" And then there were two"

Big wins for the 'Trumpster' and the 'Pant Suit' last night and the experts are telling us it is all over and these will be the candidates in the general election. Even Mr. Trump in his victory speech started to speak with more civility referring to 'Senator' Cruz' (not 'lying Ted').

I cannot imagine what Kasich is doing in this race, he has never won anything but his own state and if he wants to be a 'spoiler' he is playing right into Trump's hand. This guy is a RINO (Republican in Name Only) and would probably give Hillary a run if he could get the nomination because the DC establishment does not want change. But this is a different time and no one represents the 'establishment' more than Kasich, so he doesn't have a chance and should just fold his tent and go away.

But Cruz, Kasich, and The Bern are not going away, hoping for contested conventions. First of all, Bernie has no chance unless Hillary gets indicted. But the Obama administration and the Democratic Party will not let that happen, so Bernie (as he has been all along) is history. It will be interesting to see where his voters go...they do not like Hillary or the 'establishment'.

And if Trump makes it to 1237 delegates either before or during the first convention ballot Cruz and Kasich are history also. And the Trumpster does have a lot of momentum with favorable polls in many of the remaining primary elections. Whether you support Trump or hate him, we need to acknowledge that this is an inexperienced politician that started off competing against 17 Republican experienced politicians (except for Dr. Carson), and may defeat them all. This, along with Bernie's success, tells us there are a lot of voters in this country angry with the establishment and want change.

Those that follow this Blog know that I am not a Trump supporter, but I am also an "anyone but Hillary" voter. Obama has almost destroyed this country and Hillary plans to continue his policies, Saul Alinsky would be proud.

California has had no say in any primary election for decades because of the late date of our primary. But would it not be ironic if California, the liberal bastion of the western US, and supporter of more illegal immigrants than the rest of the country combined, was the state whose voters catapulted Donald J. Trump into the general election for President?

"Battle of the Curmudgeons"

I thought the Democratic debate last night was finally an example of what these two nominees are all about. A friend once told me how 'civil' they were to each other in their debates compared to Republicans. Really! Someone pulled back the curtain and the gloves came off last night. These two curmudgeons were yelling at each other all evening. Even the ultra-liberal Wolf Blitzer had to tell them to calm down and quit talking over each other.

Hillary: "We need a $15 minimum wage!"

Bernie: "That was my offer, you were only at $12 a few weeks ago!"

Hillary: "I have always been at $15 and I might even go to $20!"

Bernie: "I'll match your $20 and throw in three weeks of paid vacation for all employees!"

Hillary: "You're full of crap Bernie and you will never be President!"

Bernie: "Look bitch you are the one getting $235 thousand for a speech to Goldman Sachs and your Super Pac gets $15 million from Wall Street. You are in Wall Street's back pocket, you voted for the Iraq war, and you don't have the judgement to be President!"

Hillary: "Look you old bastard you can't get more that $30 from each of your contributors and you shouldn't even be on the stage with me. After Obama kicked my ass in 2008 I have been promised by the DNC that it's my turn to be President and you need to get lost!"

Bernie: "Look fatso I have won 7 of the last 8 primaries and I am in this to kick your ass all the way to the Convention!"

Wolf Blitzer: "Please can't we all get along?"

OK, this is not exactly how the debate went, but it is what I believe they were both thinking. Civil...I don't think so, and I was amazed that they could yell at the top of their voices for almost two hours. But in the end it was the same old Democratic play book...offer your voters lots of free stuff even though you know you can never deliver on your promises.

 

"Just One of the Folks"

The photo op of Mrs. Clinton on the subway in NYC was, to use a pun, 'Hillaryous', not because she couldn't even figure out how to swipe the card, but this is a woman who once said: "I haven't driven a car in 20 years", being chauffeured in a limo everywhere. These candidates must think 'the folks' are really stupid.

She is not the only one; John Kasich eating pizza in NYC with a fork...no John, and Texan Ted Cruz making Jewish matzah bread (probably wearing his cowboy boots). I guess these politicians feel they have to do these photo ops, but at some point you would think their handlers would tell them that the folks won't buy it.

