Tag: vote

She’s All That?

While pondering this year’s election, something seemed strangely familiar.  It was hard to put a finger on exactly what was causing this feeling of déjà vu.  On the surface, this seems like a very unique election compared to any other in recent memory.  On one side, there is a successful former president who could become the first since Grover Cleveland to serve two, non-consecutive terms.  On the other side, there is a politician whom both sides dislike, and who got crushed in the Democrat primary four years ago so badly that she dropped out in disgrace, but was then handed the nomination this year by the powerful elites in her party without receiving a single primary vote.  Why they would pick somebody as unpopular and unlikeable as Kamala Harris did not make much sense.  It is almost as though the Democrats have some sort of a bet going.

Then, a lightbulb went off in my head.  I knew why this story seemed so recognizable.  She’s All That!  Harris’s candidacy made me think of the 1999 teen romantic comedy starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachel Leigh Cook.  In the film, Prinze plays Zack, a popular high school senior who gets dumped by his girlfriend six weeks before the prom.  He tells his friend Dean, played by Paul Walker, that he can replace her with any girl on campus and make her popular.  Dean doubts it and proposes a wager that Zack cannot turn a girl picked by Dean into the prom queen in six weeks.  Zack accepts the bet.  Dean smells an easy win because he can pick any girl, and it can be the most unlikeable, unpopular, ugly girl in the school.  It is a test of Zack’s power and influence on campus.

This has to be what happened in this election cycle!  The media (our Prinze character) is so overconfident in their ability to control the public that it seems like they made a wager with the Democrat party (our Walker character) that they can make anybody win the presidency, even if they select the most heinous, unlikeable, extreme candidate we have ever seen on a presidential ballot for a major party.  We, the unknowing public, are represented by the students at the school.

This is where the similarity ends and the movie gets unrealistic.  Instead of choosing a fat girl with a bad complexion, bad teeth, and body odor, Dean chooses a hot girl played by Cook, Laney Boggs, because she has glasses and is a little bit awkward.  Here, the Democrats made a truly horrendous selection.  Harris has literally no positives going for her.  On policy, Harris is the most far-left candidate we have ever seen on the ticket.  She is so far left that she hides her actual policy positions by avoiding any tough policy questions, and did not even feature a policy page on her campaign website until being attacked for that omission last week.  The few policy positions she has proposed could have come straight from Karl Marx.  Her most notable idea is to impose Soviet-style price controls that would lead to empty grocery store shelves. 

Internationally, she is weak when it comes to support for Israel.  She claims to want Israel to be able to defend itself while simultaneously chastising them for doing so.  She panders to pro-Hamas protesters and the antisemitic members of her party.  She even passed over a far more electable VP pick, Josh Shapiro, because he is Jewish. 

Not only is she terrible on substance, but she is lacking even the superficial qualities on which Democrats usually base their campaigns.  She is not charming like Bill Clinton.  She is not a smooth snake oil salesman like Barack Obama.  She is one of the most unlikeable candidates that has ever come along.  Her voice is annoying and her famous cackle is awkward.  She somehow comes off as simultaneously condescending and unsure of herself.  With all of these flaws, both deep and shallow, there has to be a bet going on.  There is no other reason for them to choose a candidate as awful as Kamala Harris.

Unlike the bet in the movie, this seems like it should be a sure loser.  The media is trying, though.  In this sequel, they have a bigger ego than Zack did in the original.  They are blanketing the airwaves with wall-to-wall positive coverage of Harris, and constant insults and attacks against her opponent, President Trump.  They are covering up all of her many negatives.  Just like Zack got Laney to hang out and be seen with all of the cool, popular kids to help raise her status, the media is focusing on Harris getting support from glitzy Hollywood stars and popular musical artists.  They are building a mirage.

Is the media all-powerful like they think they are?  Is the American public as gullible as they think we are?  Is Kamala Harris all that?  Let’s make the media lose their bet. 

My Endorsement for the California Recall Election

October is my favorite month of the year.  I spend most of the month playing baseball tournaments in Arizona and watching postseason baseball on television.  Last October was even better because I got to escape the tyrannical lockdown orders in my home state of California that destroyed businesses, ended friendliness by covering up smiles with mask rules that do not even work, turned record employment numbers into record unemployment, crushed the dreams of young athletes, and kept people from enjoying meals together by forcing the closure of restaurants.  That is, unless you were the worst governor in the nation, Gavin Newsom, who proved that he did not believe in his own dictatorial mandates by eating with a group of lobbyists at a swanky restaurant, The French Laundry, where they ran up a $12,000 bar tab. 

It is obvious that California is a mess.  People and businesses are fleeing the state in droves.  As you all know, we are now less than a month out from a special election to recall Governor Newsom.  There are two questions on the ballot.  Question one asks whether Governor Newsom should be removed from office.  VOTE YES!  His failures are so clear that the vote should be unanimous.  Question two asks who should become governor if Newsom is removed.  Over 40 candidates are running, and that is what brings me back to Arizona last October.

During one of my stints in the Phoenix area, I noticed that radio host Larry Elder would be doing a screening of his movie, Uncle Tom, at a local theater.  As a big fan who had listened to Larry Elder for years, I bought a ticket and headed downtown for the night.  The film is excellent and I highly recommend you take the time to watch it.  It explores how black conservatives are marginalized and disparaged by Democrats and the media in America.  Larry Elder produced, co-wrote, and starred in the film.  Before each showing of the film, he did about a half-hour talk, introduced the film, and answered some questions from the audience.  He knows his stuff! 

His focus then was on ending racial division, strengthening families, and because it was a week before the election, President Trump and Joe Biden.  Larry Elder is now one of the candidates running for governor of California.  He is running on a platform that includes giving Californians back our freedom, improving the homelessness crisis that was exacerbated by the current governor’s policies, giving parents the choice of where to send their children to school, reducing wasteful government spending and regulations that harm our economy, and lowering California’s skyrocketing crime rate.

Wait, there’s more.  I know that many people are less worried about policy than they are about personality.  I don’t understand that myself, but I have good news for you.  The best part of my evening at the theater last October was when I met Larry Elder after the movie.  I have been to events with other celebrities and radio personalities, and they will usually shake hands and sign a copy of their book or DVD for the guests in attendance, but Larry Elder did more than that.  He stood there in the lobby of the theater and had a real conversation with every person who lined up to meet him.  He wasn’t running for anything at that point.  He didn’t have to stand there all night.  He genuinely took an interest in two theaters full of strangers.  When I got to the front of the line, he spoke with me for literally a few minutes.  I was wearing a Dodgers jacket, so he talked baseball with me, and actually knew what he was talking about.  I gave him a copy of my book, The God Bet, and he asked me about it.  He kept asking me questions about myself long after most people would have moved on to the next person in line.  I was very impressed.  He has the personality and character to go along with the solid policy positions that I want in a leader.

California would be lucky to have Larry Elder as the next governor.  This is why I am proudly and enthusiastically endorsing him in the September 14 special election.  If you live in the state, vote YES on question one, and vote for Larry Elder on question two.  If you don’t live in the state, you might as well come vote anyways.  We don’t check ID here!  (To be clear, that was a joke.  I do not condone cheating.  What do you think I am, a Democrat?)