2016 June 10^th

This blog must shift direction. Previously I’ve been happy to take issue with the half-truths and outright lies of various right wing commentators who write for the morning paper; this has been a fertile field and I have happily plowed it. I thank, in particular, Mona Charen, Cal Thomas, Thomas Sowell, George Will and occasionally our favorite isolationist bigot, Patrick J. Buchanan. I can no longer do that because these people are now writing scathing columns about Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s putative nominee. I agree with them about that. Of course they still occasionally attack Secretary Clinton over the “loss” of Libya or the risk to state secrets on her server, secrets that were not classified as secrets until she became a candidate. I’ll now comment primarily on the coming election. There is still lots of good stuff there.

It would appear that Hillary Clinton has all of her ducks in a row.; she has been endorsed by the President who claims that he is eager to get out there and campaign for her. This is really the President claiming he can’t wait to start bashing birther Donald Trump. Who can blame him? She also has former President Bill Clinton who is no slouch as a politician. Imagine, a former President and the current President eager to campaign for you.

Then Senator Sanders, who isn’t quitting yet of course, has said he will eventually help Hillary take on Donald Trump. Vice President Biden has joined in; he has excoriated Trump, particularly on Trumps comments about Judge Curiel. (Fox News has decided that because some in Curiel’s old law firm had donated to Hillary Clinton, that the Judge was fair game—curious logic.)

Then we have Senator Elizabeth Warren; she has savaged poor Donald Trump. Her impassioned anti Trump rants are spectacles to behold. So far Trump has made no response except to lie about her Senate record and call her Pocahontas. Trump claims that she has done nothing in the Senate when she has authored important consumer protection legislation.  Of course, for Donald Trump, protecting consumers (see Trump University) has no merit at all.

Warren has been so effective in her bashing of Donald Trump that some are calling for Clinton to name her has the Vice Presidential choice. There are good arguments against that: Warren is very effective in the Senate and that would be lost. The Republican Governor of Massachusetts would replace her and it would surely be with a Republican, at least until the elections when a Democratic Senator might be elected to replace the Governor’s appointee. Warren and Clinton are not well acquainted and might well not be sufficiently compatible for a pairing like that to work. On the other hand, Warren as Clinton’s VP choice would certainly make easing the Bernie Sanders fans over and into the Clinton camp. Who knows, maybe Clinton will pick Bernie himself. Questions without answers abound.