GOP Not Waiting On Trump

Donald Trump has done this for years. I remember watching an episode of the Apprentice one night, and Trump had all of the celebrities in the board room (he stopped giving away jobs at Trump Inc. years ago!), and asked them if he should run for president. Of course their answer was yes. What else could they say?

Fast forward to today. Trump is still the titular head of the Republican party, having been the last presidential candidate. And he continues to have rallies and speak around the country, hinting that he’s going to “make American great yet again”. He did so again this past weekend at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road To Majority Conference in Nashville.

But apparently that doesn’t mean that others that have been also considering a run for the White House are waiting on Trump to make a decision. I don’t think this is going to end up like when Hillary Clinton ran in 2016, and all of the Dems’ out there decided to wait to see if she was going to run.

Two of the potential candidates also spoke at the Nashville get together. Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley were there giving keynote addresses. And neither sounded like they were waiting for Donald Trump. In fact, both praised Trump as being the right person needed in 2016 when he won. But they will decide if THEY are the right person in 2024, and if they are, THEY will run.

I get the feeling hearing from the Pence clan that Mike Pence is pretty much thinking along the same lines. That means that Trump, if he does decide to run, may not have seventeen other candidates to plow through as happened in 2016. But he may have more competition than he would like to have had going into the primaries in 2024.

What is interesting is that when some of the others considering running were asked if Trump should stop talking about 2020 and focus on 2024, they all responded basically the same way. Trump should do what Trump thinks is right for Trump. Personally, 2020 was two years ago. It’s history. And yes, we need to learn from our history, but I don’t think we need to relive it quite as often as Trump would want us to believe we need to. Just a thought.

Either way, I think I’m going to be buying stock in Orville Redenbacher.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

It’s Official!

The entire political crowd inside the beltway is talking about Joe Biden, and not in a good way. The latest Associated Press poll came out, one of the few that basically had Biden still simmering at 41%. But that was before the latest monthly poll came out. He has dropped down to 39%. That’s lower than Donald Trump at this point in his tenure, and it’s lower than where he was a year ago in the AP poll by about 24%! That’s right. Last April, Biden’s poll numbers were at 63% approval! You almost have to try to become the least popular president in American history to top that!

And the rest of the news wasn’t as good for the 46th president. Only two in ten Americans said the country was on the right track, down from three in ten last time around. What’s really interesting is when you get inside the numbers, you find it’s not the Republicans or even the independents that are shying away from Biden…it’s his own Democrats! Only 73% of Democrats approve of Biden’s job so far, and that’s down from 82% a year ago. In fact, Democrats held Biden at 82% approval all throughout 2021.

When asked if Biden’s policies have helped or hurt the economy, 18% said they’ve helped. That’s down from 24% in March as the inflation spiral starts to take hold, and the food and baby formula shortages are increasing. Over half the country (51%) have said his policies have hurt the country, while 30% said that his policies haven’t made a difference one way or the other.

In a separate poll from Quinnipiac, Biden’s support among Hispanic voters is now at 26%. That’s down from 55% a year ago. And in terms of November’s midterm elections, it doesn’t get any better. There is a nine point swing toward Republicans when it comes to the “generic ballot” question…you know…will you vote for the Republican or the Democrat? I can’t recall Republicans ever having that big of a margin over the Dems! One model shows there will be a 44 seat swing in the House to the Republicans, giving them a solid majority. But what’s shocking is the Senate. The same model shows the GOP picking up 11 seats. That would give them 61, and would mean they don’t need Democrats to vote in anything! They would be only six seats away from veto-proof majority, and that’s saying something!

It’s just the latest prediction that there is a red-wave-tsunami coming and it doesn’t appear Democrats have any chance of slowing it down, much less stopping it. That may be why Biden and Nancy Pelosi are trying to double down on the Dem’s uber-liberal agenda. They know the end is coming soon and they want to pass anything and everything they can before next January!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

EXTRA! Not So Great Trump Night

Donald Trump has basically breezed through this primary season with his endorsements. Oh, there have been the occasional bumps, like the Lt. Governor in Idaho getting thumped by the incumbent. But overall, Trump had won far more than he lost.

