I wanted to throw this out to the PWI group because I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately…and I wanted to hear you guys thoughts.
Here are mine.
Overall; Trump has been unofficially “Vetted” for the 40-plus years he has been in the Public Eye. He appears to consistently be who he is, and has always been. Every wart and pimple has been analyzed (and perhaps OVER-analyzed) in those 40-plus years. I am thinking that if he had some secret, Mexican, Transgender Lover…or had failed to pay back taxes…we would have known about it by now.
They are Lame
This latest NYTimes piece was so full of “she-said-she-said” and “I felt uncomfortable around him because he kissed me on the lips” kind of stuff, that the editors SHOULD have been ashamed to even have it published.
Media Outlets are doing what is needed to survive, I guess.
They Fit Right into the Conservative Narrative
Whether the attacks are coming from the Right of Left; every attack appears to fit into the “I TOLD you so!” narrative that the Trump Supporters have of the particular group that has been attacking.
In my opinion; the “Establishment” Republicans have been the worst in “fitting” into the “expected” narrative as they sound more and more like kids in a Sand Box who threaten to take their Bucket and Shovel home because they don’t like that nasty “Trump Kid”.
I personally have never seen a more intriguing election like this one…and probably never will again.
See, you don’t for sure know the attacks won’t matter in a general election. In the primary, the two most hated groups were the mainstream Republican party and the media. Both of whom levied the attacks to no avail.
He comes across like a “Policy Entrepreneur.” A dude who has a specific agenda, that transcends politics. Like one over reaching goal to go for.
Think of a guy like R. Giuliani, who was devoted to “cleaning up” NYC. Who cares about the political fallout of using RICO laws, or stop and frisk, or throwing all the smut out of time square. Whatever it takes to reach the goal.
Or Gov. Clinton and the Erie Canal back in the day. Dude didn’t let rules or political party affiliation stop him.
With a broad goal, that appeals to enough people, like a Make America Great Again policy, you can get anyway with almost anything.
I have no doubt whatsoever that EVERY candidate has stupid, uninformed Sheeple who would follow them even if they pissed on Little old Ladies sitting in the front row at their rallies. (Trump followers included).
I also have no doubt that every candidate has well-informed followers who have given careful thought to whom they will (or will not) support.
Then there is everyone in between.
I will say this (and I said something similar about President Obama):
I DO think Trump (and Bernie Sanders) supporters are more “for” their candidate than they are “against” another one.
Don’t let the egg head that visits on occasion throw you off. He is as far off with his political analysis as anyone that I’ve ever spoken to. He is so self absorbed that he assumes the more he writes the smarter he looks. And…that we actually want to read it and care.
I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head with Trump. You will soon see a media melt down because nothing that they throw at him will stick. It’s all been said and done before.
The expectations for Trump are different than for other candidates. That’s why he’s gotten away with as much as he has.
He has arrived because of two reasons: the first is Barack Obama. The people took a chance on the first black President and he has been the worst President in modern history. And no I am not saying that to get another chance to criticize Obama. As I have said many times the pendulum swings in Presidential elections. And Trump is just about as opposite of Obama as one can get regarding border policy’s, trade, the military etc.
Finally, Hillary Clinton has helped Trump immensely. Whatever anyone can say about Trump, Hillary is worse. I have been criticized for mentioning Hillary when others attack Trump but that is exactly why the things that Trump says and does will not matter. I honestly don’t think Trump could beat any other democrat that they might possibly nominate. But, he will beat Hillary (if she is not indicted and still the nominee) by a reasonable margin in November.
In fact, they have already stuck. As of now, he is the most despised major political candidate in modern American history, coming close to David Duke’s 1992 unfavorables. These will even out slightly as anti-Trump Republicans who were rating him unfavorably while Rubio/Cruz/etc. were still in the race begin forcing themselves to pretend Trump is OK. But he will remain generally and correctly hated, and all the attacks that are coming – they will be unprecedented, by the way – will work.
They will not work, of course, with two groups. The first is the idiots who were excited about Trump from the beginning, when he mumbled his way through an inaugural campaign speech memorable only for 1. Its general incoherence and 2. The part in which he lied about Mexicans, thereby sending Stormfront into an orgasmic tizzy. This forum has already analyzed these people exhaustively, and it should be clear that they just don’t give a shit. Trump starts mumbling aloud about how we’ve got to take a page out of KSM’s handbook and start targeting civilians, and believe me the moral objections from our men and women in the military just won’t matter because I’m like just a strong leader, I have the best words, I’ll use my great words and they’ll obey me while I command them to become morally indistinguishable from al-Qaeda: Trump fans just don’t give a shit. Trump can’t figure out how to make sense in the English language: they don’t give a shit. Trump acts like a hysterical Victorian-era woman: they don’t give a shit. He lights the garbage fires in their souls, and for that they love him.
The second group is filled with the ZEBs, the mindless hacks who get many of their political opinions from right-wing email chains, who live and breathe partisan politics…people who would vote for a moldy tuna melt so long as it was running with an R next to its name.
The rest of us care about what he says and does, and no matter how we end up voting, our view of Trump is and will continue to be contingent upon reality as it unfolds.
Overall; Trump has been unofficially “Vetted” for the 40-plus years he has been in the Public Eye. He appears to consistently be who he is, and has always been. Every wart and pimple has been analyzed (and perhaps OVER-analyzed) in those 40-plus years. I am thinking that if he had some secret, Mexican, Transgender Lover…or had failed to pay back taxes…we would have known about it by now.[/quote]
I mentioned this in the other thread. They’re scouring the cutting room floor to find things to use against him.
