Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer: “[McCormick’s] New ‘Get-Tough [on China]’ Ideas […] Are Already Issues That Casey Has a Track Record of Working On.”
Bunch: McCormick Campaign Is “Off To A Disastrous Start”
PENNSYLVANIA — There’s a big problem with David McCormick’s new plan to get tough on China — as the Inquirer’s Will Bunch points out in a new column, McCormick’s new ‘get-tough’ ideas are issues that Sen. Casey “already … has a track record of working on.”
Not to mention McCormick’s own track record of selling out to China as CEO of Bridgewater, where he invested more than $1.7 billion in China—amounting to a 108,000% increase.
ICYMI: Philadelphia Inquirer: Backstory on 2024’s worst candidate (already)
- Although 2024 begins with an intense focus on the presidential race, a major subplot will be the GOP‘s efforts to take back the U.S. Senate so that a would-be Trump 47 can confirm his extremist cabinet nominees, judges, etc. Yet again, that road runs right through Pennsylvania. But a political observer can’t help but wonder why the GOP thinks it can oust fairly popular Democratic Sen. Bob Casey with the insanity of trying the same thing — hedge-fund multi-millionaire Dave McCormick, late of Connecticut and unable to even beat Mehmet Oz in a 2022 Republican primary — and expecting a different result.
- It’s off to a disastrous start. For example, this weekend McCormick was photographed eating lobster tails near Boston at the Patriots-Chiefs game with world’s richest man Elon Musk — not a good way to convince Pennsylvanians you’re not an out-of-touch New Englander. In a tweet, McCormick urged Pa. lawmakers to go beyond their recent assault on Penn Vet to slash all other state funding for the University of Pennsylvania, apparently unaware there is none. Even on the more substantive issues, McCormick is struggling to create a rationale for running.
- Earlier this month, McCormick staged a Philadelphia event to roll out proposals to show voters that getting tough on China will be a cornerstone of his campaign. But it seemed more an effort to inoculate the GOP Senate candidate against the likely attack ads that his former firm, Bridgewater, invested more than $1.7 billion in China while he was CEO, while McCormick had even declared during a stint in the George W. Bush administration, “When China succeeds, the United States succeeds.”
- His new “get-tough” ideas — like stopping Chinese imports of fentanyl ingredients or making America less reliant on their solar panels — are already issues that Casey has a track record of working on. […] Voters here aren’t shopping for an empty down vest.
###