NEWS AND OPINION:
While the Democratic National Convention rolls along over increasingly rough terrain, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is blazing down the campaign trail, with a bold and nimble itinerary. And an energetic one.
Mr. Trump and running mate Gov. Mike Pence have four stops on Wednesday alone; the two gents appear together in Scranton, Pennsylvania, then go solo for a spell. Mr. Trump journeys to Doral, Florida, and Toledo, Ohio, while Mr. Pence heads for Waukesha, Wisconsin. Thursday finds the billionaire White House hopeful in Iowa, bound for Davenport and Cedar Rapids.
Complex travel hops will likely increase now, particularly to those critical swing states. And no wonder. Mr. Trump has made sure Mr. Pence has his own classy ride for the campaign skies: a newly painted, newly unveiled 737 jet emblazoned with the motto “Trump-Pence Make America Great Again” in patriotic colors, with a telltale sky blue on the engines — a design scheme that also appears on Air Force One.
Larry Glick, an executive vice president for development at the Trump Organization, calls it an “awesome plane.” The Trump campaign, meanwhile, remains unabashedly ready to rumble.
“Democrats know that the only way they can win is to divide us. Which is why Crooked Hillary and the mainstream media are doing everything in their power to continue the divisive tactics of the last seven years under Obama. They’re willing to tear apart our nation to put Crooked Hillary in the White House,” notes a voter outreach released Tuesday by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee.
“We will rise above their ruthless attacks and show the world that when the American people are united, we are unstoppable. While the Democrats are holding their convention to coronate Crooked Hillary, let’s stand united, let’s stand up to the Left’s divisive attacks, and let’s lead the fight to make America great again.”
FOR THE LEXICON
“Sanders-nistas”
— Convenient new moniker for the many fierce fans of Sen. Bernard Sanders who remain adamant that the former presidential hopeful stay in the race. The term was coined by National Review columnist Jim Geraghty, who uses it in a sentence for us: “Bernie Sanders leaves the fight. But do the Sanders-nistas?”
MR. WILSON’S CULTURAL MOMENT
“This is all coming to a restroom near you.”
So says Brian Wilson, a talk radio host on WMAL in the nation’s capital, after he used an all-gender restroom for the first time. And where was he? Mr. Wilson was broadcasting live from the Democratic National Convention, of course, where one restroom on each concourse of the Wells Fargo Arena has been refitted for, well, everybody.
Mr. Wilson told his audience that he was unsure of the proper protocols, particularly while listening to women chatting away just outside the stall he was occupying. Helpful listeners were only too happy to give him advice, with more than one asking, “Did you leave the seat down?”
Meanwhile, there are a few semirelated poll numbers. A new survey conducted by Family Research Council Action and WPA Opinion Research finds that 66 percent of Americans disapprove of “government forcing schools, businesses, and non-profit organizations to open the showers, changing facilities, locker rooms, and bathrooms designated for women and girls, to biological males and vice versa.”
And the inevitable partisan divide: 84 percent of Republicans disapprove of the government’s policy, compared to 46 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of independents.
WHERE’S TRUMP’S FAVORITE GENERAL?
He was a finalist in Donald Trump’s vice presidential search, and one who bristled with gravitas and old-school might. That would be retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn, who still serves as a national security adviser to the candidate. While Mr. Trump travels the campaign trail, the general is on the author trail. He is promoting his new book “The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies,” co-authored with Michael Ledeen, a very savvy guy with his own share of foreign policy and intelligence credentials.
“Political correctness forbids us to denounce radicalized Islamists, and our political, opinion and academic elites dismiss out of hand the very idea of waging war against them. No wonder we’re losing,” says Gen. Flynn, who was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency after he testified before Congress that President Obama’s efforts to fight terrorism were ineffective.
“With his new book, General Flynn can no longer be silenced,” notes publisher St. Martin’s Press.
The author will be at a book signing just outside the nation’s capital on Wednesday.
CAUTION: GAS AHEAD
The ever-vigilant Americans for Tax Reform points out that the 2016 Democratic Party platform endorses a carbon tax on the American people. The carbon tax language, added at the last minute, states: “Democrats believe that carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases should be priced to reflect their negative externalities, and to accelerate the transition to a clean economy and help meet our climate goals.”
It is in clear contrast to the 2016 Republican Party platform opposition to any carbon tax, which stated that the GOP opposes any carbon tax. It could prove a boon at election time.
“When counting to 270 — the number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency — the Republicans may have already won the election in five short words: ’We oppose any carbon tax.’ Note the overlap between new fracking states — Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Colorado — and the swing states to reach 270 for any candidate,” advises Grover Norquist, president of the grass-roots watchdog.
POLL DU JOUR
• 94 percent of small business owners say they are “in charge of their own destiny.”
• 82 percent agree they “put everything into their business.”
• 62 percent say being a small business owner is more stressful than they imagined.
• 52 percent say living with uncertainty is part of being a small business owner.
• 41 percent say saving enough for retirement keeps them up at night; 35 percent worry about making enough money.
Source: A Bank of the West survey of 505 U.S. small business owners conducted April 13 to May 9 and released Tuesday.
• Incredulous exclamations, guffaws to jharper@washingtontimes.com
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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