Politicians come in all kinds of sizes, shapes, and smarts.
Bottom line, there are two kinds of politicians in modern America. One type promises to give voters all kinds of things in a banquet of freebies. They can do this because it costs them nothing. They're happy to give away vast sums of money that used to belong to taxpayers.
Joe Biden, for instance, has handed out billions upon billions of dollars from people who had no college loans or already paid them off and given the funds to others who haven't. The Supreme Court said he could not do this legally. But he has anyway.
The other style of politician protects citizens from vast government overreach and helps people do things for themselves. He knows full well that such spending is really an investment in personal capital that will grow organically and, in the end, pay dividends to the society at large.
Perhaps you have an inkling as to which is which on this fall's political stage.
Biden was on vacation again last weekend, as he has been for 40 percent of these endless 1,350 days of screw-ups. He was, of course, at the beach. While Hurricane Helene and its vicious winds wreaked watery havoc across southeastern states.
If his precious beach time somehow prohibited the lame duck from doing his job, Biden could have dispatched the vice president to visit stricken fellow citizens. But Kamala Harris was unavailable, it seems. She was doing fundraisers in California, where she claims to have raked in 53 million more dollars.
On the same weekend, Donald Trump, meanwhile, was making plans to visit ravaged parts of Georgia with a planeload of relief supplies. From his personal plane, on his own dime.
And to listen to people who had lost most everything in the storm. It reminded me of when New York City diddled for more than a year over fixing its popular ice rink. Trump took it over and got it fixed immediately.
Trump, as most everyone must have noticed by now, is no longer president. He would like to serve another four years and again donate his entire $400,000 salary back to various government departments, like the Park Service.
That is the subject of this week's RedState audio commentary.
The most recent audio commentary examined the Caitlin Clark phenomenon. I played football in school because I liked knocking people down. So, I know little of basketball. But I can tell when someone is extremely good at it and I know what that volume of skill requires: Hours, endless hours, of hard work, and attention to detail.
It was very inspiring and entertaining to see the young woman work her athletic magic and earn the rewards that she earned herself. Apparently, I was not alone as the WNBA had record crowds, most notably for her games, at home and away.
Incredibly, Clark was not selected for the U.S. Olympic women's team. And what was her response to the snub? "They woke a monster." No victimhood there.
Clark got no gimmes. She earned every point and accolade. And that was to me one encouraging example of what Americans can and need to do to defeat the Woke victim culture that thinks everyone should get a trophy, regardless of work.
We've had numerous examples of weak presidential leadership in recent times, moments carefully noted by our adversaries around the world.
Americans are said to be uninterested in foreign affairs, especially during election seasons. I was struck this past week by the eloquent speech that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave at the UN in his second language.
I saw some striking lessons in his leadership abilities and those of one of our recent presidents, in contrast to our current presidential administration.
Netanyahu is determined and unfazed in leading his nation's existential struggle against the forces of terror that surround his tiny country. Plus, sadly, the steady barrage of hectoring criticism fired his way by the chronic appeasement members of the Biden administration and Barack Obama's before that.
So, this Sunday's column looked at these twin examples of superb national leadership, what their key characteristics are -- and what they aren't.