* Is he in or is he out?
* Donald Trump still hasn’t decisively said if he’s blowing off the GOP presidential debate on FOX News next week, but reports today indicate he’ll be a no-show.
* The New York Times is reporting that he plans to do a counter-programming interview that night with Tucker Carlson on Twitter.
* It’s one thing to skip the debate. It’s another thing altogether to try to knee-cap it.
* I understand it’s Trump’s nature to always seek to steal the spotlight, but this is only going to further alienate GOP voters who may be on the fence about him.
* And by the way, if Trump’s nomination is an inevitable done deal, then why attack his GOP opponents with such bile and why is he be so obsessed with getting them to drop out of the race he says he has in the bag?
* Sometimes, Trump is his own worst enemy.
* The debate I’d MUCH rather watch is the proposed head-to-head between Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over which state under their leadership is better off these days.
* Here’s an interesting tidbit on the idea from John Kartch of Americans for Tax Reform…
* Newsom proposed three states for hosting the debate on either November 8 or November 10 on FOX News: Georgia, North Carolina, or Nevada. However, Kartch notes, “California law prohibits state travel to two of them: Georgia and North Carolina.
* Viva, Las Vegas, baby!
* Opponents of school choice are Democrats. Enemies of school choice are the teachers’ unions.
* And if there’s any question as to why the Dems are in the pocket of the teachers’ unions, Corey DeAngelis explains. Here’s the contribution breakdown of how much money was donated to Democrats by the American Federation of Teachers over the last 30 years by election cycle…
- 1994:99.4%
- 1996:99.1%
- 1998: 98.9%
- 2000:99.2%
- 2002:99.3%
- 2004:98.0%
- 2006:99.1%
- 2008:99.1%
- 2010:99.4%
- 2012:99.4%
- 2014:99.0%
- 2016:99.7%
- 2018:99.8%
- 2020:99.6%
- 2022:99.97%
* Our kids don’t have a chance. Teachers’ unions should be outlawed.
* From the Things I Didn’t Know department: Nolan Gifford, the Henderson All Stars’ starting pitcher in the Little League World Series, is homeschooled. We should be doing a LOT more to encourage homeschooling, the ultimate in parental involvement in education.
* In 2021, the Nevada Legislature passed a law switching from a presidential caucus state to a primary state.
* But the Nevada GOP wants to keep nominating its candidates via caucus because they can control the voting better on behalf of Trump rather than letting the great unwashed Republican voters have a say. So Nevada Republican National Committeewoman Sigal Chattah filed a lawsuit to block the primary.
* She lost.
* “I'm just astounded,” Judge James Russell chided Chattah, “because we did research … and we found nothing to support your position.” He later asked her, “Did you do any research?”
* Embarrassing.
* Undeterred, the Chattah Box is now appealing Judge Russell’s decision to the Nevada Supreme Court. Where she’s likely to lose. Again.
* Only participants in the caucus can earn delegate votes to the Republican National Convention next year. But any candidate who files to run in the competing primary will be banned from participating in the caucus – which will cost each candidate a tidy sum of $55,000.
* In a tweet today, the Nevada GOP wrote: “Ironic that Democrats in the Legislature are willing to waste $5 million on a 'primary' they acknowledge is meaningless.”
* But it’s only meaningless because the Nevada GOP has chosen to hold a competing caucus that will dramatically limit the number of voters who will be able to vote.
* The Nevada GOP could screw up a two-car funeral.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Only a Democrat could love how the Nevada Republican Party is handling its role in the presidential selection process. … (T)he Nevada Republican Party has made the process extremely convoluted in an apparent effort to legally rig the election for the Trump campaign. Little wonder so few presidential candidates have bothered to show up here.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com. You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.