RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/scottmorefield/2022/11/06/conservatives-hit-back-after-trump-takes-pre-election-shot-at-desantis-n2615540

Conservatives on Twitter hit back at Donald Trump after the former president took a shot at Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a Saturday night pre-election speech in Pennsylvania.

“”There it is, Trump at 71 percent, Ron DeSanctimonious at 10%,” Trump told the crowd while reading approval numbers of various Republicans.”

If he should choose to run – and that’s a big “if” – DeSantis is widely considered to be the best shot at upending another Trump run for the GOP nomination. Not only were his Covid policies spot on and ahead of the curve, but the Florida governor has also been by far the most effective Republican politician when it comes to getting out there and battling leftist positions and implementing conservative policies in his state. And he’s done so without taking any shots at Trump, the person he and everyone else understands played a key role in getting him where he is today.

For Trump, however, this unprovoked jab at conservatism’s most effective fighter is evidence for many that, despite the many good things he has done for the country, this has been all about him the whole time.

Especially when it did nothing but provide ammunition to the left, particularly in Florida.

Trump’s swipe brought plenty of criticism from conservatives on Twitter:

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/3721139-constitutional-defamation-democrats-not-democracy-are-in-danger-this-election/

Historian Michael Beschloss’s warning on MSNBC — speculating that “our children will be arrested and conceivably killed” if Republicans win control of Congress — summed up the final pitch by President Biden and fellow Democrats ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Apparently, it is not gas prices, the economy or crime that once again are the top polling issues for voters. Instead, it is democracy or death, gas or grandchildren — you choose.

Biden returned to this theme in what White House chief of staff Ron Klain called his “final warning” to voters. The president ominously cautioned voters who might be thinking of voting for Republicans that, “make no mistake, democracy is on the ballot for all of us.” In other words, be afraid, be very afraid.

Biden was widely criticized for an earlier Philadelphia speech that denounced political opponents as fascists plotting to overthrow democracy. Yet he and others have returned to that theme as Democrats appear to be losing ground even in traditional blue states. Among others, Hillary Clinton warned that the GOP is trying to “steal” the election and that “they’re going after democracy.“

The president’s attacks do not appear to be gaining much traction, with polls showing that most people view him as inciting political unrest. Nevertheless, on almost every network and cable news program, the mantra seems unrelenting: If the GOP prevails in the midterms, democracy could be lost.

Whereas the media once pushed a false Russia collusion claim in the 2016 election, this time it is pushing a claim that the GOP itself represents the threat to our liberties and very lives.

https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2022/11/06/thank-god-for-these-horrible-democrats-n2615531

It’s times like these when you yearn for the perfect words to explain not only how important it is to vote Tuesday, but also to properly describe just how awful the people you’re running against are. In the case of Democrats, unfortunately, the words needed to describe them tend to contain four letters and generally are slang for body parts or directions for action involving them. That makes them unusable in a family-friendly column, but I’m going to try to get around that as best I can and paint as accurate of a picture as possible about why we should be grateful for these horrible Democrats.

A fish rots from the head down, but in the case of Democrats that head is empty, or at least has forgotten where it is. Naturally, that head is on the scrawny neck of Joe Biden, a man so untrustworthy that it says “hello” you have to suspect he’s leaving. What kind of person thinks claiming “Ultra MAGA is a threat to the country” is a good strategy? “MAGA” stands for “Make America Great Again,” which if you’re pretending to like the country is rather difficult to demonize. Then again, Biden leads the party that has “America was never great” as a guaranteed applause line on the campaign trail, so nothing should surprise us.

In a last-ditch effort to save his worthless presidency, Biden declared the act of engaging in democracy to be a threat to it should the public dare vote against the wishes of Democrats. I’d call that verbal yoga, but yoga has value whereas Democrats and what they say do not.

The idea of declaring one of the two possible election outcomes to be invalid before any votes are counted should bother the people who claim to wake up screaming about “threats to democracy.” But those claims are as sincere as the election results in the old Soviet Union or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Yet, while calling anyone who opposes his failed policies “semi-fascist,” Biden is embracing the tactics of fascists throughout history. 

And so is every other Democrat out there, on the ballot or in the media. Any result not reflecting what Democrats want is a threat to democracy, according to these people. The only difference is they won’t have a firing squad outside your polling place ready to dispense their version of “democracy” should they discover you voted wrong, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like to. Enjoy voting against them…while they still allow it and so they can’t disallow it in the future.

Whatever joy you experience Tuesday night, save an extra cup of “in your face” for Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke. While those two are horrible people – having spent the last four years lying about and smearing Republicans, unchallenged, on cable news – beating them again should bring special joy.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/11/05/midterm-reflections/

Was there really a time when an American election didn’t seem to be a matter of life and death—of choosing between a return to constitutional norms and continuing down a road of national suicide by ideology? Was there a time when a midterm election, for heaven’s sake, didn’t seem as vitally important as this one does—a time, moreover, when one was content to pay attention to the races in one’s own state and city and not bite one’s nails over any number of other races around the country?

