Here are my observations and opinions on selected news items of the day.

THOSE CONFOUNDED POLLS – After the embarrassing performance of the polls in the 2016 presidential election, I use caution in referring to them here.

A number of polls are indicating a lead for Democrats running for seats in the House of Representatives. It’s hard to believe, given the Dems announced plan to repeal the tax cut and all the talk about impeaching the president.

The pundits tie the prediction of Democrat victories to President Trump’s approval rating, which has been hovering in the in the mid-40s, though a recent Harvard/Harris poll had him at 55 percent approval.

ON FOREIGN POLICY, the Trump administration approval rating is at 39.9 percent, according to Real Clear Politics. Unbelievable. The president has initiated unprecedented denuclearization talks with North Korea; he has removed the U.S. from the faulty Iran nuclear deal; he has taken us out of the costly Paris Accord; he has successfully pressured NATO countries to pay their fair share; he has moved our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem (promised by three of his predecessors); and he is leveling the playing field on trade to benefit American workers. A comprehensive list of foreign policy gains can be found at Promises Kept, by clicking here.

MEANWHILE, our economy is booming with blue-collar jobs growing at a faster rate in more than 30 years, incomes are rising and the poverty rate going down. Entrepreneurship is on the rise as new company start-ups are again increasing, the result of the Trump administration’s reduction of oppressive regulations.

THE OBAMA FACTOR – Townhall suggests that “Obama’s return may energize Republicans more than Democrats.” Let’s hope so. Rasmussen Reports issued a poll result that a surprising 38 percent of likely voters say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate for whom Obama campaigns. Fool me once …

THE KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION has Red State Democrats ducking for cover, according to Sally Persons at Real Clear Politics. While the Dems would like to retake control of the Senate, they have Senators up for reelection in five states that Trump won in 2016 – Indiana, North Dakota, West Virginia, Missouri, and Montana. You can bet that the president will be rallying voters in those states again between now and the midterms.

HAVE YOU HEARD that there’s a campaign urging Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to vote against Kavanaugh? This is no run-of-the-mill effort. More than $1 million in pledges of money will go to her opponent in 2020 if she supports the judge’s confirmation. Collins spokeswoman said the threat amounts to a quid pro quo … basically a bribe, according to Kevin Freking, of the Associated Press.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, who had a Chinese spy working for her over a 20-year period, has the chutzpah to stage an eleventh-hour  attempt to block the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh by asking investigators to look into a charge against him – apparently dating back to his high school days – that she was aware of in July and failed to surface in her private meetings with the judge or during his Senate hearings.  Shameful.

DEM DIRTY TRICKS CONTINUE – Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was on the receiving end of a slap-down Washington Post style as it gave her four Pinocchios for her intentionally deceptive video of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Several of her left-leaning colleagues spread the false narrative about Kavanaugh using the Harris video. Harris edited the beginning of a Kavanaugh response in which he clarified that he was quoting a defendant in a case he presided over as a judge.

AND ARE YOU READY FOR THIS? – Hillary Clinton tweeted Harris’s edited line to her followers.

“The point, of course, is that lies work. They are juicy, they often are uncritically accepted because of motivated reasoning, and in this day and age they spread even faster than in the past.”  – NEO blog

THERE’S MORE – Despite Harris’ claim of “reliable” information, assuring and reassuring Journalists that she had evidence of a conversation that would have represented a major ethical breach by a sitting appellate court judge, it turned out that she was lying, making it up out of whole cloth.

More “save to file” material for the 2020 campaign when she is said to be a presidential candidate.

‘SWIFT BOAT’ KERRY – Clearly, former Secretary of State John Kerry is undertaking an effort to undermine the foreign policy of the Trump administration.

I first criticized him for this in my July 12, 2018 blog, “Who asked you, citizen Kerry?” Now he’s conducting a rogue shadow diplomacy effort to stymie President Trump’s foreign policy strategies.

Appearing on the Hugh Hewitt radio show on Wednesday, Kerry acknowledged meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif “three or four times” since leaving office. Later, while appearing on Fox News with Dana Perino, Kerry did not deny the suggestion he’s telling the Iranians to wait out Trump until there’s a Democrat president again. “I think everybody in the world is talking about waiting out Trump,” he said.

“John Kerry is out giving advice to Iran about how to maneuver around what Donald Trump is doing; it’s insidious.” – Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President George W. Bush

REMEMBER how those countries signed the Paris Accord pledging to move forward on carbon reduction even though President Trump pulled us out of the accord?

Angela Merkel’s Germany has admitted the country is likely to fall short of its future greenhouse gas omissions by 33 percent in comparison to 190 levels by the year 2020. This falls short of the country’s previously stated aim of 40 percent.

“The goals aren’t being met because German hasn’t done enough to make climate change protection a priority,” said Greens parliamentarian Barbel Hohn.

BOB WOODWARD likes to quote his former Washington Post boss Ben Bradlee with “the truth will emerge,” but after reading a piece by Peter J. Hasson in The Daily Caller, “Bob Woodward has trail of accuracy issues that nobody is talking about,” it appears that Bradlee wasn’t confident of Woodward’s sources, including “Deep Throat.” It’s too long to properly cover here, but I recommend you read it by clicking here.

          May God bless the United States of America.