Experience No Doubt, But Where's the Judgment?

Happy Sunday, Friends,

I was thinking about taking today off. But with the Iowa Caucuses tomorrow, and everything going on with the latest Hillary email scandal, I just had to take a few moments to sit down and opine. I hope you'll indulge me.

I'm amazed that the media is not jumping all over Thursday afternoon's revelation that the Obama Department of State, the same department Hillary Clinton once ran, says 22 of her emails are too sensitive to release; so sensitive, in fact, they're Top Secret.

Having this kind of  US government information on a personal home computer is a FELONY. This law applies to everyone...not just us peasants.

Let me explain...

Hillary's lame excuse is that these documents weren't marked Top Secret at the time. Well, someone of her intelligence should recognize sensitive information when  she sees it. She should also know the law regarding having this kind of government information on a personal email server.

If she can't tell, or doesn't know the law, her judgment and depth of knowledge are both called into question. Both are qualities a president needs.

Her rather inept attempts to explain the situation away make her veracity suspect. No wonder every poll taken ranks her lowest among the candidates in trustworthiness. You are what you do.

A vote for Hillary is a vote for a guaranteed four years of absolute turmoil and gridlock. Any criminal indictment over the email debacle would lead to impeachment proceedings by a GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

Now, Hillary would say, "I've admitted I've made a mistake. Let's move on."

Okay, so let's say we accept this "mistake," which just happens to be a whopper. It's not her first whopper. Hillary also admits her vote for the war in Iraq was a mistake--another whopper.

And--here's my best impression of Donald Trump--I'm not even going to bring up Benghazi.

So, that's at least two big strikes against dear Hillary going in. Where does it end? How many big mistakes does Mrs. Clinton have to make before the public recognizes that she is not presidential material?

How many public lapses in judgment will we have to witness to get it?  We need a president with a better track record in decision making than Hillary Clinton.

Hillary needs to go...now.

Hillary Gone By Monday?

Just in, Friends,

The State Department is withholding from public release 40 emails from Hillary Clinton's private email server, 22 of which contain top secret information and the remainder between her and President Obama.

Even if this is not a felony, which on its surface it would appear to be, it very certainly will cause more complications in Hillary's quest for the presidency.

While I don't think that Bernie Sanders will try to take advantage of the new revelations just three days before the Iowa Caucuses, I do think any of her future GOP opponents would--relentlessly.

Somehow this isn't working out...again!

Her candidacy is not looking  in any way viable at this point. I find it hard to believe Hillary can carry on beyond the Iowa contest, since I now believe she will lose it handily.

Today's revelation of the emails couldn't come at a worse time for her.

Every poll is showing her race in Iowa a statistical dead heat with Sanders.

Unless something changes the fabric of the general election, e.g., Michael Bloomberg or Joe Biden enters the race, we are most definitely headed for a showdown between The Donald and The Bern.

Ted's Cruzin' to a Losin'

Hello Friends,

As if on cue, Ted Cruz looked uncharacteristically weak in last night's GOP debate. The master debater, was not master of his domain last night.Clever intercourse eluded him. His performance was flaccid.

Cruz's flipping and flopping over illegal immigration was too much for even this cunning linguist to rebut.

...and I thought I was being  brilliant.

Could his weak performance have been the tacit folding of a once formidable campaign, which I blogged about several days ago?

Aside from a negative Cruz campaign commercial that's somewhat tough on Trump's ancient history, which hasn't had much traction, the invective between the two front-running maverick candidates continues to be pretty mild.

I believe the maestro of deals has struck the mother of them with his nearest competitor, and we'll see the two of them on the same ticket. A Trump nomination, unless the system gets somehow subverted, is all but certain.

Last night's move by Trump to ditch the GOP debate was a  tactical stroke of genius. Trump let his opponents help Cruz start bowing out gracefully, while sparing himself from any unexpected unpleasant moments.

Expect Cruz to be out of the race after February 9th's New Hampshire primary, throwing his support to Trump.

Sarandon's Feeling The Bern, Shares Page with Warren

Some celebrity news Friends,

Actress Susan Sarandon is in Mason City, Iowa this morning, actively campaigning for Bernie Sanders. No surprise there. She's been out front in liberal politics for many years.

Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for The Bern

What I found interesting is that in an interview with CNN's Carol Costello--a conversation about Sanders--Sarandon spoke effusively about Elizabeth Warren, and how she and the Massachusetts senator were politically on the same page.

