By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 26, 2019 | Horse races I’ll bet on. But an election? Never.
After all, in horse races, there are certain probabilities. You know the horse’s record and its ancestry, the jockey, trainer and owner’s record, and even track conditions. You also know lots about the horse’s opponents.
Not in politics. You may know some aspects about candidates, but no matter how much you know, unknown features can jump in at any moment. And small items always could influence an election. Essentially, any election can turn on a whim, an outburst, something out of nowhere.
And even superb candidates can lose. Most of us know good, credible candidates who have lost.
So expect me to take you up on a political bet? Won’t happen.
Yet all of us have our own opinions of the many races. Right now considering the upcoming presidential election, no matter which of the many Democratic candidates wins the nomination, these days my “money” is on President Trump. Somehow, he has a way with the public that turns elections. And he may even have an odds-on chance to again lose the popular vote, but win in the Electoral College.
Sad but true.
How any American can support the difficult-to-follow Donald Trump is beyond me. The one characteristic that I would wish him, as he seeks to run the country, is silence. He simply cannot keep his mouth shut or twitter presence quiet. His followers must love those outbursts. They disturb me. While I wasn’t around for the presidency of Calvin Coolidge, from what I’ve learned, that’s the demeanor in a president that I would wish Mr. Trump could emulate.
Most recently the president has been attacking four freshmen members of the Congress in ways that is simply uncalled for and awful. These four women minority freshmen have found ways to catch the media’s attention, similar to the way Mr. Trump does. And that seems to bug the president. He is taking on formidable foes with these women. They may egg him on in new ways to embarrass his presidency.
Our presidential election years never seem to be the same, in that unexpected elements seem to jump up out of the blue most years to bring uncertainty into the race. When John Kennedy ran, it was the element of his Catholic religion that raised questions. When Jimmy Carter ran, it was him being a Southern candidate that year, plus people poking fun of his ready smile. When Ronald Reagan ran, people questioned if we wanted a movie actor as a president, even though he had been a governor. And of course, with President Obama, it was his race.
In 2016, in the primaries, the Democrats had a new face that wasn’t even a Democrat, the independent Bernie Sanders, making waves. And there was the Hillary question, and some not wanting a female president. Then Donald Trump, a so-called outside businessman, was the big new element for the Republicans.
For 2019, with there being no doubt as who the Republicans will offer, the new question this time is which of the 20 or so Democrats will get nominated. Or maybe it could be even the possibility that not these candidates, but someone else might “catch fire” before the convention, and would be the nominee.
We’re months away from such decisions.
So let me be at the track, and give me even a lousy horse race. I’ll bet on that. But politics? Not one dime!
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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