Archives for March 2016

At last night’s CNN Democratic presidential debate in Flint, Michigan, a feisty Bernie Sanders went mano-a-mano with his opponent, Hillary Clinton. When interrupted by Clinton during his answer criticizing her support of disastrous trade agreements, Sanders turned towards Clinton, with raised hand, and forcefully said, “Excuse me, I’m talking.”

While the crowd seemed to be with Bernie, and some punches were landed, he did not deliver the knockout punch many pundits said he needed to turn around his prospects for a Michigan primary win this coming Tuesday.

RealClearPolitics.com’s most recent report of polling within Michigan shows Clinton leading Sanders by an average of 20%. While Michigan’s 148 delegates will be allocated proportionally, a loss of that magnitude would be devastating for Bernie.

Enthusiasm may get a candidate votes; the right number of delegates gets a candidate the party nomination.

Including superdelegates (the party insiders who can choose any candidate,) Hillary Clinton has a total of least 1,121 delegates, compared with at least 481 for Sanders. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

The math does not look good for the Vermont senator.

Sanders has vowed to stay in the race until the Democratic convention in July. “I still think we have that path toward victory,” he said.

As I have said previously, short of a new scandal or the worsening of an already existing scandal, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

But here is something to consider… the wild card in the Democratic presidential race, Elizabeth Warren, is still undecided as to which candidate she will support. If Bernie were to snag the Massachusetts Senator’s endorsement, it could be a game changer. And if this were to happen sooner rather than later, it may not be too late for Sanders to derail Hillary’s delegate-laden freight train.

A Sanders – Warren ticket, … every Progressive Democrat’s dream.

Photo | cnn.com

Ted Cruz is on a roll. After impressive wins in Kansas and Maine in yesterday’s “Super Saturday” contests, the most despised politician in Washington DC declared this was “a manifestation of a real shift in momentum.” Even though Trump also won two states, Kentucky and Louisiana, he won those states by margins smaller than Cruz won his states. As a result, Cruz took home more delegates on the night.

While Trump still has a significant lead in the delegate count, 382 to 300, it is possible neither candidate will have the number of delegates needed, 1237, to win the party’s nomination outright.

It remains a toss up as to which of the two candidates, Trump or Cruz, is hated more by the party establishment. Their new favorite son, Marco Rubio, seems to be going nowhere. He is a distant third in the delegate count with 128, followed by Kasich’s dismal 35 delegates.

Political analysts are divided as to which candidate, Trump or Cruz, would be the least electable in a general election, or in other words, which candidate Democrats should be rooting for.

For my money, I am pulling for Senor Rafael Edward Cruz. He is the more radical ideologue of the two. Trump is a chameleon who, after securing his parity’s nomination, could very well track more moderate in his positions (whatever they many be!) thereby gaining support of independents and even some Democrats.

But what would be the most fun for Democrats with a Cruz nomination is the basic issue of his eligibility to seek the presidency. The topic has been pushed to the background for now but it will surely rear its Canadian-head if Republicans pick Cruz as their standard-bearer.

And, just as much fun, would Donald Trump run as a third party candidate?

For Democrats, it still looks as if Clinton will be their nominee… that is, short of a new or worsening-of-an-existing Clinton scandal.

Folks, politics doesn’t get more fun than this (if only the consequences weren’t so scary.)

Photo |brixcms.org

For those too young to remember, years ago the words “college” and “university” meant institutions of higher learning; physical structures with buildings, classrooms and professors. You attended these mostly four years schools in the hopes of acquiring the knowledge necessary for becoming a thinking, responsible member of society.

Today the words have no meaning. What used to be called beauty schools are now “colleges” and auto mechanic schools are called “universities.”

If you Google “cheap college degrees and diplomas,” you will come up with 195,000,000 search results. You’ll find sites offering college degrees in seven days. One website, instantdegrees.com, offers a degree in 24hrs! And the best part? You can get one of these “diplomas” with “No Attendance. No Study or Testing. No Exams.” All you need is life experience… and money.