But these photo ops can also be destructive to a campaign. Those my age can remember Micheal Dukakis doing his "Beetle Baily" imitation driving a tank. That photo was not just mocked throughout the media but also probably had a lot to do with his campaign being a total flop. This was probably the first time he had ever been near a tank. The folks didn't buy it.

And we can't forget John Kerry in camo being video taped walking into a small hunting store in Ohio saying; "Is this where I get me a huntin license?" The folks didn't buy it, and it may have helped contribute to his campaign loss.

This primary election is so competitive that for the first time in decades the California vote on June 7th will be very important for all the candidates. If before that election we see a video of Bernie Sanders surfing I may croak.

"Feel the Bern III"

Finally the 'gentle geezer' is attacking Hillary. Unfortunately it may be too late, who knows where his campaign might be if earlier he had brought up the email scandal, the Clinton Foundation "pay for play" scandals, and her trust factor which is a negative among a majority of American voters.

Bernie is a lot of things; great campaigner, energetic, honest, and he really believes his idea of a socialist utopia would work...he can't explain how it would work, but he believes it. But for someone who has been in politics for 25 years he is naive about the rough and tumble aspect of politics, especially going up against a Clinton.

When Bernie in the first debate against Hillary said: "Forget the emails. I'm not interested in that".   At that point I thought to myself, 'he has lost the election'. Going against the Clintons you need to be tough, aggressive, and yes, downright dirty because that's how they play. Believe me if Bernie would ever pull even or get ahead of her they would roll out the dirt, and they probably have a lot on Bernie even if it is made up.

Hillary is controlled by the Wall Street and Corporate structure in this country and he has been hitting her hard on that. But her 'Achilles heel' is the scandals and 'trustworthy' issue which he has avoided. He should have been attacking her on those issues from the beginning and would probably have a real chance right now. But the numbers (and especially with the Super delegates) indicate his chances are probably nil at this point. He may be a nice guy trying to sell a 'utopian society that provides free stuff for everyone', but without a miracle in this primary, history will look at him as just an asterisk  in American politics, particularly since he had done very little in his first 25 years as a public servant. 

"Between a Rock and a Hard Spot"

The Wisconsin primary certainly kept the pot boiling on both sides. During the last presidential primary everything was settled by now. Instead, now both parties are still wondering who their candidate will be.  On the democratic side the experts say that Hillary still has the nomination wrapped up but I am not so sure. NY and Pennsylvania primaries will tell everything, but odds are that Hillary will win in the end especially since the Democratic establishment as of this writing, have the 'super delegates' committed to Hillary.

But on the republican side we are between a 'rock and a hard spot' - Trump voters hate Cruz and vice versa. It's hard to imagine these two ever coming together if one of them are nominated, or if another republican candidate is selected. If Trump loses he may make an independent bid and Republicans will lose. If Cruz wins, his following has a ceiling just like Trump and I don't see how he could pull the party together since most of the Republican power structure in DC is against him.  And if the republicans bring in a candidate like Kasich ('Rino') or one who has not been part of the primary, people  will stay home, so at this point it doesn't look good for the good guys.

It's sad that 60% of Americans on both sides believe the country is on the wrong track and that America has lost its leadership standing in the world...congratulations Mr. Obama on a job well done. The only thing the Republican party has going for it in this election is that the Democrats have put up two of the sorriest candidates I can remember in my lifetime (and that's a long time). 

"Speed Bumps and Convention Madness"

If the Wisconsin primary polls are accurate, it looks like the Trump and Hillary trains may hit a bit of a 'speed bump'.

Each loss by The Donald makes it look more and more like a contested Convention. Experts tell us that if neither Trump nor Cruz reaches the 1237 required to secure the nomination, and if neither can muster that many votes during the first round of voting, the delegates will be free on the second round and things could break wide open and anyone can be nominated. Kasich is nothing but a spoiler at this point and unless they change the rules, he cannot even be included in the first round of voting since you need to win a majority in at least eight primaries. It would not surprise me if the 'establishment' was funding his campaign just so he can keep Trump and Cruz from winning outright.

