The Runback: One Forward, Two Back
The biggest obstacle to President Trump's re-election is President Trump
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News and Politics
Enough with this Special Session Stuff: Maryland's left-wing continues to push for a special session. But why?
The Good Ship Lollipop: Why is the Trump campaign obsessed with Boat parades?
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College Sports are Falling Apart: Whether College Football Plays or not, things are about to change.
The Five Most Interesting Teams In Baseball Right Now: And why Major League is a favorite sports movie.
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Welcome To Flavor Country: Breaking down the new Lays chip flavors.
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The Monday Thought
Thursday was a microcosm of the entirety of the Trump Administration.
Thursday morning it was announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates would b recognizing each other and normalizing relations. Anytime our allies in Israel normalize relations with an Arab country, it’s a pretty big deal. In this instance, it is the first time that Israel has normalized relations with a country in the Persian Gulf region.
It’s a huge foreign policy achievement, and President Donald Trump was involved in making it happen. It is, far and away, the biggest foreign policy achievement of this administration. This achievement alone is a greater achievement in bringing peace to the world than any Barack Obama accomplished year he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The same day President Trump spoke to Fox News. And this happened:
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he opposes much-needed funding for the United States Postal Service because he doesn't want to see it used for mail-in voting this November.
By directly linking USPS funding to mail-in voting, Trump is fueling allegations that he is trying to manipulate the postal system for political gain. The pandemic has led to record-shattering levels of voting-by-mail, but Trump has tried to restrict the voting method because he says it will hurt his re-election and Republicans across the board.
During an interview on Fox News, Trump said that if USPS does not receive the additional $25 billion funding request that Democrats included in the ongoing stimulus negotiations, then he believes the Post Office won't be able to handle the influx of mail-in ballots in the upcoming election.
"They want three and a half billion dollars for something that'll turn out to be fraudulent, that's election money basically. They want three and a half billion dollars for the mail-in votes. Universal mail-in ballots. They want $25 billion, billion, for the Post Office. Now they need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots," Trump said, repeating his false claims that mail-in voting would be "fraudulent."
"But if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because you they're not equipped to have it," Trump added.
I mean……
This is among the most knuckleheaded things that President Trump has ever said as it relates to politics or policy. And he has said a lot of knuckleheaded things.
But has anybody so obviously said the quiet part out loud, that a policy position being taken by the incumbent’s administration is being done specifically to hurt the electoral chances of a re-elections opponent?
I mean I guess on one hand I appreciate the honesty. Of course, nobody else needs to be honest in saying it because they don’t actually do it. They certainly do specifically seek to mess with the already beleaguered U.S. Postal Service.
When you consider how many people rely on the Postal Service and, more importantly, who relies on the Postal Service most, then you realize how stupid this entire enterprise is. So many Trump voters, whether they be from rural states or they be voters over the age of 55, rely on the Postal Service for survival. To whit, here’s a story from South Dakota:
Thullner, 76, is a retired farmer and rancher. He’s relied on the postal service for his business and personal mail for years. Now, he and his wife also use the postal service for delivery of medication.
“There is no pharmacy here,” Thullner said.
Herreid is about 100 miles south of Bismarck, North Dakota, and about 100 miles north of Pierre, he said.
His medication comes from North Dakota.
If the mail service isn’t properly funded or maintained, medication delivery could be delayed, Thullner said. What would that mean for someone who takes insulin, he asked.
So because the President is having an election-related outburst, this poor guy is having his business and his health being put at risk.
Now don’t be naïve: the U.S. Postal Service has had serious issues that long predate the Trump Administration. The USPS has been a bipartisan debacle for years.
But nobody has made comments the way Trump has.
And that gets to the crux of why I mention this. Because it seems like every time that President Trump and his administration have a significant accomplishment, the President then says something or does something that negates whatever political benefit the accomplishment would bring. Politically it’s always one step forward and two (or more) steps backward with Trump and his campaign.
And that makes the candidate the Trump Campaign’s biggest liability and the biggest obstacle for re-election. While Trump’s campaign has been flawed from jump street, it has been steadily improving. But the one variable that the campaign staff can’t control is the candidate himself.
Maybe I’m making too much of this. Maybe the weekend poll that shows Biden with only a four-point lead is more accurate than not (notwithstanding the fact that it’s a poll of registered voters and not likely voters). Maybe the CBS News Battleground Tracker that has Biden with more than 270 electoral votes already locked up isn’t the real electoral picture. But no matter; the President and his campaign have zero room for error the next 78 days. And if the President makes these type of mistakes during those 78 days, the election result will not be the one his supporters wish to have.