'What, Me Worry?' — Taking the Alfred E. Neuman Approach to 2026
Top O' the Briefing
Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Endwyffln took great delight in Bedazzling his favorite Jasmine Guy moments on various winterwear.
What the heck, why don't we go upbeat and optimistic today? I would ask that those who are here for my acerbic wit and frequent bouts of curmudgeonliness to remember that I do like to offer a positive palate cleanser once or twice a month. Yeah, I don't know how that happens either.
The calendar is about to flip to 2026, and we will be in full midterm elections mode then. Midterms are supposed to be predictable, with a lot of historical precedent providing a sort of crystal ball to show how everything is going to shake out. The party that isn't in the White House is supposed to steamroll these things, but we all know how that worked out in 2022.
Honestly, I'm not sure that historical election precedent counts much for anything anymore. All of that has been turned on its head ever since President Trump first won in 2016. That makes these midterm excursions a bit more interesting.
My colleague Athena is on Team "What, Me Worry?" with me. She wrote a great column yesterday breaking down why we needn't panic about the mainstream media's "Affordability Crisis" narrative; the narrative that the Dems hope will massage the midterms in their favor. Here a little bit from that:
Of course, to those of us who were alive and working during the depressive Biden years, that's a joke. We watched our hard-earned income lose between one-fifth and one-quarter of its value — gobbled up by rampant inflation caused by the administration's idiotic fiscal policies.
The truth is that the Trump administration is working hard to address the root causes of the high cost of living. They're doing this with intelligence, foresight, and experience, and basing their policy on bedrock economic principles. And even better: It's working.
You wouldn't know this to hear it from the legacy media, of course. But luckily, Team Trump is working to get the message out. The president focused on the subject during a major speech Tuesday evening in Mount Pocono, Pa. Earlier in the day, the White House disseminated a press release updating Americans on the administration's progress in lowering costs. Top of the list is Trump's success in tackling Biden's historically awful inflation mess
Athena has some hard numbers in her post that back up her optimism. Read it and don't weep.
Trump remains the GOP's greatest salesman when it comes to making a case to the electorate. The speech that Athena references is a great example of that. As my RedState colleague Chase Jennings wrote, Trump just handed the "GOP the 2026 Talking Points."
Over at Townhall, my friend Matt Vespa writes that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles says that President Trump is going to get into full 2024 mode when he hits the trail to campaign for those running next year. That's certainly good news.
There is also the fact that — as we have discussed many times — the Democrats still don't have anything to offer American voters in the way of policy. They'll be running on their tired "We hate Trump!" platform. Again, that has great appeal to the people who were already voting for them, but I remain skeptical about that bringing back any of the voters they lost in 2024.
So, I'm with Athena, there's really no reason to worry about the midterms just yet. That doesn't mean that something won't come up, of course. For now, however, we can all save money on Prilosec.
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