EXPECTATIONS AND PROGNOSTICATIONS
Don Fredrick
With a remarkably straight face, one of CNN’s resident rocket scientists, Nia-Malika Henderson, recently remarked:
“Predictions are dangerous—especially when they are about the future.”
I look forward to the risk-free Super Bowl prediction Henderson makes the morning after the big game. Unlike that failing network’s blank-stared panelist, however, I dare to tread into the realm of the unknown and offer a look ahead into campaign year 2020:
Quid-Pro-Joe Biden is toast. In fact, by the end of April I suspect he will be thoroughly burnt toast. Winning his party’s nomination will require a mountain of money and massive media support. Joe will fall short in both areas. The only question will be which is exhausted first.
Even if he does not have another brain aneurysm, Biden’s continual gaffes keep calling attention to his failing mind. He may have been able to plant hair plugs into his scalp, but as far as I know no cerebrum transplant has even been attempted, let alone achieved, by scientists. Of course, some of Joe’s supporters argue that his mind is not failing at all; it has (charmingly, no less!) always been like that. Why that is considered a compliment is not clear.
Biden’s bountiful blunders will be gleefully used in campaign ads against him. In addition, of course, information about his drug-addled and morally-challenged son’s involvement with Burisma and corrupt Ukrainians will keep coming out—and not just from the Republicans. Biden’s opponents in the Democrat race want to beat him too. As soon as old Joe starts slipping in the polls, they will be eager to grease the pavement in front of his No Malarkey Express.
Kamala Harris was once the darling of Obama, and later of the media, but her shallowness, ineptness, and inconsistent positions sent her packing. Token diversity candidate Julian Castro, who has all the appeal of a cold burrito, never stood a chance. Nor did faux Hispanic Robert Francis O’Rourke. Cotton-mouthed Cory Booker forgot that Spartacus was crucified, not victorious.
Elizabeth Warren gets more desperate every day, and it shows. She even promised to run her Secretary of Education choice past a nine-year-old transgender for his/her/its approval. (What next? Greta Thunberg for Secretary of the Interior? David Hogg for Attorney General?) Wampum Warren isn’t going anywhere beyond the beer fridge in her wigwam.
Hillary Rodham Clinton and the establishment would certainly never let Tulsi Gabbard near the nomination, primarily because she is far too much of a boat-rocker and war-avoider. Gabbard may be just as bad as her rivals when it comes to domestic policy, but her pursuit of peace and a desire to avoid dangerous and expensive nation-building escapades is a no-no for everyone in the war-war establishment (on both sides of the political aisle) who “earn” fortunes from the deaths of U.S. troops, defense-stock dividends, and kickbacks from foreign oligarchs.
Andrew Yang is an economic dunderhead, promising $1,000 per month to every breathing being in the nation. That would cost “only” $4 trillion or so per year in higher taxes. Yang is apparently unaware that the 1972 Democrat presidential candidate, George McGovern, lost 49 states with that same vote-buying scheme. (Granted, lonesome George only promised a $1,000 per year family tax credit.) The good news is that Yang will dangle $1,000 per month in front of you in exchange for a vote. The bad news is that he will also raise your taxes by $12,000 per year if you give him your vote. There ain’t no such thing as free, folks. In fact, getting something for free typically means you have become less free.
Inasmuch as America has lately become a breeding ground for advocates of borderless, global socialism, comrade Sanders might not match McGovern’s electoral vote record. But the aging Marxist would certainly lose 40 or more states to Trump, and almost everyone knows it. (The Democrat National Committee certainly knows it.) Besides being a buffoon who honeymooned in the Soviet Union and who combs his hair with a balloon, Bernie makes the mistake of admitting he is a socialist. The Democrat party may want the same socialism Sanders wants, but it has enough sense not to be so blunt about it. The party wants a commie in camouflage, not one who has proudly come out of the closet. (Barack Obama cleverly concealed his political leanings. He understood that a quick and violent revolution would fail, but a gradual imposition of socialism might succeed. Obama certainly read—and likely memorized—Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. For information about Obama’s extreme, pre-presidential past, read Volume 1 of my 30-volume The Complete Obama Timeline.)
Democrat candidate Tom Steyer, who made most of his fortune on Wall Street and a fair amount of it in the coal industry, is hypocritically running on a “green” platform. The Democrats used to hate billionaires who made money by following the Mitt Romney formula, but riding in a limousine and flying around the country on a private jet is apparently a forgivable sin as long as your trips are for the purpose of delivering anti-oil speeches to nincompoops tweeting about the environment on plastic keyboards they are too ignorant to realize are made from petroleum.
Like Steyer, Amy Klobuchar has the personality of a kitchen rag that’s been left in a sink for three days. Yes, some on the leftist media suggest the Minnesotan “has a path” to the presidency. But don’t forget that they also once swooned over Michael Avenatti. And Howard Dean. And John Edwards.
There might be a few other candidates I cannot think of, but the fact that I cannot even think of them tells you how much of a chance they’ve got.
