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(51?e Ahuattce The ADVANCE, August 30, 2023/Page 7A
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
-Walter Uppmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
Derek Hunter, Washington, DC, based
writer, radio host and political strategist:
They don’t like Joe all that much in Re-
hoboth Beach either.
The people who know him the best like
Joe Biden the least, That's an oversimplifi
cation, and no Republican is going to win
the state, but it is telling, And, at least in
my experience, it's not unique to a beach
town where Joe vacations. That leaves a
huge opening for whoever the Republican
nominee ends up being. Ideas still matter,
but being more liked than President Indif
ference and inflation matters a lot too.
Kurt Schlichter, conservative commen
tator, attorney, retired Army Infantry colo
nel with a masters in Strategic Studies from
the United States Army War College, and
a former stand-up comic: Fluid situation:
Don’t impeach Biden ... Not just yet.
We have to create the narrative us
ing the evidence before the impeach
ment process starts, and why present the
climax now when it will be long forgotten
by the time the election rolls around? We
want the truth fresh in the voters' collective
mind. There are several Democrat senators
running for reelection in 2024 who we need
to toss on the rack and torture by making
them either vote to let off the crook-in-chief
and alienate decent Americans, or vote to
remove him and alienate Democrat vot
ers. Why would we give them a year to let
voters forget they covered for the Grafty
Gaffer by impeaching Biden now?.
Mary Katharine Ham, writer, speaker,
and Georgia Bulldog: Top takeaways from
first Republican debate: the good, the bad
and the underestimated.
Does any of it matter given the "ele
phant not in the room," as Fox News anchor
Bret Baier called him, was on his way to
Georgia to turn himself in in the wake of his
fourth indictment instead of on the stage
on Wednesday? That remains to be seen,
but if you want to remain the champ, you
have to get in the arena to throw punches
at some point.
Gregg Jarrett, Fox News legal analyst
and commentator: Three reasons why Joe
and Hunter Biden got away with their great
sell-out of America.
Rep. Jim Jordan, as Chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee, has launched
a new investigation into the Biden fam
ily which focuses on how Weiss negotiat
ed the ludicrous plea deal that allowed
Hunter Biden to dodge jail time, as well as
Garland's dubious testimony that no one
at the Justice Department interfered in the
case.
Republicans in the House are deter
mined to uncover the full story of the Biden
family corruption scams. They can't crimi
nally prosecute, but they can expose the
ugly truth. With a presidential election
around the corner, voters deserve to know
whether their president is a crook.
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The GOP race is not
quite as over as it looks
RICH 1
LOWRY
COLUMN |
If it “got late early” in the
old majestic Yankee Stadium
with its long shadows, as the
famous Yogi Berra quote had it,
it’s gotten late before about the
fourth inning in the Republican
presidential race.
In 2016, Donald Trump
loved to pump out the results of
unreliable online polls that
showed him trouncing his com
petitors by ridiculous margins.
Now, he doesn’t need to
bother with the shoddy polls;
he can do the same thing with
blue-chip media polls. The new
national CBS poll has him lead
ing second-place Ron DeSantis
by 46 points, 62-16. The latest
Fox News poll had a more mod
est 37-point Trump lead. (Vi-
vek Ramaswamy is third in
both surveys, at 7% and 11%
respectively.)
It’s sometimes said that
Trump is the de facto incum
bent in the race, and indeed
these are the kind of numbers
you’d expect of a sitting presi
dent who is sweeping marginal
opponents to the side as he se
cures his party’s renomination.
The top-line results aren’t
that different from the primacy
race — such as it is — on the
Democratic side. The Fox poll
has Joe Biden beating Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr., 64 to 17, with
Marianne Williamson at 9.
Is there a mercy rule in
presidential politics?
Trump could be forgiven
for looking at his opponents
and seeing: a highly touted gov
ernor whose campaign has
steadily sunk in national polls
as he’s shed staff and fired a
campaign manager; a young,
smooth-talking entrepreneur
who isn’t a threat to him but is
helpfully soaking up some share
of the non-Trump vote; a sunny
senator who has made some
gains but certainly hasn’t bro
ken out; a former vice president
who is hated by MAGA (for all
the wrong reasons); a former
governor who is a gifted politi
cal pugilist but is unpopular in
the party; and a bunch of others
whose names he doesn’t neces
sarily need to know.
What’s not to like?
Even if one of the candi
dates surges and sweeps up all
the current non-Trump vote,
there’s simply not enough of it
to get to 50 right now. No won
der Trump is talking as if the
race is over, the Trump super
PAC is running spots hitting
Biden, and Trump says there’s
no need for him to show up at
the Republican debates.
The cockiness could well
be justified, but a sense of in
evitability can be a two-edged
sword. On the one hand, it dis
heartens the opposition and
communicates strength; on the
other, it can fade into a high
handed sense of taking the vot
ers for granted.
And Trump still has to win
Iowa, where his support is a lit
tle softer. After all the talk of
having the election stolen from
him in 2020 and the chest-beat
ing about his dominance now, a
defeat there — in a clean pro
cess overseen by fellow Repub
licans — would be a stinging
setback that might change the
dynamic everywhere else.
