Ohio polls and Joe Biden’s town hall trainwreck

Cartoon credit: Times Free Press

Hannah Bleau at Breitbart reports:

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) is experiencing a double-digit lead in Ohio just days before the state’s March 17 primary, an Emerson College/Nexstar Poll released on Friday showed.

The survey, taken March 11-12, 2020, among 464 “very” likely Democrat primary voters, showed Biden taking a comfortable lead in the Buckeye State, with 57 percent support to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 35 percent support — a 22 point advantage.

Note the dates of the survey: March 11-12.  How will polling look after Biden’s virtual town hall performance yesterday is factored in. John Nolte at Breitbart reports:

Joe Biden Forgets Year,

Meanders Off Frame in Disastrous Livestream

Grandpa Joe Biden wants to run the country and save us from coronavirus when he can’t even run a livestream and has no idea what year it is.

On Friday, Grandpa Joe held what his campaign billed as a “virtual town hall” in Illinois. In my colleague Kyle Olson’s must-read reporting on the event, you will discover the whole thing was a fiasco, like something out of a sitcom. Guests appeared and then disappeared. The sound was garbled. People were introduced, followed by an awkward pause when they didn’t appear. Babies cried…

“Biden seemed to be reading from a teleprompter, but the broadcast suffered from severe tech issues, as Biden’s words were caught in a feedback loop, muddying the whole presentation and making the candidate nearly indecipherable,” Olson reported.

After starting two hours late, the fiasco lasted about 45 minutes. . . .

Mr. Nolte  cites a tweet by “Jordan:”

In a bizarre, meandering livestream put on by Joe Biden's campaign today, he forgets what year it is and when, if he doesn't lose, he would be in office.

At another point, he seemingly forgets he's on a live stream and walks out of frame. The feed cuts away to a logo instead.

Mr. Nolte’s full report is here, and it’s scary to think Mr. Biden is the front-runner for the Democrat party's presidential nominee.   The full video of the town hall is linked at Nolte’s report.

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Coronavirus and the CDC

Glenn Reynolds (Mr. Instapundit) had this blurb with link:

WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE THE CDC SUCKS. Sick People Across the U.S. Say They Are Being Denied the Coronavirus Test. It sucked with swine flu, it sucked with Ebola, and it’s sucking now.

The link is to a New York Times article, which is behind a paywall. So for a bit of background, you can go instead to Michelle Malkin’s fearless take on the history of the CDC.  A sampling:

I think I’m where most sane people are on the coronavirus outbreak:

—Concerned but not panicked.

—Calm but not apathetic.

—Taking reasonable precautions but remaining skeptical of what all the purportedly “best experts” here in the United States are telling us about every aspect of their belated crisis management and response (especially on their pimping of vaccine development to prevent the disease).

Here are some plain, non-hysterical facts: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is a bloated federal government agency with a long history of incompetence, fraud, secrecy, mission creep and shady alliances with both social justice causes on the left and private corporations on the big business right. The “deep state” of entrenched bureaucrats embedded in the Beltway bowels is alive and thriving at the CDC. The un-elected elites who’ve occupied top offices at the public health-industrial complex are hostile to public scrutiny while clamoring for ever-ballooning budgets. Their recommendations have often been detrimental to citizens’ well-being and freedom.

Lots more here.

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Coronavirus update from Cleveland Clinic

From a Facebook friend: 

Statement from Cleveland Clinic onTesting for COVID-19 – March 12 2020, Updated at 5:00 PM:

We want to clarify misinformation that has been trending on social media related to Cleveland Clinic testing for COVID-19. Cleveland Clinic has not developed a new test for COVID-19. We have purchased the necessary CDC components and validated the test in our own lab. This means we can now conduct on-site testing for the virus, allowing us to test patients and receive the results more rapidly – in most cases, within one day. We expect other hospitals and academic medical centers across the country will also have this capability.

More here.

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St. Patrick’s Day: no parade, just voting

photo credit: lagunabeat.com

Cleveland.com reports that the traditional Cleveland downtown St. Patrick’s Day parade is cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus.  But polling places will be open.  The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has posted all polling locations here;  there is another page, here, that lists locations recently changed or added.

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No rallies this evening

Yesterday, I blogged about Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA), who complained that President Donald Trump was putting “his most ardent supporters at risk” by not canceling his upcoming political rallies in light of the current coronavirus outbreak. No mention of Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders cancelling their campaign rallies.  But both of them just did. Breitbart reports:

Bernie Sanders Cancels Cleveland Rally Over Coronavirus Concerns

And over at cleveland.com:

A rally by Sanders’ rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, also scheduled for Tuesday night in Cleveland, was also called off.

Is the Coronavirus the reason?  If so, will future rallies also be cancelled?

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Hypocrisy on display: Coronavirus and rallies

photo credit: The Nation 

Pam Key at Breitbart reports:

Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) complained Sunday on MSNBC that President Donald Trump was putting “his most ardent supporters at risk” by not canceling his upcoming political rallies in light of the current coronavirus outbreak.

Speier said, “I don’t think the president is capable of telling us the truth about the coronavirus. And I regret saying that. I think we have to rely on the scientists who are attempting to tell the truth even when they have to contradict the president.”

She added, “The fact that he is not willing to cancel his various rallies suggests that he is willing to place even his most ardent supporters at risk because we’re supposed to stay six feet away from other persons in order to mitigate the exchange of those viruses. I think that he is showing, unfortunately, why he is so ill-prepared to guide our country during this time of the crisis.”

Uh huh.  But as we read at cleveland.com, both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are holding rallies in Cleveland on Tuesday, at the Huntington Convention Center and at Tri-C at East 30th.  See here and here.  No comment from Rep. Jackie Speier.

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Weekend meme

Found somewhere on social media by a Steelers fan (with apologies to all you die-hard Browns fans):

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