Here are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.

BIDEN’S BIG WIN in South Carolina Saturday evening has naturally excited Apology Joe’s faithful, but make no mistake, the Palmetto State is a “ruby red” Republican state as Sen. Tim Scott reminded viewers of Sunday Morning Futures on Fox Sunday morning.  Fellow S.C. Senator Lindsey Graham is up for reelection in November.

Scott spoke of polls showing as many as 30 percent of blacks supporting Trump in 2020, but cautiously predicted a bump from six percent support in 2016 to 12 percent in 2020.  I think Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale is probably shooting higher.

SPEAKING OF APOLOGY JOE BIDEN – The Democrat candidate for president hasn’t had a kind word for the Fox News Channel on the campaign, but host Chris Wallace welcomed him warmly for an interview on Fox News Sunday.

Just when you thought Biden had survived the interview without a gaffe, at the conclusion, when Wallace thanked him for his time, Biden responded saying, “All right, Chuck, thank you very much.”   Chris reminded Biden that he was “Chris.”

Biden quickly mentioned his back-to-back appearance with Chuck Todd on NBC earlier and misspoke. An understanding Wallace smiled.   But, oh man.

SHAMEFUL SCHUMER – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer simply cannot pass up an opportunity to criticize President Trump.

On February 5, 2010, after the president initiated a travel ban to and from China on January 31, 2020 as a precaution in view of the Coronavirus situation there, Democrat Schumer tweeted @SenSchumer: “The premature travel ban to and from China by the current administration is just an excuse to further his ongoing war against immigrants.  There must be a check and balance on these restrictions.”  The president’s decision was referred to as “racist.”

Yet, on February 25, 2020, knowing the president had scheduled a press conference on the virus that afternoon, Schumer went to the floor of the Senate to upstage the president, saying, “Mr. President, you need to get your act together now.  This is a crisis.  We need you to act.”

Schumer went on to say that the “administration has been caught flat-footed by the outbreak of the Coronavirus.”

Following Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals – “Keep the pressure on. Never let up” – and possibly recalling Rahm Emanuel’s advice – “Never let a serious crisis go to waste” – Schumer went on to say that “the administration has no plan to deal with the Coronavirus – no plan – and seemingly no urgency to develop one.”

Critical of the president’s earlier request for $2.5 billion to address the outbreak, Schumer said it was “too little, too late,” and said it should be $8 billion.

During the press conference that followed later that day, the president mocked Schumer, referring to his unusual statement that the president had not requested enough to fund the outbreak, indicating he will “take whatever they’ll give me.”

After speaking briefly about putting the health and safety of the American people first, the president introduced the federal health experts to brief the media on what was being done to combat the virus, before answering questions in a transparent way.

The president emphasized that combatting the Coronavirus was not a Republican-Democrat, conservative-liberal effort, and cautioned against making it political.  Of course, that fell on deaf ears, as the Dems and the media continued the anti-Trump drum beat.

Feeling the need to put her two cents worth into the mix, Peggy Noonan, the elite columnist for the Wall Street Journal commented, “The president’s news conference Wednesday evening was not reassuring.”

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP – Over at the CNN looney bin, Brandon Tensely, wrote of the lack of diversity on the team on his task force and the medical experts he introduced at the conference.  “Are these people qualified to tackle this problem?  It doesn’t matter. This is bad because they’re mostly white people, and mostly males.”

As if that wasn’t enough of an indictment, Tensely went on to say, “Do you really want your life saved by a bunch of white dudes?  White people got us into this mess, and now we’re supposed to trust them to get us out of it?

TRUMP WOULD THUMP SANDERS in a head-to-head matchup if the election were today, according to Rasmussen Reports on February 26, 2020.   Trump earned 50 percent support among likely voters to Sanders’ 43 percent, and seven percent undecided.

President Trump received 84 percent of the Republican vote and leads 49 percent to 39 percent among voters affiliated with another party.  Sanders took 75 percent of the Democrat votes, but nearly one-in-four Democrat voters (22 percent) opt for Trump instead.

It’s a poll.  It’s interesting, but remember the polls of 2016.

IN ANOTHER POLL, this one by Gallup, a record number of people see trade growing the U.S. economy, as 79 percent of those polled support trade … the highest since Gallup began asking the question in 1992.

Gallup also noted that 88 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of Democrats view the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal as good for the United States.

MORE EVIDENCE that President Trump is not interested in endless wars, in spite of Democrat accusations, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed a peace agreement with officials of the Taliban and Afghanistan to hopefully end the near 20-years of conflict there.

The agreement calls for the U.S. to withdraw 4,400 troops, leaving 8,600 troops there for Afghan training and peacekeeping.  Full withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO troops is scheduled to take place in 14 months.

Pompeo made it clear that the timeline is conditional on the Taliban meeting security requirements and that it will be calibrated with the pace of their actions.

TWO PEACE PLANS – In January 2020, the president unveiled a Middle East Peace Plan involving Israel and Palestinians, and now he is trying to bring peace to Afghanistan, yet anti-Trumpers refuse to give him or his administration credit for his efforts, though tenuous.

MC SALLY IS AGAIN THE TARGET of the leftist Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts in her piece, “3 reasons McSally will win; 3 why she won’t.”

While Roberts would have you believe that she sees things looking both bad and good for Senator Martha McSally in the next 235 days until the election, she wants her readers to know that “Most polls suggest that Mark Kelly could dispatch McSally to the political boneyard, giving Arizona’s unelected senator the distinction of becoming the first state’s Republican to lose not one but two Senate seats to Democrats.”

Notice her reference to “unelected senator?”  She can’t let go of her disgust over Governor Doug Ducey’s appointment of McSally to fill the seat of the late John McCain.

I won’t go into all of Roberts’ six reasons McSally will win or not win in November, but in the near full-page coverage it reeked of her anti-Trump beliefs and her opposition to McSally’s support of the Trump presidency.

Her opponent, Kelly, is an extreme liberal, who has indicated he would support the socialist Bernie Sanders if he is the nominee.  The husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, Kelly’s support of gun control in the Second Amendment-strong state of Arizona makes his political success highly questionable.

As I prepared to publish this, Mayor Pete called it quits.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.