By Rick Manning

The Trump-Biden debate was at times difficult to watch.

I repeatedly found myself screaming at the television. When I could make out what Biden was saying, I screamed what a bunch of ‘malarkey.’

When I screamed at President Trump, it was because of a missed opportunity. Just one example was the long back and forth on veterans. Rather than argue over who veterans liked the most, Trump should have pointed out that at the end of the Obama-Biden presidency, seriously ill veterans were unable to get appointments with the VA to see a doctor.  Why?  The career bureaucrats in charge made a decision to put them at the back of the line because they were going to die anyway.

President Trump ended this evil by passing bi-partisan legislation which reformed the VA, and made it possible to fire those VA bureaucrats who didn’t do their job.  Vice President Biden left vets on the streets to die, Trump fired the horrible human beings who made the decision to leave them in agony without treatment and put people in charge who made it a priority to take care of sick veterans. It is that simple.

Of course, President Biden glitched at the very beginning of the debate for what was an interminable amount of time, and had at least a couple of other obvious events where  he completely lost his place on the script he was force fed over the eleven days he spent preparing for the debate. 

But the problem for Democratic operatives is that Biden revealed that he cannot mentally do the job of being president, but didn’t suffer a complete meltdown which could be used to justify removing him from the ticket.  Biden likely did just enough to avoid a palace coup leading to his being denied the nomination and removed from the presidency, but not enough to dissuade anyone from the idea that he is not fit to serve for another four years. 

And, by the way, if anyone believes Biden has a six handicap, then they probably also think his uncle was eaten by cannibals. Of course, someone who fills his speeches with fairy tales and outright lies about his personal achievements would be exactly the 80 year old golfer who claimed to have a six handicap. 

Trump’s strategy in the debate was clear and he stuck to it.  Keep pounding on Biden’s border crisis, and throw in the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal as an occasional chaser. This was most effective when he kept reminding viewers about the Biden administration policy of opening up Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to the millions of illegals they have allowed to stream into the country, while also putting these illegals up in luxury hotels while our veterans sleep on the streets.

As for Biden, he reminded me of an end of career boxer who was just trying to hang on to the final bell. The only thing that was missing was Corn Pop.

In the end, it was a clear win for President Trump. The format that Biden insisted upon helped focus Trump and kept him from taking Biden’s bait on a couple of issues.

I wish President Trump had immediately answered the question on accepting the election result with a cohesive nuanced affirmative, that win or lose, once the election was certified by Congress, he would accept the results, clarifying that investigating various state election procedures was completely in line, to make future elections more secure and honest.

And I wish he had spent more time talking about what the withdrawal from Afghanistan should have looked like, in contrast to Biden’s giving up our secure air base to the Taliban and then trying to evacuate under duress from a commercial airport, leaving American citizens and our best allies behind. This basic failure of leadership by Commander and Chief Biden which led to 13 of our brave servicemembers deaths is reason enough to deny him four more years.

Obviously, there were questions not answered and at times Biden looked childish and petty.

Overall, Trump earned a solid B, while Biden showing clear decline was at best a D+. I am not certain that anyone who supported Trump going in was not supporting him at the end. Those who are voting for Biden because they hate Trump will still vote for Biden while wishing they had a better option. And those undecideds, either became Trump supporters based upon the issues of their economic interests, or moved off of Biden to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is the candidate who is most likely to see a move in his numbers out of formerly Biden voters.

All in all, national Democratic leaders were the biggest losers as Biden did just enough to keep them from denying him the nomination, but not enough to convince anyone that he is capable of doing the job for another four years – purported golf handicap notwithstanding.

Whether the Democrats remove him or not, this was the debate when the American public learned what the rest of the world knows, the American President is capable of doing the job, and every day he remains in office the world gets to be a much more dangerous place. 

If polling tells the Democrat hierarchy that Biden is no longer a viable candidate, they will remove him. The question becomes will they use the 25^th amendment to the Constitution to end his presidency as someone who is no longer fit to serve.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/06/trump-commands-stage-biden-revealed/

Democrats No-Win Situation: A Vacant President, Or A Vacant Presidency?

By Robert Romano

There is blood in the water.

President Joe Biden’s dismal debate performance in the June 27 debate against former President Donald Trump that his campaign insisted on having almost two months before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill. in August has brought national and international attention to the very grim reality facing the sitting president, who spoke in a raspy voice and had trouble completing his clearly memorized thoughts at times.

Trump in contrast was disciplined and on message, keeping his composure and demonstrating a command of the issues in the campaign that he anticipates addressing should he reclaim the White House in November, hammering inflation outpacing incomes, millions of illegal immigrants and drugs flooding the border and rising crime as key points.

Almost immediately, pro-Biden spin rooms and analysis following debate reached a nearly unanimous verdict: Biden has got to go, to be replaced by some other untested and at this point unknown candidate.

This makes Trump the obvious winner of the debate, and the beneficiary of an entrenched establishment that was so desperate to retain power, they have sought to imprison the leader of the opposition party in an election year — July 11 is Trump’s sentencing in the New York City trial — and hid their own ailing candidate from public view until they couldn’t anymore.

The thinking is that replacing Biden (while potentially putting Trump in jail) might be the only way Democrats can win — a sort of hostage negotiation — but what if Biden still represents Democrats’ best chance of holding onto the White House?

At this point Biden has indeed been trailing Trump in national polls since Sept. 2023, but the day of the debate was only behind in the average of national polls compiled by RealClearPolling.com, 46.6 percent to 45.1 percent.

