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JANUARY 24,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

YIKES – FROM THE HILL:   Fox News's Tucker Carlson is nearly doubling the ratings of his predecessor, Megyn Kelly, when compared to the same time period last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.   "Tucker Carlson Tonight" is up 95 percent in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that advertisers covet most compared with the same period in 2016, when "The Kelly File" occupied the 9 p.m. ET time slot.  Carlson has averaged 775,000 viewers per night in the category, while Kelly averaged 398,000 during the same time period, Jan. 11–22.  Carlson took over the 9 p.m. slot on Jan. 9, shortly after Kelly announced she would be leaving for a daytime program on NBC.   I wonder what the suits at NBC are thinking.  Fox must be thrilled.  Carlson is a fine journalist who asks tough questions in a gentle manner.   His lack of mean-spiritedness is, I think, a major reason for his success.

NO SHOCK HERE – FROM THE JERUSALEM POST:   The Trump administration has decided to hold off on transferring the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in an effort to push for new peace negotiations in the region, a senior Palestinian official told London-based Arabic language newspaper Al Shraq al Awsat Wednesday.  Speaking on anonymity, the source claimed that officials in US President Donald Trump's administration assured Palestinian leaders that reported plans to move the embassy would be delayed in an effort to relaunch moribund peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  This was expected in diplomatic circles.  The signal was the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wasn't stressing the move or pushing for it.   The Israelis are much more interested in other things, like nurturing the warm feelings that President Trump has for Israel, as compared with iceberg Obama. 

NICE, HUH? – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   President Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway is getting Secret Service protection after receiving suspicious “white substances” at her home, she revealed in a TV interview.  The White House counselor — Trump’s most visible adviser — is being protected by the same agency tasked with his security after receiving the threats, Conway told Fox News’s Sean Hannity.  “Because of what the press is doing now to me, I have Secret Service protection,” she said. “We have packages delivered to my house with white substances. That is a shame.”  While Conway’s Secret Service detail is unusual, it is not without precedent.  Barack Obama’s closest adviser, Valerie Jarrett, also was protected by the agency.  Kellyanne is one of the most gifted political women of our time, the first woman ever to run a successful presidential campaign.  The idea that she's being threatened is obscene.

January 24,  2017     Permalink

CORRECTING OBAMA'S MISTAKES – AT 11:50 A.M. ET:  Remember the Keystone Pipeline?  It's back.  From The Hill:   

President Trump on Tuesday signed orders to advance construction of the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.

The orders do not grant the final permits needed for the oil pipelines but will move both projects toward approval, a person familiar with the action said.

The Trump administration began to inform lawmakers starting late Monday that the orders were coming.

The orders fulfill Trump's campaign promise to approve both pipelines, which have staunch support from the oil industry and the GOP but are strongly opposed by Democrats and environmentalists.

The White House did not provide more details.

“It certainly confirms his commitment both to the rule of law and to job creation and energy security, which is pretty critical,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a close Trump ally whose state would contain segments of both pipelines.

COMMENT:  Give Trump credit:  He's doing exactly what he promised to do, and he's doing it quickly.  And this is even before he has his full Cabinet in place.  He will soon be delivering his first speech to Congress, and I have a hunch he'll be breaking some significant news.

Trump just announced he will reveal his Supreme Court nominee next week.

January 24, 2017       Permalink

YIKES!   THIS SOON? – AT 11:08. A.M. ET:   The rumors have been floating around.  They are growing.  Will she or won't she?  The she is Hillary Clinton.  The rumors are swirling around the possibility that she will run this year for mayor of New York.  Will she go from foreign policy to garbage trucks?  Will she become empress of bike lanes?  From the Daily Mail: 

Hillary Clinton is '50-50' on deciding whether or not she will run for New York mayor, a city political insider claims.

Supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis said he's convinced that Clinton might challenge current Mayor Bill de Blasio with a campaign this year.

Catsimatidis, a billionaire who was a Clinton donor during the 2016 presidential campaign, said he will hold off his own decision to run for mayor until the former secretary of state decides what she will do.

'I spoke to her about it, but she didn't indicate or signal to me [whether she would run]. She didn't say never, she didn't say no. In my personal opinion, it's 50-50,' he told The Real Deal real-estate blog on Monday. 'If Hillary runs, I won't.'

The Red Apple Group CEO and Gristedes Foods owner ran his own mayoral campaign in the 2013 primary as a Republican, but he lost to Joe Lhota.