Sarandon hinted at Warren as Sanders' running mate, something I predicted in a post last week and now have even more reason to believe will happen.


Warren, another champion of liberal causes, is one of very few congressional Democrats who have not endorsed Hillary Clinton, and she's continually ducked the question about whom she's backing.



I believe she'd be the perfect complement to a more left-leaning than usual Democratic ticket. Hey, may as well take the full plunge. And she'd be a capable chief executive should something happen to President Sanders during his tenure.



There have been two myths in American politics: Republicans are good for the economy, and
socialism is evil.

We know the economy historically does better under Democratic administrations. This is an irrefutable fact borne out by actual numbers.

Sanders has referred to Denmark as his idea of a socialist utopia. Here are two facts: Denmark has a market economy just like the United States; Denmark consistently ranks in polls as the happiest country on the planet.

We could use some happiness.

The Donald Trumps Final GOP Debate, Scores YUGE Win

Happy Wednesday Friends,

Here we are just five days before the Iowa Caucuses and a day before the final GOP debate. So, what's the only thing we're talking about today? Here's a hint: It's the same thing we've been talking about.

Friends, no matter what you think about the man or his politics, you've gotta give Donald Trump credit for his ability to keep the spotlight on himself. We are watching the master at work, and he's giving a command performance.

I'm going to make this country so great again it hurts!

The lessons of all those years at the helm of his reality show The Apprentice, on which he watched cunning competition play out before him daily, were not lost on him. He's an impressive learner.

His latest move, boycotting the final debate before the Iowa Caucuses, is nothing short of sheer genius. It's his most amazing stunt yet, in a campaign filled with them.

Trump has nothing to gain from participating in this debate on the FOX network, and  he could walk into an ambush. He also knows his presence equates to a huge increase in viewership, giving him leverage that he's not shy to use.

Given his running feud with moderator Megyn Kelly, who he backhandedly called a bimbo this morning, and a run-in yesterday with FOX president Roger Ailes over a snarky memo about the GOP frontrunner, Trump took advantage of the opening to back out.

Instead, Trump will hold his own simultaneous event, certain to be telecast by the competing news networks, to raise money for one of his pet causes--wounded veterans, This is bulletproof. It's beyond reproach. It can't be criticized.

In the run up, all the cameras and microphones are trained on Trump.

This man will stop at nothing to get the GOP nomination. He will not lose.

When Ted Cruz said yesterday (something you may have expected if you read this blog) that he can't see how Trump can lose if he wins Iowa and then New Hampshire, he seemed to be foreshadowing.

Those would normally be strange words coming from the only candidate giving Trump any kind of competition. Not so strange, though, if you believe as I do that the master deal maker has already cut one with the Texas senator.

We'll see if Trump steals all the attention in the remaining hours leading up to tomorrow's debate, then changes his mind at the last moment, gives a big donation to the vets, and shows up ready to rumble.

Perhaps he won't be able to resist another go-round with Ms. Kelly. That would keep him atop the news cycle for at least another day.

Okay, so I got these super powers and they're YUGE!

I concede that he can outsmart the likes of me with his amazing super power: the ability capture the world's attention in a different ingenious way every day. Take a moment to think about this power and how well Trump wields it.

His super power allows him to run a champagne campaign on a beer budget. He can bully the likes of the Mother of Bullies, FOX News. He can even call Megyn Kelly a bimbo (nearly the equivalent of shooting someone in the middle of 5th Avenue) and still pick up voters and endorsements.

This begs the question: if Trump can run a winning campaign for 90% less than the professional politicians, can he do the same thing for the country?

This is what he's promising. It's looking  more and more like voters want to give him that chance.

Take That, Carly!

Dear Friends,

I've always believed that if you give a scoundrel enough rope, he'll hang himself. I've seen this borne out over and over again.

...And yet again, and in this case--herself.

By now, most of us know the Brian Williams moment that put Carly Fiorina's presidential campaign on the map was in the second GOP primary debate, in which the ex-HP CEO went on a tirade against Planned Parenthood.

I'm morally outraged, and you should be too!

In that rant, you may remember, she invoked an inflammatory film, which she claimed proved PP was selling tissue from aborted fetuses for profit. This revelation set off a rage within the GOP to de-fund the women's health organization, which mainly serves the poor.

