Month: January 2020

Is a vote for President a statement of interest? Or is it an expression of approval, or disapproval?

For most Americans, it’s a statement of their self interest.  Every four years the majority of American voters cast a very important vote, one that is taken seriously.  It’s the one vote that really matters.

This man or woman is primarily concerned with their family, and its well being.  They try to figure out which of the two candidates would be better for them personally.  And that’s how they vote.

Americans hate wars, and will vote against them every time.  Beyond that, the average American is concerned with pocketbook, and, to a lesser degree, moral issues.

This means that unless there’s a recession in the next ten months Trump is going to get reelected.  No matter how low his “approval rating” is.

As President, Trump has the means at his disposal to prevent a recession.  Unless, of course, a black swan appears.

Then all bets are off.  So keep a sharp eye out for black swans.

 

Bernie Sanders has spent over half of his 78 years in Congress.  He knows it as well as anyone, and he knows it is hopelessly corrupt.  And getting worse.  And worse.

The entire establishment in Washington D. C. is corrupt, with very few exceptions.  The leadership, the committee chairs, minority and majority, Republican or Democrat, it makes little difference, just a matter of degree.  The lobbyists, the big think tanks, the media, the Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce, they’re all in on it.  It’s a gravy train, with enough goodies for everybody.

Bernie is not corrupt, he’s a holy warrior, on a mission to drastically change this country.  His outrage at public corruption is real.  But his solutions are 19th Century reactionary Marxist madness.

Joe Biden is a year younger than Bernie, but he’s been part of the Swamp longer, since 1972.  He is, as much as any man, a creature of, by and for the Swamp.  And naturally enough, he’s dirty, very dirty.  As Bernie well knows.

Maybe the way Bernie was ambushed by CNN at the debate on Tuesday will get him to react.  CNN is part of the Swamp, the establishment.  They took Bernie down in 2016.  Is his campaign going to let them do it to him again?

Bernie never really criticized Hillary Clinton in 2016, even as she and the Swamp denied him the nomination.  He hasn’t criticized Biden either.  But I don’t think he has to.  Somebody will do it for him.  I suspect there will be plenty of volunteers.

Once Biden’s corruption is exposed, he’s going to sink like a rock, and the nomination will be Bernie’s to lose.

The political disaster of Sanders in 2020 will be the last gasp of the socialist left in this country.  The Democratic Party has been leading the banner of more centralized government since Woodrow Wilson in 1912.  Major successes were achieved under Roosevelt, more came under Kennedy/Johnson.  The great goal, a single payer health system, created by the federal government.  Obamacare was as far as they got, and it’s going to be all down hill for them from here on.

Sanders in 2020 is the end of the evolution of the modern Democratic Party, always drifting to the left, and farther left.  Until socialism, the end of the road.

(This is in today’s American Thinker)

 

 

 

That’s what I call American presidential politics.  It’s a game where the stakes couldn’t be any higher  —   who will be the leader of the United States of America, and thus the world?  I’ve been closely observing the game for 60 years, or 15 elections.  For me, this is like a pennant race, a super bowl and a Kentucky Derby all rolled into one.

With less than ten months until the election, and mere weeks away from Iowa, the Democratic field has narrowed to four, according to 538.com.    This is a site to visit daily, from here on in.  Nate Silver and his gang know their business.  In 2016 Silver called the presidential race correctly.  He said Trump could win if he pulled an inside straight.  Which Trump proceeded to do.

538 has Biden with a 39% shot at the nomination, Sanders 21%, Warren at 14%, and then Buttigeig with a 9% chance.  Nobody else is close.

Sanders and Warren are far left radicals, left of any nominee in history.  Biden is an old fool, steeped in the corruption culture of the swamp.  Buttigeig is just an odd duck straight out of Mad magazine.

Since this is the best the Democratic Party has on offer, it’s a dying institution.  And who slayed it?

 

Term limits are very unpopular among state legislators, and you’ll pull teeth getting an Article V Limit On Congressional Terms Amendment.  But something needs to be done with this embarrassing parade of fools, thieves and the feeble minded.

Rather than limit their terms, throw them all out of office, and bar any of them from running again.  And make them ineligible for lobbying as well.

Understandably, most Americans avert their eyes rather than watch the squalid performance of the United States Congress.  It’s an ugly thing to watch, and some day some one is going to do something about it.

I got interested in politics, politicians and campaigns in 1960, when I was 15.  I got a chance to look Jack Kennedy in the eye, and shake his hand, and personally experience the most charismatic politician of my lifetime.  He smiled at me, and I’ve never forgotten it.

As a 31 year old lawyer in Alaska I worked on Reagan’s campaign in 1976, and did enough to get noticed.  Two years later I got a call from Bill McConkey, who was running the reelection campaign of incumbent Republican Governor Jay Hammond.  Bill was a professional political consultant from Illinois who the RNC had sent to Alaska in 1974 to run the campaign against Senator Mike Gravel.  Bill liked Alaska, and decided to stay.  Bill introduced me to Bob Clarke, a political hit man from Pennsylvania.

Bob did opposition research, and his specialty was political attacks based on what he’d found.  Bob and Bill wanted someone to attack former Governor Wally Hickel, Hammond’s principal opponent in the Republican primary.  Hickel had resigned the governorship when Nixon appointed him Secretary of the Interior.  They couldn’t make the attack directly, since it was just sheer speculation.  But they wanted someone to accuse Hickel of only running for Governor as a stepping stone to the Republican presidential nomination in 1980.

Hickel was the wealthiest man in the state, and spent his money lavishly on politics.  He was the most powerful force in the Republican Party of Alaska, and he fancied himself a tough guy.  He’d boxed back in Kansas, and thought he was one mean hombre.  He was vicious, vengeful son of a bitch, and whoever made that accusation would be on his hit list for the rest of his life.

Bob said he wanted me to be chairman of Hands for Hammond, a volunteer oganization, unconnected to the campaign.  I asked him how can I be chairman of a non-existent group, and Bob said that wasn’t really a problem.

I knew enough about Hickel to know that he was a guy I’d have to take on eventually, so why not get started with a bang?   Bob wrote a press release where I made this accusation, and an Anchorage Daily News reporter asked Hickel for a reaction.  Hickel blew up, and his over the top reaction allowed the Daily News to make a big story out of it.

Ten days later Hammond beat Hickel by 98 votes.  My little hit job might have made the difference.

So for the last 42 years I’ve looked at and practiced politics through the eyes of my mentors, Bill McConkey and Bob Clarke, both of whom became dear friends, among my best in Alaska.  They taught me everything they knew about politics, and they knew a lot.

So I say this as an old political pro. A Trump campaign is like no other in political history.  It’s a campaign of, by and for Donald Trump, and it’s absolutely brilliant.   He is a virtuoso politician.