What happened to the political doldrums of summer? These are supposed to be months of vacation travel, family picnics, outdoor concerts and evenings at the ballpark – quaint notions, all. A time for politics to recede just a bit in advance of the Labor Day ramp-up.

Instead, a high degree of personal vigilance, distance and isolation remain paramount while politics persists in its pervasiveness with high stakes and high engagement. Witness the record turnout for Colorado’s recent primary election.

Given the omnipresence of all-things-political, and with the usual diversions in short supply, let’s make this a potpourri of quick-takes with the election now less than four months ahead.

• The banner surprise of the primary election was the upset in the Republican contest in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. Here’s guessing that Lauren Boebert was not a name most of you had on your radar just a few weeks ago. Now, she is about to be a media magnet. I’ve dubbed her the GOP-AOC as she makes a ready-for-TV hero for the Trump-enamored, Second-Amendment-worshipping right and an easy-to-caricature villain for the we-know-better’s of the Democratic left.
• Elections in this western and southern Colorado district have been non-events for years. Until Boebert’s stunning defeat of 10-year incumbent Scott (middle name: Bland) Tipton, neither party had this race anywhere near their target list. Now, suddenly, it will be a focal point, locally and nationally, in both 2020 and 2022. This year, for obvious reasons as an unexpectedly open seat with a perhaps divided Republican Party and fringy nominee. And, again, two years down the road as whoever prevails this year, Boebert or Democratic nominee Diane Mitsch Bush, will be seen as something of an accident, and thus vulnerable.
• The other post-mortem headline, also on the Republican side, related to the stunning defeat of hard-right candidates supported by the darker forces of the Neville family and Dudley Brown in five of six legislative primaries. Any effort to reclaim past glory on the part of Colorado Republicans will be a long slog. But some see an early glimmer of hope in these results.
• A quick question: Can we officially put to rest the presidential claim that COVID would somehow disappear with summertime and hotter temperatures? Just asking.
• “I can’t wait to see you in Jacksonville in August,” is something said by exactly nobody, ever. Yet at the behest of Trump’s White House, that is where the president is set to again receive his party’s anointment in a packed arena. In a city now spiking in its case count. Where the mayor is now in self-quarantine. What could possibly go wrong?
• And are we still fighting over face masks? There is no shortage of important issues worth debating. But wearing masks in a pandemic? Of all our political and cultural flashpoints over many years, this might qualify as the silliest and most absurd.
• Another one I have been pondering: What if the aftermath of the November election is more interesting than the campaign itself? What if the election is not cliffhanger close? What if the real story is how Trump handles defeat, even repudiation, and a presidential transition?
• It is Punditry 101 to observe that elections are constantly in flux. In this case, of course there is pollster PTSD, to say nothing of that of frenzied Democrats, given the thunderbolt of 2016. But perhaps this election is not all that fluid. Perhaps the stairs have been removed leaving Trump no exit from his hole. While he is incessantly trying to shift the topic to protests or statutes or some Biden gaffe or his whim du jour, much of the country believes he had but one responsibility this year, that being to lead an effective response to the virus. Having first ignored the threat, then bungled the task, he now seemingly can’t be bothered. Voters are not responding to all the sideshows given the overwhelming perception that he failed job-one.
• It is far from even odds. But give me four-to-one and I might make a friendly wager that Trump takes an off-ramp with a Lyndon Johnson-esque withdrawal in the weeks before the Jacksonville convention. In his world and value system, there is no worse slur than that of “loser.” He will do anything to avoid that fate. And what a plot twist in a reality-show presidency.
• Let’s add some spice to the potpourri mix. Whatever your views on school choice or even vouchers, especially at this moment of taking stock of past injustices, it would be nice if people on both sides could agree that the Blaine Amendment is rooted in some of the country’s worst history of religious bigotry. We can have a good-faith debate on the policy merits of such programs. But thumbs-up to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Espinoza v. Montana case.
• On that score, why is it that when the five conservative justices vote together it is condemned as a bloc, but when the four more liberal members of the court vote as a monolith, as is even more common, that is simply regarded as business as usual?
• Back home, the Colorado Supreme Court decision, unanimous at that, overturning Gov. Polis’s order allowing electronic and remote gathering of petition signatures is the first real restraint on the emergency powers he has wielded. While I am not a fan of extreme restrictions on ballot access, my non-lawyerly judgment is that the court got this one right.

Finally, a personal welcome to Colorado Newsline. We need more solid, in-depth journalism in these parts. Here’s hoping this new venture flourishes. Also, plaudits to Susan Greene and Tina Griego for what they built at the Colorado Independent, and for now refocusing their abundant talents to help newspapers across small-town Colorado do rigorous, investigative reporting. Good for both of you.