Saturday Politics : Greece and America in the Spotlight

It's Saturday so it must be Politics. And this week has been lively, not just in America but in Europe, too. ~~~~~ Thursday in Greece, Prime Minister and Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras resigned, paving the way for new elections, probably in September. The move came after he lost the support of many of his own MPs in a vote on the country's new bailout with European creditors earlier this month. Greek media reports that 25 far left-wing rebel Syriza MPs are forming a new party, called Laiki Enotita (Popular Unity). The party will be led by former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, who was strongly opposed to the bailout deal. At a press conference in Athens, Mr Lafazanis said he was ready to respect the result of a referendum held in July, in which 61% of Greeks said they would not support the terms of the bailout. "If it is necessary for us to cancel the memorandum, we will follow the course of exiting the Euro," he is quoted by Kathimerini newspaper as saying. Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, won 149 seats in Greece's 300-seat parliament in the last election in January. The conservative New Democracy party came second, with 76 seats. The new Popular Unity party will become the third largest in parliament. Tsipras had to rely on conservative MP votes to get parliamentary approval for the latest EU bailout. In exchange for a new $95 billion loan from European partners, Tsipras had to agree to painful state sector cuts, including far-reaching pension reforms - and agreed to keep Greece in the Eurozone. Close to a third of Syriza's MPs abstained or voted against the terms of the new deal last week. At the time, Lafazanis said he was determined to "smash the Eurozone dictatorship." Lafazanis, argues that Greece would be better off leaving the Euro and going back to the Drachma. The question now is whether the 60% to 70% support for Tsipras in polls will overcome the 60% who oppose his acquiescence in EU bailout demands. That will determine whether he is returned to power. ~~~~~ In the US, Vice President Joe Biden has emerged from the shadows and is closeted with his family and advisors, deciding whether to take on a fading Hillary Clinton. Biden is running slightly stronger than Clinton in general election match-ups against Republicans Donald Trump and Jeb Bush in three big swing states -- Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania -- according to a new survey that may influence Biden as he considers making a run. The Quinnipiac University swing-state poll shows that Clinton is still a formidable candidate for the Democratic nomination : she is still the top choice by a wide margin of Democratic voters when asked about their primary choices. But, the poll marked the first time this year that Quinnipiac has shown Clinton’s share of the primary vote below 50% in the three swing states. Clinton was the top primary choice for Democrats, at 48% in Florida, 47% in Ohio and 45% in Pennsylvania, ahead of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders with 15%, 17% and 19%, respectively. Biden, who isn't even a candidate yet, was third, at 11%, 14% and 17%. ~~~~~ But, given the fact that the Vice President hasn't decided to run yet, the Quinnipiac results for hypothetical general-election match-ups were very favorable for Biden. Against Republican front-runner Trump, Clinton narrowly won two out of the three states, winning in both Ohio and Pennsylvania by 5% and losing by 2% in Florida. Biden, however, beat Trump by 3% in Florida, 10% in Ohio and 8% in Pennsylvania. Against Bush, Clinton lost by 11% in Florida and 3% in Pennsylvania; she beat Trump by 2% in Ohio. Biden didn't do as well as Clinton against Bush, losing by 13% in Florida and 1§ in Pennsylvania, while beating Bush by 3§ in Ohio. Most surprising, the survey also found that Senator Marco Rubio did better than Bush and Trump against Clinton in general election match-ups in the three states. Rubio beat Clinton in Florida, 51% to 39%; in Ohio, 47% to 40%; and in Pennsylvania 42% to 40%. ~~~~~ The trustworthiness factor is driving down Hillary Clinton's poll results. More than half of voters in all three states said Biden and Bush are trustworthy, while 40% or fewer said the same about Trump. Clinton fared even worse, with 60% of voters or more in each of the three states saying she is not honest or trustworthy. Biden’s popularity now may be high because he is not yet a candidate, not yet in the race and being scrutinized, not yet making errors on the stump. In the next mobth or so, Joe Biden will have to declare his intention to run, or step aside definitively. In the next month, we will also have a better idea of the permanent damage done to Clinton by her foolish decision to use a private email server and her subsequent cover-up, refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation, erasing potentially classifird govrerment documents from the server, and refusing to turn over the server until forced to do do by the FBI. ~~~~~ Dear readers, while other contenders are jostling for position in the polls, on Friday evening, Donald Trump spoke to more than 20,000 in Mobile, Alabama -- the largest crowd yet for anyone of either party in the 2016 race.