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!

More Of The Same?

It really didn’t make a lot of headlines. Oh, the fact that there was some competition did, but in case you missed it, Ronna McDaniel was reelected as the Chair of the Republican National Committee this past week. McDaniel beat out former Trump advisor, Harmeet Dhillon, and pillow sales guy, Mike Lindell. I don’t think many people took him seriously. The vote was 111 for McDaniel, and just 51 for Dhillon.

Now, it’s safe to say that with a former Trump advisor running against the establishment, and Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis saying just before the election, “We’ve had 3 substandard election cycles in a row, ‘18, ‘20, and ‘22, and I would say of all of those ‘22 was probably the worst. Given, the political environment of a very unpopular President Biden, huge majorities of the people think the country’s going in the wrong direction.”

You gotta admit, he DOES make some good points.

Here we have a nation that basically hates the guy in the White House, especially the GOP, and we lost ground in 2018 in the midterm (which is normal). We then lost the presidency, and the House with a tied Senate in 2020, and in 2022, we won a squeaker of a majority in the House, and outright lost the Senate. And though we have debated why the Senate was lost in the past, the basic reason falls on two people…Donald Trump for picking weak candidates, and Ronna McDaniel, for backing the way it was done.

McDaniel is good at raising money, but she got her rear end handed to her in 2022. Here in the desert, the GOP candidate for Senate, Blake Masters, had to rely on his boss, Peter Thiel to give him millions to run against incumbent Mark Kelly. The GOP was outspent seven to one by the Democrats. Kelly spent all summer running ads, and no one in the Grand Canyon State heard anything from Masters until close to Labor Day. You’re not going to win elections that way.

By reelecting McDaniel, the GOP is sitting in the same boat they’ve been in for the past six years. And they’ll sit in it again heading into 2024. But with three election cycle losses to her credit in her three terms at the helm, McDaniel is in the unenviable position of having to win both the White House, AND the Senate, as well as keep and expand the lead in the House. If she isn’t able to do that, she most likely won’t be around for her fifth term, which by the way, is unprecedented in GOP politics!

The question becomes, is Ronna McDaniel the problem? Or is it something else? Actually, I think the problem is deeper than just one person. There has been a rift in the GOP that was a lot deeper than originally thought. It happened when Donald Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower. That candidacy split the party in two and it’s never really gotten back together. Now you’ve got more than two factions that have very little to do with each other. You’ve got the Trump base, you’ve got those that don’t want Trump back at any cost, you’ve got the “freedom caucus conservatives” that tried to stop Kevin McCarthy’s bid to be Speaker, and you’ve got the mainstream Republicans like McCarthy.

And it’s going to be McDaniel’s job to pull everyone together and fight as one team, rather than spend time and effort fighting each other. If you’re going to be the head of a political party, you’ve got to be able to rally the troops around the people that are running and get them across the finish line one way or another. That’s basically, in a nutshell, her whole job description. If she can’t do it this time around, it’s time to find someone who can, and no…I’m not looking in Mike Lindell’s direction. He only got four votes!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The FINAL Post Mortem On Midterms

With Raphael Warnock’s win over Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate Runoff election this past Tuesday, the elections, for the most part are complete. There is one House race left to officially be decided. In the Colorado 3rd District, Lauren Boebert leads Adam Frisch by about 550 votes meaning that they are involved in a recount. He has already conceded to her, and she is expected to keep her House seat. But all of the remaining House and Senate seats have been decided. So, it’s time for a final post-mortem on the election.

First off, there was no red wave. There was, however, a red ripple. like dropping a very small pebble into the middle of a pond. The House of Representatives will change hands and the Republicans will be in charge next year. That’s regardless how Lauren Boebert ends up doing in the recount. Expect the GOP to have a four-seat majority. For Republicans, that’s the good news. But there’s plenty of bad news if you’re Republican.

