Trouble Ahead...

If I'm the Trump Campaign team (and the Hat Trick actually knows one of them from my days as a DC lobbyist...) this can't be good, even if it's June.  As this NPR story shows, Ohio and Florida as "Toss-Ups" and Texas "Leaning Republican" tells you all you need to know.

Lots can happen and the theme of 2020 seems to be whenever something really crazy happens, 2020 says "hold my beer"...but Texas has been an especially solid Republican state having last voted for the Democratic nominee in 1976.  Florida is more of an outlier, sometimes going Republican (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992) and sometimes going Democratic (1996, 2008, 2012) and sometimes having a major identity complex (2000!).  Ohio has also been more changeable, going Republican in years when a Reagan or Bush was the Republican nominee, Democratic in the rest until 2016 when it went for Trump.  President Trump also won Florida in 2016 and absolutely needs to win the state (as well as Ohio) to win re-election in 2020.  Again, the electoral environment can change (look at Hillary Clinton's polls in June of 2016) but the current polling in these three states do not express confidence in the re-election chances of President Trump.

Back From Florida

The East Coast Wing's have returned from their Florida jaunt and are back in the swing of things...or the rat race as may be the case. It was good to get away from all the snow and snowstorms, as well as get away from the depressing reality of my continued unemployment. I got to experience two more job rejections while in the Sunshine State and am definitely having some significant anxiety about what the future might hold, both for my family and my career. I'm back at the job application game but it definitely is getting harder and harder to stay motivated. At least I'm not alone as the February unemployment rate stayed at 9.7%.

On a happier note I did get to have a fabulous visit with an old buddy from my College of Wooster days who lives in West Palm Beach. It was great to get away, drink a few beers and, most importantly, go out for a great day of fishing in the Florida sun. The weather was fantastic and I was able to catch dinner for the next night. My friend knows what he's doing in a fishing boat and we had a great time. He wrote up a trip report that describes what we fished for and the conditions. It can be found through this link. Thanks pal for a great trip!

Finally, in keeping with another theme of this blog (ice hockey), the Hat Trick wants to congratulate the Men's and Women's U.S. Ice Hockey teams for winning silver at the Vancouver Winter Games. While a gold medal would have been nice, both teams played with grit and determination and they should be proud of their achievements. The Men's team in particular really took it to Team Canada, staying in the game for all three periods and forcing an overtime with a goal to tie things up in the last minute of play although losing in overtime to Sidney Crosby. Congratulations Team USA...we are all very proud of you.

That's it for the Hat Trick for now...I'll be sure to pontificate on the political situation in another post real soon.