All the news lately is about a "chaotic" Republican convention, especially from Trump who says that if he is close to the 1237 number but is denied the nomination, there could be unrest by his supporters, and maybe even 'rioting'. So the Republican Convention holds the promise of being a very interesting event.

But what about the Democratic Convention?

Bernie Sanders has now won six out of the last seven primary contests (many of them caucuses) and must have the Hillary campaign somewhat concerned; he is also slightly ahead in the polls in Wisconsin. All the experts believe the primary is rigged for Hillary and Bernie is just coming along for the ride. With a big lead and almost all of the super delegates committed to her, Bernie doesn't seem to have much of a chance. Even Debbie Wasserman-Shultz the DNC chairman has been heard privately saying that he will never be their candidate because; "He has always been an Independent and not a Democrat".

But think about this:  Some believe Hillary may be indicted (I don't think so); even if the FBI recommends indictment political power in DC will keep that from happening. The FBI is planning to interview Hillary and her top aids under oath in the near future; in addition the man that set up and installed her private server has agreed to testify after being given immunity (why would he ask for immunity?). None of this looks good for the Hillary train. Even if the FBI recommends indictment and the Obama administration refuses to move forward, that will leak out to the press and  could cause Hillary to lose big in the remaining primaries and not cinch the nomination.

And if by a miracle that happens and Hillary and Bernie go into the convention with neither having a majority, and neither secure the nomination on the first round, the DNC could send someone like Joe Biden into the convention on a white horse to secure the nomination for the "establishment". It's not probable, but wouldn't it be ironic if that happened and the Bernie supporters went wild and the Democratic convention ended up being crazier than the Republican convention?

Could be an interesting summer, and one thing we know for sure, Liberals are much better at rioting than Conservatives.

"Who is embarassing America?""

Barack Obama:  “The number one question I am getting as I travel around the world or talk to world leaders right now is, what is happening in America about our politics.

John Kerry:  "Everywhere I go, every leader I meet, they ask about what is happening in America. They cannot believe it. It upsets people's sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability. And to some degree, I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they are posed to me, it's clear to me that what's happening is an embarrassment to our country".

Look closely at almost the same talking points from these two feckless leaders during the last few days. This administration has taken hypocrisy to new levels and continues to do so.

Politics can be a tough game, and maybe more so this primary season, but let me tell you what an "embarrassment" to our country really is:

- It started with the ISIS beheading of American James Foley on a video that went viral around the world. ISIS wanted our attention and that video signaled the start of a new major Islamic terror organization.  Obama was on vacation at that time. He didn't cancel his vacation and you can decide  whether or not that was appropriate, but it was how he handled it all; giving a speech about the horror of the beheading and immediately running off to play golf and yuk it up with his friends.


- Then Obama refuses to go to France along with other major leaders to march in solidarity after France's first major terror attack. Instead John Kerry shows up a few days later with James Taylor singing; "You've got a friend"...embarrassing and childish like Hillary's 'reset' button to the Russians.

- I won't elaborate on the Iranian nuclear deal; it has been covered so much in the press. But how embarrassing for this country that while Kerry and Obama were negotiating the deal (against the wishes of many of our allies, especially Israel), the Iranians were dancing in the streets shouting "death to America"...still hard to believe.

But while John Kerry and Barack Obama make the rounds of the talk shows spouting rhetoric about how embarrassing our political contests are; Obama as President of this great country demonstrates to the world what embarrassing behavior really is:  While Brussels is in flames and Islamic terror makes another major strike (which we now find has killed four Americans), our leader is shown doing the "wave" at a baseball game with communist leader Raul Castro and he follows that with a tango in Argentina, both embarrassing videos that were shown around the world.

So while Obama and Kerry play politics about America's "embarrassing" political season, they have proved to be the 'champions' of embarrassing America in a much more harmful way. It's still hard for me to believe how my fellow Americans could elect this narcissistic clown twice...no wonder voters are in the mood to really shakeup Washington politics.