Majority believe country on right track … more corruption in FBI … McCain gives Palin a ‘gut punch’ … Mullen a ‘downer’ … NBC in denial … and that dissipating Blue Wave |

Here are my observations and opinions on items in the news.

OPTIMISM HIGH – A poll, released by the left-leaning CNN reveals that optimism about the direction of the country under President Trump has hit an 11-year high of 57 percent.

Interestingly, the poll was taken before unemployment dipped to 3.9 percent, before the North Korean summit was finalized, and before the three American prisoners were released by North Korea. Imagine what these events might have contributed to the optimism poll.

CORRUPTION IN THE FBI – It’s just getting worse, and with the stonewalling in the agency and within the Department of Justice to protect staff from more embarrassment, we now learn that the FBI planted a mole in the Trump campaign to spy on their activities.

It was bad enough that Obama holdovers rampantly unmasked Trump campaign staffers to monitor their conversations, but placing a spy to work in the campaign is un-American. While House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes continues to pressure the DOJ for information on the FBI source, Kimberly A. Strassel of The Wall Street Journal believes she knows the name of the source. She feels it would be irresponsible to publish the name.

LIKE A GUT PUNCH is how Sarah Palin described hearing that Sen. John McCain regrets picking her as his 2008 running mate in his new book. He initially wanted Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman as his VP, but was talked out of it by his staff members.

Palin has chosen not to criticize McCain, believing co-author Mark Salter included that indecision in the book, because McCain “has told me very different things over and over in person, (including) apologies to me repeatedly for the people who ran his campaign.” Hearing the opposite on TV, she said, was unnerving.

I followed the 2008 campaign closely and it was Palin who roused the crowds at appearances across the country. McCain, like Bob Dole 1996, had all the charisma of a pet rock.

DID YOU SEE Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under former President Obama on Fox News Sunday? You remember Mullen. He and former Ambassador Thomas Pickering jointly conducted the shoddy Accountability Review Board investigation of the Benghazi massacre without interviewing then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

While claiming he wasn’t a “Never-Trumper,” you wouldn’t know it. He arrived at the Fox studio prepared with “downer” positions. Rather than speak hopefully about the president’s upcoming meeting with Kim Jung Un, Mullen said, “What I’m most concerned about is if this doesn’t result in a positive outcome, the potential for, I think, military conflict goes off and therefore if you get into whether not he would use the nuclear weapons.”

When asked about President Trump’s nominee to become CIA Director, Gina Haspel, Mullen was opposed to her confirmation, aligning himself with Sen. John McCain. While admitting the Haspel “is an extraordinary person with a great background,” and mentioned that she operated in compliance with the law, Mullen believes “she should be held responsible for that (enhanced interrogation).”

“I find it incredible that Mullen couldn’t hold Hillary responsible for the deaths of four Americans at Benghazi, but he can cavalierly state that Gina Haspel should be held responsible for enhanced interrogation that was legal at the time.”

NBC IN DENIAL – NBC recently ended its internal investigation to determine if there is a current widespread or systemic pattern of behavior that violates company policy or a culture of harassment in its News Division.

Tweeting @NolteNC, John Nolte wrote of the network’s refusal to have an outside party look into the unsavory things going on its operation as Fox News Channel did during the Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes period. He reports that the mainstream media are silent and “will allow NBC to turn the page on this scandal.” But we know who they are – Matt Lauer, Chris Mathews, Mike Tirico and Tom Brokaw.

THAT DEMOCRAT BLUE WAVE seems to be dissipating before their eyes. The generic ballot polling shows that the Republicans have closed the gap from 16 points in February to six in March to three points now. RNC fundraising is outpacing the DNC as of March.