Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas.  It's here.

OCTOBER 31,  2022

A NEW GEORGIA PEACH:  Herschel pulls into the lead.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Former football star Herschel Walker (R-GA) has pulled ahead of incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in the polls in the Georgia Senate race in the time since the two debated more than two weeks ago.

The momentum by the former University of Georgia running back comes as GOP candidates across the country are seeing a strong finish in the final stretch of polling before midterm elections.

Walker currently leads Warnock in the Real Clear Politics polling average by 1.4 percentage points, a massive swing compared with the 3.3 percentage point lead Warnock held on Oct. 14, when the two debated in Savannah, Georgia.

Of the six major polls conducted entirely after the only debate between Walker and Warnock, Walker has led three of them and has been tied with Warnock in one.

Despite accusations from several women that Walker paid for or pressured them to get abortions, allegations that Walker has denied, he has been able to move ahead of the senator in what is expected to be one of the tightest races in the midterm elections.

Warnock brought in former President Barack Obama, who lost Georgia both times he ran for president, to campaign with him in the Peach State in an attempt to reverse the late momentum from Walker.

COMMENT:  There is no doubt a Republican trend in these final days before the election, but we always urge caution.  Getting out the vote is now key.  The big poll is next Tuesday.  Be there.

October 31, 2022       Permalink

OTHERS ARE VOTING, TOO:  Israel goes to the polls today in a national election.  The results will substantially influence events in the Middle East and American policy in the region.  From Fox: 

JERUSALEM – Tuesday could be a big day for former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As Israelis returned to the polls for a fifth time in less than four years, the former Israeli leader is growing increasingly hopeful that a whirlwind election campaign and more than a year in opposition will be enough to propel him back into power.

However, his path to the premiership is complicated. First by the fact that he is currently embroiled in a high-profile criminal trial that includes charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, and secondly by the other political parties he might need in order to build his future coalition, which includes a faction made up of controversial far right-wing politicians.

Netanyahu, the longest-serving leader in Israel’s history, was ousted in the last round of voting in March 2021. Since then, he has watched from the opposition bench as his rivals – first Naftali Bennett and now Yair Lapid – ran the country with a fragile government coalition that included, for the first time ever, a controversial party from the country’s minority Arab sector. 

In an interview on Friday with Fox News Digital, Netanyahu said that he felt confident he could win this election and return to power with a more solid and ideologically aligned government. 

"I think there’s a very good chance we’ll win this time because people have tasted the difference," Netanyahu said, adding, "They put in a different government that made an alliance – and this will shock you – with the Muslim Brotherhood. They’re actually part of the existing coalition that was unraveled and that is unfathomable because these people don't recognize the Jewish state and they support the terrorists who seek to murder Israelis." 

Netanyahu said he believed that many Israelis wanted to see him return, leading a government that is "committed to Israel as a Jewish state" and "to restoring a powerful economy and a powerful military and security for all Israelis." 

COMMENT:   Netanyahu, who was raised in the United States, is a brilliant but outspoken leader who has both allies and enemies here. 

The Middle East is endlessly fascinating...and dangerous.  We'll follow the Israeli election. 

October 31, 2022       Permalink

OCTOBER 30,  2022

WE SMILE, BUT CAUTIOUSLY:  Latest polling appears to show that independents are breaking late but decisively, and that Republicans are the beneficiaries.  From Breitbart: 

According to CBS/YouGov polling from October 12 to 14, independent voters preferred generic congressional Democrat candidates over Republican ones by 40 percent to 38 percent. However, in a second poll from October 26 to 28, independents said they preferred generic congressional Republican candidates over Democrat candidates by 49 percent to 33 percent.

This means that Republicans saw an 18-point swing in their favor among independent voters over a two-week period.

The CBS/YouGov web-based poll surveyed 1,000 Americans and has a +/- 3.5 percent margin of error.

The prospect of Republican victories in both the House and Senate is increasingly growing as likely voters say they are more concerned about issues such as the economy and inflation, which they tend to trust Republican candidates more to handle than Democrat candidates.

Furthermore, while Democrats have increased their campaign messaging to focus on abortion, only five percent of voters say that it is the most important problem facing the nation today, according to a mid-October New York Times/Sienna poll. In comparison, Republicans have focused their messaging on the nation’s suffering economy and high inflation, which a plurality of voters say is the most important issue to them.

In another recent survey, a Rasmussen poll found that Republicans enjoyed a seven-point advantage over Democrats on the generic congressional ballot (49 percent to 42 percent) among all voters. The survey also found that Republicans enjoyed an 18-point advantage over Democrats among likely independent voters.

COMMENT:  Certainly encouraging, but readers know that we still have nine days to go until the election.  There could be a last-minute surprise, or some planned bombshell in a leftist newspaper.  But I can't deny my pleasure at those polling results for independents.

October 30,  2022       Permalink

AND IN THE REAL WORLD:  Our election campaign isn't the only important thing happening.  The Supreme Court is at work, and about to tackle one of the most important, and controversial, issues of our time.  In significance, this is in the Roe v. Wade category.  From The Hill: 

The future of affirmative action in higher education hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court on Monday hears arguments over race-conscious admissions policies at two prestigious universities.

Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC) will be defending their use of race — as one of many admissions criteria — to attain the educational benefits of a diverse student body.

Their conservative-backed challengers, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), contend that the schools’ approach violates constitutional protections and federal law and want the court to prohibit admissions offices from considering an applicant’s race at all.

Ishan Bhabha, a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block, who filed an amicus brief on behalf of Ivy League and other elite schools, said that if the Supreme Court takes that dramatic step, the repercussions for higher education would be severe.

“If you don’t have a series of divergent viewpoints … then one of the most important priorities of institutions of higher education — which is to forward knowledge, to ask difficult questions, to explore unknown concepts and have one idea clash against another to try and figure out which one is correct or which one is defensible — that is significantly hampered,” said Bhabha, who co-leads his firm’s initiative on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

With the case coming on the heels of a Supreme Court term that saw conservative justices overturn landmark rulings including Roe v. Wade, many legal experts believe that longstanding affirmative action precedent is now on the chopping block.

“This is a court that I think has a solid six-justice majority that sees racial labeling or racial tagging, for any purpose whatsoever, as a constitutional evil,” said Steve Schwinn, a law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.

The challengers are asking the 6-3 conservative majority court to overrule its landmark 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, which permits colleges to diversify their student populations by using race as one part of a holistic assessment of individual applicants.

COMMENT:  The Court will probably not hand down its decision until June, so rioters have many months to get their slogans together and their chants written. 

October 30, 2022       Permalink