Hence the DNC’s decision to change the rules and let Michael Bloomberg onto the debate stage. The Democrat Party knows he does not have a prayer of beating President Trump, but they are running out of ways to beat Sanders in the primaries—and mini-Mike’s greatest asset is his fat wallet. The Democrats understand that Trump will be re-elected. They cannot win with a socialist on the ticket. Nor can they win with a short, charisma-deprived, nasal-voiced tyrant who wants to limit the size of your soft drink, ban plastic straws and internal-combustion-engine-powered cars, and destroy hundreds of thousands of energy sector jobs—and the millions of jobs they indirectly support. But they will let Bloomie buy his way onto the ballot in the hope that he can buy enough campaign ads to reduce the chances of the GOP winning more Senate seats or taking back the House. The Democrats are in damage control mode. They are trying to hold the party together—and Adam Schiff and Gerald Nadler have not made it any easier for them.
However, by “keeping the party together” with a candidate other than Bernie, the Democrat establishment risks splitting that party in two. The Bernie supporters will not enjoy being deprived a second time. Remember, part of their revenge against the Hillary establishment was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeating Congressman Joe Crowley in the Bronx. Sanders fans will be enraged if their candidate once again has the nomination taken from him by establishment conspirators behind closed doors at the DNC. If the party’s nominee is anyone but Sanders, his supporters will descend on the Fiserv Forum—the Milwaukee arena chosen for the Democrat Party’s 2020 convention—and raise holy Hell. When the cigar-smoking party leaders chose Hubert Humphrey over peace candidate Eugene McCarthy in 1968, the Chicago convention site quickly came to look like a scene from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The party leaders may no longer smoke cigars, but today’s leftist revolutionaries can still wreak havoc. If Milwaukee in 2020 looks like Chicago in 1968, the voters who fear further violence and seek to restore law and order will flock to Donald Trump—just as they flocked to Richard Nixon 52 years ago.
At the beginning of 2016 the Democrats were certain that Hillary Clinton would be the next president and the Republican Party would collapse. At the beginning of 2020, to many it appears certain that Donald Trump will win reelection and the Democrat Party will be in a state of convulsion as it seeks to redefine itself. No one should be surprised if it splits in two, with the hard-core socialists building their own, separate political party for the future.
What is left of the Democrat Party may have to settle for Stacey Abrams, the losing candidate for Governor of Georgia in 2018 who insists she will be in the Oval Office by 2040. Frankly, she is more likely to be in a diabetic coma by then.
We shall see.
Don Fredrick
February 1, 2020
“Predictions are dangerous—especially when they are about the future.”
I look forward to the risk-free Super Bowl prediction Henderson makes the morning after the big game. Unlike that failing network’s blank-stared panelist, however, I dare to tread into the realm of the unknown and offer a look ahead into campaign year 2020:
Quid-Pro-Joe Biden is toast. In fact, by the end of April I suspect he will be thoroughly burnt toast. Winning his party’s nomination will require a mountain of money and massive media support. Joe will fall short in both areas. The only question will be which is exhausted first.
Even if he does not have another brain aneurysm, Biden’s continual gaffes keep calling attention to his failing mind. He may have been able to plant hair plugs into his scalp, but as far as I know no cerebrum transplant has even been attempted, let alone achieved, by scientists. Of course, some of Joe’s supporters argue that his mind is not failing at all; it has (charmingly, no less!) always been like that. Why that is considered a compliment is not clear.
Biden’s bountiful blunders will be gleefully used in campaign ads against him. In addition, of course, information about his drug-addled and morally-challenged son’s involvement with Burisma and corrupt Ukrainians will keep coming out—and not just from the Republicans. Biden’s opponents in the Democrat race want to beat him too. As soon as old Joe starts slipping in the polls, they will be eager to grease the pavement in front of his No Malarkey Express.
Kamala Harris was once the darling of Obama, and later of the media, but her shallowness, ineptness, and inconsistent positions sent her packing. Token diversity candidate Julian Castro, who has all the appeal of a cold burrito, never stood a chance. Nor did faux Hispanic Robert Francis O’Rourke. Cotton-mouthed Cory Booker forgot that Spartacus was crucified, not victorious.
Elizabeth Warren gets more desperate every day, and it shows. She even promised to run her Secretary of Education choice past a nine-year-old transgender for his/her/its approval. (What next? Greta Thunberg for Secretary of the Interior? David Hogg for Attorney General?) Wampum Warren isn’t going anywhere beyond the beer fridge in her wigwam.
Hillary Rodham Clinton and the establishment would certainly never let Tulsi Gabbard near the nomination, primarily because she is far too much of a boat-rocker and war-avoider. Gabbard may be just as bad as her rivals when it comes to domestic policy, but her pursuit of peace and a desire to avoid dangerous and expensive nation-building escapades is a no-no for everyone in the war-war establishment (on both sides of the political aisle) who “earn” fortunes from the deaths of U.S. troops, defense-stock dividends, and kickbacks from foreign oligarchs.
