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SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

PROGRESS? Well, we hope so.  There are some indications that Republican Senate candidates are inching up on their opponents.  We urge caution.  There are still almost two months to go to the election, and the Dems are no doubt planning some kind of stunt in October.  But we'll take some good news, if only for morale.  From NBC:

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has closed the gap in his re-election race, erasing a seven-point deficit to take a one-point lead over his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, according to a new poll released Wednesday. 

Johnson is the Republican incumbent.  We must hold this seat.

While Johnson’s 49%-48% lead among likely voters is within the poll’s margin of error, it’s a huge reversal for Johnson in the Marquette Law School poll, considered the gold standard of polling in Wisconsin. In last month's Marquette survey, Barnes led Johnson by seven points, 51% to 44%.

The most recent poll also showed Gov. Tony Evers holding his lead over GOP nominee Tim Michels, with 47% of those queried favoring Evers to 44% choosing Michels for governor. 

The survey of 801 Wisconsin registered voters was conducted Sept. 6-11 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.3%. 

The poll’s director, Charles Franklin, in his live delivery of the results, said the Senate race shift happened as voters learned more about Barnes and as Republicans began running ads targeting him. Those ads have depicted Barnes as too far left for Wisconsin voters.   

Johnson senior adviser Ben Veolkel said the Republican's campaign would keep those themes going. “We’ll make the next two months awful for him as we continue to expose the truth about him to Wisconsin voters,” Voelkel said.

COMMENT:  There is other good news, again tentative.  In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt is pulling even with incumbent Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.  This could be a Republican pickup if things continue this way.  In Georgia, Republican football great Herschel Walker is closing on incumbent ultra-Liberal Raphael Warnock in some polls.  This could also be a Republican pickup, but it's a tough fight.  Both men are African-American.  Walker, however, has no political experience, but is learning.

No race has gotten more coverage than the Pennsylvania Senate race between doctor and TV personality Mehmet Oz, a Republican, and Democratic lieutenant governor John Fetterman, a nut case.  The latest poll shows Fetterman up by five points to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Senator Pat Toomey.  Fetterman, though, has deficiencies, and the momentum appears to be with Oz.  Another Republican seat we must hold.

We'll watch the polls, and the politics around the polls.  But nothing in any of these races is set in concrete. 

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy announced tonight that the Republicans will present their four-point plan for America on September 23rd.  That could be important, a list of what Republicans will actually do if elected.  I'm looking forward.

September 14, 2022       Permalink 

SEPTEMBER 12-13,  2022

I rarely do this, but I'd like to recommend a book.  Will Stroock, a distinguished military historian and Urgent Agenda contributor, has written "The Great Nuclear War of 1975," a novel filled with non-fiction elements.  It's about a nuclear war between the West and the Soviet Union, with the United States led by President Nelson Rockefeller.  Absolutely exciting and gripping, and a reminder that a nuclear war might well be fought, and will have an aftermath.  Well worth your time.  Let me give you the Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09TR51QFZ/ref=pe_2313400_664428180_em_1p_0_lm

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE:

THIS IS NUTS:  EMPLOYEES OF THE NEW YORK TIMES ARE DEEPLY UPSET.  FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   The New York Times expects employees to start returning to the office three days a week starting this week — but more than 1,300 journalists are saying hell no, they won’t go.  It’s just the latest blow in the increasingly bitter contract dispute between the News Guild journalists union — which includes reporters and photographers, as well as some editors and business-side employees — and upper management, over wages.  As of Monday, 1,316 Times workers had signed a pledge not to return to the office. This includes 879 members of the News Guild, but also members of the Times Tech Guild and the union for Wirecutter, the paper’s product-recommendation spinoff.  “People are livid,” Tom Coffey told The Post. A 25-year veteran editor at the NYT, he works on the news desk and serves on the union’s Contract Action Committee.  He added that being forced to return to the office during a period of high inflation means workers will have to spend more money on gas, mass transit, clothing and lunches, despite the lack of salary increases.  NYT video journalist Haley Willis tweeted today: “The @nytimes is giving employees branded lunch boxes this week as a return-to-office perk. We want respect and a fair contract instead — so I’m working from home this week along with 1,300 of my @NYTimesGuild and @NYTGuildTech colleagues, with support from @WirecutterUnion.”  Branded lunch boxes?  To impress whom?  Maybe this bitter experience will teach The Times and its people that there's a real world out there, not just an ideological world.

IRAN COMMENTS ON THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II.  Apparently, the late sovereign was the equal of Adolf Hitler.  Watch the YOUTUBE video.  It is incredible that we still negotiate with, and make concessions to, a government that puts out this vile stuff.  Where is our dignity?

September 12-13       Permalink

WHAT'S HOLDING THE GOP BACK?  We are seeing more and more articles pointing to factors that are suppressing the expected GOP landslide.  The bigs in the GOP must listen.  From the Washington Times: 

The Republican Party needs to ramp up its election outreach or lose voter support, at least according to a very succinct survey. 

Indeed, the proverbial Grand Old Party may not be so grand right now. The GOP’s popular appeal is not resonating with voters as the clock relentlessly ticks toward Election Day.

“Have Republicans made a strong enough case as to why they should earn your support in the 2022 midterm elections?” asks a Trafalgar Group poll of “likely general election voters” released Tuesday.

