Posted on 10/07/2018 5:54:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
ANALYSIS
DONALD Trump is on a winning streak - and after his latest victories is now assured of a much-sought-after legacy.
The confirmation of his conservative nominee judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States in the Senate has backed up Mr Trump's once seemingly outlandish claim about winning during the 2016 election campaign.
"We're going to win. We're going to win so much. We're going to win at trade, we're going to win at the border. We're going to win so much, you're going to be so sick and tired of winning, you're going to come to me and go 'Please, please, we can't win anymore,'" Mr Trump boasted at the time.
Just last week he was being laughed at by world leaders after boldly claiming his administration "had accomplished more than any other administration in history".
But now he's achieved something many considered unlikely for the Johnny-come-lately conservative. (Trump was earlier a supporter of Democrats and has been viewed suspiciously by the party.)
He's confirmed two conservative judges to the Supreme Court and secured a right-leaning majority on the court for at least a generation.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide on a raft of issues from abortion to immigration and voting rights in coming years, Reuters reports.
Crafty Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was the driving force behind the success.
He led efforts to block former president Barack Obama from confirming left-leaning SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) nominee Merrick Garland following the February 2016 death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.
But when things go badly - or well - it is always the president who takes the credit or the blame, and so it is the case for Mr Trump.
It was no hyperbole to suggest last week that he faced the toughest week of his presidency.
Christine Blasey Ford had accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and they were both due to testify about the allegations in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
What followed was political drama of the highest order with first a tearful Dr Ford - widely believed as credible - followed by testimony from a feisty Mr Kavanaugh - who strongly denied he was responsible for the assaults.
Mr Kavanaugh had worried the legal profession with his combative approach and later seemed to almost apologise in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.
A hastily conducted FBI investigation cleared the way for the Senate confirmation of Mr Kavanaugh, which ended up being a vote almost strictly down party lines.
The politically fraught confirmation process which gave the Republicans a win on the Supreme Court may also woken the party's base in the upcoming midterm elections.
Polling is also indicating a "blue wave" of Democrat support this November - and the confirmation of Mr Kavanaugh sparked bitter protests in Washington DC.
Mr Trump hasn't helped his cause by claiming the opposite will take place - a red wave for the Republicans.
While his words haven't motivated supporters to get out and vote, it has been instead the bitter fight over the Supreme Court which has galvanised the Republicans, who may now vote in force, The Telegraph reports.
And it's not just on the Supreme Court that Mr Trump has been winning.
The economy, which Mr Trump claims has been spurred by aggressive tax cuts and cuts to regulation, is now in its best shape for years.
On Friday, CNN reported the best jobs data for 49 years as the unemployment rate dipped to 3.7 per cent.
At a recent campaign rally, Mr Trump boasted that he's responsible for the economy taking off like a "rocket ship", NPR reports.
Democrats are arguing Mr Obama's management of the economy is the real reason for the booming economy.
"When you hear how great the economy is doing right now, let's just remember when this recovery started," Mr Obama said to students at an address at the University of Illinois, Politico reports.
And another potential headache for Mr Trump - the ongoing Special Counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller into possible Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, including links to Mr Trump's presidential campaign - has gone quiet in the lead-up to the election.
But Mr Trump still needs to navigate a meeting with his Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel investigation.
Mr Rosenstein will be asked to explain media reports which suggested he invoked the 25th Amendment to remove Mr Trump from office, Politico reports.
That meeting is due to take place on Thursday, US time.
But a greater challenge is looming on the horizon - the midterms.
If the Democrats win the House, it will stall his agenda and lead to more investigations and possible impeachment proceedings.
Only time will only tell if Mr Trump will keep "winning".
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Continue the conversation with Andrew Backhouse on Facebook and Twitter @Andytwit123.
Yeah, at the Municipal level. Hell if I wanted to build a skyscraper in NYC, I'd be supporting and donating to Rats too.
This article is loaded with BS.
If we deliver both houses back to the GOP we DAMN well better get that wall funding!
This is a view from a foreign source- on the outside looking in.
Aussie media is different than American media in one critical way.
Americans hear quotes by anonymous sources; Aussies simply quote Ultra-Left propaganda rags to verify their injustices against the proletariat.
Since the democrats cannot legislate through the legislature, they are forced to legislate through the court. They lost a huge battle last week and they’re down.
Now they need to be kicked.
Lets all remember, Obama ran the economy with training wheels on. Bernanki and Yellen never let him steer the economy without the training wheels. He also spent wildly.
Trump has no buying of bonds. He has interest rates going up every quarter, now 200 basis points above Obama’s time in office. The point is that the Fed never trusted the Obama administration’s economy to stay afloat. And Obama never did anything to help the economy except to spend like a mad man.
Trump is renegotiating all major trade deals. He is handling China’s fraudulent trade policies. He is bring jobs back. He reformed the Tax code for both personal and corporate taxes. And he is rewriting all the regulation on American companies. Trump is doing the work of several presidents. And the economy by every measure is responding.
Employment is at all time lows. The stock market is at all time highs. Pay levels are increasing. GDP is over 3% annually for the first time in a decade. And Inflation is near the Feds optimal level of 2.0%. And Trump is doing it without training wheels. The Fed stopped buying bonds. And the interest rates are now above 2%.
If Obama wants to own this, he can own the debt. He raised the debt by nearly 10 trillion dollars in eight years. And that debt is growing faster now that interest rates are going back to a normal level. He also saddled the country with back braking healthcare debt which is much larger than before he took office. That debt is still growing and with the normalized interest rates that new debt is expanding the deficit as well. The spending is Obama’s. He is right about that.
“This article is loaded with BS.”
totally typical of the misinformation about U.S. politics routinely put forth by the Australian media ...
Seriously?! Calling McConnell “crafty” is like calling Shrillary “honest”.
We will. Ryan will be gone and we will have more Trump Senators.
LOL. Perfect!
Loaded with BS
_____________
Exactly my reaction. Then I saw it was Australia. They have their own problems they should be working on.
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