Your generous
donations help keep
this site running.
Visa/MC/PayPal accepted.
Donald Trump is truly the gift that keeps on giving. For Democrats, that is. Democrats wake up every day to hear what Trump has recently said, and it's like a big old birthday present each time.
Is Donald Trump the new face of the Republican Party? While this notion would have seemed downright ludicrous a few months ago, it is now being seriously contemplated on both sides of the aisle. Granted, Democrats are a lot happier about this prospect than many Republicans are, for the simple fact that it leads to the question of what a debate with Donald Trump in it is going to sound like -- which is pretty much a dream scenario for Democrats and a nightmare for those Republicans who care about the future direction of their party.
The Democratic presidential field is shaping up into a one-on-one contest, at least at this early stage of the race. While Jim Webb, Martin O'Malley, and Lincoln Chafee are all now official candidates, none of them has managed to either distinguish themselves much or garner much of any voter support. Which leaves Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders as the only two candidates capable of pulling in double-digit polling numbers among Democratic voters. Well, to be absolutely accurate, there are three Democrats who routinely manage this feat, but so far Joe Biden hasn't indicated whether he'll run or not. For now, it's Hillary versus Bernie, and the next few weeks could considerably sharpen up this contest.
It's officially a holiday since tomorrow's the nation's birthday and all, but since this column took a vacation last week, we thought we'd better get a new column out today. After all, it's been an eventful two weeks!
This week, the 18th and 19th people running for president announced their candidacies. Chris Christie became the 14th Republican candidate running, while Jim Webb became the fifth Democrat to enter the race. These announcements won't even be the final ones of this election cycle, as everyone fully expects both Scott Walker and John Kasich to also throw their hats into the Republican ring. I have to admit, though, that the sheer number of candidates has worn me down. I have what could be called "candidate fatigue" at this point. It's tiring even keeping track of this big a pack, and even though the campaign has barely begun in earnest, I'm already exhausted.
Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, just became the 13th Republican candidate for president. Whether this will prove to be lucky or unlucky remains to be seen. Even though the field is already incredibly crowded, Jindal will not be the last Republican to announce -- there are at least two other contenders who will likely jump in (Scott Walker and Chris Christie), with the possibility of a few more longshot candidates as well. The more crowded the field gets, the harder it is going to be for any one of them to stand out, which is precisely Jindal's main problem.
It's been a rollercoaster week in the political world, beginning with Hillary Clinton shifting the gears of her campaign by holding her first big rally, which was immediately followed by the man we're going to call "Jeb! Bush!" finally officially announcing his own candidacy.
When the 2016 presidential campaign season began earlier this year, I started writing articles about every candidate when they officially announced their candidacies. I made a promise in many of these columns, that I would take each candidate seriously no matter what I personally thought their chances of winning were, or how much I agreed or disagreed with their platform. I promised not to be snarky, above all. I think that running for president is a serious business, and even though it does occasionally include what I would call "not really serious" candidates, I still wanted to give a measure of respect to each entrant to the race at the very start of their campaign. As I put it repeatedly, there will be plenty of time for being snarky later (usually on Fridays, of course).
Today, Jeb Bush formally entered the race for the Republican nomination for president. I should point out, as a bit of personal trivia, that his new campaign logo ("Jeb!") has allowed me to create what I believe is the shortest headline I have ever written (in over 2,000 blog posts).
We begin with a story which is just ripe for mixing a few metaphors: The Iowa Republican Party just announced today that they are cancelling the Iowa Straw Poll.