While Clinton has given no indication she will run for office again she, she won 49 per cent of the hypothetical vote over de Blasio's 29 in a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.

The poll sparked calls among her fans to revive her political career. They started a 'Hillary for Mayor' hashtag on Twitter and told de Blasio to 'watch out'.

The poll asked: 'If the election for Mayor were being held today, and the candidates were Bill de Blasio the Democrat, and Hillary Clinton running as an independent candidate, for whom would you vote?'

The next Mayoral election in New York will be held on November 7. De Blasio has already begun campaigning for reelection.

COMMENT:  I'd love to see her run, just for the political theater.  Remember, Nixon ran for governor of California after losing the 1960 presidential race to Jack Kennedy.  He lost the governorship as well, but then went on to run, successfully, for president in 1968.

She'd have to depose fellow Democrat, and incumbent mayor, Bill de Blasio.  That won't be difficult.  The mayor is slightly to the left of Lenin, and is less than beloved. 

Knowing the New York Republican Party, it will give up before the race starts. 

Stay tuned for bulletins.

January 24, 2017       Permalink

WELL LOOK AT THIS – AT 10:44 A.M. ET:  How will the public react to the first days of President Trump?  Will Trump be able to overcome the insane hostility of the liberal press?  From Rasmussen:   

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-three percent (43%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 42% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 33% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of +9 (see trends).

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters think the country is heading in the right direction, the highest level of confidence in four years. It's important to note, though, that this survey wrapped up the night before Trump's inauguration.

COMMENT:  Once again we see what we saw during the campaign – the people think one way, the Washington media another way.   I'm encouraged by these opening figures.  Obviously, they can vary from week to week.  But if the president gets his message out, and details each day what's getting done, he may well establish a record as spectacular as his election victory.

January 24,  2017     Permalink

JANUARY 23,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

LIZ LOSING – FROM THE HILL:   Massachusetts voters are split on whether or not Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) should be reelected, according to a new poll.  Forty-six percent of all voters told WBUR they should "give someone else a chance," compared to 44 percent who said Warren should be reelected.
Steve Koczela — president of The MassINC Polling Group, which conducted the survey — said the numbers shouldn't be "reassuring" for Warren, who is up for reelection in 2018.  "No one's going to look at a 44 percent reelect number and think that that's a good number," he told WBUR.  Roughly a third of Democrats told WBUR that someone else should be given a shot at Warren's seat. Ninety two percent of Republicans also want someone else besides Warren, a liberal favorite in the Senate, as well as 46 percent of independent voters.  Warren is terminally obnoxious, a condition not covered by Obamacare.

RESPECTING ANOTHER ALLY – FROM REUTERS:  CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed ways to boost the fight against terrorism and extremism on Monday and the new American leader underscored his commitment to bilateral ties, the two countries said.  Trump told Sisi in a telephone call he appreciated the difficulties faced by Egypt in its "war on terror" and affirmed his administration's commitment to supporting the country, Sisi's spokesman Alaa Youssef said in a statement.  "The U.S. president also expressed during the call his looking forward to the president's awaited visit to Washington which is being prepared for through diplomatic channels," the statement said.  Sisi is an ally of the United States, and thus Obama treated him like an outcast.  Things have changed in Washington.  Allies are welcome again, and enemies are described correctly, as in "Islamic extremists."  Breath of fresh air. 

THE OLD BANANA SMEARING SCHEME – FROM AP:    PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – A woman is being charged with sneaking onto President Donald Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club shortly before his inauguration and smearing bananas on cars.  Palm Beach, Florida, police say in a report released Monday that 48-year-old Kelly Weidman also typed a profanity about Trump on a Mar-a-Lago computer and moved outside some ballroom balloons a few hours before Trump was sworn-in Friday.  She was confronted by security guards, who called police. She allegedly told officers she wanted to be arrested because no one was paying attention to her claim of being cyber attacked. She was charged with misdemeanor trespassing and released.  Because Trump wasn’t at the ritzy club, the Secret Service wasn’t involved.   Watch.  She'll be delivering the keynote address at the next Democratic National Convention.

January 23,  2017     Permalink

RUBIO ON BOARD FOR REX – AT 11:44 A.M. ET:   Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has announced he will support President Trump's nomination of Rex Tillerson for secretary of state.  Rubio thus joins Senators McCain and Graham, who announced their support yesterday.  The three Republicans had raised questions about Tillerson's relationship with Vladimir Putin.  Their hesitation threatened Tillerson's confirmation, which is now all but assured.  From ABC: 

Sen. Marco Rubio says he'll support President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state.

