Pooh Pooh

I have written in the past about my (and others') concerns regarding Hellary Clinton's health problems ... see: Sicko?, Devine Intervention, and I Robot. Most of my liberal friends, who are emotionally committed to electing this woman, have reacted with either pooh poohs or by questioning Trump's health as well. And Hellary has had other incidents since I last expressed my concerns. I won't detail them here as most of you who are awake know of what I write. But today at the 9/11 memorial service in downtown Manhattan, Hellary had another "health episode" and had to leave this ceremony early ... possibly fainting ... see: Fox News Coverage.

The evidences of this woman's frailty are so obvious now that their ramifications need to be explored. What if this woman becomes so sick or incapacitated between now and Election Day that it becomes clear that, even if elected, she would be so diminished that she could not govern? (Pooh, pooh!) What happens? Don't forget early voting has already started in some states ... with more coming on stream every week. Do the Democrats just carry on like what happened in Weekend at Bernie's?  Do they put a wig on Joe Biden and change his name? Does Tim Kaine step up and become the nominee? Perhaps they can postpone the election until she gets better? What if she doesn't? What does the Constitution allow under these circumstances?

I will make a rash prediction ... that she will not participate in all three presidential debates ... maybe not even one ...

Afterward: Sarah Silverman says that anyone questioning Clinton's health is an a**hole. Can I be this and also be in the basket of deplorables?

Aleppo

Presidential candidate from the Libertarian Party, Gary Johnson, had a great opportunity this morning on MSNBC to get his name in front of the American people and, unfortunately, he did ... but not necessarily in a good way. Mike Barnicle, a chattering classless member on the Morning Joe show, asked him what he thought of Aleppo and Johnson asked, "What is Aleppo?" To which Barnicle replied, "You're kidding?" and then lectured Johnson that Aleppo was the epicenter of the refugee crisis in Syria. Candidate Johnson then picked up on the Syria reference and gave some boilerplate answer about how bad things were there.

This serious blunder on Johnson's part then became the topic of many smug comments from the many participants on this show ... basically saying that Johnson had just destroyed any chance even to get on the stage for the upcoming first presidential debate (needing 15% approval in national polling.) And they might be right. However, we are living in strange times and the fact that Johnson's brain-fart will cause his name to be now mentioned repeatedly on network news programs might just paradoxically improve his chances ... since probably 95% of Americans also don't know Aleppo from Alpo ... and many voters have had their fill of the media's belief that it is the final arbiter of a candidate's worth. We'll see in the next few days.

However, I have a few observations of my own about this event:

- I'm reasonably sure that Gary Johnson has seen Aleppo mentioned in print many times, but may not have heard it said enough to connect things ... particularly under the pressure of the TV lights.

- Recent polling suggests that Johnson's popularity (around 8%) might be pulling more from Hellary than from Trump. This might have been Barnicle's motivation to ask his gotcha question ... to help Clinton ever so slightly.

- If Johnson's polling numbers are not destroyed by this gaffe, then it might also be because Americans often love to root for the underdog. The more feral the media becomes regarding this matter, the more this may elicit such a response.

The First Joust

Tonight is the first Presidential debate and, according to the Main Stream Media's narrative, one of Mitt Romney's last three chances to overcome his lagging poll results. The moderator of this first debate, Jim Lehrer of PBS, is not exactly the most unbiased referee who could have been chosen.  But then neither was moderator David Gregory of the recent Scott Brown/Elizabeth Warren debate at UMass/Lowell.  After an initial leftward list, David Gregory did manage to steady his tilt before the end of that joust.  Let us hope that Jim Lehrer can also approach this standard.

This first Presidential debate is to take place at the University of Denver in Colorado.  In fact, all the major debates this election year will take place at venues obviously favorable to Democrats ... universities (see: Debate Venues).  However, that aside, the real challenges to the Republican candidates are the questions they are to be asked ... as are the optics surrounding these contests.  Regarding these questions, previously on this blog I have already constructed ten questions I would like to have asked of each Presidential contestant.  For those who don't recall them, these queries are repeated here: Obama Queries and Romney Queries.  If Jim Lehrer (or possibly the audience) asks anything like these questions, I think this first joust could turn out to be a reasonably-fair contest.

I can't predict the optics, but I bet it will include the candidates's beaming wives and families ... but probably not any horses.