This may enliven the campaigns of Donald Trump and Ben Carson, as if they needed any enlivening as they continue to be the front-runners in what quickly is turning into one of the most unusual of Republican presidential campaigns.
Jimmy Morales, a popular comedian during a 14-year-long run on local television, won the Guatemalan presidency over the weekend. He polled 68 percent of the vote in a race against former first lady, Sandra Torres.
The ultimate outsider, in a time when that description resonates in the United States, had no background in politics when he quit his TV show and announced his candidacy in April. Guatemalans were disenchanted, bone-tired of corruption and gang violence, which prompted them to turn to the 46-year-old Morales to lead their government.
He laid out few plans during his campaign — a familiar refrain in the GOP race — and a Reuters reporter wrote policy ideas advanced “strike many as eccentric.” Morales promised to fight corruption in one breathe, and, in the next, said he would give millions of smartphones of children.
He also wants to fit teachers with GPS devices to make certain they are in class teaching, and talked about reviving a contentious land dispute with neighboring Belize.
A social conservative, Morales is a former theology student.
A COUPLE of thousand miles to the north, on Feb. 1, Iowans will decide whom they favor among the slowly dwindling field of GOP candidates. A few days later, the pendulum swings to New Hampshire.
At the moment, and with little change recently, Trump and Carson are holding sway. One poll over the weekend gave Carson the edge, by a reasonably sizable margin, but Trump is very much in the race, and leads in others. Trailing by double digits are Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and others, including Carly Fiorina, whose surge from the last debate has ebbed.
Pundits continue to argue that one or both of the front-runners, whose comments have disregarded political correctness, eventually will fade as voters tire of Trump’s bombast and Carson’s subtle but cutting pronouncements. Perhaps, but together they continue to draw support of 50 percent or more among potential voters.
And that’s with Trump playing to his huge slice of fame, like Morales, from TV, and Carson using his calm, confident bedside manner to woe supporters. They have foregone traditional media blitzes, although Carson, with his war chest filling by the minute, has turned to advertising in the early states. Trump’s handlers are urging the same.
MEANWHILE, Hillary Clinton, who came from a House hearing on Ben-ghazi — which targeted more her email missteps — unscathed, must be sitting back with assurance of knowing she won’t have to rupture her funding during the primary. Bernie Sanders is just a yawn away from fading, his far-left message falling more and more on deaf ears, and many Democrats knowing his chances of winning in November 2106 are next to nil.
The Register isn’t fond of Trump, for all the obvious reasons, but what an election season it would be with he and Hillary going tooth and toenail.
If the U.S. is to have a female president anytime soon, Hillary Rodham Clinton seems a high likelihood, regardless of whom is her Republican opponent.
The mistakes she made in losing to President Obama in the 2008 primary have been corrected, Ben-ghazi and emails are being mentioned much more inside the beltway than anywhere else and her demeanor is more presidential than others — important in a day of visual perception and sound bites.
— Bob Johnson
