2024 Election
April 24, 2024 — Steven Hayward
It is tempting to suggest that the best of all worlds is for Trump to be tied down in the courtroom, where he can’t let fly with one of his frequent provocations, while Joe Biden gets out and campaigns more, reminding Americans that he is a doddering fool. The big story last week was that Biden is the comeback kid! The polls have closed, with some putting Biden back in
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April 23, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Donald Trump is undergoing a criminal trial in Manhattan. He is charged with filing corporate records that included a false statement; namely, that payments to Michael Cohen that were described as being for legal services were, in fact, to reimburse Cohen for making one or more payments to Stormy Daniels in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement. But those payments to Daniels were perfectly legal, and filing a false corporate document
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April 21, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Check out this headline from today’s New York Times, on the criminal trial that is under way in Manhattan: “Will a Mountain of Evidence Be Enough to Convict Trump?” I understand that readers of the Times tune in mainly to get their daily dose of Trump-hate, but is the Times even pretending to be a newspaper anymore? The trial, which could brand Mr. Trump a felon as he mounts another
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April 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Well, he gets to run against Joe Biden. That is the main reason. But one of the extraordinary features of this year’s race is the Democrats’ lawfare. In a series of civil cases and criminal prosecutions, they are trying to bleed Trump’s financial assets and, more important, convict him of a “felony” to convince voters not to vote for him. The prosecutions range from selective (Trump’s handling of classified information)
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April 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker
I don’t think he can, anyway. Check out these numbers from Rasmussen: Republicans have a major edge over Democrats in terms of voter excitement, and voters overwhelmingly see President Joe Biden as too old to hold the office.. *** More Republicans (68%) than Democrats (50%) are genuinely excited about the election rematch. Voters not affiliated with either major party are about evenly split between being genuinely excited (44%) and choosing
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April 15, 2024 — John Hinderaker
I find this, from this morning’s proceedings in Trump’s “hush money” trial, inexplicable: Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass looked for a backdoor way of introducing Donald Trump’s infamous “Access Hollywood” interview into the hush money trial Monday morning, where he recited, word for word, Trump’s “grab ’em by the p—y” speech. Justice Juan M. Merchan had previously ruled that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office could not play Trump’s interview to a jury
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April 15, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against Donald Trump goes to trial today. It says something about the world we live in that we haven’t even bothered to mention it lately. I summed up Bragg’s case against Trump here. In a word, it is pathetic. Trump made one or more “hush money” payments to Stormy Daniels, which was perfectly legal. The alleged crime is that his business documents reflect falsely that the
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April 12, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The stock market was down sharply again today, as a result of fears of resurgent inflation. Inflation is second only to senility as a threat to Joe Biden’s campaign, and the campaign is desperate to find an answer. How desperate? They plan to blame Donald Trump: On Wednesday, after the latest inflation data showed an unexpected acceleration in price gains, Mr. Biden again tried to assure voters that he is
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April 11, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats don’t have a candidate, but what they do have is wheelbarrows full of cash. The New York Times checks out the money race and concludes that their candidate is doing very well indeed: President Biden may be down in the polls, but he’s way up on Donald Trump when it comes to campaign funds. Each quarter since the president announced he was running again, Biden has lapped his
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April 10, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Biden re-election campaign should be dead in the water. Inflation is surging again, wokeness is deeply unpopular with most Americans, bills are beginning to come due for the Left’s “green” initiatives, and, most of all, Biden himself is so far gone in dementia as to be dysfunctional. How can he possibly win in November? By running on abortion. We saw it in many areas of the country in 2022.
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April 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In an interview that was recorded last week but aired last night on Univision — transcript and video here — President Biden criticized Israel’s conduct of the war and called for a ceasefire without tying the demand to the release of the hostages held by Hamas. Indeed, the name “Hamas” does not appear in the interview. “Well, I will tell you, I think what [Prime Minister Netanyahu is] doing is
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April 9, 2024 — Scott Johnson
We are given to understand that the Dearbornistan vote has something to do with the Biden administration’s turn toward Hamas. In the category of what’s wrong with this picture?, the invaluable MEMRI tuned in to the International Al Quds Day rally in front of Dearborn’s Henry Ford Centennial Library (perfect!) this past Friday (video below). Chants of “Death to America” were joined with chants of “Death to Israel” among the
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April 7, 2024 — Steven Hayward
As I have written several times, with low unemployment, a (somehow) still-growing economy, and an unpopular rival candidate, Joe Biden ought to be breezing to a relatively easy re-election. But he continues to trail Trump. (Leave aside for separate treatment why the top line economic numbers are misleading. . .) Check out this chart from Bloomberg: Bloomberg translates what this means in terms of votes as follows: Trump is currently
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April 6, 2024 — Steven Hayward
I sometimes say that I am a libertarian only on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and April 15) because libertarian purism can be politically frivolous. I was delighted that Daniel B. Klein, professor of economics and JIN Chair at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and editor of the invaluable Econ Journal Watch, sent the following article for our consideration, and I fully agree with it: An interview between two libertarians
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April 6, 2024 — Steven Hayward
In the most unsurprising announcement of the week, No Labels has given up its plan for a third-party “unity” ticket, proving that generic brand politics has about as much appeal as generic brand consumer products. But at least the generic store brands, with their bland labels, save you money. Just what was the No Labels ticket going to stand for? Was there ever a single idea that No Labels stood
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April 1, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In the spirit of the day, the Washington Free Beacon’s Thaleigha Rampersad has compiled the video below for the Biden 2024 presidential campaign. It is posted here at the Free Beacon. Four more years! (or fewer, as the case may be). It only hurts when I laugh, but our enemies laugh pain-free. That much I can tell you. On a related not, the Free Beacon also breaks the news that
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March 30, 2024 — John Hinderaker
I predicted that Donald Trump would win the 2016 election, one of only two semi-prominent pundits, along with Michael Moore, to get that one right. I picked Trump to win again in 2020; one out of two isn’t bad. And I am picking him again in 2024. Trump has horrible liabilities as a presidential candidate. Close to half the country wouldn’t consider voting for him, he is dodging jail as
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