Category Archives: 2016 presidential campaign
Trump Naming Rights
Obama won’t name our enemy. Trump would probably try to sell the naming rights to radical Islam.
The Donald isn’t guilty of false humility. In a way it’s kind of refreshing to have a candidate who doesn’t claim he was born in a log cabin. Or that his dad was a bartender, or a mailman, or that he’s ashamed that he’s rich.
But the novelty could wear off fast.
Christie and The Donald
New Jersey tough guy Governor Chris Christie was once smitten with President Obama. But now that’s all water under the bridge. He left the president’s warm embrace for Donald Trump.
Christie and The Donald appeared on stage together last night at Trump’s victory press conference. The governor introduced his new boss as “Mr. Trump“.
Cruz Anger Management
The anger vote is yuuuge and Ted Cruz wanted to own it. He’s smart. He knew that voters hate Washington so he decided to make everyone in Washington hate him. It worked.
Cruz sowed the seeds of rage when he gave a 21 hour speech on the Senate floor September 2013. He demanded that Obamacare be defunded. Obama refused to defund Obamacare and the government shut down. The Republican “establishment” got blamed.
Cruz planned to ride the anger vote to the nomination. It was a brilliant plan until, as Henninger says, “Trump stole the whole thing.”
Senator Cruz, the self-designed outsider, is getting killed by the outsider form hell.
Living Breathing Constitution
Scalia once said, “The constitution is not an organism. It’s a legal text.” He didn’t believe in a living breathing constitution. Obama does.
Alive or dead, the constitution gives Obama the right to appoint a successor to Scalia. It also gives the Senate the right to ignore him or turn him down. Obama agreed with that back when he was opposed to executive overreach. As a senator, he called Alito un-American and filibustered Bush’s appointment of him.
At the time, Obama told ABC News that he supported the filibuster”because I think Judge Alito, in fact, is somebody who is contrary to core American values, not just liberal values.” Obama said the court needed to “provide some check on the executive branch, and he has not shown himself willing to do that repeatedly.”
Could be a campaign theme. Here’s Joe Biden with the 2012 campaign theme.
High Stakes Supreme Court Seats
The next president could fill three Supreme Court seats. Daniel Henninger in the WSJ says Scalia’s death has raised the stakes of the election. He expects it to “concentrate the mind”. “The great sobering up has begun,” he says.
