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Top Three Takeaways – November 1st, 2021
- A consequential week. Elections have consequences. A year removed from last year’s elections and a little more than nine months into the Biden presidency, even those who’ve never paid attention to politics are aware of that one. And whether it’s local elections which play out in Miami and Miami Beach, or the special congressional election primary for South Florida’s 20th Congressional district in parts of Broward and Palm Beach County – this week matters to hundreds of thousands here at home. But it also matters to millions more in two blue states – New Jersey and Virginia. Two states Joe Biden won a year ago by double-digits. What happens in the gubernatorial elections in those two states matter most to the citizens of those states without question – but the results will color the political conversation everywhere heading into next year’s midterm elections. And it’s not just conversational fodder for political junkies... It could be extremely consequential in determining how willing moderate Democrats in Congress are about going along with the radical policy ideas advanced within the reconciliation package still being debated in Congress. Speaking of consequence...
- Shocking! On Sunday’s Meet the Press that’s a characterization from Chuck Todd describing President Biden’s current polling. Shocking, as in shockingly bad. Quoting Todd: Americans have lost their confidence in President Joe Biden and their optimism for the country. Just 22 percent of adults say we’re headed in the right direction, A shocking 71 percent say we’re on the wrong track. Kudos to Chuck, it has been shocking to see our country so remarkably mismanaged so quickly. So much so that Chuck Todd also issued this warning that had nothing to do with it being Halloween. Scary news for the Democrats. He’s right about that too. It is scary news for Democrats from an election perspective, which was the one from which he was speaking. The scarier thing that’s present within virtually every political conversation I have stemming from my father and father-in-law to listeners I’ve interacted with is how the heck we manage through the next 3+ years regardless of what happens in elections between now and then. Our border, national security, vaccine mandates, inflation, you name it. The way he’s screwed up this country so quickly is shocking. As is the prospect of what we have in store in coming years. And yes, every elected Democrat who doesn’t speak out against Joe Biden and fight to redirect this country is part of the problem – thus they should be scared.
- It happened. No, Major-League Baseball didn’t go out of their way to bring attention to him. No, the Atlanta Braves didn’t even announce he was there during the game. But yes, Saturday night in Atlanta, former President Trump and First Lady Melania, were chopping – with great form I might add. A game complete with one of the great comeback wins in World Series history, on back of late back-to-back home runs, it was a night for the ages in Atlanta. One that set the stage for what didn't happen last night. The Atlanta Braves bringing the World Series title to Atlanta in their home stadium in the city Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred stole the All-Star game from after the passage of Georgia’s election integrity law earlier this year. A week ago I spoke of the poetic justice of the World Series coming to Atlanta this season. It happened with the Braves taking two of three from Houston over the weekend at home with raucous chops and an energetic environment that even the broadcast team acknowledged was as impressive as they’d ever experienced. The attempts to cancel the chop have failed, the attempts to cancel the team’s name have failed and the effort to punish the organization, city and state failed in a glorious way. It all happened. Atlanta has historically been a critical city for inflection points in American history. You may have just witnessed one pertaining to cancel culture in sports. Everything on display with the Braves over the weekend had been attempted to be cancelled by the woke left. The Braves’ name, the tomahawk chop, the city on a national stage and of course Donald Trump. It didn’t turn out to have a storybook ending with Rob Manfred having to eat crow by handing the World Series trophy to the Braves in Atlanta, but it had everything else.