“Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit, If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.”
Does anyone not know who said that Tuesday, and is anyone surprised by the quote?
When Harry Truman was president, he had a small sign on his desk that summed him up in four words.
“THE BUCK STOPS HERE”
A big difference between Truman and Donald Trump is that I could no more imagine Truman saying what Trump said than I could imagine him jumping off the White House roof and flying away. I remember several times during his presidency that he was asked to take responsibility for his actions and he refused.
When it’s good, credit him.
When it’s bad, blame someone else.
Whether it is Trump’s fault or not, the Red Wave Republicans were expecting appears not to have materialized. They will almost certainly capture the House of Representatives. The Democrats’ margin was just too small, but the Republicans’ margin will be far smaller than they were hoping and expecting.
As for the Senate, there are four seats essentially undecided at this point — Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. Republicans need to win three to take control of the Senate. They’re likely to win Wisconsin and lose Arizona, which means they have to beat two incumbent Democrats.
Catherine Cortez Masto is trailing by about 23,000 votes in Nevada with 77 percent of the votes counted, but the location of the missing votes apparently has her a slight favorite to win when all the votes are in.
In Georgia, Rafael Warnock has a 35,000 vote lead over Herschel Walker with 98 percent of the votes counted. He will almost certainly finished with a lead, but Georgia requires winners to top the 50 percent mark, and a fringe candidate has gotten about 1 percent of the vote. Winning will be an uphill battle.
Just the fact that the election turned out to be as close as it was definitely said something.
The issues that voters care about most were all cutting against the Democrats — inflation, immigration and crime. None of those was really their fault, but voters nearly always punish the party in power. The Democrats had the repeal of Roe v Wade working for them, although that was at least an issue to the other side too. Then there was election integrity, but that’s a very difficult case to make.
If Democrats lose the House, it will be difficult for them to get any legislation passed in the next two years. But losing the Senate would be ever more catastrophic in a different way. Without the Senate, Biden will not be able to fill judicial vacancies.
Republicans have promised two things — extending Trump’s tax cuts for the rich and going after Social Security and Medicare.
Millions of people voted — and vote — that way even though they disagree with those policies.
And remember, if it works, Trump gets all the credit.
If it doesn’t, even isn’t to blame.
Go figure.