Race for the White House 2016 Volume 48

Thanksgiving has come and gone and I am somewhat at a loss on this Saturday to think of any major Presidential campaign developments. Most people have been focused on family, shopping, and other things in the past few days, and that is likely to be the case until January.

Of course, Donald Trump continues his corrosive presence in the GOP race, as polls show him a head of the large field nationally, despite the belief by many that a show-down between freshman Cuban-American Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz is inevitable.

The candidacy of Ohio Governor John Kasich has never really gotten off the ground, despite his impressive resume, and a Kasich related SuperPAC is running very harsh ads against Trump. The Jeb Bush campaign is also continuing along those lines, but Trump, seems most upset at Kasich, even somehow thinking the Republican National Committee would have the power to shut down those ads. Trump is saying it is not part of the "deal" he signed on to, in agreeing to not run as a third party candidate, and could leave him an out to go that route. Things like that make me think that he is still working for the Clintons.

Trump also made news this week by mocking a reporters' physical disabilities, then denying he did so, and asking for an apology to himself. All of that came after the matter of Trump saying multiple times over last weekend that in September of 2011 he saw video of "many thousands" of Muslim-Americans in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While insisting he saw videotapes of this, Trump, when asked for proof, then pulled out some newspaper account that claimed that a handful of people were taken into custody in New Jersey for "celebrating" the attacks. That is a far cry from what he initially claimed, and it might very well be that the account, like many that came out immediately after 9/11 was untrue or part of an urban legend. Still, Trump has kept up this utterly false story and most of his supporters do not seem to care. They are just glad he said it, whether it's true or not.

In a confusing sequence, fellow candidate Ben Carson said he also saw the video, then changed his mind and said he was referring to a video of a handful of Muslims celebrating in the Middle East, which is something I do remember seeing. It was definitely not in New Jersey though and definitely did not involve "thousands of people" and that is a big difference. Current New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who had just been informed he would become U.S. Attorney for New Jersey before the attacks, said he did not remember those kinds of demonstrations, and doubted they happened, but said it was possible he could have forgotten. Again, not exactly a profile of courage moment for candidate Christie. If anyone should have been at the forefront of calling out Trump for his bullshit, it should have been Christie.

A fatal shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado yesterday (which regardless of motive, should be denounced in the strongest possible terms by anybody who considers themselves Pro-Life), might help the Obama Administration change the topic from their failures in dealing with ISIS to right-wing violence and gun control, but the prevalence of the international terrorism issue should work to the advantage of the GOP which is seen as "stronger" on those matters. Right now, the attitude is keeping Trump at the top of the GOP polls, but if the Republicans are to eventually win next year, that is still going to have to change.