We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

I’m back. We were supposed to go to Arizona on Memorial Day for a week, but sinus infections swept through and we wound up canceling the trip and heading to North Georgia instead. It was relaxing and, as you can tell, I did very little work related stuff.

So now it is back to work.

Let me just start the week with this. Governor Chris Christie and Vice President Mike Pence are both expected to launch presidential campaigns this week. Fans of other candidates are going to make two claims. The first is that a crowded field helps Trump. That is objectively true. The second claim is that these candidates cannot win and have no “lane” in which to run. That is a subjective claim in the eye of the beholder.

Frankly, if the former Vice President of the United States cannot be welcomed into his party’s quest for the presidential nomination, we might as well hang it up. Pence has to answer a question the other candidates do not: why you, not your boss? But if he can provide a good reason, let the man run.

Christie thinks someone needs to take the business to Trump and DeSantis cannot. The polling for Christie, out of the gate, and the focus grouping I have seen, is not good for him. But if he wants to go after Trump, so be it. I would, however, provide him a caution. The Liz Cheney ads designed to hurt Trump actually helped Trump. The people who seem to hate Trump the most are often the ones who help him the most.

All of this, however, leads to Joe Biden. It was a curious decision to address the nation on a Friday night when no one was watching to tell them a crisis has been averted and better days are ahead. Certainly, the jobs numbers last week seem to suggest better days. But the Fed will probably raise rates again and all signs still point to a recession.

Additionally, even the New York Times is beginning to run soft pieces questioning Biden’s age. It remains a major issue for Biden and the Democrats. Couple that with a global crisis or recession and the GOP has real paths to victory through multiple candidates.

Biden against a generic Republican is still a good look for the GOP. So which Republican gets the GOP across home plate? I suspect, given the emotions of the day, it might not be who most of the party wants. But there is time and now a plethora of candidates from whom votes can choose.

Lastly, it is a very curious thing to see Donald Trump congratulating the murderous dictator of North Korea then witness Trump, Ramaswamy, and others wobble on transgender issues, then see Trump’s supporters attack DeSantis as a “globalist” for merely noting the North Korean dictator is a murderous dictator. What the heck is going on to lead Trump et al, at a moment like this, to waffle and wobble on the transgender issue?