John Andrist: Smile Because in Three Weeks It Will Be Over

According to most news reports I see and hear it is beginning to look like Donald Trump’s star is beginning to set.

Hillary’s margin is growing, they say, in the key battleground states.

That gives me no joy. As I wrote last week I bailed out. That too gives me no joy. And then, there are still a couple weeks to go which could bring any number of new scandals to those scandal prone candidates to which we’ve been blessed.

This strange phenomena we’ll call Trump really came a long way up a ladder nobody seemed to feel had a top rung.

He did it, according to what I read, while acquiring only 19 percent of the vote on all the ballots cast in the Republican primaries.

I’m still somewhat baffled how that could have happened. Perhaps it is some kind of fuzzy math.

[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]Win or lose, on November 8 Trump will have collected an impressive number of votes without even trying to be likable.[/mks_pullquote]

Way back in 1948 Harry Truman won the presidency from Tom Dewey, and many of the wags thought it was because women didn’t think his mustach made him likable.

By a measurement of likability the Donald would surely have ended up in single digits, so his popularity didn’t come from that.

Win or lose, on November 8 Trump will have collected an impressive number of votes without even trying to be likable.

I wonder how many voters support him, because they find him to be likeable, or even presidential?

The news has focussed a great deal this past week on which Republicans are maintaining their endorsement of Trump, and how many have bailed out. Congressman Kevin Cramer is still in; House speaker Paul Ryan appears to be out. Those who are neither in or out are mostly dancing.

I’m not certain what that means. I can’t imagine anyone voting for or against a candidate based on what another politico thinks.

My personal suspicion is they would mostly all have bailed out by now, but for the importance they place on “holding the party together”. That doesn’t make an endorsement very genuine.

I think the polls demonstrate that the large majority of Trump support has been based on the incredible unpopularity of Hillary, or an extreme feeling of importance in protecting a more constitutionally balanced Supreme Court. Or even a genuine deep seated fear that Hillary policy could very well finish the bankruptcy of our country.

And yet I would be the first to admit that I have been wrong about Trump’s staying power so many times that you should certainly place no credence on anything I believe.

Sell the United Nations?

The United Nations was founded on the heals of World War II, when the whole world was thirsting for a permanent peace.

That was really its sole, singular purpose. The organization is still going strong, but seemingly its mission has been multiplied to the point where peace not only continues to be elusive, but sometimes seems to be only a sidelight.

Last week it launched a campaign to get every country to enact a tax on sugary soft drinks to fight obesity.

Starvation may need to be a concern that can evoke a war, but obesity?

Today’s UN consumes more than $13 billion a year, and the U.S. is the largest contributor with something south of $3 billion.

Of course, you can’t spend that only on conflict resolution. So they have to find other causes — like sugar.

Maybe we should privatize the U.N. and sell it to Donald Trump, if he is still looking for work after November 8.

I wonder if sugar has a carbon footprint. Then again I really can’t figure out why the U.N. is involved in either sugar or carbon. I guess that’s the Republican in me.
Service with a smile

Here are a few smiles to finish filling this space this week:

• My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn’t.
• I’m not a complete idiot; some parts are just missing.
• Being ‘over the hill’ is much better than being under it!