Last weekend, President Barack Obama gave a pair of stunning speeches by video to this spring’s high school and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) graduates, respectively. The speeches were full of all of the things so many voters love about President Obama, especially his intelligence, empathy and Democratic themes of positivity and progress. Likewise, Obama touched upon the theme of empowerment for which he is known, telling the graduates that they need to vote and otherwise be involved in their communities and society in order to create the positive changes they desire. What may have been most jarring to Americans and others around the world was the contrast between President Obama’s intelligent, articulate, positive and unifying speeches, and the very different kinds of remarks that Donald Trump has been making. Below is the video of President Obama’s speech to the high school graduates:
Tag Archive: Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s awful election season
Donald Trump speaks to reporters separated by social distancing, April 2020
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency could have been a shining moment for Donald Trump. American voters really only need two things from their president in a major crisis: First, they need unity. Second, they need competence. Unfortunately, Trump has been unable to display either one.
Trump has utterly failed to unify America. Recall George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, standing on a pile of rubble at “Ground Zero” that, just three days earlier, had been the World Trade Center, telling the American people:
I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people – and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
For a short time, at least, the country was unified, and Bush’s approval rating was a sky-high 90 percent (until he misused such unity, for example, to start an unrelated, disastrous war in Iraq).
Likewise, Bill Clinton gave us comforting words of unity after the 1995 domestic terrorist attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in both a speech immediately after the attack and a separate memorial prayer service four days later. Barack Obama also provided a unifying message of strength in announcing that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, after which crowds of young people gathered outside the White House to cheer President Obama’s action.
Coronavirus: what should Las Vegas do?
The Las Vegas Strip, in many ways a potential Coronavirus petri dish
During and after the 2008 Bush Great Recession, Nevada and its most populous city, Las Vegas, were hit especially hard. Home prices tumbled, foreclosures and home abandonments exploded, unemployment went through the roof, and construction dried up. Now during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Las Vegas faces even greater odds. At least during the Great Recession, visitors who had the means to visit Las Vegas could still do so, and workplaces that could stay in business financially weren’t forced to close for outside reasons. This time around, however, even folks who are flush with cash aren’t feeling lucky enough to get on an airplane, fly to Vegas, stay in a hotel, and partake of all of the options there, such as gambling, dining, dancing, etc. Hotels, restaurants, casinos and attractions are almost all closed. Conferences, sports events and concerts have been canceled. That puts many thousands of people in the area out of work, and worried about whether Las Vegas can ever recover from its Coronavirus hit, let alone recover in time to save the economy, their jobs and their homes.
Joe Biden’s big week
Barack Obama and Joe Biden teamed up again this week.
Presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden has had a big start to his week. On Monday, Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Biden’s candidacy, just five days after ending (the modern parlance is “suspending”) his own presidential campaign. Sanders, whom we have criticized in the past, deserves kudos for ending his campaign and endorsing Biden before the Democratic National Convention, if any, takes place. In 2016, even though Sanders was similarly all but eliminated from a mathematical standpoint by Hillary Clinton at this point, he kept his campaign going through the convention, which led to a lot of ugliness and divisive attacks that arguably hurt Clinton in the general election against Donald Trump. This time around, although Sanders regrettably is asking supporters still to vote for him in the remaining primaries so that he can amass more delegates and possibly gain more liberal concessions from Biden, at least Democratic voters, office holders, and other officials can now make the shift toward the general election campaign against Trump.
Coronavirus creates 2020 election narratives for the Democrats
Joe Biden, the anti-Trump on Coronavirus and everything else
Now that Bernie Sanders has withdrawn from the Democratic Party presidential nomination contest to leave Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee, the 2020 general election against Donald Trump has begun in earnest. One way or the other, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) will be the overarching issue in this year’s elections. The performance and behavior of Trump and Republican elected officials presents many lines of attack for the Democrats, as well as opportunities to show off their Democratic Party values. Two such lines of attack especially come to mind:
Trump Coronavirus failures mirror Republican failures of government
Normally crowded, now nearly empty Sixth Ave. in Manhattan
Donald Trump‘s timeline of failures in addressing the Coronavirus (COVID-19) health emergency is now well-known. This includes severely downplaying the crisis, even calling it a “hoax,” for many crucial weeks; failing to take strong action such as ordering a national lockdown or even using the Defense Production Act; and having his subordinates say things like:
–the spread of Coronavirus in China will “help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America” (Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross); and
–“We have contained this …. it’s pretty close to airtight” (National Economic Council Director Lawrence Kudlow).
Unfortunately, Trump’s lack of preparedness for the Coronavirus even after being warned of a possible pandemic, and lack of action after the crisis began, reflects the Republican philosophy of government, and is something we have seen from Republicans before.
Mike Bloomberg is being a better Democrat now than Bernie Sanders
Michael Bloomberg riding the New York City subway
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Friday that he will give $18 million to the Democratic National Committee for the party’s battleground state elections in November. While this is not everything that Bloomberg spoke about when he first ran for president last November, i.e., that if he dropped out of the presidential race, he would form a super PAC and make his campaign field workers available to help the democrats and defeat Donald Trump, the $18 million is still a very generous donation that should help a lot. Indeed, right now, it can be said that Bloomberg is being a better Democrat than Bernie Sanders. Let’s compare:
Reactions to Coronavirus follow political narratives
New York National Guard responds to Coronavirus
Someone I know was down to three rolls of toilet paper last week, so he went to the store on Friday to get more, and surprise, couldn’t find any. It never occurred to him over the last few weeks to stock up. Guess which news channel he watches for Coronavirus information? Right wing Fox News viewers and Donald Trump fans (big overlap there) seemed especially caught off guard late last week, as the facts on the ground regarding Coronavirus (a/k/a COVID-19) finally destroyed their narratives.
Democratic voters reject revolution, demand return to sanity
Joe and Dr. Jill Biden: a return to decency
The stunning results of this week’s Super Tuesday Democratic presidential primaries indicate that Democratic voters don’t want a revolution. Nor do they want socialism. They don’t want to praise Fidel Castro and his oppressive regime in Cuba. Rather, in voting for Joe Biden in much greater numbers than expected, the voters largely repudiated both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
The red flags for Bernie Sanders were all over the place on Super Tuesday. In Sanders’ home state of Vermont, he only garnered 50.7 percent of the vote. That’s a massive downturn from the 86.1 percent he received in the 2016 Vermont Democratic presidential primary. Sanders also lost next-door Massachusetts to Biden, with only 26.7 percent of the votes compared to 48.7 percent in 2016. Likewise, Sanders lost the Minnesota primary to Biden, a state that Sanders won by over 20 points when it held its caucus in 2016. In fact, Sanders drew a smaller share of voters in all of the Super Tuesday states this year, compared to 2016. Whatever “revolution” he has touted which would supposedly bring out masses of new voters for him simply has not materialized.
Bernie Sanders finally starts to get vetted
Repeat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
This week, the public vetting process finally began for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Last Sunday, in a CBS 60 Minutes interview, for example, Sanders was asked about past support for the communist or socialist regimes in the Soviet Union, Nicaragua and Cuba. Sanders replied that, as to Fidel Castro‘s oppressive dictatorship in Cuba:
… but you know, you got — it’s unfair to simply say “everything is bad.” You know, when Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program, is that a bad thing?
Sanders’ comments did not sit well with many Americans around the country. Sanders’ remarks caused an especially negative reaction in Florida, located only 90 miles from Cuba, and where many voters are refugees from Castro’s brutal crackdowns. Florida is America’s third most populous state, with 29 electoral votes, and is crucial to a possible Democratic victory in the 2020 presidential election.
