Spent a few minutes watching the AM news programs, and as former President Trump is gaining momentum at the GOP National Convention, the calls for President Biden to withdraw from the race keep getting louder and louder:

NBC News analyst Chuck Todd joked Wednesday that, like in the ghost movie “The Sixth Sense,” every Democrat knows that Biden’s re-election campaign is dead except the president himself.

and..

An AP-NORC survey released Wednesday found 65% of Democrats want Biden to withdraw from the presidential race with only 37% of Democrats satisfied with him as the nominee.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also made headlines Wednesday after calling on Biden to leave the race, making him the 20th congressional Democrat to do so over the past month.

Read that story here.

And the calls keep getting louder..:

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told President Joe Biden in a recent conversation that polling shows that the president cannot defeat Donald Trump and that Biden could destroy Democrats’ chances of winning the House in November if he continues seeking a second term, according to four sources briefed on the call.

The president responded by pushing back, telling Pelosi he has seen polls that indicate he can win, one source said. Another one of the sources described Biden as getting defensive about the polls.

Read that here.

..and louder, as reflected in a more recent report from ABC News..

According to multiple well-connected Democratic sources, President Joe Biden’s support from elected party leaders is crumbling.

and..

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer went to see Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Saturday. Shortly after the meeting, Schumer’s office put out a statement, saying only, “I sat with President Biden this afternoon in Delaware; we had a good meeting.”

and..

A knowledgeable source close to both men tells me Schumer had a blunt conversation with Biden, making the case it would be best if Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

Read that story here.

When LBJ withdrew from the 1968 race, Vice President Hubert Humphrey won the nomination.. and George Wallace ran on a third party ticket against Republican Richard Nixon who was eventually elected.  However, LBJ’s announcement in 1968 over unrest caused by the Vietnam War came at the end of March. Fast forward 56 years later, and Biden may be set to withdraw because of his advanced age and withering mental acuity in July of the election year – much farther into the process than LBJ was.

It’s hard to see any scenario where this is good for Democrats.

Biden had gone off the air in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Trump. Now, we have President Biden further withdrawing from public view for several days because of COVID. And all of this is occurring with calls from his top Congressional leaders telling him he should leave the race, and it’s killing the down ticket contests.

We may be witness to history once again, just as our parents and grandparents were in 1968 with the complete upheaval of the Democrat presidential ticket at the time.

You just have to wonder if some people just shouldn’t be allowed to go to the national convention..

Attorney General Jackley Urges Congress To Support Safeguard American Voting Eligibility (“SAVE”) Act 

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota Attorney General Marty has joined 21 other Attorneys General in urging Congress to support the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (“SAVE”) Act.

The proposal would prohibit illegal immigrants from voting in elections. Under the Act, individuals would have to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

U.S. House of Representatives members approved the measure last week. It now goes to the U.S. Senate.

“This is a common-sense approach to protecting our elections,” said Attorney General Jackley. “The “SAVE” Act will increase Americans’ confidence in the security of our elections.”

Other Attorneys Generals who have signed the letter to Congressional leaders are from: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The letter can be found here.

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An interesting story coming out of the Republican National Convention is that the national party’s platform seems to be softening some language on divisive social issues that they would have taken a stronger stance on in the past, such as on abortion, and same-sex marriage:

Delegates at the Republican National Convention approved a new party platform Monday that embraces presumptive nominee Donald Trump’s political positions, including a leave-it-to-states approach to abortion law that abandons the party’s long-standing explicit support for national restrictions on the procedure.

and..

Trump advisers said they wanted to cut down the platform in part to limit opponents’ ability to use the language against them.

The new platform also abandons the old document’s opposition to same-sex marriage, saying only that “Republicans will promote a Culture that values the Sanctity of Marriage.”

and..

The platform states: “We proudly stand for families and Life. We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights.”

Read that all here.

Thoughts?

In case you were looking for it, as I had only posted an excerpt earlier..

