Race for the White House 2020 # 35

It is Labor Day Weekend and I do not feel like writing a whole bunch. This time next year will be ripe with speculation about which of the two major party tickets are headed for victory and whom many other Americans may simply have to settle for. It seems like every recent Labor Day Weekend has been about an approaching hurricane to the southwest United States and this year is nothing different. I hope all in the path of Dorian are safe. Thankfully, the people of Puerto Rico were already spared, despite the President of the United States taking to Twitter this past week to mock them about the storm. More recently, the people of Florida are said to be most at risk, so part time Florida resident Donald Trump sent the Vice President to Poland in his place to monitor storm preparation. That is likely appropriate. Also, there was apparently another mass shooting today in Texas. It does not even seem newsworthy anymore. Also, Donald Trump's personal White House secretary was either fired or resigned. He said the young woman was a good person who felt bad about allegedly getting drunk and blabbing to reporters. No White House should want that to happen. The juciest part of what she said appeared to be that Trump does not like to appear in photographs with his daughter Tiffany because she looks "fat." How the hell does he think he looks? I am surprised he even remembers he has a daughter named Tiffany.

Of course, there is a Presidential race going on. For me, the most interesting news is that after a couple of weeks of speculation, former Congressman Joe Walsh is officially in (and officially off the radio in Chicago and elsewhere.) As he is at this moment, the sole conservative alternative (sorry Bill Weld) to Donald Trump, I am supporting his efforts. That does not mean I believe he will come close to being President or would be anywhere near the ideal Republican candidate. Joe Walsh simply has a ton of baggage and a plethora of stories that are nearly impossible to excuse. At least he has admitted his past sins though, unlike his main opponent. Redemption is a great American trait and the Walsh candidacy may serve a great purpose on multiple fronts. It is amusing to see Trump defenders online slam him as a "racist bigot." To the extent he was, Walsh admits it. That differentiates him with Trump whom he claims to feel horribly about setting the path for in many ways. The entire machinery of the Trump campaign will not hesitate to come down hard on him if they perceive him to be a growing threat. Just look how Trump is increasingly going after Fox News. He is mad they "don't work for him" anymore.

On the Democrat front, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was the latest to see the writing on the wall, and after failing to qualify for the next debate, ended her candidacy. Trump tweeted that she was the one he was actually afraid of. This might be his best bit yet, making snarky comments about the swarm of Democrats as they drop out. What would he say about Wayne Messam? Maybe that is why Messam refuses to leave. In all seriousness, Gillibrand introduced something very ugly into the campaign when she said that being Pro-Life was akin to being racist.

The top Democrats remain Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Looking at the polls, (at this still fairly fluid stage) I am left thinking that Biden would be done for if Sanders and Warren ever joined forces, especially if they join behind her. That is not happening now though, and Biden continues to look like a front-runner, albeit one that continues to make gaffes and mistatements on a nearly daily basis.

Has Biden simply always been a gaffe machine? Well, kinda, and that is the reason he may not be a great candidate. Is there something more though related to age or possible senility? That is clearly the message that Trump wants out there. Maybe there a third horrible option and that is that Biden is simply a long-time liar as a politician, much like what we have now with Trump. So much for his "word as a Biden."

This past week, Biden told a very touching story about visiting a war zone and encountering a military hero. However, just about every detail of his story was factually wrong. Telling the actual truth might have been a good enough story, but Biden did not do that and likely conflated many events. For one thing, he claimed to be Vice President when this happened, and not a United States Senator, which was actually the case, and makes the whole thing far different. This is not the first time that Biden has claimed recently that something happened when he was Barack Obama's number two and not a Delaware Senator or a former Vice President.

Biden sees nothing wrong with how he told this story. That either means he is way too fuzzy on details that frankly he should remember or simply does not care if he embellishes facts, even with all his promises that "folks, this is literally the G-d's honest truth."

If Joe Biden has cognitive problems, he frankly should not be running for President. Those who support him would have to realize he risks reelecting Trump. If he is merely a b.s'er of the first degree, than he shares in the conditions that caused a chronic liar like Donald Trump to become President and it is hard to see how a moral case can be made that he would be the remedy.