Election Musings

A lot to cover . . ..

What was Donald Trump thinking when he invited the Russians to hack government and party servers in order to find Hillary Clinton's missing e-mails?  This is both stupid and undesirable. However regrettable Hillary's actions have been, we don't need Vladimir Putin to hack the federal government's Web site to prove it.  All of America should be concerned with the gravity of Trump's statement.  He's inviting foreign powers to meddle in our affairs.  He has since said he was  joking; well, he has a weird sense of humor.  So - what happens if Trump is elected President?  I wrote a blog entry back in March 2016 suggesting that either the Donald or the Hillary could be a latter-day Franklin Pierce.  Trump is easily more like Pierce than . . . even the fourteenth U.S. President himself.  Pierce was an arrogant megalomaniac whose disastrous foreign and domestic policies led to his downfall.  Trump is likely to have a similar result if elected and end up becoming the first elected first-term President to fail to win renomination for a second term since . . . Franklin Pierce.     

If Hillary wins we'll be replacing one Vice President notable for his use of words with another.  Tim Kaine lapsed into Spanish so much in his vice presidential nomination acceptance speech at the convention, he came across as what one wag called the nation high-school Spanish-language teacher.  And Joe Biden, the man he would succeed, went after Trump with the same wholesome curse words and superfluous end-of-sentence expressions he always uses.  That's a consarned character trait, man. 

Trump's statement endorsing Russian cyber-espionage should make anyone not voting for Hillary think twice, and I certainly have. I'm still voting for Dr. Stein.  Why?  One of Trump's biggest backers is New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Christie is so unpopular in New Jersey that Hillary should win the state easily over Trump.  Also, Dr. Stein is still - still - not on the ballot in New Jersey, and the deadline for petitions to be filed to get her on the ballot is fast approaching.  I can still write her in in November is she doesn't make it, as I have already said; again, I don't think there could possibly be enough write-ins to tip the scales against Hillary.  The Democrats should worry about Pennsylvania.  Trump is surging there and could become the first Republican presidential nominee to win the state since the senior George Bush in 1988.  Ironically, Dr. Stein isn't on the ballot as yet there either.  And I don't think write-in presidential votes are allowed in Pennsylvania anyway. 

Party like it's 1852? This could be worse than 1860.