First and foremost, there were four major Senate races that Republicans were hoping to win in order to shake up Congress entirely. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona were all in play. Some will include New Hampshire in that one, and only a few others would say Colorado’s seat held by Michael Bennett was possibly up for grabs. Neither turned out to be the case. But out of the four that the GOP had hoped to flip, they all stayed with the Democrats. Except of course Pennsylvania. That seat flipped from Republican to Democrat. That’s what gave the Democrats a 51-49 majority.

So, the question is why? What was the big lead up that this was going to be an historical election that would change the course of politics forever? We were told for months that the GOP would take over the House, and that it would certainly be by a lot more than four seats. We were told the Senate would most likely go to the Republicans as well, as this was a referendum on Joe Biden’s presidency. So what went wrong?

Well, I think there were three major issues at play in this year’s elections, and with apologies to Kari Lake, none of them involved voter fraud.

The first problem was that the quality of the candidates the Republicans chose to run in the primaries were not the best. Now, I’m not taking all of the races into account, just the four to six Senate seats that we discussed earlier. Let’s face it. Mehmet Oz, Herschel Walker, and Blake Masters were not good candidates at all. Neither were Joe O’Dea in Colorado or Don Bolduc in New Hampshire. Only Adam Laxalt was what I would call a quality candidate that could of won. So, when you start out with less quality than the opposition, unless you’re going to throw a ton of money at the race, you’re not going to win. And I have to blame Donald Trump for most of that. All of the people mentioned were Trump supported candidates. Only Laxalt had any political experience. And when you’re looking at unseating someone at the second highest level in government, next only to the president, you better have someone that knows how to play the political game. And let’s face it, Trump only chose candidates that went along with his theory that he had the 2020 election stolen from him.

The second problem was that the Democrats came loaded for bear in those four states. They spent oodles of money in each of them. I live in Arizona, and I was seeing ads for Mark Kelly long before I even knew who Blake Masters was. Let’s take a quick look at the amounts raised by the candidates according to Open Secrets.com. Mark Kelly raised $79.3 million to Blake Masters’ $12.0 million in Arizona. In Pennsylvania, John Fetterman outspent Mehmet Oz $56.6 million to $40.3 million and that included $5 million of Oz’ own money. In Georgia, Raphael Warnock raised $150.5 million. Herschel Walker got $58.3 million, and in Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto raised $52.8 million to Adam Laxalt’s $15.5 million. Is it any wonder the Democrats defended their seats and took Pennsylvania? They outspent the Republicans by a 3-1 margin!

The final problem, and it’s being billed as one of the largest reasons the vote turned out the way it did, which I disagree with, was the Supreme Court ruling on abortion. I’ll say that it probably didn’t help the Republicans at all, but I’m not so sure it was the biggest reason the Dems did so well. I’d call it a distant third over all. After all, everyone knew what was coming back in April, when it was leaked.

The Republicans did gain the House, and that’s a good thing, but they have a big task at hand. Whomever gets elected Speaker in January needs to rule with an iron fist to keep this group together. It would also help if they focused on the problems We The People face, not what They The Politicians feel is important. They have a terrible record at determining what is important!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is It Them Or Us?

Watching some “analysis” of the midterm elections over the past couple of weeks got me to thinking. I was of the frame of mind that this midterm election was exceptionally clear. Yes, it was a referendum on Joe Biden. What else could it be? And yes, it was a referendum on how Congress has done over the past two years. Again, what else is there? We’ve seen Congress take no action what-so-ever on little things like crime, border security, immigration reform, tax relief (except for college students, but that had nothing to do with Congress!), high inflation, and an economy that has slowed to almost zero growth for the year. What we got was hearings on January 6th that basically proved nothing. A bill that did help the chip industry out, which was necessary and nice. We got the Inflation Reduction Act, which did nothing to reduce inflation, and we got an infrastructure bill in which most of the money went to Green New Deal programs.

So, am I to blame for thinking that this election cycle was going to be a slam dunk? What the hell happened?

Somebody screwed up in production, and it’s time to ask the question, was it the Republicans who felt that just by saying a red wave was going to sweep over Washington, it was going to happen? Or was it the unwashed poor, huddled masses out there in America, who vote like it was a student council election in middle school? Did people pull the lever just because there was an (R) or a (D) after someone’s name? Or did they think that they voted for the best candidate, and in the very over-exposed elections in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, the best candidate did happen to be a Democrat?

