Every Friday morning at 8:30AM I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers. Since the first presidential debate 29 days ago, each week has been filled with historically (and politically) unprecedented events that make awarding a clear thumbs up or thumbs down challenging. It is simply too soon to say what the impact will be of much that is happening now, but here’s how it looks to me this Friday:
The week began with President Joe Biden announcing that he would not seek re-election, certainly a rousing call for a thumbs up around our nation and the world as he had repeatedly demonstrated he no longer had the cognitive strength to do the job. But the fact that he made the announcement on Twitter (X) with no video statement caused hours of speculation on social media that perhaps he was no longer alive. This resulted in the Biden team inviting cameras to photograph him getting out of his car and getting on Air Force One, as we all watched, like citizen paparazzi. Then, the President gave a speech from the Oval Office, telling us he is not going to run for re-election, echoing the words of John F. Kennedy that “the torch has been passed to a new generation.” However, he never really explained why he was handing off the torch. His team denies it is related to his health, because, of course, if he’s not together enough to run, can he be together enough to be president? Team Biden also vehemently rejected the suggestion that he was forced to step aside because it appeared he would lose the election.
When he finally spoke, the left-wing media compared him to George Washington, I suppose because Washington also stepped aside when he didn’t have to. As far as I can see, there is no other resemblance. In the end, it was a big losing week for Biden.
After he resigned, almost as an afterthought, Biden announced that he has endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris, for president. Kamala got all the delegates she needed to secure the nomination in a day or so after pulling in the all-important nod from George Clooney and the big donors who call the shots for Democrats. The only holdouts were the Obamas who don’t think she can beat Trump and wanted a mini-primary, but they lost that fight. They joined Team Harris this morning. The Vice President earned enough political points to make it to the winner’s column this week, but her policies continue to make her a big loser. When she was in Congress, she was the most liberal U.S. senator – farther to the left than Sen. Bernie Sanders. For starters, she supports the Green New Deal, and wants to phase out gas-powered cars by 2035 while ending fracking and off-shore drilling. She also wants to decriminalize illegal border crossings and eliminate private health insurance in favor of Medicaid for all.
Her biggest outrage this week was her failure to greet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon his arrival in Washington and then boycotting his speech to Congress, opting to speak to a gathering of sorority sisters instead. Her office issued a statement condemning the anti-Israel protesters who burned American flags and hoisted a Palestinian flag over the iconic Union Station in response to Netanyahu’s speech, but Harris is desperately trying to have it both ways. She is clinging to her sympathetic statement this spring that the protestors are “showing exactly what the human emotion should be in response to Gaza.” Harris is on the losers list and with 102 days left until the election, she could easily make that list 14 more times with her left-wing policies.
That said, add me to the chorus telling Republicans that it is a mistake to think they can beat Harris by showing videos of her cackling word salads. Although Donald Trump says crazy things too sometimes, voters support the former President because they agree that we must secure the border, support law enforcement, reform education and ensure American energy independence. Harris opposes all that and unlike Biden, she’s focused. Voters need to know that.
That’s why Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance is on the loser list this week for his statement that the country is run by a “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” He called out Vice President Harris in his hateful attack, which was a right-wing version of Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” swipe.
Granted, Vance made the comment before he knew he’d be on a presidential ticket where Republicans are already running 11 points behind Democrats among women voters only a couple days after the Dem’s put a woman at the top of their ticket. Trump is winning big with men, but there are more women than men in every age category. Elections always come down to the math.
The teachers unions were out in full force in Houston this week for the American Federation of Teachers convention. Their leader, Randi Weingarten, jumped up and down on stage in the Bayou City, screaming that former President Donald Trump is a fascist and an “existential threat to democracy,” a tired charge that isn’t working for Democrats. Weingarten and the AFT are the same people who closed down schools nationwide for over a year, causing a massive learning loss that many children will never recover from. She ended her screed by proudly announcing that they are the first union to endorse Kamala Harris for president. The term “loser” hardly seems adequate to describe it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a big winner this week for his speech to Congress where he demonstrated his steadfast commitment to winning the war against Hamas and calling those Americans who march against Israel “idiots.” The fact that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it the “worst speech” ever given in the House Chamber actually lends to Netanyahu’s credibility. (That comment puts Pelosi on the losers list, by the way.)
Perhaps Netanyahu’s speech struck such a chord because during the last thirty days in America, we have become very aware of the constant media attempts to distort reality. We were told that our aging president was on top of his game, then we saw the debate. Next we were told that even Democrat leaders knew for years that Biden was not functioning well and had to go. Then, he insisted he wasn’t going anywhere. Then he was pushed out, but the actual push was covered up too. After that, Biden made a speech in which he said virtually nothing about why he was stepping aside and the media called him the best president in our lifetime. So hearing Netanyahu stand up, tell it like it is – calling idiots, idiots, was a nice respite before we return to the recreating of Kamala Harris, who, we are now being told was never the “border czar.” Huh?
Americans continue to be united in their belief that the Secret Service’s failure to prevent the attempted assassination against former President Trump is an outrage. The resignation of Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle, who showed little remorse regarding the failure, didn’t reassure Americans that things are going to change. Suggestions going forward that both political campaigns refrain from holding rallies outside is another bad sign.
Happily, after all the “historically unprecedented” nationwide drama of the last month, Americans will almost surely be united by the Paris Olympics which start today and will create many winners for Team USA. Dozens of Texans are competing in the summer Olympics including Simone Biles who needs one more medal to break an all-time record for gymnasts and Texas golfing great Scottie Scheffler who is on his first Olympic outing. Sprinter Gabby Thomas who graduated from Harvard but moved to Austin to train, is also someone to watch.
At the very least it will be a distraction while we wait for Harris to announce her vice presidential pick. Have a great weekend.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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