Op-ed: President Barack Obama wasted no time Thursday endorsing Hillary Clinton to succeed him, and there was no doubt he was relishing the battle.

The Republican party publicly made its no. 1 goal to stop everything Obama tried to do during his eight years as President.

His likely narrative will be that former President George W. Bush destroyed the nation’s economy and is at least partly responsible for creating ISIS.

Obama will be able to claim credit for drastically lowering the unemployment rate and killing Osama bin Laden.

“I’m with her, I am fired up, and I cannot wait to get out there to campaign for Hillary,” Mr. Obama said.

Obama said of his former secretary of state, who would become the first female president of the country, “I have seen her judgment, I’ve seen her toughness, I’ve seen her commitment to our values up close. … “She’s got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done.”

Obama said he would begin campaigning with her next week in Wisconsin, and Michelle Obama was expected to join the parade.

 “I know how hard this job can be, that’s why I know Hillary will be so good at it,” Obama said in avideo. “In fact I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She’s got the courage, the compassion and the heart to get this job done.”

Earlier in the day Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders indicated he was leaving the campaign.

Later he vowed to work with Hillary Clinton but shied away from endorsing her.

That may come later.

Op-Ed: ​Having worked for Bobby Kennedy’s campaign, including being in California when he was assassinated, grief clouded my mission.

I was at the funeral and wakes in Washington dominated by his campaign staff.

I overheard them talking about how they probably were going to offer their services to Hubert Humphrey.

So a 21-year-old was angry telling his former bosses that there was no way he could work for anyone associated with President Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War.

I didn’t vote. I doubt I was alone. Richard Nixon became president.

It is hard to describe how evil Nixon was, and how much harm he caused. But he didn’t get us in a nuclear war or destroy our economy.

Who knows what Donald Trump would do. On Thursday morning, shortly after an Egyptair Airbus disappeared off radar between Paris and Cairo, Trump tweeted that it was an act of terrorism.

No wreckage had been found. No terrorist group claimed responsibility. There wasn’t even cheering on a radio station operated by terrorists.

Trump tweeted Thursday morning, according to CNN: "Looks like yet another terrorist attack. Airplane departed from Paris. When will we get tough, smart and vigilant? Great hate and sickness!"

Incidents have occurred throughout the history of the U.S. that could have led to war but careful presidents have avoided spilling more American blood.

President Lyndon Johnson used a phony incident off the coast of Vietnam, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, to send more than 50,000 soldiers to their deaths in a war we lost. There is no indication that it was necessary and cannot be shown to have contributed to our victory in the Cold War.

It may have been a domino, but it was not on the same board.

Perhaps even scarier, in regard to the possibility of a Trump presidency, is his friendship with President Vladimir Putin even as Russians have buzzed dangerously close to U.S. Navy ships and air force jets.

Trump admires a man whose nation was caught cheating in the Olympics and has stolen land from the Ukraine.

Op-ed: Hillary Clinton may win all five primaries Tuesday, four of them are closed. Only Democrats can vote.

Sen. Bernie Sanders hasn’t won one primary in which only Democrats can vote.

As many as 2 million people could vote in Pennsylvania, the most populous state. Clinton beat President Obama in 2008.

In 2012, when Obama had no real competition only 600,000 voted.

Primaries also are being held in Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island. Clinton leads in polls in most.

Hillary Clinton already has nearly a 3 million lead in the popular vote. Bernie Sanders declined to withdraw.

Media outlets are undecided whether Sanders wants to use his popularity to influence the party’s platform, or whether he will fight all the way to the competition.

Doing both will be difficult. His supporters are making it even harder with snide remarks, bringing up former President Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Many pundits think that will backfire.

It also is hypocritical for Sanders to complain that closed primaries are preventing him from winning. On one of his websites he said closed primaries are needed to prevent “political sabotage.” Why should Republicans or Democrats be allowed to disrupt the vote of the other party?

As for Millennials being wedded to Sanders, Politico reports Clinton has a 36-point advantage when asked to choose between her and Trump.

Former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin, who thrashed Sanders in the gubernatorial race 30 years ago told USA Today her former competitor will endorse Clinton.

Clinton reportedly is already looking for a vice president, and created a buzz during the weekend when she said it could be another woman.

​http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/robert-weller/biggest-surprise-of-presidential-campaign

Op-ed: The leading candidate in the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, a strong candidate to be the first female president of the United States, is reportedly considering choosing a woman as her vice president.

So we’d get two in the White House at once.

Even more surprising, Hillary Clinton’s list includes a woman who many had wished had run against her, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

What better candidate to deal with the kind of bankruptcies, Donald Trump.

Warren specialized in bankruptcies as a law professor at Harvard.

Trump has a lot of explaining to do about how he could manage multiple bankruptcies while families who lost everything in the 2008 recession couldn’t afford the lawyers’ fees charged for them.
 
The web was full of stories considering the possibilities, not only of Warren as a candidate, but that Clinton might choose another woman.

Several were on lists published by sites as powerful as the New York Times.

