2016 election
793 pieces tagged “2016 election”, newest first.
Why an Al Gore Presidential Run Isn't Far-Fetched
The hot topic later this year will be "global warming."
The Racing Form, Third Edition
Both presidential nomination contests having been scrambled by recent events — the FBI taking control of Hillary Clinton's private email server and a raucous, roiling GOP debate — the third edition of the Racing Form is herewith rushed into print. Legal disclaimer: This column is for betting purposes only. What follows is analysis — scrubbed, as thoroughly as a Clinton server, of advocacy. (Unless I simply can't resist.) *Hillary Clinton:* Ever since her disastrous book-launch performance, I've thought her both (1) a weak candidate and (2) the inevitable Democratic nominee.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: Incapable of Embarrassment
August is traditionally a vacation month, and East Coast elites, following European tradition, are thick on the ground in the Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard (the Obamas' choice) and Nantucket. But news — in some cases, shattering news — keeps breaking out all over, at home and abroad this August. Actually that's not unusual. Saddam Hussein overran Kuwait in August 1990; Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland in August 1939; the great powers of Europe went to war in August 1914.
Trump, Trumpies & RINOs Trouble the GOP
Donald Trump did wonders for Fox News' ratings and Megyn Kelly's star power last week. But "The Donald" didn't do himself, the Republican Party or the conservative cause any favors. Millions of viewers saw clear evidence that Trump is not a serious Republican candidate or really a conservative. He espoused no conservative principles or policies. He offered no ideas or specific conservative solutions to any domestic or foreign problem.
Further Thoughts on the Trump Phenomenon
I learned a little bit about the Donald Trump phenomenon after my appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel show this week, as my comments led to galactic feedback on Twitter — some positive, some negative. Hannity showed segments of his interview with Trump and asked me and the other guests to respond to various aspects of it. Some of the Twitter critics were upset with Fox News, alleging that it failed to provide a balanced picture, seeing as all three of us appeared anti-Trump.
He Never Said It
In the first paragraph of The New York Times' front-page story on Sunday, the Times said that because Megyn Kelly "questioned him forcefully at the Republican presidential debate," Donald Trump said she did it "because she was menstruating." He did not. Whether the Times was perpetrating a lie on its gullible readers or simply confused, I cannot say. In the next paragraph, readers can see for themselves what Trump actually said. He said, "You could see there was blood coming out of (Kelly's) eyes, blood coming out of her wherever," when she rather bluntly questioned him on indelicate subjects.
Jindal Puts the Emphasis on Assimilation
Bobby Jindal's presidential quest may not take him all the way to the White House. But if his time on the campaign trail helps put assimilation back at the heart of the nation's immigration debate, he will have rendered his country a valuable service. The 44-year-old governor of Louisiana was born and raised in Baton Rouge. His parents had immigrated to the United States from Punjab in northern India, and Jindal's election in 2007 made him the first Indian American chief executive of any state in US history.
Trump, the Counterfeit Republican
In every town large enough to have two traffic lights there is a bar at the back of which sits the local Donald Trump, nursing his fifth beer and innumerable delusions. Because the actual Donald Trump is wealthy, he can turn himself into an unprecedentedly and incorrigibly vulgar presidential candidate. It is his right to use his riches as he pleases. His squalid performance and its coarsening of civic life are costs of freedom that an open society must be prepared to pay. When, however, Trump decided that his next acquisition would be not another casino but the Republican presidential nomination, he tactically and quickly underwent many conversions of convenience (concerning abortion, health care, funding Democrats, etc.). His makeover demonstrates that he is a counterfeit Republican and no conservative.
The Trump Catharsis
The coarser and cruder Donald Trump becomes, and the more ill-informed on the issues he sounds, the more he coasts in the polls. Apparently, a few of his targets must be regarded as unsympathetically as their defamer. Trump is rightly mocked for cynically spreading quid pro quo money around. But he quickly counters that his critics — from Hillary Clinton to his Republican rivals — have all asked him for such cash or for favors. Trump preps little. He has no real agenda. And he makes stuff up as he goes along. For such a New York brawler, he has thin skin, smearing his critics, often in creepy fashion. How can a former Democrat, once a pro-choice, pro-amnesty liberal and a supporter of single-payer health care, remain the godhead of the conservative base for weeks on end?