Until last night.

It wasn’t a very good night for Donald Trump (though that’s a strange comment when you think about it seeing how he wasn’t on the ballot anywhere!) Trump got beat when his endorsed candidates got whipped in a few races. David Perdue got beat by incumbent Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp by a 3 to 1 margin. Trump had blasted Kemp for his reactions to the vote in Georgia in 2020 where Trump felt he had the vote stolen from him there and the state officials, all Republicans failed to come to his aid.

In a down-ballot race, Trump had endorsed Georgia Representative Jody Hice against incumbent Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. The incumbent refused to Trump’s demands to “find more votes” in the 2020 presidential race. I could have run with Trump’s endorsement in this race!

However, Trump did score a major win as former football great Herschel Walker whipped the rest of the field in fine fashion to earn a spot on the November ballot against Senator Raphael Warnock. Walker really didn’t need Trump’s endorsement, as pretty much all of the Republicans in the state backed his candidacy.

One other race that featured a “sort-of” Trump endorsed candidate was Mo Brooks, Representative from Alabama running for the GOP seat being vacated by retiring Richard Shelby (R-AL). He originally had Trump’s support, and even spoke at the “Stop The Steal” rally in support of Trump back in January of 2021. But when Brooks told reporters, “It’s time to move past 2020”, Trump pulled his endorsement. At the time Brooks was trailing badly in the polls, but he made a resurgence without Trump’s support to earn a runoff against the former leader of the Business Council of Alabama, Katie Britt. But Brooks will need a runoff victory to keep his spot. He’ll go up against Britt who got 44.7% of the vote. That was far ahead of Brooks who finished second with 29.2%.

So, what does all of this say about Trump’s endorsed candidates? Basically what I’ve thought all along. People are voting for the candidates, not the endorsements. At least that’s the way it looks in the deep south.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

What’s Going On With The Shootings?

I don’t usually say much about these mass shootings that have been going on. There’s usually enough grousing about it on both sides. Let me just say this. It IS a tragedy. However I think the media, who rarely gets anything right, and the Democrats and leftists out there are getting it wrong on one account. It ain’t the guns doing the killing. It’s other people.

Joe Biden called the latest mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, “a national embarrassment.” Presidents going back as far as the eye can see have tried to stop the violence. It hasn’t worked. So let’s take a look at why it hasn’t worked.

It’s not the guns.

If you look at what the left is saying, they are calling the latest shooting in Buffalo a “racist” killing. 18 year old, Payton Gendron was taken into custody after killing 10 people. He was arraigned Saturday evening on first degree murder charges. Gendron is white. The shooting occurred in a mostly black neighborhood. But is race the issue here? I think not. In 2021 in Boulder, Colorado, a Syrian man shot and killed ten people at a King Soopers grocery store. Look at the mass shooting in New York City on the subway last month. The shooter was black. Race isn’t the issue here.

Was it right-wing ideology? Nope. That doesn’t fit either. Shooters have crossed ideological lines all over the place. You can’t blame it on Trump. You can’t blame it on George W. Bush. You can’t even blame it on Biden or Obama. It’s not ideological.

So, what was it?

I’m going to have to join the ever-growing group that says it’s a mental illness situation. I think it’s basically the situation that we’re seeing a decline in our social fabric. What’s causing it? I really believe it’s the breakdown of the family, and a laxness in religious belief. We’re seeing fewer and fewer people going to church. We’re seeing families that are now second and third generation single parent households. And those kids grow up without the proper parental guidance. I’m not going to blame it on Hollywood or violent video games, though that may be part of it. But somewhere, these shooters have a few screws loose. That seems to be the cause, and that is the issue that needs to be addressed.

Let’s all agree on one thing. If you got rid of guns altogether, and no one had them, there would still be murders. People would be stabbed, bombed, strangled, you name it. Guns are convenient, yes. But guns aren’t the cause of the murders. People are the cause of the murders. And by the way, don’t blame Trump. In the last three presidents, Barack Obama in eight years in office had 18 mass shootings in which eight or more people were killed. Donald Trump had seven on his watch in four years. Joe Biden in 16 months has had 12.