“Regardless of how things shake out in the weeks to come, having two women on a single ticket would be an electrifying, historical occurrence.” Vanity Fair said.

It is not too soon for Clinton to start finding a running mate. Next week she is likely to add hundreds of thousands of votes to her popular vote lead over Bernie Sanders.

Sanders strategy of focusing on caucuses got him much publicity on the national TV. But by early April he was behind Clinton by 2.5 million votes, according to a review by Pulitzer-winning site Politico.

Since then she has added nearly 300,000 votes in the New York primary and will win three or four of the primaries in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Rhode Island. She leads by double digits in the biggest, Pennsylvania.

She is being called the presumptive nominee, and no matter how many paths pundits can find for Sanders to stay in competition not even Hawkeye in the Last of the Mohicans could do it.

Perhaps most ironic is that the nation has been hearing non-stop that Citizens for United, the Supreme Court case that removed all rules of corporate political spelling, Sanders is still going. All on small donations from private citizens, he claims.

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Donald Trump’s Jet, a Regular on the Campaign Trail, Isn’t Registered to Fly - NYTimes

Op-ed: Sanders won’t go away even after crushing defeat.

Sen. Bernie Sanders isn’t going to withdraw from the presidential campaign even after a crushing defeat in New York by Hillary Clinton.

Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, told MSNBC that even if Clinton still holds the delegate and popular vote lead after all the primaries to come his candidate will try to win the race at the party’s convention in Philadelphia at the end of July.

This is the same campaign that predicted it would surprise pollsters and win Clinton’s home state despite polls showing them behind by up to 17 percent.

Some pundits had supported their claims that they were catching up with Clinton.

In the end, they lost by about 16 percent.

Weaver told MSNBC that if all the votes of caucuses were counted Clinton would have a huge lead in the popular vote. Most caucuses draw about 4 percent of the their party’s voters. Primaries get around 20 percent. Clinton has claimed more than a 2.4 million-vote lead. Tuesday night she added 265,000 votes to her lead.

Polls indicate Clinton has big leads in several northeastern states voting next week, including Pennsylvania.

Clinton’s delegate lead is boosted by the primaries she has won as well as so-called “super delegates” picked by the party leadership.

The election website 538 said the New York vote “is a devastating result for the Sanders campaign. The outcome almost certainly ensures that Clinton will beat Sanders in the elected delegate count after the final Democratic votes are counted in June.”

Weaver, after having the math pointed out to him, said the campaign would go on anyway. “Absolutely,” he said.

Clinton, in her victory speech, said there was nothing important dividing her camp from Sanders.

The campaign could get even nastier than it has been in recent weeks.

Some pundits suggested Sanders should accept his losses and push for a movement that will have influence in a party that he is not even a member of. He is an independent.

Op-ed: If the Democratic presidential race was an NFL event; viewers would have turned off long ago if the pundits covered the Democratic presidential race like the NFL.

Everyone knows where teams benefit from the schedule, and when they are likely destroyed by it.

Bernie Sanders has feasted on lightly attended caucuses that few people understand, and even fewer have the several hours needed to attend one to demonstrate support for their candidate. Many of them are open, meaning anyone, Democrat, Republican or independent can vote.

He won two primaries, Wisconsin and Michigan, both of which allowed non-Democrats to vote. On one of his web sites Sanders said open primaries can be used for “political sabotage,” by allowing non-party members to determine its future.

In Sanders’ words, posted on a web site: “Why do some states have closed primaries and caucuses while others do not?

Closed primary elections and caucuses exist as a defense mechanism against political sabotage. Some states’ political parties are concerned that voters, instead of using their vote to support the candidate with whom they agree the most, will vote for a weak candidate in the opposing political party. That is to say, these individuals may subvert the opposing political party’s power as a way to advance the potential of their own political party. By hosting a closed primary election, states force individuals in their electorate to register as a Republican, a Democrat, or another political party, and then participate in only their own party’s caucus or primary election. In this way, both the state parties ensure that they are not undermining each other’s political efficacy.”

After suffering a string of primary losses that built up Hillary Clinton’s lead to possibly insurmountable levels, Sanders won a series of causes that drew small numbers of votes in small, mostly white states with few minorities.

Cable TV called these victories, even when there was a delegate draw in one, Wyoming.
Not unaware that there was no path to victory, short of an improbable indictment of Clinton, Sanders did what he has in past campaigns: raised the volume. The New York Times reported Sanders has become very combative in past campaigns when he was in difficulty, including a 1986 campaign against incumbent Gov. Madeleine Kunin.

He said things like: “Many people are excited because she’s the first woman governor. But after that, there ain’t much.” Kunin crushed him, getting 47 percent to his 14. Peter Smith got 38.

Sanders even tried a Hail Mary, flying his family to Rome to shake hands privately with the pope, who said it was only manners to greet him since he was in the path.

Polling reveals double-digit leads for Clinton in next week’s New York primary and similar leads in Pennsylvania and California.

Convention playoffs seem unlikely for what Saturday Night Live called Donald Trump’s cartoon opposite this weekend.