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

THE ULTIMATE DISGRACE – FROM THE HILL:   Democrats are worried that they have a problem: The three people leading polls in the very early stages of their presidential race are all white men.  The party traditionally battles over identity politics and wants to be seen as promoting diversity.  Its last three nominees have been Barack Obama, who became the nation’s first African-American president, and Hillary Clinton, the first woman to win the popular vote.  Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) are this year’s top-tier candidates, according to a recent and very early Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll.  It showed that 32 percent of those polled in Iowa favored Biden, while 19 percent preferred Sanders and 11 percent liked O'Rourke.  While some Democrats believe the early polls are merely a metric on name recognition, they say it defies the party’s mission to be more diverse and more inclusive that the top three candidates are all white men.   How pathetic.  All that counts is diversity.  Quality, judgment, wisdom, patriotism – all out the window.  Lincoln never would have made it.

PRESIDENTIAL VISIT – FROM FOX:   President Trump made his second unannounced visit to U.S. troops abroad on Wednesday, according to reports.  On his way back from meeting troops in Iraq, Trump stopped at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany for refueling and met with service members there. Trump slowly made his way down a rope line at the German base, shaking hands, signing autographs, chatting and posing for selfies. Some service members held up “Make America Great Again” caps for Trump to sign.  The president’s earlier visit to a base in western Iraq, about 100 miles west of Baghdad, was his first to U.S. forces in harm’s way overseas.  He said it’s because of U.S. military gains against the Islamic State terror group that he can withdraw 2,000 forces from Syria. Trump said the U.S. mission in Syria was to strip ISIS of its military strongholds — not to be a nation builder. He said that’s a job that should be shouldered by other rich nations — reiterating his America First policies and an ideology that challenges America’s role as global cop.  Trump met with U.S. diplomats and senior military leaders and wished troops a happy holiday.  Some of our "news" organizations had already reported that Trump was the first president in recent memory not to visit troops during the holidays.  They might have waited for the holidays to be over before coming to that conclusion.  Much egg on many faces.

FOX ONLY TROTS – FROM THE HILL:   MSNBC beat out Fox News last week in key ratings for first time in 17 years, topping its competitors in total average viewers for the first time since 2000, according to a news release from MSNBC.  MSNBC averaged 1,558,000 total viewers during the "sales day" (6 a.m. to 2 a.m.) between Dec. 17-21, while Fox News averaged 1,541,000 total viewers. CNN, meanwhile, averaged 975,000.  Among people between the ages of 25 and 54, a key demographic for cable news networks, MSNBC also finished the week as the No. 1.   In prime time (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), MSNBC continued to lead Fox News and CNN in total viewers and among that key age group for the fourth week in a row. 
MSNBC prime time last week averaged 2,578,000 total viewers, compared to Fox's 2,240,000 and CNN’s 1,398,000. Of those viewers, 471,000 thousand were between the ages of 25 and 54 for MSNBC, while 355,000 were in that demographic for Fox and 415,000 for CNN.   This number among the 25-54 age group was a significant drop for Fox, which typically leads the pack.  The fierce resistance to President Trump probably explains the rise in MSNBC ratings.  It's the go-to network for never-Trumpers.  And Fox has seen turmoil in the last few years.  But I still think Fox is solid. 

December 26, 2018