Harvey B. Clynne, 95, of Vineland, NJ, passed away peacefully Saturday, August 2, 2014, at Inspira Medical Center in Vineland with his son, Thomas Clynne and daughter-in-law, Rose, and step-daughter and devoted caregiver Ronnie Wolf by his side. Born in Atlantic City, he graduated from Atlantic City High School in 1936, and from University of Wisconsin in 1940. He served as a SeaBee in the US Navy in World War II. His varied career included a number of different jobs including the family owned Society Studio as well as his own commercial printing businesses such as Brigantine Press and Shore Studios. He produced greeting cards and invented and produced "Weather Cards". He built his own home in Brigantine and built a home with his sister, Faith, and brother-in-law, Herb Stern, in Longport, NJ.
He is survived by his sister, Faith, 10 children and step-children, 27 grand-children and 11 great grand-children.
He maintained a lifelong interest in building and construction, and enjoyed fishing, cooking, music and songwriting, studying the stock market, gardening, poker, scrabble, and using his computer. He had recently moved from Cherry Hill, NJ to the New Jersey State Veterans Memorial Home in Vineland.
Services will be private. Donations may be made to the New Jersey State Veterans Memorial Home in Vineland, NJ (524 Northwest Blvd., Vineland, NJ 08360) or to the charity of your choice.
Ronnie H. Wolf (nee Fisher), age 82, passed away on September 14, 2024. She is survived by her sisters Nadine (Barry) Kavitsky, Sondra (Gary) Kaye, Step-Daughter Rachel (Jim) Franklin, Step-Son Alex Wolf, Step-Grandchildren Cody, Jimmy (Stephanie), Braden, Shenandoah "Doe", Kamin, Tiernan, and Gavril, and Step Great Grandchildren, Jacob and Teagen. She is also survived by her niece Dana (Roger) Smith, nephew Stuart (Melanie) Kavitsky. Additionally, she was the Great Aunt of Jared, Hugh, Amanda, and Sy.
Ronnie enjoyed a long career as a beloved business teacher in the Philadelphia City School district until her retirement. She was a proud member of the Fantastic Single seniors group. She was also an award-winning amateur photographer, avid dancer, clarinetist, lover of all music, travel enthusiast, and general adventurist.
Friends and family are invited to funeral services on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 at 10:00AM at Joseph Levine & Sons, 4737 E. Street Road in Trevose, PA. Interment to follow at Shalom Memorial Park in Huntingdon Valley. Those unable to attend services, the service will be webcasted at www.levinefuneral.com. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Ronnie’s memory may be made to American Cancer Society or a charity of the donor’s choice.
Richard R. Gibson
March 27, 1975 - August 13, 2024
Richard R. Gibson, 49, of Philadelphia, PA, passed away suddenly on August 13, 2024. He was born in Riverside, NJ on March 27th, 1975, to Richard and Emma J. Gibson.
Richard dedicated many years of his life to the Local Union 126 in Philadelphia, PA, where he served as a Lineman. His commitment and contributions to his profession were greatly valued by all who had the privilege of working alongside him.
He is survived by his loving mother Emma J. Gibson and brother Randy Gibson. He was proceeded in death by his father Richard Gibson. His presence will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.
As we mourn the loss of Richard, let us also celebrate the life he lived and the love he shared. May his memory continue to inspire and uplift us all.
Family and friends are invited to a visitation for Richard on Thursday August 22nd at Givnish funeral home located at 1200 Route 130 N Cinnaminson, NJ 08077 from 9am to 11am with the memorial service to begin at 11am. Following the service there will be a burial at Lakeview Memorial Park 1300 US-130 N Cinnaminson, NJ 08077.
PRINCETON -- Tristam B. Johnson, 84, a lifelong Princeton resident and retired investment advisor, died Saturday at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mt. Holly.
He had suffered a stroke in November 1999, and had been living at the home of his daughter, Katie Hill, and her late husband Terry in Columbus for the past two years. During this time, his life was enriched by his constant and devoted companion and care giver, Rayfield Meyers.
Mr. Johnson was born in Princeton Aug. 17, 1919 and attended Princeton Country Day School and Lawrenceville School before graduating from Yale with the Class of 1941. He joined the U.S. Army immediately after graduation and served during World War II as an intelligence officer stationed in Australia where he intercepted and decoded Japanese communications. Upon his return to Princeton, he embarked on a long and successful career as a stockbroker and investment advisor.
After learning the brokerage business in New York City, he established the Tristam B. Johnson Company in Princeton before being asked to help start the Princeton branch of Laidlaw & Co. in the 1950s. He later was associated with Kidder Peabody and with Hornblower Weeks & Co. in its Trenton office. Most recently he was with Paine Webber, now UBS Financial Services, on Route 1, where he continued to work long after normal retirement age. He took a great interest in his clients and was known for helping them solve a wide variety of problems as well as offering investment advice.
Active in Republican politics in Princeton, he was elected to Borough Council in 1956 and served as Council President and then as acting mayor when Mayor Mac Sturges was stricken with a heart attack. In 1958 he ran unsuccessfully for mayor himself on the Republican ticket. He was the New Jersey chairman of the campaign to elect Nelson Rockefeller president.
In the early 1970s, Mr. Johnson was named financial consultant in the formation of the Stony Brook Regional Sewerage Authority and assisted in securing the multi-million dollar bond issue for the construction of the new sewerage plant on River Road. He was also a member of a statewide transportation advisory council.
Mr. Johnson had a passionate interest in American history, especially the American Revolution. He became engaged in the concept of "Living History" during the Bi-Centennial reenactments in the Princeton area. He took on the characters of several French and American Revolution figures as a part of reenactments of events and battles associated with the War to bring to life the importance of the events of that era. One of his most cherished involvements included crossing the Delaware during the annual reenactment of George Washington Crossing the Delaware and the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He also applied his passion for history and his financial skills to assisting in the creation of the Swan Foundation, an institution dedicated to preserving and displaying artifacts from the American Revolution.
A loyal member and former president of the Princeton Rotary Club since '51, he was also a member of the Nassau Club. Mr. Johnson was a longtime member and former elder of First (now Nassau) Presbyterian Church and a former member of the Bay Head Yacht Club and Pretty Brook Tennis Club.
Mr. Johnson was a loving and devoted father and grandfather, who took great pleasure in touching the lives of each of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandson, including irregular surprise visits at opportune moments anywhere, anytime.
Mr. Johnson's wife, the former Eileen Douglas, died in January 2002. He is survived by four children from his first marriage to the late Helen Harris Johnson, Kate E. Hill of Columbus, Tristam B. Johnson Jr. of Newfane, VT, Thomas H. Johnson of Salt Lake City, UT and Elizabeth H. Johnson of Williamstown, MA; and two sons from his marriage to Barbara L. Johnson of Princeton, Jeffrey D. Johnson of Castleton, VT and Kevin P. Johnson of Newtown, MA. Also surviving are two stepsons, Christopher Reeve of Bedford, NY and Benjamin Reeve of Arlington, MA; 19 grandchildren; five step-grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
A Memorial Service will be held 4 p.m. Friday at Nassau Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau St., Princeton, with a reception following at The Nassau Club, 6 Mercer St., Princeton.
Memorial contributions may be made to The Swan Foundation at The National Museum of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing State Park, 355 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road, Titusville, NJ 08560.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Mather-Hodge Funeral Home, Princeton.
Barbara Lamb Johnson
March 8, 1932 - June 18, 2024
Barbara Lamb Johnson Obituary
Barbara Johnson, former Princeton resident and Town Topics Associate Editor
Barbara Lamb Johnson died peacefully on June 18, 2024 in Concord, Massachusetts. She was 92.
For Barbara, the features of a good life included a career as a newspaper reporter, a great love for the outdoors, rowing crew, leadership roles in community organizations, and importantly, raising her four boys.
Born March 8, 1932 in New York City to Horace Lamb and Beatrice Pitney Lamb, Barbara grew up in New Canaan, CT. At age 10, with asthma, she was sent to school in the dry climate of Arizona. Later she credited the years in Arizona, and time at Westover School, back East, with building self-reliance and discipline so important to her life.
In 1949 she enrolled in Vassar College. She married her first husband, Franklin Reeve, a year later, and soon they had two sons, Christopher in 1952 and Benjamin in 1953. The marriage ended in divorce. She moved to Princeton, NJ to begin a new life and married Tristam Johnson in 1959, gaining four beloved stepchildren from Tristam’s first marriage. Two more boys, Jeffrey and Kevin, arrived in the early 1960s.
Barbara soon became actively engaged in the Princeton community. During her six decades there, she played important roles in many organizations, including Carnegie Lake Rowing Association, the Chapin School Parents Association, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament, Community without Walls, Friends of the Princeton Public Library, the Nassau Street School PTA, the Princeton Hospital Fete, Trinity Church of Princeton, and the Vassar Club of Central New Jersey.
n 1975, Barbara joined the reporting staff of Town Topics, a weekly paper in Princeton. She wrote and edited the music, theater, religion, and obituary sections, while also covering Township Committee, planning and zoning boards, and events at Princeton University. She particularly enjoyed the chance to write longer profiles of notable Princeton residents, including Svetlana Alliluyeva (Joseph Stalin’s daughter) and John McPhee.
She took pride in her accuracy in reporting. When she retired in 1997, the Township Committee and Planning Board both issued proclamations of appreciation for her work, and the Township Mayor held a retirement party in her honor.
