White House Race- March 16, 2024

So many items in the news. So many random thoughts. So difficult to find a format to present them all cohesively, and thus, something will probably be forgotten as I zip through this.

Well, the Presidential election nobody wants is finally set. On Tuesday night, both Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and Donald John Trump Sr. clinched enough delegates to officially receive a nomination at this summer's in-person conventions. Both men have political problems with many in their own party, let alone Independents. Both are pretty despised by partisans of the other party. It is going to be a dark, dirty, ugly campaign. The side that loses, whichever side, will likely not concede, if the election is close, as it probably will be. That will lead to even bigger concerns in this country. Both men are old and have many questions surrounding their health, competency,and ethics. Both have been President for at least three years and both have been pretty unpopular ones. In spite of all this, I must repeat that nobody, again nobody, is less worthy of the Oval Office than Trump. Even people like me who cannot bring themselves to vote for Biden, should be rooting against Trump.

I will have to try to bring myself to vote in this coming Tuesday's Illinois Primary. After all, there are local races too, but I am not excited about the prospect, especially considering that I will have to select a primary ballot associated with one of the two political parties, that I find so distasteful these days. Assuming I actually do vote, which I think I will, I will talk about that next week.

We can look at the big picture though and prepare ourselves for the first Presidential re-match since 1956. Trump will become the first Republican to be nominated three times for President since Richard Nixon. He will be the first to be nominated consecutively three times in a row by any party since Franklin Roosevelt, and if it is up to him, he would be nominated a fourth time also. The last person to receive three straight nominations, including as a non-incumbent for any was Grover Cleveland. Trump is also hoping to duplicate something he did.

One big story this week was the testimony of Special Prosecutor Robert Hur before a House Committee on the report he wrote in which he determined that charges were not warranted against Biden regarding classified documents. In his testimony, he explained the reasons why, but upset Democrats by making it clear that he was not "exonerating" Biden of wrong-doing. Hur also upset Republicans in this hearing, but refusing to use the word "senile" in regards to the President, and making it clear that Biden cooperated far more thoroughly than the situation involving Trump and classified documents.

From what I saw, I came away a fan of Mr. Hur. Anybody who can piss off the preening politicians in both parties is doing something right in my view. He may be one of the few honorable people left in Washington. He seems like someone who does his job by the book regardless of might develop politically and is very thorough.  At the time of the report, I surmised that Biden was the one who brought up the death of his son Beau and the transcripts showed I was correct. It was pretty shameful for Biden and his allies insist that Hur brought it up as some sort of cheap shot. That was an outright lie. The narrative that Biden was so distracted and focused on dealing with the Middle East on the day of the interview on October 8 also seems to be a pretty poor excuse. In the transcript, Biden, as he is apt to do, spoke at length on many topics, and was chatty and jovial. He even made car noises, because he went on a bit of a filibuster about the vehicles he has seen as President.

 

Democrats continue to insist that Hur's language about Biden's memory in the interviews was inappropriate, although clearly the transcripts speak for themselves. Had Hur not included that consideration in the report, it would have come out this past week, with the transcript. It would have been a huge firestorm. Republicans would have accused Hur of "hiding the truth" in an attempt to protect Biden. Democrats should be glad the story got out when it did and that it was addressed then, as the State of the Union performance is said to have helped alleviate some of the fears about Biden's brain, at least in regards to Democrat loyalists.

With the exception of the soon to be resigned Colorado Congressman Ken Buck, the committee members on both sides acted in a lousy manner. It was all about Presidential politics. Democrats tried to make it about Trump, when the hearing was not supposed to be about Trump, and Republicans tried to make it about other Biden matters, when it was also not supposed to be about that. Some Democrats accused Hur of being a partisan Republican who was only interested in perhaps being nominated to a federal judgeship if Trump can win another term. Obviously, they did not read the report or listen to the testimony. There is no way Trump would ever hire Hur for anything.

