Friday, October 30, 2020

President Biden, Hunter Biden and the China Disclosures: President Biden's Failed Presidency

The media loves you until they turn on you. Ask Senator John McCain. The media glorified the Senator as a maverick Republican. Then he received the Republican nomination for President in 2008. The media dumped on him. He ran a poor campaign. Senator Obama won the Presidency. Senator McCain returned to the media’s good graces. They pillored Governor Sarah Palin. They daily venomously malign President Trump. The media and social media are ignoring the Hunter Biden China corruption scandal taking a page out of George Orwell’s 1984. They know it’s true. They know the emails and documents are valid and not the product of hacking or a Russian disinformation campaign, Representative Adam Schiff, John Brennen and James Clapper (the usual suspects) notwithstanding. They’ve known for years that Beau Biden was the good son and Hunter Biden the bad son. They know Hunter Biden is a wastrel druggie kicked out of the military. They know he traded on his dad. They know a common form of corruption is a financial arrangement with the politico’s family members. They know Tony Bobulinski and his documents are valid. They know an otherwise unqualified Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from China and Ukraine. They know the Vice President profited from his son’s derelictions Vice President Biden said Hunter is the smartest person he’s knows. No comment. They know the Vice President repeatedly lied. President Biden’s problem is simple. The media will destroy him as soon as they decide to promote Vice President Kamala Harris to President Harris. The media will turn on President Biden as soon as he goes soft on the radical agenda: Packing the Supreme Court as well as the lower courts Statehood to Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia Citizenship to the undocumented residents currently in the United States Open borders Medicare for all Ending fracking The Biden/Green New Deal Rejoining the Paris Accords Eliminating fracking, not eliminating fracking, regulating fracking to death Gun control Defunding law enforcement, and probably the military Criminal Justice Reform Ending capital punishment Strengthening the union movement Eliminating Right to Work laws Enacting Roe v. Wade into law Free college Universal per-K Student loan forgiveness Equality Act Monster tax increases Speaker Pelosi dusted off the 25th Amendment. If President Biden doesn’t come through, he’s gone.

Friday, October 23, 2020

Is Ballot Harvesting is Legal in California for Democrats, but not for Republicans

