It's still early in the game and anything can happen in these quadrennial presidential races. I have been around long enough to remember how everybody was down on President Truman. He didn't have a chance to beat Thomas Dewey, all agreed. But he gave 'em hell and whipped the "little man on the wedding cake."
The right-wing Chicago Tribune that prematurely headlined "Dewey Beats Truman" has ever since been the subject of well-deserved ridicule.
Then there was the big lead that Michael Dukakis had over George H.W. Bush in 1988. But through a series of Dukakis blunders and Republican dirty tricks, such as the Willie Horton prison revolving door, we had four more years of Republicans in the White House.
H.W. Bush became a popular wartime president and was seen as unbeatable in the 1992 race. The spineless Democrats were afraid to take him on - except for a gutsy unknown governor from a small state. The rest is history. Bill Clinton soundly whipped Bush and held the White House for eight years, presiding over general prosperity. He ended his second term with the first federal budget surpluses in decades, all but forgotten, and never mentioned, by our mainstream media dullards. It doesn't fit the standard story line that Democrats are the irresponsible party of profligate spending.
This brings us to the present, with Donald Trump and his supporters whining about the media. Come on, Donald you can't have it both ways - dominating media attention with outlandish statements, then complaining that the media are covering you.
While Trump is bitching about the media examining his statements, many of the rest of us are asking, "What took you so long?" Enough of giving him all that media attention along with free passes on his inflammatory statements.
And it's not just Trump. Rudy Giuliani, Gov. Chris Christie, and that retired Army general were whipping up the GOP convention crowd to lynch-mob type frenzy, with nary a critical peep from the media about this.
Oh yes, NPR's Susan Paige observed that such rhetoric was beyond the normal. Gee Whiz, Susan, you really went out on a limb on that one didn't you? But she at least mentioned it.
So at last, with his inflammatory, unpresidential statements, the press is waking up, sort of, anyway. Trump already bars unfriendly reporters. As president, what would he do to reporters who are outright hostile to him?
Trump has the nation's powerful Republicans doing an entertaining two-step, professing support for their nominee while distancing themselves from him, more or less, but not really.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins (not up for re-election) asserts that she will not vote for Trump. But she won't vote for Hillary Clinton either. I would like to see one of our intrepid reporters pin her down with a simple question: "Sen. Collins, you served in the Senate with Hillary Clinton. What was that experience like, and is she competent to hold the presidency?"
Given the high praise Clinton received from both sides of the aisle as senator, and given Collins' reputation for integrity, her answers would undoubtedly be favorable to Clinton.
New Hampshire's Sen. Kelly Ayotte declined to endorse Trump but insisted she will vote for him. She is up for re-election and can't risk further alienating Republican Trump voters.
Reince Priebus, RNC Chair, continues to be the kid with the toy steering wheel pretending to drive the bus. In a way, one can sympathize with the hapless soul, having earlier recommended that the Republican Party needs to broaden its base. This sage advice went in one ear and out the other of that so-called "deep, talented pool" of GOP candidates.
Then there's our Gov. Scott Walker who endorsed Ted Cruz, but switched to Trump, earning himself an obscure speaking slot at the convention. He, along with Paul Ryan and Sen. Ronald Johnson, was conspicuously absent at Trump's recent Green Bay rally. He still labors under the illusion that he is presidential timber. But after promptly dropping like a rock and blowing his fat campaign chest, what savvy multi-millionaire donor is going to throw money his way?
If there will be a cheesehead Republican heading the ballot in 2020, it will be the ultra-conservative Ryan. His dance with Trump, "endorsing him," more or less, while distancing himself from Trump's statements, is transparent to anyone with a positive IQ who has been paying attention. Ryan's every move, word, statement, comment, etc. is carefully scripted to locking himself in as the heir-apparent for GOP presidential nomination in 2020.
Ryan has carefully cultivated his image as a serious policy guy. Never mind that, upon scrutiny, the arithmetic of his budget proposals doesn't add up. But to our mainstream media dullards, that doesn't matter. Having met Ryan during my campaign for the Assembly in 2008, I find him to be warm and personally likable. I can see why he is a darling of the media. He is likable enough and clever enough to make him dangerous.
For now, he's stuck with Trump. No problem. All Ryan has to do is to be a good sport, endorse Trump, and be hailed as the future savior of the party. True to the media predilection of dumbing down complex issues, while making simple items into spell-binding drama, Ryan's game is totally transparent. It just is not all that complicated.
And our other prominent Republican, Johnson, who came around to Trump? Like Ayotte, he's up for re-election and needs the Trump voters. But we can forget about him. Barring a Democratic catastrophe, he's history. Russ Feingold will whip him in November and send the "senator who should never have been," to well-deserved obscurity.
