One to laugh and one to cry. I’m relieved Trump didn’t disqualify himself, but I’m upset that he allowed himself to be baited, and squandered time defending himself, when he should have been on the attack. This is very possibly due to inadequate preparation. The Trump inner circle needs to sit down and convince him that he can’t just wing it. He’s got to win the next debate, or at least fight to a draw, and he needs to be coached and challenged for a full 90 minutes in preparation. After the mock town hall, he’ll need to review his own performance, and listen to what his advisers say. He doesn’t know it all. And when the morning light comes streaming in, he needs to get up and do it again. And again, until he does it right. This is huge. It’s a hell of a lot more important than going to another rally. It’s also hard work, and tedious. It’s up to him.
Someone’s out with a poll on the Murkowski-Miller Senate race in Alaska. Murkowski 38, Miller 31, and the Democrat, Metcalfe, at 13, with 19 undecided. I don’t consider this a trustworthy poll, so take it with several grains of salt. But it seems about right. The major flaw is that it does not include Independent Margaret Stock. She’s a serious candidate, preferred by the Begich/Clinton wing of the Democratic Party. She’ll run a good campaign. She’ll take votes from both Murkowski and Metcalfe. She won’t take one vote from Miller.
If this causes Murkowski to lose to Miller, that’s not a bug, it’s a feature, for former Senator Mark Begich. Begich would like to see Miller beat Murkowski. He wants to get back to the Senate, badly. If he thinks he’s got a shot at Sullivan, he’ll take him on in 2020. But that would be a rematch of 2014, which he lost. Sullivan, not Begich, will have the power of incumbency in 2020, the reverse of 2014. So he’d have a much better shot at Miller in 2022. He’ll be 60 years old in 2022, and still in his political prime. In his mind, he’d still have at least three terms left in him. He thinks Miller’s a nut, who will make a fool of himself in the Senate, so a man like Mark Begich can take him out. I know what Mark Begich is thinking because he and I think alike. If he is not for himself, who will be for him?
Isn’t bipartisanship wonderful? Two different political parties, with polar opposite platforms, uniting for a common cause, in the service of better government. Democrats and Libertarians, working together, can remove the embarrassment of yet another dim witted Murkowski in the U.S. Senate. There’s hope for the country after all. If we all just work together we can do wonders.
Lisa Mukowski is Hillary Clinton with half the brain removed. Her campaign thinks it’s clever in its debate strategy. The first in Kodiak on the 12th, the second at the Alaska Federation of Natives meeting in Fairbanks on the 21st, and the third in Barrow on the 26th. If Miller’s smart he’ll appear at every one of them, on the hunt and loaded for bear. It’s Tora, Tora, Tora time. What the hell has she done in the last fourteen years? She carried water for Ted Stevens, just like her father, until Stevens lost to Begich in 2008. Since then she hasn’t had anybody’s water to carry, so she doesn’t know what to do.
And there’s a lot that could be done, and Miller knows it. He can lay out a plan, and ask, “Why haven’t you been doing this for the last fourteen years?” As long as he doesn’t lay it on too thick, it’s devastating. It can win the race for him.
On the Defend Cathy Geissel front, all is progressing nicely. I’m pretty sure I figured out a way to raise a little money, and a little is all I need. I’m taking this race personally. I’ve never met or spoken, yet, with any of the principals, but it’s my old Senate District, and losing it to a union boss would be hard to take. I’d like to fly up there for election night. Hopefully I’d get to meet some mighty happy people.
reaganproject.com 