At age 57, Barbara took up rowing on Princeton’s Carnegie Lake. She started in eights and progressed to single scull, winning the event for her age group at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, MA in 1999, as well as a fine collection of medals from other events. She was selected by Princeton residents to carry the Olympic torch on part of its journey past Princeton to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
In younger years, Barbara yearned “to hike every trail and read every book." She embraced an active retirement in the same spirit, traveling on Elderhostel trips, sometimes including grandchildren. She visited her children in Vermont, Martha’s Vineyard, and more far-flung locales including West Africa, Jerusalem, and Bali. She also continued to write in retirement, taking on several book-length projects. In 2016, she moved to Newbury Court retirement community, in Concord, MA. She spent her last years there, close by her sons and many of her grandchildren.
Barbara was predeceased by her son Christopher Reeve and by daughter-in-law Dana Reeve. She is survived by three sons and their partners: Benjamin Reeve and Katharine Sterling, Jeffrey and Lynsie Johnson, and Kevin Johnson and Linda Lynch; by four stepchildren: Kate Johnson, Tristam Johnson Jr., Thomas Laabs-Johnson, and Elizabeth Johnson; by ten grandchildren: Matthew, Alexandra, Will, Sebastian, Julia, Trista, Conner, Theo, Lucy, and Annie; and by six great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister Dorothy Lamb Crawford, niece Susan Crawford and nephew Peter Crawford.
A celebration of her life will be held in Duvall Chapel at Newbury Court, Concord, Massachusetts on Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 11:30 am, with a reception to follow at Newbury Court.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to either of two organizations important to her: Friends of the Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon, Princeton, NJ 08542 or Carnegie Lake Rowing Association, PO Box 330 Princeton, NJ 08542-0330.
Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.
Christopher Reeve, 52, Symbol of Courage, Dies By Douglas Martin
Christopher Reeve, the cinematic Superman who became a real-life inspiration through his painstaking efforts to overcome total paralysis, while speaking out for stem-cell research and other potential treatments, died on Sunday at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y. He was 52 and lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y.
Mr. Reeve was being treated for a pressure wound, a common complication for people in wheelchairs, said his publicity agent, Wesley Combs. These wounds result from constant pressure in one spot, reducing the blood to that area and finally killing the affected tissue.
Mr. Combs said that Mr. Reeve fell into a coma on Saturday. The wound had become severely infected, and the infection spread through his body.
A riding accident in 1995 left the actor paralyzed from the neck down. After briefly pondering suicide, Mr. Reeve had become a powerful proponent of causes ranging from insurance reform for catastrophic injuries to unleashing the possibilities some scientists believe lie in using embryonic stem cells for research.
As recently as Friday, Mr. Reeve's name emerged, as it often has, in the national debate over stem cell use. In the presidential debate in St. Louis between President Bush and Senator John F. Kerry, the Democratic challenger, Mr. Kerry mentioned Mr. Reeve by name in arguing against the president's position that stem-cell research must be restricted to protect the lives of human embryos.
Yesterday, the White House issued a statement on behalf of the president and Mrs. Bush, citing Mr. Reeve as "an example of personal courage, optimism and self-determination."
As a young unknown actor Mr. Reeve propelled himself to the status of instant myth by starring in "Superman: The Movie," a hugely popular 1978 picture, then going on to do three successful sequels. Many critics said he exhibited humor and sensitivity, particularly in his portrayal of Clark Kent as the bespectacled bumbler. His own ironic detachment came out in a comment he made while filming the first movie.
"I prevent an earthquake," he said. "I repair Golden Gate Bridge and Boulder Dam, and I prevent a nuclear explosion in Southern California."
He certainly seemed able to. He was 6 feet 4 inches tall, with a strikingly handsome, square-jawed face and a strong athletic build. Even before "Superman," he looked like Superman. Enhancing the image, he performed his own stunts, and off-screen piloted his own plane.
He was determined not to be typecast ("escape the cape," he vowed) and found numerous other roles, including leading substantial parts on Broadway. But it was Mr. Reeve's personal courage in dealing with his paralysis that transcended both his causes and profession, making him a real-life superhero in many minds. By using electrical shocks to stir his numb nervous system and tirelessly exercising, he twitch-by-tiny-twitch was beginning to recapture use of his body. In September 2000 he moved an index finger and the news startled scientists who had not expected to see such progress so long after so severe an accident. Mr. Reeve expected nothing less and continued to improve.
"You have to take action and stand up for yourself -- even if you're sitting in a wheelchair," he said in an interview with Psychology Today in 2003.
Such was his progress that Mr. Reeve in February 2003 decided to have surgery to free him from the respirator that had enabled his paralyzed lungs to breathe. Electrodes were implanted into his diaphragm so that breathing could be regulated electronically.
But infections ultimately trumped technology, intensive exercise and even steely determination. The slim luck that had nurtured Mr. Reeve ran out.
That luck apparently resulted from the fact that some of his nerves had not been destroyed, scientists suggested. Because they were not dead, they could be revived. Massive amounts of physical activity induced new connections to form and dormant pathways to revive.
And with that recovery came a string of accomplishments since his accident that included writing two books and directing and acting in movies. His extensive lobbying for public health issues helped earn him an award for public service in 2003 from the Lasker Foundation, which gives awards for medical research.
In a speech then, Mr. Reeve challenged the medical establishment to regain the sense of urgency shown by the emergency medical technicians who helped save his life.
"I believe I speak on behalf of patients who are willing to accept failure as a necessary aspect of moving science forward," he said. "We want researchers to think less like academics and more like E.M.T.'s whose primary function is to save lives."
Mr. Reeve led by example, as numerous other awards testified. "In the Gloaming," a movie he directed for HBO in 1997, was nominated for five Emmys. His performance in a remake of Hitchcock's classic "Rear Window" won the Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor in a television movie or miniseries.
His autobiographies, both favorably reviewed, were "Still Me" (1998) and "Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life" (2002), both published by Random House.
Christopher Reeve was born in Manhattan on Sept. 25, 1952. His parents divorced when he was 4, and he moved with his younger brother and mother to Princeton, N.J. He began appearing in school plays around 8, and soon became involved in the McCarter Theater, Princeton's professional theater.
He was 9 when the McCarter cast him in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. This July, Mr. Reeve said in an interview on CNN that the theater became "like a family to me," as he sought to escape his own family's disruption. By the time he was 15, he was a member of Actors Equity and had worked as an apprentice at the Williamstown Theater Festival.
He graduated from Cornell University, then studied at Juilliard under John Houseman and roomed with Robin Williams. While at Juilliard he began his two-year run as Ben Harper in the soap opera "Love of Life." He acted onstage at night and made his Broadway debut as Katharine Hepburn's grandson in Enid Bagnold's play "A Matter of Gravity."
In a generational switch, the following year he played the role of the grandfather in Corrine Jacker's memory play "My Life" at the Circle Repertory company. Then came Superman, a comic book hero who burst on the American scene in 1938. Producers and the director could not settle on a big-name actor who would take the part, so decided to find an unknown. Mr. Reeve at first thought the idea was downright silly and untheatrical, but read the script and loved it, according to "Contemporary Heroes and Heroines, Book III," published by Gale Research in 1998.
After being invited back for a screen test, the actor prepared for two solid weeks, experimenting with complete makeup and costume changes for both Superman and Clark Kent. The young actor won the part, and found himself starring with Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman. "Superman" had what at the time was the most successful opening in history.
By his fourth and last Superman, "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987), Mr. Reeve was helping write the original story for the film. He was also speaking out on many issues from campaign finance reform to recycling garbage in New York City. He went to Santiago, Chile, to demonstrate on behalf of 77 actors threatened with execution by the Pinochet regime.
He was known for his often expert pursuit of vigorous sports, including sailing, skiing, scuba diving and competitive horseback riding. Following the first "Superman" film, Mr. Reeve celebrated by sailing from Connecticut to Bermuda. He also flew his plane solo across the Atlantic twice.
On Saturday, May 27, 1995, he was engaging in a sport that increasingly captivated him, riding horses in competition. He owned a number of horses, including a chestnut thoroughbred named Eastern Express.
The place was Culpeper, Va., where a three-day equestrian competition was taking place. Mr. Reeve was wearing blue and silver riding colors, knee-high boots, off-white breeches and a protective vest and helmet. He and Eastern Express, entry No. 103, were moving harmoniously as they approached a zigzagged, three-foot-high rail jump, the third of 15 jumps.
Suddenly, Eastern Express backed off from the jump. Mr. Reeve kept moving, pitching forward over the horse's neck. His head hit the rail fence and he landed on the turf on his forehead. His head dangled, just barely connected to his spine.
The fall caused multiple fractures of the first and second cervical vertebrae and left him unable to move his limbs or breathe without the use of a respirator.
Mr. Reeve said that in the days after the accident he contemplated suicide, but seeing the faces of his wife and family dissuaded him. His wife, Dana Morosi, an actor and singer, yesterday released a statement thanking "the millions of fans" who supported her husband.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Reeve is survived by his mother, Barbara L. Johnson; his father, Franklin Reeve; his brother, Benjamin; his sons Will and Matthew, and his daughter, Alexandra. Gae Exton, with whom Mr. Reeve lived for much of the 1980's but never wed, is the mother of Matthew and Alexandra.Mr. Reeve's progress after the accident ranged from very elementary things, like learning to operate his wheelchair by puffing into a tube, to very public triumphs like his tear-provoking appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony in 1996. He often testified before Congress.
The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which was founded by combining two older organizations in 1998, raised more than $46.5 million for spinal cord research.
In his final years, after the electrodes were implanted on his diaphragm, he spoke of one day getting rid of his respirator altogether. His recovery was considered remarkable because most spinal-injury victims make progress only in the first two years after the accident.
One of Mr. Reeve's last projects was directing "The Brooke Ellison Story," about a girl who became a quadriplegic at 11 but rose above her disability to graduate from Harvard. It will be broadcast on A&E in August.
Last month Mr. Reeve said on the Oprah Winfrey show that he thought it "very possible" he would walk again. He was asked what would happen if he did not.
"Then I won't walk again," he said.
