By Carl M. Cannon
Good morning, it’s Jan. 16, 2024. Well, that was anticlimactic. In America’s favorite sport (pro football), five of the six games played the first weekend of playoffs were blowouts. As if on cue, in the nation’s second favorite blood sport (presidential politics) the first contest was also a rout.
Take a bow, Donald Trump. All the other Republican candidates who braved the debate stage, frigid winter weather, and your withering ridicule are forced to listen this morning as MAGA fans undulate to their fight song, à la Taylor Swift. On Saturday, Swift swayed in time along with 70,000 Kansas City Chiefs fans to “Swag Surfin’“, the team’s official dance break tune.
The MAGA equivalent is “Who’s Your Daddy?” And though Nikki Haley’s super PAC tried to appropriate the old taunt in a negative attack ad against Ron DeSantis, some 56,000 Trump voters in Iowa know the answer. Their guy is king of the Republican Party, at least for now.
Now it’s on to New Hampshire, which the campaign press corps will dutifully cover — and hype accordingly — as though anything might happen in the election booths of the Granite State. We don’t do this primarily for partisan reasons. And it’s not only because those of us in the Fourth Estate (whether writing or broadcasting about football or politics) like a competitive match.
It’s because New Hampshire has surprised us in the past and could do so again. Will that happen this year? It’s possible, but as last night’s Trump landslide in the Iowa caucuses showed, it will take some doing. This man has a commanding lead and he’s not sitting on it. Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, fasten your chin-straps.
On that note, allow me to direct you to RCP’s front page, which contains the latest poll averages, political news and video, and aggregated opinion pieces ranging across the ideological spectrum. We also offer the usual complement of original material from our stable of columnists and contributors:
Three Disparate Tickets Out of Iowa. Phil Wegmann and I look at last night’s caucus results, Trump’s domination, and the shrinking group of candidates who move on.
RCP Takeaway. Susan Crabtree joins Tom Bevan, Andy Walworth, and me as we plumb American attitudes toward faith and religious freedom in our new RealClear Opinion Research survey.
Journalism’s Task in a Free Society. Peter Berkowitz reviews Lance Morrow’s “The Noise of Typewriters: Remembering Journalism,” and a piece I wrote for the RCP series “The 1735 Project” on the evolution of presidential press coverage.
Shut the Border or Shut the Government. Columnist Frank Miele writes that the House has difficult decisions ahead and that the final agreement is more important than just keeping federal offices open.
Biden-Trump Rematch Is No Reason To Panic. David Masci assures Americans that despite a choice most don’t want, the soundness of our political and civil institutions will soon produce any needed course corrections.
Exposed: Moderna’s Vaccine Against Vaccine Dissent. In RealClearInvestigations, Lee Fang taps internal company reports to show the pharma giant’s sprawling media operation targeting critics of their policy and the drug industry in general.
Fani Willis and the Price of Arrogance. At RealClearPolicy, Newt Gingrich suggests that the Fulton County DA may be but a small part of a much larger, deeply corrupt legal war against Donald Trump.
Truth About Mass Shootings. Also at RealClearPolicy, John Lott clarifies misunderstandings about oft-cited and inflated statistics.
Here’s How To Help First Generation Students. At RealClearEducation, Scott Feller explains that if your parents didn’t go to college, navigating the university admissions obstacle course can be a bewildering process.
Edmund Burke and the Folly of British Climate “Leadership.” At RealClearEnergy, Benjamin Zycher contends that the Biden administration has deluded itself into believing American know-how will make our central planning work better than the U.K. variety.
Does Your Face Look Like It Was Created by AI? At RealClearScience, Ross Pomeroy explores one of the ways artificial intelligence may be “out-humaning” humans.
Can Trump Keep Momentum in Pennsylvania? At RealClearPennsylvania, Nick Kaval wonders whether, in an election with a likely razor-thin margin, his state could be a deciding factor.
Carl M. Cannon
Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics
@CarlCannon (Twitter)