 

I am not even going to bother this week with an in-depth look at all of the Trump legal matters. Last week, I might have forgot to mention that the Supreme Court, as expected, made it clear he cannot be kicked off of ballots due to "insurrection." The vote was 9-0. Maybe I did talk about it, I mention so many other things. Yesterday, there was major news out of Fulton County where the judge there tried to play things down the middle by ruling that District Attorney Fani Willis can continue to prosecute Trump as long as she fires her top attorney and ex-boyfriend. Of course, that is what happened. Trump fans were hoping she would get thrown off altogether, but the Judge was unwilling to go that far, although he was pretty damning of Willis in his ruling. There could be serious political damage to her career moving forward, but it might not matter for most of her constituents. She will now have to find a new special prosecutor who probably will be more experienced and better equipped to try the case than the guy she was going on vacations with.

Another story this week was that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, long a staunch ally of Israel, and the highest ranking elected Jewish official in American history, made a speech on the Senate floor, with the advanced knowledge and approval of the White House. What Schumer said was nuanced and seemed even tortured in the rhetoric at times. The gist of it was that he wanted Israel to hold new elections and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be replaced.

As Schumer knows very well, Israel is a democracy that does have elections. Sometimes they get messy, but Israel has always had free and fair elections and will again. The people there will decide if Bibi should stay or go and if they want someone else, (and they probably will) , just how different that person will be. Schumer received a tremendous amount of pushback for these comments, not just from Republicans, but from centrist Jewish organizations, who felt he crossed a line in criticizing a democratic ally and involving himself in their electoral process. After all, we in the United States rightfully get upset when other countries try to meddle in our elections. To be expected, Trump also attacked Schumer and Biden over this, but based on what he said,it was pretty clear that Trump continues to equate "Israel" and "Jewish Americans" as one in the same, and that is also an anti-Semitic trope (just like Biden's "come to Jesus" jab.)

This is mostly about politics for Democrats. Schumer knew he was in a difficult position, and Biden feels the same. I really do not doubt that those men and so many others know for a fact that Israel are the good guys and Hamas are the bad guys. The problem is that a lot of Democrats seem to think the opposite. If they cannot get those folks fully onboard for this November, the result for Democrats across the board can be bad. So, they are pandering to extremists and misinformed individuals. I get the politics but that is certainly not leadership and certainly not right, as I have been saying for years now about how Republicans have been acting in pandering to Trump and the extremists in his base.

Moving back to Trump, he flip flopped this week on TikTok. He probably could have shot a dance video doing so.  When he was President, he said he wanted to ban the Communist Chinese spy-app for national security reasons. This week, the House voted in a large way, along bipartisan lines (which almost never happens anymore) to force TikTok to sell to an American company or be banned in the U.S. Only a collection of the most far-right and most far-left Members of the House voted against it. Trump said he opposed banning it, not because he feels that the bill was wrong, but because if TikTok goes away, American companies, such a Facebook could do a lot better filling that void in the market. Trump is so pissed at Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, (whom he called a stupid, vaguely anti-Semitic name on social media) over the 2020 election, that it colors all his thinking. With Trump, it never is what is best for the country or the world, but what is best for Trump. In honest moments, he all but admits it.

With the Presidential nominees basically in stone, the talk moves on to Veepstakes. Democrats, for better or worse, will pick Kamala Harris once again. A wide range of Republicans are continuing to audition on cable tv and online for Trump's blessing. It is said that he is so leery of losing politically on the abortion issue, that he might stay away from someone seen as staunchly Pro-Life, such as Tim Scott or Kristi Noem. The latter had her old little weird story this week about an infomercial the Governor recently did for a Texas dentist and whether or not that might have violated South Dakota ethics laws. In the weeks ahead, we can discuss the Republican VP hopefuls in more depth, I do not know if I have mentioned this or not, but all the talk about Floridians being on Trump's short-list is really dumb, for Constitutional reasons. Trump is already a candidate from the State of Florida. He cannot change. If he picks another person from Florida, they would have to change their voting state quickly,and there is simply no way that a sitting Governor Ron DeSantis or a Congressman Byron Donalds could do so. The latter would all but hand the House over to the Democrats immediately since he would have to resign by effect of "moving" out of state.