For a Democratic president, that’s still not great — it implies Trump is ahead for the national popular vote — which could have catastrophic down-ballot implications for Democrats in November.

But what if that’s as good as it gets for Democrats?

Heretofore, and this might now change, the only candidates who did worse than Biden when pitted against former President Donald Trump was just about everyone else.

Very few polls have been done lately on this matter, but Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris in national polls, 49.3 percent to 42.7 percent. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom fares even worse, with Trump leading 48.6 percent to 38.3 percent.

In other words, this could be a no-win situation for Democrats. But unlike Star Trek’s infamous Kobayashi Maru, changing the conditions of the “test” will not be easy — or even advantageous.

The options are: Run with the vacant president, or a vacant presidency?

1952 and 1968 didn’t work out for Democrats either when Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson opted not to seek another term, with Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon prevailing rather easily in both contests.

The lack of a good candidate as an alternative stands out, but the more compelling reason is simply the utter weakness of replacing a sitting president because the state of the country had gotten so bad politically for the incumbent party. Democrats would have to admit without admitting that they had been lying about Biden’s strength as a candidate the entire time.

It’s the moment when voters realize the emperor has no clothes.

Or a more apt analogy of replacing Biden would be akin to a bank CEO trying desperately to raise capital at the last minute to keep up with deposits in the midst of a bank run. Everyone heads to the exits.

The damage being done to the country is somewhat incalculable, when the preferred option is to destroy the presidency in order to “save” it.

Confidence once lost is rarely recovered. The inevitable outcome of Biden’s catastrophic performance, and the show of weakness by his own party, which is in full panic mode, and then a bid to replace him at the August convention, whether it succeeds or not, is a further erosion of trust and confidence. This late in the game, that rarely bodes will for the incumbents.

But this is what Democrats wanted. The party could have figured this out a year ago. They broke it, they bought it.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/06/democrats-no-win-situation-a-vacant-president-or-a-vacant-presidency/

 

Cartoon: Broken Wide Open

By A.F. Branco

Click here for a higher level resolution version.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/06/cartoon-broken-wide-open/

 

Huge Bump for Trump Among Black Voters and Other Gains with Women, Suburbanites Since Conviction

By Manzanita Miller

In a recently released New York Times / Siena College poll, former President Trump leads President Biden by six percentage points and has made sizeable gains with Black voters, women, and suburbanites weeks after his conviction. 

The nationwide poll, released Wednesday, shows Trump beating Biden 48 percent to 42 percent, a sizeable lead for Trump compared to previous Times/ Siena polls taken before his conviction. The last nationwide Times poll was released in April, and that poll had Trump leading Biden by one point, 46 percent to 45 percent.  

In May, the Times released its battleground state poll, which had Trump ahead of Biden by six percentage points in swing states. Trump tends to lead by a wider margin in swing states than he does in nationwide polls, but the latest Times nationwide poll has Trump ahead by a six-point margin.

On top of that, Trump has made sizeable gains since the previous polls with specific groups, including Blacks Americans, non-college educated minorities, women, and suburbanites. The Times poll shows no change for Trump among independents but a five-point loss for Biden, upending a recent Fox News poll which showed Trump losing with independents after the conviction.

The Times poll shows Trump with a substantial gain among Black voters, who have rallied around him in the weeks following the conviction. Trump is earning 30 percent of the Black vote in the latest Times poll, after earning 16 percent in the April nationwide poll and 23 percent in the May battleground state poll. All three figures are a vast shift compared to 2020, when Trump won thirteen percent of the Black vote.

Trump has lost no ground with Hispanics and made a three-point gain with them since the last nationwide Times poll. He went from 41 percent with Hispanics in the last nationwide poll to 44 percent today. For comparison, Trump earned 32 percent of the Latino vote in 2020, indicating he could gain as many as twelve percentage points with Hispanics compared to last election.

Trump’s largest gain has been among Black voters, but he has also gained substantially among non-college minorities. Trump has gained 11 points among non-white voters without a college degree since the last nationwide poll, going from 30 percent of their vote to 41 percent. He has also gained six points with suburbanites, six points with women, and 5 points with college-educated whites. 

Independents, a point of contention in recent polling analysis, have shown nearly no movement in the Times poll since April. Trump was earning 47 percent of their vote in April to Biden’s 42 percent, and in the current poll Trump is earning 47 percent of their vote, but Biden’s share has decreased to 37 percent. This is a sizeable decline for Biden compared to earlier polling, but it is especially sizeable compared to 2020 exit polls. Biden won independents by thirteen points in 2020, and according to recent polls he is on track to lose them by ten pints or more.

Have there been any losses for Trump? Trump did lose five points among voters under age thirty according to the Times poll, going from 45 percent of their vote in April to 40 percent today. This still represents a vast decline in support for Biden among young people. The latest Times poll shows Biden earning 46 percent of voters under 30, while he won 60 percent of their vote in 2020. Conviction aside, Biden is down fourteen points with young people compared to four years ago while Trump has gained modesty.

The Times poll also shows Trump has suffered small losses among non-white college-educated votors (minus four points), Democrats (minus three points) and city dwellers (minus two points).

Trump is holding up substantially among swing voters and has made strong inroads with minorities over the past two months. How voters feel after Thursday’s presidential debate will need to be analyzed in subsequent polls, but we now have a snapshot of post-conviction Trump support.

Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst for Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/06/huge-bump-for-trump-among-black-voters-and-other-gains-with-women-suburbanites-since-conviction/

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