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President Biden faces age question

If President Biden’s birthday is anything like his last one, he’ll eat a cake quietly with family and hope nobody else notices. When he turned the big 80 last fall, the White House arranged a marriage as a distraction for the press. Mr. Biden’s granddaughter was wed on the South Lawn. The timing “was not a coincidence,” two sources told CNN. Regardless, voters have managed to notice that Mr. Biden is showing his years. Seventy-seven percent of Americans say he’s too old for another term, according to an August AP poll, including 69 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of ...

Ohio GOP ignoring voters

There’s a disturbing trend among those who lose elections or get caught doing something wrong. Instead of accepting defeat, learning from the experience or even just staying quiet, the losers keep on fighting with irrational claims and lies. They foolishly blame others. No, this editorial is not about the University of Michigan’s football scandal. We’re speaking about the similarly unhinged response of too many Ohio Republicans after 57 percent of voters on Nov. 7 approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion and reproductive rights. They’re also upset that a ...

How are you really doing?

Howzit? A Lahaina fire survivor we spoke with this week said he wished people would stop asking how he was doing. The answer, if you really want to know, is not so good. He and his family escaped the fast-running Aug. 8 blazes with little more than the clothes on their backs. Their flight was chaotic and terrifying. The aftermath has become a mind-numbing bog of standing in lines, filling out paperwork and waiting, lots of waiting. Word is they will soon be able to return to their home to sift through the ashes. He says he hopes it will bring a layer of closure. The man said he ...

Trump’s dangerous language

It is a full-time job to call out every one of Donald Trump’s lies and efforts to divide this nation, but his “vermin” address on Saturday deserves special attention. The ex-president and leading Republican candidate for 2024 dishonored military veterans and further tainted his political party with a hate-filled Veterans Day speech featuring words that would have been at home in Nazi Germany. He promised to “root out” his opponents — supposedly on behalf of veterans who fought to protect liberty. “In honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that ...

Biden not faring well in polls

Public-opinion polls are a snapshot in time, and results can change quickly in politics as events intrude. But the polls have been sending Democrats and President Biden the same election warning for months, so perhaps they’ll eventually start listening. The latest Siena College-New York Times poll of six battleground states, released on the weekend, is a five-alarm fire for Democrats a year before the election. It shows Mr. Biden losing to Donald Trump in five of six states on which the 2024 election is likely to hang. Mr. Biden trails Mr. Trump by 10 points in Nevada, six in ...

Varied visions for Lahaina

Can everybody be right if nobody is wrong? Last week’s state Department of Land and Natural Resources community meeting concerning Lahaina Harbor and Mala Boat Ramp drew knowledgeable testimony from stakeholders representing a variety of interests. Some focused on the future while suggesting ways to improve, modernize and even enlarge the facilities to better accommodate both commercial and public interests. Others looked to Lahaina’s past for guidance. These folks lobbied for less commercial access, no cruise ships and a commitment from the state to tend to local needs first. ...