I have a friend named Michael.
We agree on almost everything. We both like the Yankees. We like the same foods. We are both losing some of our hearing, but this is a little worse.
We have charming spouses. But we parted ways during the last election when he voted for Donald Trump and I supported Hillary Clinton.
During all those months prior to Election Day we disagreed graciously about the merits of the two candidates.
Michael’s rationale for voting for Trump was “I don’t like Hillary.”
My reasoning was that I knew the real Trump and couldn’t support him if he was the last person on the planet. So, we agreed to disagree.
These days our election talk is about all the events of the campaign and where the country is today under Donald Trump.
There is no doubt that Hillary ran a traditional Democratic type campaign playing to the inner cities and ignoring the blue-collar states that traditionally support the Democrats. Trump ran the non-traditional campaign with lots of airport rallies and whether he knew it or not lots of help from Vladimir Putin.
Hillary Clinton spent most of the campaign defending herself over hacked e-mails and failed to connect with the average voter.
Her campaign represented the first chance for a woman to break the so-called glass ceiling but there is no doubt that there were many male and female voters who didn’t care about making political history.
Trump appealed to the forgotten men and women who feel that government has ignored them. His message resonated, and her message fell flat.
Now almost a year and a half since President Trump took the oath of office, Michael is still adamant that he didn’t like Hillary Clinton but somehow his affection for the President has almost disappeared.
He mentions the tax cuts and then there is no gas left in his political tank. At this point, I remind him about what we face now from an unprepared leader surrounded by a diminishing number of sycophants.
Hillary was pummeled with stolen emails.
Trump treats us to a daily diet of tweets and ugly attacks on anyone who doesn’t worship him or is grateful for his leadership.
There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton would have surrounded herself with a high-quality cabinet. Trump is now relying on a group of unqualified zealots like Betsy De Vos, Ryan Zinke, Ben Carson and John Bolton.
Five of his nominees for the Cabinet have been forced to step down.
Throughout the campaign, Mr. Trump energized his audiences with cries of “lock her up.” Fast forward and you have presidential allies like Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and a handful of others facing jail terms.
To date over 40 people have left the Trump administration for a whole variety of reasons, none of them good.
The daily turmoil emanating from the White House is distracting and annoying. Even the president’s strongest supporters express their unhappiness about his lack of presidential bearing and wish he would just take care of business.
It was a known fact that Hillary Clinton had traveled the world and was known and respected by the world’s leaders.
To date, President Trump has insulted countless leaders and has embraced despots in the Philippines, Russia and many other countries.
Travel abroad as an American tourist and you will learn firsthand about how little respect the outside world has for Mr. Trump.
No one knows what kind of president Hillary Clinton would have been.
But there are a growing number of people who were supporters of President Trump who are slowly recanting their choice.
Looking back at the results to date it is becoming clear who the lesser of two evils really was and she isn’t the president.
The 2020 election is not that far away. That’s when I expect Michael to throw in the towel.
