RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/11/13/james-clyburn-and-the-big-third-party-lie/

A few new polls out show former President Donald Trump ahead of current sort-of President Joe Biden.

And ahead rather comfortably, leading nationally overall by enough and leading in five of the six “swing states” that have determined the last two presidential elections.

Good news for him? Yes.

The downside for Trump is that those leads shrink if certain third-party candidates are thrown into the mix.

Without RFK Jr. in the mix, Trump polls well ahead of Biden – add in RFK Jr. and it shifts to a small Biden lead nationally and a “who knows?” in the swing states.

But then add in Cornel West – who recently dropped his Green Party nomination effort and is, like Kennedy, going the independent route – and Biden and Trump are really in jumpball territory.

So then why would Biden’s Democratic South Carolina savior Rep. James Clyburn be railing about the evils of third-party candidates?

Clyburn states that third parties could so confuse the race that Trump in the end benefits and that in and of itself “fundamentally endangers our democracy.”

Whose democracy, Jim? If you wrote “my democracy” that would be accurate, but “our democracy” is not put in danger when more people run for office. It seems Clyburn has no problem with just anybody voting – he pushed the John Lewis Act, which would hamstring states from instituting legitimate voting ID requirements and essentially federalize the election process – but he has a problem with just anybody running.

Anyway, Jim, the addition of West and Kennedy seems to help your guy, so what gives?

“Our democracy” is what gives. Whenever the term is used it is not about “our democracy” but “their democracy.”

The Romans called the Mediterranean Sea ‘Mare Nostra,’ or ‘Our Sea’ to connote power and exclusivity.  The mafia is often referred to by its members as ‘Cosa Nostra,’ or ‘Our Thing,’ again to ensure a protective separateness from everything and everyone else.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/11/09/high_stakes_and_a_simple_choice_150037.html

Bernie Marcus is the co-founder of Job Creators Network, a philanthropist, and the retired co-founder of The Home Depot.

I am 94 years old and like many of you, I am exhausted by politics and saddened by what I see happening to America. I had hoped it was time for me to move to the sidelines and let younger generations continue the fight to preserve America’s founding freedoms and values. But, like so many of us, I realized that I could not let myself walk away; the stakes are just too high.

We cannot let the America we see today be what we leave to our children and grandchildren. Many of our once-great cities have devolved into lawlessness with random violent attacks on innocent people, rampant looting, and large-scale homeless encampments. There are rarely consequences for the wrongdoers because George Soros-elected prosecutors across America refuse to prosecute them.

Moreover, our southern border is unprotected, and millions of people we know nothing about pour into our nation to receive care and benefits that we cannot afford to provide to our struggling military veterans. Worse, many of the border crossers may be gang members who commit violent crimes here. Schoolchildren across America cannot read, write, or do basic math, while our educational leaders tell us that they know better than parents how to raise our children. Working men and women are struggling to provide for their families and must raid their retirement funds just to feed, clothe, and take care of their children. These are just a few of the problems America is facing after three years of bad government policies. They cannot be our legacy.

This should not be a partisan issue. This should be an issue for all Americans – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – that I hope to reach with this op-ed. You enjoy the freedoms and values on which the nation was founded. Sadly, I see these freedoms and values being eroded today as government gets bigger and weaponized against its political opponents.

I wrote this op-ed because of my love for America, not for any financial gain or advantage. I have been retired for 30 years and spend my time engaged in philanthropic causes, with which I have committed to share 90% of my net worth. I was born here and can give testimony about The American Dream. I lost my job and was broke when I was 48 years old. A dear friend of mine suggested that my misfortune presented a great opportunity to build a small business based upon an idea I had shared with him. Only in America, the land of opportunity, could being without a job and broke be a great opportunity. In 1978, my partners and I built four hardware stores, and this small business grew and is known as The Home Depot. We could only have done this in America because of America’s system of free enterprise and pro-jobs growth government policies. The state of America today, especially record inflation, government over-regulation, and the problems of the last three years, would prevent my partners and I from succeeding as we have.