Correction: October 13, 2004, Wednesday The obituary of the actor Christopher Reeve yesterday misspelled his wife's surname and misstated the broadcast date of a movie he directed. His wife is Dana Morosini, not Morosi. The movie, "The Brooke Ellison Story," is to be shown on A&E on Oct. 25, not next August.
Dana Reeve, Devoted Caretaker and Advocate, Is Dead at 44 By Nadine Brozan
Dana Reeve, who devoted herself to the care of her paralyzed husband, the actor Christopher Reeve, and became a forceful advocate for research into spinal cord injuries, died on Monday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. She was 44 and lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y., in Westchester County.
The hospital said Ms. Reeve died of lung cancer, which was discovered last year, 10 months after Christopher Reeve's death.
Ms. Reeve, a singer and an actress, won international admiration for her devotion to Mr. Reeve's care and for her involvement in the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which seeks a cure for spinal cord paralysis. She succeeded her husband as chairman of the foundation and established the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, an information clearinghouse.
Mr. Reeve, whose most celebrated role was as the title hero in the "Superman" movie franchise, was paralyzed after a 1995 horseback riding accident in Virginia. He died on Oct. 10, 2004, in New York at age 52.
Ms. Reeve, who had never smoked, expressed optimism about overcoming her cancer. "I'm beating the odds and defying every statistic the doctors can throw at me," she said four months ago in one of her few public statements about her condition. "My prognosis looks better all the time."
Ms. Reeve was born in 1961 in Teaneck, N.J., one of three daughters of Dr. Charles Morosini and Helen Morosini, who died of ovarian cancer early last year. She grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y., graduated cum laude from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1984 and studied at the California Institute of the Arts.
The couple met in 1987 in Williamstown, Mass., where Christopher saw Dana performing in a cabaret act at the Williamstown Theater Festival. They were married on April 11, 1992, in an outdoor ceremony at a farm in South Williamstown. They had a son, Will, now 13.
In addition to her son and her father, Ms. Reeve is survived by her sisters, Deborah Morosini and Adrienne Morosini Heilman, and two stepchildren, Matthew and Alexandra.
She appeared both on Broadway and Off Broadway at the Public Theater, the Manhattan Theater Club and the Ensemble Studio Theater. She also acted at such regional theaters as the Yale Repertory Theater and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. On television she appeared in shows including "Law and Order," "Oz" and "All My Children," and was a co-host for "Lifetime Live," a program on the Lifetime network.
Ms. Reeve essentially suspended her career after her husband's accident, choosing to oversee his care and campaign for spinal cord research, but she did make several appearances after his death. On Jan. 12, wearing what she described as her "Barbarella wig," she sang "Now and Forever" to a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden on behalf of a friend, the former Rangers hockey captain Mark Messier, who was honored in a retirement ceremony.
Ms. Reeve will be seen on March 29 in a PBS program, "The New Medicine," which was taped in November. In its introduction, she says, "It has become clear to me that high-tech medicine, with all its wonders, often leaves out that all-important human touch."
Her interest in preserving humane approaches to life in the face of disability was reflected in her work at the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
"She navigated the difficulties in their lives, so she decided she wanted to do something to help people living with paralysis and established the Quality of Life grants program," said Maggie Goldberg, spokeswoman for the foundation. The program has awarded $8 million to nonprofit organizations that help people with disabilities, Ms. Goldberg said.
"Chris was all about research, research, cure and treatment," Ms. Goldberg said. "Dana said, 'We need to worry about the here and now.' "
At his memorial service, professors, friends, and family remembered Professor of Letters, Emeritus Franklin Reeve as a man with an excitement for learning, an ability to spur discussion, and a wit faster than a speeding bullet.
“He had this impish and consistent desire to undermine whatever you thought you knew and to force you to think outside the box,” Professor of German and Letters, Emeritus Herbert Arnold said.
Franklin D’Olier Reeve passed away on June 28 at the age of 84 after devoting nearly half of his life to teaching at the University, first as a professor and chair of the Russian Department from 1962 to 1966, and then as a professor in the College of Letters until 2002.
Reeve’s former colleagues, as well as his friends and family, filled the seats at the reception, held at Russell House on Friday, Sept. 20. Several shared their memories of him, and others read aloud Reeve’s own words, including a passage he had written in Russian.
Arnold, who taught a colloquium alongside Reeve, remembers the course as a new and exciting learning experience for both him and the students, especially since the two professors often “fundamentally disagreed” on their interpretations of the material.
“It was a ping pong of ideas going back and forth, and students’ heads [would be] swiveling,” Arnold said. “That was quite deliberate, and Frank was smiling about it.”
At the memorial, Professor of Letters Emeritus Paul Schwaber read aloud a tribute to his former colleague that also appeared on President Michael Roth’s blog.
“I remember Frank Reeve as a tall, extremely handsome man,” Schwaber said. “He smiled ruefully and spoke very rapidly, as if barely able to control his rush of thought or questions.”
Reeve’s notable features and charisma were passed on to his son, actor Christopher Reeve, famous for his role as Superman in the 1978 motion picture. The two so closely resembled one another that Professor of Physics, Emeritus Bill Trousdale recalls mistaking Christopher for his father at a book signing.
“Gee, Franklin, you are looking young!” Trousdale recalled nearly saying to the movie star.
Christopher Reeve may have also inherited his father’s talent for the arts: Franklin Reeve acted professionally shortly after graduating from Princeton and before pursing a master’s degree in Russian at Columbia.
However, Frank ultimately decided to give up acting upon realizing that it would impede his ability to write poetry.
“For the first time I discovered what happens when a person really acts: the self disappears; you entirely, inside and out, become the character,” he once wrote.
Many would agree that this sacrifice was worthwhile: poetry was yet another area in which Franklin Reeve excelled. Reeve wrote 10 volumes of poetry, and he was the recipient of the New England Poetry Club’s Golden Rose Award and various other awards.
Over his lifetime, Reeve wrote a total of six novels, five books of criticism, eight Russian translations, and five plays. Most famously, he acted as an interpreter for Robert Frost on a visit to Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev in 1962, during which Frost served as a cultural ambassador on behalf of the United States.
“Widely learned, he was polylingual, witty, keen with pun and irony,” Schwaber said. “There were few things he seemed not to know.”
That which Reeve did not know, he tried earnestly to learn with great confidence. John Basinger, Professor Emeritus of Theater and Sign Language at Three Rivers Community College and husband of Professor of Film Studies Jeanine Basinger, recalls Reeve’s attempts to study sign language.
“He was willing to just flub it up,” John Basinger said.
Though Reeve may have given off the impression of being “all-knowing,” John Basinger noted that even he was sometimes prone to ad-libbing.
“Anyone who yammers as much as me is going to do a bit of humbuggery,” he said.
Reeve often liked to improvise his lectures and think on his feet, and he relished the opportunity for spur-of-the-moment remarks.
“A certain amount of that was just keeping fingers crossed, but [Reeve] was unafraid of that,” John Basinger said.
It is likely that Reeve’s talent with improvisation and knack for communicating as an actor and poet helped him develop into the skilled lecturer that captivated so many students and faculty.
“I always admired him,” Trousdale said. “He was a combination of forceful and generous. If you kept talking to him about something, you never came away thinking, ‘Oh, that was a stupid idea.’ He wasn’t about putting someone down, but instead tried to engage them.”
In an interview with the New York Quarterly, Reeve once credited poet and critic R. P. Blackmur for developing his passion for poetry after taking the professor’s creative writing class at Princeton.
“My whole life changed when I went to college,” he said.
As his son Brock Reeve suggested during the memorial service, Frank’s time at Wesleyan might have influenced his life just as dramatically as his time at Princeton initially did.
“My father had several chapters of his life, but the theme that runs through these chapters is this place that is Wesleyan,” who is now Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. “Wesleyan provided a rich, flexible environment that allowed my father to explore his interests, passions, and abilities in multiple ways.”
It is a huge loss for the Wesleyan community that Franklin Reeve is no longer with us, but he continues to live on through the words he has left behind. One poem in particular, entitled “Home in Wartime” and published in October 2002, may offer some advice for how we should cope with his passing:
If I die first, gather the lost years
with the late September apples. At sunset ghost me
Gerald Slater, a founder of PBS, died of coronavirus at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 2020. He was 86. Multiple myeloma was an underlying condition. His wife, children and their spouses were with him by videoconference when he passed.
Gerry started his career in broadcasting as head usher for The Jackie Gleason Show while majoring in business at NYU. Following a variety of production roles at CBS, he became Production Manager for CBS News (1960-1967), working with Walter Cronkite and Fred Friendly (President of CBS News). In 1967, he and Friendly left CBS to create The Public Broadcasting Laboratory (PBL), a weekly TV news and performing arts program funded by the Ford Foundation. From 1970-1975, Gerry worked with Friendly and Hartford Gunn to establish and build the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the new national network of public television stations. Gerry was PBS's first General Manager and developed many of the network operations that define PBS today.
In 1975, Gerry became Exec. VP of WETA TV/Radio in D.C., At WETA he stabilized the station's finances, managed operations, and began live coverage of the Watergate hearings, the Fourth of July concerts on the National Mall, and performances at Wolf Trap (1975-1989). He and Ward Chamberlain (then-President of WETA) were instrumental in producing Emmy award-winning programs including The NewsHour, Smithsonian World, In Performance at the White House, and documentaries by Ken Burns. According to Sharon Rockefeller, President of WETA, "Gerry guided WETA during its most formative years and much of WETA's success is due to his work."
Gerry's WETA colleagues recall his negotiating skills and judgment, his reputation for fairness and street smarts, as well as his personal warmth and sense of humor. He was also known for promoting women into major leadership positions.
After retiring from WETA, Gerry was a media consultant for the American Museum of Natural History, the NYC Board of Education, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He also served on several non-profit boards, including the City Lights School, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and The Palisades Village.