One more question. Was there really a time when it wasn’t anywhere near as maddening as it is now that the voters in certain jurisdictions seem not to get it? How on earth, for example, can 54 percent of New Yorkers plan to vote for the ruinous Kathy Hochul? How can as many as 43 percent of Texans support Beto O’Rourke? In the race for governor of Arizona (and when on earth did any of us ever care about a gubernatorial election in Arizona?), how can the remarkable Kari Lake be neck and neck with the execrable Katie Hobbs? How can anybody in Florida be thinking of voting against Ron DeSantis? And however unpalatable Dr. Mehmet Oz may be, how could the Senate election in Pennsylvania actually be a toss-up between him and the psychologically debilitated basement radical John Fetterman? 

Yes, there are predictions of a nationwide red wave, even a red tsunami. Maybe those prognostications are correct. But even if they are, sheer abominations like Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) will almost certainly remain in power. Why? Can anyone in Chicago be unaware of its current murder rate? How is it that the people living in the California cities most overrun with schizophrenic tent people and felonious illegals are the very voters most likely to pull the lever for Gavin Newsom, who’s largely responsible for it?  

On a podcast the other day, somebody recalled overhearing a comment at JFK Airport that went something like this: “Yes, Hochul is terrible, but I’ve never voted Republican in my life, and I won’t start now.” I spent most of my life in New York City, so I know plenty of people like that. But can even the most low-information, knee-jerk New York Democrat fail to understand that the two major political parties have undergone a drastic sea change? 

“That isn’t your grandfather’s Republican Party,” our beloved president keeps saying. He’s right! But not in the way he implies. The party of country-club elites and evangelical Christians has morphed into the party of middle-class families—including a growing number of blacks and Latinos. Bye bye, Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms; hello, Tim Scott and Mia Love. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has been captured by radicals like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), has a paramilitary wing in the form of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, and serves the interests of Silicon Valley, Hollywood, big media, Wall Street, and globalist corporations. 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/ny-dems-to-double-down-on-denying-crime-exists/

Shoot the messenger. Literally.

How ideologically deranged are Democrats? So much so that they’re not going to do a U-turn on crime, instead they’re going to blame those Democrats who actually talked about the problem.

Democratic officials and strategists in New York tell CNN they are bracing for what could be stunning losses in the governor’s race and in contests for as many as four US House seats largely in the suburbs.

With crime dominating the headlines and the airwaves, multiple Democrats watching these races closely are pointing to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, accusing him of overhyping the issue and playing into right-wing narratives in ways that may have helped set the party up for disaster on Tuesday.

“He was an essential validator in the city to make their attacks seem more legit and less partisan,” said one Democratic operative working on campaigns in New York, who asked not to be named so as not to compromise current clients.

As circular firing squads go, this one is insane.

Dems whose strategy failed are going to blame a guy who actually got elected. After their messaging strategy abysmally failed, they’re going to claim that it would have succeeded if Mayor Adams weren’t out there mentioning the existence of crime.

The assumption here is that New York voters are mentally retarded and that they aren’t reacting to crime based on their everyday experiences, but Adams press conferences.

https://spectatorworld.com/newsletter/the-crime-election/

The crime elections

The District of Columbia’s City Council might seem a strange place to start a political newsletter a few days out from the midterms. As Democrats will never miss an opportunity to remind you, voters in Washington, DC will not get a say in a race that will help decide control of Congress. But a meeting of city leaders this week is an instructive part a national story that will be central to next week’s vote.

On Tuesday, the DC Council voted 12-0 to support a rewriting of the capital’s criminal code. Reforms include reduced mandatory minimum sentences, the expansion of the right to jury trials for most misdemeanors, a broadening of the opportunities for early release and the elimination of accomplice liability in felony murder cases. The reforms are opposed by the District’s US Attorney, Matthew M. Graves, and police chief Robert J. Contee. Graves said that some of the provisions “could undermine community safety and impede the administration of justice in our courts.” Also opposed to the proposals as they stand: the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, who has said she will not sign them into law, but thinks some kind of reform is needed.

Crime is set to be a decisive factor in next week’s elections. It is the biggest reason why governors’ contests are closer than expected in Oregon and New York. It is the main line of attack in crucial Senate races in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It is why Los Angeles might be about to elect a former Republican property developer as its mayor. Nationwide, it’s a major issue for swing voters and traditionally Democrat-supporting working-class voters. For some Democrats, this seems to be a head-scratcher: We’ve cut it out with calls to Defund the Police. We get it.

