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As a journalist who has covered Donald Trump and Joe Biden over many years, I often get asked: What is the difference between the two?
As a special holiday gift to Wide World of News readers, here is your free look at part of the master chart I have shared with Japanese CEO’s, Dutch high school students, and many a Zoom participant:
If you want to hear more of the items from my list and the stories behind all of this, book me to speak by videoconference to your organization.
Please send all inquiries to markhalperintalk@gmail.com
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If you get asked….
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE CONGRESSIONAL PANDEMIC RELIEF TALKS?
You say….
The Washington Post is right that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer made “a massive concession” in endorsing the bipartisan bill the lowers the price tag to around $1 trillion.
That move, coupled with the Democratic leaders’ request that Mitch McConnell join them in bipartisan, bicameral talks using this new legislative vehicle as the basis for discussions has put the ball squarely in the court of the Kentuckian, whose own current bill comes in at around half that amount.
While there are still sub-issues under the macro number (as there have been all along…), the key question remains: Is there a total spending figure high enough for Pelosi and low enough for McConnell?
I’m no math genius, but it seems like $750 billion is now the rough marker for a compromise. But Pelosi and Schumer clearly want to go UP from the bipartisan bill total, while that level is already too rich for McConnell and many members of his conference.
Other variables:
1. Who will be in the room if McConnell agrees to direct talks?
2. What does Joe Biden want?
3. What does Donald Trump want?
The clock ticks but it is more possible now to see a coronavirus deal getting down in tandem with the budget pact than it has been on any day in weeks.
Again, the next move is McConnell’s….
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If you get asked….
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE GEORGIA SENATE RUNOFFS?
You say….
National and Georgia Republicans are singing from two hymn books currently: They are comfortable that their two Senate candidates are in good shape to win the January runoffs and/but are concerned that the rhetoric of Donald Trump, Sidney Powell, and Lin Wood will turn off enough Redlands voters to give the seats (and thus 2021 Senate control) over to the Democrats.
On Wednesday, a group of Georgia GOP machers issued an open letter glossing over the president’s “rigged” rhetoric and urging their foot soldiers to turn out to vote.
Karl Rove, who is heavily involved in fundraising for his team in the contests, suggests in his Wall Street Journal column that what the president says at his Saturday night jamboree with the two candidates could be the make-or-break moment for the whole deal.
As the New York Times writes in an essential reading piece about the race:
When Mr. Trump arrives in Georgia … to stump for Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler, Republicans praying for a return to unity are hoping he plays nice, going light on the conspiracy theories and focusing on the Senate races.
One of the open letter signatories, former Senator Saxby Chambliss, gave the Wide World of News’ funniest quote to the Times:
“I would be highly surprised and very disappointed if Donald Trump came to Georgia this weekend and had any comments that weren’t positive about any Republican politician.”
Politico has a more realistic quote from another Peach State Republican:
“It’s important that Trump comes and focuses on the Senate election and not the other peripheral sideshow of whining and complaining and making baseless accusations,” said Allen Peake, a former state legislator and self-described “mainstream Republican.” “But that’s kind of been his mode for the past four years. I don’t think he will change. So I’m very concerned about this on Saturday…”
“If all he does is whine and complain and talk bad about Kemp and the secretary of state, then the trip will be a disaster and he might as well not even come,” Peake said. “This is a crazy time in Georgia politics, that’s for sure.”
And this:
“The problem we have is that Trump is our malady and our cure — he’s got people all stirred up over this voter fraud stuff and now we’re worried they might not vote, so we need him to come back to make sure people do, but we’re worried that might backfire,” said one GOP consultant, who bemoaned how his political clients are asking him for advice on whether to file lawsuits or start campaigns boosting the president’s baseless claims.
“The good news is that fear and anger drive voters, and we’ve got those in spades,” the consultant said.
We all know that while the president is almost certain to use his favorite platform (a Saturday night rally in the Southern Redlands that gets a lot of media attention and puts him at the center of things) to go after PelosiWarnockSchumerOssoffSandersAOC), what he ends up saying about his own Georgia race and the state’s Republican officials will be anyone’s guess until the words escape his Queens mouth.
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If you get asked….
WHAT’S ELSE IS GOING ON WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?
You say….
Well, his Wednesday Facebook video was simultaneously described as perhaps his most important speech ever (by him) and his most irresponsible and cuckoo speech ever (by the media and the Gang of 500) – when in fact history might eventually record that it was both.
To go back to Georgia and that New York Times story, this:
The president may spout conspiracy theories and acrimony — he has publicly attacked Mr. Raffensperger and Mr. Kemp for not acceding to his wishes — but he is also the most popular figure in the Republican Party. Nationally, Mr. Trump’s sustained assault on voting integrity, while false, has persuaded many Republicans that there was something crooked about the election. And no one is sure whether, or for how long, he will continue to command the fealty of his party.
Between now and inaugural day, in addition to this Saturday’s Valdosta Fiesta, Trump
* has to weigh in on the pandemic relief talks, the budget talks, and the defense authorization talks (which might produce a veto override, but I bet it doesn’t come to that)
* will consider firing almost everyone
* will consider pardoning almost everyone
* will have to decide if he wants to resign to let Mike Pence pardon him
* will feel the power slipping away more acutely than he currently understands
* will be the most formidable force in the Republican Party by far, installing his own RNC chair for another term and listening to quotes such as this from Marco Rubio about 2024:
“If he runs, I think he would clearly be the favorite. I think he would win.”
* For those interested in 2024, Trump’s post-White House role, and what our collective January will be like, read this Politico story about the RNC’s plan to include a cattle call of presidential hopefuls – including perhaps Donald Trump and Mike Pence! – at its winter meeting in Florida.
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If you get asked….
WHAT IS ESSENTIAL READING?
You say….
These two genius stories delving into the data to explain why and how Democrats did poorly down ballot and Trump did better than expected.
* Tom Edsall’s New York Times column on ticket splitting in the suburbs, suggesting counter intuitively that other Republican candidates were actually helped by sharing a ballot with a Donald Trump unpopular with their voters.
* Mark Mellman with this key point:
Trump garnered a larger share of the GOP vote than any Republican presidential contender in the history of exit polling.
When Ronald Reagan racked up a nearly 20-point nationwide landslide in 1984, he did a point less well with his co-partisans than Trump in 2020.