It’s time to put the blame somewhere, and frankly, I’m torn. Yes, I think the GOP overplayed their hand quite a bit. Yes, I think that Donald Trump went out and endorsed people that agreed with him that his 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, regardless what their credentials were like. I mean, you can’t tell me that people like Mehmet Oz, Herschel Walker, and Kari Lake were qualified to be in executive leadership positions. Sorry, being an athlete or a TV star of sorts doesn’t qualify you to be a Governor or a Senator. Notice I left Adam Laxalt and Blake Masters off that list because they probably were the only qualified two of the five.

Or, do we focus the blame on those out there scattered across America that aren’t that smart, don’t care about the issues, only care about what the government can do for them, and the rest of the country be damned. I’m looking square in the faces of the Gen X’ers and the Millennials who seem to want to get to socialism faster than a speeding bullet. Are these folks smart enough to differentiate between the two candidates, or are they just looking for the best deal? This isn’t like buying a car you know. It’s about running a country. And I really don’t think that the majority of the youth in this country today cares about the rest of the world. They care about themselves. And what happens when they get lied to? They shrug their shoulders and go back to their X-Box.

I actually think there was a combination of the two examples that caused the election to be not so much more than a pinkish ripple. And the GOP had better wake up and look at what’s going on before 2024 shows up. If they don’t we’re going to be two more years down the road and I’m going to be saying the same things then that I’m saying today. I don’t think the GOP as a party takes elections as seriously as the Democrats. I don’t think they ever have. And the only reason they sometimes take power in DC is because the country gets tired of the Democrats. They realize that they aren’t going to get all of the bling the Dems promised them. They realize that they’ve been taken advantage of as a lot of the minority groups are just starting to wake up to. And they realize that there might be a better way.

The sad news is, I don’t know if the Republicans are actually the answer. There may be a third party of sorts out there, or a fourth or fifth. Are we becoming more like Europe, where one party isn’t going to be the majority party any longer, but the leaders in the various parties are going to have to coddle together enough of a majority to lead? If you look at the Republicans and the split between Trump and the rest of the party, and the Democrats and the split between the socialists and the more moderate progressives, that seems to be the case. We’ve already got four distinct parties, just under two tents. So, what happens to cause the split and when is that going to happen?

Just questions I’m thinking about today. As always, your comments are welcome!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Did Trump’s Endorsement Help?

That’s going to depend on who you ask. But when I look at the numbers I’d have to say it helped a little bit… but not a whole lot.

Donald Trump endorsed 495 candidates for the midterm elections. 241 of those were primary endorsements. Of the 241 candidates that he endorsed, 219 actually won for a success rate of 91%. That’s pretty good in pretty much anybody’s book. He went on and endorsed 254 candidates for the general election. Of that, 178 won (or are winning). That would be basically a 70% success rate.

But looking at the US Senate races, which were really what I would call the cherry on top of the sundae, he fared slightly better. Trump hit on 18 of 25 Senate races that he endorsed. He lost 4, and as I write this, there were three that were still being counted (though in those three, Herschel Walker is heading for a run off next month, Adam Laxalt is leading Catherine Cortez Masto by a couple points and should win, and Blake Masters looks to be losing Arizona pretty badly. The four that he lost? He had Gerald Malloy winning his seat in Vermont, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, and Leora Levy in Connecticutt. Now, really, only Oz had a shot at winning in PA, and that was a rather long shot considering he was down double digits back in August.

So, the question remains, did a Trump endorsement help? I think he helped in some of the closer races. Now, Trump will say his endorsement was the sole reason these people won, which I don’t believe for a minute. A lot of the people he backed were incumbents. And incumbents, when you get to the level of the House or Senate, are tough to beat, so it’s rather a safe bet. But there were a few places where people taking part in exit-poling said that a Trump endorsement caused them to vote against the candidate. Whether or not it was enough to cause them to lose, who knows?