I know the familiar mantra is to blame the guns and call for the banning of assault rifles. That doesn’t matter. Until we start getting serious in this country about mental health, and not allowing those that aren’t sane to have guns, this will continue. Payton Gendron was a racist, that we know is true. But he also had to be mentally ill. You don’t travel three hours from home to target a black neighborhood’s grocery store and then target blacks in that grocery store if you’re all there mentally. Banning guns isn’t the problem. Banning people that shouldn’t have guns is. That’s not to say that is going to get rid of the problem either, but it will help.

Look at the city of Chicago. There are more shootings in Chicago than just about everywhere else in the country. There have been 186 murders in Chicago (up to the point this was written) in 2022, and there were 800 there last year! And this is a city that has outlawed guns. How is that happening? It happens because the shooters don’t care if they are breaking the law of having a gun. They are already breaking the law in murdering someone. Why would they care if you tack on another three years to a life sentence?

Until the leftists realize what the problem really is, and take steps to solve that problem, you’re going to see these mentally ill people continue to shoot up America. What’s it going to take to get them to realize, guns don’t kill people. It’s the person with their finger on the trigger.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

All Powerful Trump Endorsement? Not Quite!

Most of the results from yesterday’s primary are in. Most of Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates across the primaries did pretty well, but not all. In fact, it’s safe to say that the biggest endorsement of the night kind of fell flat.

That would have belonged to Mehmet Oz in the GOP primary for the US Senate in Pennsylvania.

Oz is deadlocked in an assured recount as the absentee ballots are opened today and probably for the rest of the week. Oz and David McCormick are less than 0.5% apart after the initial votes were counted, with Republican upstart Kathy Barnette trailing the pair by about 6 points. Trump put a lot of effort into backing Oz, including a Pennsylvania rally last week. But when the initial vote count was done, Oz had 31.3% of the vote to McCormick’s 31.1%. Barnette had 26.2%.

In the race for the GOP nomination for Governor in the Keystone State, however, it was all Trump-backed Doug Mastriano. He crushed his opposition in a landslide.

In North Carolina, Trump scored another endorsement win as Representative Ted Budd defeated former Governor Pat McCrory for retiring Senator, Richard Burr’s seat in the US Senate. McCrory had built a sizable lead until Trump threw his support behind Budd. In the end, Budd was the clear winner.

Things weren’t so great in Idaho however. There, Governor, Brad Little was battling his Lt. Governor, Janice McGeachin, who Trump was supporting. Little won the contest easily, handing Trump his first defeat of the night.

So, it was mostly a good night for the Trumpster, but we need to wait and see as far as the Pennsylvania Senate race is concerned. Trump put a lot of stock in the TV doctor to win that primary, and the fact it was so close in a state that meant so much to Trump in 2020 is interesting. What it tells me is, yes, Trump is still the titular head of the Republican party, but he still has some work to do to convince everyone that what he says is what’s best for America and not just Donald Trump.

The biggest test is going to come this November. It will be very interesting to see if Trump’s candidates can pull off general election wins as well as win the nomination. It’s certainly one thing to win a nomination in a primary battle. It’s quite another to win the dogfight of a general election and actually win the seat. My hunch is a lot of Trump’s candidates will do well, but not all. The man, after all, is not infallable.

Ooops. Gotta go. My popcorn is ready!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

But Does Biden’s Staff WANT Him To Run In 2024?

That is going to depend on who in the Biden administration you ask. Joe himself has all but declared his candidacy for 2024. That was much to the chagrin of his staff, who don’t want him making that statement. In fact, they’ve gone to rather extreme lengths to make sure that Joe follows their script and doesn’t wade off into the weeds as he is known to do.

There are some issues, as we’ll discuss.