Part of our legacy must be passing on to future generations of Americans our founding freedoms and values, including The American Dream. We must change the current trajectory of the nation and solve the problems created in the last three years. We must also reject calls from some politicians to replace our free market system with big government socialism. Most of them seem to have never had a job outside of government. All they know is making government bigger and more intrusive in the lives of its citizens.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/11/digging_into_ramaswamys_correct_attack_against_nikki_haley_about_tiktoxic.html

Last night, Nikki Haley, showing the wit, tact, and self-control that will, I’m sure, characterize a potential Haley presidency, called Vivek Ramaswamy “scum” after he pointed out that, even as she had attacked him in September for setting up a TikTok campaign site, her daughter had a TikTok account. Her children, she said, are off limits. I’m siding with Ramaswamy on this one, though. TikTok targets America’s youth, so we conservatives should have a presence there. The reality is that TikTok is tik-toxic, especially because it’s corrupting American young people on everything from sexuality to Middle Eastern politics. Since it’s here, whether we like it or not, we ignore it at our peril.

As you may recall, way too late in his first term to make a difference, Donald Trump issued an executive order banning apps from ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese-controlled company that owns TikTok. He did so because he identified TikTok as a national security risk. Within months of gaining the White House, Joe Biden rescinded that executive order, inviting TikTok back into America…and the People’s Republic of China back into the minds of our children. China got what it paid for when Biden entered the Oval Office.

It’s long been known that, within China, TikTok ensures that people see videos about China’s might, patriotism, health and fitness, America’s perfidy, etc. It’s all pro-government stuff, whether social or political. However, in America, TikTok promotes videos about anorexia, steroids, self-harm, LGBTQ+ stuff, with a special focus on transgenderism, and anti-Americanism.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/gop-debate-takeaways-haley-takes-fire-as-she-jockeys-for-second-place-27ee6cb0

MIAMI—Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has shown momentum in recent weeks, came under sustained attack in Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate as she competes with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to be the leading alternative to former President Donald Trump.

She also delivered several of her own shots at DeSantis, who tried to float above the fray, but engaged with her on China, energy policy and a handful of other issues. A confrontation between the two had been brewing, amplified by a closely watched poll that recently showed Haley and DeSantis tied for second in Iowa, where nomination balloting starts Jan. 15.

But second place may not be worth much given Trump’s commanding lead in the polls. After an opening question that asked candidates to make a case against Trump, who skipped the event, the debate centered on testy exchanges between those on stage.

“You’re just scum,” Haley said at one point to biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, after he said her daughter had used TikTok, amid a discussion of banning the widely popular Chinese app.

Here are key takeaways from the debate, moderated by Lester Holt and Kristen Welker of NBC News and Hugh Hewitt of the Salem Radio Network:

Rivals Try to Slow Haley

Haley was a top target throughout the evening as others tried to slow her momentum. She took heat over her foreign-policy positions, attempts to spur Chinese investment in her home state and earnings from Boeing and other corporate boardships.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/11/07/after-these-disastrous-polls-how-long-will-dems-stick-with-biden/

In our decades of experience covering politics, we’ve never seen a poll as devastating to an incumbent president as the one CBS News/YouGov poll published over the weekend.  

The short version is that more voters think they would be better off if Donald Trump returns to the White House than they would if Joe Biden stays there. Think about that for a moment.  

Then there’s the New York Times/Sienna College poll, also published over the weekend, showing that Trump leads Biden in five key swing states, and by wide margins: 10 points in Nevada, 6 points in Georgia, 5 in Arizona and Michigan, and 4 points in Pennsylvania. 

The Times poll also found that 59% disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president, and 71% said he was too old, while only 38% said Trump was too old.  

Both polls have sent the mainstream press scrambling to reassure their readers that either the polls don’t mean what they seem, that Biden can “improve his position,” or that, fingers crossed, Trump gets convicted. (The New York Times Monday story carried the headline: “Trump Indictments Haven’t Sunk His Campaign, but a Conviction Might.”) 

But of the two, the CBS News/YouGov poll is far worse for Biden. Instead of just asking who they’d support, CBS News asked likely voters a series of questions about who they think they’d be better off with in the years ahead, Biden or Trump.  

https://www.frontpagemag.com/this-might-the-time-that-determines-if-biden-drops-out/

Democrats spent the past few months mocking those who looked at Biden’s poll numbers and suggested he should drop out as ‘bedwetters’. There’s now a prominent new bedwetter joining the ranks.

