Ex-speechwriter: Trump’s Stroke of Political Genius
It’s no surprise that President Trump’s demand for a Soviet-style military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue won quick and widespread condemnation from his critics. But Matt Latimer at Politico suggests that, as ideas go, “this may be one of Trump’s canniest.” It goes along with his success at tapping into the sense of many Americans “that pride in the United States is diminishing, not only abroad but at home.” He understands, “perhaps instinctively, that an appeal to national pride like calling for a gleaming, glorious military spectacle touches a nerve with many Americans.” Nor does it hurt that the military remains our “most popular institution” — indeed, “perhaps the only popular institution left.” So, by extension, “he’s daring Democrats, and their allies in the media, to stand apart and oppose it.”
From the left: Joe Biden for President? Seriously?
The prospect of former Vice President Joe Biden running for president in 2020, when he’ll be 77, “leads many of the liberals I know to groan in agony,” says The Week’s Paul Waldman. Which is why he predicts that, if he runs, Biden will “almost certainly fail to get the Democratic nomination.” After all, Biden has run before “and fell on his face. Twice.” In 1987, he was forced to withdraw after he was caught plagiarizing a campaign speech. In 2008, he pulled out after finishing fifth in Iowa, with less than 1 percent of the delegates. Then there’s the fact that “he’s an unstoppable gaffe machine.” Fact is, none of the dozen potentially strong Democratic candidates “is going to be scared away by the presence of Joe Biden” in the race.
From the right: New Gerber Baby Reminds Us of Life
Since 2010, the Gerber baby food company has annually selected a “Gerber baby” for its ads. This year’s winner, 18-month-old Lucas Warren, is the first Gerber baby with Down Syndrome. It’s terrific publicity, but the editors of The Weekly Standard say Gerber “deserves praise even so.” Those affected by the genetic disease, “as anyone who has known them will testify, bring a unique sweetness and gentleness into human interactions.” Yet the sad fact is that “Down Syndrome babies are targeted by the abortion industry.” Indeed, 67 percent of US pregnancies diagnosed with Down are aborted. Gerber is reminding us that “Lucas Warren had every right to come into the world — and the world is a happier place with him in it.”
Foreign desk: DC-Seoul Openly Split on North Korea
The once-private disagreement between Washington and Seoul over North Korea policy “has now spilled into public view,” says The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin. They’re sending out “contradictory messages” as to whether the Winter Olympics “are the beginning or the end of engagement with Pyongyang.” South Korean President Moon Jae-in has made clear he wants upcoming meetings with NoKo leaders “to serve as a path to real negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear program” and other sources of tension. But Vice President Mike Pence says the administration wants “the warming of relations . . . to end when the Olympic flame is extinguished.” Unless this split is addressed, “the damage to US-South Korean relations could ultimately be what survives” when the Olympics are over.
Culture critic: Jimmy Kimmel’s Sad Transformation
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is “unrecognizable in his current form,” contends Christian Toto at his Hollywood In Toto site, having traded in his “bratty young comic” persona for that of “a hard-left comic with little empathy for those who lean to the right.” It began with “a heartfelt tale tied to his ailing newborn” and has gotten “more pointed and partisan” ever since. He reportedly even “sought out the counsel of Sen. Chuck Schumer . . . before one energized monologue. Now, he says, “almost every talk show host is a liberal, and that’s because it requires a level of intelligence.” In Kimmel’s case, though, what we see is someone who’s “arrogant, self-satisfied [and] finger-wagging.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann