In a few hours, the second presidential debate will begin. It will be in a faux-townhall format, wherein the moderators decide who can ask what questions, in addition, of course, to the questions the moderators themselves ask. You know the questions will be rigged to make Trump look small, mean, and defensive and, of course, as a hater. I am sure we're going to get some lachrymose question from an illegal "Dreamer" who fears having his parents deported, the usual stuff. We are going to get a YUGE amount of attention devoted to the nefarious Trump tape and his tax returns.
It's going to be a tough night for Trump.
He is going into the debate under severe media and GOPe pressure, with rumors swirling that his running mate Mike Pence is thinking of jumping off the train, and the late night comics trying to turn him into a bad punchline. He, in other words, is now facing the full wrath of "the system," one which had dismissed him as a laughable crank, but in the last few weeks broke into a cold sweat in the realization that the man might just pull it off. Trump might just become President and put that "system" into terra incognita. That cannot be allowed and all false party labels are being ignored as the ruling elite has decided that the rampaging Trump beast must be killed at all costs. Any and all weapons in the system armory are valid for use.
What can he do at the debate? My advice, and you know the value of that, is to be calm, almost zen-like, very focussed, and articulate; no broken half-sentences, no weird tangents. Allow no question to remain one-sided: no matter what is asked insist that the same same or equivalent be asked of his opponent, and, in fact, Trump should ask it. Trump tape? Yes, I was coarse and crude in joking around, but was Hillary just joking when she tried to destroy the lives of the women her husband abused and raped? My tax returns? Yeah, sure, as soon as Hillary releases her deleted emails and her speeches before the Wall Street fat cats, and, oh by the way, I see some of those speeches are leaking. What does she say? She says that she will have a "public position and a private position" and that the bankers need not worry--she is not going to do anything to regulate them or to go along with those dopey Bernie people. Immigration? Deport the criminals first, build the wall, and insist our laws are obeyed, and, oh by the way, will Hillary disavow sanctuary cities? Will she apologize to the families of victims of illegal alien criminals? Will she apologize to the Deplorables? And so on.
Trump will have to be on an A-plus game. He cannot let himself get angry and rattled or look defensive. He has to come off as serious but with a sense of humor and empathy for what ordinary people are enduring under progressive rule.
Will it make a difference? Who knows. I can assure you if the Hillary-Media complex decided to release the Trump tape 30 days out from the voting, that means they've got more. They want to drown out the disastrous economic and foreign policy news, and not leave room for the Wikileaks which show how corrupt and venal Hillary truly is.
The odds are against him.
The establishment has gone into feral mode, which was inevitable, particularly as Trump was competitive; but I think, in their desperation, they have picked the wrong issue and gone too early. Most sane people can see this for what it is. Apart from the fact that the Clintons are far more vulnerable on the very same issue, and the hypocrisy is so gargantuan and obvious; the whole thing just reeks of the political correctness playbook that is routinely deployed against any alternative voice the reaction against which was and continues to drive the Trump candidacy and voters. Trump will lose some skin, but calling the election as now over is just plain silly.
ReplyDeleteI have utterly underestimated the threat that the GOP sees & has seen in a Trump triumph, such that it would cast him into an election limbo that puts Hillary in the White House, and that tips the country so far in the progressive direction that there will be no stopping it, much less recovery from it.
ReplyDeleteFor its own survival as a viable political entity, whyever did the GOP fail to co-opt the Trumpian movement as soon as it was evident that he would be the last man standing? So as to exert, at minimum, some influence over the outcome?
Just as the GOP failed the first-principles-based Tea Party wave of a couple elections ago, by its unswerving opposition to Trump the GOP has merely convinced the "populist" conservative segment of the corruption of its claim to true conservatism in the name of re-election and power preservation.
As for those GOPers who are now distancing themselves from Trump, they are/were reluctant supporters, and this taped conversation merely gives the political cowards an easy excuse to back away from him.
What is most puzzling, is that there is no alternate waiting in the wings -- so, following the Sherlockian precept that once you have eliminated all the other solutions, what remains, however improbably, must be the answer: if they can't have a Bush or possibly a Rubio, then in their pique they'll default to Hillary.
My mother would have called that, "Cutting off their nose to spite their face."
The Bush's surely like to serve their vengence cold. Even if this helps to destroy the country I thought they loved. We need a Constitutional amendment that prohibits any close relative of a president from becoming president,
ReplyDeleteSurely you jest. Thank God that’s not who we are as a nation -- holding people accountable for the sins of their fathers, mothers, brothers....
DeleteSuggested reading: The Consitutition of the United States. Specifically Article I Section 9: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." You may need to educate yourself as to what a bill of attainder is, but it will be worth the effort.
P.S., in grammar Nazi mode, it’s “Bushes,” not Bush’s. You can thank me later.
It would be nice for once to see Packs defend their people the way the Jackass Party members do: a outrance. Trump's braggadocio about his conquests, in a private conversation taped many years ago, are perfectly consistent with his crude character. We knew about that from the start, what is so surprising that Packs must deny him support and ensure a Jackass victory? Does Trump's mean talk make him worse than Hillary, with her corruption, criminality, and incompetence? Hardly, unless you are a puritan of very poor judgement. And all this angst over words uttered a decade ago is from people who champion casual sex, abortions, and protecting the sexual predator Bill Clinton; supreme hypocrisy, which Trump needs to point out then immediately pivot to a substantive issue.
ReplyDelete"Yeah, I trash talk, but Hillary there slandered the poor women her sex predator husband raped. Now if you want to talk about predators, all over the country these so-called sanctuary cities provide hiding places from the law for murderous illegal aliens and Hillary will do nothing about it. I'll see that such places stop this nonsense, firstly by cutting off all the money they get from the US government then going after the perps."
Hit back twice as hard. Somebody said that a few years ago. It shouldn't be personal attacks, as Trump does so often, it should be issue attacks.
Moshe Dayan had the reputation, well earned, of being a compulsive womanizer. At one rally a man asked him "How can you ask us to vote for you when you lead such an immoral life?"
Dayan responded "If a beautiful woman begged you to sleep with her, what would you say?"
"I would not refuse," the heckler admitted.
"Then you are a man," Dayan shouted and the whole rally broke into laughter.
I don't condone immorality, but Packs should start doing things like that. It's true that if the Jackass Party and its PR branch (the media) didn't have double standards they would have no standards at all, but Packs ought not to accept that.
What we're watching play out is a political variant of the Law Enforcement principle of "Ask-Tell-Make".
ReplyDeleteThe Tea Party was 'Ask', and they got corrupted in short order. Trump is 'Tell', and they're doing their best to destroy him. I have no idea who or what form 'Make' will take, all I know is if they think Trump is literally Hitler, they're REALLY not going to like what comes next...