One problem: the film was a fraud.

The anti-abortion filmmakers, using forged documents to establish a phony company, set up what they believed would be an undercover sting.

Unfortunately for them, they were the ones who got stung.

Yesterday, a court in Harris County, Texas, not exactly a liberal hotbed, exonerated Planned Parenthood and indicted the filmmakers on a litany of charges.

If the earlier revelation of the film's disingenuous nature hadn't dealt a fatal blow to Fiorina's presidential aspirations, this latest incident should do it.

We need to be counting our lucky stars. Fiorina is an unyielding right-wing ideologue whose beliefs would do nothing but deepen the chasm that's dividing this country into two great seething camps.

She's the last thing we need in the White House.

Bloomberg Throws a Curveball

Happy weekend Friends,

Well, billionaire and former New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, may be on the verge of changing everything in the 2016 race for the White House.

Bloomberg announced yesterday that he'll enter the presidential race as a third-party candidate after the New Hampshire primary, if it's evident at that point that the nominees will be either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz on the Republican side and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic.

He also pledged to spend $1 billion of his own money in doing so.

I'm just not feeling the Bern, or The Donald

We may see a race between two New York billionaires and an avowed socialist, also from New York, none of whom can be bought.

All of a sudden, we have a mega clash of titans--the bombastic ultra-nationalist real estate magnate and reality TV star, the popular and accomplished capitalist and former Republican with a big social conscience, and the passionate populist winning the hearts and minds of millennials across the country.

I'd say the choices are pretty clear.

I'd also say Bloomberg's chance of running are pretty good. His chances of being the first successful third-party candidate are equally good, especially with the kind of bankroll he's talking about.

This one is shaping up to be one of the most interesting presidential races in memory, at one of the most pivotal times in human history.

Could we actually see a President Bloomberg? I'm sticking my neck out here, but I'm predicting that if Bloomberg runs, he wins.
  

This Is Everything a Political Ad Should Be

Hello friends. I urge you to watch the best political ad I've seen in years. It literally brought tears to my eyes (though that's happening to me a lot more lately, I admit), and sent that little tingle up my wife's spine. Not only will this ad make you feel The Bern, but it will also make you feel good all day.

America Stunned -- Avowed Socialist Sanders Tramples Trump

Good morning Friends,

We will be waking up to this headline, or a facsimile of it, on Wednesday, November 2, 2016.

Unless something changes radically and soon, we're in the fast lane to a showdown between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.

I've been predicting this for months (and since day one of this blog), and the stars are now lining up for this contest to take place.

Just out this morning; there's been more than a 20 point swing in the Iowa polls since last month, giving Bernie Sanders an impressive eight point lead with less than 11 days to go.

And people are feeling The Bern. His momentum is--in his own vernacular--YUGE!

Are You Feeling The Bern Yet?

Hillary may be the most qualified candidate in either party, but as I predicted the moment her email scandal first surfaced, she's toast.

This woman has more baggage than a Sky Cap on Christmas Eve!

All we need is for a President Hillary to be impeached over a felony indictment for having classified material on her personal email server. Imagine another Clinton impeachment distracting the country while we teeter on the edge of World War III. No one wants this.

I see a Sanders nomination for president as all but certain now, with one caveat. I'm hedging my bets by stating for the record that Joe Biden jumping into the race is still a possibility. If he does, say hello to President Joe.

Otherwise, we'll be seeing The Bern face off with The Donald.

Now unless the country has totally gone mad, when the moment of truth comes, there is no way a majority of Americans will pull the lever for Trump. That means they will hold their noses and elect our first avowed socialist.

We're taught practically from birth to wince at the very word, but all of our political paradigms have shifted over the years. What passes for Bernie's brand of socialism today is hard to distinguish from the basic Democratic Party principles of old--support the middle class, keep the playing field level. Not so scary.

Bernie will win the presidency by a landslide and pull in a Democratic Senate with him. Democrats will also make significant gains in the House and could even take a slim majority.

There's only one piece of the puzzle left. Who will be The Bern's running mate?

The GOP ticket will be Trump/Cruz, which I posted earlier.

The Democratic ticket will be Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren, and I'll be writing more about this in a future post.

You don't know me yet, but you will

She's Got Real Chutzpah -- or like she says -- Chhutzpah!

Hi again Friends,

Can you believe the unmitigated gall of that woman? You know who I'm talking about. That Palin woman!