First of all, you’ve probably noticed that you don’t see Biden sitting in the Oval Office with the press surrounding him as he signs a bill, or makes a statement, or answers question. There’s a reason for that. The Oval Office doesn’t have a teleprompter in it. Instead, they’ve built a “phony” staging area next door to the Oval where Biden staffers feel much more comfortable with him holding those media events. That’s because it DOES have a teleprompter. It’s the biggest fear of his staff…him going off message. And you hear him complain about it all the time. How often does Joe say something like, “Well, I’m not supposed to say this, but…”, or “I’m not allowed to take questions.”

But most of the staff are preparing for a run in 2024. They certainly don’t want Biden saying that because of plummeting poll numbers, or a decline mental or physical health, he’s only going to serve as president for one term. That would make him a lame duck. And that would be take away an awful lot of power from the office. People wouldn’t respect his thoughts and opinions as much (not that they necessarily do anyway), but it would decimate whatever agenda he has left.

The tightrope that the staff is walking right now surrounds when Joe announces he’s going to run. Most Democrats don’t want him trying for a second term. But if he chooses not to, he has to be careful of when that announcement is made. Too early and as I said, he becomes a lame duck. Too late and the Democrats lose the opportunity to get decent candidates to run in his place. Think back to when George HW Bush was president. It was a different circumstance altogether, but Democrats shied away from running against Bush because he had a 90% approval rating at one point. Only five Dems stepped up to the plate to run in the primaries: Bill Clinton, Jerry Brown, Paul Tsongas, Tom Harkin, & Bob Kerry. None of them at the time would be considered “serious” contenders, and we all know what ended up happening.

At the same time, Donald Trump is all but sure he’s going to run, but he will most likely wait until 2023 to announce as well. He doesn’t want to be the first candidate to announce. He’d rather Biden go first, then he’ll announce a week or two later. Neither Trump nor Biden is going to have a problem with name recognition. Both, for the third presidential election in a row, are going to have a negative problem. They both have negatives that voters see and they’ll have to overcome them. Biden is a buffoon and hasn’t done a decent job at anything. Trump is seen as an egomaniac and someone that is about as far away as being “presidential” as you can get. In the end though, I think most Americans would rather have a decent life style and a guy that’s full of himself than a guy that can’t remember what state he’s in.

2024 will most assuredly be a presidential contest for the ages. I’m not sure which age, but it’s looking like 70’s and 80’s.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is This Trump’s “Big Month”?

It’s much too early for anyone to be actually declaring themselves a presidential candidate for 2024, unless they are totally unknown and need the time to spend eons in Iowa and New Hampshire. But for people like Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, probably two leading contenders in their party at this point, it’s way too early. That doesn’t mean that the pundits and talking heads out there in TV land aren’t awash with primaries in the month of May, and what it all means.

Does it really mean anything if Trump’s endorsements win or lose?

It might, or it might not. Frankly, I’ve never given much thought to endorsements. Why would I care if someone else wants to vote for a particular candidate or not? Am I smart enough to do my own due diligence? Can I assess what my feelings are and how they match up best with the various candidates? I would certainly hope so. I know that’s asking a lot of most Americans who really don’t start getting into who’s running for whatever office until the week before the election, but that shouldn’t be the case.

So, does it matter if Donald Trump has endorsed JD Vance over Josh Mandel in the Ohio Republican Primary for US Senator today? In my mind, no it doesn’t have an ounce of weight as to whether or not Trump makes a decent candidate two and a half years from now. That, as I’m sure you all know, is an eternity in politics. Hell, if you go back in time two and a half years, we are talking fall of 2019. That was prior to COVID. Trump was hated by the left, but was cruising through his first term. Joe Biden wasn’t even considered a front-runner at that point. Bernie Sanders was out there with huge crowds. We had really low inflation, really great economic numbers, really high federal debt, and our friends and allies relied on the US to lead them once again, though they didn’t like the fact that Trump put “America first”.

Well, how much has changed since then? And that’s my point precisely. Do you really think regardless how Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and any other state Trump has endorsed candidates in will matter in 2 1/2 years? I doubt anyone will remember that. Our news cycles have gotten so short that I doubt people will remember who Trump endorsed by Memorial Day. It doesn’t mean anything.