And this is why the DC story is so instructive. It’s not that Democratic leaders are actively defunding the police, or fail to appreciate, at least theoretically, that the issue is a major concern for voters. It’s that they time and again fail to act as though public safety is their number one concern. Violent crime is spiking in Washington. It is the city’s most pressing problem and should be its elected officials’ number one concern. In place of any sense of urgency or decisive action is a blue-on-blue debate about which criminal justice reform measures are worth keeping and which are worth watering down. The message to voters is clear: your worries about safety are not our top priority.

Across the country, the Democratic Party’s messaging on crime has been all over the place. First, the crime problem was nothing more than a Republican scare campaign: a racist figment of the right-wing imagination. When more and more Democrats acknowledged the problem, they made the slightly trollish claim that crime is actually higher in red states. Absent from their pitch to voters on one of the most important issues: a straightforward pledge to actually deal with the problem.

https://freebeacon.com/columns/crime-starters-usa/

New York governor Kathy Hochul is a case study in denial. The unelected Democrat is in trouble because she won’t acknowledge the danger of rising crime. When challenger Lee Zeldin, a Republican congressman from Long Island, brought up public safety during last week’s debate, Hochul scoffed. “I don’t know why that’s so important to you,” she said. She might as well have stuck her tongue out at voters. Support for Zeldin has surged in recent days.

Hochul may yet win. New York hasn’t voted for a Republican governor since 2002. Whatever the outcome — and Zeldin has a path to victory — the takeaway is clear: Crime is once again a matter of national concern.

Look at the polls. Sixty-one percent of registered voters told the Pew Research Center this month that violent crime is very important to their midterm vote. An October Gallup poll had crime in third place, after the economy and abortion. The October Fox poll showed that crime was second only to inflation in voters’ minds. According to another recent Gallup survey, a record 56 percent of Americans say there is more crime in their area than there was last year.

Hochul blames this sentiment on mass delusion. “These are master manipulators,” she told MSNBC on October 30. “They have this conspiracy going all across America trying to convince people in Democratic states that they’re not safe.” Hochul didn’t say who “they” are. She meant Republicans.

The truth is that Hochul is the one who’s out of touch. The reason voters are worried about crime is that crime has been rising. Sensational stories of subway murders, carjackings, kidnappings, and shoplifting are not isolated events. Murder and assaults have increased nationwide since 2019. Murder has dropped off somewhat since the beginning of this year, but the decline has been unevenly distributed and other forms of violent crime are going up. The lawlessness that spread across the country in 2020 hasn’t abated.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/how-grim-is-the-outlook-for-incumbents-below-50-percent/

As Greg Corombos observed on Wednesday, we’ve reached that time of year when the moment many of us type the letter “R” in a web browser, we automatically load the URL for the RealClearPolitics list of the day’s latest polls.

But there’s a school of thought that argues that what polling aggregates really give us is a sense of the level of support the incumbent enjoys. Incumbency carries a lot of advantages in American politics — usually, strong name recognition, some degree of public application of what one has accomplished in office, and significant advantages in fundraising. Most years, between 91 and 98 percent of incumbents get reelected.

There’s a rule of thumb that an incumbent who is polling above 50 percent is safe, and an incumbent polling below 50 percent is in trouble. After all, the voters already know who the incumbent is and what they think of him. If they don’t like him, they’re usually, at minimum, looking for other options.

For what it’s worth, way back in 2010, Nate Silver argued that “the incumbent 50 percent rule” was an oversimplification. “It may be proper to focus more on the incumbent’s number than the opponent’s when evaluating such a poll — even though it is extremely improper to assume that the incumbent will not pick up any additional percentage of the vote.” But I think most of us can agree that an incumbent would rather be above 50 percent than below it, and the higher your support in late polling, the better your chance of reelection.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/11/the_medias_coverage_of_kari_lake_takes_bias_to_new_extremes.html

“What’s made Lake a national phenomenon is that, on the campaign trail, her instincts are extraordinary. She’s beautiful, intelligent, has tremendous presence and—perhaps most importantly—is unafraid of the media.”

When it comes to Kari Lake, the mainstream, drive-by, leftist media is in pants-wetting mode. In a fair world, as a candidate for the Arizona governorship, Lake would get admiring or, at least, objective coverage. But we don’t live in a fair world, so the media is attacking Lake with a savagery previously reserved only for Donald Trump (after he became a Republican candidate).

Until 2021, Lake was best known in the Phoenix area, where she worked for 22 years as a television news anchor at KSAZ-TV. Her political identity was kind of all over the place. She was originally a Republican, a registration she kept until 2006. That was when, because she was dismayed by George Dubya’s wars (which saw her voting for John Kerry in 2004), she switched to Independent. Then, in 2008, clearly dazzled by Obama, she registered as a Democrat and donated to several Democrat campaigns. However, in 2021, she launched her gubernatorial campaign as a Republican.

Despite being substantially outspent during the Republican primary, Lake won handily. Perhaps it was because she didn’t let Democrats bully her into hiding her suspicions that something was deeply wrong with the 2020 election results.