Former President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod said it’s the last moment for President Biden to check if he should drop out of the 2024 presidential race, after suggesting he should do so.

On Sunday, Axelrod, in the wake of a new poll showing Biden trailing former President Trump in key swing states, said Biden needs to decide if it’s wise to continue his run. The poll found Biden trailing Trump in five out of six battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

“As I’ve said for like a couple years now, the issue’s not — for him is not political, its actuarial. You can see that in this poll and there’s just a lot of concern about the age issue, and that is something I think he needs to ponder. Just do a check and say, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’” Axelrod said.

“Is this the best path? I suspect that he will say yes, but time is fleeting here, and this is probably the last moment for him to do that check, and it’s probably good if he does,” the Obama alum added.

What’s also significant is that during a foreign crisis, presidential poll numbers usually go up. (Then they drop back down afterward.) That does not seem to be happening here.

No one really wants Biden. Most think he’s too old. And life in general is miserable. That’s what people who fixate too much on political issues don’t entirely understand. When life is bad, much of the electorate, which isn’t Dem or GOP, turns against whoever is in the White House. And it takes hard work for an incumbent to survive that.

And life is really, really bad now. Maybe not quite as bad as 2020, but a good deal worse than 2012. And Biden is no Obama.

Running an unpopular incumbent is just a death wish. Most Dems know it. And with Trump in ascendance, they’re much more likely to want to dump Biden and bet on a fresh new candidate. And that would be a good bet. Much better than sticking with the old nag.

So Sen. Fetterman just took a shot at Gov. Newsom for running a shadow campaign.

https://pjmedia.com/chris-queen/2023/11/03/kentucky-democrats-go-full-racist-against-daniel-cameron-n4923601

Democrats love to refer to themselves as the party of diversity. It’s always important for leftists to display how many different demographic categories are among their ranks. But what we don’t see on the left is diversity of thought.

Black conservatives become the targets of disrespect and outright racism from the left. Just ask Clarence Thomas, Tim Scott, and Condoleezza Rice. The latest example of this phenomenon is taking place in Kentucky, where Democrats are going full racist in attacking GOP gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron, who is black.

Cameron has trailed incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear until recently. According to RealClearPolitics, the latest Emerson poll shows Cameron with a narrow one-point lead over Beshear, while a poll from the same outlet from the beginning of October showed Beshear with a 16-point lead.

Cameron’s surge must have the Democrats scared because a new ad is using racism to target Cameron as insufficiently black. 

Fox News reports:

Black Voters Matter Action PAC, which FEC filings show received millions from [George] Soros’ super-PAC, has been running the radio ad on a local R&B station based in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, describing Cameron as “Uncle Daniel Cameron,” and accusing him of betraying his race by declaring “all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.”

“What’s up Kentucky? It’s election time, and all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk. Over the past few years, we’ve taken to the streets to demand racial justice, to demand healthcare, and the right to make decisions about our body. And now, Uncle Daniel Cameron is threatening to take us backwards, the same man who refused to seek justice for Breonna Taylor now wants to run our whole state,” the ad says.

Let that sink in. It’s so racist that it is wilder than parody.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/11/02/judge-orders-new-democrat-mayoral-primary-in-connecticut-after-seeing-shocking-ballot-stuffing-videos/

A Superior Court judge in Connecticut has ordered a new Democrat mayoral primary in Bridgeport after surveillance videos showed a Democrat official apparently stuffing absentee ballots into an outdoor ballot box ahead of the original primary.

Incumbent Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim won the election by 251 votes out of 8,173 cast, and absentee ballots reportedly played a deciding role in his margin of victory.

Superior Court Judge William Clark ruled that challenger John Gomes’ claims of absentee ballot fraud warranted throwing out the results of the Sept. 12 primary, the Connecticut Mirror reported.

“The videos are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all of the parties,” Clark wrote in his decision.

The video clips show Town Committee vice chairwoman Wanda Geter-Pataky placing what appear to be multiple absentee ballots into one of the four absentee ballot drop boxes in the city.