Andrew Yang is an economic dunderhead, promising $1,000 per month to every breathing being in the nation. That would cost “only” $4 trillion or so per year in higher taxes. Yang is apparently unaware that the 1972 Democrat presidential candidate, George McGovern, lost 49 states with that same vote-buying scheme. (Granted, lonesome George only promised a $1,000 per year family tax credit.) The good news is that Yang will dangle $1,000 per month in front of you in exchange for a vote. The bad news is that he will also raise your taxes by $12,000 per year if you give him your vote. There ain’t no such thing as free, folks. In fact, getting something for free typically means you have become less free.
Inasmuch as America has lately become a breeding ground for advocates of borderless, global socialism, comrade Sanders might not match McGovern’s electoral vote record. But the aging Marxist would certainly lose 40 or more states to Trump, and almost everyone knows it. (The Democrat National Committee certainly knows it.) Besides being a buffoon who honeymooned in the Soviet Union and who combs his hair with a balloon, Bernie makes the mistake of admitting he is a socialist. The Democrat party may want the same socialism Sanders wants, but it has enough sense not to be so blunt about it. The party wants a commie in camouflage, not one who has proudly come out of the closet. (Barack Obama cleverly concealed his political leanings. He understood that a quick and violent revolution would fail, but a gradual imposition of socialism might succeed. Obama certainly read—and likely memorized—Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. For information about Obama’s extreme, pre-presidential past, read Volume 1 of my 30-volume The Complete Obama Timeline.)
Democrat candidate Tom Steyer, who made most of his fortune on Wall Street and a fair amount of it in the coal industry, is hypocritically running on a “green” platform. The Democrats used to hate billionaires who made money by following the Mitt Romney formula, but riding in a limousine and flying around the country on a private jet is apparently a forgivable sin as long as your trips are for the purpose of delivering anti-oil speeches to nincompoops tweeting about the environment on plastic keyboards they are too ignorant to realize are made from petroleum.
Like Steyer, Amy Klobuchar has the personality of a kitchen rag that’s been left in a sink for three days. Yes, some on the leftist media suggest the Minnesotan “has a path” to the presidency. But don’t forget that they also once swooned over Michael Avenatti. And Howard Dean. And John Edwards.
There might be a few other candidates I cannot think of, but the fact that I cannot even think of them tells you how much of a chance they’ve got.
Hence the DNC’s decision to change the rules and let Michael Bloomberg onto the debate stage. The Democrat Party knows he does not have a prayer of beating President Trump, but they are running out of ways to beat Sanders in the primaries—and mini-Mike’s greatest asset is his fat wallet. The Democrats understand that Trump will be re-elected. They cannot win with a socialist on the ticket. Nor can they win with a short, charisma-deprived, nasal-voiced tyrant who wants to limit the size of your soft drink, ban plastic straws and internal-combustion-engine-powered cars, and destroy hundreds of thousands of energy sector jobs—and the millions of jobs they indirectly support. But they will let Bloomie buy his way onto the ballot in the hope that he can buy enough campaign ads to reduce the chances of the GOP winning more Senate seats or taking back the House. The Democrats are in damage control mode. They are trying to hold the party together—and Adam Schiff and Gerald Nadler have not made it any easier for them.
However, by “keeping the party together” with a candidate other than Bernie, the Democrat establishment risks splitting that party in two. The Bernie supporters will not enjoy being deprived a second time. Remember, part of their revenge against the Hillary establishment was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeating Congressman Joe Crowley in the Bronx. Sanders fans will be enraged if their candidate once again has the nomination taken from him by establishment conspirators behind closed doors at the DNC. If the party’s nominee is anyone but Sanders, his supporters will descend on the Fiserv Forum—the Milwaukee arena chosen for the Democrat Party’s 2020 convention—and raise holy Hell. When the cigar-smoking party leaders chose Hubert Humphrey over peace candidate Eugene McCarthy in 1968, the Chicago convention site quickly came to look like a scene from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The party leaders may no longer smoke cigars, but today’s leftist revolutionaries can still wreak havoc. If Milwaukee in 2020 looks like Chicago in 1968, the voters who fear further violence and seek to restore law and order will flock to Donald Trump—just as they flocked to Richard Nixon 52 years ago.
At the beginning of 2016 the Democrats were certain that Hillary Clinton would be the next president and the Republican Party would collapse. At the beginning of 2020, to many it appears certain that Donald Trump will win reelection and the Democrat Party will be in a state of convulsion as it seeks to redefine itself. No one should be surprised if it splits in two, with the hard-core socialists building their own, separate political party for the future.
What is left of the Democrat Party may have to settle for Stacey Abrams, the losing candidate for Governor of Georgia in 2018 who insists she will be in the Oval Office by 2040. Frankly, she is more likely to be in a diabetic coma by then.
We shall see.
Don Fredrick
February 1, 2020