Election night 2018 showed 39 Democrats and 14 Republicans in California’s Congressional delegation. Nine Republicans, seven incumbents and two seeking open Republican seats, went to bed election night, believing they had won by sizable margins. They won the in-person vote and regular absentee votes. Then came the tsunami of late arriving, ballot harvesting votes, 250,000 in Orange County alone. All nine lost when the final votes were counted over the next three weeks. Republicans now have nine Congressional seats as they won one back a few months ago in a special election. Getting out the vote is a key to winning elections. Car rides to the polls would be offered to prospective voters who could not make it to the voting booths on their own. Philadelphia was notorious for “walking around money.” The dead continued to vote in Chicago. Ballot harvesting is a whole new ball game in states where it is legal. The traditional absentee voter requested an absentee vote, filled it in, and signed a verification on the outer envelope, or have someone in the family or residence sign it. Ballot harvesting was not legal. No longer in California. Governor Brown signed AB 1921 in 2016, legalizing ballot harvesting. Anyone, not just family members or residents, could collect the ballots with no limits. Harvesters could be paid for collecting ballots, but not on a per ballot basis. A 2018 statute by the Democratic supermajority in the legislature eliminated the verification requirement. No ballot could be “disqualified solely because the person returning it did not provide on the identification envelope his or her name, relationship to the voter, or signature.” Democratic operatives, including union canvassers, troll college dorms, nursing homes, sometimes homeless encampments, the barrios and ghettos, and target individual voters for mail ballots. One union held a victory party in Anaheim on the 2018 election night. It knew. The signature gatherers can even fill in the ballots, presumably expressing on the voter’s will. They can also toss any ballots they think will be for an opposition candidate. May not be legal, but who would know! California and Orange County are rapidly changing in demographics. Whites are now a shrinking plurality with scores moving out of the state, which partially accounts for the dimming Republican prospects in California. Ballot harvesting accelerated the change. California sent ballots to all registered voters in the state. Ballots can stack up in apartment houses and other places, ripe for harvesting. The California GOP decided to engage in ballot harvesting of their own this year. They placed third party ballot collection boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange Counties in sites frequented by conservative voters, including shooting ranges and gun shops, churches, and candidate and GOP offices. The ballots did not require verifications on the outer envelopes. The collection boxes were locked and supervised. Some were labeled “official” ballot collection boxes. California’s Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra went ballistic. The AG has already filed over a 100 lawsuits against the Trump Administration, seemingly every time the President inhales and exhales. Becerra received a supplemental budget allocation to fund the lawsuits. They issued last Monday cease and desist orders, which the GOP ignored. The Attorney General subpoenaed the names of the voters who dropped off their ballots. Hector Barajas, spokesperson for the California GOP, said “This is a thuggish voter intimidation and vote suppression tactic by our Democratic attorney general and secretary of state.” Conversely the Registrar of Voters in tony Marin County called the Republican ballot boxes “very risky:” “They leave themselves open to accusations of ballot tempering with the ballots,” which is, of course, what the Democrats are engaged in. Sacramento Superior Court Judge David I. Brown denied the state’s request for a preliminary injunction against the GOP. Attorney General Becerra said “Here in California, we’re doing everything in our power to protect the integrity of our elections.” An attorney for the GOP argued California lacks authority to investigate “noncriminal activities that are constitutionally protected.” The Democrats will not be as successful this year trolling the unoccupied or under occupied dorms. The Democrats control California politics. They hold all eight statewide elected offices, both United States senators, supermajorities in the state legislature, and all but nine congressional seats. It’s never enough; they want total power!

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Maki, the Ring Tail Lemur, Almost Made His Escape from San Francisco

MMaki, a distinguished senior citizen of the Lipman Family Lemur Forest at the San Francisco Zoo, disappeared Wednesday night, October 14. A BOLO, or BOLL (Be On Lemur Lookout), was issued. The Zoo posted a $2100 reward, “Lemur Wanted, Dead or Alive (shades of Steve Mc Queen), Preferably Alive.” Description “grey with ring tail, cute, warm and fuzzy.” Maki sought sanctuary at the Hope Lutheran Church. The lemur on the run did not realize California churches only give sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. Maki was born and raised in the United States. The fugitive should have hitchhiked on a moving van leaving San Francisco. The new motto in California is a reversal of Horace Greeley’s famous saying: “Go West Young Man, Go West.” Now it’s “Go East Young Lemurs, Go East.” Maki only managed 5 miles east to Daly City. Th omnivorous lemur was chomping on a bush when spotted. He fled into a miniature playhouse in the school playground. President Reagan once said: “You may run lemur, but you can’t hide.” Maki was wise for his age, 21, when the usual life span of a lemur is 17-19 years. One thinks of Yoda when seeing Maki. Maybe LEGO will market a MAKI kit. Daly City is a quiet suburb of San Francisco. A fleeing ring tailed lemur is big news. The Daly City Police on Maki’s apprehension said “We are grateful Maki is home safely.” Tanya Peterson, ZOO CEO, called Maki “an aging wild animal who needed special care…. He’s still agitated, dehydrated, and hungry.” Of course Maki is agitated. The fugitive tasted freedom for the first time in his life. He wanted out of Frisco, the homeless, the poop patrol, the crime. Half the Bay Area wants out. Tanya should not return Maki to his family. They will want to know what it’s like in the vast outside world. The lesson for Maki comes from the eagles: “Welcome to the Hotel California …. But you can never leave.” Maki did not escape on his own. 30 year old Cory McGilloway was arrested Thursday for liberating Maki Wednesday night. Cory has an interesting rap sheet. Maki made a poor choice of rescuers, but Cory was his only hope. Hope Lutheran Choice was not.

