National Democrats
Infection?
It was the kind of thing district attorneys do all the time: Robert Mueller was fishing. He subpoenaed Trump and Company for all the documents they had that mentioned nine of Trump’s associates. But on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd, erupting, reported because of the subpoena, “Sources say the President is ‘unglued’ as chaos plagues…
Read MorePeople, not politics
To paraphrase JFK, defeat is an orphan and victory has a thousand theorists. A thousand theories bloomed after Conor Lamb won in Pennsylvania last week. Democrats say, “There’s a 20-point anti-Trump wave. Just think of all the places we’ll win!” Or, “Lamb won because he ran away from Nancy Pelosi.” Or, “he won because he…
Read MoreOnce There Was a Time…
When President Trump nominated Tom Farr for the vacant federal judgeship in eastern North Carolina, Anthony Spearman, the head of the state NAACP, headed to Washington to disagree. But his pilgrimage took an odd twist when he compared Tom Farr to Adolph Hitler. Trump appointing Hitler? Pure political bluster. But fiction took on a life…
Read MoreA Cloud to Keep Your Eye On
For years – for decades – I’ve expected ‘The National Debt’ to the sink the economy but the crash never came; it defies common sense but, somehow, no matter how much the politicians spent the chickens never came to roost. Hardly a soul even noticed when President Trump didn’t mention the debt in his State…
Read MorePromise Us, Joe: Don’t Run
Joe Biden’s book, “Promise Me, Dad,” is pure Biden: warm, heart-wrenching and, though short, pure-Biden windy. It reminds you what a great human being Uncle Joe is, what a great Vice President he was – and why he shouldn’t run for President. There’s something of a Biden boom now, especially among my old white male…
Read MoreThe FISA Memos
When you watch the politicians arguing on CNN and FOX about the FISA Memos you can’t make heads or tails of what’s going on. To Republicans their Memo proves the FBI used political research paid for by Democrats to get a warrant to wiretap the Trump campaign – or one-time Trump advisor, Carter Page –…
Read MoreSteve Bannon’s Three Temptations
The main character in Michael Wolff’s book isn’t Donald Trump it’s Steve Bannon: The book begins with Bannon having dinner with Roger Ailes and ends with Bannon standing on the steps in front of the Breitbart townhouse in Washington explaining the next move in his war on ‘The Swamp.’ Bannon’s story twists and turns: A…
Read MoreTrump’s Speech
He couldn’t help doing a bit of boasting and making a slip here and there but in his speech Trump talked about ‘faith and family’ and ‘in God we trust’ and the dignity of ‘hard work’ – then introduced a man from North Korea who crossed China and Southeast Asia on crutches to be free…
Read MoreWhat Makes a Wave Election?
What creates a wave election? Two things. Here’s one: In 1988, 1990 and 1992 Congressman David Price, a popular Democratic incumbent in a Democratic district, received over 100,000 votes in each election and won easily. Then, in 1994, a wave election came along that favored Republicans. Democrats didn’t vote and David Price received 76,000 votes…
Read MoreAll politics is Trump
All politics is local, Tip O’Neill used to say. No more. All politics has become national in the last 20, 25 years. Today, all politics is Trump. Trump so dominates the political conversation there’s not enough air to sustain any other topic. His tweets, his unpredictability and his sheer outrageousness overwhelm everything. If Democratic pollsters…
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