Trump v. Biden California.

Let’s stipulate that Donald Trump’s personality is an acquired taste. His is not the personality of a career politician. He does not speak in carefully calibrated and focus-tested words and sentences. He’s frequently bombastic and braggadocios. He’s given to overstatement and he’s often grossly intemperate in his reaction to criticism.

Let’s also stipulate the Joe Biden seems like the nicest guy in the world. He’s an avuncular guy with a kindly air about him. He seems like the kind of next-door neighbor you’d want if you lived where neighbors go to each other’s houses to cook out and drink beer in the backyard.

If I were picking my president purely on personality, I’d pick Joe Biden hands down. But for as much as geniality and likability count as currency in politics, in the end the only thing that really matters is policy. And we have not in recent memory faced a more stark, more clearly defined policy choice.

So, amid the heated partisan rhetoric and in light of grossly dishonest reporting by most of the media, how do we size up that choice?

To imagine the policy impacts of a Trump second term it seems reasonable to examine the first. Remove the aberration of COVID-19 and filter out the hyper-partisan noise that has bedeviled this presidency from the start, and you have one of the most successful first-term administrations in recent history.

The passing of a major tax cut and the shredding of thousands of pages of stultifying regulations served to ignite the economy. As a result, wages rose as unemployment fell. The fastest wage gains and the most significant improvements in unemployment were seen among minorities and those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder.

Illegal immigration dropped by 90 percent. Food stamp and welfare dependency dropped sharply. The threat of ISIS almost totally abated. The same for North Korea. China is at last being put in its place. Dependency on imported oil is a thing of the past while peace is breaking out in the Middle East.

To imagine the policy impacts of a Biden presidency, it seems reasonable to look at Democrat-controlled California.

California, the most naturally wealthy state in the union, is an economic and sociological basket case. Millions of acres of the state are ablaze due to decades of environmental mismanagement. Idiotic energy regulations result every summer in rolling power blackouts. The state has by far the largest homeless population in the country. Twenty percent of the state’s population lives below the poverty line.

The titans of entertainment and high tech have gotten richer, the poor have grown in number and California’s once-vibrant middle class has been hollowed out. The best and brightest of the state’s residents in a position to do so are packing up to leave.

So, the choice boils down to the prospect of Trumpian policy success at the price of an often-unlikable personality. Or Biden’s affable personality alongside the prospect of nationalizing California’s dystopia.

Personality or policy. The choice is ours.

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Paul Gleiser

Paul L. Gleiser is president of ATW Media, LLC, licensee of radio stations KTBB 97.5 FM/AM600, 92.1 The TEAM FM in Tyler-Longview, Texas.

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24 Responses

  1. Buddy Saunders says:

    Paul, you are right regarding President Trump’s accomplishments. They are real and have made this nation safer and more prosperous. If it takes a personality such as Trump’s to overcome the Washington swamp, then so be it. I like Trump, like him a lot. I respect the guy.

    On the other hand, I neither like nor respect Biden. He and his son–his whole family– have long been on the take, he has accomplished nothing, and as recent video footage shows, he has an unhealthy attraction to women and, especially, little girls, enough to describe him as a predatory creep. Among my acquaintances is a gentleman similar to Biden, a man too much like Biden in behavior around women. I would trust neither that acquaintance nor Biden to be alone with any woman and especially a child.

    I am not a fan of dirty old men, doddering or otherwise.

  2. Paul, Just This Guy, You Know? says:

    Hi Paul!
    I started following your blog because I’ve liked what I’ve heard when you’ve filled in for Mark Davis on 660 AM in Dallas.
    I really like this post, but…
    How can I verify your statement that illegal immigration is down 90% during the Trump presidency? I’d really like that to be true.

    I certainly agree with your larger point.

  3. Ron Eagleman says:

    I realize that the main thrust of this well-stated opinion piece is the distinction between the abrasive Queens, N.Y. personality with private enterprise experience VS the Biden affable personality with a total lack of ANY private enterprise experience. However, Joe Biden is not the person I would want to share a backyard barbecue and beer. This “aw shucks” and folksy gaffes personality is exactly what his handlers want to project, but if you check his history of some 47 years in public service, he is not that person. He is one of the most self-serving, vindictive, partisan, and corrupt individuals ever to gorge at the government trough. No, we absolutely do not need the California model throughout our country, but those destructive Socialist policies are exactly what a Harris/Biden ticket will give us!

  4. Richard Anderson says:

    I liked Donald Trump’s manner when he first announced back in 2015. He exudes confidence, he is sure, and put forth the idea that indeed America could be great again –meaning– as in a renaissance of America economically. Namely in manufacturing and industry. Also, our military prowess.

    He’s done it. And he’s doing it again even though the Chicom coronavirus (COVID19) has impeded us.

    President Trump’s response to the coronavirus has been second to none. His early decision with the travel ban on January 31, 2020, the sending of U.S. Navy hospital ships to NY and to CA, and directing the US Army Corp of Engineers to build a special hospital at the Javits Center. These plus mobilizing our broader medical community saved tens of thousands of lives.