She actually has the temerity to pin the blame for her son's domestic violence arrest yesterday on President Obama! That's right, you read correctly.

Sarah Palin's twisted logic is that the president's veterans' policies resulted in Track Palin, 26, not receiving adequate care for his psychological problems caused by his tour of duty in Iraq. It's not his fault that he beat his girlfriend while drunkenly wielding a gun.

Obummer made Track do it!

With regard to the GOP blaming Obama for all the country's ills, this one takes the cake!

How dare the queen of American dysfunctional families pin this one on the president, although with those of her ilk, I guess it's in for a penny in for a pound. Might as well blame anything that goes wrong on Obama.

Now there's a strategy that's proven really successful.

Talk about not taking ownership of your problems. At least one thing is crystal clear. We already know who Sarah will blame for daughter Bristol's next out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Better get your alibi together now, Barack.

When It Comes to Giving Credit - The GOP Is The N-Word

Hello Friends,

Okay, I'm really getting pissed off. It seems that no matter what good thing our president does, he can't ever catch any kind of break from the GOP.

I absolutely couldn't believe these (no expletive would be too strong here) found a way to criticize the president over the release of our prisoners from Iran; the very thing for which the GOP had  been clamoring. Was it because they were caught with their pants down over not knowing about the many-months-long high-level secret negotiations that led to our countrymen's release?

The President. Working hard so you don't have to

Here we have a president who not only eliminated this GOP bugaboo but also saved our economy from its worst recession since the Great Depression, which, ironically, he inherited from them.

Obama has created 14 million new jobs, cut unemployment in half, and rescued the US auto industry, all while reducing the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.

He tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden, our country's number one enemy who eluded President Bush, and pulled thousands of troops out of two horrendous and expensive wars.

Despite a hostile congress, he somehow set this country on a path toward universal health care.

He re-opened relations with Cuba and prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon for at least 15 years.

Not to mention, the price of gasoline is at its lowest in a generation, while inflation has been at near 0% for seven years.

I'd say he's done a pretty great job.

Now, President Obama has had his failures and flaws, We all do, But his opponents' rabid hatred of everything he accomplishes is nothing like we've ever seen in American politics.

Obama could give every American citizen a taco that poops ice cream, and the Republican party would find a way to criticize it.

And now, wait for it because here comes the N-Word...when it comes to President Obama, the GOP is less than Niggardly with anything resembling praise.

I predict, though, that despite the rabid criticism, Barack Obama will go down as one of this country's most-accomplished presidents. His record looks good now and will improve when viewed through the lens of history.

In the meantime, there is one thing the president can do to get the GOP off his back. Be White.

How 'bout That? We're Watching Ted Implode

Dear Friends,

How could I not be commenting this morning on Sarah Palin's endorsement of Donald Trump?

The scenario I described earlier is playing out nicely. Until yesterday, Sarah Palin was one of Ted Cruz's biggest supporters. Such a shock that she would abandon Ted Cruz for Donald Trump! Unless you're following the subtext.

Remember the plot: Cruz has struck a deal with Trump to throw him his support in exchange for the vice presidency. This will happen tacitly at first, and then I see Cruz dropping out of the race after New Hampshire, with Trump having taken the first two contests.

Hmmm. Maybe V.P. doesn't sound too bad after all

Not only does the deal include the valuable (in conservative circles) Palin endorsement, but also a complete cessation of any heated rhetoric between the two Republican front runners. You may have noticed it all stopped two days ago.

We may be staring at a nightmare scenario unfolding--Secretary of State Sarah Palin. Could this actually happen? It's already beginning.

Ahead of the Curve Again

Well Friends, I'm not going to apologize for tooting my own horn, but I have nailed it with my prediction about an unholy alliance between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

He promises he'll play nicer if I drop out of the race!

If you watched the GOP debate last night, The Donald pretty much offered up the vice presidency to his closest--but possibly Canadian--rival.

Trump brought up the possibility of Cruz as his running mate and then Cruz joked in reply the vice versa, ensuring the comment was not lost.

So far, MSBC's Chris Matthews is one analyst who noticed, and he won't be the last.

This all came in response to the legitimate birther conundrum surrounding Cruz, and fits nicely into the narrative of the prediction I posted earlier.

There is also now no doubt in my mind that Trump will be the Republican nominee. All the media is talking about his "quick learning curve." I say he may be learning, but more likely he's been playing all of us all along.

