From the left: Midterms Too Close To Call
“Trump certainly deserves a shellacking — his presidency combines the unthinkable with the unnecessary with the unhinged,” growls Joe Klein at Sanity Clause, but he’s not making any predictions. “Senate races across the country,” including red states, “are all within or near the margin of error.” I’m “hoping that the Democrats will take one of the Houses,” but “I’m not willing to bet the farm on that.” One worry: Democrats this year “have accepted socialism in the same righteous, benighted way that they strutted trans activism in 2024.” Yet you can see Dem momentum in “the trend toward ship-jumping and modification by Republican candidates” distancing themselves “from Trump in close races.” Beware: “Crazy things have been known to happen in October.” Plus, “journalists really suck at predictions,” so: “Don’t trust us.”
From the right: GOP’s Missing Positive Message
“What should Republicans do about [Abdul] El-Sayed?” asks Washington Examiner’s Byron York. He’s a “radical” who “has some truly terrible ideas,” but “that doesn’t mean he’s wrong about everything.” When he “leads with the cost of living” and blames “recent increases on the war in Iran,” he’s “hitting Republicans in their weakest spot.” Republicans can respond with “negative advertising targeting his positions, record, and associates,” but they must also show that he “does not have a plausible plan to stop the increase in the cost of living” — and that the GOP does, something they have “not done that well enough.” Republicans “need to raise their game,” or they’ll “spend the next six years with Sen. El-Sayed.”
Educator: School Choice Requires Good Schools
Nikole Hannah-Jones casts “segregation and school choice as causing educational inequality,” but the real outrage “isn’t that some families can choose a good school, but that too many can’t,” argues Roland Fryer at The Wall Street Journal. “Too many must choose from a menu that presents the options dishonestly or offers no good ones” — “the fundamental problem is the scarcity of effective schools.” His experience shows that “effective schools are made.” A competitive education marketplace can allow “new schools to enter,” “successful ones to expand” and “ineffective schools close if they fail to improve.” “The goal is effective schools at scale and genuine choice among them.” Choice succeeds when we “make schools effective, tell parents the truth and trust them to choose.”
Ukraine war: Beware Vlad’s Baltic Gambit
“Vladimir Putin’s only conventional path to victory in Ukraine may lie through the Baltic States,” warn Mark Toth & Jonathan Sweet at The Hill. His ailing Donbas ailing offensive has backed him “into a corner”; he “needs another way to get to Kyiv,” such as “an asymmetrical war against the European Union and NATO member states” — say, striking “the Baltics” in hopes the alliance is paralyzed into not responding and then rethinks its support for Ukraine. “A large drone and ballistic missile attack, precipitated by a Russian false-flag event, would suffice.” To deter Putin, Europe should “go on the offensive”: Declare “an active defense” over Western Ukraine, and signal that “it has no intention of backing down in its support of Ukraine.”
Centrists: The Feds’ ‘Piggy Bank’ Mistake
Uncle Sam needs to stop serving as a “piggy bank” for the states, argues The Washington Post’s editorial board. “State politicians have largely viewed federal largesse as free money that they would be foolish to refuse,” though it’s “convoluted and wasteful” for the feds to tax state residents and then send some of that cash back to state programs. Then-Gov. Scott Walker balanced Wisconsin’s budget by cutting grants to local governments; Washington could try a similar move. “A sudden increase in responsibility would be a shock to state governments, but smart governors and legislators would view it as a generational opportunity to improve the lives of their residents.” Plus, “Most states are in relatively strong budgetary positions right now.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
This story originally appeared on NYPost
