A Summer Political Hodge-Podge – “The Sunday Political Brunch” July 19, 2020

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Mark Curtis, MINDSETTER™

 

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Former Vice President Donald Trump

We’re a month away from the truncated political nominating conventions and past most of the primaries. So, there’s not just one political theme right now. It’s more of a hodge-podge or potluck, so let’s “brunch” on that this week.

“Polls, Polls and More Polls” – The latest Real Clear Politics composite poll, which is an average of all recent polls, has it 49 percent for Biden to 40 percent for Trump. A rate of 11 percent undecided at this point is significant. But if the poll is then broken down by state, Biden would have 222 Electoral College votes, to 115 for Trump. You need 270 to become president. While the race in trending toward Biden, it’s still a toss-up three and a half months out.

“History Holds Lessons” – A lot of my Democrat friends are giddy at the current poll numbers. To say many are overconfident at this point would be an understatement. At this point in the 2016 race Hillary Clinton also had 49 percent support, to 37 percent for Donald Trump, and nine percent of Libertarian Gary Johnson. That left a mere five-percent undecided. My point is that overconfidence is what killed the Clinton campaign, as its leaders just assumed, she’d win. They failed to make an aggressive push for the African American vote in the key states of Michigan and Wisconsin and lost them both. Many Democrats worry about history repeating itself.

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“An American Legend” – Speaking of African Americans and their voting power, the nation lost a civil rights icon this week. Rep. John Lewis (D) Georgia died at the age of 80 from cancer. In the 1960s Lewis led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and was a key ally of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When I was a reporter in Washington, D.C., I interviewed Congressman Lewis many times for WBS-TV in Atlanta. He told me stories about beatings he endured during protests in the 60s, to racist hate-mail he was still receiving in his Congressional office in the 1990s. He was a brave and kind and remarkable man. God rest his soul.

“Trump Still has Clout” – If anyone doubts that President Trump still has political clout, just look at what happened in the Alabama U.S. Senate Primary this week. Former Alabama U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session was trying to win his old seat back. He’d been a U.S. Senator for 20 years and was the first Senator to endorse Trump in 2016, for which he was awarded a spot in Trump’s cabinet. But then Sessions allowed the probe into Russian election meddling, and he was eventually fired by Trump. In this year’s Senate race Trump-backed former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville over Sessions. Tuberville won in a landslide with 61 percent of the vote to 39 percent for Sessions. As the old saying goes, paybacks are hell.

Tuberville now faces Sen. Doug Jones (D) Alabama, in a race that is considered the most likely Republican pick-up in 2020.

“How Strategies Can Backfire” – Gov. Brian Kemp (R) Georgia has sued Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) Atlanta, over the city’s mandatory mask order. Kemp, like many others, believes masks are beneficial but should remain voluntary. But his whole strategy has launched Mayor Bottoms into the national spotlight, giving her free and extensive publicity. It’s no secret that Bottoms is on Joe Biden’s short-list for vice-presidential running mates. The platform is likely giving the Biden campaign a free, nation-wide focus group on whether Bottoms has the meddle to be VP (and by extension, president). People like how feisty and combative she can be, and those can be admirable qualities in politics.

“A Murderer Inside a VA Hospital” – They are perhaps the most despicable crimes I’ve covered in my 43 years as a news reporter. Reta Mays, a 46-year-old nurse’s aide at the VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia pleaded guilty to murdering seven U.S. Military Veterans who came to the hospital for medical care. Mays, who admitted in court she has no medical degree, certifications, nor licenses, was fired after it was found she falsified her credentials. Congress continues to investigate, as she awaits a likely life sentence. “The investigation is not over. We need to find out how someone who was unqualified was able to be in a room with our veterans, strictly unsupervised, to be able to do such a horrifying act. She falsified her resume, we do know that,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, (R) West Virginia.

What are your thoughts on politics this hot summer of 2020? 

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Mark Curtis, Ed.D., is Chief Political Reporter for the six Nexstar Media TV stations serving West Virginia, its five neighboring states, and most of the Washington, D.C. media market.

 

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