Looks like South Dakota’s Luke Lindberg is part of an impressive panel today in Milwaukee for the International Republican Institute during the Republican National Convention with Senators Joni Ernst, Norm Coleman, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, former SBA Administrator Linda McMahon, and other familiar names.

Nice to see South Dakota is at the table and it sounds like our state’s delegation has the opportunity to attend and listen in.

Find out more about the International Republican Institute here.

Leadership has consequences. It matters who’s in the White House. I’ve been a governor under both @realDonaldTrump and Biden. People ask me the biggest difference, I tell them President Trump honored the Constitution.

He LET ME DO MY JOB. pic.twitter.com/tqAoL4RKIq

— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) July 16, 2024

Rounds, Manchin Legislation to Provide Back Pay to Military Officers Impacted by Holds Passes With Committee Version of FY25 NDAA

WASHINGTON – The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) recently passed legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) to provide back pay for military officers whose promotions were delayed in the Senate. The Military Personnel Confirmation and Restoration Act was included as part of the committee version of the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that was reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The NDAA was officially filed on Monday, July 8. This provision would also make an adjustment to the affected service members’ time in grade and other administrative fixes.

“I am pleased that the Military Personnel Confirmation and Restoration Act is included in our Armed Services committee version of the FY25 Senate NDAA,” said Rounds. “These nominations for our military members were initially held up due to policy differences. Though their promotions and nominations are no longer stalled, many military officers spent much of 2023 waiting on positions they had earned through exemplary service to our country, often in combat zones, over the last two decades. This legislation would make certain they and their families receive the benefits they missed out on for several months.”

“I’m proud our bipartisan Military Personnel Confirmation and Restoration Act has been included in the FY25 Senate NDAA,” said Manchin. “This important legislation will provide well-earned retroactive promotion dates and back pay for our nation’s senior military officers after many promotions were blocked for months. These men and women are true American heroes and we have a responsibility in Congress to make them whole. I will continue doing everything in my power to ensure the passage of our bill to compensate our troops and strengthen America’s national security.”

Rounds and Manchin initially introduced the Military Personnel Confirmation and Restoration Act as a standalone bill in December 2023. This legislation passed the Senate unanimously later that same month but still remains stalled in the House.

The FY25 NDAA was reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 13, 2024. This is the tenth NDAA that Rounds has helped author as a member of the committee. At the start of the 118th Congress, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia’s Center for Effective Lawmaking named Rounds as the second most effective Republican on Defense issues. The FY25 NDAA now heads to the full Senate for consideration.

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Did I blink, because while I wan’t looking Governor Kristi Noem just put away big bucks into her federal PAC in the second quarter of this year:

2024 2q KristiPAC by Pat Powers on Scribd

While none of us were looking, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem just underlined why she’s a force to be reckoned with in politics, raising nearly 3/4 of a million when she doesn’t have a race. Well, yes, we all know she was one of the top possibilities to be VP during this period. Even though that didn’t happen yesterday, having nearly a million in this account, 2.1 million in her state account, and other minor amounts in joint fundraising committees, Governor Noem has a lot of cash at her disposal.

Why is this worth noticing? Because of term limits and speculated retirements, (not to mention what jungle primaries could possibly do) 2026 will see a major reset of South Dakota Politics across the board.  We haven’t had major battles between popular politicians since Jackley v. Noem.. but 2026 could give us even fiercer races more akin to Janklow v. Abdnor.

A million here and a couple million there provides a massive war chest to launch a major campaign of this type.  And there is speculation that the US Senate Seat currently held by Senator Rounds might hold an interest for Governor Noem once her term of office is up in 2026.

So when the Governor is able to tuck away an extra million since the first of the year – it’s worth noticing.

Kristi Golden was nice enough to send over an infographic she had put together on why home rule is an attractive option for our state’s most populated county, and what home rule would do for Minnehaha County:

You can download and distribute a pdf of this infographic here.