There is a question going forward that we will just have to wait to find out. Trump is due to announce his candidacy for president on the 15th (next Tuesday). But after Ron DeSantis’ incredible landslide reelection in Florida, including Miami-Dade County and Palm Beach County, I can’t be the least bit surprised if DeSantis decides he can indeed take on Trump and beat him. If he were to do that, and win, there isn’t a Democrat alive that can beat DeSantis in the general election in 2024. And don’t forget, Trump could be facing indictments up the road. That will indeed tarnish his luster.

I can tell you that Blake Masters probably doesn’t believe that Donald Trump’s endorsement did that much for him. He probably would have loved to have had some of that Trump money so he could have run a few more ads in the state. As it was, he was outspent big time by Mark Kelly and his PAC’s. The smear campaign on Masters was incredible! And the fact that Peter Thiel’s money helped him get across the primary finish line, but was noticeably absent in the general election also played a big part.

And I guess you could say Kari Lake didn’t really think that Trump’s endorsement helped her a lot. She was leading in the polls by a fairly good margin, but didn’t finish strong and had a few Democrat PAC’s putting up some negative ads on her, Secretary of State candidate, Mark Finchem, and Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh. Lake was being viewed as a potential Vice Presidential candidate in 2024 had she won.

Is Trump all he thinks of himself to be? No. That part is obvious. He wasn’t able to pull Oz or Masters across the line, and either would have pretty much given the GOP the Senate. We’re still waiting, and the path is still there (at least as I write this) for Laxalt, Johnson, and Walker to give the GOP the upper chamber…but once again, we’re going to have to wait for a Georgia run-off for that to happen!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The (Biggest) Sorest Loser?

There were a lot of election deniers back in 2020. A lot of Trump supporters believed (and a lot still do) that the election was stolen from him and that Donald Trump should rightfully have won re-election. While there were some instances of voter fraud (there always are), the proof in court that there was enough to actually over-turn a presidential election never materialized.

But not all of the election deniers were Republicans. Case in point? Stacey Abrams, who lost to Brian Kemp in Georgia by a scant few thousand votes has never conceded in that loss. And we learned something new about Ms. Abrams, who just ran against Kemp for a second time and got shellacked…she’s calling this election “racist and stupid”. Go figure.

Look, I don’t care what side of the aisle you sit on, and I don’t deny for a second that there have been elections, even presidential elections that have defrauded someone out of the White House (take 1960 for example…the Kennedy’s thank you, Chicago!) But my point is that if you start losing races, and by that I mean more than one time, against the same person who beat you before, and you lose the second time by a MUCH larger margin than the first time, maybe the reason you should be looking at isn’t racist or stupid. Maybe the reason you lost was YOU!

Now, I’m sure that some Democrat somewhere will make sure that Stacey Abrams will have meaningful employment in some field. I’m sure that whoever said up front that she should be one of the last five people that Joe Biden would consider for Vice President (he limited it to women of color, remember?) should be updating their resume today. And I’m sure of one thing…Stacey Abrams political career is over.

Had Abrams lost, but kept is as close or closer as 2020, then I could understand the screams of disinformation, and misinformation, and racism, and it being stupid. But when you get tagged with a 400,000 vote loss, it says something loud and clear. The voters have rejected you. That’s not racist. It’s not misinformation, it’s not disinformation. It’s a fact. And there isn’t anything you can do about it except to grow a pair and admit that you lost. That’s Abrams problem. She can’t admit that a woman of color could actually lose a race they wanted to win.

I don’t feel sorry for Abrams, just like I don’t feel sorry for Blake Masters, or Keri Lake who also, as I write this mid-week last week, look like they are headed for a loss in Arizona. Party doesn’t matter in this situation. Personal responsibility does. And if you can’t muster the personal responsibility to accept when you lose, you have no business being in politics, especially at that level. And to be honest, Keri Lake was spouting off long before Abrams about “cheaters”. Of course, that was without any proof what-so-ever!

