More presidential campaign observations

The Economist, a liberal publication published in the U.K. with a U.S. circulation of about 500,000, has joined the “stop Trump” movement. It considers Donald Trump “unworthy of leading one of the world’s great political parties, let alone America. Mr. Trump has prospered by inciting hatred and violence. He is so unpredictable that the thought of him anywhere near high office is terrifying. He must be stopped.”

And speaking of Trump, the man who lacks presidential statesmanship, he just cannot help but insult people. While he could have simply expressed disappointment in Mitt Romney’s comments about him “lacking the temperament and integrity to be president,” he went into the gutter saying, “He was begging me for my endorsement (in 2012),” said Trump, I could have said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’ He would have dropped to his knees.”

Then there was Trump’s need to refer to his “package” in response to Marco Rubio’s reference to Trump’s small hands. “If they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee.”

Oh for the return of frontier justice – Unless you are a news wonk like me, you probably didn’t see that a Texas appeals court judge threw out the “abuse of power” indictment brought against Texas Governor Rick Perry by unscrupulous political hacks in the Lone Star State. Perry vetoed funding for the public integrity unit of the state prosecutor’s office when its top prosecutor refused to resign after being stopped on a DUI and attempting to intimidate the officers from filing charges.

Left-wing activities, aided by funding from George Soros, persuaded a grand jury to indict Perry. While their 2013 case was thrown out last week, the left-wingers succeeded in damaging Perry’s 2016 presidential campaign, forcing Perry to run up $2 million in defense costs.

You may recall that former House Speaker Tom DeLay and former Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison were also victims of phony charges.

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is standing firm against President Obama getting a Supreme Court pick in an election year, but a couple of weak-kneed liberal Republicans – Maine’s Susan Collins and Illinois’ Mark Kirk – favor hearings. In my opinion, if McConnell relents, the already angered voters will return the Senate to the Democrats.

Kasich still alive, but barely – I’m as surprised as you are that Ohio Gov. John Kasich is still in the 2016 campaign for president. In May, he was my pick, based on his experience in Washington and in Ohio. By now you know of his achievements. Several months ago, I suggested he should bow out of the race since he wasn’t getting any traction, yet there he was, one of the last four still in the race standing on the debate stage. If you turned it off in disgust over the Trump-Rubio-Cruz antics, you missed one of Kasich’s better performances. The Economist (the same publication trying to stop Trump) gave high marks to Kasich, but remarked correctly that “this isn’t Mr. Kasich’s party anymore.”

It doesn’t matter to the Terminator –  Yesterday, Arnold Shwarzenegger endorsed Kasich for President.