Gerry treasured his family life and close friendships. Gatherings at his home in Washington, D.C., and on Bustins Island, Maine, were annual highlights, as were international trips with his nine grandchildren. From his first marriage to Alice Slater, Gerry leaves his son David Slater (wife Patty Slater); his daughter Helen Slater (husband Rob Watzke); and his granddaughter, Hannah Watzke. Gerry is also survived by his wife Dr. Halcyone Bohen, three stepdaughters, Shawn Bohen (husband Alan Clarance), Kim Bohen (husband Doug James), and Courtney Bohen, plus eight step-grandchildren, Jack Bohen, Lily James, Spruce Bohen, Teale Bohen, Henry Morehouse, Imogen Morehouse, Grady Bohen and Silas Bohen. His siblings Lita Askanas and Dr. Barry Slater live in northern California.
A memorial event will be held post-coronavirus. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to WETA.
America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. It is a choice made by detached and cynical politicians. As a California resident, I’ve seen firsthand how decades of Democrat rule have turned the Golden State, for many, into an unaffordable dystopia. I won’t let them do the same to America. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President.
I’m Larry Elder, and we’ve got a country to save.
The Issues
CRIME
Soft-on-crime approaches have been a disaster. We’ve all seen shocking videos from Democrat-run cities of criminals casually looting stores, harassing residents, and assaulting passersby.
That’s why I’m supporting the Enforce the Law Act, model legislation that states can implement to hold George Soros-backed accountable. This proposed legislation creates a commission that will be empowered to discipline or remove prosecutors who refuse to do their job and enforce the law.
We can only solve America’s crime problem through action, not talk. Action requires a national legislative framework—implemented state by state—that is anti-Soros and pro-safety.
SCHOOL CHOICE
Imagine a world where parents have the freedom to choose the school that best meets their child’s educational needs, regardless of their zip code or income. That’s the essence of school choice, and I wholeheartedly support it.
School choice, which includes charter schools, vouchers, and tax-credit scholarships, levels the playing field for families from all socioeconomic backgrounds. By giving parents the right to vote with their feet, we send a clear message to underperforming schools: shape up or risk losing students. It’s time to break the monopoly of the public school system and embrace a future where every child has access to the quality education they deserve.
RACIAL HARMONY
The Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) cults are increasing – not decreasing – racial tensions in America. CRT and DEI spread the lie that racism is ingrained in every aspect of American society and that our institutions and millions of Americans are inherently racist. This divisive theory undermines our shared belief in the American Dream, as it shifts the focus from personal responsibility and individual merit to racial identity and collective guilt. CRT and DEI do not belong in any government institution, least of all the United States Armed Forces. And they do not belong in any corporation that receives large government contracts.
CRUSH INFLATION
Inflation is a hidden tax that erodes the purchasing power of Americans. Joe Biden and the Democrats’ reckless spending and money printing have put us on a dangerous path, with rising prices and economic uncertainty threatening the prosperity of millions. A threat to the dollar is a threat to America. Historically, inflation is one of the surest signs of a collapsing civilization. Does this not bother the Democratic Party?
ECONOMIC GROWTH
Economic growth is the engine that makes anything possible in America. A growing economy drives prosperity, creating opportunities and improving the quality of life for all Americans. I believe in the power of unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit and fostering an environment where small businesses can thrive and innovate. By prioritizing the freedom of every American to realize their economic potential, we will improve America’s educational system, infrastructure, social security, and so much more. When Americans are left alone to pursue a better life, anything is possible.
RESTORE AMERICA’S CITIES
America’s great cities have seen better days. Office buildings are half-empty, streets are littered with garbage, hundreds of thousands of individuals suffering from mental illness and drug addiction are dying on the streets. This is unacceptable. We must address the root causes of urban decay. And we must first acknowledge that nearly every major city has had one-party Democrat rule for decades.
Our cities can rise again, but it will take enormous political will to invest in law enforcement, shelter and treat the homeless, arrest and prosecute violent criminals, and incentivize business development. America’s cities were once the envy of the world. They can be again.
CONTAIN CHINA
America’s status as the world’s sole superpower is essential not only for our own security and prosperity but also for maintaining the liberties of hundreds of millions of freedom-loving people around the world. With the aggressive rise of Communist China, strengthening America’s role as the sole superpower is critical. This includes investing in our military’s readiness while keeping the Pentagon focused on national defense, not left-wing social experimentation; asserting American dominance in the South China Sea and reassuring our Pacific allies; minimizing our reliance on Chinese manufacturing; and punishing China when it unleashes a pandemic on the world (intentionally or not) and floods America’s streets with drugs.
SECURE THE BORDER
Securing America’s southern border is not only a basic matter of national sovereignty but also a critical component of national security. The constant flow of illegal migration, drugs, and cartel activity across the border poses significant threats to our communities and our people. Washington must take decisive action to strengthen border security, enforce our immigration laws, and address the root causes of this crisis. We must invest in physical barriers (walls work!), bolster the resources available to our border patrol agents, and restore the rule of law to our border with Mexico.
Democrats push the "America is systemically racist" lie because they want blacks to feel angry, oppressed and discriminated against. What's the upside? It guarantees Democrats get a near-monolithic black vote. Democrats tell blacks that in the quest for "social justice" and "equity," the Democrats wear the white hat and Republicans wear the black hat.
It is a lie, without which Democrats cannot win presidential elections.
When I ran for governor in California, I received 3.5 million votes in that recall election in a state where non-Republicans outnumber Republicans three to one. Of the 46 replacement candidates, which included Republicans, independents and Democrats, I received 49% of the vote. The next highest finisher got 9%. California has 58 counties, and on the replacement vote, I carried 57. I entered the race late but raised $27 million in eight weeks.
We got donations from 150,000 individuals, half of whom lived outside of California. Why would a non-Californian donate to a California gubernatorial republican candidate? California, if it were a separate country, would be the fourth-largest GDP in the world. It is also a state with Democrat supermajorities in the Senate and the Assembly and where for the first time in the state's history, people are leaving. Blame crime, the high cost of living, homelessness, poor government schools, underfunded public pensions, excessive taxation and job-killing regulations. People know that as California continues on this road it infects the rest of the country.
An L.A. Times columnist called me "the black face of white supremacy." My sin? I noted that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a black male age 10 to 34 is 13 times more likely to be murdered than a white male in the same demographic. This is not a problem. It is a crisis. I advocate school choice in a country where, according to the national report card, nearly 85% of black eighth graders can neither read nor do math at grade level. I am pro-life. I support secure borders and national fiscal responsibility. I know that our biggest foreign adversary is the communist Chinese government, and that we have become increasingly dependent on a country led by a totalitarian communist regime that wants to dominate the world.
The number one responsibility of government is to protect people and property. Soft on crime George Soros backed district attorneys are doing neither. The people most hurt are the very black and brown people living in urban America whom the Democrats claim to care so much about. Reduce the chance of a bad guy being caught, convicted and incarcerated, and crime goes up. They may be criminals, but they're not stupid.
The 10,000-pound elephant in the room is fatherlessness. Seventy percent of black children enter the world without a father in the home married to the mother; 50% of Hispanic kids and 25% of white children, which was the same percentage as black children in 1965. Today, 40% of all children in America enter the world without a father in the home married to the mother. Former President Barack Obama said a kid raised without a father is five times more likely to be poor and commit crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in jail. Since the mid-1960s, public policy has incentivized women to marry the government, and incentivized men to abandon their financial and moral responsibility. This is not a problem; it is a crisis.
My father, who never knew his own father, always told my brothers and me the following: hard work wins; you get out of life what you put into it; you cannot control the outcome, but you are 100% in control of the effort; and before you complain about what somebody did to you or said to you, go to the nearest mirror and ask yourself what you could have done to change the outcome.
I guess that makes my dad a black face of white supremacy. Well, this may be my last column for a while because this son of a black face of white supremacy is considering running again — this time for president. We've got a country to save.
Honored to have just met with @realDonaldTrump to lend him my endorsement for President. I am grateful for the support I received from so many of you across the country. Statement below: pic.twitter.com/1LE9PMtv7c
( @realDonaldTrump - Truth Social ) ( Donald J. Trump - Truth Post - Oct 27, 2023, 11:11 PM ET )
So great to have the Endorsement of wonderful Larry Elder. Respected by all, he has so much of importance to say, especially when it comes to fathers and families. Thank you Larry! pic.twitter.com/Io3VCg2Jm3
— Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 TRUTH POSTS (@TruthTrumpPosts) October 28, 2023
My new book, “As Goes California—My Mission To Rescue The Golden State And Save The Nation,” is out November 7.
David Ehrenstein, a writer who happens to be black and liberal, wrote an opinion piece in March 2007 in the Los Angeles Times called "Obama the 'Magic Negro.'"
He argued that whites, according to sociologists, stereotype blacks as "dangerous." But whites consider Obama accessible, likeable and "benign." This, according to Ehrenstein, explains Obama's "crossover" appeal.
The article insults a) Obama, by virtually ignoring his effectiveness as a candidate, b) whites, by accusing them of voting for Obama merely to assuage their own guilt, and c) Sidney Poitier, the brilliant, groundbreaking actor, for ascribing his success to whites who find him safe and non-threatening.
The article produced virtually no outcry.
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh then aired a song parody --set to the music of "Puff the Magic Dragon" -- called "Barack the Magic Negro." Referring to the L.A. Times article, an Al Sharpton-like "singer" called Obama inauthentically black. Why, complained the singer, should white folks vote for Obama rather than a true black man "from the hood" like -- me.
Chip Saltsman, a candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent the song on a CD with 40 other songs, in a Christmas mailer to committee members. Doesn't the mailer, asked several cable news programs, expose the Republicans -- yet again -- for their tone deafness on the issue of race? CNN host Anderson Cooper asked about the term "Negro." Isn't it pejorative?
