You all know Bob Woodward, the journalist who became famous for uncovering the “Watergate” scandal that led to the resignation of President Nixon.
Do you remember reading Woodward’s column in July 2023 in the Washington Post about the mental decline of President Biden? At a fundraising event Biden “never completed a sentence. He told the same story three times in exactly the same way and it meandered… He was just rambling and talking as to what came into his head.” Woodward included several other similar quotes by people close to Biden.
How did President Biden survive such an embarrassing column and go through the Democratic primaries with no prominent opponents? Why didn’t VP Harris jump into the race? And Governor Newsom, and even Gov. Walz?
Well, the reason is that Bob Woodward, the hotshot journalist, sat on this “Breaking News.” He never wrote about it in the newspaper. He kept it secret for 16 months so he could include it in a book he just released.
Thanks to Woodward’s lack of journalistic ethics, Joe Biden is still President. VP Harris is struggling in her three months as a candidate because she had no challenges to sharpen her politicking skills. It would be like an NFL team being selected to play in the Super Bowl after playing no games, NONE, during the season. In that scenario, even the Cleveland Browns could beat them 70-0.
Regardless, the Harris-Trump race is a dead heat, 50-50. Most political commentators think Pennsylvania is the key to victory. Candidate Harris discovered that natural gas is a major source of wealth to Pennsylvanians. (PA along with Ohio and West Virginia accounts for more than a third of this country’s natural gas supply.) So, she altered her total ban on hydraulic fracturing. She now says fracking is fine in Pennsylvania because a survey showed that more than 75% of voters there believe natural-gas drilling is important to the economy and do not want to pay an extra $100 a month for gas and electricity. For voters in the other 49 states, she wants you to know she is still against fracking.
Speaking of voters, the Biden Justice Department is forcing Virginia to allow non-citizens to vote. Is that in the Constitution? Is it a threat to democracy?
Trump and Harris are calling each other hateful names. You’ve heard them over and over so I don’t need to repeat them all. “Crazy” and “misguided” are two of the milder insults. One candidate was president for 4 years so we know his policies pretty well. The other candidate is President Biden’s VP and she says she agrees with him on all important decisions made since January 2021. The clear differences make you wonder how any legitimate voter could be undecided.
The World Series started and the LA Dodgers won the first two games over the NY Yankees. If it goes seven games, it will conflict with plenty of political speeches. As Will Rogers wrote in 1928, “My idea of the height of conceit would be a political speaker that would go on the air when that World Series is on.”
Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“There should be a moratorium called on candidates’ speeches. They have both called each other everything in the world they can think of. From now on they are just talking themselves out of votes. (They are) saying things that if they were in their right minds they wouldn’t think of saying.” DT #1948, Nov. 1, 1932
“When you straddle a thing it takes a long time to explain it.” Convention Articles, June 29, 1924
Note: I’ll be in Claremore, Oklahoma next weekend for Will Rogers Days, celebrating his birthday, #145. Will was born on Nov. 4, 1879.