One candidate who is said to have selected someone for Vice President already is Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. While he has reportedly been turned down by others, his choice is said to come down to former Minnesota Governor Jesse Venutra, whom like Kennedy is a certified crackpot, and current NFL Quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets. As a Bears fans, I have hated Rodgers for years (he played many seasons for the Green Bay Packers and usually beat us twice a year), and I can only hope America can join me in despising the punk. Like Kennedy, Rodgers is a rabid anti-vaxxer,and many right-wingers have come to like him. If he actually gets picked it would be an interesting story to say the least.This week, Rodgers had to repudiate the claim that he told a CNN reporter that the horrific Sandy Hook massacre of 1st Graders some years ago was "fake" and involved actors. He may not want people to think he believes that now but he seems to have said it. Interestingly enough, Rodgers did not denounce any interest in running for Vice President with Kennedy. It would have been pretty easy for him to do that. Maybe he just likes the attention, or maybe it could actually happen. Could he actually play football and run for Vice President at the same time this year? The Kennedy announcement is scheduled later this week in Oakland, California, which is near where Rodgers grew up. Very interesting.

Finally, someone who will not be picked for Vice President this cycle is Mike Pence. I have had many justified frustrations with him ever since he signed on with Trump, but I need to salute him for his political courage at this time. In an interview yesterday, he said he could not "in good conscience" endorse his former running-mate's campaign to regain the Presidency. I was a bit surprised. I thought Pence would give a perfunctory, terse acknowledgement of support for Trump, but instead he joins every living person to have been President or Vice President not named Trump, to not support Trump, with one possible exception. While the list includes Republicans. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and now Mike Pence, we are not sure about Pence's fellow Hoosier Dan Quayle. I will note that perhaps Pence might possibly be leaving himself some wiggle room between "endorse" and "vote for" but the effect is basically the same. This was a gutsy move and likely drove Trump crazy. I will be similarly surprised, but pleased if Nikki Haley follows this path.

For now. Pence is the only 2024 Republican candidate to join Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie in having ruled out supporting Trump. Needless to say, that Trump's own Vice President is doing this speaks volumes. Pence will be excommunicated by many Republicans, to a greater extent than he already was, for this. While there is clearly bad blood between the two men over January 6, 2021, the day Trump thought it was reasonable for his supporters to want to hang the Vice President, Pence did not cite this as his rationale and that has confused and even upset some pundits. I think they are missing the big picture.

Plenty of people, including plenty of one-time Republicans, speak frequently about the kind of danger to democracy that Trump is. It cannot be understated. He is out there today saying there will be a "bloodbath"in America if he is not elected. Pence likely believes all of that, but he said that Trump has turned his back on conservatism, and even the record of his Administration, in this current campaign. Pence is definitely correct that Trump is not a conservative, and frankly, conservatives need to hear it. Pence talked about Trump waffling on the debt, abortion, and China as examples. I think it is worth someone taking a different anti-Trump approach to the public square.

Months ago though, Pence said there was no room in the Republican Party for apologists for Vladimir Putin. To me, that is reason enough alone to reject Trump. It is clear and also scary how much he admires dictators and those who aspire to be dictators. Look at the way he spoke about Victor Orban at Mar-A-Lago recently. Listen to his former Chief of Staff, who says Trump would sometimes praise Hitler. Look at the fawning he does over Putin and Kim Jung Un. Donald Trump may no longer be a Democrat, but he is certainly no democrat.

As distressing as these times are politically, I feel good that Mike Pence was willing to put his conscience and his personal faith (at long last) above the path of political least-resistance.  The former Vice President may have a complicated legacy for historians to debate, but clearly, he is doing an honorable thing in 2024.