Oh, darn, we thought maybe we were past the problems of the stock market now. Because two political news stories have caught our attention.
The rash of Republican state parties — including Virginia's — that don't want to let any candidates on the ballot unless they pledge to support the eventual nominee reminds us that when we talk about today's GOP, we are not discussing reasonable people. After all, these are the folks whose rules in 2012 made it impossible for anyone to compete in the Old Dominion's primary except Willard Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
So while we're no fans of Donald Trump (although we are fans of the tight knots he's tying the Republicans into), this latest move to limit the primary ballot to those who pledge fealty is unsavory. After all, this is the party that's been hell-bound on rolling back early voting and on passing numerous laws to make voting more difficult for people they don't like. So this latest anti-Trump move is the latest example of the anti-democratic mud pit in which today's GOP has chosen to wallow. Incredible.
Meanwhile, on our side of the aisle, the Joe Biden 2016 speculation continues. This analysis of eight reasons a run might be a bad idea was particularly interesting to us. Here are a few thoughts:
Number 3, the "gaffes," doesn't really impress us. Knowing the Vice President as we do, we cats have long thought that his reputation for verbal goofs is more media-manufactured than actual. He says what's in his heart. If we were advising him for 2016, we'd tell him to collect a bunch of the more harmless blurts and run them proactively as a funny commercial. People are interested in anti-Establishment politicians, and Biden's resume is as Establishment as they come. Gaffes help de-Establish him.
Number 4, getting humiliated, is huge. We could be wrong, but we don't think he wants to end his political career as a three-time loser. Just sayin'.
Otherwise, the other six are pretty much right on the money. And we'd add two. First: If Biden can't beat Hillary, will he want to spend the next 10 years raising money to retire his inevitable campaign debt? Second: Joe Biden's best, most passionate, most articulate and most available campaign surrogate died earlier this year. Who can replace the number of voter touches Beau Biden could have made on the trail? On that note, we cats continue to send our sympathies, and we PURR.
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