Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 29, 2015

15

OPINION

Mountain Views-News Saturday, August 29, 2015 

DICK Polman WILL JOE BIDEN FEEL THE TINGLE?


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The latest Joe Biden speculation 
basically falls into 
two categories: He’s leaning 
toward a presidential bid 
(unless he isn’t), and he’s 
a potentially formidable 
candidate (unless he isn’t). 
Truth is, nobody really 
knows. And that includes 
Joe, who at most has another 
month - until the run-up 
to the first Democratic debate 
on Oct. 13 - to make 
up his mind.

It’ll probably depend on whether he feels the 
tingle.

According to the late Richard Ben Cramer - 
author of the seminal political tome “What It 
Takes” and unsurpassed Biden chronicler, Joe 
trusted his instincts. When he didn’t feel the 
time was right to make a big move, he’d tell his 
aides, “I can’t feel the tingle.”

Supposedly, he sees a late bid as potentially 
tingleworthy, because Hillary’s email baggage 
has created an opening. And lest we forget, 
Biden got his start in national politics as a ballsy 
gambler. In 1972, at age 29, he was a unknown 
newbie who challenged - and defeated - a two-
term Republican senator named Cale Boggs. As 
Cramer wrote in his book, “Biden was at three 
percent in the polls when he rented the best 
and biggest ballroom in the state for his ‘victory 
celebration.’” 

But we’re not talking Delaware here. A decent 
presidential bid costs roughly half a billion 
bucks. Biden hasn’t raised a cent or hired any 
staff; by contrast, the Clinton machine is still 
prodigious.

More importantly, at a time when grassroots 
liberal voters are ticked off at Wall Street and 
the financial industry, Biden would have to defend 
his long cozy friendship with the banks 
and credit card companies. And at a time when 
Black Lives Matter activists are highlighting racial 
disparities in the criminal justice system, 
Biden would have to defend his key senatorial 
sponsorship of the 1994 federal crime law that 
has exacerbated those racial disparities.

Without populist liberals and African Americans, 
he wouldn’t have a prayer of winning the 
nomination.

Imagine what Hillary would do with this: In 
2005, Sen. Biden serviced the banks and credit 
card companies by supporting a bill that made 
it harder for tapped-out consumers to file for 
bankruptcy. The bill became law with George 
W. Bush’s signature. Biden had voted for a 
similar bill in 2001. And, coincidentally or not, 
his son Hunter earned consulting fees from a 
major banking company, MBNA Corp., during 
the same period (2001 to 2005) when these 
bankruptcy bills were in the hopper.

The 1994 crime law would be a bigger problem. 
Biden was a key player, and has often boasted 
about it. In Time magazine last year, he referred 
to himself as “the guy who did the crime bill.” 
In an essay on crime that he wrote earlier this 
year, he referred to the law as the “1994 Biden 
Crime Bill.” Known formally as the Violent 
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, it 
established mandatory minimum sentences for 
drug offenses, incentivized the states to lengthen 
other sentences, provided funding for lots of 
new prisons, and created a three-strike provision 
that mandated life sentences for violent 
felons with two or more prior convictions.

This was smart politics at the time, but in the 
Democratic electorate of 2015, it looks like bad 
politics. The Clintons have already distanced 
themselves from the law. Bill signed it, but last 
month he told the NAACP, “I signed a bill that 
made the (incarceration) problem worse. And I 
want to admit it.” And Hillary moved left on the 
issue back in April, when she said it was time to 
end “the era of mass incarceration.”

All of which prompts me to quote a passage 
from Richard Ben Cramer’s book. This is an anecdote 
about young “Joey” Biden:

“Joey was always quick, with a grace born of 
self-possession....Once Joey set his mind, it was 
like he didn’t think at all - he just did. That’s 
why you didn’t want to fight him. Most guys 
who got into a fight, they’d square off, there’d be 
a minute or two of circling around, while they 
jockeyed for position. Joey didn’t do that. He 
decided to fight - BANGO, he’d punch the guy 
in the face...So Joey got into fights, and BANG - 
it was over quick. What he was, was tough from 
the neck up. He knew what he wanted to do and 
he did it.”

But does he have enough fight left in his tank to 
take on the House of Clinton?

Dick Polman is the national political columnist at 
NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks.org/
polman) and a “Writer in Residence” at the University 
of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.
com.


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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN 

MICHAEL Reagan Making Sense

HOWARD Hays As I See It


“The whole object of travel 
is not to set foot on foreign 
land; it is at last to set foot 
on one’s own country as a 
foreign land.”