Friday, October 16, 2020

What We Learn From the Judge Amy Conan Barrett Senate Hearing

Americans saw a brilliant, posed, confident, composed, soft-spoken unflappable woman; strong – not docile. Working mothers saw a model and inspiration. It is possible to have it all. Democrats saw a threat they could not mansplain or slime. Americans saw a rarity in D.C., a person who stands by his or her settled principles. Democrats could not even attack her on her Catholicism. Senator Dianne Feinstein did that in her earlier 2017 confirmation, saying “The dogma lives strongly in you.” Democrats do not want to upset the Catholic vote in a critical election year. President James Buchanan (who?) once referred to the Senate as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” The rubric has stuck – well past its time. The Brett Kavanaugh hearings disproved any illusion of great deliberation. The Trump impeachment fiasco showed raw partisan politics. Four Democratic incumbents lost reelection after the Kavanaugh hearings. Senators are elected for 6 years versus 2 for Representatives. That provides Senators the ability, if they wish, to avoid “the flavor of the month” and ride out the “mob rule.” The filibuster necessitates the ability to cross party lines to form a conservative. The filibuster on judicial appointments is gone, thanks to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic Caucus. President Obama and Senator Reid wanted 3 liberal judges appointed to the D.C. Circuit (“The Little Supreme Court”) to rubber stamp President Obama’s statutes and regulatory edicts. The Democrats turned judicial nominations into a raw, political spectacle. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned the Democrats against that act: “What goes around, comes around.” Then came the end of the Democratic hegemony in D.C. First the Democrats lost the House and Senate in 2020. Then Donald Trump was elected President in 2016. The Republicans held the Senate, gaining a few seats in 2018. The Republicans have the votes. Democrats lack the votes. So much for the world’s greatest deliberate body. Justice Scalia passed away. President Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace him. It would not affect the “political” balance on the Court, but the Democrats threatened to filibuster. The Republicans proceeded to axe the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees. Then came Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote on the Supreme Court, followed by the failed strategy in the Judge Thomas hearings – a last minute, unsubstantiated evidence lacking, sexual harassment charge going back to the judge’s high school days. The Senate Democrats did not deliberate. They harangued, maligned, defamed, and character assassinated Judge Kavanaugh in a lost cause. The judge was confirmed. Republican Senator Jeff Flake lost his Senate seat. The Senate finished its 30 hour of Hearings with Judge Barrett. 30 hours of questioning? Or 30 hours of pontification? Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island spent his allotted 30 minutes to question the judge by not asking one question. He declaimed soft money (Koch money) entering politics, but ignored the soft money and union money that flows into his campaigns. Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono asked the judge if she’s ever been accused of sexual harassment, to which the answer was of course no. Delaware Senator Chris Coons quizzed the judge on why she singled out Chief Justice Roberts on the affordable care act decision. Her answer was a simple declarative: “He wrote that opinion, Senator.” Senator Amy Klobuchar called the process “a sham.” Senator Kamala Harris says the process is illegitimate. All bloviating! Of course the Democrats would have done the same thing if they had the votes. The Democrats lack the vote so they tried to turn the hearings into a campaign rally. ObamaCare, Roe v. Wade and the confirmation process are their issues. We learn that some academics and Senators assert a distinction exists between mere precedence and super precedence. Super precedents are untouchable but precedence can be overturned. Super precedents are those which the progressive believe in, such as Roe v. Wade, Griswold v. Connecticut, and Brown v. Board of Education, and thus untouchable, whereas mere precedence would include Citizens United v. FEC on campaign contributions and D.C. v. Heller on gun control. Judge Barrett, when confirmed, will be the second Justice from outside the beltway. She is from Indiana and Justice Gorsuch hails from Colorado. Chief Justice Roberts is also a Hoosier, but he left Indiana behind, just as Justice Breyer left San Francisco, to become ensconce into the eastern establishment. Just as significant, we don’t have a justice from Harvard and Yale Law Schools, which have dominated in recent years. Judge Garrett is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School. Justice Ginsberg graduated from Columbia Law, but had transferred from Harvard to be with her husband. Justice Stevens went to Northwestern while Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O’Connor were classmates at Stanford. The Warren Court had the great civil libertarian, and former KKK member, Senator Hugo Black from Alabama, Thurgood Marshall from Howard, and John Marshall Harlan II from New York Law School (not NYU). Chief Justice Earl Warren was a graduate of Berkeley and his Successor Chief Justice Warren Burger graduated from the predecessor of William Mitchell Law School in Minneapolis. Geographic diversity is returning to the Supreme Court, more representative of America. Judge Barrett was very careful to hew to the Ginsberg Rule. Do not answer any questions that might deal with cases that could come before the court. She reaffirmed that she is an “originalist” in the sense that the Constitution says what it means. It is not a living constitution to be judicially amended as 5 out of 9 unelected Supreme Court justices desire. Nor is t to be based on international law. The Constitution with the Bill of Rights is the document that governs the American Republic. The Constitution is the document that protects the people from the government. It protects the minority from the majority and the mob. She clearly stated she would not let her personal views sway her decisions on the Constitution. Nor would she be a clone of Justice Scalia or a pawn. The framers were both educated men of the enlightenment and English citizens who understood the abuses of the Crown. The Constitution was not perfect, but it provided for amendments. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were imperfect with the rights of humans. They did not abolish slavery, but even the founders knew slavery was abhorrent. The Constitution does not include the words “slave,” “runaway slaves,” “slavery” or “slave trade.” The two core documents of the Republic provide the goal to which America could ultimately reach: ending slavery and granting the right to vote to African Americans, women, and Native Americans. Senator Dianne Feinstein approached Senator Lindsay Graham after the hearings, thanking each other for civility in the hearings. The intolerant far left of the Democratic Party demanded she resign.

