Trump Tape: Feet of Clay vs. Pajama Boys

Daniel 2:31-33 (NKJV)

31 You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome.
32 This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

I wrote the original draft of this post re the Trump tape at 0300 this morning. I almost published it, but at the last moment remembered the wise ol' saying from either Shakespeare, Lincoln, Twain, or "Banjo" Paterson, that "one neither should tweet nor blog in the darkest hours of the morn." Whoever said it was right. I re-read at 0900 what I had written six hours earlier and . . . delete, delete, delete, maybe not 33,000 times but many deletes, nevertheless, followed. BleachBit ordered.

That said, here I go again. 

I've listened to the audio tape of Trump's unguarded "hot mic" comments. Shocking? Disgusting? Indefensible? Absolutely . . . yes, well, that is if you've lived your life as a delicate snowflake in a nice cool safe place. If, however, you've been in the company of men, when they are allowed to be men, the language can get a bit colorful; that's not surprising. Look, I don't talk like that because I spent  over half of my life in a profession in which one never knew who was listening, a misplaced comment, an infelicitous phrase, or a bit of overly exuberant verbal color could prove fatal to your career. Embassies, consulates, cocktail parties, negotiating sessions, and public venues, are not places conducive to uncensored guy talk. I have to admit, however, that when we would get out into the bush for a few days, far from recording devices and the PC police, in places such as Pakistan, Guatemala, and Bolivia, well, the language could get a bit, uh, saltier, shall we say--not mine, of course, but that of others . . .  that's my story, and I am sticking to it.

The 2005 Trump tape captures a conversation between two (trigger alert: semi-nasty word about to appear) bullshitters doing what bullshitters do, bullshit. What I find appalling is that somebody would record this and keep it for so many years. That is malice aforethought. Both men on the tape, lest we forget, were private citizens having a private conversation. Let us also not forget that Trump, at the time, was a Democrat. Come to think of it, he should just claim that he and Billy Bush were auditioning to form a white rapper group, Salt & Sugar. All would be forgiven.

We live in a digital and salacious age. One of the great triumphs of modern science is used to promote sex, and destroy private lives. We no longer can have leaders and heroes who live large colorful lives. Lincoln, Churchill, Eisenhower, and so many others would be undone by this age, and its use of intrusive technology that memorializes our foibles forever.

While this tape is run four hundred times a day, and crowds out all other political conversation, America's core national interests at home and abroad are in free fall. Our future is disappearing, but we must titter and tweet away over an eleven year-old tape of big boys talking trash. We are seeing a flood of new leaks showing just how corrupt and two-faced Hillary Clinton is, but we must talk about Trump's use of bad words. The same media that has given the Clintons a pass on so much, including serious allegations of rape and cover-up, must now feign outrage over a bawdy conversation.

A Spanish saying wisely notes, "The fish dies because of its mouth." Trump has provided the enemy something with which they can play forever. It will be even harder now for him to get his message out. The hostile media will talk only of this, making his crude words far worse than they are in fact. Is this the death knell for the Trump campaign? Is it going to turn away supporters or those who were considering supporting him? I don't know. Perhaps. Can he pivot to more important issues? I hope he tries, but . . . at a minimum he should apologize to his wife, kids, and Mike Pence.

The debate tomorrow will be critical. While I have doubts that the "moderators" and left-wing media will not let this rest--and who knows what else they have queued up for the coming four weeks?--Trump, nevertheless, will have to handle it with calm and grace, and keep bringing the conversation around to the disaster that looms for our nation and a civilization if the same old corruptocrats get re-elected. He is paying the price for defying the bipartisan elite. I guess those who switch their vote to Hillary because of The Donald tape, will have the satisfaction of knowing that if she wins our borders and economy will collapse, our foreign policy will be a disaster, and terrorists will pour in, but, at least, she did not say a "bad" word on tape.

Sad times.