~G.K. Chesterton

My wife and I took some 
time off last week, travelling 
to Sedona, Arizona. We 
learned that if the rock 
formation is taller than it’s 
wide, it’s a “butte”, and wider-than-tall it’s a 
“mesa” – and all breathtaking.

 Mitsuko indulged me by allowing the drive 
out on what remains of Route 66. Pre-travel 
research showed what remains not just on the 
drive to Flagstaff or from San Bernardino, but 
even when driving home from, say, Monrovia.

Heading west on Huntington, the original 
route turned north on Shamrock (a few 
blocks east of Myrtle) continuing west on 
Foothill, then south on Santa Anita and west 
on Huntington, past the race track up to 
Colorado.

 Even close to home there are sights mentioned 
in the Route 66 guidebooks; that preserved gas 
station at Shamrock and Walnut, the Aztec 
Hotel (est. 1925) on Foothill and the Denny’s 
at Santa Anita and Huntington – one of the last 
surviving windmills of the once-ubiquitous 
Van de Kamp chain of roadside bakeries.

 Once home, I tried catching up with the 
news and what’s up with the presidential 
candidates.

In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) stepped 
into the fight over monuments to the 
Confederacy in New Orleans, vowing to 
invoke the state’s “Heritage Act” to protect 
them. As was later pointed out to the governor, 
however, the law he vowed to invoke did not 
exist.

 When asked about parental choice over 
vaccinations, Carly Fiorina responded that 
with a vaccine that’s “proven”, it could be 
required for school - but not for “some of 
these more esoteric immunizations” for which 
there’s no “proof” they are needed.

 According to FactCheck.org, numerous 
requests were sent to Fiorina’s office for 
clarification as to which of the 14 vaccinations 
recommended by the Centers for Disease 
Control she considered “esoteric”, without 
proven necessity - but no response was 
received.

 Dr. Ben Carson commented on the Black 
Lives Matter movement, which seeks to 
address racial disparities in our criminal 
justice system. He called it “silliness”.

 (Time out for statistics: According to the 
group Mapping Police Violence, over 200 
black people have been killed by police so far 
this year. Blacks were three times as likely to 
be killed by police as whites, though while 
18% of white victims were unarmed, 33% of 
black victims were. Last year, only 29% of 
blacks killed by police were both armed and 
suspected of a violent crime.)

 Dr. Carson, though, in a USA Today op-
ed blamed the situation not on what’s going 
on in our communities, but rather on what’s 
coming out of Hollywood. (He’d apparently 
seen a trailer for “Straight Outta Compton”.)

Jeb Bush – again – stepped in it over the issue 
of women’s health. Two weeks ago, voicing 
support for defunding Planned Parenthood, 
he told the audience at a Southern Baptist 
conference in Nashville he was “not sure we 
need a half-billion dollars for women’s health 
issues”. Last week at a town hall in Colorado he 
took it a step further, arguing the organization 
shouldn’t get “a penny” because “they’re not 
actually doing women’s health issues. They’re 
involved in something way different than 
that.”

 So maybe he regards the breast exams, STD 
treatments, HPV vaccinations, cervical exams, 
pregnancy testing and contraceptive services 
at some 700 clinics around the country to 
be “something way different” than “doing 
women’s health issues.” Maybe he’ll issue a 
clarification like he did after the Nashville 
comments, when he explained it wasn’t about 
cutting funding for women’s health, but to 
take funds slated for Planned Parenthood and 
“redirect those funds to other women’s health 
orgs”, “In line with my FL record”.

 As Florida’s governor, however, as reported 
in The St. Petersburg Times in 2003, Bush 
shifted Planned Parenthood funds not to 
“other women’s health orgs” but to abstinence-
only “education” programs and anti-abortion 
groups.

 (Another statistical time-out: A University 
of Miami report shows that while Florida’s 
teen pregnancy rates have always been above 
the national average, at the end of Bush’s 
governorship the rate among black girls was 
highest in the country.)

 Jeb Bush was a founder of the Hispanic 
Leadership Network, hoping to build 
Republican support among Latinos. Two 
years ago, the group sent out a memo advising 
against using terms like “illegals”, “aliens” and 
“anchor babies”. The current GOP frontrunner 
had gotten a lot of mileage off the latter term, 
however, so in a radio interview Bush decided 
to throw it in, as well.

 At a McAllen, Texas press conference, Bush 
was reminded that the term “anchor babies” 
is indeed an offensive slur to many Latinos. 
When asked if he would apologize for having 
used it, Bush’s advice was for them to “chill 
out”. He then added, “Frankly, it’s more related 
to Asian people coming into our country.”