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Three Weeks, 21 days to November 3, 2020: Concerns About the Presidential Election

Polls showed a landslide victory for the Democrats: The House, the Senate, and the Presidency. That was 2016. Polls show a landslide victory for the Democrats: The House, the Senate, and the Presidency. This is 2020. Donald Trump was elected President in 2016 doing it his way. President will be reelected or defeated on November 3 doing it his way. 2016 was a referendum on Hillary Clinton. 2020 is a referendum on President Trump, Covid and the economy. One of his biggest problems is that he thinks out loud. Skillful politicians keep their thoughts to themselves. President Trump is not a politician, which is way he was elected in 2016. President Trump would have won reelection in a landslide if the election had been March 3, 2020. He had restored the economy. Record employment for African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanics. The economy was booming on all cylinders. He would have won in a landslide despite the fervent opposition, viciousness, backstabbing and calumnies of the mainstream media, Hollywood, Academia, the professional class, the Deep State, the Russian Conspiracy Hoax, and the Democrats. The George Floyd Riots, the Cancel Culture were a blessing for his campaign. God Bless America. Then came Covid-19 and the economic shutdown. America is hurting economically. Small business has been devastated. Incumbents pay a price for economic distress. Prosperity seven months ago is not prosperity today. What have you done for me lately? President Trump right now is sailing upstream with a bully pulpit but without a paddle. The billionaire President Trump is a man of the people. Vice President Joe Biden was a man of the people, but spent 47 year suffering from Potomac Fever. If President Trump loses in a landslide, then the Democrats might pick up as many as 9 Senate seats, including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia (2), Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Senator Kamala Harris is already measuring the drapes in the White House. “Joe,” Senator Harris’ fond name for the bottom of the Harris-Biden Ticket (she said it), won’t know what hit him, perhaps within the first 100 days, if not before inauguration. Even today, Monday, November 12, Joe Biden said he was running “as a proud Democrat for the Senate.” He couldn’t remember Senator Mitt Romney’s name One reason Donald Trump defeated Secretary Hillary Clinton is that he outworked her, out-campaigned her. That too will be the story over the final 21 days. Vice President Biden showed again Monday why his handlers keep him in the basement. He emerged today, like a groundhog, and the Biden gaffes popped up. He will be quarantined while President Trump will be campaigning. Another Trump attribute 4 years ago in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign is that he ran a disciplined campaign. He needs to do that again – stay on message. He talks too much at critical times. Why did he talk to Bob Woodward? What was he thinking? Senator Harris also is quiescence during the campaign. Her underwhelming presidential campaign was a harbinger. Chicago is known for: “Vote Early; Vote Often; Make Your Vote Count,” while Philadelphia is notorious for ‘Walk-around” money. Vice President Biden had a typical Bidenism during the Trump-Biden Debate. He said we should keep the polls open until all the ballots are counted. This will be an election by and for the lawyers. They are already out in swarms trying to manipulate the mail ballots. The Democrats’ goals are extended deadlines, no postmark needed, and waiving the validating signature, all for the purpose of ballot stuffing. President Trump needs to win big. Hugh Hewitt wrote a classic book, “If it’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It.” Close votes will be bring out the worst of ballot harvesting, ballot stuffing, and late returns. Illinois has a date with destiny on enacting a progressive income tax and California with taxing commercial property at commercial value. . The incompetent Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland will be defeated for reelection. Unfortunately for Portland, it will be to a Marxist sympathizing, ANTIFA fellow traveler. My prediction if President Trump again triumphs over the polls: the resulting riots, looting, and arson will br far worse than after George Floyd's homicide.

