Candidates Make History With Their Incompetence

This is about how history is, or isn’t, made:

It’s the Fall of 2008, the night of the first presidential debate.

It’s the war hero Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., versus the young, charismatic first-term senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. The country was in financial meltdown mode.

The banks were insolvent and the stock market was tanking.

Sound familiar?

The specific issue of the moment was something called TARP, an $820 billion bailout just for banks and other major financial institutions; basically, no strings attached.

McCain had a modest lead in the polls ever since he put Sarah Palin on his ticket.

The debate was minutes away. At the time, I said to my wife, "Quick. Come watch John McCain wrap up the election on the first debate question."

Sure enough, as if I wrote it myself, the moderator asked Sen. McCain if he would support the TARP bill now in the Senate. McCain began his response, "First, I want to send best wishes to my friend Sen. Kennedy who is in the hospital."

My heart sank. Sen. McCain continued, "I will be supporting TARP."

Poof.

All the air went out of that balloon. The election was decided.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., had won. He never had to say a word.

Sen. McCain, the "straight talking maverick," was just another member of the D.C. swamp. He joined President Bush and next-President Obama and our country’s financial community in opposition to the populace.

What Sen. McCain should have said was, "I oppose TARP unless it is funded by the shareholders, bondholders and management of the companies receiving our citizens' hard earned money. I stand with the people. Candidate Obama stands with President Bush and the special interests."

That's how history is made.

Fast forward to February, 2020 and the Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

The new guy, Michael Bloomberg, is making his debut. He's getting smacked right and left.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pummeled him for his "horse faced lesbian"comment.

She and the others piled on about NDA’s (non-disclosure agreements) and "Mini" Mike seemed to disappear. But then, to my great surprise, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., threw Mayor Bloomberg a lifeline.

Sanders launched another attack, calling the mayor "immoral" and saying that billionaires like Mike "shouldn’t exist." That gave Mayor Bloomberg one last time with the microphone.

And how did Bloomberg respond?

Pathetically — with, "I’m giving all my money away, much of it to Democrats."

Poof.

Another balloon deflated.

What should Mayor Bloomberg have said? "Immoral? Immoral, Bernie? I’ll tell you what’s immoral. People like you who never worked a day in your life, who lived off three wives, who never created a single job, who never signed the front of a paycheck, who run for president of the United States just so you can put a gun to my head to take from me what you could never create yourself. That’s immoral."

Mike Bloomberg is now one billion dollars and one lifetime reputation poorer.

He is no longer a presidential candidate. And that’s how history is made.

Right around the same time the world was learning about the coronairus.

On Jan. 29, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) labelled the coronavirus a pandemic. On Jan. 31 President Trump issued an Executive Order banning all travel from China, the home of the virus. The very next day, presidential Candidate Joe Biden famously attacked President Trump for the President’s "hysterical xenophobia."

The full statement by Biden was, "This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fear mongering."

What candidate Biden should have said was, "This is war. And we can only have one commander in chief at a time. After we defeat the virus there will be plenty of time to showcase our platforms as we lead up to the November elections."

Poof.

Another balloon deflated; this one taking the whole Democratic Party down with Candidate Biden. Joe Biden failed the leadership test on the biggest crisis of this generation.

He failed so badly that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and California Governor Gavin Newsom effectively endorsed President Trump’s reelection by their very public praise for the administration’s battle plan and execution.

Thus, Joe Biden will never be president of the United States.

That’s how history is made.

Sid Dinerstein is a former chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party. He founded JBS Associates, a 600-person financial service company, and currently combines politics and business with Niger Innis in Inclusive Elections LLC, a firm that brings urban electorate voters to the GOP. He is the author of "Adults Only: For Those Who Love Their Country More Than Their Party." For more of his reports, Go Here Now.