Here’s a good example of how attack ads on Trump work on his favor. This ad’s intention is to brand him as a divider and yet all it’s doing is solidifying his status as a Washington outsider which is largely in line with his appeal.
There was an ESPN Documentary about the United States Football League. It was about how Trump basically screwed the whole league, and caused the whole thing to collapse. They had all kinds of footage, from the 80’s of Trump looking like a greedy ego maniac.
I think it was a few yeas old, and it replayed last month. Did anybody else see it?
I agree 100%. As I’ve stated previously, the person running For something has an infinitely better shot than the person running against something or someone. Part of the smarts of the Trump campaign that left the other repubs in the dust was that he’s running For president, not against Cruz. By taking the defensive attack strategy that his opponents were positioned into, they guaranteed their own demise.
Also why Romney lost to Obama. O was running for prez. Romney was running against him.
The campaign of counter the person instead of running for the office is just about a guaranteed loser at this point.
Trump would be a an unprecedented disaster of a foreign policy president. He has espoused positions that are antithetical to the three pillars of the American made world order that has served the international system so well for over 70 years.
He rejects dyadic democratic peace, the symbiotic relationship of American interests and American values, and expresses admiration for brutal autocrats.
He denies the enormous benefits of the liberal economic regimes that have benefited billions. His prescribed economic policies are reminiscent of those of Herbert Hoover. A global economic depression was the result of the last “business savvy” protectionist.
He has called for war crimes to be committed by American forces. The lives of women and children aren’t to be merely disregarded; they are to be intentionally targeted. He has called for the use of torture “so much stronger than waterboarding”, disregarding the substantial body of evidence that such practices are not only ineffective for intelligence purposes, but are counterproductive. We have a candidate vying for control of the most destructive weapons in history that doesn’t understand the rudimentary basics of nuclear strategy. Not only doesn’t he understand nuclear strategy, but he has gone so far as to suggest that Japan and the Republic of Korea develop their own nuclear arsenals, upsurping nonproliferation, keystone of American grand strategy for decades.
Trump and his ilk rely wholly on magical thinking, which Stephen Walt defines as “analysis and prescriptions resting on unrealistic assumptions, unspecified causal relationships, inapt analogies, a dearth of supporting evidence, and wildly naïve optimism.”
This was just a bad BUSINESS decision from the start in that Trump (and whatever other investors there were) underestimated the power and reach of the Cartel of the NFL.
Trump has certainly underestimated things before (to the great loss of others). (Atlantic City and the Golf Course in Ireland come to mind).
While he certainly understood the seething anger on the Right (whether it was misplaced or not, I’ll leave it up to others to decide); Is he “underestimating” his negatives among the general American Populace?
[quote=“smh_23, post:9, topic:217419”]
n fact, they have already stuck. As of now, he is the most despised major political candidate in modern American history, coming close to David Duke’s 1992 unfavorables. These will even out slightly as anti-Trump Republicans who were rating him unfavorably while Rubio/Cruz/etc. were still in the race begin forcing themselves to pretend Trump is OK. But he will remain generally and correctly hated, and all the attacks that are coming – they will be unprecedented, by the way – will work.[/quote]
They would work…but then people start to pay attention around Labor day and focus in on who he is running against and the many cons she’s committed and FOOM they don’t work anymore. The most despised major political figure as you put it will suddenly be less despised than the worst looking half of the best con team that ever graced the political stage- Hillary Clinton…and she loses.
We all give a shit. We all know who and what Trump is. And we all would rather have him than the corrupt Clinton machine in power again. Simple stuff. Really bad is not as bad as the worst. And “The Worst” is what Hillary Clinton is.
He has already walked that back and believe it or not the average American voter is not all that concerned about terrorists family members. Not me…not you…but the average voter. Got that?
You are finally correct about something–PHEW that took a long time. Anyway, these are the people who are borderline Trump Zealots. They will vote for Trump no matter what is happening in their lives, the weather the price of tea in China etc. Can you say the same thing about Hillary voters? Nope. If there is a flake of snow in the air many won’t show up. She is absolutely the worst candidate that the democrats have fielded since Michael Dukakis…who lost by the way.
It should be mentioned that egg heads like you are more bothered as much by that one sentence than his actual policies. “He just does not speak correctly Zelda my vote must go elsewhere”
You got that right and that’s why he wins.
Hold on that Tuna melt would have to be fresh before I voted for it over Hillary Clinton. No, actually I would vote for my neighbors Beagle before I voted for Hillary Clinton (Not saying that about Biden, or Kerry, or even Gore) who has pulled a 23 year con game on the American public. I would list all of her scandals but I actually don’t have the time. Just take it from Whitewater to the email scandal and fill in all the blanks. And don’t leave out how she attacked the women that Bill Clinton raped and sexually abused. The FBI who I am sure has a heavy case load think she’s worth about 250 agents looking into her and the phony Clinton Foundation-a double dipper of an investigation.
Yeah, that Tuna melt is looking dang good compared to that piece of trash. You and your boyfriend can call it political hackery if you wish. But if all you have to prove your point are Barack Obama the worst modern day President for so very many reasons and the corrupt Clinton machine then you don’t have a case Bub!
