Looking ahead to GOP 2024
Looking ahead to 2024 presidential politics, the big question is whether former president Donald Trump will run a third time, presumably against President Biden, who denied Trump’s bid for a second term in 2020.
Conservative writer Hugh Hewitt has a good column on The Washington Post website, where he predicts that Republican jockeying for the presidency will begin this year — even though the election is nearly three years away.
Hewitt labeled Trump the clear GOP front-runner, although with a large caveat: “He may well choose to preside over the GOP rather than run it. Trump was 70 when he won in 2016; he will be 78 in 2024, and he has watched President Biden age in the White House. Does Trump want to bet that Father Time will skip over him?”
If Trump does not run, Hewitt sees the top tier of candidates as three U.S. senators — Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Tim Scott of South Carolina — plus Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump’s former secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
Hewitt’s second tier includes Florida’s two senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott; former vice president Mike Pence, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien. He noted that former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie “seems determined to run even if it means a lone, one-on-one battle with Trump.”
Aside from the 45th president, it’s hard to pick a front-runner from that group. But it’s easy to predict that if Trump does not run, the Republican campaign will be a spirited one.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
Jackson sets new homicide record
Maybe the covid-19 pandemic is partly to blame for Jackson’s record-high homicide number in 2021. But it can’t be the only reason.
The Clarion Ledger said Jackson reported at least 152 homicides last year, easily beating the prior record of 130, which was set in 2020.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba believes the pandemic “has increased the level of desperation that leads to violent crime across the nation.”
The uncertainty of the pandemic didn’t help. Fear and anger may have played a role in the rising number of fatalities in Mississippi’s capital city. But another factor should be considered and investigated, too: Why do more people seem willing to fire a gun at someone?
The Associated Press quoted Jackson law enforcement officers and politicians as saying that guns are more frequently being used to settle family and neighborhood disagreements. Working to cool off these disputes before someone starts shooting might be a way to prevent Jackson’s embarrassing homicide count from setting another record this year.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
