The Next President - Santa Claus

When looking for a prediction of the next president, I am the last person you want to believe.  I was confident Mitt Romney would beat Obama and avoid his disaster of a second term.  Nobody was more shocked on election night to see Obama, the worst president to ever hold the office, win handily.  While Romney wasn't a dream candidate, he wasn't Obama and that should have been enough.  And as we now know, Romney was right about the 40% who will vote democrat regardless of the candidate.  I suppose there is probably another 40% who will vote republican regardless of who gets the nomination.

This should be an election that throws out the party who controlled the white house for the past 8 years.  Obamacare is still widely detested.  Obama has low job approval and is not trusted by the majority.  The economy and unemployment are not healthy, regardless what the jiggered indicators show.  US foreign policy is a wreck.  US security and national defense is weak.  By all rights, the party in power should be punished.

But this year is different. Whether that difference costs the democrats the white house is unknown.  We know that New York and California will give all their electoral college votes to whoever has the (d) beside their name.  That is a tall hill to climb.  It means that whoever has the (r) will need to run the table in the South, pick up most of the Midwest, and get half the swing states.  And that just makes it close.

Would Trump be the best candidate to take those states?  How about Cruz or Rubio?  Maybe, but whoever the (r) candidate is, we know they will face Hillary (assuming she isn't under indictment).
Indited or not, Hillary is a seriously weak candidate.  She is irrevocably attached to Benghazi, Iran, illegal email servers, Clinton Foundation improprieties, serial lying, incompetent foreign policy, Whitewater, Barack Obama, and a philandering husband.  What a mess.  A mess that would sink any other candidate.  How she has a chance to get the nomination is, in itself, miraculous.

But what is our choice?  Trump, Carson and Fiorina are outsiders whose appeal is a belief they are different - outsiders not tainted by Washington.  But is that enough?  Insiders we send to Washington with a specific mandate seem to change once they arrive.  Remember Paul Ryan, the deficit hawk who camped out in his DC office creating a comprehensive plan to a balanced budget?  That was then.  This is the same Paul Ryan who as Speaker of the House just passed the most bloated budget bill ever, one that funds everything we sent him and others to Washington to stop.  Is there one choice that is different than another?  I am beginning to doubt it.

Recent national elections seem to always pit a conservative or moderate candidate against a candidate who promises the government will take care of everyone.  Essentially, the choice is between an adult and Santa Claus.  It is hard to beat Santa Claus.

I have a very intelligent conservative acquaintance who has offered to bet dinner that Hillary will be the next president. He doesn't like Hillary, but just like in 2008, believes Santa Claus wins over pragmatism.  If I just look at Hillary, I want to take that bet.  She is so flawed.  I did make the bet in 2008, taking Romney over Obama.  I paid up by buying dinner, as we both cried over our food.

The party of Santa Claus is at it again.  Trillion dollar plans are given to offer free college, a cure for Alzheimer's, tax cuts for the middle class, with no regard to how we pay for them other than taxing the rich.  Pure Santa Clausism (I just made that up).  When an adult provides facts and perspective, they are disregarded as unpopular or uncomfortable.  The following clip is a great example of how facts and logic are disregarded when countering populism.  Cavuto does a great job explaining why a free college education for everyone, student loan forgiveness and a $15 per hour minimum wage isn't feasible.





I am betting that Neil's message was lost on Keely.  I bet she votes for Hillary.