SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2016
Today’s Good News And Bad News
From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

BAD NEWS FOR TRUMP: Media figures across the political spectrum derided the awkwardness of Trumps announcement of a running mate as the “worst roll-out ever.” Word of his choice leaked out on Thursday and was widely reported. Meanwhile he insisted on Fox News that he had not made a final, final choice yet but later that evening told a group that he had made a decision and would announce it at 11:00 on Friday, then he postponed the announcement. Rumors went around that he had second thoughts about his choice and wanted to know if he could back out of it. At the same time, Mike Pence was up against a noon deadline on whether or not to file for re-election for Governor and also was on a plane to New York to meet Trump. Eventually, Trump was boxed in by events which he had lost control of and finally had to resort to making the announcement by Twitter. This has to be the first time in history that a VP candidate was announced on Twitter. There is a word to describe something which is this screwed up. It starts with “Cluster” and ends with, well, you know – that English word that we ain’t supposed to say, but is commonly used as almost every part of speech.

Here’s what one Republican commentator said about him asking if he could back out of the selection after he had made it: “Trump was so unsure about launching those nukes that after they took off he asked top aides if he could get them back”
Democrat commentators were of course, rolling on the floor, but one managed to say, “Maybe Trump is finding out that, in this business, he can’t hire someone and then just turn around and fire them.”

GOOD NEWS FOR TRUMP: The “Never Trump” faction of the Party, better known as the “Dump Trump” movement is officially dead. They were unable to force a change in the convention rules to allow delegates to vote any way they wanted in order to get rid of him. Not that they ever had a chance anyway.

BAD NEWS FOR HILLARY AND TRUMP: From the New York Times: “NYT Poll Finds Voters in Both Parties Unhappy With Their Candidates” – Now there’s a shocker. They must have done some real in-depth investigation and statistical analysis to come up with that one. Or else asked any 12 year-old.

BAD NEWS FOR KRISPY KREME AND THE NEWTSTER: Of course, Pence’s good news is their bad news but don’t feel too sorry for them. They weren’t going anywhere anyway, and by kissing up to The Donald, they both have a shot at a cabinet position in a hypothetical Trump administration. They also may get to tour the country on the party’s dime, bashing Hillary or showing up on talk shows doing the same thing. The Newtster will have to be reined in a little though, as some of his crackpot ideas, such as testing every Muslim in the U.S., are even further out than Trump’s.

NEW TRUMP/PENCE LOGO: Once Mike Pence was formally announced as Donald Trump’s running mate, one of the first items of business was to unveil a new logo for the campaign. Here it is:

The goal, of course, was to weave together a ‘P’ and a ‘T’ into an American flag looking design. However, the response of approximately 99.99% of people to the new logo was to take note of how the ‘T’ and the ‘P’ are…”interacting.” This sent the Internet (particularly Twitter, appropriately enough) into a frenzy. Besides the fact that TP is a common term for toilet tissue, here are some of the best comments.
What is the T doing to that P?

Liberals say this logo accurately represents what Trump Pence will do to America and we all knew that any politician who became Trump’s running mate would be screwed for life, but this is a bit blunt. I hope it’s not too late for Trump to pull out of this logo design. How are we supposed to explain the new Trump logo to our children?

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: Ohio Governor Kasich probably will not attend the Convention, although he will attend and speak at the NAACP Convention on Sunday. The best thing Kasich would say about Trump is that he will not make trouble for him at the convention. We guess that means that if Kasich showed up, there would be trouble. Political commentators will probably make a lot of the fact that the Republican Governor of the host state is not speaking or even attending. That has probably never happened before. It is not known yet whether Senator Rob Portman will attend. Because he is in a close reelection contest with former Governor Ted Strickland, he is carefully weighing the advantages and disadvantages of associating his name with DJT. That’s a tough call and he has only a few days left to make it.

Sarah Palin had to cancel plans to attend the convention, and possibly speak, because her son Track was thrown in jail on a domestic violence charge. It really wouldn’t look good for the self-described “Family Values Party” to have convention reporters asking her too many questions about it. It’s hard to tell which incident this arrest came from, as there have been a few drunken fights involving members of the Palin family and even one with the whole group. Reporters may have also gotten into the issue of her daughter having 2 babies out-of-wedlock while teaching classes on abstinence for teen-agers. There is however, no truth to the rumor that Jerry Springer was going to have the whole Palin family on his show in the near future.

Just for those who think that Political parties and conventions are private events, this Convention is being subsidized by a 50 million dollar federal grant (read over-taxed payers money) to the Cleveland Police Department to help with security arrangements. Several protests are planned by various groups and, with Ohio’s permissible open-carry law and many gun-rights activists planning to attend, we don’t know what they are so worried about. What could possibly go wrong in that situation?

This is the first time since 1936 that the Republican Convention will be held in Cleveland. That year, the party nominated Kansas Governor, Alf Landon, who went on to win only two states and eight electoral votes against the popular President, FDR. It is no wonder that they haven’t been back in the last 80 years. Cincinnati was in the running to host the convention this year and even made the list of six finalists but lost out in the end. Ain’t we lucky!

More Good News And Bad News Tomorrow