The Post Office, With Apologies to Sam

Sam Feist is one of the sharpest minds in American politics. He’s the Washington Bureau Chief for CNN and a friend who, when I was half the man I am now, would occasionally get confused for me. Poor guy. When I was at CNN, he was the CNN Political Director. He knows his stuff.

In 2012, while I was at CNN, I tweeted that I was not watching a particular Republican debate as I thought it was a waste of time. Sam emailed me and said he understood, but I should be careful about tweeting that because, knowing me, I’d eventually comment on that debate and was already on record having said I did not watch it.

It was sound advice I have adhered to up to this very day. I try not to be dismissive of political content, even if I don’t want to engage with it.

Having said that, and with apologies to Sam, last night was a Braves game and also bourbon and cigar night. I did not watch what I am told was a series of public zoom calls by various Democrats and John Kasich still pretending he is something he is not. As an aside, it really is remarkable how Kasich has continuously gotten a pass on his various antics over the years including running in 2016, refusing to attack Trump while going after all the conservatives, and only then getting out of the race after blocking paths for anyone who might have stopped Trump. “But I’m muh conservative, just ask me.” The man is to conservatism what a colonoscopy is to pleasure.

I do not think the political conventions really matter much this year and not just because of the format and virus. They do not matter because Americans are making up their minds without the conventions. The President could potentially turn a corner with his speech and the RNC could potentially scramble to orchestrate something of higher quality than the Democrats. But the reality is that in almost every opportunity, the conventions are not going to matter much and the GOP will most likely find a way to screw up but with more balloons!

The President floating Gettysburg after my suggestion only to go with a White House south lawn in the swamp speech is just another failure of imagination and messaging this year by the GOP. It’s not that I wanted them to go with my idea. It’s that their idea lacks imagination, which is a problem with this whole re-election campaign.

So I don’t want to dwell on any of that and instead want to talk about the post office.

After spending weeks pushing back against QAnon, I feel like the American press corps has completely undermined me and everyone else pushing back against this conspiracy by their embrace of the post office conspiracy.

Where are the fact-checkers?

Yes, the President’s tweet did nothing but advance the theory that he really wants to sabotage the post office, though it holds no water in light of the fact he just signed off on a $10 billion loan to the post office a few months ago.

In fact, the reality is the post office won’t run out of money until next year thanks to the President’s funding.

What is happening is an orchestrated effort by the postal union that does not want to pay back the $10 billion and preferred a direct appropriation instead of a loan. Democrats and various reporters are now showing pictures of locked mailboxes and carted away mailboxes as proof the President is scuttling the post office.

Actually, the post office will quite effectively deliver an order of magnitude more Christmas cards in December than mail-in ballots in November and will do both capably, but not without problems. Many of the problems are not with the post office, but with states that have deadlines for ballot requests and processing that are too narrow for the expected surge of mail.

The post office is taking away sorting machines because the post office is handling less envelope mail and more packages these days, which cannot flow through the sorting machines. The post office is picking up mail collection boxes because they have been doing this for years. It is nothing new. In fact, this is all part of plan put in place during the Obama era.

But Democrats and some of their friends in the press are turning this into a conspiracy where it is not one. Just like with the QAnon people, it is impossible to dissuade them from the story. They are convinced of it and every picture of a carted away mail collection box is further proof.

The truth, however, is that there is nothing sinister going on. It is an organized messaging campaign by the postal union and Democrats with a heavy assist from members of the press who suddenly find the post office to be a great American institution.

The President cannot help himself with his tweets, but no one believed him when he said Mexico would pay for the wall. They don’t need to believe this either. Congress and the President just loaned the post office $10 billion and the post office will have no issues until next year as a result.

I do have to marvel at the effectiveness of this PR campaign by the postal union and Democrats. They have spun up some very good reporters who have now bought this QAnon style conspiracy.

If, however, it is true that the President is going to sabotage the post office, then it must also be true that a deep state really is conspiring to bring down the Trump presidency because Kevin Clinesmith pled guilty in the Carter Page matter. That is as much proof of QAnon as the President’s tweet is of a concerted effort to destroy the post office.

Also, the post office is a quasi-independent agency that neither the President nor Post Master General can effectively kill. This really is QAnon level lunacy, but we are forced to take it seriously because blue checkmark Twitter takes it seriously.

Now, I am sure tomorrow I can muster the courage to watch Planned Parenthood’s telethon and comment on it.