White House Race- September 7, 2024

 59 Days Until Election Day

There will be much more worth writing about next weekend after the first and likely only Harris/Trump debate. This is still an historically early time period for a debate. We have grown accustomed to them taking place in October. Early voting is about ready to start though and I believe was already supposed to start in one state. There is some sort of holdup regarding the candidacy of Robert Kennedy Jr, who fought to get on states' ballots and now is fighting to get off of them. At least some of them, that is. He still wants people to vote for him in some places, and for Donald Trump in others.

If a Kennedy supporting a Republican sounds odd, how about a Cheney supporting a Democrat? Indeed, a lot of news was made this week when former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, a staunch conservative, who turned against Trump after the events of January 6, made clear she will be voting for Kamala Harris. Later in the week, she confirmed that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney would do the same. The former VP released a statement repeating his past claim that Trump is the biggest danger to democracy ever and thus he would vote for Harris. I very much admire them for doing that, though I do not know if I am compelled to do the same in my non swing-state. (As I have repeatedly said, if I lived in a swing state, I would do it for sure.)  For now, many on the left are openly celebrating the endorsement of a man they once called "evil" and a "war criminal." They were of course wrong then. Dick Cheney (as his daughter is also) has always been a man of integrity and character. There are of course some voices on the left who are not celebrating the endorsement.

I am sure lots of things happened this week on the Presidential level, but it is hard to think of too many that stick out. We know though that Trump continues to say things, both in front of microphones, and on his social media accounts that are pretty chilling. As the saying goes, they would be funny, if they were not so scary. The cold reality is that Trump could win this election. The polls are close and there are tons of people motivated to either vote for Trump or vote against a Democrat. Still, Democrats are now more enthused to also turn out as compared to the time that Joe Biden was still seeking reelection. As has been said many times since the 2016 cycle, if any other candidate, of any other party, at any other time was talking about the things that Trump was talking about, it would be disqualifying. This week he did receive some ridicule for a  rambling, nonsensical  answer on child care and also held a press conference in which he attacked both his own lawyers and numerous women who have accused him of sexual assault. It seems like he really focused on himself as usual, and not as much on the matters of concern to the American people. It was not all bad news for Trump though, as he did receive the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, and perhaps quite ironically, learned he will not be formally sentenced in New York for his felony convictions, until after he learns if he will be President again or not.

So much is riding on Tuesday night's Philadelphia debate, being run by ABC News, which of course, Trump has been saying is the worst news organization in the world. His campaign did get his way as to the saga of whether or not the microphones will be turned off. Either way, this will be a  very watched debate. Will it live up to the hype? People will be watching to see the candidate they dislike more fall on their face, and both opposing campaigns have probably lowered expectations for the other side too much. Trump will probably be Trump though.We all know how he behaves the things he is likely to say. Nobody in American history has ever taken part in more Presidential debates than him at this point (a sad commentary on our history if I ever heard one.) Less is known about how Vice President Harris will perform. Most people myself included, thought she did quite well against Mike Pence (and his fly) in the 2020 VP debate, but this is a whole different ballgame. If she seems nervous or unsteady, there will be a lot of worried Democrats. If she is on top of her game and is effective in standing up to Trump or at least not backing down from his insults, then her campaign will gain even more momentum, and we could potentially be looking at a clear front-runner. Next weekend, I will to analyze it all and call it like I see it.

Since I last posted about Presidential politics last Saturday, there has been a lot of sad news. We learned late Saturday night last week that Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other Israeli hostages were brutally murdered by Hamas. The ongoing aftermath of last October's attack on Israel continues to unfold in tragic ways. So many people in Israel are angered, at Hamas, but also at their own Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his failure to secure a cease-fire deal to get the hostages back. It a very complex issue, but I just do not know how the world can expect anybody to truly be able to cut a trustworthy deal with suicidal terrorists. This will continue to be a part of the American political debate also, as both sides look to gain temporary advantage, instead of understanding the true stakes of the situation  I hope whomever wins will stand with Israel in its fight for survival. There is simply no other option.

 

Later in the week came news of yet another horrible fatal school shooting. This one was in Georgia, and the murderer was just 14 years old. It seems like his parents have a lot of culpability, so his father was charged also. There are the predictable arguments over gun control, but once again, this s primarily a question of how does a human being get to the point where they want to kill as many people as possible for their own gratification. If there is anything on the fortunate side in this tragedy, it is that the shooter, who turned himself in, was stopped by authorities, before more lives could be taken. So many children in places in Florida and Texas were failed by authorities in previous massacres.

 

With all that in mind, I was happy to see a feel-good story today. My alma mater, Northern Illinois University, won the biggest football game in school history, by going on the road and upsetting the powerhouse Notre Dame team, ranked fifth in the nation. Nobody saw this coming, but it was an amazing performance and the NIU Huskies will be making positive headlines across America. I am reminded of how the one previous time Northern Illinois made national news was due to a mass shooting.in 2008. Sixteen years later, it bring a sense of happiness and pride to see a different kind of story and the triumph of underdogs. Way to go Huskies!