Here’s the morning line out of Vegas:

Hillary held the same odds as always; interestingly, one bookie has taken bets for Hillary NOT to win the 2016 election at even odds. The biggest positive shift was in favor of Marco who jumped from 10/1 to 3/1, moving from fourth place to second. The biggest negative shift was Donald who dropped from 5/6 to 7/1 moving to third place. Ted continues to be unpopular with the betting crowd, staying in fifth place despite his win in Iowa; odds dropped from 12/1 to 16/1. Bernie held his odds but dropped one spot to fourth.

As to candidates with longer odds, most betting houses have stopped posting a morning line; the listed odds were taken from just two bookies.

Ancient Mariner

The primary season will begin in the mariner’s state in February. He sat with Amos to hear his opinions about the candidates. The reader must remember that Amos is the personification of the prophet Amos in the Old Testament – not so much interested in self aggrandizement but more concerned that many do not take time to understand their role and responsibility in God’s world. Amos would say all of us depend too much on comforting habits and yield to distractions too easily.

Greetings, Amos. The mariner wants to know your one-sentence opinions about the candidates running for President. First, let’s look at the republican field:

Ben Carson. If he doesn’t talk faster, he’ll have a lot of pocket vetoes.

Donald Trump. Reminds me of Jackson who rode his horse into the white house and eliminated the Federal Reserve.

Ted Cruz. He’s from Canada. That must count for something.

Chris Christie. He has more experience than Donald Trump.

Marco Rubio. He’s Cuban. That must count for something.

Jeb Bush. He’s a Bush. That must count for something. On the other hand, he’s a Bush.

Carly Fiorina. She watches too many movies.

Jim Gilmore. He’s from Virginia. He probably knows Carly.

Lindsey Graham. A romantic conservative. That’s rare.

Mike Huckabee. He’s on a book tour. It’s a shrewd move to run for president at the same time.

Bobby Jindal. He’s no Earl Long. Say, have you met Blaze Starr? I have.

John Kasich. He’s a perfect Governor for Ohio’s political schizophrenia – learned how to say two different things at the same time.

Rand Paul. I remember when his daddy Ron posited that the US could wipe out its debt by offering tax incentives to corporations for increased business then receive more than the rebate back in taxes over ten years. States still play that game and lose every time.

George Pataki. Don’t know him.

Amos, you’ve shed new light on the campaign. Thank you. Let’s turn to the democratic candidates:

Hillary Clinton. She (and her husband) should have written Donald’s book, “The Art of the Deal.” It’s interesting that the electorate doesn’t trust the Clintons; they can achieve progress where others can’t – for a price, of course.

Bernie Sanders. He’s a fabulous preacher. Not sure about being President.

Martin O’Malley. He’s from Maryland. That is good for something!

Ancient Mariner

When the mariner was sixteen, he finished his high school education at night. He took an economics class that provided him several insights into the motives of society and individuals. He was fortunate to have an instructor that was willing to talk cultural ramifications as well as economic ones. One of the insights he gained from that economics class is that there is an unbreakable rule that cheap value will displace quality value in every case.
A simple example is the toy fire engine. In the mariner’s childhood, the fire engine was made of steel with realistic features, rubber tires, and paint that included firehouse logo, four small painted firemen and other finely traced detail. His children did not have a steel fire engine; they had a plastic, mold-stamped one with little attention to the aura of a real fire engine. There were no finely painted firemen. Plastic drove out steel. It was less expensive – at the cost of quality, detail, permanence, and material.
Reducing cost through new inventions, materials and processes is, largely, a good thing. Even in its best light, however, quality is minimized. One may say that new technology can produce better results. For example, an mp3 song is better than a 78 record – both in quality of sound and in production. The price paid for this efficient production is not in the quality of the sound but in the value of the recording as a significant, endearing purchase. At 99¢ per song, it is easily discarded or lost in thousands of other songs collected because collecting is easy and inexpensive. Even a 45 rpm collection is more durable and more revered – if one still has a 45 turntable.
Turning to more important examples, the mariner wonders if the tea party is a cheaper version of the republican party. Intellectually, it is easy to replace complex, multifaceted issues with visceral, overly simplified but “feel good” reactions. The republican party has an ideological premise based on conservative, capitalistic ideals. Under Representative Boehner, the tea party has captured the republican party and drawn it away from legitimate dialogue with democrats into a paranoid and extremist advocacy which will not stand up against an organized, middle-of-the-road campaign by the democrats. True, gerrymandering and republican governors will offer resistance but the attendance at Bernie Sanders’s events plus the low key campaign of Clinton suggest that the tea party brings a poison pill to the republicans for the 2016 election.
The phenomenon of sixteen candidates in the republican presidential campaign also suggests that the republican party has lost its rudder, its sails and its compass. That a destructive candidate like Trump can turn the useless media into a circus rather than covering serious issues is more evidence that the republican principles have been replaced by a cheap sideshow. Turning a valued election process over to the Fox network is the final nail. Cheap has driven out quality.
Ancient Mariner