If I feel sick to my stomach at the thought that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Grand Old Party, I can't fathom how I will feel on the morning of November 9 if he is the President-elect of the United States. This just can't be. How can so many millions of people …
Continue reading Some advice for Clintonites: lay off Sanders
"Listen to this guy. He has one idea and repeats it over and over again." "No, you're the one who repeats himself. You have nothing to say." "You can't be trusted. You lie." "You're the liar." "So's your mother." Why don't you take it outside, fellas. If you watched the last GOP "debate" before …
Fox News may have missed Donald Trump. Its viewership was down to 11-13 million viewers, half what they got in the first debate last fall. (The Democrats' debates have had only eight million viewers, thanks to DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz's scheduling them at low viewership times to protect Hillary Clinton.) But, if the eyeballs were …
Donald Trump has changed his messages not one iota. He stands by every single outrageous thing he has said and is absolutely unfazed when challenged. That may be what his supporters like about him. Last evening's unpleasantly raucous and poorly moderated debate on the Fox Business Network was dominated by Trump's head-to-head with Ted Cruz, and …
The big winner in last night's "big boy" (top ten Republicans in polls, all male) debate was Fox News itself. While the network isn't my default choice, the moderators, stalwart defenders of Republican orthodoxy, and the format wrung the most out of the sometimes unruly lot and provided some illuminating moments. Megyn Kelly, flanked by Chris Wallace …
Tip O'Neill famously said all politics is local. Yesterday, Republicans won big by turning that adage on its head. They nationalized state races and turned President Obama's unpopularity and his administration's failures into anvils around the necks of Democratic candidates. Even states that Obama carried turned against him. A happy exception to that trend was …
Continue reading Election 2014 – is consensus as remote as ever?
Secretary of State John Kerry prompted a diplomatic gasp and a Ted Cruz hissy fit by warning of the dangers of apartheid if Israel and the Palestinians can't achieve a workable two-state solution. Kerry's private comment was uncharacteristically undiplomatic but not without truth. A Boston Globe editorial sums up succinctly Israel's dilemma if a two-state solution fails …
Continue reading Kerry said the “A” word; so have many Israelis
Don’t believe the hype: Ted Cruz and Tea Partiers weren’t big losers. Most other people were. The recent partial shut-down and near default of the US government led by rogue deficit hawks cost American taxpayers at least $24 billion (according to Standard & Poor's), paid furloughed workers not to work, cut economic growth and, as …
Continue reading Washington artful dodgers postpone responsibility
Marjorie Arons-Barron 