We return after our extended holiday break to a growing realization in the political world. We had already come to this conclusion a while back, but it seems more and more people are now realizing that, barring any force majeure appearing on the horizon, Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for president next year. His polling tells this story plainly: Trump is up roughly 50 points over his nearest competitor nationally, and although his lead isn't quite as commanding in the early-voting states, it is still pretty daunting (Trump is up roughly 30 points in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina). Voting will begin next month, meaning there just isn't much time left for any of this to change -- and no real reason to think it will.

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President Joe Biden seems to be having some trouble getting young voters enthused about voting for him next year. There's a very simple answer to this problem -- one that he should adopt as soon as possible. He should announce that he has "evolved" on the subject of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for adults, and unveil a new plan to make it happen on the federal level. This wouldn't be anywhere near as risky as the first time the word "evolve" was attached to Biden getting out in front of a political issue. For Biden, it'd be seen as a real Nixon-goes-to-China shift in position, which would only add to its appeal. And it is tailor-made to get young voters to the polls in droves (as well as plenty of older voters as well).

There were two developments in the ongoing governmental retreat in the War On Weed this week. As of today, Ohio adults can now both legally possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana, as well as cultivate it at home. They can't yet legally buy weed, because the marketplace regulations are not in place, but from today on Ohioans can have and grow weed without fearing arrest or worse. This is the 24th state to legalize recreational marijuana, which is not quite half of them, but does now contain over half of the American population. Legal weed is where most Americans live, to put it slightly differently (and ungrammatically).

The second development is not as tangible yet, but -- if he wasn't just speaking off-the-cuff without really meaning it -- the relevant Republican House committee chair indicated that it'd be fine with him if the District of Columbia enacted some sane rules on a legal marijuana marketplace. This is a complete 180-degree turn for the Republican Party -- again, if he actually follows through on his statement.

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December 14th will mark the third anniversary of the "fake electors" in seven states attempting to overturn the will of the people by fraudulently claiming that Donald Trump had been elected president. This is a more important anniversary than you might think, since in some states the statute of limitations for the crimes committed that day will run out. This means if the fake electors haven't faced formal charges before that date, they will never be prosecuted. Which is why today Nevada announced charges against six Republicans who pretended to be valid presidential electors in 2020 and submitted official-looking fraudulent paperwork (with their signatures on it) to the Senate and the National Archives, claiming Donald Trump had won their state (even though they knew this was completely false):

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'Tis the season once again to solicit nominations for our year-end awards. Welcome to the first round of categories!

Before we get to the list, a few words on the rest of the year's calendar. Although I am probably going to regret this later, I have decided to run the awards columns later rather than earlier. This means that this Friday and next Friday, our usual "Friday Talking Points" columns will appear. But then our first awards column will arrive on December 22nd, with the second installment appearing between the holidays, on December 29th. This means working the final week of the year for me, but since the holidays fall on Mondays this year I think it'll be manageable (as I said, I may come to regret those words later!). To make it more so, I won't be posting any original columns on any of the other days in the final week of the year.

New Friday Talking Points columns will resume on the first Friday of the new year, January 5th.

For now, here is the list of categories for our year-end awards. If your memory needs refreshment for any reason, check out last year's awards to see all the previous winners.

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I read a rather interesting article in my local paper this weekend which put forth an idea that has the possibility of injecting some excitement into President Joe Biden's re-election campaign. The idea's a pretty simple one: Vice President Kamala Harris should voluntarily announce she will not run for her office again on Biden's ticket, and instead will be returning to California to run for the governor's seat in 2026. This would free Biden up so he could name a new running mate, which could indeed generate some enthusiasm among the Democratic voting base.

I'm not going to quote from the article, since it was written in awfully dismissive and snide terms (I am not familiar with the author and know nothing about his politics, but I assume they lean a lot more rightward than mine do). But the ideas contained within the snark are still interesting nonetheless.

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Welcome once again to that very special time of year when we ask you to send us money! Sorry, is that too unseasonably honest? Um... let me start over...

Welcome once again to that very special time of year when we try to mesmerize you with kitten photos to the point of getting your wallet out! No wait, that's not right either... hang on...

Welcome once again to that very special time of year when we all reflect on what is important in life and what we treasure most about each other!

(OK, I think that last one will do...)

Kidding aside, we do welcome you back to our annual Holiday Pledge Drive, that once-a-year time when we try to raise enough money to keep the lights on here at ChrisWeigant.com. Hitting our donation goal each year means guaranteeing the site will remain ad-free for the next calendar year, so it is important both to us and to you, our readers.

But first, as is traditional for us, here is a cute winter cat photo:

It's pledge drive time again already!?!

Indeed it is, and we shameless await seeing the donations pouring in, as usual.

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A completely pointless debate (at least in terms of the 2024 presidential race) will take place tonight on Fox News. Ron DeSantis will be debating Gavin Newsom, with Sean Hannity as moderator. But even though I'm a diehard political junkie, I may not even tune in to see it, due to its absolute irrelevance to current events. It's likely that just catching the highlights later will be enough.

So why am I even writing about it? Because it's a chance to take a ridiculously-early look at the contest that's going to happen within the Democratic Party in four years. You could say this is the start of the 2028 Democratic presidential primary race, but in reality it's been going on in a very subdued way for a while now. The Newsom-DeSantis debate is happening as a direct result of this shadow primary jockeying, in fact.

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The House of Representatives is going to vote tomorrow on whether to formally expel a member of its ranks. And at this point, things don't look good for George Santos. Expulsion from the House would require a two-thirds majority, which would mean a substantial number of Republicans would have to vote to kick one of their own out. But the whip counts circulating today seem to indicate that up to 90 Republicans are now willing to do so. This would be historic, since it would be only the sixth House expulsion ever and only the third since the Civil War. But it will make history in one other interesting way as well, since if Santos is kicked out he will be the first Republican ever to suffer this fate.

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Impeaching a United States president should be a rare and unusual thing. And for the first two centuries of our existence, it was. We had one impeachment that failed (Andrew Johnson) and one that was threatened but didn't happen, because the president resigned instead (Richard Nixon). Since then, however, it has become a lot less rare. First Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about having an affair with a White House intern. Then Donald Trump was impeached twice, for trying to pressure a foreign nation to manufacture an investigation of his political rival and then for trying to overturn the result of the election that put his rival into power instead of him. And now we face another possible impeachment, this one of Trump's rival President Joe Biden, for the crime of... well, they'll figure something out.

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Donald Trump just gave the team working to re-elect President Joe Biden a rather large early Christmas present. Apparently, Trump has never gotten over his failure to enact "a full repeal" of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (otherwise affectionately known as "Obamacare"). This involved the big dramatic scene with Senator John McCain turning in a "thumbs-down" vote on the Senate floor, in literal fashion -- which was a complete humiliation for Trump. A humiliation, like all the others, that he's never forgotten or gotten over. So he's looking to re-fight that particular battle, it seems.

Trump recently sent out, on his personal social media site, the following:

The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it's not good Healthcare. I'm seriously looking at alternatives. We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!

The Obamacare gauntlet, in other words, has been tossed down -- and Team Biden was only too happy to pick it up.

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