BloggeRhythms

Mixed bag of items today, most of them related to trends and status of the presidential campaign.

To begin, while Rush doesn’t extend specific endorsements, his preferences and selection of favorites come through clearly to his radio audience and website viewers.

In that regard, yesterday Rush undoubtedly offered huge support to Ted Cruz.

Rush asked: “Where is all the conservatism? Is it on Fox News? Is it National Review? Is it over at the American Spectator? Where is it? It isn't in the Republican Party. That is for darn sure, and so many people are livid about that. I'm talking about the party establishment. Yes, Ted Cruz. Look, what more do you want me to say? Ted Cruz is the closest living thing to Ronald Reagan we're ever gonna have in our lifetimes. I don't know what more I can say about Ted Cruz.”

Most revealing and significant about Rush’s comment is that Reagan is his long-time idol and symbol of everything he believes, politically speaking. Ranking right alongside William F. Buckley who founded National Review magazine in 1955, which had a major impact in stimulating the conservative movement.

Rush went on: “I also like Marco Rubio, in comparison to other options and choices. People get mad at me for that. "He's not a conservative, amnesty, Gang of Eight Bill, the lying through his teeth." Folks, I know every objection you're gonna throw at me. I know it myself without having to be told. You know, I'm the last person you should think doesn't know something. If you're running around thinking, "He doesn't know," don't include me in that list of people doesn't know. I know everything about these guys -- good, bad, indifferent, ugly, pretty, what have you.

“I don't say anything I say about anybody from an uninformed position, and there isn't anybody that's fooling me about anything. "Rush, Rubio's fooling you over amnesty." Rubio's not fooling me. Once you realize there's no perfection, then the view (changes.)”

Rush then went on to suggest that he wasn’t strongly supportive of Trump at all, offering his own uneasiness with Trump in a discussion with a caller doubting both Trump’s conservatism and his presidential capabilities.

“CALLER: Listen, Rush, I speak to people who are Trump supporters who sincerely believe that Trump is the conservative choice. And Trump gets up there and says it all the time. And they believe it. It needs to be exposed by the leaders in the conservative movement. And leadership... Leaders don't choose to be leaders. When people follow someone, that makes them a leader.

“RUSH: Well, but I have made it clear. I've not made it a theme every day, but I have said countless times that Trump is not conservative. I said he's not ideological. I've said he doesn't look at Chuck Schumer and see an ideological enemy like you and I would. He just doesn't. I've tried to say it after the debate on Saturday. What more do I have to say? Trump's targeting liberals and Democrats. Name a conservative who does that."

The caller then asked: “Do you believe the country would be in good shape with a President Trump?” To which, Rush never provided his answer. Rush replied: “Do I believe the country would be in good shape with a President Trump? I believe –“ And then, the call ended, leaving the audience in suspension. 

Lastly, Rush indicated his thought that Trump had reached the peak of his popularity within the Republican party.

Rush said: “You look at the polling data, particularly the polling data coming out of South Carolina, and it looks like Trump has topped out at about 25% of the conservative vote. I think this is why he is making moves in other directions, and it's, of course, strategically understandable given South Carolina is an open state. But I think Trump's been pretty steady in the percentage of the conservative primary vote that he's getting from poll after poll after poll. If you average it all out, he's around 25, maybe 28%. But his peak has been reached for a while, and it isn't expanding.” 

And then, on the other side of the coin, for what it’s worth, Fox News Chris Stirewalt commented on an article from the New York Times this morning, as follows: “Speaking at a news conference in California at the end of a two-day summit meeting with leaders from Southeast Asian nations, Mr. Obama criticized the positions taken by the Republican candidates on climate change, Muslims in America and immigration.” 

The POTUS’s comment made one stop and think whereas, in one short sentence he identified every major issue that Republicans disagree with, as does most others in the nation, and the most likely reasons Democrats will lose the upcoming elections in November. And that doesn’t even include complete dissatisfaction with the economy, unemployment, opening the door for ISIS and the growth of terrorism. 

Which brings us to today’s update on Bill Clinton’ wife.

According to Alan Rappeport @nytimes.com: “Things are tighter for the Democrats, where Hillary Clinton leads Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont by 44 percent to 42 percent. As with the Republicans, Mrs. Clinton wins on electability and leadership, but Mr. Sanders is seen as more truthful and better at relating to the needs of voters.”

Which means that, since the Quinnipiac survey used for the article had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points, Sanders has effectively caught Bill’s wife on a national basis.

However, aside from the slide in voter popularity, Bill’s wife has far greater problems. 

Yesterday former New York City Mayor and U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani appeared with Sean Hannity on Fox News, expressing his opinion that Bill’s wife had far more serious problems to consider than the upcoming election. Such as potential indictment and conviction.  

Unable to reproduce the taped conversation between the Mayor and Hannity, a similar explanation was found in an article by JCscuba @whatyouthoughtiwentaway.wordpress.com, on-line a couple of months ago.

“Former New York City Mayor and U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday he doesn’t think there is any way Hillary Clinton should be able to avoid facing an indictment for the “secretive and highly classified” government information found on the private email server she used while secretary of state. 

“[There are] 13 violations of federal law that she arguably committed,” Giuliani told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program. “This is about as clear as it gets. It is a crime to negligently handle top-secret material.” 

“Giuliani said in his days in the government, there were times he’d be at work until 2 a.m. because he never took top-secret materials out of his office. 

“Now, how can she put all this out there and not get proceeded against by the government,” said Giuliani, noting the situation of former General David Petraeus. “They treated it — in the case of Petraeus — as a major crime, and his actions are a hundredth of hers,” said Giuliani. “She misrepresented about it. She’s lied about it. She said she had no top-secret material. It’s absurd.” 

“And as Clinton “destroyed 34,000 emails,” Giuliani said that he would have argued, as a prosecutor, “that’s evidence of a guilty knowledge . . . the destruction is evidence of guilty knowledge, evidentiary principle that you can use against someone when they’re in a situation where who knows what’s on those 34,000 e-mails.” 

“Further, he denied that the probe is politically motivated, as it is the FBI, part of the Obama administration, that is doing the investigation.” 

While the outcome of the case is certainly yet to be determined, there are very few opinions on matters like these that are more valid than that of a former U.S. prosecutor such as Rudy Giuliani. Leading to the ongoing question: Joe Biden, Mayor Bloomberg, Jerry Brown, and Starbuck’s chairman and CEO, Howard Schultz, are you guys reading this? 

That’s it for today folks.    

Adios