Donald Trump established Trump University in New York on May 23, 2005. Students were lured into taking a free introductory course, and then signed-up for three-day seminars at a cost of $1,495. They were then encouraged to buy advanced training programs for about $35,000.

When Trump University was founded, the New York State Education Department warned that it was in violation of state law for operating without a license. Trump ignored the warnings until 2010 when the “university” changed its name to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.

Three class action lawsuits are currently pending against Trump and his now-defunct school: one in New York and two in California. The billionaire is accused of misleading thousands of “students” who allege that the materials, seminars, and mentoring programs they paid for ultimately provided little-to-no value.

Prosecutors have labeled the educational enterprise, which closed in 2010, “a scam”; a “classic bait-and-switch scheme,” in the words of Eric Schneiderman, New York Attorney General.

On Super Tuesday primary day, Trump got some great news and some not so great news. The good news was that he won a majority of the state primaries. The bad news is that a New York appeals court gave the green light to the civil fraud lawsuit filed against the GOP front-runner and his Trump University.

Trump has sought to dismiss the lawsuits against him as bogus. In true Trumpian fashion, he accused a judge presiding over one of the cases as biased because he is Hispanic.

“I could’ve settled this suit numerous times,” Trump has said. “Could settle it now. But I don’t like settling suits.”

If Trump goes on to do well in the upcoming primaries and secures enough delegates to be the Republican presidential nominee, look for Trump to settle “these little lawsuits” in a New York minute. After all, he is only being sued for $40 million in New York; pocket change for a multi-billionaire like Trump.

Will these fraud lawsuits against Trump and his university hurt him with his loyal supporters? Fuggetaboutit!

Students who signed up for Trump’s fake university are not completely blameless. Who in his right mind would pay $35,000 to learn Trump’s secrets about real estate investing? Information that some have said is available on Zillow!

Students should have known Trump University was not a real school but a scam. Have you ever heard of a university with no sports team, no team mascot and no cheerleaders?

Photo | money.cnn.com

therightscoop.com

In the early days of Monday Night Football, former football star and color commentator, Don Meredith, was known for singing “Turn out the lights, the party’s over” (a line from a Willie Nelson song) when a game was seemingly out of hand… otherwise known as “garbage time.”

It’s garbage time for the GOP.

With Trump’s big wins throughout the South and Northeast in yesterday’s Super Tuesday primaries, one could almost hear “Dandy Don” breakout into song in that big announcer’s booth in the sky.

“The GOP establishment is apoplectic, but it’s too late,” said Don Sipple, a former GOP strategist turned independent. “If the party acts in an underhanded way to vanquish Trump, they will disenfranchise many voters who have been brought to the party by Trump. They are in deep doo-doo as an institution. They’re powerless right now.”

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton also had a big night. She not only won in those deep southern states she was favored to carry, but also took the grand prize of Massachusetts … a state that had appeared to be in Bernie’s grasp.

With 316 delegates, Donald Trump is on track to win the 1237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. But what is even scarier, with a possible match up against Hillary Clinton in the general election, he might also be poised to win the presidency.

Trump has become the Jim Jones of presidential politics; a man who can do no wrong. His followers are fiercely loyal like those of the 1970’s cult leader of the People’s Temple; a leader so powerful  his disciples willingly drank the Kool-Aid which led to their deaths in the Jonestown massacre.

Clinton supporters are not of the same ilk. While she has her share of loyal enthusiasts, there is an almost equal number of Democrats who despise her. For many, it’s “Bernie or Bust.” They would rather sit out the election … or vote for Trump (who they see as “the lesser of two evils”) … than vote for someone they see as a criminal. This goes beyond Clinton fatigue.

Yes, we may be witnessing a perfect political storm that could sweep Donald Trump to the presidency. Polls have continually shown that Bernie Sanders is the Democrat more likely to defeat Trump in a general election But that does not seem to bother the DNC and its chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who have done everything they could to tilt the playing field for Clinton.

“Dandy Don” and Howard, you are so missed. A little levity is desperately needed at this dark hour in American politics.

Photo | ABC Monday Night Football