The new NBC News/Des
Moines Register poll has Trump
at 42%, with DeSantis at 19%
and South Carolina Sen. Tim
Scott at 9%. That’s a substantial
lead, but both DeSantis and
Scott have large portions of the
electorate saying they are their
second choice or that they are
actively considering them. Both
also have high favorable ratings
comparable to Trump’s.
In the portion of the survey
conducted prior to the Georgia
indictment, his lead was 38 —
20 over DeSantis — again, siz
able, but not nearly enough to
say he has this thing put away,
not in the middle of August.
Iowa can break late. Former
Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santo-
rum, who won Iowa in 2012,
didn’t really start moving until
late December. Former Arkan
sas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who
won four years earlier, started
his upward march around No
vember. If someone is going to
replicate this kind of climb, the
big upward move may still be
months away.
So it looks late out there,
no doubt, and has for some
time, but it’s not over.
Rich Lowry is editor of the
National Review.
(c) 2023 by King Features
Synd., Inc.
GRITTY
First Principle for
Debaters: Connect
With Voters
As I noted in my
column of several
weeks ago, it’s a plus
for everyone that
Donald Trump will
not show for the Re
publican debate.
And now it’s offi
cial. He’s not showing
up.
Now we can have
a debate about issues and not about Trump.
Let’s also keep in mind, regarding the
debate, Republican voters must be able to
walk and chew gum at the same time.
That is, although the most immediate
focus is who will be the Republican nomi
nee, the point of the whole exercise is win
ning the presidency. It doesn’t much matter
if Republicans nominate a candidate who
makes them happy but who is unlikely to
win the big prize — the presidency.
Although Trump maintains a massive
lead in polling among Republicans, the de
bate presents an opportunity for the other
candidates to establish their credibility and
viability of their candidacy in the general
election.
Let’s recall that Trump’s final approval
rating at the conclusion of his presidency
was 34%. This is an approval rating that es
sentially guarantees a victory for the chal
lenging party in the election to follow.
Most recent RealClearPolitics polling
shows Biden marginally ahead of Trump,
but not in a statistically significant way.
RealClearPolitics betting odds shows
Biden at 35.1% and Trump at 26.9%.
It is not without reason that Democrats
are doing everything possible to increase
the likelihood that Trump is the Republi
can candidate.
The good news for Republicans is that
there remains general dissatisfaction with
the state of affairs in the country; only 18%
are satisfied, per most recent Gallup poll
ing.
President Joe Biden’s approval, mea
sured by Gallup, hovers at 40% and disap
proval at 55%.
So, fundamentals look positive for a
change in party.
Additional fundamentals that point
Please see Star page 8A
By Star Parker
Come On Down
From the Porch
By Amber Nagle
M y
mother, my
sister, and I
watched the
show every
day during
the summers.
The three of us would work outside
for a couple of hours, then break for
lunch ten minutes before “The Price
is Right” came on. We’d cut large
slabs of watermelon and set the slic
es on metal TV trays. We’d balance
the trays on our laps as we sat on the
sofa and watched.
Johnny Olson was the announc
er in the 1970s. It was his energetic
voice we heard first as he called the
names of spectators and urged them
to, “Come on down!” The contes
tants sprinted toward the stage with
their hands in the air in what is best
described as pure, unadulterated joy.
Then Olson would introduce the
host, “Bob Barker,” and Bob would
march through an opening in the
stage and get the show moving.
I loved the excitement. I loved
playing along. I loved the beautiful
models that waved their arms with
graceful flourishes near washers,
dryers and living room furniture.
Most of all, I loved Bob Barker.
He died last week at 99 years
old, and the news made me sad, as
if I had learned that a distant family
member had passed.
Through the years, had my sister
and I been on the stage, we would
have won dozens of cars, hundreds
of boats, a herd of motorcycles,
and numerous vacations to faraway
countries with names like Bora Bora,
Montenegro, and Cancun. We’d grab
our family’s big blue globe, spin it
around and try to find the exotic des
tinations on the Earth model. It was
like a summertime geography class.
“The Price is Right” made us
think. Take the Showcases at the end
of the show, for example. To be com
petitive, you not only had to have an
idea of how much things cost, but
also, you had to add them up in your
head, and bid the closest to the ac
tual price, without going over.
Bob was always kind to the con
testants, and he’d ask them a little
about themselves. He always wore
a snazzy suit, and he had a bright,
million-dollar smile. He guided
contestants through a whirlwind of
price tags, games, prizes and spin
ning wheels.
But Bob was more than just a
game show host. He was a tireless
advocate for animal rights. His pas
sion for our furry and feathered
friends was no secret. He refused to
allow fur coats as prizes on the show,
and sometime during his tenure, he
began closing “The Price is Right”
with a familiar and meaningful sign-
off: “This is Bob Barker reminding
you to help control the pet popula
tion — have your pets spayed or
neutered.”
Bob Barker showed us that com
passion extends beyond the human
realm, making sure animals had a
voice even when his microphone
was turned off. He was also one of
the first celebrities to adopt a veg
etarian diet due to his immense love
of animals, and he started his own
foundation to provide grants for free
or low-cost spay and neuter clinics
and other animal causes.
In more recent years, my hus-
Please see Amber page 8A