[This post was a Cape Cod Times op-ed column but includes historical material cut from the column for reasons of space.] Even President-Elect Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters express concern about actual and potential conflicts of interest between his Presidential powers and his far-flung business activities. Trump may also try to work around the anti-nepotism statute to…
Tag: Donald Trump
Did the Russians Hack to Help Trump? So what?
The Wikileaks release during the 2016 campaign of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton family retainer John Podesta were harmful to Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign. This was not so true because new facets of Hillary Clinton and her political operation were revealed but because old and well-known faults of hers were confirmed…
Whither Trump? Priebus or Bannon?
In his first major decisions President-Elect Donald Trump named Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus as White House Chief of Staff and Stephen Bannon to be ”chief strategist and senior counsel.” The Trump transition staff was at some pains to say the two would be “equal partners” but the laws of political physics usually do not…
You can live with President Trump. Really.
Somebody was going to be mad after this election. We all thought it was going to be the frustrated people whose anger at the establishment of both parties fueled the rise of Donald Trump. Instead it is the establishment itself, the politicians of both parties, crony capitalists, media elites, politically correct faculty of our universities…
James Comey, Pontius Pilate
What is going on? What is Comey up to? Those are the questions dominating the end of this fevered political season. After castigating her handling of classified emails as “extremely careless,” Comey announced on July 5 that Hillary Clinton should not be prosecuted under a statute requiring “gross negligence” which, any lawyer will tell you,…
Debate Prep for the Voter
Presidential primaries and party nominating conventions are behind us. Even in this most unusual and tumultuous election, the next event remains, as it has for 40 years, the Presidential Debates. The first debate occurs in a week on Monday, September 26 at 9 PM. The announced debate format shows some promise of delivering a real…
Irony in Philadelphia
On the first day of the 2016 Democratic National Convention ironies abound. The Wikileaks release of email and other documents hacked from the Democratic National Committee has caused great embarrassment to Hillary Clinton supporters at the DNC. Many of the Democrats, now outraged by the hacking, supported Edward Snowden, employee of a National Security Agency…
Convention Drama At Last; Cruz’s Big Moment
Senator Ted Cruz addresses the Republican National Convention tonight. To secure his participation Donald Trump’s convention managers (if that’s what they can be called) had to agree to let him be the only speaker whose remarks have not been cleared in advance. So …. will he or won’t he? Cruz fancies himself the legatee of…
Does Brexit vote foretell US election?
June 25, 2016. The new question roiling American politics is whether the triumph of the Trump position in the Brexit referendum has any significance in predicting the outcome of this year’s American Presidential election. Before you scoff, consider modern history. In fact, the history of the last 80 years shows a common pattern, a similar…
Trump, Clinton and the Veterans
May 31, 2016. Donald Trump released a list of veterans charities to which he directed $5.6 million in donations from a fundraiser he held in January as cover for his refusal to attend a debate among Republican presidential candidates. This was accompanied by a larger than usual portion of vitriol aimed at assembled reporters. It…
Hillary should refuse to debate Donald
[Note: A shorter modified version of this post appeared as a Letter to the Editor, Boston Globe,May 14, 2016] The road to 270 electoral votes on the map shows an advantage to a generic Democrat over a generic Republican, mainly because Democrats have the edge in former swing states where the minority population is growing fast. Of…
GOP on the Brink
Boston Herald Letter, May 4, 2016 George Will’s advice to conservatives, distressed at the prospect of Donald Trump’s nomination, is not plainly stated but clear: Elect Hillary Clinton (“Damage control order of day if Trump gets nod,” May 1). Meanwhile, he condemns the Republican Party to the fate of the Whigs by declaring that “collaborationists…
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