas Jefferson, as VP, ran against John Adams, who was the sitting president. As you know from your history class, Jefferson beat Adams.

But to answer the question above, what if nobody ever voted and nobody won? Well, of course, the House of Representatives would decide, which means that at this point, it’s most likely a Republican would defeat the Democrats, at least if they could agree on who they would be backing.

I can’t imagine at this point a Biden/Trump race if less than 30% of each party wants to see them be the candidates. Here’s hoping some semblance of sense arises in the voting public over the course of the next 19 months or so. Either that or we are in for a lot more of the current atmosphere in the country. This is why people on drugs shouldn’t be allowed to vote!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Five Questions Trump Must Answer

The Hill has come out with an interesting article written by Niall Stanage about the upcoming presidential campaign. Basically it says there are five questions that must be answered before Donald Trump gets the GOP nod to be it’s presidential candidate again. And they are questions that every American, Republican or not, should be asking.

First off, what is the affect of an indictment on Donald Trump? Manhattan’s District Attorney is readying charges that Trump paid off porn star, Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The big questions I have regarding this are, did Trump pay off Daniels? Is it actually illegal to pay “hush money”, and hasn’t this thing hit the statute of limitations already? It’s been seven years! Of course, what the affect is on Trump’s campaign if he is indeed indicted is something that’s already being hotly debated, and we’ve discussed it here earlier. I think it will have some impact, but the true Trump supporters are going to hang with him. They’ll see it as he paints the picture…it’s another witch hunt.

Second question that would need to be answered is just how solid is Trump’s support? He didn’t fare very well in the November elections as far as his endorsed candidates are concerned. Oh, the majority of the won, but the candidates in the swing states didn’t do all that well. Herschel Walker lost in Georgia, Kari Lake lost in Arizona. Blake Masters also lost in Arizona, Adam Laxalt lost a close race in Nevada. Mehmet Oz got beat by John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, and Doug Mastriano got swamped in the Governor’s race there. That’s six very key races that Trump lost…in states that he lost to Joe Biden in. He obviously hasn’t been able to turn the corner in those states just yet.

Of course, a lot can be made out of this past election cycle. If you look at the candidates that I listed above, really only Adam Laxalt was a quality candidate. Maybe you can throw Mastriano into the mix, but even he was a little squirrely in his campaign. Walker, Lake, Masters, and Oz, were all just terribly weak.

The third question that needs to be answered is the question of age. You know it’s going to be a factor for Joe Biden. Hell, he’s even said it would be a factor moving forward. But Donald Trump has been able to skate on that question so far, for pretty much one simple reason. He is in his mid 70’s right now, and would be 82 if he wins and serves a full second term. But he doesn’t look like he’s in his mid 70’s. And he’s got a lot more spring in his step than Biden does. He also doesn’t make as many mental errors. So, yes…while a lot of the country is saying its time for us to find younger, more in touch leaders, and let the old guard retire to their pastures, you have the top two contenders for their party’s nomination in Trump and Biden, well past retirement age in any other industry. That is going to be a question going forward.

The fourth question is very simply, is Trump still electable? The last thing any Republican, or conservative wants to do is waste yet another election cycle on a candidate that doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting elected. We’ve seen the GOP do that time and time again, just because “it’s someone’s turn”. Look at Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney, all losers and very weak candidates. But all ran and never had a ghost of a chance of winning. My question for Trump isn’t his policies, I’ve been in favor of most of them during his first term. My big question is, can Trump do something to reverse the hatred toward him. Currently, his approval rating is just 34%. And Joe Biden isn’t faring much better at 38%. That tells me there is an “Anybody but 2020 candidates” mentality going on out there. This is probably going to be the toughest question for Trump to answer.

Finally, the question looms about Ron DeSantis. He’s as conservative as Trump, if not more-so. He’s a LOT younger at only 44 years old, so he is able to get around the age question, and would make Joe Biden look like a walking zombie. If DeSantis gets into the race after the Florida legislative session later on this spring or early summer, he is going to be probably the only candidate for the GOP nod that Trump really has to worry about. If he is as big of a rock star in political circles as it looked last November, he is going to rival Ronald Reagan’s appeal. He says all the right things, and as long as there aren’t too many skeletons in his closet (something Trump has always had to worry about), he should give Trump a run for his money next year at this time.

There you have it. Five questions that Donald Trump needs to answer to the American people before we decide on whether or not he’s worthy of getting another shot at the Oval Office. And to be honest, I’m not all that certain that he’s going to be able to do it!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!