While my favorite reform issue, Final 5, seems poised to take center stage with RFK Jr., purportedly about to announce an endorsement of Trump, my piece in Newsweek this morning focuses on a different key issue: the environment. Click here or on the image to read the full article.
Breaking News: Final 5 and RFK
Regarding RFK Jr.'s potential to drop out of the race and endorse Donald Trump, this could indeed shift the dynamics, but not as dramatically as past candidate withdrawals (or the hypothetical use of Final 5) would have in 2020. To assess the impact of Final 5, you should compare the margin between Trump and Harris in a 5-way poll with their standings in a 2-way poll. Surprisingly, the candidate who gains in the 2-way scenario would benefit from Final 5, as it effectively narrows the field from five to two.
So far, removing third-party candidates from the race has had minimal impact on either major candidate, with the notable exception of Pennsylvania, where RFK's exit benefits Trump by several points. In other states, Harris actually shows a slight improvement. However, a strong endorsement from RFK could shift some of his supporters to Trump, although the effect is closely balanced, especially if liberal candidates remain on the ballot (e.g., in Michigan, Democrats have successfully removed spoiler candidates).
Old News from This Morning: Newsweek and the Environment
In my Newsweek article on the Olympics and the environment, we aim to provide a balanced perspective. While some practices at the Olympics seemed hypocritical, we also highlight Republican reformers who are making genuine efforts to address environmental issues in a non-partisan manner. It's encouraging to see Young Republicans and other Republican groups supporting environmentally friendly approaches that are not overtly partisan. Here are a few excerpts from the piece. We hope you can read the entire article here:
"Unfortunately, there were many examples of environmental hypocrisy at the Olympics. One huge problem involved attendees watching as their beverages were poured from plastic bottles into "reusable" plastic cups—a gesture of environmental virtue signaling that many found perplexing. Why not just let people drink from the 6 million bottles rather than creating an additional 6 million plastic cups to accompany them? Another major concern was the Olympic Committee staying silent about global elites who produce 10 times the pollution per person by flying on private jets to the Olympics …Despite the troubling use of the Olympics to give hypocritical lip service to environmentalism as a cover for a political agenda, this should not detract from the value of watching the Games themselves or for serious discussions regarding conservation. In addition to Musk, American innovators and conservatives like Andy Sabin and Jay Faison lay out real plans for conservation measures including but not limited to flood mitigation."
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