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For those of you who didn’t watch the entire first night of
the Democratic convention (It ran until about 12:20 a.m., Eastern time), check
out Heather Cox Richardson’s ‘Letter from an American’ dated August 19, where
she sums it up, including most of the many
speakers’ great punch lines, and President Biden’s 52 minute review of
his accomplishments. Visit https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/ or JUST CLICK HERE. Come to think of it,
it’s a great link to check out all week long for those who don’t watch the
convention on TV.
By now, the convention’s second night (featuring the Obamas
among others) is also history. Michele
and Barack Obama both delivered inspirational speeches, anchored in the values
that families have instilled in us. Both
referred to the upcoming elections in regard to which Michelle
quoted Kamala Harris’ mom telling her to ‘Do Something!’ and Barack
signing off simply by telling us it was ‘time to get to work.’ Good
Advice! The election is about 77 days away!
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Kamala Harris' mom told her to 'Do Something' and not just be another coconut falling from a tree. She took that advice. |
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My feeling is that Kamala Harris will campaign on the
strength of Biden’s accomplishments, and work for continued growth and
prosperity in their direction. I think
the response of the American people to Harris will be far greater that it would
have been had a less inspirational Joe Biden remained the Democratic nominee.
That ought to be enough to put her in the White House and
give her majorities in both Houses of Congress.
Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance as his running mate did nothing to
expand the number of his supporters, further alienating the women’s vote and leaving
that of younger people uncontested, open for grabs, and likely to swing to the
Democrats.
Again, Democrats must
remember that they must do more than sit by hopefully watching Trump flounder. (Example: Tuesday evening, Trump’s former
press secretary, Republican Stephanie Grisham, endorsed Harris, stating that ‘I
love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects
the American people and she has my vote.’)
Democrats must ‘Do Something’ because it is now ‘time to get to work.’ This was the Obamas’ personal message made to more than just the delegates there on Tuesday evening. They were addressing YOU! You, personally! YOU!
JL
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There are Polls and There are Polls
The best validation of a presidential poll, nationwide anyway, is when the popular vote in the election confirms its results. Hilary Clinton back in 2016, Samuel Tilden in
1876, and Andrew Jackson in 1824 all clearly won the popular vote, but each lost
the election. Nationwide polling had
favored Clinton, and if such polls had existed in their times, I suspect would
have favored Jackson and Tilden.
Jackson and Tilden lost due to crooked political wheeling
and dealing with electoral college votes. Clinton lost due to the
shameful ‘thumb on the scale’ nature of the Electoral College existing
for the past 135 years, whereby six then sparsely populated ‘territories’ (North
and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming), were prematurely rushed
into statehood for political reasons in 1889 and 1890, each with two Senators
and an electoral vote for each one of them.
That action corrupted the intent of the Constitution.
Therefore, pay far less attention to national polling, and
more to polling in those States which are key in producing the 270 electoral
votes needed to elect a president. Individual polls in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,
North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada are more important than ‘national’
numbers because they report on voters controlling a total of 83 electoral
votes, enough of which, when added to those from predictably solid ‘no
real contest’ States (like California,
New York, Massachusetts, Alabama,
Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, etc.) will elect the nation’s Forty-seventh
president.
JL
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Advice for Voters from Dr. Seuss
While some may think the fictional Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) to be a bit controversial in his books for children, there’s a lot of meat in what he says. For example, many of today’s challenges wouldn’t exist if we heeded these simple words from his ‘Oh, The Places You Will Go,’ where he wrote, ‘With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.’ Yet many do, a bad practice in this election year.
Similar to Dr. Seuss’s words, we advise to ‘Use your head for more than a hat rack.’
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| Election Day is November 5. It might rain, so Vote by Mail. |
JL
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