Never mind the parody actually satirized Al Sharpton. The song implies that Sharpton hoped against an Obama victory, for it crushes Sharpton's argument about America's alleged institutional racism, a force so potent in a country so racist that Obama could not win. An Obama win threatens to reduce the significance of Sharpton-like black leaders. And never mind a black liberal -- who started the whole thing -- called Obama a "Negro."
When will the GOP -- on the issue of race -- go on the offense?
After all, for 100 years, the Democratic Party showed its tone deafness to the rights of blacks. Democrats opposed the 13th Amendment (freeing the slaves), the 14th Amendment (making ex-slaves citizens) and the 15th Amendment (that, on paper at least, gave blacks the right to vote). Democrats founded the Ku Klux Klan -- some even call it the "terrorist wing of the Democratic Party." And a greater percentage of Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Alabama Gov. George "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" Wallace was a Democrat. Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox, who as a restaurateur, left pick handles hanging on the walls to provide customers recourse in the event an uppity black tried to enter his restaurant. He was a Democrat. Arkansas Gov. Orville Faubus attempted, in 1957, to prevent the integration of Little Rock High School. He was a Democrat. Bull Connor, the commissioner of public safety for Birmingham, Ala., turned water hoses and dogs on civil rights activists. He was a Democrat.
But what about the infamous Republican Southern strategy?
The co-author of the strategy, Pat Buchanan, wrote in 2002: "Richard Nixon kicked off his historic comeback in 1966 with a column on the South (by this writer) that declared we would build our Republican Party on a foundation of states rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the [Democratic] 'party of Maddox and Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice.'"
Today it's Democrats who blatantly use the race card to malign Republicans as a collection of bigots. Yet it's Republicans who support school choice and private Social Security savings accounts -- both of which disproportionately help blacks.
Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Democrat Charlie Rangel, said of Republicans, "It's not 'spic' or 'nigger' anymore. They say 'let's cut taxes.'" Rangel, in an attack on Bush, called him "our Bull Connor." Donna Brazile, then Al Gore's campaign manager, called Republicans "white boys," and said, "A white-boy attitude is 'I must exclude, denigrate and leave behind.'"
Hillary Clinton, before a group of blacks, condemned the then-Republican-controlled Congress: "When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about." Then-candidate and now Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill said of George Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina, "George Bush let people die on rooftops in New Orleans because they were poor and because they were black." In a Katrina hearing, Democrat Barney Frank accused Bush of intentionally responding sluggishly. Why? Katrina would induce blacks to leave Louisiana, making it a more solidly Republican red state -- a Bush scheme that Frank called "ethnic cleansing by inaction."
Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean recently referred to the Republican Party as the "white party." The 35 percent of Asians and 31 percent of Hispanics who voted Republican apparently don't count.
So who should apologize to whom?
ObamaCare Still a Disaster -- No Matter How the Supreme Court Decides By Larry Elder
"I am a refugee," my anesthesiologist told me after I had awakened from my third surgery in 12 years — one to repair a muscle tear in my left shoulder and two for the same disc in my lower back. "I am part of the British 'brain drain' of the late '60s. Doctors could not make any money. So I left." Britain's loss, my gain. The same surgery 12 years ago required a two-day stay in a hospital. Last week, after a two-hour surgery, I left the same day as an outpatient.
But under ObamaCare, we can expect a loss of talent and a decline in quality of care. Thousands of us, the doctor explained, abandoned England to practice medicine in America. "So, how's this?" my doctor said. "I left the U.K. to get away from the government telling me how to practice, what to charge — and now we are getting the same thing. ObamaCare stinks, and the people will regret it. What happened to the docs there will happen here."
Great Britain began practicing socialized medicine through the taxpayer-funded National Health Services in 1948. And indeed, one of the first U.K. studies on the emigration of their native-born physicians, "British Doctors at Home and Abroad," published in 1964, noted that, beginning in the 1950s, their docs were leaving for "high-income" countries at an alarming rate: "Many of them stressed the wider field of work they could undertake in general practice abroad and criticized the limited role of the general practitioner in England." And nearly half a century later, Britain's "brain drain" continues.
Medical advances require research and development. And as much as government spends on health care and medical research, the private sector spends much more. But ObamaCare places a tax on medical equipment manufacturers, to raise $20 billion for the federal coffers when it goes into full effect in 2013. As a result, some medical device manufacturers are already closing up shop or downsizing to reflect lower profits under ObamaCare. Some canceled plans for new U.S. plants, looking to other parts of the world. Many manufacturers have already announced significant layoffs, and most also look to other alternatives, including cutting research and development, and passing along the tax's costs to the patients.
In addition to the excise tax on medical device manufacturers, ObamaCare imposes many more taxes, including the following: an individual mandate excise tax for adults who don't purchase "qualifying" health insurance; an employer mandate tax for those companies who don't offer health coverage; and a surtax on investment income — making the rate as high as 43.4 percent on gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents and passive income for families making more than $250,000. Given this, will we see the same private-sector investments in the health care field, as ObamaCare imposes ever more regulations designed at increasing "accessibility" and "controlling costs"?
What about costs?
Obama promised that ObamaCare would "bend the cost curve" down. The Congressional Budget Office just released new figures on the 10-year cost of ObamaCare. Starting in 2010, government began taxing for ObamaCare to build up revenues. So for the first four years, ObamaCare takes in tax money but does not start spending in any significant amount until 2014. This was a tactic designed to make ObamaCare seem more "affordable."
But even with this gimmick, the CBO just doubled its original projections for the cost of ObamaCare. Now, the CBO pegs the cost to taxpayers at $1.76 trillion over the next decade. And, critics point out, this price tag is only for the cost of insurance subsidies, Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program). It doesn't include implementation or other costs, which will likely send the taxpayers' bill soaring past $2 trillion.
Obama said his plan would save American families $2,500 a year on their insurance premiums. The new CBO report says premiums will rise 10 to 13 percent, and that up to 20 million people could lose their employer-provided health insurance every year from 2019 to 2022, a sharp revisal of its previous estimate of up to 3 million.
Oh, it all seems so lovely on paper, doesn't it?
Sen. Obama said that if he were "starting from scratch," he'd have a single-payer system. This is what they have in Canada. But when a high-ranking member of the Canadian government — and proponent of the Canadian health care system — needed surgery, he did not stay home. After having his 2010 heart surgery performed in Miami, Canadian Premier Danny Williams told reporters: "This was my heart, my choice, and my health. I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."
Consider what the then-incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association said about their single-payer health care system: "(Our) system is imploding." Consider what the outgoing president said: "Competition should be welcomed, not feared."
My doctor remains cheerful. "I retire in a few years," he said. "Then it's your problem."
Larry Elder is a best-selling author and radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an "Elderado," visit www.LarryElder.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
Obama's Scandals -- and His Media Co-Conspirators By Larry Elder
How does President Barack Obama, a man of such keen intelligence, with such promise to "change" America, find himself in so much serious trouble?
From the IRS targeting conservatives to the continued confusion over what happened at Benghazi to provoking a battle with The Associated Press by subpoenaing phone records that could involve as many as 100 reporters, what went wrong?
The answer is simple: arrogance, aided and abetted by a compliant, adoring "news" media.
CNN's Roland Martin urged the president to "go gangsta" on conservatives who wouldn't confirm his political appointments. Supporters like MSNBC's the Rev. Al Sharpton publicly said they will not criticize Obama -- on anything. Even though Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., called the then 15.9 percent black unemployment rate "unconscionable," she refused to publicly criticize the President. Politicians, Waters candidly told a Detroit town hall audience on unemployment, want to get re-elected: "If we go after the President too hard, you're going after us. When you tell us it's all right and you unleash us and you're ready to have this conversation, we're ready to have the conversation." So why shouldn't Obama feel that he operates under different, special rules, and can do so without risking loss of support?
By refusing to hold Obama to the same standard they would hold any garden-variety Republican, the media now face the monster they created.
With a straight face, Obama used lines like he's going to "save or create" 3.5 million jobs. What does that even mean? How do you measure whether a given policy "saves" a job?
"The inability to measure Mr. Obama's jobs formula is part of its attraction," wrote William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal. "Never mind that no one -- not the Labor Department, not the Treasury, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- actually measures 'jobs saved.'"
With a straight face, Obama told us over and over how his mother, as she lay dying from cancer in a Hawaii hospital, fought with her insurance carriers over paying her medical and hospital bills. But according to the book by Janny Scott, a former New York Times reporter, the sole dispute was over a disability policy his mother had taken out. Her bills were paid promptly and without dispute. To date, not one reporter has asked the President about this false narrative he used so effectively to personalize his fight for ObamaCare.
With a straight face, Obama told us that under ObamaCare the "cost curve" would "bend down"; that if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor; and that nobody will be worse off under ObamaCare. Yet premiums are going up. Employers are dropping plans and cutting hours to shed the number of "full-time workers" for whom employers must provide a health care policy or pay a fine.
With a straight face, Obama told us that the soaring annual deficits come from "two wars we didn't pay for" and "tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 that were not paid for." Did his suck-up media do the math? If you take the generally accepted estimate of the costs of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- over the 10 years from 2001 to 2011 -- they annually accounted for 10 percent of the then-deficit. As to tax cuts for the rich, Obama put the "cost" at $700 billion over 10 years and has said, "We need to get rid of ... tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires and ... corporate jet owners." But $700 billion over 10 years is $70 billion per year, a small fraction of the current deficit.
