A political tsunami is coming – one unlike this state has seen in many years – even decades.
For the first time in recent memory, the California presidential primary is very much in play, and not just for one political party, but for both. And the onslaught of claims, deceptions and outright lies that we here in the Golden State – or “the land of fruits and nuts,” as Archie Bunker said – will be subjected to will be unprecedented and eventually nauseating.
Just look at the actors here – Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders. Good lord – this is the best we can do?
Trump is a carnival barker and can exaggerate to excess as well as anyone ever has – I am trying to be nice. Clinton has more baggage than the cargo holds at O’Hare and SFO combined and Sanders is about to join the Gene McCarthy club. Cruz is the worst of the bunch.
There is all this talk about making America great again. We are doing one heck of a lot better than under Bush. The stock market is up, unemployment is down, we are no longer on the edge of an economic abyss and Osama bin Laden is dead. The advance of ISIS has been blamed on Barrack Obama, but it seems to me like his predecessor is the one who single-handedly destabilized the Middle East and left the world to deal with the fallout.
Unlike those who supported the last president, I am not ashamed to disagree with our current Commander-in Chief in public. One of the things that I have as divergent a viewpoint as possible with Obama is the use of torture on terrorists. I say take it up a notch – bamboo under the fingernails, hang them by their hands behind their backs until the shoulders pop out of joints – make water boarding look like a relief. And for crying out loud, label these terrorists for what they are – Muslim extremists. They in no way represent the views of the vast majority of Muslims, but gosh darn it — they are taking a religion and vastly distorting it to suit their sickening agenda.
If I was sitting in the Oval Office, I would put the world on notice – if you even think of attacking us or our allies with a nuclear weapon, you will be wiped off the face of the earth within minutes. We are not going to start anything – but we will not hesitate to finish it.
And whoever is sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2017, I hope the opposition party’s publicly stated goal is not to make that person a one-term president as was stated ad nauseam from the moment Obama was elected. What good did that agenda do this country?
 Even today, the lies about Obama are parroted as if they are truth. Some friends of mine tried to jack me up with four “truths” about Obama while I was covering a baseball game last week, and I did not take the bait. Well, the “truths” were emailed to me and I took the bait and spit it right out. Three of the allegations had to do with Obama’s birth certificate, and all three were wrong. The fourth had to do with Obama referring to his father serving in WW II, which his father did not. However, Obama was clearly referring to his grandfather, who was the primary father figure in his life. Eight years later and that is the best they can do?
 Our political process has not evolved in this country – it has devolved. Why give the other side props when it is easier to lie and discredit them?
 How far have we devolved? Well, I never thought I would say this – and I am sure both of my parents will do summersaults in their graves – but I guess Richard Nixon was not so bad. He did not lie about the opposition – his downfall was lying about his side trying to get dirt on the other side. In those days, people just said what they did not like about each other. There was no need to lie about it.
 To be able to even talk about holding Nixon up as a high-water mark of political ethics when compared to today is almost unfathomable. I will borrow a quote from the past and address it those who find it necessary to lie and drag this country down rather than debate the other side or God forbid, admit that it is right, “At long last, have you no sense of decency?”