They should all take a ski trip, and the survivors can be declared winners. That’s sort of like the former President offering to take the lead on ending Putin’s War. In other news:
- Former Maryland Lt. Governor and Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele (R) believes there is a “pink wave” coming in November, disregarded or undetected by pollsters. The pink wave are women who don’t usually vote, but will vote Democratic this cycle. Why disregarded? My guess, unsupported by experience or evidence, is that pollsters adjust raw data based on previously detected factors, and this wouldn’t be supported by previous occurrences. If Democrats do win big in November, then Steele gets credit for an insight I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere.
- In perhaps an iconic mark of the incompetent, even childish, amateur at work, former President Trump broke Party discipline and has attacked fellow leader Senator McConnell (R) for his support of the Continuing Resolution that is keeping the government up and running during these days of hurricane (Ian) and war (Putin’s War), according to CNN/Politics:
Former President Donald Trump on Friday night directly ridiculed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying on his social media platform that the Kentucky Republican had a “death wish” for supporting “Democrat sponsored bills.”
Trump, in his Truth Social post, also mocked McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao – who was born in Taiwan and served as Trump’s secretary of transportation – referring to her as McConnell’s “China loving wife, Coco Chow!”
So is this the sort of thing that’ll break the Republicans in half? While Trump’s MAGA voters may try to take him seriously, the fact of the matter is that many candidates McConnell has endorsed and even helping with his Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) are also endorsed by Trump, and those few that might not fall into that category, such as Senator Murkowski in Alaska, are already well known to the MAGA voters.
And do the MAGA voters matter? Popular report has it that the MAGA rallies are ill-attended these days. It may be that the former President is coasting on past glories these days, despite the number of endorsed extremists of which he can boast.
In the end, I suspect Trump’s temper tantrum, best interpreted as the wailing of someone who thinks they have fabulous political insight, but doesn’t, is little more than inadvertent entertainment for everyone who is not a Republican.
- A rated Fox News Poll reports Senator Kelly (D) leading Blake Masters 46% – 40% in Arizona. Their August poll gave Kelly an 8 point lead, but both lost ground in this poll. There is a ±3 point margin of error.
- Fox News Poll also reports that Senator Johnson (R) is now leading Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes (D) 48% – 44% in Wisconsin. Given the conspiracy rumors in which Johnson indulges, it’s a real disappointment.
- A poll from Franklin & Marshall College Poll, B/C rated by FiveThirtyEight, gives Lt. Governor Fetterman (D) a 45% to 42% lead over Dr. Oz Mehmet (R) in Pennsylvania. This seems abnormally small, especially in view of Marist Poll just giving Fetterman a ten point lead. No margin of error is given.
- Candidate Don Bolduc (R) of New Hampshire is a flip-flopper. First, he thought there was electoral fraud in 2020. Then, soon as he became the GOP nominee for the New Hampshire Senate seat, he said research showed that’s not true, that the election had no systemic fraud. Now? Back on the election denial wagon, apparently. Frankly, he seems a bit frenzied to sit in the Senate. It was intended for sober legislators, not this guy.
- Challenger Madison Horn (D) remarks on former President Trump’s endorsement of candidate James Lankford (R) for reelection in Oklahoma.
- GOP-leaning pollster Trafalgar’s latest poll in Colorado suggests Senator Bennet’s (D) lead over challenger Joe O’Dea (R) is shrinking, 48.6% to 42.6%. If accurate, then O’Dea no longer has the mountain of changing people’s minds to climb, just the mountain of undecided independent voters to climb.
- Senator Schumer (D) of New York has a 55% – 36% lead over challenger Joe Pinion (R) according to A rated Siena College. Two months ago Schumer held a 22 point lead, according to Emerson College, but if this decay in Schumer’s lead continues, the rate of change is not enough for Pinion to pull the upset.
- Unknown to FiveThirtyEight, but reportedly conservative, pollster Civitas has North Carolina as a statistical tie, with Cheri Beasley (D), the former State Supreme Court Justice, leading Rep Ted Budd (R) 44.0% – 43.7%.
The last time I did this is here.
