White House Race- April 6, 2024

It is another Saturday and we have reached a new Major League Baseball season and I have reached another birthday. Yet, the Presidential candidates are the same as four years ago. Every event in the news is hyper-politicized from an accident causing a bridge collapse, to an east coast earthquake to Monday's upcoming eclipse.

 

I will avoid taking the time to go off on a rant over the ridiculous brouhaha and fake outrage on the right over the fact that this past Easter Sunday on March 31 just happened to coincide with International Transgender Day of Visibility. Let me just briefly say, that if the latter somehow prevented you from having a meaningful former, there is probably something wrong with you and your own religious identity that you should try to rectify.

On Capitol Hill, there are still conflicts regarding aid to Ukraine. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Green is threatening to make House Speaker Mike Johnson go the way of Kevin McCarthy if he brings a vote to the floor. This time, Democrats might vote to save the job of the new Speaker. House Republicans continue to be a mess and an embarrassment..

Incumbent Joe Biden is unpopular due to his job performance and even more Americans worry about his age and ability to serve another term. He ought to be extremely vulnerable to be defeated this November, and indeed he may, but he is running against Donald Trump. so he might win, but the country will suffer either way. In what is already the post-Presidential primary season, many Americans are tuning out this campaign until at least the summer, and there is some indication that Biden is making a bit of a comeback in the polls. I think it is more accurate to describe those results as buyers' remorse over Trump. once again. The longer this campaign goes on, the crazier and more unhinged Trump will act and that is what Democrats are counting on. I really do not know how else to describe it.

As could be expected due to recent events and numerous candidates passing up the opportunity, the No Labels effort will not put forth a ticket, despite having ballot access in a bunch of states and a lot of money.To me, this is a lost opportunity, both in terms of who I might vote for and for the sake of the country, but the bottom line is that nobody wants to do anything that might help Trump win. Biden is that weak politically that it is seen as too big of a risk. Thus, anybody in anything considered a "swing state" will feel a lot of pressure to vote for Biden in order to save America from another Trump term. I cannot argue with that perspective. However, I do not live in a swing state. I voted for Biden last time and while his campaign is said to be trying to reach out to "Nikki Haley Republicans" or others who once made up a large portion of the party, the fact of the matter is that the Biden-Harris Administration has squandered their opportunity for three years now. It is hard to really take them seriously.

Robert Kennedy Jr is running as an Independent and is getting a lot of media attention. It is hard to underestimate just how crazy he is. Most people associate him with the anti-vax cause but we may forget that he has an extensive written and spoken record of saying that 9/11 was maybe an inside job and that both the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen by Republicans. Now, he is making comments that minimize the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. This Kennedy nonsense is really nothing new, yet Democrats chose to overlook it for a long time, at least until Covid started and being anti-vax was a weapon to be used against Republicans (perhaps appropriately so.) Democrats wanted RFK Jr to run for office in the past. Even after he said what he did about 9/11 and the 2004 election, Barack Obama wanted to make him EPA Administrator. He remained a sought after campaign fundraiser and surrogate for Democrats until 2020. Now, he poses a threat to them politically. In many ways,they have themselves to blame. The "Myth of Camelot" means that some anti-Biden Democrats will vote for him just because of his last name.

The election is expected to be close. Each Electoral Vote may count and Maine and Nebraska choose their electors in a slightly different way from the other 48 states. In 2020, Trump easily won Nebraska as a whole, but lost the Omaha based 2nd Congressional District. Now, Trump and his allies wanted the Republican dominated government of Nebraska (though the Legislature is officially non-partisan) to quickly change the rule so that Trump could take all five votes when he wins the state. If this were to happen, Maine might follow suit, rendering it all a wash. However, it looks like despite pleas from Trump and the public support of the state's Governor, the Republicans in the Nebraska Legislature who really matter are not going to move forward. This is essentially a big middle finger to Trump from people in his own party. It is not worth going into all the reasons they may be reluctant to change their state's electoral vote law at this time, but if the final vote winds up being 269-269.everyone will be talking about Nebraska.

Moving on to the final topic, it will now have been six months since the horrific Hamas attack on Israel, Many hostages, including some Americans, remain captive. Many Jews and Muslims have been killed in this conflict, not just between the warring sides, but as collateral damage in Gaza. Hamas seems to want it that way and the pressure remains on Israel in a way that pressure has never been put on any other country in world history defending itself.

There was a horrible incident recently in which Israel mistakenly fired upon an aid convoy of foreigners who were involved in getting food into Gaza. Innocent people died and there has been outrage around the world. Israel has admitted what they mistakenly did, apologized, and have moved to fire those responsible for this loss of life. Needless to say, a full accounting of what happened and why is crucial so that such a horrible mistake can never happen again. This is what differentiates Israel from its enemies. They actually feel bad about the loss of innocent life, even when it can be claimed that "war is hell" and things like this are sometimes unavoidable. Indeed, there might even be a contrast to how the United States in 2021 sort of shrugged off a mistake our military made in which innocent Afghans were killed.

One of the most unfortunate aspects of this election year is that Democrats and indeed anybody who wants to see Biden beat Trump are basically being held as political hostages by the anti-Israel left. I have written about this a good deal over the last six months. The bottom line is that many people who will cast votes Biden needs are threatening not to do so in November, even if elects Trump. They are continuing to interrupt mainstream Democrat events in protest and this summer's Chicago convention is likely to be ugly, both outside and inside the United Center, as left-wingers will protest and denounce the Biden Administration in harsh terms.

Yes, Biden is in a tough place. I wish he and his party had the moral fortitude to stand for what is right and as Harry Truman once said, "let the chips fall where they may." He is not the kind of politician, and Democrats are not that kind of party,  and these are not their times. So, they are going to try to have it both ways by trying to privately reassure Israel (and Jewish-Americans) that they support the nation's survival but yet they should be quiet as Biden and his surrogates will also go out of their way to make various negative or threatening statements about Israeli policy or Benjamin Netanyahu in particular.

Who is the winner of all of this domestic political maneuvering? Well, Hamas of course. Also, Iran, whom the United States believe is about to launch attacks on Israel. All of the focus on Israel in a negative way is exactly what they want. It is far easier to forget about the hostages and the brutal murders and rapes that occurred six months ago, when Israel makes a war-time mistake and kills civilians. Clearly, Hamas wants as many civilians dead as possible. In America, Democrats are very divided over Israel and this war, but even those who might sympathize with Israel privately are having to keep that to themselves because the tunnel vision is in getting Joe Biden reelected. I understand the political reality, but that does not make it right. At this point, I also want to salute two particular Democrat Members of Congress who have stood unflinchingly by Israel and thus have demonstrated tremendous political courage. They are Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York. Neither is Jewish. Both are well, well, well to my left politically, but my respect for them continues to grow.

 

Will some pro-Israel Americans switch their votes from Biden to Trump over this issue? Perhaps. However, Trump sounds like those leftists himself when he rambles about the conflict. He is saying that Israel is "losing support" and needs to "finish their war very very quickly." Trump's Evangelical Christian base thinks he is pro-Israel, but is he really?