NEWS AND OPINION:
Former President Donald Trump is getting some promising press in his quest to return to the White House.
“Not only can Trump win, right now he’s the favorite to win,” writes Sean Trende, a senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics.
“Let us set the record straight: Trump can win. Not in a ‘maybe if all the stars align and then Russia changes the vote totals (even somehow in states like Michigan that use hand-marked paper ballots)’ kind of way. Just flat out: Trump can win,” Mr. Trende said, citing proof from his own organization about a hypothetical race with President Biden.
“As of this writing, Trump leads Biden by 2.6 percentage points nationally in the RealClearPolitics Average. This is Trump’s largest lead in the RCP average to date. Not for 2024, mind you. Ever,” he said.
“Let’s put this in perspective. In 2016, Trump led Hillary Clinton for all of five days in the national RCP Average, each of those days in the immediate aftermath of the Republican convention. He led in 29 polls taken over the course of the entire campaign, 10 of which are recorded in the RCP averages as Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California tracking polls,” Mr. Trende continued.
“In 2020, Trump never led Biden in the national RCP Average. He briefly closed to within four points in early January of 2020, but that is it. He led in five polls all cycle. So, counting the L.A. Times tracker as a single poll, Trump led in a total of 24 national polls. This cycle? He’s led in that many since mid-September. He’s led in more polls in the past three weeks than he did against Biden in all of 2019-2020,” the analyst said.
HALEY’S COMMENT
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley appears to be upping the flashy, feisty side of her 2024 campaign — with more likely to come as primary elections approach.
“The writing has been on the wall for months. With Nikki Haley rising and Ron DeSantis sinking, there is a growing consensus that Haley is the best challenger to take on Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” Ms. Haley’s campaign said Tuesday in a statement shared with Inside the Beltway.
An endorsement Tuesday from Americans for Prosperity Action — founded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch — has certainly helped raise her profile.
The press has noticed, and the tenor of the media coverage appears to be changing. Here are a few headlines of note from Tuesday afternoon alone:
“America’s adversaries have reason to fear Nikki Haley” (The Hill); “In South Carolina homecoming, Haley’s ‘town hall’ turns into a full-blown rally” (Politico); “Koch network endorses Nikki Haley in bid to push GOP past Trump” (The New York Times); “Nikki Haley’s home-state strategy faces a hitch: South Carolina is Trump country” (NBC News); “Nikki Haley is now the top Trump alternative. Her path remains tricky” (Business Insider); and “Americans for Prosperity and Nikki Haley should blame themselves for Donald Trump” (The Nation).
IVY-COVERED HALLS
“One of America’s leading institutions is attempting to implement a new climate change strategy that simultaneously advances Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI),” writes Michael Duke, a correspondent for Campus Reform, a conservative watchdog that monitors the nation’s higher education system.
It’s complicated.
“Harvard University’s Presidential Committee on Sustainability, the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging; and the Office of Sustainability have announced a joint ‘Sustainability Action Plan,’ which will replace a similar initiative that was discontinued in 2021,” Mr. Duke explained.
The school plans to become fossil fuel-neutral by 2026, and fossil fuel-free by 2050, and also plans to retrofit buildings on campus to reduce carbon emissions, he says, citing information from the Harvard Crimson, a student publication.
“Harvard says it’s going green. How much is hot air?” the Crimson asked in an editorial.
“The plan focuses on reimagining campus operations, redefining building construction processes, and rethinking campus energy systems. Although Harvard claims that the environment, health, and DEI are interconnected, the plan fails to outline specifics of this intersectional approach or timelines for planning,” Mr. Duke said.
Again, it’s complicated.
“Currently, buildings on campus at Harvard account for 97% of its emissions. The sustainability plan seeks to make historical buildings to be climate-neutral, such as the 300-year-old Massachusetts Hall,” he said.
A NEW EQUATION
A “previously unknown and defining statement” handwritten by Albert Einstein in 1931 has surfaced and is now up for sale by the Raab Collection, a Pennsylvania-based dealer that specializes in historic documents that “have a story to tell,” according to a mission statement.
“The greatest value of knowledge lies in knowledge itself,” the distinguished scientist wrote in German, in what appears to be a sepia-colored ink on plain paper.
“This quotation, which appears to be unpublished, is among the most important ever offered for sale and has been in a private collection for a generation. The original historical document was not known to exist by Einstein scholars,” an advisory from the Raab Collection stated.
“This new discovery gives us powerful insight into the mind and motivation of one of our great intellects. It helps us better understand him and perhaps also ourselves,” Nathan Raab, president of the Raab Collection, said in a written statement shared with Inside the Beltway.
The document is priced at $65,000.
Find the details and more at Raabcollection.com.
POLL DU JOUR
• 68% of U.S. adults say they would be happy to receive an investment as a holiday gift.
• 6% say they would be disappointed to receive an investment as a gift.
• 61% say a gift investment would help them save for the future.
• 54% say it would help “build wealth.”
• 23% say it would help them stay ahead of inflation.
• 15% say it would help them pay their debts.
SOURCE: A Yahoo Finance/Ipsos poll of 1,023 U.S adults taken Nov. 17-20.
• Contact Jennifer Harper at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.