Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/743970
ByMichaelReagan Trump had his best debate in Nevada. Instead of 90 minutes of him denying his alleged minor sexual aggressions, some actual issues were discussed — the Supreme Court, the economy, trade, terror- ism, immigration, guns and abortion. And before he jumped the tracks, Trump scored a few solid hits on the crookedness of the Clinton Foundation and Hillary's serial lies to the FBI, Congress and the American people. Notthatanyoneinthelib- eral media really cared. During the debate half the Friends of Hillary who pass themselves off as honest jour- nalists were either too busy cheering their sweetheart or jeering Trump to take notes. It really didn't matter much. They were only waiting for Trump to say something they considered politically of- fensive so they could start pounding out their selective outrage and disgust on their laptops and smartphones. Did Trump call Hillary "a nasty woman?" Did he re- fer to illegal immigrants who commit crimes as "bad hom- bres?" Did he call Hillary "a puppet" first, or did she call him one first? Though the Hillary Media tried to make each of those Trumpisms into a war crime, after 15 months they weren't newsworthy. They were just new variations of the stuff Donald always says. In the end, however, Trump didn't disappoint Hillary's fanboys and fangirls in the press room. When he told moderator Chris Wallace he wasn't will- ing to say there and then that he'd automatically accept the results of the election and might challenge them if he thought there was something fishy, it wrecked his whole night. It may have been common sense, but it guaranteed that the Hillary Media would get up early and spend all day Thurs- day talking about Dictator Trump being an unprecedented enemy of American democracy, violating the sanctity of the bal- lot box, threatening the peace- ful passing along of power, etc., etc. The journalists were too partisan to remember Al Gore not conceding in 2000 and other Democrats — like Hill- ary, Bernie and Barack — us- ing the "rigged" word to de- scribe various aspects of the electoral process. If Trump says the system is rigged, Western Civilization is at risk. It's not that the Hillary Me- dia would have been talking about the latest Wikileaks rev- elations or investigating what the holy Clinton Foundation did wrong in Haiti. But Trump's mistake made it easy for them to continue ignoring Hillary, her health is- sues and the workings of her crime family. Trump's mistake also did not help the Republican Par- ty's chances to keep the Sen- ate and House this fall. "Will you respect the results of this election," was proba- bly the first question the local news media asked every Re- publican in America running for Congress or dogcatcher on Thursday. Thanks to Trump's self- made distraction, Republican candidates couldn't get their messages out to the public in the same way Trump couldn't get out his. Trump won't change. He can't change, no matter how much help his trainer Kelly- anne Conway gives him. He can't pivot. He can't refute Hillary's lies in any detail. He can't even look presiden- tial. Hillary can fake a grandma smile with the best of them, but Trump wore a permanent scowl at the debate. Winston Churchill had per- petual scowl too, but in case you haven't noticed, Donald is no Winston Churchill. Trump didn't help himself at the debate. In fact, he may have pounded the last nail into his own coffin. We'll find out in a little more than two weeks. I just hope that if in early November the polls show he's going to get blown away, he doesn't go into a scorched- earth policy like Jimmy Carter did in 1980. Carter conceded early on Election Day — 5 p.m. Pacific time. That affected voter turn- out on the West Coast and Democrat down-ballot candi- dates were hurt. Trump may have no chance of winning, but for the sake of the Republican Party and the country he needs to fight all the way to the finish. The only thing worse than President Hillary is President Hillary and a Democratic Congress. MichaelReaganisthesonof President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). Send comments to Reagan@ caglecartoons.com. Follow @ reaganworld on Twitter. Michael Reagan Donald Trump trumps Trump during debate in Las Vegas Cartoonist's take Recent quote from The New Yorker magazine: "On November 8th, barring some astonish- ment, the peo- ple of the United States will, af- ter two hundred and forty years, send a woman to the White House. The election of Hillary Clinton is an event that we will welcome for its immense historical im- portance, and greet with inde- scribable relief. It will be es- pecially gratifying to have a woman as commander-in-chief after such a sickeningly sexist and racist campaign, one that exposed so starkly how far our society has to go. The vileness of her opponent's rhetoric and his record has been so widely aired that we can only hope she will be able to use her of- fice and her impressive resolve to battle prejudice wherever it may be found. On every is- sue of consequence, including economic policy, the environ- ment, and foreign affairs, Hill- ary Clinton is a distinctly ca- pable candidate: experienced, serious, schooled, and resil- ient. When the race began, Clinton, who has always been a better office-holder than a campaigner, might have