Megyn Kelly's Very Smart Question to Donald Trump
Unfortunately, the circus that Donald Trump has created around Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly and her allegedly "unfair" question to him in the Republican debate has drowned out the central importance of that "unfair" question. Voter frustration on the right reflects two things. One, we want to hear tough and straight talk from candidates. But two, we want a candidate who will be elected and set change in motion. All the tough talk in the world means nothing if the candidate doesn't get elected. Kelly's question to Trump was about this. It wasn't about whether Trump is courteous, or a jerk, or politically correct.
Chris Christie's Fearmongering Argument Against Privacy
His Clash with Rand Paul Reflects the Clash Between the GOP's Authoritarian and Libertarian Tendencies
Trumping the Status Quo
Back in the late '80s, I worked in the music business with a well-known producer who shepherded Bruce Springsteen to fame and fortune. Like every producer, he was in search of a follow up act, and one idea he had involved creating a heavy metal band with a mythical god as the lead singer. Because much of that effort involved creating a spectacle of sorts, I got assigned to attend one those professional wrestling matches that routinely sold out at Madison Square Garden. It was a highly entertaining night with plenty of over-the-top action, thrills and lots of silliness. And despite the fact that everyone in the room knew the winner of each fight was "predetermined," the crowd cheered for their favorite heroes with as much gusto as they could muster up. I never attended another match, nor did I see anything like it — until last Thursday night's GOP debate on Fox News.
GOP's Trump Problem Will Fade, but Dems' Sanders Troubles Are Just Beginning
"We are trying to be reasonable," an organizer for Bernie Sanders' Seattle rally said. The black female protesters who stormed the stage became enraged. "We aren't reasonable!" they shouted back. "If you do not listen to [us], your event will be shut down," one of them declared to the crowd. Sanders caved to the protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement and gave activist Marissa Johnson the microphone. "I was going to tell Bernie how racist this city is, even with all of these progressives, but you've already done that for me. Thank you," she said, apparently in response to members of the crowd who booed her. I suppose if you've already conceded that you aren't reasonable, it's not hard to argue that booing an uninvited rabble-rouser is "racist."
Fox Debate: Unfair and Unbalanced?
Twenty-four million people tuned in to watch the first primetime debate among 10 Republican presidential candidates. What were they expecting, a love-in? Some conservative critics dumped on Fox News with a vitriol usually reserved for liberal media. David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network said Fox (where I appear as a commentator) should be "utterly ashamed," calling the questions asked of Donald Trump "unethical and downright nasty." "Shame" was a word frequently used by critics of Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace.
A Tough Day for the President and His Party
Thursday was the biggest night of the political year so far, for what happened on the stage at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena and for what happened offstage as well. The stage was the scene of the first two Republican presidential debates, hosted by Fox News, which together lasted some 200 minutes between 5 and 11 p.m. EDT. What happened there did not go unnoticed. According to overnight Nielsen ratings, the two-hour prime-time debate got a rating as high as the national basketball finals — almost triple the highest rating of a Republican debate in the 2012 cycle and more than half that of the first Obama-Romney debate that fall. It was apparently the most watched primary debate in history.
A Debatable 'Debate'
The so-called "debates," among too many Republicans to have a debate, are yet another painful sign of how much words and ideas have degenerated in our times. No one expects these televised sound bites and "gotcha" questions to be anything like the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates on the momentous national issue of slavery. But the mob scene of candidates on stage that began with the 2012 campaign, and is now being repeated, is a big step down from the modern one-on-one debates between presidential candidates that began with John F. Kennedy versus Richard Nixon in 1960.
Establishment Must Quit Obsessing Over Trump
It's time that the sophisticated analysts who pride themselves in their ability to discern nuance realized that Donald Trump's popularity and his defenders are more nuanced than most people imagine. Because Trump is outrageous compared with the usual presidential candidate, Beltway pundits assume his followers and sometime defenders are classless rubes willing to overlook any objectionable remark he makes and his mixed record on conservative causes. These commentators seem more disgusted with Trump defenders than with President Obama's destructive agenda and the threat it represents to America.