The Donald appears to be particularly favored by voters who live in counties that correlate with higher rates of death for middle aged whites, fewer numbers of college degree holders, and high losses of manufacturing jobs---this, according to an article in WaPo by Jeff Guo, "Death predicts whether people vote for Donald Trump."  Guo entwines his own research with the recent research by Case/Deaton indicating an increase in the death rate of middle aged whites. While all of this research, imo, is tentative, two things seem evident: 1) a huge segment of middle aged whites are in poor health and relatively poorer economic circumstances and 2) the Donald has a message which is resonating with this "group". I question whether either of the Democratic candidates has a grasp of endangered middle aged Whites, and whether this group  could help defeat Democrats this year. Even more importantly, I wonder what the solution is for people who I now see every day in rural Texas and those I grew up with in a small mill town in Ohio.

In last night's attempt by Murdoch and Ailes to clear the brush around Marco Rubio, the boy candidate who doesn't know which end of a screw driver is the handle flashed hard working Americans with the Full Welder, and believe me it wasn't pretty. I have spent the last week with a friend and neighbor putting up fence and welding farm gates, and I can tell you that Rubio's glib, uninformed, contrived comments about welders, philosophers and wages are worth about the price of two cow pies. The canned junk speech which Rubio has been spouting all week---comparing welders to college philosophy majors---is an insult to workers as well as to those who have worked hard to earn a college degree and are spending a big chunk of their income paying down student loans.

If you put a ripe banana to my head and threatened to smash it unless I picked one Republican candidate to vote for, I'd pick Kasich, governor of Ohio. Maybe it's  because I grew up in Ohio before it was populated with Palin fanatics and I still have memories of how life was when folks were reticent to demean others for their behavior, there were high paying jobs in the mills, the speed limit was 55 and the homecoming girls wore Saddle Oxfords. I don't like Kasich's religious bigotry nor the Republican agenda. But Kasich wouldn't allow Texas to secede nor invade Egypt. He is a sane hard nose conservative who wouldn't destroy the economy. As far as politics and policies go, he is the least unsavory Republican candidate, in my opinion.

David Brooks' mind stopped working when Ronald Reagan was elected President and since that time he has been sitting behind his desk viewing the outside world from the large end of the binoculars. What he sees is a world which, though quizzically blurred, must somehow be getting better because Daddy took charge, removed those dastardly 55 mph speed limits, and blew down the Berlin Wall with the simple force of his own baritone breath.