Author: PolitCens

A history professor who has correctly predicted the outcome of every U.S. presidential election since 1984 says Democrat Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.Appearing in a FILE – Allan Lichtman of American University in Washington, D.C., is pictured at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, May 24, 2011.Six for TrumpTrump has the advantage in six keys. They include the president’s incumbency, no serious Republican primary challengers, no major foreign military failures, and what Lichtman says is Biden’s lack of charisma.Although Lichtman is predicting a close election, a CNN roundup of the latest polls showed Biden winning by a landslide. A Fox News poll found the election a bit closer, but with Biden winning.But no matter whether a voter is a Republican or a Democrat, Lichtman said, citizen participation is essential.”It’s up to you, the voter, to decide the future of our democracy,” he said. “So, get out and vote. Vote in person. Vote by mail.”Lichtman has correctly called every presidential election since Republican Ronald Reagan defeated Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984.He forecast Al Gore, a Democrat, beating Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and stands by his prediction. Gore barely won the popular vote, but the Supreme Court ruled in Bush’s favor after a long dispute over inconclusive ballots cast in Florida.
 
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Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading in the polls over incumbent President Donald Trump but must rally and unite his party’s progressive wing while appealing to the broader electorate if he hopes to win November’s presidential election.  The continuing coronavirus pandemic makes traditional campaigning difficult, and Biden campaign officials now say he will not travel to his party’s convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to accept the presidential nomination.  VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports on the strengths and vulnerabilities of the man Democrats hope will win the White House.
Produced by: Mike O’Sullivan
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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has decided to not travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to accept the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s national convention this month out of fear of the “worsening” coronavirus pandemic, convention organizers said Wednesday.The party said none of the planned convention speakers would go to the Midwestern city, in order to “prevent risking the health of our host community as well as the convention’s production teams, security officials, community partners, media and others.” Normally about 50,000 convention delegates, workers and media would have gone to the four-day event starting August 17.Much of the convention will now be conducted virtually, likely from several cities. That means there will be none of the hoopla that typically accompanies the quadrennial event, which culminates with the presidential nomination acceptance speech and thousands of red, white and blue balloons cascading from the convention hall rafters.Convention organizers said Biden would now make his August 20 nomination acceptance speech in his home state of Delaware.With the recent surge in coronavirus cases in the U.S., both Democratic and Republican party officials have sharply curtailed their conventions, normally a keystone of U.S. presidential campaigns. The national election will be on November 3.Republicans in North CarolinaThe Republicans are holding their scaled-down convention to nominate President Donald Trump in Charlotte, North Carolina, starting August 24.Some events, including Trump’s acceptance speech, had been moved to Jacksonville, Florida, when North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, refused to guarantee, because of coronavirus fears, that Republicans would be allowed to pack a basketball arena there for their convention.But as the number of confirmed virus cases spiked in Florida, Trump also dropped Jacksonville as the site of his speech.Trump has not definitively said where he will deliver his presidential renomination acceptance speech, although he told the “Fox & Friends” show Wednesday, “I’ll probably do mine live from the White House.”In curbing the Democrats’ plans for Milwaukee, party chair Tom Perez said, “From the very beginning of this pandemic, we put the health and safety of the American people first. We followed the science, listened to doctors and public health experts, and we continued making adjustments to our plans in order to protect lives.”
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At a time when other branches of the U.S. government remain relatively unpopular, public approval of the Supreme Court has risen to its highest level in more than a decade, according to a new Gallup survey.The Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks during a panel discussion celebrating Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be a Supreme Court Justice, Sept. 25, 2019, at the Library of Congress in Washington.The nine-member court’s approval rating had hovered around 50% in recent years after rising as high as 61% in 2009, fueled in part by the historic appointment of the first Hispanic justice, Sonia Sotomayor.The Supreme Court’s high approval rating contrasts sharply with that of the rest of the U.S. government. Just 25% of Americans approve of the way Congress is handling its job, according to an earlier Gallup survey, while 38% say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the presidency.The Supreme Court is split between five conservative justices appointed by Republican presidents and four liberals appointed by Democratic presidents, a right-leaning ideological divide that has persisted since the 1970s.While its 5-4 rulings on politically charged issues receive the most attention, a large number of its decisions are reached unanimously.The latest survey, conducted between July 1 and 23, comes on the heels of one of the most consequential Supreme Court terms in recent years during which the justices issued a series of landmark rulings.They dismissed the Trump administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program, struck down a Louisiana anti-abortion law, and expanded anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ workers.At the same time, the court ruled that states cannot exclude religious schools from funding for private education, opined that Catholic school teachers cannot sue their employers for discrimination and upheld exemptions from Obamacare’s birth control mandate.On July 9, the court’s final day of the term, the justices issued a pair of mixed rulings regarding subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s financial records. While ruling that Trump is not immune from a New York grand jury subpoena, the justices put a stop to congressional efforts to obtain the president and his family’s business records.Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, said that in evaluating the high court, Americans often “conjure up one or two recent cases, and based on that, determine their support or opposition.”He added that Americans often ignore “countless consequential actions that may bypass the headlines.” 
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Voters in the U.S. state of Kansas have picked Congressman Roger Marshall from a field of 11 Republican candidates, including former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, to be the nominee for U.S. Senate in the November election. Marshall will now go up against Barbara Bollier in the contest to fill the seat of retiring Republican Senator Pat Roberts. Roberts endorsed Marshall in the race, as did many Republican leaders who expressed concern that voters might not support Kobach and his more polarizing record.  In a House of Representatives primary in Kansas, first-term Congressman Steve Watkins will lose his seat after being defeated by state treasurer Jake LaTurner. FILE – Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 30, 2019. ,In Arizona, a November Senate matchup is now set between incumbent Republican Martha McSally and former astronaut and Democrat Mark Kelly. Longtime Congressman Lacy Clay will lose his seat in the House of Representatives representing a Missouri district after voters in a Democratic primary chose progressive activist Cori Bush. Election officials in Michigan are expected to declare a winner Wednesday in the House Democratic primary between incumbent Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones. In another Michigan district, Iraq War veteran Peter Meijer won the Republican primary in the race to replace retiring Congressman Justin Amash.  
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