Get ready for Thursday night
Here’s a stock tip for you.
If I were you (and I’m fairly certain I’m not), I’d take a long look at investing in ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG).
Why?
Because they’re the folks who make Jiffy Pop® popcorn, and there’s bound to be a boost in sales starting this week.
Why?
Because on Thursday night, the Republican Party will officially unveil the first of its 11 traveling roadshows, known as their presidential primary debates.
Sparks will fly. Bloodbaths may ensue. Entertainment will abound.
Get that Jiffy Pop ready!
Who needs another Star Wars sequel? The Republicans have their own Darth Vader in Donald Trump.
He’s blustered and bullied his way to the top of the list of 16 Republicans who’ve had to respond to his frequent tirades.
In a crowded field, in which only 10 of the 16 Republican presidential candidates will be a part of the main event at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland this Thursday, some of the current also-rans are saying, “Hey look at me. I’m over here.”
South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham shot a (somewhat) humorous video of himself destroying his cellphone after Trump gave out his number at a rally.
Kentucky’s Jr. Senator, Rand Paul, decided he’d pull out a chainsaw, and slice and dice the federal tax code on camera.
Graham’s poll numbers remain stagnant. Paul’s haven’t budged either.
Then there’s Texas Senator Ted Cruz. He tried to out-Trump Trump by standing on the Senate floor and verbally attacking his own Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell.
Calling the Republican who controls the Senate’s legislative agenda a “liar,” and a number of times, could boost Cruz’ standing among his Tea Party faithful, but it certainly riled many of his fellow Republicans, and it won’t help him seriously challenge Trump’s lead.
Especially since that bit of grandstanding was about something called the “Export-Import Bank,” which hardly anybody (outside of Ted Cruz) gets that whipped-up about anyway.
Cruz staged a beachhead assault on a procedural matter that might not get more than a handful of votes.
Then there’s Mike Huckabee.
The ex-governor of Arkansas is trying desperately to take a page out of the Trump playbook.
“This president’s foreign policy is the most feckless in American history,” he told the far-right internet web site Breitbart News about the Iran nuclear deal.
He should have stopped there.
He didn’t.
“It is so naïve that he (President Obama), would trust the Iranians. By doing so, he will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven,” he concluded.
Equating a negotiated settlement with the extermination of six million Jews, is something of a stretch, don’t you think?
The negative response to Huckabee’s comparison was swift, strong and nearly universal.
But he’s learned something or two from Donald Trump.
You start a political firestorm; make sure you do lots of cable news interviews; and then you double, triple and even quadruple down on your firestorm.
Except there’s one difference.
When Trump launches into careless rhetoric, his poll numbers skyrocket.
Huckabee’s poll numbers are still in single digits.
That could be a result of the fact when he ran his (woefully) failed 2008 presidential campaign, he was in near lockstep with Obama on securing an agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions.
He wrote a long essay in a foreign affairs journal, in which he said, “Before I look parents in the eye to explain why I put their son’s or daughter’s life at risk, I want to do everything possible to avoid conflict. We have substantive issues to discuss with Tehran.”
In other words, if he’d been elected president, he would have followed the same path as the man he now compares to Adolf Hitler.
Of course, Huckabee isn’t at the bottom of the Republican presidential heap.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is.
He’s not had much cable news face time.
So, when Huckabee made his Iran/Nazi Germany comparison, it was Santorum who leaped at the opportunity to claim Huckabee is “absolutely right.”
Santorum has been relegated to a “me too” candidacy.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net