I hate scandals.  So many names, dates, times, locations, accusations and counter accusations; it is almost impossible to keep track of all of it.  I am certainly starting to feel that way about all this Hunter-Joe-Jim Biden/Bobulinski stuff.  I have tried to create some sort of chart to track scandals before, like you see in the movies when the feds are after the mafia, but it is multi-dimensional and nobody has figured out how to chart a 10-dimensional universe just yet.

(BTW, note to the host, of course media is not picking this scandal up.  Yes, they are obviously and notoriously biased.  But also most people have become so cynical about government that they figure they are ALL corrupt.  They do not bother with the details anymore.  There are no clicks in it.)

Yes, before I interrupted myself, that was a science geeky comment.  I do numbers a lot better than I do all the stuff that comes up in a scandal like this.  But then numbers are often more confusing that names, etc.  We are certainly being treated to such with regards to the pandemic.  We are awash in numbers, often contradictory, certainly represented in ways designed to make the speakers point, not present unbiased data.  Just searching the internet for something as simple as “covid death rate” can produce dozens of graphs, none of which look like the other.  They all use different bases for calculations in order to make the picture look better or worse depending on desires of the person making the graph.

All of which brings me to the World Series concluded last night.  I was new to Southern California the last time the Dodgers won and the 1988 Series ripped my midwestern baseball roots right out and planted a “Go Dodgers” tree in its place.  I have stayed true to all other home teams, but the Dodgers won my heart in that series.  Kirk Gibson’s hobbled homer in game 1 is probably the most dramatic moment in televised baseball history.  How could you not love it?

This World Series was a very different affair than that one 32 years ago.  This time around there was no drama, only numbers.  Big data controls baseball now.  Pinch hitters and relief pitchers by the dozen searching for that perfect match-up, or at least what the stats tell them is the perfect match-up.  It was a hard series to watch and it made me grateful I was not the scorekeeper.  Sometimes the numbers defied the evidence right in your face.  When Tampa Bay pulled Snell last night I knew the Dodgers, held scoreless up to that point, were going to win.  Snell was hotter than a pitcher had been all series, interrupting that even if the data says it is the thing to do, was just dumb.

So now back to politics.  Government by Democrats is government by experts, which means by numbers.  The different pandemic policies between Democratic run and Republican run states should make that incredibly obvious.  And, like pulling Snell, they are making incredibly dumb decisions when the evidence in their face is saying something contrary.  They have become so focused on corona stats that they are missing the bigger picture all around them.

When it comes to the presidential race there are things I know and things I don’t know.  The influence peddling scandal stinks to high heaven and where there is smoke there is fire somewhere.  But I cannot prove Biden is corrupt.  Do I think Biden is corrupt?  Of course I do.  We know he has plagiarized in the past, and such lapses in moral judgement are usually not isolated.  But I do not need this scandal to convince me a Biden administration would be a disaster.

A Biden administration would be government by experts, by numbers.  It would be government ignoring the evidence in its face and making dumb decisions because the numbers told it to do so.  That is not government that we need right now.

Maybe you are one of those that thinks Joe Biden is a stalking horse for Kamala Harris.  Sounds a bit “conspiracy theory” to me, but that does not negate the fact that 1) the center of the Democratic Party is left of Biden and 2) the far left is going to have considerable influence in a Biden administration, regardless of what actual shape that administration may take.

Now consider this from the “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris:

Norah O’Donnell: You’re very different in the policies that you’ve supported in the past.  You’re considered the most liberal United States senator.

Senator Kamala Harris: I– somebody said that and it actually was Mike Pence on the debate stage. (LAUGH) But–

Norah O’Donnell: Yeah. Well, actually, the nonpartisan GovTrack has rated you as the most liberal senator. You supported the Green New Deal, you supported Medicare for All. You’ve supported legalizing marijuana. Joe Biden doesn’t support those things. So are you gonna bring the policies, those progressive policies that you supported as senator, into a Biden administration?

Senator Kamala Harris: What I will do, and I promise you this, and this is what Joe wants me to do, this was part of our deal,  I will always share with him my lived experience as it relates to any issue that we confront. And I promised Joe that I will give him that perspective and always be honest with him.

That’s not a denial, and as the interview continues, O’Donnell keeps trying to pin Harris down and Harris keeps evading.

A Biden administration brings the California nightmare to D.C.  It may not, or it may, be full California but California is coming if Biden wins.  I don’t know how anybody could want this.

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Assistant to the President Jared Kushner joined me this morning:

Audio:

10-26hhs-kushner

Transcript:

Tape of then Secretary of State John Kerry in December 2015 : “There will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world. I want to make that very clear to all of you. I’ve heard several prominent politicians in Israel sometimes saying well, the Arab world’s in a different place now. We just have to reach out to them, and we can work some things with the Arab world. And we’ll deal with the Palestinians. No, no, no, and no. I can tell you that reaffirmed even in the last week as I have talked to leaders of the Arab community. There will be no advance and separate peace with the Arab world without the Palestinian process and Palestinian peace. Everybody needs to understand that. That is a hard reality.“

HH: Welcome back, America. I’m Hugh Hewitt. That was former Secretary of State John Kerry at the Brookings Institute when he was Secretary of State in December of 2015. I’m joined now by Assistant to the President, Jared Kushner. Good morning, Mr. Kushner. How are you?

JK: Good morning, Hugh. Great to be with you.

HH: Thank you. Has Secretary of State Kerry called you or President Trump or Secretary Pompeo or anybody to congratulate anyone on the Abraham Accords which he said in December of 2015 simply could never happen?

JK: I have not had direct contact with him. But you know, he’s somebody who I’m sure is rooting for America, and I think that many people have just been very supportive about this deal. I mean, just on Friday we announced the third peace deal in the Middle East in the last couple months. And you know, very few presidents make one peace deal. But now, President Trump’s done three peace deals. And what we’re seeing is the more that we’ve been able to get these deals done, the more countries want to come on board. The more people want to get past old conflicts. And President Trump has taken a different approach, not one that was looked at or thought of by the typical Washington insiders who have done this for a long time. But it’s yielding results. And after years of getting criticized for doing it differently, and for using unconventional people to do it, people are seeing that this different approach is one that’s really working.

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