    Joe Biden ??? A 47 year career politician with no accomplishments of note. And two big caveats… 1. His policies are aligned with his far left democrat fellows like AOC who is a socialist marxist, and the anarchists fascists BLM & Antifa who are all about terrorizing innocent citizens, looting and burning property. and 2. The man has a serious mental issue which is obvious for all to see. He is not only not up to the task, he is being handled or minded by others controlling him putting forth their ideas. Very bad and very dangerous.

    The choice is crystal clear if you love America, your children, your family.
    TRUMP 2020

    God Bless The U.S.A..

    • RE “President Trump’s response to the coronavirus has been second to none.”

      Not “second,” for sure, as data demonstrate.

      • Richard Anderson says:

        Yes second to none.

        You say no as the data demonstrate. BUT I contend that valuable data has not been taken into account.
        Two major points..
        1.President Trump’s early action on the travel ban when no other person was calling for it saved ten of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives.
        2.President Trump’s call for the use of Hydroxychloroquine + Azithromycin + Zinc Sulfate after a number of the nation’s top doctors and renowned Dr. Didier Raoult of France had remarkable success with a proven 65 year old medicine. BUT the deep state pushed back because the President simply echoed its positive results. That malicious attack on him by MSM hacks caused a loss of life perhaps nearing the six figure range over their jealousy and envy and hate of our President.

        I stand by my belief in President Trump’s exemplary actions taken to fight COVID.

        • Dutifully recited!

          Fact-check from the Cohen book: It wasn’t actually Kool-Aid they drank at Jonestown. “It was Flavoraid, a cheap knock-off.”

          • Richard Anderson says:

            The utter balderdash being hurled at President Trump via hearsay in specious articles and books knows no bounds,

            Some people, a vast minority, readily choose to believe them.
            I for one do not.

  5. HIGHLY recommended reading: Michael Cohen’s book.

    I was given a copy…NEVER would’ve bought it, and was predisposed to regard him as a disbarred “Disloyal” rat-fink.

    Surprise.
    COMPELLING read.
    His remorse seems genuine.
    And his detail is spellbinding.

    He himself is more of a story than I expected. Think Henry Hill in “Goodfellas.”

    As with all-else that’s emerged, no minds will change. But change the names, and it’s John Grisham quality stuff.

    • Paul Gleiser says:

      Here’s the thing. I don’t care if Michael Cohen credibly tells me that Donald Trump regularly picks his nose and eats the product. Given the way the federal government long ago slipped its constitutional moorings and now holds sway over our daily lives in ways that would give the Founding Fathers the vapors, the policy positions of the president matter greatly. As I say in the piece, filter out the noise and the visceral reaction that Trump evokes in his detractors and evaluate his first term purely on its policy results.

      By every objective measure (and, again, the aberration of COVID aside), the Trump administration first term has been a policy triumph.

      • Read it.
        You’ll LOVE it.

        And I’m the LAST person I ever thought would ever say THAT.

        If you can’t conscience the purchase I’ll send you my copy.

        • Ron Eagleman says:

          Yeah, yeah, you love the book, it is a masterpiece! It is understandable that a progressive would purchase a copy, even if it is not as critical as hoped. If I am not mistaken, Paul is soliciting opinions regarding the Trump administration’s accomplishments, as opposed to the California nightmare. Honest opinion?

  6. Ron Eagleman says:

    Not surprising that a Liberal would accept a gift, but “would have never bought it”. Ever wonder what the “death toll tote board tumblers” would have tallied if Trump had been influenced by Biden and other prominent Dems that banning travel from China was xenophobic and hysterical? A tough concept to understand, but under the terms of the USMCA, Mexico is indeed paying for the wall! By the way, does “Biden’s America” include……. “last one out, turn off the lights”?

  7. Clips? Eager to see, especially after you went to-the-other-side-of the planet for corroboration…

    • Ron Eagleman says:

      Watch the link that you posted, and as soon as it is finished, watch the “next up” for a series of videos regarding the “condition” of your candidate. Enjoy! Sorry, but I did not need to go “to-the-other-side-of the planet”, I simply had to wait until your link was complete. It is a shame that our legacy media do not report such important info. Do you not want to comment on Biden accusing Trump of xenophobia and hysteria for months after he correctly banned travel into the U.S. from China? Didn’t think so; geographical concerns about corroboration much more important. To repeat…..typical reply.

      • At least you watched!

        RE: Do you not want to comment on Biden accusing Trump of xenophobia and hysteria for months after he correctly banned travel into the U.S. from China?

        “Let’s see what happens.”

        • Ron Eagleman says:

          “Let’s see what happens”? Does that mean: see if you comment? Typical and predictable non-answer to a straightforward question. Maybe you could also comment on the intelligent decision by the most honorable Gov. Cuomo to require nursing homes to accept Covid 19 positive people.

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