SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR – FROM NBC:   An early straw poll of members of the progressive group MoveOn.org shows a wide open competition for liberal voters in the forthcoming 2020 Democratic presidential contest, with Beto O'Rourke narrowly beating out Joe Biden.  The poll, obtained by NBC News, shows a plurality of respondents — 29 percent — either said they did not yet know whom they would support or wanted someone else not listed among the group's more than 30 potential candidate choices.  The most popular potential candidate was O’Rourke, D-Texas, who was selected by 15.6 percent of respondents, followed by Biden at 14.9 percent, and then Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, with 13.1 percent.  It's another sign of O’Rourke's surprising popularity among national Democrats and a potentially troubling indication for Sanders, whom MoveOn endorsed in the 2016 Democratic primary. That year, 78 percent of MoveOn members voted to back Sanders over Hillary Clinton.  Of course, this a poll of progressives, not actually real people. 

CHRISTMAS GETS A THUMBS UP – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  Three-fourths of Americans agree that Christmas should be celebrated in public schools, says a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted the same week that a Nebraska elementary school principal banned Christmas in her school, right down to candy canes, Christmas trees, Santa Claus, the colors red and green and “Elf on the Shelf” items.  “Most Americans continue to believe Christmas should be celebrated in public schools, and that there’s a place for religious symbols on public land,” said the poll analysis, which found that 74 percent of the respondents agreed that Christmas should be celebrated in public schools.  Fourteen percent disagreed, 12 percent were unsure in the survey, conducted Dec. 6-9.  As long as religions are treated equally, I see nothing wrong with it.  Indeed, while public schools cannot advocate a religion, under the First Amendment, they can certainly teach about religion, and students should be permitted to show how it is practiced.  Who is hurt by this?

LOSING HOLLYWOOD – FROM PJ MEDIA:  On Monday I received an email from the Motion Picture Academy informing me that if I didn't pay my dues, I wouldn't be able to vote in the Oscar nominations in a couple of weeks. I debated for a few minutes. Dues have inflated since I joined in the eighties and are now a hefty $450 per annum. Nevertheless, spendthrift that I am, I bit the proverbial bullet and went for it. Call it the inability to break a bad habit. Or an addiction to the non-stop influx of screeners that arrive at my door every December, not that I watch many of them. (I suspect I'm not alone in that.)  But it wasn't just the money that had made me hesitate. On one level, I wouldn't have re-upped up for $4.50, let alone $450. I mean -- what was the point of this? Does anybody care who wins the Oscar anymore? I certainly don't -- and I'm a voter.  Hollywood began to die in the 1960s.  What you have today is just a series of conglomerates, without the glamour, class or audience appeal of the Golden Age.  The American audience has given way to the "international audience," and the left-wingers in Hollywood couldn't care less.

December 11, 2018