an- ticipated a clash of ideas and personalities on the conven- tional scale, against, say, Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio. In- stead, the Democratic nom- inee has ended up playing a sometimes secondary role in a squalid American epic. If she is elected, she will have weathered a prolonged battle against a trash-talking, burn- it-to-the-ground demagogue. Unfortunately, the drama is not likely to end soon. The af- tereffects of this campaign may befoul our civic life for some time to come." Accurately and eloquently stated. ••• The Tuesday columnist this week published a column-long ti- rade why voters should not vote for Hillary Clinton. However you will note he did not advo- cate voting for Trump. It seems it is time for him to come out of the closet and proclaim his faith in the "Art of Trump" and state unequivocally that he is voting for Donald Trump. He may feel his endorsement would taint the prospect of Trump winning, but that is the chance any of us opinionated folks take. ••• How about a little humor? Trump recently made his own Gettysburg Address. It began with, "I scored 7 years ago..." ••• And writing of the election brought forth an e-mail from G. Gilbert Sr., who objected to my suggesting that a sane and ed- ucated person should vote for Hillary Clinton. He was correct in doing so. I should have writ- ten "rational" rather than "sane." It is difficult to know who is the inmate and who is the keeper of the asylum these days. ••• Those planning to vote no on the pay raise for County Su- pervisors should heed my fa- ther's admonition: Supervisor salaries should be high enough to attract competent men and women with business acumen. After all, they have to make de- cisions regarding the largest business in the county. ••• The unexpected demise of popular engineer and surveyor Tom Wulfert, and then that of a personal pilot friend of our family, brought forth a tag to a frequent expression. When one commiserates with the recently bereaved, and says "Life goes on…" they should add "…and then it doesn't." ••• A death is rarely lightened by a well-placed cartoon but cartoonist Wiley has done just that. His recent rendering, "The Uncertainty of the Afterlife," depicts St. Peter at the Pearly Gates perusing a ledger and a recent arrival staring down at a door mat with the word "Maybe" written on it. ••• The saga of the missing judge: Those associated with the Su- perior Court of Tehama County are perplexed by the absence of a prominent judge who appar- ently calls in at the end of each month and informs administra- tion that he will be absent the coming month for medical rea- sons. Sources say this has been going on for about a year. This may be justified, no pun in- tended, for judge tenure is mys- terious. True, it is an elected of- fice, but finding a judge guilty of dereliction or some such is a dicey affair. No peer nor prac- ticing attorney wants to pull the trigger and make formal ac- cusations or charges for fear of retaliation. On the other hand, there is legal process to remove those on the public dole. Perhaps our local investigative newspaper will look into this. One repercussion of an absentee judge is the workload increase of others who must continue to toil away. One of my favorite quotes by Shakespeare is something about "…the laws delay and the insolence of office." Might this apply in this instance? ••• The trouble of well meaning folks tying ribbons around trees is that the ribbons tend to stay there way longer than the life of the issue pursued, and in so do- ing diminish the importance of all such postings. There is or- dinance to the effect that po- litical signs, once erected, be promptly removed after elec- tions. This should apply to rib- bons wrapped around trees. ••• A guy sees a sign in front of an old house: "Talking Dog For Sale." He rings the bell and the owner shows him a nice looking Labrador re- triever in the back yard. "You talk," he asks the dog. "Yep," the Lab replies. After the guy recovers from the shock he asks "So, what's your story?" The Lab says, "Well, when I discovered I could talk, I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA. In no time they had me jetting around the country, sit- ting in rooms with spies and world leaders. No one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valu- able spies for eight years, but the jetting around really tired me out, so I decided to set- tle down. I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired." The guy is amazed. He asks the owner what he wants for the dog. "Ten dollars," the guy says. "Ten dollars? This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?" The owner answers, "Be- cause he lies more than Donald Trump; He's never been out of the back yard." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@ hotmail.com. I say Eloquent assessment of impending election Trump may have no chance of winning, but for the sake of the Republican Party and the country he needs to fight all the way to the finish. The only thing worse than President Hillary is President Hillary and a Democratic Congress. GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kris- tina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials Robert Minch OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, October 28, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6