The Florida Republican ended nearly two weeks of "will he or won't he" drama by announcing on his Facebook page that he'll vote for Rex Tillerson to serve as the nation's top diplomat.

Rubio says his backing is not without concerns. He worries that in years to come the U.S. "will not give the defense of democracy and human rights the priority they deserve."

But he says it "would be against our national interests" for Tillerson's confirmation to be unnecessarily delayed or embroiled in controversy.

Rubio and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are scheduled to meet Monday afternoon to cast their ballots on Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO.

The senator clashed with Tillerson at his confirmation hearing earlier this month.

COMMENT:  Rubio's endorsement was less than enthusiastic, leaving open the possibility of clashes with Tillerson and the administration down the line.  There is no love lost between Rubio and Trump, or between McCain and Trump or Graham and Trump.  Republican senators are doing Trump a favor by putting aside their concerns over Tillerson, and I have a feeling they've gotten some policy concessions in return.  We'll see.

January 23, 2017       Permalink

THE DONALD – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  How shall we see Donald Trump?  How shall we examine his work as he starts his presidency?  Leave it to the great Andrew Malcolm to lay out a perfectly sane and logical approach.  From McClatchy: 

I humbly suggest, therefore, that those who didn’t vote for Trump, such as most of those you’ll see commenting on him now, hold their fire a good while, give the distasteful new Oval Office occupant a chance, as even a shell-shocked Hillary Clinton suggested back in November.

Trump is a bold dealmaker who makes outrageous opening offers. If he succeeds, we succeed. After all, we’ve just survived two terms of an ineffective president whose real legacy turns out to be this Donald Trump guy.

Who knows, those “forgotten men and women” Trump often cites just may have sensed something the rest of us missed. Since the Founding Fathers emerging from an unlikely Revolution had faith in our system – and the choices of unknown millions of countrymen who would succeed them – how can we not too at what seems to us a pressing modern moment?

This promises to be a fascinating political year or four, a time rife with uncertainty, unforeseen twists, fears, even distaste and discomfort. But also possibly some positive discoveries as swamp waters drain, if they do.

To be sure, new ways can threaten, witness those five dozen Democrats who avoided inauguration ceremonies to hide in their congressional offices. But new ways can also renew. To paraphrase Hyman Roth in “The Godfather II:” This is the president we have chosen. The collective We, as in We the People.

COMMENT:  Good common sense.  Let Trump be Trump, and let him govern.  Let him also defend himself against the onslaught of attacks that are already starting.  I really have never seen anything quite like it. 

Even if Trump succeeds, his success will not be reported as success by some journalists.  He has to figure out a way around that, speaking directly to the people.

Feels like a revolution, doesn't it?

January 23, 2017       Permalink

FIRST FULL DAY – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  This is President Trump's first full day in office.  From Fox: 

President Trump is set to kick off his first full ‘work day’ in the White House by signing an executive order withdrawing the United States from a controversial Pacific-nation trade deal, Fox News is told.

The president is expected to sign an order taking the U.S. out of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, which he railed against during the campaign and which Hillary Clinton previously supported before distancing herself from the deal.

The executive order, and possibly others, are being signed after a weekend of introductory meetings and perfunctory duties marking the transfer of power.

Trump has said he considers Monday his first real day in the office.

Bracketing the order-signing on Monday are a host of meetings at the White House, including a listening session with business leaders, another one with union leaders and later a reception with congressional leaders from both parties.

He'll also hold his first meeting as president with the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan.

"Busy week planned with a heavy focus on jobs and national security," Trump tweeted early Monday. "Top executives coming in at 9:00 A.M. to talk manufacturing in America."

In his early-morning meeting with business leaders, Trump said he would impose a "substantial border tax" on companies that move their manufacturing out of the United States, while promising unspecified advantages to companies that manufacture domestically.

"All you have to do is stay," he said during a morning meeting in the White House's Roosevelt Room.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Marillyn Hewson of Lockheed Martin were among the executives who attended the meeting.

COMMENT:  Wait!  You mean, he's actually doing what he said he would do?  How dare he!  What is this, something new? 

I have a feeling we're going to see the most action-packed first hundred days since FDR.  But you may be sure that the president's enemies are already working to wreck many of these initiatives, with the help of the amen media.

January 23,  2017     Permalink