With a straight face, then-Sen. Obama, the Un-Bush, said he opposes any military intervention unauthorized by Congress unless the country faces imminent risk of attack. But as President, Obama joined with France and Britain in bombing Libya, a country that posed no imminent threat to America. Libya's then-leader, Moammar Gadhafi, had long before surrendered his weapons of mass destruction to the Bush administration. President George W. Bush obtained congressional approval for Afghanistan and Iraq. Not so with Obama and Libya. President Obama paid no political price for what Sen. Obama would have opposed.
Newsweek, after the passage of ObamaCare, published a gushing cover story: "We Are All Socialists Now."
Somehow the piece failed to note economists like UCLA's Lee Ohanian, whose peer-reviewed work shows that FDR's New Deal lengthened and deepened the Great Depression -- the opposite of what most Americans learn in high school. But to Newsweek, the question has been settled. A bigger, activist government is simply right and proper and just. If it takes thuggery on the part of Obama to get us there, well, so be it.
Obama's arrogance flows from our fawning, gushing, Bush-hating "news" media, which shirk their responsibility to fairly report the news. The media's fecklessness creates overconfidence. With good reason, Obama expects his media cheerleaders to look the other way, accept excuses without much challenge and turn the President's critics and whistleblowers into enemies.
Trump can win ---- because he's no conservative By Larry Elder
For the umpteenth time, Donald Trump is no conservative. He is an economic populist. When asked to name the top three functions of government, he said national security, health care and education. Two of the three named "duties" one does not find in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.
This puts him exactly where the country is politically — center-left. Americans talk the talk as to their alleged concern for ever-increasing debt. But when asked, "Which programs to cut?" the same complainers look as blank as Homer Simpson when asked to help Bart with his algebra.
Trump says he wants to "fix" Social Security. For a time, President George W. Bush wanted to allow those under 55 to "invest" part of their payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., could not have been happier, knowing that such a plan scared much of America, no matter how many times Bush tried to assure those over the age of 55 that their Social Security "would not be touched." Bush's poll numbers dropped and he abandoned his plan.
Trump flat-out proposes protectionism to stop jobs from being "shipped out" and to impose tariffs on our trading rivals to stop them from "cheating." The problem is most Americans believe that other countries exploit by protecting their markets and "manipulating" their currency. Assuming this is true, economist Milton Friedman, a Ronald Reagan advisor, said protectionism simply protects against cheap prices for the American consumers. So on trade, Trump is wrongheaded, but no more wrongheaded than Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump recently pulled a 180 on the job-destroying minimum wage, first saying he opposed an increase, now saying he might support one. But this puts him on the same side as not only Democrats, but with Republicans like Dr. Ben Carson, former Sen. Rick Santorum and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
As with socialist Bernie Sanders, economic anxiety fuels Trump's candidacy. After eight years of Obamanomics — raising taxes, increasing regulations, "stimulus" and "investing" taxes on failed "green initiatives," most of the country says that economically we are on the wrong track. Their near stagnant paychecks, unemployment and under-employment tell many Americans that this recovery is the worst in their lifetime. Given the shared grievances of Sanders supporters and Trump supporters, Sanders voters may, in some number, turn to Trump over Clinton.
Unfortunately, the correct prescription to deal with this — lowering taxes, reducing the size of government and reducing regulations — is not what voters want. They want the social safety net preserved, not reformed. This is what Trump is offering.
ent professionals in protest of North Carolina's (new) law." But Blue Man's concern for "every individual's right to live, vibrant life" does not apply to Singapore, where the group recently performed.
Trump, unlike Clinton, is not a global-warming alarmist. Asked about climate change, he called it an exaggeration argued that policies to stop it endanger job creation. This, too, puts Trump on the side of most Americans. Polls of likely voters show that of their top 23 concerns, climate change ranks at or near the bottom. A recent poll found even most millennials do not consider climate change much of a threat.
To the many conservatives who are unhappy with Trump vs. Clinton, consider this. Trump claims he would appoint Supreme Court justices like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, a dramatic difference from the kind Clinton would nominate. Yes, Trump suggested appointing his pro-Roe v. Wade sister, but there's no doubt that she is exactly the kind of justice that Clinton would appoint. As to the Second Amendment, Clinton wants to hold gun manufacturers liable for crimes committed by criminals who use guns.
Depending upon how the question is asked, most Americans want the borders secured before beginning any discussion on what to do about the immigration status of the millions here illegally —Trump's position.
Whether Trump can build a wall, let alone get Mexico to pay is, at best, uncertain. But his views at least suggest that finally we may secure the borders, whether with additional manpower, fencing or other technology or a combination of both. Trump threatens to withhold money from "sanctuary" cities, which refuse to turn over arrested illegal aliens to federal immigration officials. He promises to end "catch and release," and to require employers to check the immigration status of new hires.
Trump not only claims he opposed the Iraq War, but accuses George W. Bush of lying us into it. This is both wrong and shameful, but many Americans — certainly those on the hard left — oppose the war and feel deceived about it. Trump, at least, criticized Obama's decision to completely pull the troops out, and feels this aided the rise of ISIS.
So Donald Trump's populism on the economy — a promise of massive tax cuts for the middle class while saying "the rich will pay more" — and his "I'm not Bush" position on the Iraq War, put him right smack-dab in the middle of the center-left American mainstream.
So, yes, Trump can win.
'Repeal and Replace' Obamacare --- With the Free Market By Larry Elder
One of President-elect Donald Trump's major campaign promises is to "repeal and replace" Obamacare.
Vice President Joe Biden recently dared him to do so. Biden knows that 20 million Americans have health insurance that didn't before Obamacare, and they represent 20 million stories on CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times — in the entire "health care is a right" crowd — when and if Trump follows through.
Sure, despite President Barack Obama's promises to the contrary, some people lost their health care coverage and some people lost their doctors. And no, the average family did not save $2,500 per year as Obama insisted would be the case. And yes, health insurance premiums, copays and deductibles are going up even though Obama promised that his plan would "bend the cost curve" down.
All that matters to the anti-Trump media is that there is now an entire class of people to exert pressure against the repeal of Obamacare. Many Republicans say they want to keep "the good parts of Obamacare," specifically the prohibition against denying insurance based on a pre-existing condition and forcing insurance carriers to keep a "child" on his or her parents' policy until the child is 26. Republicans promised to not only repeal but to "replace" Obamacare. How can they do this — and replace it with what?
Republicans, despite their unanimous opposition against Obamacare, bought into at least two premises that its proponents argued. The first is that health care is a right — or, if not a right, at least something whose costs the federal government should reduce. The second is that, having made the decision to intervene in health care, the federal government possesses the knowledge, wisdom and judgment to reduce its costs to make it "affordable." The feds, promised Obamacare advocates, can even make health care affordable without reducing quality.
For Obamacare to "work," it is particularly important for young people to "buy in," because while they are forced to spend on health care insurance they are unlikely to consume health care services. Obamacare transfers money from the pockets of young people (with a net worth smaller than that of seniors, by the way) into the pockets of older, health care consuming Americans.
If the goal were truly to make health care more affordable, Obamacare would be as laughably wrongheaded as other Obama boondoggles like "cash for caulkers" or "cash for clunkers." No, the real goal is taxpayer-paid health care. Both ex-DNC chair Howard Dean and ex-Senate leader Harry Reid said so.
To reduce costs in health care, or, for that matter, in any commodity, is to unleash the free market. Health care is particularly shackled by restrictions and regulations too numerous to mention. Here is just one example.
In the biographical movie "Hacksaw Ridge," a World War II medic, Private Desmond Doss, a pacifist, refused to carry a rifle. In the midst of the carnage, during the Battle of Okinawa, Doss carried wounded soldiers and rappelled them down a cliff face to safety then treated them alongside the medics. He was awarded a Medal of Honor for saving scores of lives.
If, however, after the war, Pvt. Doss had opened an office with a shingle saying "Doss' trauma unit," authorities would have thrown him in jail for practicing medicine without a license. His skills were good enough for the soldiers on the battlefield, but not good enough for civilians when Doss returned stateside.
On a question-and-answer website, this question was recently posed: How do Marines feel about Navy corpsmen?
Here are some of the responses: "Personal experience — I had my middle finger sewn back on by an E-5 corpsman. When a real doctor first saw it, he shouted, 'Who did this?!' I asked why and the Doc said that it was the best he had ever seen. I have full use and feeling in that finger and that was 40 years ago."
"Personal experience — I was shot in the leg. An E-4 corpsman, assisted by an E-5, treated me. No doctor could have done any better than they did."
"History: Beginning in WWII, most ships the size of destroyers and smaller had enlisted men — corpsmen — as their only medical expert. Usually it was a Chief Petty Officer, but often was an E-6 and some had only an E-5.
"Then, as now, they did everything — surgery included. In WWII and every war since then, U.S. soldiers have had a higher survival rate than any other country's military (enemy or allies) and most of that medical triage and vital systems treatment was by enlisted corpsmen.
"Outside the service, enlisted corpsmen are by far the preferable hire for civilian EMT and rescue jobs."
If Congressional Republicans were serious about making health care affordable, they should sell the voters on the free market. Where's the slogan for that?
Kamala Harris: 'There is No Vaccine Against Racism' By Larry Elder
A few years ago, a political cartoon depicted Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton looking wistfully into the night sky as they make a wish "for an end to racial strife and bigotry." In the next panel, both suddenly evaporate, indicating that the eradication of racism would leave these two "leaders" with nothing to do and that their race-hustling would come to an end.
This brings us to Sen. Kamala Harris' Democratic National Convention speech, where she accepted her nomination as vice president and quickly whipped out the race card. Harris said: "And let's be clear — there is no vaccine for racism. We've gotta do the work."
A vaccine against racism would be the worst possible nightmare for Democrats such as Harris and her running mate, Joe Biden. A vaccine would produce the mother of all the emperor-wears-no-clothes moments.