So, it’s not a thing about a Democrat denying that they lost over a Republican. Both parties have their deniers. Though I could argue that while someone like a Keri Lake cried a lot during her campaign, the biggest sorest loser of all? That would have to be Stacey Abrams. Sorry libs. Lose once and never admit it, shame on me. Lose twice and still not accept the loss, and you’re the biggest loser!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

It’s Official: Dems Control Senate

It was mentioned at about 6:15pm last evening (PST) that Catherine Cortez Masto had enough votes to defeat Adam Laxalt in the race for Nevada’s Senate seat, thus giving Democrats at least 50 seats and control of the US Senate.

The Republicans have 49 seats to date, and are hoping for at best, a tie, which is what they had heading into the midterm elections. That will be determined after the December 6th runoff between Georgia incumbent Senator, Raphael Warnock, and Republican challenger, Herschel Walker.

Earlier this week, Mark Kelly extended his lead over challenger Blake Masters in the Arizona race, and was projected to be the winner.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is what happens when you have people running for high offices (and as I write this, the Arizona Governor’s race is still too close to call with 266,000 ballots left to be counted), have no political experience. It’s tough enough to unseat an incumbent senator, even if you are an experienced politician. If you’re a neophyte in politics, it’s almost impossible. Oh, it happens, but as we say with Masters, Oz, could see with Walker, the odds of winning are very small.

And really there is only one person to blame for this. Well, there are several. First you have to blame any Republican that didn’t get out in Nevada and vote for Laxalt. He was leading until they started getting deep into the Clark County numbers, and that’s where he fell apart. So, yes, it’s basically Republicans who didn’t vote that cost him, and us. Second, you have to blame Donald Trump. He’s the one that had to endorse hundreds of candidates. And while most of his endorsements, some 70% won in the general election, the toss up states, like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada, all saw the Trump candidates for Senate lose. The one spot that really hasn’t yet is Walker in Georgia, but he was behind Warnock on Election Day.

The reason for that is simple. Trump didn’t look much past whether or not these candidates agreed with him that the election in 2020 was stolen from him. Every single one of those four Senate candidates said it was. I don’t think that the GOP could have done any worse had you or I run for office in those four states.

And, as you’ll hear me say time and time again, I’m going to pin the GOP losing a golden opportunity to handedly take over the House, and edge themselves to take over the Senate, solely on Donald Trump’s shoulders. It should be clear to pretty much everybody that Trump’s political career is following the same path as Stacey Abrams. It’s pretty much over. In fact, if you look at the bettors and who they think will win the presidency in 2024 (I know…they’re at it already!), it’s now Ron DeSantis. Trump slipped to a distant third behind Joe Biden.

There were a lot of “never Trumpers” out there that probably are happy about that, and it’s still two years away, so anything can happen, but when you look at politics at the national level, running for president especially, if you come away a loser more than once (and Trump is on a three election cycle losing streak losing in 2018, 2020, and 2022), you’re pretty much toast. Somehow, I don’t think, unless there is a 1969 NY Mets type of miracle out there, Trump has much of a chance at rebounding.

And I’m OK with that as long as the GOP can field someone that is competent, has enough political chops to get the job done, and aligns pretty closely with Trump’s policies. Those policies were, after all, what led to a very solid economy up until the time COVID threw a monkey-wrench into the works. Seems to me that we’ve already got that candidate in the current Florida Governor. DeSantis was the big winner in the midterms, not Trump.

So, while we are not going to be able to stop Joe Biden from making wildly socialistic nominees for federal positions and yes, the Supreme Court, we do need to realize that by taking the House, should that happen, it will basically cause gridlock for the next two years. What is scary is that the Republicans, as I write this still need seven seats in order to secure leadership in the House. Do you want to take a guess how bad it would be if Democrats actually kept control of both houses of Congress???

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

My One Big Fear This November

Here we are, just a few days away from what could be a monumental election result. Most of the country is turning red and are planning on (or already have) voting for Republicans. It’s a foregone conclusion that the House of Representatives will be in Republican hands come next January. And it looks like the Senate is slipping away from the Democrats as we speak. As I write this, here in the desert, the Libertarian candidate for US Senate has bowed out of the race, and has endorsed Blake Masters over the bald incumbent, Mark Kelly.

So why do I have a fear?

It’s because Republicans are great at following, but having been a political junkie for decades, I’ve noticed they aren’t that good when it comes to leading when they rule Congress. In fact, with rare exceptions they suck at it. Now, that’s not to say that they’re going to be as bad or worse than the group of slack-jawed idiots running Capitol Hill now. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But lets look at history.

Only 12 times since 1960 has the House, the Senate, and the Presidency all gone to one party. Eight times the Democrats held the power of all three, the GOP has held it four times. Democrats are the only party to hold sway for more than two consecutive terms having led all three governmental posts throughout the 1960’s (1961 to January 1969 when Nixon took over in the White House).

My point is simple. Whenever the GOP has managed to take over even just Congress, they haven’t had much success at running things. Oh, they did for a good while back in 1994 when Newt Gingrich was able to run on the Contract With America. Until Kevin McCarthy unveiled his Commitment To America, it hadn’t been tried since. But once in power, the GOP seems to waste time and effort on meaningless things.

Remember 2010? The House became Republican, and even though the Democrats controlled the Senate, the one thing that couldn’t get passed was getting rid of Obamacare, which was the reason Republicans won the House. They would have another chance to do it again in 2017. It passed the House, but John McCain’s holdout vote in the Senate caused the whole thing to come crashing down.

And there’s the rub.

What we are seeing this term with Democrats is the way Republicans typically have led in Congress. There are the factions that fight among themselves, much like the progress/socialist wing of the party is fighting with the mainstream wing of the Democrats today. What the Republicans need to do, is control Congress and force Joe Biden to do THEIR bidding, not the other way around. Why is it so important that the GOP takes control of the Senate? If all we get is the House back, then it becomes 2010 all over again and nothing will change.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, having gridlock in Congress is a great thing. Nothing gets passed in Congress usually means good things for America. But you also don’t tear down all the garbage that the Dems have forced upon us when they were in charge. And, don’t forget, Biden is supposedly in charge for another two years. That means in the event of someone leaving the Supreme Court, or filling the federal bench, Biden gets to nominate someone. And that person most assuredly will be very liberal. If the Republicans hold sway in the Senate, they control whether a nominee gets appointed or not. That is very important going forward!

If Republicans get good at legislating and leading, winning both sides of Congress will be an awesome advantage and cause Biden to move to the right to get things done, especially with a conservative Supreme Court. If they are going to fight among themselves as they’ve been historically apt to do, at the very best, we’ve created gridlock. But it sure beats what I’ve been watching for two years!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Can We Do Something About Misleading Campaign Ads?

They are all over the place. If you happen to live in a state where you don’t have a Senate candidate running for reelection, get down on your knees and thank God Almighty that you are spared the nonsense that some of us have to go through. And the problem is, at the present time, there is nothing we can do about it.

I’m talking about the lies and distortion of political advertising.

I’ll give you several examples about what I see here in the desert where we have a close race between incumbent Mark Kelly (D), and newcomer Blake Masters (R).

Kelly has come out and said that Masters wants to do away with Social Security and Medicare. That’s not true at all. What Masters has said is that it may be time to actually privatize Social Security. And he’s right. The left is making this sound like it’s some big deal, when every person working today (unless you’re extremely lucky to still be getting a pension when you retire) is invested privately in the stock market through your 401k. And the GOP wishes to privatize Social Security doesn’t have a thing to do with anyone currently on it. It’s a lie that Kelly loves to tell.

You’re hearing a ton of ads (mostly through PAC’s) that Republicans want to ban all abortions. That’s nowhere near the truth. Republicans have offered a few alternatives to a complete ban, such as Mitch McConnell’s 15 week limit for abortions, but it’s a states’ rights issue, not the federal government. I know it pisses off the left to hear that each state has the right to decide the future for themselves, but that’s the Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled correctly on this one.