 Woops. After having offended Hispanic 
voters, Bush now seemed to be brushing off 
Asian-Americans, as well.

 “Really, Jeb?” asked Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-
HI), who came as a young girl from Japan, 
“This is still remarkably offensive and out 
of touch, regardless of which group you’re 
referring to.” Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard 
(D), Congress’ first Latina from California, 
reminds that “Throwing around 
dehumanizing insults is unworthy of those 
seeking our nation’s highest office.”

 I can’t say I really missed any of this while 
out of town. Back home, though, I wanted 
to get back to more serious stuff. I thought 
of tuning in to a CNN special on the tenth 
anniversary of Hurricane Katrina; an event 
costing the lives of over 1,800 Americans, 
displacing over a million people, with over 
$108 billion in damages and controversy still 
surrounding the response and aftermath.

 The show was bumped, however. CNN, and 
all major networks, decided to break from 
programming to provide live coverage of an 
Iowa speech by the GOP’s Donald Trump.

 Now I’m thinking of heading back to Sedona.

TRUMP IS ALL TALK

Donald Trump is the first talk radio candidate. 
Everything he says on the primary 
trail sounds just like what you can hear on 
conservative talk radio every day.

When he’s riffing about the failures of the 
political class in Washington, calling for an 
end to birthright citizenship or handling a 
media heckler like Jorge Ramos at a press 
conference, Trump is talking straight to the 
hearts and minds of the talk radio demographic. 

He’s not much of a conservative, or much of a Republican, for that 
matter. But as Trump forces many of the other timid GOP candidates 
to address subjects they’re otherwise too scared to address, 
he’s echoing what millions of conservative talk-show listeners have 
been yelling about for decades. I know. I used to be one of those 
talk show guys. I’ve heard what the silent majority yells and bitches 
at their radios about.

Trump is an entertaining showman. Though he’d hate to admit it, 
he’s also a natural-born politician. He might not be likable. But 
he knows how to relate to and communicate with his constituents. 
All he needs are catchy slogans, half-finished sentences, quips and 
shrugs.

The Donald is authentic all right – to a fault. But because he’s immune 
to criticism from the media or other politicians, as a candidate 
he has it easy. Like any conservative talk show host, he can say 
any wild-and-crazy thing about immigration or the Iran nuclear 
deal he likes without paying a political penalty or having to explain 
his sketchy policy ideas. For example, he can promise us over 
and over that the first thing he’ll do as President Trump is build a 
1,900-mile wall to stop the illegals coming in from Mexico.

But the wall is the simple part. Every conservative talk radio guy 
in North American has been calling for a strong southern border 
wall for years.

But what would President Trump do about the 12 million illegal 
immigrants already living in the U.S.? And what about the millions 
of illegals who didn’t wade across the Rio Grande to get here?

Studies say as many as 50 percent of them came here legally but 
then overstayed their tourist or student visas and never left. More 
than 10 percent came from Asia.

That “Great Trump Wall” he’ll build on the Mexican border won’t 
stop those kinds of “unauthorized” guests, no matter how tall it is.

It’d be nice if Trump – or any of the genuine conservative Republican 
candidates – had a few smart ideas about fixing our horrible 
legal immigration system. With its long wait times, Soviet-style 
paperwork, high legal costs and politicized selection process, it’s 
the epitome of a Big Government bureaucracy.

Last I heard, conservatives were supposed to be against such things.

Meanwhile, a one-man party like Trump will not be able to fix immigration, 
legal or illegal. 

It’s going to take a “boring” career politician like John Kasich, Rick 
Perry, Chris Christie or Jeb Bush to accomplish that and everything 
else Trump is talking about doing in Washington to “make 
America great again.”

As Republican governors, Perry, Kasich, Christie and Bush have 
proven track records. Perry and Kasich have done all the right 
conservative things in Texas and Ohio. They’ve cut taxes, cut 
back government and created new jobs by encouraging economic 
growth. Poor Perry did all three, plus he dealt with the border and 
hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.

Trump has many accomplishments. He’s a fabulous negotiator 
and builder. He’s also stirring up Republican primary politics-as-
usual in a beneficial way. It’s really great that he’s not afraid to say 
what a lot of conservatives in the country want to hear him say.

But as any talk radio guy can tell you, saying something and getting 
something done are two different things. What Perry and the 
other governors actually have accomplished in their states is what 
Trump can only espouse and promise if, by some miracle, he gets 
to Washington. 

 Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, 
and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). 
He is the founder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan 
Legacy Foundation. Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.
michaelereagan.com. 


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