But history shows that anything can happen. As ridiculous and disgusting as much of this made-for-TV exercise in idiocy has been, it's some comic relief to watch these Republicans trying to thread the needle.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
The right-wing Chicago Tribune that prematurely headlined "Dewey Beats Truman" has ever since been the subject of well-deserved ridicule.
Then there was the big lead that Michael Dukakis had over George H.W. Bush in 1988. But through a series of Dukakis blunders and Republican dirty tricks, such as the Willie Horton prison revolving door, we had four more years of Republicans in the White House.
H.W. Bush became a popular wartime president and was seen as unbeatable in the 1992 race. The spineless Democrats were afraid to take him on - except for a gutsy unknown governor from a small state. The rest is history. Bill Clinton soundly whipped Bush and held the White House for eight years, presiding over general prosperity. He ended his second term with the first federal budget surpluses in decades, all but forgotten, and never mentioned, by our mainstream media dullards. It doesn't fit the standard story line that Democrats are the irresponsible party of profligate spending.
This brings us to the present, with Donald Trump and his supporters whining about the media. Come on, Donald you can't have it both ways - dominating media attention with outlandish statements, then complaining that the media are covering you.
While Trump is bitching about the media examining his statements, many of the rest of us are asking, "What took you so long?" Enough of giving him all that media attention along with free passes on his inflammatory statements.
And it's not just Trump. Rudy Giuliani, Gov. Chris Christie, and that retired Army general were whipping up the GOP convention crowd to lynch-mob type frenzy, with nary a critical peep from the media about this.
Oh yes, NPR's Susan Paige observed that such rhetoric was beyond the normal. Gee Whiz, Susan, you really went out on a limb on that one didn't you? But she at least mentioned it.
So at last, with his inflammatory, unpresidential statements, the press is waking up, sort of, anyway. Trump already bars unfriendly reporters. As president, what would he do to reporters who are outright hostile to him?
Trump has the nation's powerful Republicans doing an entertaining two-step, professing support for their nominee while distancing themselves from him, more or less, but not really.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins (not up for re-election) asserts that she will not vote for Trump. But she won't vote for Hillary Clinton either. I would like to see one of our intrepid reporters pin her down with a simple question: "Sen. Collins, you served in the Senate with Hillary Clinton. What was that experience like, and is she competent to hold the presidency?"
Given the high praise Clinton received from both sides of the aisle as senator, and given Collins' reputation for integrity, her answers would undoubtedly be favorable to Clinton.
New Hampshire's Sen. Kelly Ayotte declined to endorse Trump but insisted she will vote for him. She is up for re-election and can't risk further alienating Republican Trump voters.
Reince Priebus, RNC Chair, continues to be the kid with the toy steering wheel pretending to drive the bus. In a way, one can sympathize with the hapless soul, having earlier recommended that the Republican Party needs to broaden its base. This sage advice went in one ear and out the other of that so-called "deep, talented pool" of GOP candidates.
Then there's our Gov. Scott Walker who endorsed Ted Cruz, but switched to Trump, earning himself an obscure speaking slot at the convention. He, along with Paul Ryan and Sen. Ronald Johnson, was conspicuously absent at Trump's recent Green Bay rally. He still labors under the illusion that he is presidential timber. But after promptly dropping like a rock and blowing his fat campaign chest, what savvy multi-millionaire donor is going to throw money his way?
If there will be a cheesehead Republican heading the ballot in 2020, it will be the ultra-conservative Ryan. His dance with Trump, "endorsing him," more or less, while distancing himself from Trump's statements, is transparent to anyone with a positive IQ who has been paying attention. Ryan's every move, word, statement, comment, etc. is carefully scripted to locking himself in as the heir-apparent for GOP presidential nomination in 2020.
Ryan has carefully cultivated his image as a serious policy guy. Never mind that, upon scrutiny, the arithmetic of his budget proposals doesn't add up. But to our mainstream media dullards, that doesn't matter. Having met Ryan during my campaign for the Assembly in 2008, I find him to be warm and personally likable. I can see why he is a darling of the media. He is likable enough and clever enough to make him dangerous.
For now, he's stuck with Trump. No problem. All Ryan has to do is to be a good sport, endorse Trump, and be hailed as the future savior of the party. True to the media predilection of dumbing down complex issues, while making simple items into spell-binding drama, Ryan's game is totally transparent. It just is not all that complicated.
And our other prominent Republican, Johnson, who came around to Trump? Like Ayotte, he's up for re-election and needs the Trump voters. But we can forget about him. Barring a Democratic catastrophe, he's history. Russ Feingold will whip him in November and send the "senator who should never have been," to well-deserved obscurity.
But history shows that anything can happen. As ridiculous and disgusting as much of this made-for-TV exercise in idiocy has been, it's some comic relief to watch these Republicans trying to thread the needle.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