Saturday, October 10, 2020

On Leaving California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and New York

Thirty four homes are on our tract in Orange County, California. Three families left California in the past two months; two decamped to Arizona and one to Colorado. The house across the street went for $1 million cash two months ago. $1 million buys a lot of house and land in Colorado Springs. Our next door neighbors rented for 1½ years. They were unable to find an affordable house in the area. They left Thursday for a three year-old, 2600 square foot house on a 10,000 square foot lot for $560,000 with a 3.1% mortgage in Mesa, Arizona. Their electric bill was averaging between $400-500/month. It will be substantially lower in hot Arizona, as will be income taxes, gas sales, sales taxes, and the hassles of California. Three solid middle class, tax-paying families bailed on California. The children next door were a non-stop, care-free bundle of energy. There is emptiness on the street. There is certainly emptiness in California. And in Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York as taxpaying voters flee these states. Hello Texas. Hello Florida. Hello Utah. Companies have left San Francisco and California. One estimate is that 13,000 companies with $77 billion in capital said goodbye to the Golden State in recent years. The increasingly uninhabitable San Francisco has lost Bechtel, McKesson’s, Charles Schwab, Chevron, and Core-Mark Holding Co. California said adios to Aeromax, Buck Knives, California Casualty, Carl’s, Jr., Da Vita, Fluor, Hilton Hotels, ICEE, Jacobs Engineering, Jamba Juice, Kubota, Nestles USA, Nissan, Northrop Grumman, Occidental Petroleum, Parsons, Premier, Inc., SAIC, Star Kist, Toyota, and a host of others. Even companies that stayed have closed plants, reduced employment, and expanded outside California. Illinois lost over $12.4 billion in adjusted gross income in 2017 and 2018. The average AGI of those leaving Illinois was $85,000. The AGI of those moving into Illinois was $66,000. Taxes keep rising in Illinois while 218,00 left Illinois. The IRS studies show New Jersey lost a net of 27,000 households between 2015-2016 with adjusted gross incomes of $3.5 billion, or averaging $131,000 each. New York lost a net 1.4 million residents to other states since 2010. $2.6 billion left Connecticut in 2016. Persons moving into Connecticut only earned 55% of the expatriates. 2,015 residents with adjusted gross income of $200,000 left between 2015 and 2016. Studies show the obvious. High income earners can be more mobile than others. Connecticut’s politicians continue to rise taxes. Five investors with a combined net worth of $68 billion moved out of Connecticut between 2012 and 2016. The demographic problem for these high tax states is that when tax paying, middle class and wealthy voters leave the state, they change the politics of two states. The remaining population is increasingly dependent on the government for jobs, pensions, and transfer payments. The new constituency becomes the public employee unions. Many of the low-income residents pay little or no income tax and only indirectly property taxes. They have no problem voting to raise taxes on others. They believe wealth comes from the government rather than the sweat of one’s brow. They are susceptible to promises of pie in the sky. Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, and now proposals for wealth taxes! Some politicians are economically illiterate, but others understand the economics, and especially the politics. The second change is in the new domicile. They leave the bad economics behind, but often carry with them the same progressive views from the old state, changing the demographics of the new home. Thus, Arizona and Colorado are increasingly purple, turning to blue. California’s teachers are the highest paid nationally while prison guards earn over $100,000 annually. The public employees often receive generous pensions, which are a crushing burden on cities and states. Politicians no longer run on economic growth and infrastructure, but on redistribution. The emigres voted with their feet; no longer voting at the state’s polls. Thus the cry: “Tax the rich; they should pay their “fair share,” which is never defined. The political candidates’ ads are against corporations, insurance companies, and PACs by candidates who claim they take no campaign contributions from the evil corporations all the while they are in thrall to the public employee unions. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an example of this phenomenon. Her 14th New York Congressional District in Brooklyn and Queens is not the poorest in the City, but is poor. The per capita income in her district is $27,908, about third quarters of the City’s average. 13.8% are below the poverty line, including 19% children under 18 and 16% seniors. 78.2% graduated high school, but only 27.5% bachelors or higher. 52% are Hispanic, 46.2% foreign born, and 67.6% with language other than English spoken at home. She represents her Congressional District, not America, the America we grew up in, an America of greatness. Jorge Carro was a Cuban lawyer, a classmate of Fidel Castro. Jorge, his wife Edy, and daughter (little) Edy were allowed to leave Cuba in 1967. The condition was that they, and the others legally allowed out, had to sign over their assets, homes, jewelry, money, you name it. Cuba was poorer. The Carros left with only one asset, their most important, their minds. The wealth of a nation is not physical assets, but its human capital. I met Jorge when he joined the faculty of Ohio Northern University as Law Librarian in 1972. He later became the Law Librarian and then Dean of the University of Cincinnati School of Law. Jorge is the story of America. Immigrants come to America fleeing oppression or poverty in their homeland. The penniless immigrant build a new life in the freedoms of America. Generations of immigrants from Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Western Europe, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, China, Japan, Armenia, Germany, Greece, Poland, Lebanon, Palestine, the Mideast came to America for freedom and opportunity. More recently, Cubans like Jorge, the Vietnamese, and Persians fled oppression for America. Somalis came to Minnesota. Sadly some of them were looted and burned out during the Minneapolis riots as they were achieving success in their new home. New Jersey just imposed a millionaire's tax of 10.75%. California and Illinois have tax measures on the ballot that will accelerate the exodus from those states. The savings grace to Illinois profligate government is that the state constitution allows only for a flat rate income tax. Illinois voters are being asked to approve a progressive tax system. California’s Prop 13 limits property tax increases to 2% annually on the purchase price of the property. The voters are being asked to allow commercial properties to be taxed at their market value; yet another economic blow to business. California, Illinois, and New Jersey politicos and public employee unions are salivating over the $billions that will flood into the staes' coffers, ignoring the companies and entrepreneurs that will leave and the small businesses that will eiher shut down or never open. California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York, like Cuba, are poorer every time businesses and residents flee their high tax, high cost states. Line up the moving vans.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Ruminations on Tuesday"s Trump-Biden Debate: A Missed Opportunity for President Trump

