Okay, after taking a day off for other areas of interest, lets head back to the record shelf and have another song from the 1973 flop musical, Cyrano, which won a Best Actor Tony for Christopher Plummer and, as I've said, has a terrific score despite its mere 49 performances. And this song here tonight is one of the best.
It's the soaring "You Have Made Me Love You," one of the most beautiful love songs I've heard in a Broadway musical. I'm actually very surprised that I haven't yet posted this song here during one of my Valentine's Day marathons. But I did a search, and it appears as if this is the song's debut on these pages. It's sung by Leigh Beery, who got a Tony nomination as Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her performance as Roxana. Here, she sings to Christian, believing he is her great true love, unaware that it has been Cyrano who has been behind all his glorious words. As good as all the other songs I've been posting here, you listen to this one song alone and think, "Wait, this show flopped and only ran 49 performances????" Yes, it's that beautiful. And I try very hard not to use hyperbole when describing such things. The score is by Michael J. Lewis and novelist Anthony Burgess, who did the book and lyrics.
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There are a few road markers along the way which help show the trouble Republicans face as they travel the highway towards the mid-term elections. One, for example, was the 36-point turnaround for Democrats in the recent Ohio-12th Congressional race. It doesn't matter who ends up winning that once-incredibly safe GOP seat now in a recount (and which will have another election in two months) -- what the warning sign said is that almost no seat is safe for Republicans and they have to spend their resources where they didn't expect to.
Another road marker popped up yesterday when its results were announced. And the most important news in the poll was not about Trump. It was about some under-the-wire details. First, most notable, was the answer to the question about approval ratings for specific issues. And it showed that Obamacare had a 51% approval, even with all the efforts by Trump to dismantle it. But even more importantly -- not just for the pure number alone, but most especially for its comparison to the Obamacare approval and perspective -- is that public approval of the Trump tax cuts was only 40%! It's pretty difficult to imagine any tax cuts only having a 40% approval, but far worse when it's that much behind health care which Trump has been slamming since before even being elected. And second, was a poll result that showed 58% of Americans were in favor of a path to citizenship for immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally. Only 32% were against things. Oh, and I left out one of the most important facts about this poll. Who it's from. No, this isn't a poll fro a some under-the-wire, left leaning organization. This is from a "Fox News" Poll. You can read the full results here. There are a lot of other results in the poll, but those three are the "road markers" to me that speak loudly in their importance. That's because they take away from Republicans probably the two issues they were most-expecting to campaign on campaign on in the mid-terms. There hasn't been a great deal good in the news for Republican candidates to point to in their campaigning. Standing by Trump might be a great issue in a GOP primary, but not a general election. But bringing you the Trump tax cuts, "repealing-and-replacing" that awful Obamacare, and immigration protection to Keep You Safe are the three gems they certainly must have thought they had. And now -- whammo. It's pretty hard to run on the great tax cuts when only 40% of the public likes them. It's pretty hard to run on working to dismantle and repeal healthcare when a majority of Americans want it. And it's pretty hard to run against immigration when the public is for it by a margin of 2-to-1. And again, remember, this is from a "Fox News" polls. It's easy to figure that this don't skew liberal. On the "Fox News" website, people there were outraged, as you might imagine. But this wasn't an opinion piece, this was pure numbers. Nothing more than data. Actual facts, not "alternative" ones. To be clear, none of this is proof of anything. And there is much more involved in getting a sense of how the mid-term elections will turn out. It's just some more road signs. But when you see a lot of yellow caution lights, it's a good idea to slow down and look around, rather than keep driving fast off the cliff. In honor of Trump and for those too who perhaps are unable to stomach hearing "Hail to the Chief" being played for him, we have a new theme song for him which might better appeal to what could become a growing political reality -- And as a bonus, just for Gregory van Buskirk so that he can sing along with the rest of the folks, here is the song in German -- The news is now pouring out.
There is now the story -- from an interview on "Fox News" no less! -- that only one juror held out on 10 counts against Paul Manafort. Every other juror agreed on all 18 felony counts. And even that one hold-out juror agreed with the eight felonies. Noteworthy as this is for what it says about that trial -- and the possibility of the government retrying the 10 counts -- it most especially bodes Really Badly for Manafort in the upcoming September 17th trial, which by all reports the evidence is even worse for Manafort. And has a different judge. And a Washington D.C. jury. And impacts Trump even more. But there are other, much smaller stories that came out of the Michael Cohen plea deal that didn't get much attention which are significant. One is that New York state is looking into the Trump Organization, since that is apparently who made the illegal reimbursement to Cohen, which puts all the company officers at risk -- Trump himself and his three oldest children. And being a state matter, presidential pardons don't cover it, Further, there was a tiny item in the plea deal about Trump Organization payment for tech services -- which some analysts are wondering if that could be about Cambridge Analytica, which is related to Russia efforts of manipulation on Facebook. And then came the report in the Wall Street Journal about David Pecker -- chairman of American Media, the publisher of the National Enquirer -- apparently flipping on the hush money payments and when Trump knew. But this story, which may be the biggest of all, is even worse for Trump. That's because this morning there's a story in Vanity Fair that Pecker -- one of Trump's longest and closest allies -- not only cooperating with Mueller, but he has been granted immunity! And so too has Dylan Howard, the company's chief content officer. The takeaway quote from the article that they use as the headline (!!) is from a Trump friend, “Holy shit, I thought Pecker would be the last one to turn!” Absolutely HORRIBLE news for Trump. You can read it here. This Pecker story (and sorry, but could there be a better name for all this about Trump and sexual affairs with porn actresses and Playboy models...) is so significant because it could possible signal the beginning of the end. That could be because I suspect there are a lot people around Trump who are looking desperately for cover as an excuse to cut ties. And not just Manafort and Cohen guilty convictions, and Cohen flipping, but the publisher of the National Enquirer getting immunity to turn on Trump are all profoundly great cover for those looking for it. Indeed, in the end, that's one of the major things that I suspect will do him in. The "There is NO WAY that I am going to prison for Donald freaking Trump" gambit. The dam hasn’t broken yet, but they better find a little Dutch boy quick to try and plug the hole… Related to all this, you may have seen the new poll that Beto O’Rourke only four points behind Ted Cruz in their race for U.S. Senate in Texas. But I think the race is even closer than that poll shows. That's because the poll was just of “registered voters.” Not even “likely voters.” And readers here know my long-held mantra about the critical importance of enthusiasm and get-out-the-vote in the mid-term election. “Registered voters” is valid to look at since it gives a general indication of the status, but for specifics it dances on the edge of almost meaningless. Four points for registered voters alone is probably within the margin of error -- but when it comes to likely voters and the enthusiasm of Democrats and growing reticence of middle-of-the road Republican voters (wand even die-hard Trump supporters ho won't even have Trump on the ballot), it's a very big problem for Republicans and the Cruz campaign. Similarly, there is the story about Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA 50) getting indicted. The thing is, even that story goes deeper. I looked into that race. It turns out, he won his last campaign in 2016 by 35 points. That's about as safe a GOP seat as you have. As of June, however, his lead for the mid-terms was only 9 points. And that’s from June, before all these guilty convictions and Hunter's own indictment. So, that means Republicans have to put time and money into saving that seat. When you’re at a point where Republicans have to put time and money into saving DUNCAN HUNTER’S SEAT (!!!), whether or not they’re able to, they are in serious and very deep trouble. If you see a little Dutch boy wandering around, you know why... |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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