The 2020 Election Side Stories

In a presidential election year, the side stories often become as interesting and challenging as the principle story. We know that barring four successive “Hail Mary” passes from President Donald Trump’s legal team, that former Vice President Joe Biden has won the presidency and will be sworn into office on January 20, 2021. What we don’t know is the following:

Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ms. Clinton was once described by former President Barack Obama as the “most qualified person ever nominated for the presidency”. (Of course, given Mr. Obama’s penchant for using himself as the model for the smartest and best at everything, that was a pretty low bar for Ms. Clinton. Be that as it may, “the most qualified person” got her head handed to her by some honyocker from Queens – Mr. Trump. Now Mr. Trump has been beaten by Mr. Biden – a man who hasn’t had an original thought since he asked his first wife to marry him and who cannot put together a complex sentence from beginning to end. Mr. Biden was sneered at by Ms. Clinton, back-benched by Mr. Obama, and described by the media during the primary season as old with failing cognitive skills.

Will the media now ask Ms. Clinton how it feels to be a double loser?

The Catholic Church. Monday’s Wall Street Journal carried a picture of President-elect Joe Biden walking to church on Sunday morning. Come January 20, the two most powerful people in America – President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) – will be self-described Catholics who are also two of the biggest supporters of taxpayer funded abortions on demand (up to the moment of birth). The Catholic Church has unequivocally condemned abortion as the taking of a human life. This puts these two nominal Catholics at diametrically opposite positions from the Catholic Church.

Here is the point. A woman comes to a local parish priest to seek counseling about a decision to abort her child. The priest would normally tell her that it is the taking a human life and that, as such, it would be a mortal sin and that she would be denied the sacraments of the Church unless she repented. The woman would then ask how it is that Mr. Biden and Ms. Pelosi, who promote abortion on demand, can continue to receive the sacraments without objection from the Church.

This will be a moment of truth for the Church’s hierarchy – particularly for Pope Francis – but more immediately for Washington, DC Archbishop Wilson Gregory (recently named a cardinal by Pope Francis). But don’t hold your breath. There is a reason that in the 2000 year history of the Catholic Church there has never been a Jesuit pope. It is because the Jesuits historically have been more interested in the machinations of governments than they have been in the nurturing of souls and Pope Francis is the most recent in a long line of Jesuit who insist on focusing on such secular issues..

In this moment of truth for the Church’s hierarchy and their action or inaction will be the “tell” as to whether they possess the moral clarity to lead the 1.2 billion Catholics in the world. Cardinal Gregory was quick to condemn President Donald Trump for using the cathedral for a publicity picture. Will he be as quick to criticize Mr. Biden and Ms. Pelosi for the nearly forty years of support of taxpayer funded abortion on demand? The silence will be deafening.

The Catholic Church’s detractors would urge you to leave the Church; however that is not the answer. Leaving the Church’s hierarchy by refusing to provide funds for their well being is a more appropriate response. It allows you to continue to attend mass, receive the sacraments and provide a lesson in moral clarity to the Church’s leadership.

Jill Biden. The Washington pundits have been speculating that because of Mr. Biden’s deteriorating cognitive skills that, in reality, Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris with be the de facto president. They couldn’t be more wrong. They have failed to factor in the dominant role of Mr. Biden’s wife, Jill.

Ms. Biden insists on being called “Doctor” as in Dr. Jill. She is not a doctor; rather she has a PhD in Education. Few outside academia who possess a PhD, in other than science or medicine, insist on using that sobriquet. It is an indication that she requires others to recognize her accomplishment. (A fact made more important during the Obama years given the relative obscurity imposed upon her by the likes of Mr. Obama, Ms. Clinton and others who saw her as relatively unimportant.) But more importantly, Ms. Biden was a constant presence when Mr. Biden was being interviewed – even to the point of responding to questions obviously asked of Mr. Biden.

Should Mr. Biden’s cognitive skills continue to deteriorate, it will be Ms. Biden – like President Ronald Reagan’s wife, Nancy, and President Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Ellen, before her – who will intervene to shield Mr. Biden and manage the affairs of state. And should Ms. Harris attempt to assert herself as the “acting President” she will be banished to a minor functionary role by Ms. Biden.

Dr. Anthony Fauci. President-elect Joe Biden, stating first that he will trust the doctors and scientists, announced his first of many “blue ribbon commissions” to develop a plan for dealing with COVID-19. Unfortunately his “blue ribbon” commission is composed primarily of old political hacks from the Clinton and Obama administrations and a variety of administrators – none of whom are actually engaged in the practice of medicine or scientific research today. Curiously missing is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the much touted expert on COVID 19 by Mr. Biden and the media – particularly when Dr. Fauci was sparring with Mr. Trump.

Hopefully, it is a signal that everybody is tired of Dr. Fauci’s inept advice and shifting pronouncements. Despite warehouses full of data, Dr. Fauci has been unable to think past “wear a mask” advice – advice that he once deemed ineffective. Mr. Trump should have dismissed him months ago but Dr. Fauci, by then, was the media darling because he dared criticize comments by Mr. Trump.

Unfortunately, none of Mr. Biden’s appointees engender any greater level of comfort and appear to be steeped in his recurring admonitions to “wear a mask” and “lock it down.” Thank God there now appears to be an extraordinarily effective vaccine for COVID-19. But we will have to see whether Mr. Biden can deliver it promptly to those most in need – those over 70 and those with compromised immune systems.

Biden’s Economic Policies. Given Mr. Biden’s penchant for plagiarism, you can rest assured that his economic policies will be nearly identical to those of Mr. Obama with the same results. The rich will get richer, the middle class will stagnate, and the poor will get poorer. Several years ago I wrote a couple of “tongue in cheek” columns about the effects of Obamanomics and an excerpt from them is still appropriate:

“In a speech given before a Labor Day rally in Milwaukee, WI, Mr. Obama stated:

“. . . by almost every measure, folks are better off than when [I] took office.”

“I reached for a summary of my investment portfolio and by gosh Mr. Obama is right. I am better off. I am debt free and my net worth has increased substantially. I gave my wife a “fist-bump” and we set off in our brand new seven passenger SUV (Volts and Prius are what the hoi polloi drive, not us Obama liberals) for a celebratory dinner at one of Portland’s white linen restaurants perched high above the city. (Well it was our anniversary also.)  I was feeling so bullish about all that Mr. Obama had done for us that I decided to follow Michelle Obama’s preferred dining guide and ordered the lobster. (Again, I didn’t order the nutritionally acceptable school meal because that’s what you eat and it tastes the same going in as it does coming out.) But the restaurant only had Australian lobster, not the preferred Maine lobster, and I, like Ms. Obama, wanted to support American business. I ordered the beef instead – yes, it was organically grown in Northern California where it had its own room and was named Curtis. My wife followed Oregon tradition and had salmon despite continuing calls by Oregon’s liberal establishment to “save the salmon.” It was a great evening and we lifted our glasses in a final toast for becoming Obama liberals.”

You have to wonder if under liberals Wall Street gets richer, who it is that liberal leaders listen to? Well, they listen to those who can make them rich – just like Mr. Obama, Mr. Clinton and Ms. Clinton did. And so will Mr. Biden who desperately wants to become filthy rich like his predecessors. It sure as hell won’t be Sen. Bernie Sanders (Socialist – VT) or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY).

Bon appetite. The sideshow is about to begin.