ChrisWeigant.com

Archive of Articles in the "Elections" Category

Primaries To Watch

[ Posted Tuesday, May 8th, 2018 – 17:00 UTC ]

We are now exactly six months away from this year's midterm congressional elections. Today, four states are holding their primaries: Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. This means the 2018 election season can be said to have already begun in earnest. There are two races everyone will be watching tonight, one on each side of the aisle. The Senate GOP primary in West Virginia is the more important of the two, but the Democratic governor's race in Ohio is also going to garner some attention.

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The Politics Of The Price Of Gas

[ Posted Monday, May 7th, 2018 – 16:23 UTC ]

President Donald Trump announced today that he'll be revealing tomorrow afternoon whether he will be pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal or not. Predictions about what he's going to do have been ramping up, but nobody really knows what Trump will actually announce. But if he does decide to pull out of the deal, it could have major political implications in the midterm elections in one important respect: the price of a gallon of gasoline in America.

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Friday Talking Points [483] -- That's Your Stink, Mr. President, That's Your Swamp

[ Posted Friday, May 4th, 2018 – 17:18 UTC ]

Before we get to the fresh lies emanating from the Oval Office this week, we have to begin with a look back. Because not only has President Donald Trump now hit the milestone of lying over 3,000 times while in office, but apparently it's getting too much for even Fox News personalities to take.

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Some Marijuana Questions For Dianne Feinstein

[ Posted Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018 – 16:22 UTC ]

California's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, has had a change of heart, it seems. It was reported late yesterday that Feinstein announced in an interview that she no longer opposes legal marijuana. No doubt that the fact that she's up for re-election this year in a state that already legalized recreational adult use of marijuana and the fact that she's drawn a progressive primary challenger both have a lot to do with her sudden epiphany. Feinstein has been, to date, one of the most strident anti-weed voices around, though, so this is big news no matter what her reasons truly are.

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A Made-Up, Phony Crime That Never Existed

[ Posted Tuesday, May 1st, 2018 – 16:47 UTC ]

Yesterday I wrote about a politician committing what's known as a Kinsley gaffe (i.e., a politician accidentally telling the truth in public). Today, we have Donald Trump, who seems to have randomly stumbled upon a truth, by accident, with no actual intent whatsoever -- much like a broken clock will tell the right time twice a day, in fact. Of course, even this requires a generous reading of Trump's tweet, but that doesn't make it any less amusing.

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Rubio Admits The Truth About GOP Tax Cut

[ Posted Monday, April 30th, 2018 – 16:55 UTC ]

Senator Marco Rubio just let the cat out of the bag. In traditional "Kinsley gaffe" fashion (defined as a politician accidentally telling the truth), Rubio admitted what Democrats have known all along -- that the Republican tax cuts were primarily designed to help Wall Street, not Main Street. Here is the relevant quote, from a recent interview Rubio gave to The Economist: "There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they're going to take the money they're saving and reinvest it in American workers. In fact they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses; there's no evidence whatsoever that the money's been massively poured back into the American worker." That's a pretty sweeping indictment not only of the sole item on the Republican agenda that the GOP Congress has managed to pass, but also on the sole plank in the Republican platform for the 2018 midterm elections (which will take place almost exactly six months from now).

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Friday Talking Points [482] -- Democratic Party Approaches Tipping Point On Legalizing Marijuana

[ Posted Friday, April 27th, 2018 – 17:52 UTC ]

Last week, we were admonished for celebrating 4/20 in a manner that was too subtle by half. We subtitled last Friday's article: "Dazed And Confused," and began with: "We don't know why that headline sounded like such a good idea on today, of all days. [Ahem.]" But the rest of the article didn't really have much to say about the issue of marijuana. So today we are going to correct that lack, as you can tell by this week's subtitle.

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Trump Can't Have It Both Ways

[ Posted Thursday, April 26th, 2018 – 16:46 UTC ]

Today, Donald Trump shifted his publicly-stated position on the Stormy Daniels lawsuit in what could turn out to be a major way. While chatting with his buddies on the Fox News morning show, Trump admitted that his "fixer" lawyer Michael Cohen was indeed representing him in the Stormy Daniels affair. Trump's exact words were: "He [Cohen] represents me -- like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me." It's tough to square this with all the other claims Trump has made about the case, to put it mildly. Trump's position seems to be evolving over time.

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Watching Arizona

[ Posted Wednesday, April 25th, 2018 – 17:21 UTC ]

Arizona held a special House election last night, and while the Democrat overperformed the historical partisan makeup of the district by double digits, the Republican managed to eke out a win. It was closer than it should have been, but in the end the deep-red district stayed in the GOP column. So you could say both sides can feel good about the outcome, although in reality only one of them is actually worried about what it might mean for the future.

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Donald Trump Capitalizes On Similarity To Founding Fathers

[ Posted Tuesday, April 24th, 2018 – 16:47 UTC ]

That is a rather bizarre headline, as is any sentence with both "Donald Trump" and "our Founding Fathers" in it, really. But then I'm in a rather bizarre mood today, waiting for some election results which may turn out to be rather good news even if (as expected) the Democrat loses. Plus, I've been saving this subject for a slow day, which turned out to be today.

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