I am sure President Trump would be the first to tell you he has been blessed. I know being humble isn't his shtick, his actions betray his humility time and again.
I'd say it is we who are blessed, that someone like him, with the means to do it, stood up and actually did it. God blesses us and our nation. And may God continue to bless us.
The scoring was different based on the specific test you took. The tests were randomly selected from a test battery and each had an assigned modifier used to convert to a score between 200-800 for each of the two sections. If you took one of the harder tests, you could miss an extra question or two and score the same as someone who got one or two more right on an easier test. So some of the scores looked odd and weren't directly "miss x questions lose y points".
The whole reasoning was that each test would be slightly easier or more difficult and they had to have a way to grade them equally. So you get some funky scores.
Well, Lennon did express regret for that stupid Imagine song he wrote later in life. But then he regretted even being associated with the radical left as well. He really was just a "peacenik", and it seemed to him in the early 70s that the pro-peace folks were on the Left. He split ways with them once he realized they were simply communists who wanted violent revolution.
It was his assistant that claimed he was a fan of Reagan. I don't know if that is true, and frankly I don't care. He said enough in the late 70s to make it obvious he wasn't particularly political to begin with, and that the one "cause" he ever had was peace. It's a vague cause to have, but not a terrible one.
I don't mean to sound contrary, but those states aren't exactly bastions of leftism, nor are most in the top 20 of states by population.
With that said, I've recently driven in VA, PA, OH, WV, MD, NJ, NY, and I've only see a few rare Biden signs and TONS of Trump signs, flags, stickers, and MAGA hats.
Even in the DC area where I live, it's rare to see Biden anything. I actually have seen more Trump stuff.
Well, if I were an alien from another planet, and I had observed American politics for the last 3+ years, I would recognize that the candidate, Trump, who gives so much of his time to answering questions from the press and making himself completely available to them is the one who then gets attacked by them. And I would notice the other candidate gives almost zero access and answers few if any questions, and is the one that is treated well by them.
And thus I would conclude that answering questions is a bad strategy. That it must somehow be offensive in human culture to answer questions and be open.
One of the root causes of so much corruption is the party system. Political parties make for lazy voters. Instead of knowing who they are actually voting for, they just vote an R or a D or some pointless third party because they are tired of R or D. Any caucus is already set in stone because of parties, instead of caucuses formed over specific issues, as it should be.
Even I vote R, simply because it means more allies for President Trump, or in the past because I knew the Democrats were against anything I was for. It rarely means I like that particular candidate.
I wish there was a way to eliminate political parties.
Claiming the presence of a "glass ceiling" is so old. At this point the ceilings are made of paper with a vacuum pressure above them, and they still can't manage to find a high enough caliber candidate to shoot through it.
The problem isn't that there is any sort of barrier. It's that all of the females they prop up to run are duds that overcome any velocity they might have by the weight of their own incompetence and corruption.
I would argue that every single person on Earth "makes history" on a daily basis.
All that matters is if whatever history being made actually matters.
If someone is the first crackhead to become president, it's not really "making history" if they are a lousy president. It then becomes a stain. And a reason not to vote for crackheads.
Ok, now he absolutely has to do his acceptance speech in Gettysburg.
I hadn't seen anyone refer to it as "the Gettysburg Address" until now (and I don't know why since it seems so obvious), but now that I have, it has to be there.
I suppose I would have to compare South Dakota to similar states to answer that question fully, but I understand your point and yes I would expect more than one "outlier" in that context.
But then you usually make good points, so I'll look into her.
I've got nothing against her, but it must be pointed out that it doesn't take that much leadership to do the right thing when you have complete political latitude to do so in a state like South Dakota. How does the same person respond under political pressure?
I only say this because it seems to be a common thread among us to put someone on a pedestal for doing a good job in one situation. I'd prefer to know more about her before saying she's a future prospect for president. I mean, there's been a pretty long list of disappointments starting with the Keebler Elf.
A guy like Pence doesn't need much charisma. He makes up for it with being a dependable wingman for Trump, which implies he will carry the same MAGA agenda, and he has a certain grounded personality that is appealing to voters who love Trump's policies and actions, but may not necessarily like his style.
Overall though, I like former governors for Presidential candidates. Governor is really the only elected office that has direct executive experience for the presidency. I don't get the logic that a Senator would be a good pick for it.
It's an executive role. You want someone with executive experience. It's one of the reasons I started moving towards Trump in the first place early in the R primary. I get that it's useful for an administration to have someone with Congressional experience, but that's what your VP pick is for.
The Jefferson method was something like the multiple choice method, where you vote for your preferred candidate first, then subsequent candidates. It makes third, fourth, etc parties more viable.