Pollster: Don’t Turn Anti-Semitism Into a Political Football

President Trump’s remarks following the synagogue shooting in Poway, Calif., in which he “forcefully” condemned “the evil of anti-Semitism and hate,” were “a major improvement in rhetoric” after his “divisive” post-Charlottesville statement, says Douglas Schoen at Fox News. They also represent “where America needs to go.” Because “anti-Semitism cannot be a political football for both sides to kick around when it’s convenient” — which, sad to say, “is what has happened” to date “on both sides.” The failure to “explicitly reprimand the blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric” of freshman House members, like Rep. Ilhan Omar, “has been a step backward for Democrats, and a missed opportunity to stand for what is right and to be at the forefront of this crucial issue.”

Historians: Successful Presidents Keep to Themselves

Democrats, in their search for something “a bare majority of House members” will call an impeachable offense, are citing President Trump’s ­reported instructions to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, notes Michael Barone at the Washington Examiner — ignoring the fact that his aides ­“refused to carry out his orders or ignored his suggestions.” In other words, it was “nothing more than thinking bad thoughts out loud.” After all, Trump “shares all but his innermost thoughts” with everyone, including the public. But that’s not the way the 20th century’s most successful presidents — Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan — behaved. As president, “each kept his strategy and most of his tactics to himself.” Trump has none of their “self-discipline,” which kept their innermost thoughts ­“secret from the public and, mostly, from their closest aides as well.”

Urban critic: De Blasio Needs Rehab for His Spending

Addiction is a terrible problem, observes Crain’s New York’s Greg ­David, and when it comes to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “penchant for spending, it is a terrible problem for New York.” His latest budget “seized on every scrap of good news to increase city spending by $300 million more than he forecast in February and $3.5 billion more than in the current fiscal year.” Moreover, his claim to have reduced agency spending by $916 million “needs to be taken with more than a few grains of salt.” The key point: By “spending the gusher of tax revenue the city has gained from the strong and historically long economic recovery,” de Blasio has “greatly increased the size of city government in all possible ways.” Any way you look at it, “the increase is extraordinary.”

From the right: What Animal-Rights Activists Forget

As John Fund at National Review reports, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is demanding a $15 billion cut in the budget of the National Institutes of Health, claiming the money is spent on animal experiments “that fail to produce cures or treatments for humans.” Says Fund: How soon we forget our history. Time was when twice as many children died from measles as from polio. But a vaccine was developed in 1963, thanks to animal research; within three decades, “measles was an afterthought.” Same for smallpox and polio. The same research has also produced vaccines and treatments “of direct benefit to animals.” Humane treatment of animals “must not become tangled up with extremist ideologies that would lead to more suffering than the pain they are trying to prevent.”

Conservative: Mega-Media Are Biggest Election Losers

It’s far too early to predict the next president, but not “to announce the ­national media as a clear loser in terms of national influence and prestige,” ­declares Joel Kotkin at New Geography. Pew reports that “millennials have become as negative about major media as older generations, with their rate of approval dropping from 40 percent in 2010 to 27 percent today.” These days, “the notion that news reporters should first and foremost inform, letting readers come to their own conclusions, seems almost quaint.” Fact is, “many reporters ride fact-free, neglecting alternative views” on key issues. And this ideological cast “has been worsened by journalism schools’ shift ­toward social justice advocacy; even well-placed writers at The New York Times complain about the stridency of younger journalists shaping coverage to fit their accepted ideological narratives.”

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann