NEWS AND OPINION:
It’s a biggie: All five Democratic presidential hopefuls will take a few moments off their campaign trail time to journey to Minneapolis for the party’s official summer meeting, which begins Thursday. Indeed, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb will all be along to share their feelings — but not Vice President Joseph R. Biden, who lingers off stage, mulling his own White House run.
“The summer meeting is a great opportunity for our members to hear directly from each of our presidential candidates,” says Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. “Their policies and ideas to grow the economy, create jobs and make sure everyone has a chance to get ahead stand in stark contrast to the sixteen Republican candidates who want to take America backwards.”
The GOP frames the event in less-stellar terms, characterizing it as “the annual meeting of the party plagued by infighting and historic losses.”
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael C. Short is wondering where the party’s long-promised self-examination has gone. “Hey, DNC, where’s the autopsy you promised?” he asks, suggesting that Ms. Wasserman Schultz has a lot of “explaining” to do.
“Not only has the DNC still not put out its midterm autopsy that was due in May, it continues to suffer from party infighting, dismal fundraising, no ground game, and a front-runner whose actions have led to an FBI investigation. How they plan to be a credible partner to the Democrat nominee is anybody’s guess,” Mr. Short says.
HISTORY NOT FRIENDLY TO A BIDEN BID
“Talk of a Joe Biden 2016 presidential candidacy is at peak coverage this cycle, with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton seemingly ceding ground to Sen. Bernie Sanders with the passing of every month,” observes Eric Ostermeier, a University of Minnesota political professor and a meticulous researcher.
He points out that though Mr. Biden is 72, it doesn’t appear to be a deterrent to a White House run, given that his immediate rivals are, well, up there: Mr. Sanders is 73, Mrs. Clinton 67 and GOP front-runner Donald Trump is 69.
“But even with a wave of initial good will at his back for a 2016 campaign, Biden would face long historical odds in winning the White House from his current political perch,” Mr. Ostermeier said.
His research reveals this: “Only two sitting vice presidents have been elected to the presidency over the last 47 cycles in the modern two-party era with only nine launching bona fide campaigns for the office. Overall, four sitting vice presidents have been elected to the presidency since 1789, although two of these date back prior to the ratification of the 12th Amendment when the top two vote-getters were elected president and vice president respectively.”
NO PLACE FOR SANGER
“Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger does not belong beside Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks in the ’Struggle for Justice’ exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in the nation’s capital,” says Ministers Taking a Stand, a group of black pastors who have asked the gallery to remove a portrait bust of Sanger and will rally for the cause outside the facility Thursday.
The group has drawn support from Texas Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Louie Gohmert, who have circulated a letter among congressional colleagues supporting the pastors’ request.
“Margaret Sanger may have been a lot of things, but a crusader for justice she was not. Sanger saw birth control not as a means of helping ’disadvantaged women,’ but of eradicating them. She likened ’colored people’ to ’human weeds.’ She was a zealous proponent of the ideology of the American eugenics movement, and was at home in the company of the movement’s most radical elements,” the pastors group noted in a public petition that has already drawn 13,500 signatures.
The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s museum group, and has “respectfully declined” the pastors’ request that the Sanger portrait be removed. Among those on hand for the morning rally: STAND founder Bishop E.W. Jackson, For America founder Brent Bozell, Family Research Council fellow Kenneth Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser, and Live Action Director Lila Rose, among others.
Protests against Planned Parenthood, meanwhile, don’t draw major media coverage. A coalition of pro-life groups organized a National Day of Protest challenging Planned Parenthood on Saturday; there were 353 rallies across the nation drawing 68,764 attendees, says Katie Yoder, an analyst with Newsbusters.org, a conservative watchdog.
“They didn’t capture the attention of the broadcast networks. During their morning and evening news shows, ABC, NBC and CBS censored the crowds,” she notes.
AND IN SUMMATION
“What people want is candidates who pass the emotional purity test. Trump and Carson don’t like to get bogged down in details. They lay out ideas that are both big and simple. That is something that most of the rest of the field has forgotten how to do. And both of them harness moral outrage. They don’t exist in a universe of policies, but of principles.
“That is where Reagan was. That is where the rest of the field needs to be. The issues aren’t details, they’re moral choices. They’re not abstracts, but people’s lives. The obstacles are enemies. Credibility is more about conviction than another ten-point plan that few voters have the time or interest to parse. Republican voters are looking for passion and character. Candidates who put them first will succeed.”
— Front Page magazine columnist Daniel Greenfield, on the appeal of Republican hopefuls Donald Trump and Ben Carson
TEA PARTY BREWS UP A PROTEST
They’re just not done yet. The Tea Party Patriots, the nation’s largest umbrella group for the grass-roots movement, has planned multiple rallies nationwide at high noon Thursday. Their destinations: local congressional offices where they will call on lawmakers to reject President Obama’s nuclear accord with Iran.
“This is a bad deal for America. It doesn’t prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons; it virtually guarantees Iran will get them just a few years down the road,” says Jenny Beth Martin, CEO and co-founder of the organization. “It doesn’t reduce the chances of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East; it increases those odds. It doesn’t do anything about four American prisoners still being held hostage in Iran. Bizarrely, it doesn’t allow for U.S. inspectors ever to set foot on Iranian soil to conduct any kind of inspection, and — even more bizarrely — in a so-called ’side deal’ that’s not even a part of the agreement itself, it allows Iran to conduct the inspection of a major suspected nuclear weapons facility, and on its own.”
The Patriots staged similar protests in June related to Obamacare, sparking rallies at 500 local offices in 301 congressional districts. The group also plans a major rally against the Iran deal on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 9.
POLL DU JOUR
• 96 percent of Americans say it is “not OK” to use a cellphone at church or during a worship service.
• 94 percent say it is inappropriate to use a cellphone in a movie theater.
• 88 percent say the same of cellphone use at a family dinner.
• 62 percent frown on cellphone use in a restaurant.
• 26 percent say it’s not OK while waiting in line, 25 percent say the same of cellphone use on public transportation.
• 23 percent say cellphone use is not OK on the street.
Source: A Pew Research Center American Trends Panel survey of 3,217 U.S. adults conducted May 30 through June 30 and released Wednesday.
• Cranky protests, yips of annoyance to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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