“These instances do not appear to the court to be random,” Clark wrote in his opinion.

“The issue in this case is not the applications or even the push to deliver absentee votes. The issue is whether that advocacy crossed a line of the established laws. Specifically, whether individuals who were not the voter and were not authorized under statute handled ballots,” Clark said. “Based on the video and the numbers of absentee votes submitted through the drop box method in Districts 136 and 139 in particular, this court finds that such violations did occur.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/10/the-case-for-desantis-over-haley-as-the-alternative-to-trump/

Like it or not, if there is a path forward from Trump right now, it still runs through Ron DeSantis, not Nikki Haley.

Nikki Haley has been increasingly consolidating a segment of the Republican primary vote, largely the most devoted anti-Trump voters, be they traditional Reaganite conservatives or moderates. This is still not close to a winning hand: In the RealClearPolitics polling averages, she is currently at 8.3 percent and third place nationally, 11.5 percent and third place in Iowa, 14.8 percent and second place in New Hampshire, and 17.7 percent and second place in her home state of South Carolina. It has, nonetheless, produced a boomlet of commentary from people who would prefer Haley to Ron DeSantis, such as Michael Strain’s “Case for Nikki Haley” in these pages. Noah Rothman has written on why he thinks Haley’s strategy of differentiating herself from Donald Trump on policy and style and focusing on appealing to voters who dislike Trump has been superior to that of DeSantis’s.

I get the instinct to be frustrated with the DeSantis campaign, and I understand why some of the traditionally Reaganite elements of the party — let alone Republican moderates — would like to use the present moment to grind axes against not only DeSantis but the whole nationalist/populist “New Right.” But the effort to promote Haley is likely to simply divide the opposition to Trump and strengthen the hand within the party of not only the nationalist/populist Right in general, but its most irresponsible elements in particular. Like it or not, DeSantis is still the best game in town — not only for any prospect of stopping Trump from winning the nomination, but for any long-term hope of restoring purpose and sanity to the Republican Party.

Moreover, in the immediate term, neither DeSantis nor Haley is dropping out of the race, so those of us looking to settle on a single opponent for Trump should first emphasize the urgent need for Tim Scott, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum, and Asa Hutchinson — none of whom any longer has a remotely plausible case for being in the race — to follow the statesmanlike lead of Mike Pence and drop out. I’d add Vivek Ramaswamy to that list if I didn’t think he was running essentially as a stalking horse to aid Trump.

The Choices

I put my own prior assumptions on the table here up front. I would happily go into battle in the general election behind either Haley or DeSantis, and would be thrilled to see either of them as president. Both boast strong records as conservative governors. Both are prepared to be commander in chief, Haley due to her tenure at the U.N., DeSantis from his time in the House and serving as a legal adviser to Navy SEALs in Iraq and a prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay. Both represent my generation, born in the 1970s and ready to move on from the seemingly endless grip of those born in the 1940s on our politics. Both cut their teeth in politics during the Tea Party era, when there was a bumper crop of talented Republicans looking to merge populist energy with conservative principle. Either of them would be the most conservative nominee since Ronald Reagan.

As a traditional Reaganite, I probably agree more with Haley than with DeSantis on the few areas where they actually disagree. I’ve been a longtime Haley booster going back to her first campaign for governor in 2010 and was openly discussing her four or five years ago as my preferred candidate to lead the party after Trump. She managed to get out of the Trump administration on good terms with Trump and with her dignity intact — not an easy thing — and if the party had chosen a new nominee in 2018, it might well have been Haley.

I’ve soured a bit on her political judgment since then, as she has struggled to navigate the innumerable pitfalls of a political landscape dominated by Trump, exemplified by a spectacularly ill-considered (and swiftly walked-back) interview with Tim Alberta in Politico in 2021. I saw her stump speech in Iowa in August and was unimpressed with its simplistic and gimmicky proposals (a competency test?) and overreliance on her gender. The debates have been a godsend to her campaign, allowing her to sink her teeth into more serious stuff and find a foil in the haplessly shallow and irritating Vivek Ramaswamy. They have reminded many of us why we thought she was a real talent in the first place.