Month: June 2024

Why the Right hopes Biden does well in the debate

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June 27, debate day, is the most important date in this election cycle. Second is Election Day. Third is August 9, when Democrats hold their national convention. 

Why is June 27 so important? Because it will determine the Democratic nominee for president.

“But wait!” says you. “It’s Joe Biden, Ed. We already know this.”

Nope. You can regale me with all kinds of verbal barbs if I’m wrong, but I would be shocked to learn that the Democratic Elite (i.e., the Party’s big-money donors and a handful of elected and ex-elected officials) want Biden to do well in the debate. The Elite can read the polls. They see where this is going, and they’re rightfully concerned that Biden will not beat Donald Trump.

Here’s what I think will happen on Thursday. Trump, of course, is likely to spew all manner of lies, mutter incoherently, maybe even make up a new word or two. But that won’t matter to his base or to commentators, whose expectations on Trump’s debate performance set the bar pretty low.

Pundits and commentators will, however, rate Biden’s performance somewhere between mediocre and a total bomb. Over the course of the next two months, the Party Elites will roll out Biden’s chosen successor. (Sorry, Kamala Harris, it’s not you. My prediction: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.) Continue Reading →

Making progress on human rights

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Some say all politics is local. Maybe. But it’s also important that we know what’s going on in the rest of the world.

When it comes to getting a handle on global affairs, my go-to guest for the Fallon Forum is Jeffrey Weiss. Jeffrey’s a college prof, an activist, and a life-time student of international affairs.

Between wars, human rights abuses, genocide, famine, and the nuclear threat, there’s so much global strive that it’s sometimes hard to remain positive. But when you step back and look at the bigger picture, over time, we should feel encouraged.

Jeffrey makes some good points on the progress that’s been made on human rights. Sure, we’ve still got a long way to go, and some of the current abuses show the barbaric side of the human condition. Continue Reading →

Why RFK Jr. is being excluded from the debates

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Last year, my wife, Kathy, literally fell into a rabbit hole. She was spared encounters with hookah-smoking caterpillars and creepy-smiley cats, but did wrench a knee badly.

Last week, I fell into a different kind of rabbit hole while writing this blog. I entered the conversation with this question “Why are the corporate media excluding Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the debates?”

The deeper I dug, the more I realized that the media (specifically CNN and ABC, the two debate sponsors) are less to blame for excluding Kennedy than the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and both parties’ presumptive nominee.

So, here I am on Fathers Day, rewriting a blog to go along with last week’s talk show/podcast when I should be doing what fathers do on this hallowed day: as little as possible.

As US News noted on May 16, “If there’s one thing that President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump can agree on, it’s that they want Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out of the presidential election.” Continue Reading →

Talking with “the other side”

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I’ve heard it before and I’ll probably hear it again today: “Ed, why are you giving these right-wingers air time? Their crazy views get enough coverage already.”

I invite Republicans on my show because dialogue is important. Critical, in fact, if we are to find a way out of the divisions rending our country.

Some may recall that, in 2021, I interviewed 13 Iowans who voted for Donald Trump. The most important truth to come out of those conversations is that all of us, regardless of political affiliation, share a lot more in common than we have differences.

For sure, there are crazies in the Republican Party. In fact, the loudest voices on the right tend to be the craziest. Unfortunately, they have some pretty powerful microphones at their disposal.

One Republican I’ve had on my program is Pat Bertroche (April 2, 2021). Pat and I may disagree on some (but not all) issues, but he’s not crazy. In fact, especially on Ukraine (check out our conversation at the 20-minute mark) Pat’s quite well-informed. Continue Reading →