California Primary

Iowa Presidential Debate Crucial As Caucuses Are Three Weeks From Today

The Democratic Presidential debate on Tuesday night is crucial as the caucuses near us three weeks from today.

The latest polls indicate close to a four way split, with only five points between first place finisher Bernie Sanders and fourth place finisher Joe Biden.

It is clear anything could happen on February 3, and it could dramatically influence New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada later in February.

We must remember that Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008 went on to the Presidency after winning iowa in those years.

A win in Iowa could lead to victories in New Hampshire and onward, and that, if occurring, could have a dramatic effect on Super Tuesday, when 14 states, including California and Texas, the two largest, vote in primaries and caucuses on March 3.

A failure to end up at least in third place in Iowa would likely be the death knell of a candidacy.

And yet, even Amy Klobuchar, who is not seen seriously right now, but being from neighboring state Minnesota, could surprise us, having visited all 99 counties in Iowa.

So Tuesday’s debate will be a test of how she can perform, along with how Joe Biden will fare, and also whether Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, numbers one and two, treat each other. Additionally, whether Pete Buttigieg, now third in most polls, can compete against his older and more experienced rivals.

How the debate is judged by media will certainly have a dramatic effect on the likely voting lineup on February 3.

But an additional potential influence on what happens in Iowa and New Hampshire is the upcoming Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump, which will force Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar off the campaign trail, possibly giving an edge to Biden and Buttigieg.

Fifty Years Since Robert F. Kennedy’s Assassination: What Could Have Been

Impossible to believe, but it has been a half century since Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, right after winning the California primary in the 1968 Democratic Presidential race.

The course of history changed dramatically with that horrendous event.

It led to the Presidency of Richard Nixon.

It led to the rise of the Right in American politics, begun under Nixon, greatly expanding under Ronald Reagan, and reaching its most destructive stage under Donald Trump.

It seems highly likely that Robert F. Kennedy would have been elected President, and would have transformed the future of America in a very different direction than it took at the time.

The war in Vietnam would have ended sooner, and saved many lives on both sides of the war.

The Supreme Court would have been dramatically different if RFK had had four appointments, instead of Richard Nixon.

The reforms of his brother, John F. Kennedy, and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, would have continued, and led to a more equitable, fair minded government.

Instead of taking steps backward, civil rights and civil liberties would have been greatly enhanced.

No one is saying that Robert F. Kennedy would have been a perfect President, and he had his own demons, including his association with Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, and his often secretive and narrow minded views and personality shortcomings that every human being has.

But it can be believed that Robert F. Kennedy would have made America a greater nation than it turned out to be in the past half century!

This is the time for my readers and supporters to read Chapter 10 of my book, ASSASSINATIONS, THREATS, AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: FROM ANDREW JACKSON TO BARACK OBAMA (Rowman Littlefield Publishers, 2015, Paperback 2017), available from the publisher, and from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million.

Ted Cruz-Carly Fiorina “Marriage” Is A Total Joke!

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, arguably the most disliked member of the US Senate, desperately trying to survive until the Republican National Convention as a Presidential candidate, has chosen former rival, and former CEO of Hewlett Packard, Carly Fiorina, to be his running mate, with very little chance that the reality of them being a team will ever occur at the convention!

Fiorina is about as disgusting and obnoxious as Cruz, and does not add anything to Cruz of significance. If this is designed to help Cruz in next week’s Indiana primary, seen by many observers as the last chance for Cruz to survive until the convention as a candidate, then how does Fiorina do that?

And if the purpose was for Fiorina to help in the California primary, how is that possible, when Fiorina lost the US Senate race to Barbara Boxer in 2010 by a literal landslide, and then flopped badly in the 2016 Presidential sweepstakes?

All that Carly Fiorina is good for is as an attack dog against Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, but she was hard to watch during the campaign for the Presidency over this past year, and really has no special expertise, and no experience in government! Who would want her a heartbeat away from the Presidency? And if there was ever a serial liar, it is this woman!

So Ted Cruz has struck out by choosing Carly Fiorina!

47 Years Since The Assassination Of Robert F. Kennedy: The Might Have Beens!

Today, June 5, in the year 1968, 47 years ago, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, an active seeker of the Democratic Presidential nomination, had just won the California Primary over Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota.

It seemed as if RFK was on the way to the Democratic nomination, although Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had not entered the primaries, had a strong backing from party bosses, labor unions, and city mayors and many Senators and Governors, so there was great uncertainty as to what might happen at the Chicago Convention at the end of August.

Tragically, however, history was transformed, as RFK was assassinated by a Palestinian Christian immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan, who was angered at RFK’s backing of Israel in the year earlier Six Day War, in which Israel won territory from Egypt, Jordan and Syria, with the war beginning precisely on that date in 1967!

There is still debate and speculation on the RFK murder, with some believing it was a conspiracy with more than one gunman involved.

In any case, RFK comes closest to any non Presidential nominee to be considered a likely winner of the Presidency, had he not been killed, so therefore the “Might Have Been” issue arises.

My forthcoming book on August 15, available with a 30 percent discount from Rowman Littlefield, with the indicated four digit code, devotes Chapter 10 to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination!