After every election, we hear horror stories of breakdowns in the system. These things happen in elections at all levels but usually it is the high-profile ones like elections for president that draw media attention to the many, many problems that beset American elections, some inadvertent, some by deliberate design.
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There is nothing more annoying than well-off people whining about their petty hardships when, unlike the vast majority of people, they have the option of walking away from the source of their problems. Senator Elizabeth Warren was incensed at senator Ted Cruz when he complained about the four “steep sacrifices” he has made and how much he had to endure by running for president: “sleep, personal time, time with his family and that he faced a “constant barrage” of attacks”.
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To the extent that Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum’s political views can be classified, I would place him as a mainstream liberal. He has made no secret of the fact that he supports Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. But even he conceded that the one thing that bothers him about her is her love for the use of US military force and he uses as evidence an article by Adam Landler in the New York Times Magazine that looks at a series of events where she had some role in the decision making and in which she was almost always the most belligerent person.
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Apparently US leaders and diplomats have to work overtime to try and reassure foreign leaders about the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency. What is interesting is not that they are worried but what they are worried about.
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The non-profit investigative journalism outfit ProPublica just received its third Pulitzer Prize in seven years since it started in 2008. The organization is one that I have been financially contributing to for some time. It was created at a time when newspapers were cutting back on investigative reporting because of the cost involved, though one could argue that it should be the heart of any news outlet.
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The result of the New York primary is not good news for the Bernie Sanders campaign. While he was expected to lose, the almost 16-point margin of defeat (57.9%-42.1%) is large enough that it has to be seen as a major setback and a downer after his recent string of successes, even though he still picked up 106 delegates to Hillary Clinton’s 139. He will have to do much better in the five primaries next Tuesday (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island).
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I often feel sorry for music performers at restaurants, especially when it is a band and not (say) a solo pianist who knows that he or she is there to just provide background music. It must be galling when the people in the room completely ignore you and continue to talk and eat and I often wonder how they feel. Maybe Ted Cruz can tell us because he recently had that experience when he spoke at an event in New York City as part of his campaign in that state’s primary being held today.
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Today is the New York state primary that it looks like Bernie Sanders will lose, even though some national polls have recently shown a steady tightening of the race with just a two point gap between them, down from nine points just a month ago. The establishment media will seize on a Hillary Clinton win of any size to suggest that Sanders has lost and should leave the race. It is interesting to note that although both Trump and Clinton lead in the delegate counts of their respective parties by roughly the same amounts, Trump is always portrayed as if he is in a precarious situation while Clinton is seen as inevitable. Could this be because he is opposed by the establishment while she is favored by them?
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