As with the Jackson/Sharpton cartoon, the elimination of racism would deprive Harris of liberals' go-to excuse: Blame racism. Whether the disintegration of the Black family, urban crime, or support for public schools with high dropout rates and where those who remain in school often cannot read, write and compute at grade level, the left blames racism.
During the convention, former President Barack Obama, as he did during the eight years of his presidency, pushed the America-is-a-racist-nation narrative: "Americans of all races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice and brutality at the hands of the state, that Black Lives Matter, no more, but no less, so that no child in this country feels the continuing sting of racism." He, of course, provided no definition of what he means by "the continuing sting of racism."
When in private practice, young attorney Obama was on an eight-member legal team representing one of the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Citibank. The plaintiffs argued that Citibank turned them down for loans because of racism. The lawsuit claimed Citibank "rejected loan applications of minority applicants while approving loan applications filed by white applicants with similar financial characteristics and credit histories."
Despite denying any racial discrimination in denying their mortgage applications, the bank settled, giving some plaintiffs cash payments and others mortgages. According to a 2012 piece in the Daily Caller: "Roughly half of the 186 African-American clients in (Obama's) landmark 1995 mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Citibank have since gone bankrupt or received foreclosure notices.
"As few as 19 of those 186 clients still own homes with clean credit ratings."
Given the plaintiffs' post-loan approval track record, had there been a vaccine against racism in the '90s, would it have made it any more likely that their loans would have been approved?
Arguably, a vaccine against racism would disproportionately impact Blacks, but not in the way Harris likely thinks. Question: Who is racist? A recent Rasmussen survey of Americans found: "Eighteen percent (18%) say most white Americans are racist. But 25% believe most black Americans are racist.
Fifteen percent (15%) think most Hispanic-Americans are racist, while nearly as many (13%) say the same of most Asian-Americans." As to anti-Semitism, it is higher among Blacks compared with the general population, 23% versus 14%, respectively, according to a 2016 survey commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League. The survey found, "In the past four years, anti-Semitic views among the African American population have remained steady and are higher than the general population."
An example just occurred in the National Basketball Association, a league that takes pride in its "wokeness." A Black player got into an on-court scuffle, and the Black player, who later apologized, called the white player "b—— a— white boy." One can imagine the Category 5 storm had a white player used a slur against a Black player. Would an apology from the white player have sufficed? The big "woke" names in the NBA — LeBron James, coach Steve Kerr and coach Gregg Popovich — never shy about pointing out racism against Blacks, went social media silent on this issue.
We would likely obtain a greater benefit with a vaccine against white guilt, a paternalism that leads to counterproductive policies. These policies include the welfare state that encourages the nonformation of a nuclear family; the minimum wage that reduces jobs and hours for unskilled American workers; race-based preferences that create college-student mismatches that increase the dropout rate of the supposed beneficiaries of the racial preference; and refusal of Democrats to support school choice, something that Black urban parents want but white Democrats do not.
Donald Trump: Why he deserves 4 more years By Larry Elder
Lost on the President Donald Trump-hating pundits who weighed in on the second and final debate with former Vice President Joe Biden was Trump's energy and focus. The man just recovered from COVID-19.
Male and 74 years old, Trump is in the "high-risk" category. His weight makes him "comorbid." Yet, there he was, still throwing heat at the end of the standing 90-minute debate, having spoken earlier that day at a typically raucous love fest/campaign rally. Trump handily defeated Biden, who noticeably tired by the end of this second and final debate.
Yes, nearly all polls show Biden ahead both nationally and in the battleground states. Imagine where Trump would rank in the polls but for the constant, relentless negative media coverage and deranged opposition that would have suffocated the average politician. Nearly one-third of the Democratic caucus boycotted Trump's inaugural address. Several Democrats never attended a single State of the Union speech.
Immediately after Trump's election, Democrats attempted to invoke the 25th amendment, arguing that the real-estate-developer-turned-politician lacked the mental fitness to hold a job. To counter this perception, Trump allowed his personal physician to hold a press conference to assure the country and the world that yes, this man is actually sane.
For nearly three years, a special counsel investigated thin and, in retrospect, virtually baseless allegations of collusion, conspiracy and/or coordination with Russia to win the election and to then, presumably, become a Russian stooge. Critics called Trump "soft on Russia."
Never mind that it was the Obama administration that, to curry favor with the Iranians and Russians, turned its back on missile agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic negotiated during the previous administration. At the beginning of the Obama administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced their "reset" policy, a major policy redirection to change what President Barack Obama perceived as President George W. Bush's dangerously hawkish relationship with Russia.
It was Obama who, during the 2012 presidential debate, ridiculed opponent Mitt Romney for calling Russia our biggest geopolitical threat. It was Obama who, on a "hot mic," told then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, "This is my last election ... After my election, I have more flexibility" to negotiate a missile defense treaty between our two countries.
Oh, and Trump was impeached on grounds so weak that neither Biden nor running mate Sen. Kamala Harris even bring up impeachment while campaigning.
The New York Times rabidly reported on Trump's taxes, his critics completely indifferent as to how many laws were broken in order to secure and publish these private tax returns. That clueless "reporters" knew nothing and cared nothing about the distinction between tax evasion and tax avoidance/tax deferral explains why Trump didn't want his returns made public.
When Trump contracted COVID-19, many Trump-hating Democrats set aside their vaunted compassion-for-the-plight-of-others to gloat that the mask-shunning, anti-science ignoramus got what he deserved. But, the SOB Trump recovered, bounced back and tested negative on the day of the second debate, where he put on a calm, determined and possibly outcome-altering debate performance.
Tech giants Google, Facebook and Twitter suppressed a New York Post "bombshell" Hunter Biden story that appears to show father Joe, despite repeated denials, knew far more about his son's overseas deals than he told the public. Yet CNN, MSNBC and other "news outlets" claimed they doubted the authenticity of incriminating emails between Biden and others that suggest, at minimum, Joe Biden lied about knowing nothing. That the tech giants and much of the mainstream media either suppressed, ignored or minimized the New York Post story is a scandal in and of itself. This is, however, an increasingly common occurrence in this era of Trump hatred. Circle the wagons until Joe Biden crosses the finish line.
Trump received little credit for the precoronavirus strong economy. He got little credit for helping negotiate peace deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Sudan. In 2016, then-Secretary of State John Kerry called it fanciful to expect any kind of deal with Arab states without Palestinian involvement. Kerry was wrong. No apology forthcoming.
Trump received little credit for changing policy and pressuring Mexico into stopping the so-called caravans of migrants attempting to cross our southern border. He moved the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, fulfilling a promise made and broken by past Republican and Democratic presidents.
As for "race relations," Trump's list of accomplishments and policies that benefit Black Americans is long and impressive, from presiding over the best unemployment numbers for Blacks in the history of America to signing the First Step Act that allowed prisoners sentenced for crack cocaine, mostly Black men, to have their sentences substantially reduced, with over 3,100 released from prison for good conduct a few months after it passed.
Peace and prosperity normally get a president reelected. But for the last four years, our media, Hollywood, academia and Democrats have acted anything but normal. Sadly, that has become normal.
VP Harris, What About the 'Root Cause' of Urban Homicide? By Larry Elder
Vice President Kamala Harris just returned from Guatemala where she discussed the "root cause" of the post-election "surge" of "migrants" to our southern border. Harris said, "People leave home ... because they don't have opportunities there to fulfill their basic needs like feeding their children or keeping a roof over their head, or they're fleeing some kind of harm."
But the USA also faces a surge in crime, including homicide, in many American cities. Why aren't we discussing this root cause? It cannot be because, as Harris says about migrants, people "don't have opportunities there to fill their basic needs." After all, these migrants come precisely because they see opportunity here that they do not see in their home countries.
But about Los Angeles, the local NBC affiliate recently reported: "One hundred forty-one people have been murdered so far in 2021, a 22% increase over the same period in 2020. Six hundred people have been struck by gunfire in shootings in 2021, a 59% increase over this time last year."
About Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times recently reported: "Children in Chicago are dying from gun violence at a rate three times higher than last year. ...
"Ten children aged 15 or younger have been shot dead so far this year, up from the three children fatally shot during the same time period in 2020. ... And that's more than the number killed in all of 2019, the data shows."
The city of Chicago often leads the nation in the total number of homicides, but the annual homicide rate (murders per 100,000 residents) in a dozen or so big American cities is often higher than that of Chicago — some of them much higher. In 2018, the Pew Research Center wrote: "The cities that perennially have the most murders per capita have homicide rates that are much higher than the nationwide average. In St. Louis and Baltimore, for instance, murder rates in 2017 were more than 10 times the U.S. average of 5.3 homicides per 100,000 people."
What about the race of the victims? The New York Post writes: "Victims of ... homicides are disproportionately African American. At least 8,600 Black lives were lost to homicide in 2020, an increase of more than 1,000 compared to 2019 (7,484). Violent crime is concentrated in primarily low-income, marginalized Black communities where the police are underresourced and Democratic leadership has abysmally failed. In Chicago, 80 percent of gun-violence victims in 2020 were Black. According to the latest data in New York City, 71?percent of shooting victims are Black — even though Black people constitute just 26 percent of the city's population. The tragic reality is one Black life was killed less than every hour in America last year."
Is police brutality and/or "systemic racism" to blame? About the racism-is-the-cause argument, the Manhattan Institute's Heather Mac Donald points out: "Anti-cop activists and many academics claim that racial crime disparities are simply a product of racist police deployment. Cops are oversaturated in African-American neighborhoods, the activists argue (ignoring the pleas for help from community residents).
Once there, officers discover the same crimes that go undetected in white communities.
"But the bodies don't lie. Blacks between the ages of ten and 43 die of homicide at 13 times the rate of whites, according to the CDC, thanks to comparably high rates of violence."
Unless one is prepared to argue that Blacks are simply genetically more inclined to commit homicide, where is the discussion about "root causes"?