Yes, I know the President and Melania have tested positive for Covid. That’s for another post. The initial reaction to the debate: What da! What did we witness? It’s not a debate. America watched an old fashioned Midwest smash mouth football game. Two contenders, fueled by ambition, are the finalists for the most powerful position in the world in a contest fueled with opprobrium, hatred, lies and dirty tricks. President Trump has been castigated by the media for his bullying behavior. Yet a close reading of the transcript shows Vice President Biden was the first to interrupt the speaker. The second interrupter was moderator Chris Wallace, a Fox News Never-Trumper. Chris Wallace was pushing Trump but not Biden. President Trump quickly realized that he was debating both Vice President Biden and Moderator Wallace’s hostile questioning. He then went into his defensive mode, which is to attack. He is a New York City streetfighter. That he did! Losing the first debate is not fatal. Let us remember that on October 7, 1984 President Reagan lost the first debate to Vice President Mondale. The President was underprepared. The73 year old president seemed old and out of it. He came back strongly to convincingly win the next debate. Let us further remember that Governor Mitt Romney decisively bested the underprepared President Obama in their first debate on October 3,2012. President Obama looked like he was on the ropes. The President was a clear winner in the two following debates. President Trump missed several opportunities to pin the Vice President to the ropes. All he had to do was let Joe Biden talk longer, tire out, and ramble on. The President will be better prepared in the next debate. He could clearly state I believe in America and the independence of the American people. I believe in their freedom to decide for themselves. You believe the government should make the decisions for them. Joe Biden said he rejects the Green New Deal, but then he detailed the “Biden Plan,” which is simply a rebranded Green New Deal. Biden should have been asked to explain the difference. The response to Biden’s claims of spectacular green employment is to remind Americans of the Obama-Biden non-existent “shovel ready” jobs. The response to Biden’s government medical care, which was garbled, was “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” and “If you like your insurance company, you can keep your insurance company.” Why should we trust you now? He said the President shut the economy down: “This is his economy he shut down,” but then said he would be willing to do so himself. The Vice President supposedly won the debate on style. Yet he twice called the President a clown, a liar, racist, Putin’s pawn, and the worst president America ever had. He said there was “nothing smart” about President Trump, this from the student initially kicked out of law school for plagiarism and then graduated in the top half of the bottom 10% of his class (76/85). He claimed to attend Syracuse Law School on a non-existent full scholarship. He once told a questioner: “I think I probably have a much higher IQ than you.” The Vice President has a long history of self-embellishment. President Trump responded “There’s nothing smart about you Joe.” What’s offensive about a truthful statement? Vice President Biden told a number of lies during the debate, but the “factcheckers” never called him to account. He was never pushed by the moderator on his refusal to answer the questions about ending the filibuster, stacking the Supreme Court, or why he didn’t contact the governors and mayors about the violence in their cities. He didn’t answer the filibuster and Supreme Court questions because his handlers told him not to and because he will. He was never called out on why Antifa is not an organization but a movement. Antifa and the Woke mobs are the major rioters, looters and arsonists. President Trump though was grilled by Chris Wallace on non-denouncing white supremacists. The mainstream media has been hammering him on white supremacy. The Vice President repeated the canard about white Supremacists and Charlottesville. The President should have called the Vice President out and remind America of what he said two days on August 14, 2017 after a white supremacist plowed into a crowd, killing a woman two days earlier: “Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant in everything we hold dead as Americans.” President Trump has spoken out several times on violence on both sides. The former non-University of Pennsylvania Professor said “Roe v. Wade” is on the ballot. The two ways to assess the debate are form and substance. The Vice President failed the substance, but was not called to account by Chris Wallace. President Trump tried to push the issues, but was often stopped by Chris Wallace. The debate was a missed opportunity for President Trump. He should have jumped on the classic Bidenism: “KEEP THE POLLS OPEN UNTIL ALL THE VOTES ARE COUNTED.” What an opportunity for voter fraud!