Looking Over the 2024 Political Landscape

Commentary

It’s early, but campaigning at the Iowa State Fair is now history and the first Republican televised debate is less than a week off, so I thought I would share with you some quotes I have recently noticed in my reading.

A few of you may remember Bernard Goldberg, who earned a reputation as a preeminent reporter while at CBS, if not when he was briefly a contributor at Fox.  in his 2001 book, “Bias,” he exposes how the media distort the news.  Now 78 years of age, he is an opinion contributor at The Hill.

Touching on the January 6 event at our Nation’s Capitol in a recent commentary, he wrote, “nothing Trump did that day led GOP leaders – conservative TV media allies, or GOP voters – to disown him,” relating how a New York Times/Sienna poll found that 75 percent of Republican voters agreed that “he was just exercising his right to contest the election.

“A recent New Hampshire poll,” Goldberg cites that “57 percent of GOP primary voters in that state would back Trump even if he was serving time in prison during the 2024 election.  You can’t make this stuff up.”

As if she believes she still has Republican colleagues, former RINO Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, took this shot at supporters of former President Trump:

“I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

In his Thursday opinion piece on Trump, Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger refers to Trump talking about the prosecutions against him as “election interference,” as he campaigns for the presidency in 2024.  That’s exactly what the opposition is up to as they drag out indictment court appearances while he’s trying to campaign.

Interestingly, Henninger reminds us that “what we’re witnessing now may be all about getting Mr. Trump, but presidential takedowns as a full-time strategy began during the presidency of Goerge W. Bush.

“I recall how personal the animosity toward him became among Democrats and their affiliated media.  We talk about Trump derangement syndrome, but Bush derangement syndrome was its precursor.”

I remember it well.

Rasmussen Reports’ online survey of 1,095 likely voters revealed that 41 percent believe it’s more likely that Trump will be elected president again in 2024.  Eighty-three percent of Republican voters believe it’s somewhat likely Biden committed crimes as bad or worse than Trump is charged with.

Reading the transcript of “America This Week,” the podcast by journalist Matt Tiabbi and novelist Walter Kirn, during which they exchange thoughts on the various topics, including the presidential campaigns, there were a number of  comments I will share with you:

Kirn: “In terms of press, in terms of attention, Trump stands head and shoulders above all the others.  Whereas he may be imprisoned, there’s a strong sense that Biden may not be capable, imprisoned or not.  Where does that leave us?

“It’s essentially a two-horse race until the force majeure happens, until Biden drops out and is replaced or Trump is put in jail and disqualified, absent that, that’s the field.”

Kirn: (On Vivek Ramaswamy) “He interests me because he’s a new guy.  He went to Harvard, he has a lot of money, but that might be novel, too.  We’re used to presidents making a lot of money after they leave office, but other than Donald Trump, we’re not used to them have a lot beforehand.”

Taibbi: “I think that just reflects where the Democrat Party made a decision that it was going to run primarily on social issues and some other things.  And it’s abandoning it’s become a party of the upper class.”

Kirn: “Daily life is going downhill and the media doesn’t have to tell you that. You can see it with your own eyes.  The people are now pissed off about things that are happening in their real lives.

“… which candidate is most effective at rallying people to believe in them as the effective protest candidate?  Trump, his idea, which was brilliant, I think, in 2016, was he just started picking up on the fact that every time he said something negative about an American institution, he gained in the polls. He went after the Fed, that worked.  He went after the banks, that worked.  He went after the media, that worked. Finally, he went after NATO, which was a line thou shalt not cross, according to the Washington Post, be he even gained there.”

Kirn: “All predictions are especially meaningless now because there are so many factors and variables that we don’t usually have.  I think, personally, that the legal campaign against him (Trump) is a big mistake.  I just don’t think you can take somebody who plausibly represents almost half the country and put them through this, especially at a time when there’s already personal anger and people are identifying with being left out or pushed out.  I think this has been overkill.”

A bit of humor from comedian and Fox News host Jimmy Failla: “Biden is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the inflation reduction act today despite the fact that the AP says it had no effect on inflation.  If politics were football, this fool is dumping the Gatorade on himself after losing the game.”

Ponder this: “The U.S. isn’t going to break. Countries don’t do that.  Greece, an eternal mess, is still around.  But the U.S. does look as if it’s heading toward a long downward roll.” – Daniel Henninger, The Wall Street Journal

May God continue to bless the United States of America.