So, to my friends back in the Buckeye State, I hope you vote today. And to all of you that vote in primaries, do your homework, get the candidate you prefer, not who trots out the biggest Hollywood star or political figure to campaign with them. Figure who’s best to lead our country. Because if you don’t, you see Congress today? You see the White House today? That’s what you’re looking at if you DON’T do your due diligence!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is “Build Back Better” Dead?

Nope. Not in the least. At least that’s the way several Democrats in the Senate are playing it today. You’ll remember that back in December, Joe Manchin (D-WV) was the one that killed the $2 trillion tax and spend bill that would have brought glee to most Dems. Not so with Manchin. And with a 50/50 split in the Senate, even if they called this a “reconciliation” bill, they couldn’t pass it on their own without Manchin.

There have been talks between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader, Chuckles Schumer (D-NY) to try and find some common ground that would and could pass the Senate. The two met at length this past Tuesday, and this is reportedly what came out of the meeting.

Manchin said he would be voting FOR a new Build Back Better plan if it did two things. First it had to control inflation, which is running as high as it has in the last 40 years. Second, it has to bring down the federal deficit. Manchin, sounding more like a Republican than a Democrat here, said that he would indeed be willing to increase the corporate tax levels to 25% (it’s currently 21%), and would raise the capital gains tax to 28% (currently 20%). He also wants to see the loopholes closed so “that everyone pays their fair share in taxes”.

Now comes the kicker that might kill any chance of it passing. Manchin said that if all of that was done, half of the revenue would have to go toward deficit reduction and couldn’t be used to spend on new social programs like Green New Deal. That will most likely be the sticking point.

I don’t think that anyone in the Democrat party is going to be upset with a tax increase on either corporations or capital gains. And certainly not one that closes loopholes. What they will go absolute bat-crazy about is the half of revenue generated will be going to offsetting the deficit. Democrats don’t seem to think that a deficit is that important of a deal. Oh, they screamed a little bit about it when Donald Trump was president, but that was only because it was Trump in the White House spending the money. Had it been Bobo Obama, or Joe Biden, they would have gleefully approved the spending.

If Manchin sticks to his guns on this one, I can’t see any real compromise that gets the likes of a Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to jump on board. They interviewed Dick Durbin (D-IL) about the meeting, and while most Dems are tight lipped about what went on, or just plain don’t know, Durbin said he was the “most skeptical” that a deal could be reached. What is most telling is the fact that Republicans are opposed to any corporate or capital gains tax increase, and joining them on the “no” side is Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema. That means that without a Republican joining the Dems, even Manchin’s best wishes won’t come to fruition!

Remember, if the Democrats lose one seat to Republicans in the midterm elections, they lose the chance to pass any of this stuff come next year. That’s why I think you’re going to see a major push over the summer and early fall (a rarity during a campaign year) to pass as much of Biden’s programs as they possibly can. They know the handwriting on the wall and can see that their chances of getting anything else done between now and next January is the only way that happens.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

But If Biden DOESN’T Run…

Politics is a game of timing. What worked in 2020 probably won’t work in 2024. There are several reasons for that. Joe Biden was seen in 2020 as the guy that could bring America back together after what Democrats and independents felt was a tumultuous presidency under Donald Trump. That hasn’t really come to fruition as old age, and a declining mental acuity problem seem to have hampered Biden.

Joe says that he’s all in for reelection in 2024. Of course, you know as well as I that after 15 months of being in office of a 48 month term, you are GOING to say that. You don’t want to be called a lame duck president after one year in office. But what if Biden doesn’t run? There are several reasons why he wouldn’t.

First of all would be his health. The guy will be 81 years old come 2024. You can already see that he has trouble getting around. He doesn’t leave the DC area too much unless it’s to get back to his home in nearby Delaware. You certainly don’t see him making a ton of overseas trips or visiting the west coast of the US. He just doesn’t have the stamina. That’s not a knock. I only WISH I could have stamina to get up and work every day when I’m 79!

Second though is his polling. Don’t think for a minute that doesn’t play into it. If Biden isn’t concerned about his approval numbers, I can guarantee there are a lot of upper echelon Democrats who have already taken notice. You don’t win elections when you are in the 30’s in approval, and your vice president is in the 20’s. That’s not a recipe for success.