Originally, I believed Trump was the genuine Manchurian candidate; based on his close connections with the Clinton family. Aside from daughters Chelsea and Ivanka's close relationship, which is well-documented, there is more and more evidence surfacing that belies a strictly political or business relationship between the families.

I love you two knuckleheads. Bill you're the greatest. Hill, you run, and I've got your back!

I don't believe I was incorrect, but Trump's instant traction on the campaign trail may have convinced him of his own candidacy's possibilities, and large, sympathetic crowds may have proven intoxicating to the celebrity frontrunner.

Combine these factors with Trump's total belief in his own abilities to accomplish whatever he sets out to do, and Donald Trump morphed from likely Clinton shill to a genuine and formidable candidate. And now he can smell victory.

As a fellow alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, I know that Donald Trump has to be extremely intelligent. As a Wharton School of Business grad, he is the cream of the crop.

Ben Franklin don't allow no dummies at his bidness skool

I'm no dope, and I was in awe of how much smarter Wharton students were than me, a mere member of the general student body at Penn. No one, I mean no one, got a pass at Wharton.

I'm beginning to believe that Trump is in total control of every minute detail of what he does, His campaign is another one of his brilliant marketing schemes; this time to get him elected president at relatively little cost.

Ironically, Trump's low-budget campaign gives credence to some of his most-repeated claims like he'll build a big wall and get Mexico to pay for it. After all, he's getting everyone else (like the media) to pay for his campaign.

Even more ironically Hillary Clinton, the candidate Trump could have been initially out to help, is quickly fading from the scene. Hillary will be out of the race prior to this summer's Democratic Convention.

We are going to see Donald Trump face off against Bernie Sanders in the general election. You read it here first.

Didn't Take Long

Guess what, Friends!

Not two hours after my first prediction about Ted Cruz, the exact story just broke on CNN's Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield. Check out the U.S. Naturalization Act of 1795, which specifically creates a natural citizen that isn't a natural born citizen.

Hmmm. I think I'll look even more
presidential in eight years.

My next prediction: Ted Cruz will drop out of the race and throw his support to Donald Trump. Trump easily takes the GOP nomination. Meanwhile, Trump will have struck a deal with Cruz to be his running mate, creating the ultimate right wing renegade ticket and silencing Cruz's 'natural born' issue.

Watch out for a Sanders/Trump presidential race with the election going to...

My First Prediction

I'm about to make a prediction that will shake up the GOP primary and will guarantee a Donald Trump nomination.

Ted Cruz will be deemed not qualified under the Constitution to be President of the United States because he is clearly not a "natural born citizen."

Here's my argument: it is assumed that there can only two types of citizens; natural born or naturalized. Actually, there can be a third type which falls into a never-adjudicated gray area, which, for convenience I'll call a "natural" citizen.

The first two types of citizens are well-defined, and we all know the latter is barred from being president.

So what is a natural citizen? I define a natural citizen as someone who is born in another country to a US parent or parents who are not on official US business but reside abroad. Military brats, diplomats' kids, or children born on vacations are all natural born.

Many individuals who fall into this category never lay claim to their US citizenship, preferring the country of their birth. More than a few Canadians will tell you they have an American relative somewhere in their lineage.

Indeed, this could have been Ted Cruz's life story under different circumstances.

The Founding Fathers were wary of so-called "Americans"  born and raised overseas then showing up one day with their seditious ways, trying to wheedle their way into the country's most powerful office. That was such a frightening scenario, the phrase "natural born citizen" was given quite a bit of consideration before its enshrinement in the Constitution.

We can all agree that it's not physically possible to be the "natural born" citizen of more than one country, and it's clear where Ted Cruz was born--in Calgary, Canada. He's not denying it.

We're left with one conclusion: Ted Cruz is not a natural born citizen of the United States of America and cannot by law be its president.

It Was About Time

Hi Friends,

Well, I'm doing this blog because it was time for me to get off my butt and start sharing some of the valuable stuff I've picked up after being in or around the news business for all but about 12 of my 62 years.

Quite frankly, and Lana my wife will vouch for this, I'm out ahead of the political pundits by three or four weeks 80% of the time. If you don't believe me, follow this blog and you'll be convinced.

The first prediction I'm about to make will shake up the GOP presidential primary, and NO ONE else is talking about it. They will be...