My View of the Election in May

It's May and it's clear that despite whatever some may say, we know what the Presidential General Election matchup will be: Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton.  So I may be talking for many voters when they look at this matchup: has it come down to this?

Well, the answer is yes it has come down to these two and one of them will be the Leader of the Free World.  As of this moment, I would give Clinton a 6 out of 10 chance of winning the election.

However, this is May and many things will happen between now and November. Especially after we've seen the surprisingly shrewd political instincts of the Donald over the past year compared to the slow reactionary political instincts of Hillary Clinton, can anyone really say there is no doubt that the Donald has a real chance of being President of the United States?  Can anyone who has seen Bernie Sanders, the 74 year old Socialist, define the debate and put Hillary Clinton in defensive mode the past month really doubt that the Donald, a man who has defined the debate and every one of his rivals in the GOP primary, can do the same in the General Election?  In short, this will be a close, perhaps ugly election.

But as one who has stated not to support the Donald in the General Election, I do have an idea for him.  I have read that the Donald seeks to make this year's GOP convention a more entertaining experience:

"Trump blasted the GOP’s last convention, in Tampa four years ago, as “the single most boring convention I’ve ever seen.” The billionaire real estate mogul and reality-television star said it was imperative that this year’s gathering have a “showbiz” quality — and he cast doubt on the ability of the Republican National Committee, which oversees the convention, to deliver.

“It’s very important to put some showbiz into a convention, otherwise people are going to fall asleep,” Trump said in a 45-minute interview here last week in his Trump Tower office. “We don’t have the people who know how to put showbiz into a convention.”"

Well, in light of hearing the word "showbiz" from the Donald, I don't necessarily think "The Apprentice." I think of this:

So with that vision in my head, I put on my analytical thinking cap.  It has been talked about that the Donald is going to bring swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio into play by appealing to and motivating blue-collar, union working white males 35-54 to vote for him in notably higher numbers than for any GOP candidate in the past several elections.  I thought about this and came across this:

""I don't want to be in the ring with any candidates, I want to be Trump's running mate," (Hulk) Hogan said, referring to the businessman leading the Republican field."

Well, with that knowledge, may I suggest this song as the Donald walks out to accept the GOP nomination and provide his acceptance address:

Just think of those blue-collar, white males reaction after hearing lyrics such as 

When it comes crashing down and it hurts inside
you gotta take a stand it don't help to hide
if you hurt my friends then you hurt my pride
i gotta be a man
i cant let it slide

I would say that the convention will just go wild. Just think about that.

A Change I Can Believe In

The past couple of weeks have brought real change into my life.  The biggest change is that on May 5 I was driven to the Whiting Clinic in St. Louis Park to have LASIK corrective eye surgery.  

LASIK is something that I've been considering for years.  My sister Georgia had the surgery done over a decade ago and have raved about the results ever since.  I have had reservations about having though. My eyesight is very bad: it's a mixture of nearsightedness and strong astigmatism.  How bad was my eyesight?  I was diagnosed with having 20/2000 vision (not good at all).  So bad that each opinion I received until recently ended with a recommendation that I shouldn't have LASIK.  Which was ok with me because it allowed me a rationale to not do it when my family kept asking me to have it done.

However, this year I received an opinion that I could have PRK done, which is a corrective procedure that would correct my vision to 20/20.  However, the doctor told me it would take a couple months to fully feel comfortable seeing again.  I decided to get a second opinion from Dr. David Whiting, one of the most reknowned LASIK surgeons in the country.  He told me that he felt very comfortable performing all-laser LASIK (no blades) and that I would be able to drive the next day.  Well, I prayed and consulted multiple folks about this decision, including Georgia.  When I asked Georgia who she had perform her LASIK, she said Dr. Whiting and said he's the best in the area.  So I decided to go forward with it.

I will tell you that going through the surgery it was a surreal experience.  Here's a video of what happens:

I have to say after the doctor numbs my eye and I see this all happen in front of me, sticking objects in and out of my eye and smelling smoke as they shoot the laser through my eye, I don't think I'll live through such an experience again.

It's been about two weeks since that procedure and my vision is so much better. The doctor who examined me after the procedure said I had 20/15 vision when both eyes are together.  It's quite the change indeed! All provided through the Almighty's provision.

Check In Time

I guess it's been awhile since I last posted.  Life has been busy in multiple ways. Work and travel has been on the agenda.  One weekend I traveled to Florida for fun in the sun and baseball and then two weeks later I'm in Denver spending time with my sister Georgia.  But enough about my life, it's pretty boring stuff.

What I'd like to bring up is the fact that I've come to realize that we're probably on the eve of knowing that we're about to have two very unpopular individuals running against each other to be President of the United States.  The Democrats have decided that Hillary Clinton, the one we've seen in the national spotlight over the last 25 years, is their candidate.  This is despite the fact that Hillary embodies the qualities of the liberal intelligentsia that many on the Left rally against.  She's backed Big Business, foreign wars and has used her political influence to benefit herself in reputation and financially.  But despite all that, she's going to win the Democratic party nomination and by all accounts is favored to be the next President of the United States as of early May.  

On the Republican side, it's taken awhile, but it's clear that the Donald is on the cusp of accomplishing one of the greatest political feats in my lifetime in going from a man many considered to be running for President as publicity stunt to becoming the GOP's standard bearer from President.  I have to say while I don't agree with much of what the Donald says, he's certainly proven to show that he has very shrewd political skills in reading the electorate, defining the political debate and defining his opponents. The Donald has over the last 9 months crushed political dynasty candidates like Jeb Bush, Tea Party favorites such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and Establishment standard-bearers like John Kasich.  I have found it fascinating how quickly he can change the narrative.  Like a month ago the Donald gets crush by nearly 20 points in Wisconsin to Ted Cruz and it looks like we're headed to a contested convention since Cruz's firewall in Indiana, Cruz had the comfort a state that had embraced his brand of cultural conservatism.  Yet hours before polls open, the Cruz campaign has come to this:



Oh well, on to the general election.