Ninth inning report

This is not a baseball article, so please bear with me for a moment, but it starts with (from my perspective) a baseball tragedy. The Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox were tied 1-1 yesterday when the Red Sox came up in the last of the ninth and loaded the bases with nobody out. Statisticians tell us that in such a situation 86 percent of the time a team scores.

Not last night, though. Strikeout. Ground ball force out at home plate. Strikeout. Inning over. Chicago scores two runs in the 10th inning and wins the game.

Let us observe this year’s presidential election. Hillary Clinton is hugely unpopular. I’d think at least 86 percent of the time a normal, unspectacular Republican candidate of decent character could beat her. Maybe 16 of the 17 GOP contenders early in the presidential season—94 percent—could have beaten her. And the nominee, barring a miracle, will be … you know who.

I’m still, with Joel Belz, in a patience mode. Who knows what God will do? His arm is not too short. We should not assume He has decided to curse America. We know God’s long-term outcome because Revelation tells us. We don’t know what He has in store over the next few years. Could be revival and reformation.

So I’m not offering any voting advice. The biggest problem is that the Supreme Court has so much power: We know what we’ll get with Clinton. We don’t know what we’ll get with Donald Trump. Given the lack of good alternatives this year, probably our best bet is to do all we can to keep a likely President Clinton from having a compliant Congress. We can then turn our attention to the development of 20-20 vision for the next presidential election.