Hello Everyone:
An unforeseen dental emergency has created a situation where yours truly has only enough time to post a few thoughts on the upcoming New York primaries.
Secretary Hillary Clinton (D-New York) and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) provided some amusing moments this past week. First, there was Sen. Sanders accusing Sec. Clinton of not being qualified to be President of The United States because, as senator, she voted in favor of sending troops to Iraq and has a Super PAC. Pretty narrow litmus test if Blogger says so herself. It almost sounds as if the Gentleman from Vermont has taken a page out of the Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) book on political ideology purity. This kind of purity does not understand nuance. It only sees black and white, not the shades of grey. The shades of grey is where the real work gets done. Sen. Sanders has opted not to raise money using a Super PAC, fine. Now it seems that he is regretting it. It is not as if his campaign is struggling financially. Hardly, given the way it has been able to rally the small donors but as the primary season grinds on and the fight for the nomination gets longer, Blogger is starting to think that the Sanders campaign did not anticipate going the distance. Neither did the Clinton campaign, yet by using Super PACs and attending the big ticket campaign fundraisers that Sen. Sanders disdains, they have been able to marshal the resources to take the battle for the nomination all the way to June and beyond.
Secretary Hillary Clinton has her own issues. Perhaps no better metaphor for her caucus and primary losing streak-the most recent was the Saturday Wyoming Caucus-was getting stuck in a subway turnstile. As we have seen so far, when it comes to primaries and caucuses in predominantly Caucasian states, the former Secretary of State does not fare well. Interestingly, Senator Sanders does not do well in states with a more diverse population. This can be attributed to a number of reasons: education, socio-economic background, political philosophy, and so forth. Whatever the reasons are, one thing for certain, whoever wins the nomination must be able to structure a cohesive and coherent message to blunt the "America is going to hell" message being promulgated on the other side.
Another major issue for Sec. Clinton is trust. This is a big one because the average citizen needs to feel confident that their president is being completely honest with them. Allow Blogger to clarify that last statement, as honest as humanly possible. Blogger is not that naive to think that politicians, any politician, is completely trust worthy. In Sec. Clinton's case, the ongoing email investigation is not helping her establish any sort of trust with the American public. Despite President Barack Obama's statement that he believes that she did not endanger American national security, Sec. Clinton must go on the record, look the American public in the eye, be completely open about why she set up a personal server and what exactly was on those emails. Again, Blogger is not that naive to think that will assuage the voters but it would help.
Another thing that has been on Blogger's mind is how millennial women and the Sanders campaign are trying to hold Sec. Clinton responsible for her husband namely, former President Bill Clinton's, extramarital activities. It seems that millennial women have concerns about Sec. Clinton's credibility about gender equality in the workplace issues because of her husband's real or imagined romantic liaisons. To Blogger's ears, it almost seems that they are holding her responsible for the affairs because she was to preoccupied with her own ambitions. Another way to look at it is Sec. Clinton stood by her man, instead of leaving him, when he confessed to his peccadillos. To those yours truly says, you do not know what went on to get to that moment. Should Sec. Clinton address her feelings about her husband's affairs? Yes because it will help her overall credibility. However, Blogger respects the need to keep these matters private.
One more thing before we cross the aisle, Senator Sanders's decision to attend an environmental conference at The Vatican days before the New York primary. Great, Sen. Sanders is a committed environmentalist who wants to sit down with world leaders to discuss the future of this planet. Not so great that this just days before a crucial primary and he is leaving his surrogates to do the campaigning for him instead of him going out, shaking hands and kissing babies.
Far be it from Blogger to leave the Republicans alone. It has been a very remarkably quiet week from the Trump campaign. The belies the shake up going on in the Trump for President headquarters and Donald Trump still feeling the sting of losing to Sen. Cruz in Wisconsin. Blogger fully expects to see Mr. Trump come roaring back, especially now that he is on his home turf. However, Blogger still has her eye on Sen. Cruz. He stealthily accumulating the delegates and resources to take the fight for the nomination all the way to the Convention floor. Senator Cruz poses a bigger threat to derail Mr. Trump's nomination chances than Governor John Kasich (R-Ohio). The Governor seems to be extremely intent on pursuing the nomination despite sorely lagging in the delegate count. One has to wonder why he persists in this quixotic journey. Ego can only be the reason. Blogger does not doubt that the Republic National Committee powers have had a heart-to-heart with the Gentleman from Ohio about his realistic chances of securing the nomination. Nevertheless, Gov. Kasich continues to plod onward.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) has lately been in the news. His name has floated as a possible alternative to the three remaining candidates. Speaker Ryan, then-Congressperson Ryan, was former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's running mate in the previous election cycle. Since becoming Speaker of the House in 2015, Mr. Ryan has towed the perilous line in crafting some sort of agenda that balanced the Tea Party and Establishment factions. He has recently emerged as a possible favorite option to the candidates. However, Speaker Ryan announced today that he will not accept or campaign for the nomination, period, end of story. No doubt the RNC establishment is beside itself. Perhaps this is a good thing because the Republican race is already chaotic enough without someone else tossing their hat into he ring.
The crucial New York primary is next Tuesday and yours truly will have some thoughts on the outcome at regular time. Tomorrow, we sort of stay in the forum with a post on the candidates's position on historic preservation
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