And the results: 56% of the respondents said the GOP message has not reached them, a third agreed that the party had made a strong enough case to make their point, while the rest were unsure.

“Considering the failure of Afghanistan, inflation, student loans, the recession we are in, the attempted vaccine mandates, the border, and President Biden’s dark and dangerous speech recently, the Biden administration has been a complete disaster, and his record low approval numbers show that. Logically, one would think that national Republicans would be riding high, able to take advantage of this situation to create momentum,” said Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States, in a written statement shared with Inside the Beltway.

“Yet, the fact is the feckless leadership, poor communication, and what appears to be a non-existent strategy is causing voters to say loud and clear: you need to try harder. If the GOP thinks they are just going to win this thing by not being Joe Biden, they are sorely mistaken,” he added.

But back to the numbers.

A hefty 87% of Democrats said Republicans had failed to make their case, along with 57% of independents, and even 26% of Republican voters themselves.

The poll also found that 64% of voters ages 25-34 and 61% of those ages 35-44 also agreed that the GOP had not made that “strong enough case” to win their support.

The numbers were highest among Black voters (69%) and Hispanic voters (63%) — though 54% of White voters also said the GOP message was missing.

Message to the Republican Party: Get a message.

COMMENT:  The message is correct.  We've said it here before.  Republicans can't just be against Biden.  They have to be for something.  The voting public wants to know what the GOP will do to get us out of our current mess, and they're not hearing it.

We hear that the GOP is about to unveil its vision of the future.  The unveiling had better come before the election.  And it must focus on the winning issues for Republicans, not their philosophy of life.  Education.  Killing inflation.  Crime.  Restoring the spirit of the country. 

The message must be optimistic.  Reagan told us, "It's morning in America."  Today's Republicans sometimes settle for "Biden is bad."  Morning wins.

Can you believe that September is half over?  There's not much time until election day.  This will be a turnout election.  If you want to win, you've got to get your people to the polls.  Some Democrats are newly animated over the abortion issue.  Republicans  must be so driven on election day that they'd go through a tornado to vote.

September 12-13     Permalink

A BIT OF HOPE AT CNN:  There are signs that the failing "first name in news" is finally recognizing its problems and trying to correct them.  But the path is long.  From Newsbusters: 

CNN offered another clue Monday morning into how a properly-run CNN under Discovery and boss Chris Licht might look as New Day introduced a new segment called “Upon Further Review” to reexamine stories that, once facts emerged, showed something was different than the initial narrative. With the ever-pompous John Avlon at the helm, the first installment touched on the debunked claims of racist taunts from Brigham Young University fans to a Duke women’s volleyball player.

Having promoted the story herself, co-host Brianna Keilar began by informing viewers that “[t]wo weeks after a Duke volleyball player alleged she was called racial slurs during a game against Brigham Young University, an investigation into the incident found no evidence to corroborate the report.”

Avlon took over and said he’d be “starting something a little different” (versus his smug “Reality Check” lectures) called “Upon Further Review” that would provide “updates” on “the initial official version of the story once more facts come in.”

He explained that the incident at BYU put volleyball at “the front of the outrage Olympics two weeks ago when a Duke starter named Rachel Richardson make the explosive accusation.”

Noting that Richardson received support from “stars like Lebron James” as “the country rallied around her” (which was dubious to suggest), Avlon conceded “her family appear[ed] here on CNN, amid some 65 separate articles” in the press “about the controversy” and it resulting in the University of South Carolina cancelling a lady’s basketball game against BYU.

Avlon then said BYU “offered a wholehearted apology” and “banned a fan who had been identified as making the racist slurs,” but still “launched an internal investigation.”
As a result, however, Avlon said “that’s where the narrative started to fall far short of the initial indignation” as BYU found zero evidence to corroborate Richardson’s tall tale after having “review[ed] all available video and audio recordings and reaching out to more than 50 folks who attended the game, including Duke personnel and athletes.”

Avlon argued that while “healthy skepticism is always a virtue…this doesn't read like a cover-up” as opposed to “a rush to judgment because of a well-intentioned impulse to believe the Duke player's accusations.”

What Avlon wouldn’t admit was those defending Richardson indeed wanted the racist slurs to be true in order to further their preferred narratives about humanity or, more specifically, those that lean conservative (such as Mormons).

“Now, we need to note that the investigation does not call Rachel Richardson a liar or a fabricator. It leaves open the possibility that she sincerely believed that she heard repeated racial heckling and that some sort of misunderstanding occurred,” he added, as if to offer an olive branch.

Moments after saying “facts always have to come first,” Avlon came back to argue that, when more facts come to light, both journalists and the public should “acknowledge it and adjust,” no matter the topic.

He then concluded with more sage advice:

"Fidelity to the facts is all that we as journalists and citizens should ask. It's understandable that there's a desire to believe people when they say they've been victimized, but the accusations have to be backed up by facts and when the facts don't fit upon further review, we need to set the record straight with as much intensity as the initial reports."

Exit question: How much do you think Avlon and his CNN colleagues will apply this to conservatives, Republicans, and former President Trump?

COMMENT:  Well, it's a start.  But even if CNN is saved from disgrace, it will not guarantee any improvement in even more important "news" networks, like CBS, NBC, ABC and newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post.  We can hope for the best, but one can seriously wonder whether some of the "leaders" in journalism are beyond redemption, and whether new organizations will be needed to replace them.

September 12-13, 2022       Permalink