With Joe “BFD” Biden declaring that he won’t be running for the Democratic nomination for President, that leaves the party with Hillary Clinton as their leading contender. Bernie Sanders is slightly ahead of her (41 percent to 36 percent) in a Bloomberg New Hampshire poll that was released yesterday, but she’s slightly ahead (38 percent to 34 percent) in another N.H. poll that came out today. Nationally, Hillary has a defined lead–in many polls carrying more than half the party’s preference.
While Uncle Shotgun might have insinuated that Hillary Clinton is “naïve” when she talks smack about her Republican opposition, Democrats in general love that sort of thing and eat it up. They also love to say they make history. They’ve done it ad nauseum with our First (true, half-) Black President. They’re dying to do it again with a First (grade-A, 100 percent) President with a Vagina…shiver me timbers. The way the media fawned over her the morning after the CNN debate last week, apparently unable to find much to criticize, it’s no wonder that she still manages to do so well in the polls. In an alternate dimension where a Republican had been Secretary of State during the 9/11/12 Benghazi attack where four American men were killed, that Republican likely would not be seeing daylight right now.
But in our present dimension, former “dead broke” First Lady obstructionist and evidence-tamperer Hillary Clinton is not only seeing daylight, she’s very well on her way to leading this country into the next decade. All that really stands in her way is how the public will react to her testimony before a Congressional Committee, which takes place tomorrow.
Don’t expect most of the news media to give her testimony the type of coverage it deserves. They will downplay it, reinterpret it, distort it, dismiss it, and some will outright ignore it. The disinterested majority of the public with its short attention span will see the headlines that say things like “Hillary Defiant in Face of Republican Attacks” and “No Major Revelations in Benghazi Hearings After Clinton Testimony,” and they will get back to doing whatever trivial or vital concerns take command of their lives.
Regardless of whether Clinton or Sanders wins the nomination, we have to accept and prepare for the inevitability that one of the two of them will be the person on the general Democratic ticket come next year. The millions who dread the idea of either person becoming our next president–a situation that would continue the destructive and divisive trend away from the country we once knew before our current president took office–need to focus, which is the most polite way I can put it.
At present, the Donald Trump still leads the Republican polls, which is a truly dumbfounding, disturbing fact. His supporters are flat-out delusional if they think the majority of voters think he’s competent and trustworthy enough to be our next president. America is not going to put this butthead in the Oval Office. The Left won’t allow it. The media won’t allow it. The low-information voters won’t allow it. Americans who see Trump as a reality show clown and babbling idiot with no experience in public office won’t allow it. The frustrated Americans who have been fed up for too long and will outright stay home on Election Day won’t allow it.
Even if Trump did stand a chance of defeating Clinton or Sanders in the general election, he’s not going to turn this country around for the better. He’s the sort of über-narcissist the Right has decried for the last seven years. Why do many of these same people now think this is a good thing? Why are these same people now so willing to dismiss Trump’s progressive history? Why do they trust him? Because he says what some people want to hear? That’s not good enough. He has no history of writing government policy, of voting on laws. There’s red flags galore on this guy, yet so many people who I may have considered smarter than to trust such a man are…trusting such a man.
Again, dumbfounding.
Trump supporters also need to realize that while he is leading the Republican pack, he only has a support of roughly a third of Republicans. That means he has the support of about a sixth of the voting public at this point. About half of the Democrats support Hillary. Both Trump and Clinton have unfavorability ratings of greater than 50 percent. But if it comes down to the two of them facing off next year, Hillary will have more support by the party faithful. Voter enthusiasm will likely be much lower than in the last two elections, and which side do you think will turn out in higher numbers when a woman is one of the two choices? If you’re unsure, you haven’t been paying much attention.
Whether he wins or loses, Trump is not the answer. He is not the Savior of conservative American values. You can try to argue why I’m wrong, wrong, wrong. This is my subjective judgement. It’s a gut feeling.
It’s also my gut feeling that the person polling second in the Republican race, Ben Carson, has little to no chance of winning as well. While I don’t have anything against the man, his soft-spoken manner and his lack of experience in politics hurt his chances. I have serious doubts of his ability to run a country. I’m far from alone in believing this.
Jeb!? Heck no, he has no chance. Go away, Jeb! You’re a distraction.
Marco Rubio, while he does have a few good traits, would be the Republicans’ young version of Romney in that he has a history of making decisions, especially regarding immigration, that would make Republican voters stay home next November.
As for Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina, things have to turn around fast for either of them to stay in this race.
Early on, it seemed that conservatives might have had reason to be optimistic that they’d have a halfway-decent candidate to vote for, one that stood a good chance of beating whichever Democrat would get the nomination. Then the author of Dream Big and Kick Ass (!) in Business and Life and 9/11 Truther (!!) jumped in with his fat mouth and changed the entire dynamics of the race. Republicans can pretty much kiss off their chances of taking back the Oval Office if they do nothing to stop him.
I was going to add that the vehement opposition to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) becoming the next Speaker of the House is an overreaction by the far-right and would hurt the image of the Republican party as being able to work with both sides. But then I watched him promote a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens and their kids. I was willing to overlook his favorable vote for TARP and his other squishy establishment-flavored views. But I can’t overlook his acceptance of policy that rewards people for knowingly breaking the law.
Get your act together, America. You’re blowing it.
