Anyone reading this headline will instantly know these are the two front-runners in the Republican primary race. We should pause here and consider the import of this, so many weeks into the contest, after two widely-viewed TV debates and with the first primary approaching.
Six months ago, the pundits would have been absolutely confident that the Bush name would have been in our title, along with Rubio, Christie, Kasich, Paul, Walker or Perry. Now Walker and Perry have surrendered to the polling figures and Christie, Kasich and Paul are clutching at straws. Jeb Bush, (Mr. Tippy-toes – and by the way, you first read that nick-name on this website!) unable to find a straw, is floating on his back and hoping a current and currency will carry him to the third debate, Iowa and New Hampshire.
Bush, Rubio and Fiorina are immediate competitors for that outsider position behind Carson and Trump, and Bush is getting badly squeezed. With hindsight we can all be experts and point to the anger of the Republican rank-and-file with the financially-sponsored career politicians they have been electing and who have betrayed them. This is offered as the sole explanation for the ascendancy of Trump and Carson.
As always the reasons are more complex when the unforeseen happens. Certainly, in Trump’s case, his financial independence is a factor, though most experts would have predicted that his great wealth would be a turn-off for many humble people. His celebrity and overt showmanship was also expected to prevent humble people from taking him seriously. Yet it is the humble people who have propelled Trump into the lead.
Carson is not financially independent and we must assume that there were some rich people who kick-started his campaign. Still, he has largely run his campaign on a shoe-string and has benefited from many small donations. Most of all, he has, like Trump, reaped support from his appearances on TV facing hostile MSM questioning and responding with answers that break the stranglehold of political correctness.
Some race-based websites attribute Carson’s popularity to Republican White guilt. Others claim he is seen as a means of breaking the Democrat grip on the Black vote in 2016. There may be a grain of truth in the ‘White guilt’ explanation but anyone who believes that his skin color will take Black votes from the Democrat candidate is in denial of reality. In 2016, the Blacks and the Jews of America will, as always, flock to the polls for the Democrat Party.
Trump and Carson have said things in this campaign that ordinary conservative White people (and some conservative Orientals and Latinos) are thirsting to hear. Trump’s honest talk about the border with Mexico and Carson’s honest talk regarding Islam’s incompatibility with Western values, suggest their fitness for the Oval Office of the USA, at a time when Internationalism has a choke-hold on political discourse.
Trump, the extrovert and Carson, taciturn, seem like opposites, but the former’s impromptu answers and extemporary speeches and the latter’s delayed, pondered answers indicate honesty instead of calculated political dishonesty. Moreover, neither are pompous and naturally poke fun at themselves.
One human characteristic Trump and Carson reveal that is missing in all the other candidates, is a sense of humor. Can anyone imagine Jeb Bush really laughing at a joke? Or Fiorina? Cruz, Kasich, Paul, and Rubio. Can anyone imagine them enjoying a good belly laugh? Christie? Yes, but only at someone else’s expense! As for Sanders, how can anyone be expected to laugh when the world is so unfair? Hillary Clinton has one dominating characteristic and it is bitterness. Even her laugh is bitter! Bitter Hillary!
On this website we are still rooting for Trump but we would happily vote for the thoughtful and decent Ben Carson. No, we do not suffer from White guilt! Trump not only has a good starting point – what is good for Americans – but impresses as a man who wastes no time acting to achieve his goals. We only wish he was tougher on immigration, on Muslims, on free speech and for real marriage.
Meanwhile, the self-righteous Bush has been caught stooping to dirty tricks against a fellow Republican candidate. The snotty, over-confident young redhead, aggrieved over the right to control her own body, and who was planted in the Huntsman audience to smear Trump as a woman-hater, has probably nudged Bush’s current toward the Arctic.
On this website we have accused Obama of being a crypto-Muslim. His latest Presidential instruction removing all pork products from the Federal prison diet, is further evidence that we are spot-on. He is not pandering for Muslin votes or Muslim money but advancing the religion of his father.. What is most depressing about this latest action by our crypto-Muslim President is the willingness of senior public officials to brazenly lie on his behalf, claiming that Federal prisoners do not want bacon!
Music Choice
Mexican marimba player and composer Alberto Dominguez wrote the evergreen melody ‘Frenesi’ in 1939. Two years later he wrote ‘Perfidia’. Both are outstanding compositions that have stood the test of time and been recorded by great bands and even greater singers. One of the greatest versions of ‘Frenesi’ is little known and we recommend it here.
The Chet Baker Quartet played for some weeks in Santa Cruz, California in 1954. Although Baker was still young, he was already living recklessly and it is said that the members of this quartet were equally as reckless with their health and safety. Nevertheless, they played some of the finest American jazz ever recorded. Baker was on top form when accompanied by Russ Freeman on piano, Carson Smith on bass and Bob Neel on drums. This period in Baker’s career showed that his trumpet playing ranked only just below that of Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown and way above the over-rated Miles Davis. Enjoy this poorly-recorded, but timeless live night-club version of ‘Frenesi’.