So, who would run? Two names popped up in The Hill recently. Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders. And socialist snowflakes in the party are pushing both of them to reconsider running against Biden if they need to in the primaries. The money, they say, is there to help them. They just need their commitment. Sanders is already 80, and will be 82 by the time the 2024 election is held. Warren is just a child comparatively speaking. She’s 72 now and will be 74 then. And that doesn’t bode well for grabbing the youth vote. And when you consider that Trump is going to be 77, well, it’s the geriatric club that seems to be running. However, Monday, Warren came out and said she was going to run for the Senate in 2024. She ruled out a potential run for the White House, which knocks a hole in The Hill’s article.

Frankly, I can’t see Sanders wanting to make a third attempt at the nomination. I know he doesn’t think that Biden has done the job he hoped he’d do, but still, running for president is a two year full-time job. It requires a lot of passion, which Bernie has, and a lot of stamina. But don’t forget, Sanders had a heart attack the last time he tried this! And the more moderate mainstream Dems don’t want anything to do with his candidacy.

So, who do the Democrats run? If not the progressive wing of the party, you’re probably going to see the same cast of characters you saw in 2020. Buttigieg, Harris, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar, John Hickenlooper, of course, Beto “I can’t win anything” O’Rourke. I doubt you’re going to see Tulsi Gabbard running again after she has been so negative toward Democrats as of late. And that means, yet another short bench for Democrats. No rising star has risen yet. We’ll have to wait and see if one emerges!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Biden’s Title 42 Mess

Oh, it was supposed to be a great victory for Democrats. They were once and for all going to put an end to Donld Trump’s legacy achievements by getting rid of his Title 42 decision along the southern border. The CDC had come out with the idea that May 23rd would be the day they lift it.

Now, in case you’re not familiar with what Title 42 is all about, it is supposed to be a public health order that stops immigrants from gaining entry to the United States during a health crisis, such as the COVID pandemic. Trump initiated it in March, 2020 as a way to close the southern border.

However, it has never been seen by either side really, as a public health issue. It has been seen as more or less a stopgap to the fact Congress doesn’t have the cajones to fix the broken immigration system. Republicans hailed it as a monument to Trump. Democrats saw it as a racist attempt to bar those seeking a better life from entering the country. But it continued until the CDC announced that it would end on May 23rd.

And that’s when the screams started again. This time, Republicans were totally against the Biden administration lifting the ban, which really hasn’t been followed at all since Biden took office. Democrats slowly, but surely have clamored on board fearing that with immigration still at top four issue, especially in border states, that they could lose big in those states if Title 42 were dropped.

Now, according to the latest vote whipping, nine Democrat Senators have come out against dropping Title 42, at least until after the election. Their reasoning has nothing to do with public health concerns. It has to do with reelection and holding on to the US Senate. They fear that if border states and some others decide that the issue at the border is a viable campaign issue, and Biden decides to do away with Title 42, they are admitting they want to flood the country with illegals. That would be bad and they not only would lose the House (which by all accounts Democrats have already given up on), but they’d lose the Senate as well. That would in essence make Joe Biden a lame duck president two years into his term.

But what puts Biden in a quandary is that he is going to alienate one side of his party or the other. And he can’t afford to lose either side at the moment. The uber-socialist side like Warren and Sanders want to see Title 42 done away with immediately. Waiting until May 23rd is just being weak in their eyes. Meanwhile you’ve got people like Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) that are in favor of closing the borders to the illegals, not because they don’t want their votes up the road if and when they become citizens, but because their constituents are about 85% in favor of stopping the flood of illegals into this country. It’s even worse in Texas.

So, now there is mumblings in the White House that maybe, just maybe, Biden may be willing to hold off on stopping Title 42 at least until the end of the year, “because we aren’t sure COVID won’t be coming back”. Uh, sure. It has nothing to do with politics, I’m positive, right?

Either way, Biden is once again, going to be on a losing end of an issue with his own party. And that is the most fun to watch! Republicans are just sitting by counting the days until November 8th!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!