I am going to begin this remembrance with my own personal story, minimal though it is. In 1988, I attended a political speech given by Reverend Jesse Jackson. He was running for president at the time, in his second national campaign for the Democratic nomination. Unfortunately, the arena he had booked was filled to overflowing by the time I showed up, so we heard the speech on speakers placed outside the venue. So while I didn't actually see Jackson speak, at least I got to hear his oratory.

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The history of organized national presidential/political polling may have begun way back in President Andrew Jackson's time. That's pretty amazing when you think about it, considering the glacial pace of long-range communications in that horse-and-buggy era (the 1820s and 1830s). There were no telephone polls because there were no telephones. Even the telegraph network in this country was still in the future. Railroads hadn't conquered the continent yet. Most news went as fast as either a horse could run or a boat could float. In fact, the major waterways of the era were the equivalent of the Interstate highway system -- they were the funnels through which most travellers (and most news) flowed. And this was the dawn of a golden age of boat travel, because of the rise of steam-powered riverboats.

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Perhaps it was because the week ends on Friday the 13th, but whatever the real reason was, Donald Trump didn't have a great week this week. Which, of course, is good news for everyone else! There was actually a lot of good news in the political world this week -- so much that we're not even going to bother with the other news that wasn't so good.

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The House of Representatives -- against the wishes of the Republican speaker -- seems poised to vote today on a direct rebuke to Donald Trump's willy-nilly tariff regime. This is interesting news at the start of a midterm election year, but it probably won't actually serve to rein in Trump. Even so, it would be only the second time the Republican Congress expressly pushed back on Trump for any reason at all, so it is at least noteworthy.

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Sometimes, when candidates or groups spend money campaigning for an election, the strategy works and the desired outcome is achieved. Other times, however -- especially when money is spent to "game" an outcome in sneaky ways -- the effort can backfire spectacularly. The latter just occurred in New Jersey, in a special election to fill a U.S. House seat.

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Today Donald Trump proved yet again that he is nothing short of a stone-cold racist. He reposted a message on social media that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. That's really all you need to know about it, other than the fact that (for once) it was so unbelievably offensive that, hours later, it was deleted. The White House blamed an unnamed "staffer," to which Black voters everywhere responded: "Yeah, right." Trump's hatred for the Obamas is well-known, of course, but even some Republicans complained at this latest racist outrage from Trump.

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Up until now, some Democratic worries about the upcoming midterm elections have been dismissed by the "It could never happen here" crowd as unfounded nightmares. They pooh-pooh such worries as being laughably outlandish and accuse people who express these worries for overreacting about things that couldn't possibly happen right here in the good ol' U.S. of A. But this week should make such scenarios a whole lot less laughable and a whole lot more worrisome.

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The government shutdown is over. Today the House passed the Senate funding bill and sent it to Donald Trump, who signed it into law. Which means all parts of the federal government are now open, and a full-year budget is in place for everything except the Department of Homeland Security (which only has a two-week extension). So the stage is set for the negotiations to begin over the reforms Democrats want to impose on ICE and the Border Patrol and all other federal immigration enforcement agents.

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I do realize it is Groundhog Day, but I am going to refrain from making the easy references to the movie of the same name, mostly because the elections in question happened over the weekend, not today. But it's undeniable that Democrats are on a repetitive roll, winning special election after special election -- and even when they lose one, they manage to shift the margins by double digits their way. Which all bodes well for the midterms, although how much of a harbinger this might all be is always an open question.

This weekend's special elections both happened in Texas: one for a vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and one for a state senate seat. Democrats romped to victory in both.

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We're going to begin today with a prediction that is completely unrelated to what happened last week. Because next Friday the 2026 Winter Olympics will begin. Our prediction: the U.S.A. is going to get booed. Loudly. It'll probably be most noticeable during the opening ceremonies, but will likely sporadically pop up throughout the games. Perhaps this is why Donald Trump decided to skip the whole thing and send JD Vance in his place? Maybe Vance -- who is not as well-known worldwide -- won't get booed as loudly as the catcalls would have been if Trump had been there?

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