And we get the over-blown resume-padding from incumbents that say they’ve done much more than they’ve actually done. Kelly has ads saying that “He passed a bill to improve Arizona’s infrastructure.” No…HE didn’t pass it. His party passed it. It’s not like he was sitting in the Oval Office, pen in hand ready to sign the bill when it arrived. He was told by Chuckles Schumer to vote yea on it, and he did. That’s not him “passing” anything. And he’s said this on a lot of different accounts.

Then there is the name calling. Here in Arizona, we’re in the midst of not only a Senate race, but also for the Governor’s mansion. Kari Lake (R), a former newscaster for 27 years is running against Katie Hobbs (D) the current Secretary of State. Lake has been leading by 3 points for quite some time now. It hasn’t changed. But leave it to the PAC’s to call her names like “Kari Fake” and say that she’s doing all sorts of nasty stuff. We really don’t hear much about this on the other side, though it does exist.

I’m just getting sick and tired of the lies and half-truths that are being told in political advertising. The sad thing is there isn’t anything you can do. Radio and TV stations are obliged to run the commercials they are given, regardless if they are true or not. And they can’t edit or change them in any way. When I was working in Ohio back in 1984, there was a guy running for President in the Ohio primaries that used the word “BS” (but said the actual word) in his campaign commercials. We couldn’t do a damn thing! We had to air it as we got it. So, if these politicians want to lie or twist the truth or mislabel something, they can do it without fear of retribution.

That needs to change. It would be nice to get back to the point where these ads actually told me WHY I should vote for a candidate, not how the other person should be in prison!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Here’s What America Thinks Midterms Are About…

I’ve spouted off pretty regularly now about how the GOP isn’t getting their message across, and how the Dems are trying to make this about abortion and taking away Social Security. Well, that’s nice that the parties are trying to define the election, but in essence, that’s not what matters. It matters what the PEOPLE think the midterms are all about. And it’s a pretty interesting comment.

It’s a referendum on Joe Biden.

At least that’s what 46% of the respondents to a survey taken by Rasmussen say. 40% say it’s about candidates and local issues, and 14% aren’t sure (still on summer break?).

A solid 50% of the 1,000 people surveyed said that if the Republicans win the House or Senate, that Joe Biden should temper his politics and become much more moderate.

So, what does that all mean? If a plurality of voters think that it’s all about Biden this time around, this should be a massive red wave, even with the meager Biden wins that he’s had in the last few weeks. And it raises a very interesting point. One of the major comments I keep getting from people is that Democrats don’t want to debate. We’re seeing it here in AZ, and you see it with the Fetterman/Oz battle in PA. It’s happening in a lot of other places as well.

When one side doesn’t want to debate it’s usually a sign that they are so far ahead in the polls that they can’t possibly do anything but fall if they debate. Usually it’s only the people trailing in the polls that want to debate because they feel they have something that will damage the leader. But in this case, it’s entirely different. The Democrats know they are going to have to distance themselves from Biden, and defend him because he’s in their party. That isn’t sitting well. So, they decide that they just don’t want to go through the hassle of prepping for a debate.

However, there are exceptions to that rule, and I can point to Fetterman/Oz, and here in AZ, the Governor’s race between Kari Lake and Katie Hobbs as an example. In both situations, the Republican candidates are extremely well versed in television. Oz had the “Dr. Oz” show on TV for years, and Kari Lake was one of Arizona’s most prominent newscasters for decades. Fetterman, having just suffered a stroke earlier this year is having problems speaking (Sorry John, I’m not making fun of you, I’m just stating a fact), and Hobbs is a career politician, not someone well-versed in television.

While Hobbs hasn’t chosen to debate Lake at all, Mark Kelly, himself on the hook for several lies in his political ads, has agreed to debate Blake Masters for the US Senate seat. But that’s simply because the race has tightened immensely in the past two weeks. Kelly had a 15 point lead a couple of weeks ago. Today it’s down to four. And Masters hadn’t run many ads throughout the summer months, but he’s starting to buy up TV time left and right, even though Kelly is outspending him 10-1.

The real focus on the midterms seems to be Joe Biden. If that’s the case, screaming that MAGA Republicans are a disaster for the democracy isn’t going to bode well for the Dems, even though there are several in Congress that echo Biden’s sentiments.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!