Public wants politicians to live moral lives

NEWS AND OPINION:

Old-school manners, morality and good behavior: Do they still matter in politics? Yes, indeed they do, according to voters themselves — who have witnessed some shenanigans among elected officials over the years.

“Most voters still believe politicians should live moral lives, even as political sex scandals make national headlines,” declares a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday.

It found that 87% of likely U.S. voters agree that “it is important to them that politicians uphold traditional moral standards in their personal lives.”

Over half of the respondents — 55% — said upholding those standards is actually “very important” while a mere 11% don’t think it’s important for politicians to live by moral standards.

The survey of 1,020 likely U.S. voters was conducted Sept. 19-21.

Borderless Biden

President Biden visited Arizona in the last 48 hours, specifically to deliver an address on ways to “strengthen” democracy. He also honored the late Sen. John McCain with a new library in the city of Tempe, to be constructed with federal funds. That’s nice.

Some question the president’s itinerary, however.

“Where isn’t President Biden? The border,” advised Jake Schneider, director of rapid response for the Republican National Committee, in a written statement to Inside the Beltway.

Mr. Schneider noted that the president was only 117 miles from the port of entry in Lukeville in Pima County, now “overwhelmed,” he said, with a surge of illegal immigrants.

“But instead of seeing the crisis firsthand — and hearing from the frontline officials deluged by the unprecedented illegal crossings and drug trafficking happening on his watch — Biden will give another angry speech and hold a campaign fundraiser before jetting back to D.C.,” Mr. Schneider said.

“President Biden’s decision to skip past the border isn’t sitting well with local Arizona officials,” he added, citing complaints from officials in Yuma and in Cochise County.

“There’s a reason Biden has made just one visit to the border in his entire career (which was more like a quick drive-by): his ineffectual policies, inability to accept responsibility, and feckless leadership have created an unrivaled humanitarian crisis,” Mr. Schneider concluded.

The price of retail crime

The surveillance videos of organized shoplifting raids in stores around the country are alarming to say the least. They are also taking their toll.

“As incidents of retail crime continue to escalate throughout the country, retailers have seen a dramatic jump in financial losses associated with theft. When taken as a percentage of total retail sales in 2022, shrink accounted for $112.1 billion in losses, up from $93.9 billion in 2021,” according to the 2023 National Retail Security Survey released Thursday by the National Retail Federation.

David Johnston, vice president for asset protection and retail operations at the organization, said in a written statement shared with Inside the Beltway that “retailers are seeing unprecedented levels of theft coupled with rampant crime in their stores, and the situation is only becoming more dire.”

It’s not only the money losses that shop owners fear.

“Far beyond the financial impact of these crimes, the violence and concerns over safety continue to be the priority for all retailers, regardless of size or category,” the federation said in an analysis of the survey findings.

More than two-thirds (67%) of the respondents said they were seeing even more violence and aggression from theft perpetrators compared with a year ago.

“Even though retailers continue to enhance their loss prevention and asset protection measures, sometimes more drastic action must be taken. Retailers reported being forced to close a specific store location (28%), reduce operating hours (45%) or reduce or alter in-store product selection (30%) as a direct result of retail crime,” the analyst said.

“As violence has increased, more retailers have opted to enforce a ‘hands off’ approach in the apprehension of shoplifters. More survey respondents said that no employees are authorized to stop or apprehend shoplifters (41%), compared with 38% last year,” it advised.

Foxified

Fox News finished the third quarter of 2023 as cable TV’s most-watched network both during the day and in prime time, according to Nielsen Media Research. The network earned an average of 1.1 million daytime viewers — compared with MSNBC at 813,000 and CNN at 471,000.

In prime time, Fox News had an audience of 1.8 million viewers; MSNBC followed with 1.3 million and CNN with 596,000. Fox News also aired 82 of the top 100 telecasts in cable news for the entire quarter.

Standouts in the three-month period included “The Five,” which averaged 2.7 million viewers, “Jesse Watters Primetime” (2.4 million) and “Hannity” (2.2 million).

WEEKEND REAL ESTATE

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POLL DU JOUR

• 48% of registered Republican voters say former president Donald Trump is “definitely” the strongest candidate to beat President Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

• 24% of Republican voters overall say Mr. Trump is “probably” the strongest candidate against Mr. Biden in the election.

• 17% of Republican voters overall say another Republican candidate would “probably” be a stronger candidate than Mr. Trump.

• 8% of Republican voters overall say another Republican would “definitely” be a stronger candidate than Mr. Trump.

• 2% of Republican voters overall “don’t know.”

SOURCE: A Monmouth University poll of 514 registered Republican voters conducted Sept. 19-24.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin.