Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have a better shot at the presidency this week than he ever has before. Devon Archer's testimony has put a spike in the Biden 2024 re-election effort. It's still rolling on, but eventually that tire is going to deflate and the whole thing could end.
If it does, Democrats will still need a candidate. Gavin Newsom has been working to boost his national profile (while ignoring his actual job in California), so he is the likeliest alternative -- except for the fact that Kamala Harris, the first black female VP, may want the job.
There are also looming deadlines for qualifying for the ballot in various early primary states. Newsom can make most of these -- or Democrats can change the rules, which they obviously have done before -- but it will be a tough lift to put together a national effort.
So... Democrats may be stuck with Kennedy (or Marianne Williamson, who is not building much momentum). They don't know it yet, but that could help them, because there will still be voters that are looking for an alternative to Donald Trump -- including Republicans.
That's where the genius -- intentional or not -- of Kennedy's campaign comes in. If he does, in fact, squeak in as the Democratic nominee -- if he can get past the constant attacks and the superdelegates and the rest of it -- he will pull in crossover votes.
Kennedy's "conservative" positions, which were once common-sense views within the Democratic Party, are already attracting positive attention from the conservative media. On Thursday, for example, he is presenting a documentary about his recent trip to the border.
He wants to seal that border -- just as Trump and most of the other Republican candidates want to do. That may not attract "progressive" votes in a Democratic primary, but it could make an impact in some early primary states, and it could attract Republicans in the general.
Democrats have backed themselves into this corner by marching in lockstep with the Biden White House and its lies about Hunter and corruption etc. They are so dug into their anti-Trump media bubble that they may not realize it has burst until it's far too late.
What will that mean? Will they rally around Kennedy, on the basis of Supreme Court choices, and so forth? Maybe. Or maybe they'll have to come to terms with the policies he's brought them, even if they are now seen as "conservative" positions. It can only be for the good.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