When there is a horrific urban shooting, Democrats are quick to call for more gun control legislation. Democrats, when there is an alleged case of police abuse against a Black suspect, demand police reform, with some elected officials even calling for a defunding of the police.
Democrats, when it comes to disparities in homeownership or net worth, readily talk about the "legacy of slavery and Jim Crow," while failing to address, let alone explain, the increase in the rate of unmarried motherhood in America following the '60s "war on poverty."
And despite clear evidence about the relationship between crime and fatherlessness, the left does not want to talk about that "root cause."
Biden's Versus Trump's 'Lies' -- What a Difference an Administration Makes By Larry Elder
During Donald Trump's presidency, The Washington Post kept a running tally of his alleged lies and/or misleading statements. But, when Joe Biden became president, the Post fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, announced an end to the database operation, saying: "Maintaining the Trump database over four years required about 400 additional 8-hour days over four years beyond our regular jobs for three people." Looks like supply-chain issues at the Post.
So, while the Post continues to fact-check Biden, it discontinued the Trump-era practice of running the tote board because, after all, Biden is not Trump, and the Post undoubtedly expects Biden to be more truthful.
How's that working out?
Recently Post fact-checker Kessler wrote: "President Biden is a self-described 'gaffe machine.' That's no excuse, of course, for a president making false or misleading statements. Readers have asked for fact checks of a variety of recent Biden statements, but none of them seemed big enough for a stand-alone fact check." Really?
Set aside Biden's decades of falsely claiming, as he did again during the 2020 campaign, that he "was raised in the black church" where, as a teenager, he would meet on Sundays to strategize how to "desegregate movie theaters and restaurants" in Wilmington, Delaware. The New York Times found no evidence of any Biden desegregation activity and congregants of the black church he supposedly attended did not recall seeing Biden there.
Then there is Biden's decadeslong claim that he and former United Nations Ambassador and Rep. Andrew Young were "arrested" in apartheid South Africa while attempting to visit the imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Young said it never happened.
Biden, on two occasions, publicly and falsely claimed the truck driver who struck and killed his first wife and young daughter was drunk at the time. But he wasn't, and the claims brought much dismay to the driver and his family.
As to the precipitous and disastrous pullout from Afghanistan, Biden claimed that no one advised him against it, a claim refuted by two top generals who insisted, under oath, that they advised Biden against the move.
On at least two occasions Biden claimed that his son, Beau, died in Iraq. Biden's son, a military veteran who served in Iraq, died of brain cancer six years after returning home.
In late October, Biden said: "The most common price of gas in America is $3.39. Down from over $5 when I took office." Two problems. When Biden took office the average price of gas was $2.39, and AAA says the average price on the day he made that statement was $3.76, 37 cents more than asserted by Biden. For good measure, the following day Biden said, "Since the elections, we've been -- we're taking gas prices down from where they were." Given the importance of gas prices, a concern that many voters put at the top of their list, do Biden's back-to-back gas claims amount to a gaffe or a blatant lie based on the expectation of more lenient media by Biden compared to Trump?
What of Biden's recent characterization of his student debt forgiveness program, via executive order, that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cost $400 billion? Biden, during an online discussion with progressive organization NowThis News, also in late October, said: "It's passed. I got it passed by a vote or two, and it's in effect." Except he signed an executive order, currently under challenge and blocked by a federal appeals court. No Congress, no votes, and not in effect.
After Trump's election, Democrats and the media raised such concerns about Trump's mental capacity, that the president undertook a cognitive test. Trump then allowed the White House doctor to answer questions from reporters for a full hour, during which the doctor said Trump registered a "perfect" score. It does not appear that Biden undertook the same cognitive test. But despite Biden's frequent displays of confusion, neither the Democrats nor the media care much about the mental acuity of a Commander-in-Chief not named Trump.
What a difference an administration makes.
Larry Elder is a best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an "Elderado," visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
Can We Talk About Biden's Lies, 'Election Denying' and Bad Behavior? By Larry Elder
Twenty-four hours after the Trump-Biden debate, Democrat politicians and pundits contemplated mass suicide. Hosts and panelists said out loud, "Biden has to go."
But when the dust settled, they switched from throwing Joe Biden under the bus to telling the bus driver to swerve to avoid hitting him. The reason is simple. Biden has the delegates and cannot be replaced unless he wants to go — and Dr. Jill isn't having it.
They realize even if they replaced Joe, black female voters would scream "racism and sexism" if Kamala Harris — who polls worse than Biden — were passed over. Michelle Obama is not riding to the rescue.
White man Gavin Newsom cannot step over Kamala without angering black female voters, the most loyal part of their base. Newsom polls badly against Donald Trump. Newsom is unpopular in California.
Dems/media, post-debate, quickly realized they are stuck with Biden and Harris. So, the strategy is clear: pretend like Biden's bad debate doesn't really matter all that much; that he was "overprepared"; that it was just "one bad night"; and that Trump "just lied" while refusing to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election.
The strategy has been formulated: Make sure Biden never again gets caught without a teleprompter and a speechwriter. Praise Harris and "put her out there more" so she can pick up the baton if Biden declines even more. Repeatedly chant "Abortion and our democracy are on the ballot." And triple down on calling Trump a lying, election-denying, racist Nazi who "threatens our democracy."
They rely on the Democrats/media to ignore the strategy's defects and contradictions. As to Trump's so-called election denying/refusal to accept results, the Dems/media have consigned to the memory hole the time Biden preemptively questioned the results of the 2022 midterms. At the time, most Democrats and Republicans expected a "red wave." Asked if he'd accept the results, Biden said: "It easily could be illegitimate. I'm not going to say it's going to be legit. ... The increase of the prospect of it being illegitimate is in direct proportion to us not being able to get these (voting) reforms passed."
As to Biden's lies, they include, but are not limited to: how, why and where his son Beau contracted brain cancer; that Biden desegregated movie theaters and restaurants; that he finished in the top half of his law school class; that he got arrested trying to visit Nelson Mandela during apartheid; was "raised in the black church"; played football for the University of Delaware; claimed the driver who accidentally struck and killed his first wife and daughter was drunk; intentionally misstating what Trump said about Charlottesville; that Trump said to drink/inject bleach; that Biden didn't pressure Ukraine to fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma; that Biden never discussed son Hunter's business dealings; that a small kitchen fire "almost killed" his wife; that he was "shot at" in Iraq; that inflation was "9%" when he became president; the Border Patrol endorses him; the NAACP endorsed him in "all" of his elections; World War II's Uncle Bosie was eaten by cannibals; that "no one" advised him the Afghan government would quickly collapse and the Taliban would return if he abruptly pulled out of Afghanistan; that Trump referred to World War I American vets who lost their lives as "suckers and losers"; that Trump praised Hitler; among others.
Biden, during the debate, accused Trump of having "the morals of an alley cat" and that Trump's alleged affair with Stormy Daniels occurred "when (Trump's wife) was pregnant." Does Biden really want to go there?
The ex-husband of Jill Biden claims Biden met the married couple when they worked on his Senate campaign, and not on a "blind date" as Biden claims. Jill's ex says Jill cheated on him with Biden. Biden ex-staffer Tara Reade claims the then-senator sexually assaulted her. When this accusation surfaced during the 2020 campaign, as well as allegations by other women of who accused Biden of unwanted touching and kissing, then-Sen. Kamala Harris said, "I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it."
Fortunately, Team Biden knows when it comes to Biden's lies, election denying and questions about his morality, he enjoys a media safe space.
Politicians, of course, misspeak and say wrongheaded things, whether it's President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris is the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, let's review:
"So, there's a big difference between equality and equity. Equality suggests, 'oh everyone should get the same amount.' The problem with that, not everybody's starting out from the same place. So, if we're all getting the same amount, but you started out back there and I started out over here, we could get the same amount, but you're still going to be that far back behind me. It's about giving people the resources and the support they need, so that everyone can be on equal footing, and then compete on equal footing. Equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place." — November 2020
"We invested an additional $12 billion into community banks because we know community banks are in the community, and understand the needs and desires of that community as well as the talent and capacity of community." — September 2022
"It's time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day. Every day it is time for us to agree that there are things and tools that are available to us to slow this thing down." — January 2022
"I think that, to be very honest with you, I do believe that we should have rightly believed, but we certainly believe that certain issues are just settled. Certain issues are just settled." — July 2022
"The brilliance of this inaugural class and its leaders is the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, and then to make it real in a way that will be replicated around our country." — February 2024
"So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that's wrong, and it goes against everything that we stand for." — March 2022
"But we all watched the television coverage of just yesterday. That's on top of everything else that we know and don't know yet, based on what we've just been able to see. And because we've seen it or not doesn't mean it hasn't happened." — March 2022
"The significance of the passage of time, right? The significance of the passage of time. So, when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time." —March 2022
"You know, when we talk about our children — I know for this group, we all believe that when we talk about the children of the community, they are a children of the community." — May 2023
"This issue of transportation is fundamentally about just making sure that people have the ability to get where they need to go." — July 2023
"I think the first part of this issue that should be articulated is AI is kind of a fancy thing. First of all, it's two letters. It means artificial intelligence, but ultimately what it is, is it's about machine learning." — July 2023
"So, I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again: The United States stands firmly with the Ukrainian people [and] in defense of the NATO alliance." (Ukraine is not part of NATO.) — March 2022
"Let's start with this: Prices have gone up, and families and individuals are dealing with the realities of — that bread costs more, that gas costs more. And we have to understand what that means. That's about the cost of living going up. That's about having to stress and stretch limited resources. That's about a source of stress for families that is not only economic but is on a daily level something that is a heavy weight to carry. So that is something that we take very seriously, very seriously. ... So it's a big issue, and we take it seriously, and it is a priority, therefore." — November 2021
