5 Months from Today

“The textbook definition of a racist comment,” is what U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan had to say about Donald Trump’s comments on Judge Gonzalo Curiel. So the House Speaker would rather have a racist running the country instead of Secretary Hillary Clinton. Has it gotten to the point where GOP leaders would rather have a racist as the leader of the free world? Really? Is that where the GOP is these days?

Let me just drop in some Thomas Friedman lines from his column today:

Really? Mr. Speaker, your agenda is a mess, Trump will pay even less attention to you if he is president and, as Senator Lindsey Graham rightly put it, there has to be a time “when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”

Will it ever be that time with this version of the G.O.P.?

Et tu, John McCain? You didn’t break under torture from the North Vietnamese, but your hunger for re-election is so great that you don’t dare raise your voice against Trump? I hope you lose. You deserve to. Marco Rubio? You called Trump “a con man,” he insults your very being and you still endorse him? Good riddance.

Chris Christie, have you not an ounce of self-respect? You’re serving as the valet to a man who claimed, falsely, that on 9/11, in Jersey City, home to many Arab-Americans, “thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down.” Christie is backing a man who made up a bald faced lie about residents of his own state so that maybe he can be his vice president. Contemptible.

And this tweet:

JORGE RAMOS ‏@jorgeramosnews 28m28 minutes ago

Question for Republicans: How do you vote for someone whose comments, according to @SpeakerRyan, are a “textbook definition of racism”?

So long to the high ground, GOP.

Philadelphia, PA will host the soon to be historic Democratic National Convention.   When was the last time a city who hosted a Democratic National Convention also had a MLB team who won the World Serious the same year they hosted the Dem gathering?

Last night was historic for sure but too bad we didn’t get an acknowledgement from Sen. Bernie Sanders. He made a big deal going into yesterday that California was going to be a key to staying in the race and by the time he spoke last night he was a few hundred thousand votes behind in California and had already lost New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

Here is from a New York Times story on last night and Bernie:

Revolutions rarely give way to gracious expressions of defeat.

And so, despite the crushing California results for him that rolled in on Tuesday night, despite the insurmountable delegate math and the growing pleas that he end his quest for the White House, Senator Bernie Sanders took the stage in Santa Monica and basked, bragged, and vowed to fight on.

In a speech of striking stubbornness, he ignored the history-making achievement of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, who became the first woman in American history to clinch the nomination of major political party.

Mr. Sanders waited until 15 minutes into his speech to utter Mrs. Clinton’s name. He referred, almost in passing, to a telephone conversation in which he had congratulated her on her victories. At that, the crowd of more than 3,000 inside an aging airport hanger booed loudly. Mr. Sanders did little to discourage them.

Tuesday was, undeniably, Mrs. Clinton’s night, a milestone for women in politics and civic life 95 years after the 19th Amendment guaranteed their right to vote.

But by Wednesday morning, all eyes were on Mr. Sanders. Would he be generous or petulant? Would he let go or keep battling?

At almost every turn, he was grudging toward Mrs. Clinton, passing up a chance to issue the kind of lengthy salute that many, in and out of the Democratic Party, had expected and craved.

“It’s a blown opportunity to build bridges that are going to be extremely important in the fall,” said David Gergen, an adviser to four presidents, both Democratic and Republican. He worried that Mr. Sanders was becoming “a grumpy old man.”

Let’s hope by the end of this week, Sen. Sanders will make the gracious exit. It is the right thing to do. It is the only thing to do.

The election  is 5 months from today.

In 2004, Boston hosted the Democratic National Convention and the Red Sox swept San Luis in the World Serious.

I don’t know what to say about losing to the Rangers again last night by one run.