Gingrich or Christie?
Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie are reportedly at the top of Donald Trump’s VP short list. The advantage Gingrich has is that he actually has a brain. Unfortunately, he only puts it to use about 50% of the time. On Liberty Watch (OLW) is not sure which half appeals to Trump.
On the other hand, Christie has repeatedly demonstrated appallingly bad manners, questionable judgment, and a tenuous relationship with the truth. This, in addition to sporadic behavior that is normally associated with a 15-year old having a bad day. Give the edge to Christie.
Elizabeth Warren for Veep. Seriously?
Secretary Clinton has taken Senator Elizabeth Warren (D. Mass) out for a test drive, perhaps just to flatter her. In any event, Warren, a bankruptcy lawyer with an undergraduate degree in speech pathology and a law degree from Rutgers, fancies herself as an expert in finance and capital markets. Her public pronouncements on the subject, full of the fire and brimstone so beloved by the clueless, provide little evidence that she actually knows what she is talking about. And plenty that she doesn’t.
Warren is passionate about Social Security and is insistent about the need for increasing benefits, notwithstanding the fact that the system is insolvent. In present value terms, the Social Security funding deficit is conservatively estimated to be in the vicinity of $9 trillion.
Perhaps a bankruptcy lawyer is a good choice for VP after all.
More Fallout in Hillary Land
While the campaign scrambles to contain the damage caused by Bill Clinton’s latest foray into the field—his “social call” on AG Lynch—another problematic story has surfaced. Newly released e-mails show that while she was Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton shared classified and “protected” State Department information about prospects for a Greek bailout with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Around this time her son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky, set up a series of offshore funds through Goldman Sachs, some of which were speculating in—Greek bonds.
Preet Bharara, alleged scourge of inside traders, might want to take a look at this.
The Rigged System
During the primaries, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, routinely bragged about buying politicians. He would then go on to complain that the system was “rigged” and then argue, rather implausibly, that he was the true “outsider” who would uproot “the establishment”. He is not the only establishment figure to feign outsider status (think Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Ted Cruz, Barack Obama). But he is the only one to simultaneously denounce transactional politics and publicly laud his own skill at the game. In so doing he has assembled an impressive coalition of the gullible, who willingly take their places on line at the slaughterhouse.
JFB
