Let's hope Wacko picks Fatso for the GOP presidential ticket

A statue of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father who developed Paterson as one of the first industrial centers in the United States. The statue faces the Great Falls.

On Main Street in Hackensack, a neglected historical plaque notes the street once was called King's Highway and later Front Street.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Wacko racist billionaire Donald J. Trump has little chance of beating Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election, and he'd definitely seal his fate if he selected Governor Christie as a running mate.

Today, Christie tracker Matt Katz of WNYC-FM News sent an unsolicited memo to Trump on why he should and definitely should not pick his fellow Muslim hater as his vice presidential candidate on the GOP ticket.

In the negative, Katz cites the continuing problem of Bridgegate, including David Samson and missing emails and texts; and Christie's weight, which raises legitimate questions about his health.

Then, Katz notes "New Jersey doesn't like Christie" and the state "is in political paralysis."

Katz's reporting on Christie, including a book he wrote on Bridgegate, has been so far ahead of The Record's fawning Charles Stile, former Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and too-long-fan Alfred P. Doblin, editor of the editorial page.

Thumbs down on Kean

What a terrible civics lesson The Record splashed across Page 1 today in the form of a column from the clueless Mike Kelly.

Kelly reports that former Gov. Thomas Kean is so "disillusioned with Trump and ... Hillary Clinton that he might not vote for president" (A-1).

"As politicians," Kelly quotes Kean as saying, "he finds both lacking."

But that is why Kelly's and Editor Deirdre Sykes' relentless focus on politics is so wrong.

When they go to the polls, readers should judge Trump and Clinton on their plans for Social Security, health care, immigration and a host of other crucial issues, not on their politics.

And everyone should vote. 

Look at the unusually low turnout for municipal and school elections in Hackensack, and how apathetic residents have allowed one self-interested family to dominate the city for decades and to continue to run the schools.

In recent week, the Hackensack Board of Education picked Johanna Calle to fill a vacancy.

She was the only member of the Team Hackensack slate -- backed by former Mayor Jack Zisa and disgraced former Police Chief Ken Zisa -- to lose in April's school board election.

More politics

Besides Kelly's column on Kean, two other major elements on A-1 are devoted to partisan politics.

The only local human-interest story on Page 1 today is a gripping account of the July 13, 1895, hurricane that hit Cherry Hill, a section of what is now River Edge, killing three.

"In mere minutes, every house was splintered, tipped over or swept away," says Staff Writer Jay Levin, who is the local obituary writer.

Older drivers

A story from USA Today notes New Jersey ranks as the eighth-most dangerous state for older drivers (A-4).

Let's hope that rouses Staff Writer John Cichowski out of his deep sleep, and that the problem gets a lot more attention in his Road Warrior column, which has been devoted far too many times to the trials and tribulations of teen drivers.

Lincoln School

On the Local front today, a story notes the demolished Lincoln School in Englewood was "at the center of the school district's struggles with desegregation in the early 1960s" (L-1).

But Staff Writer Matthew McGrath neglects to report that many former and current residents who sent their kids to the Lincoln School are glad to see it go, because by the time it closed in 2008, it was segregated once again, and had only a few white students.

In recent years, Sykes has focused her reporting on desegregation efforts at Dwight Morrow High School, ignoring the city's segregated elementary and middle schools.