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The Fascinating Mr. Trump
As skipsul notes in his engrossing post below, Trump has at least this virtue: he fights. In an email that just turned up in my inbox, a friend offers yet another insight:
Trump generates news and interest because he is genuinely funny and interesting.
Trump is the mathematical average of the American voter in terms of policy, even if he has to flip flop or contradict himself. Against Iraq but USA will win. For business, against trade. Pro life but supports PP. Keep Medicare but reduce top rates. Etc.
Our guys have moved rightward in policy over the last 10 years. But we cultivated a bland, neutral group of boring dudes. Is there a genuine wit in the Senate or House?
Look at how Rubio, Cruz used Twitter. Basically a press release tool. Trump is himself. Our guys are so bland it makes the gold plated faux billionaire seem authentic!
Yes, I know I’m really working hard to find reasons for optimism these days, but isn’t this a good one? Put Trump up against Hillary and you’re putting a genuinely fascinating candidate up against a noxious bore.
Published in General
He does know how to play the media game.
I might also add, what else can the media say about him? It has all, already been said.
It will be the first debates I watch this year, when he goes up against Clinton.
Your friend makes a good point. And as I was telling a friend of mine over the phone last week, a major reason why Trump prevailed was that he was actually talking to the voters while the other candidates seemed more interested in stating abstract philosophical and political points.
Maybe but he’s no “John Miller” or “John Barron”. Those guys know how to spin!
I had an acquaintance in high school who could be genuinely funny and interesting but then he would do something distasteful, vulgar, insulting, mean, cruel and on one occasion extremely violent and dangerous to another student for which he was expelled in his senior year. I’m not sure why that comes to mind just now…oh, yeah…
Even Trumps worst moments are more interesting than Hillary at her best. Once a person hits Saturation Trump he just becomes amusing. Of course, like allergies, we all have our different tipping points. I grew up near Queens NY around the same time as he did so I got natural immunity.
Hillary, on the other hand is instant media fatal. No one can watch her for more than ten minutes without thinking of something other than what is happening. It’s like a second eyelid that kicks in to prevent brain damage.
Can you remember more than ten minutes of a Hillary speech? Can you remember two? The body forgets pain.
Hillary runs as a concept. If Trump keeps showing Hillary the person, he wins.
She’s Chloroform In A Pantsuit.
He’s definitely interesting. And as your friend Rob likes to point out, we tend to elect the opposite of the last guy. So… from Hope and Change to Trump Change?
Dynamite with a laser beam.
Concrete images hit you like concrete .
Airy notions hit you like air.
I’ll keep my brain peeled for the next 6 months and see what I think.
I guess when you’re married to a budding sex offender in chief, you lose a little in the group hug department.
As long as your aimin’ to misbehave
Stalagmite with shaving cream.
This is so depressing – what is happening to the people that should be #NeverTrump? It reminds me of the closing scene in The Godfather where Connie Corelone’s first instinct is to allow her brother to embrace her in her grief, then she remembers he’s the one that had her husband assassinated and made her a widow in the first place…
I can’t believe someone of Peter Robinson’s temperament could be considering supporting Trump’s vandalism of our national institutions.
Peter, if you keep this up, some of us will lose our estimable place on this site as Outsiders.
Thanks for the nod. I’m flattered!
Yes, they were running a PowerPoint Primary.
If you are sincere about trying to understand the Trump phenomenon, you really must read Scott Adam’s Blog. He nails it.
You have to admit its kind of cute when Hillary starts coughing uncontrollably and the studio audience thinks:
“Isn’t this right where that thing comes out of her torso like the first Alien movie?”
Good times. Good times.
Since most of the conjecture of Trump v. Clinton is based on his loutish performance on a crowded stage of essentially decent men and one woman (except for Christie, Huckabee, Carson and Kasich) and not a Clinton it is a fool’s bet to see him succeeding against her with his current tactics, knowledge base and not lose votes.
I think he will collapse polemically like Romney and McCain did in their debates against Obama because (like them) at his core he hates and has contempt for Republicans and Conservatives more than hates the Left or wants Presidency and he is not very bright.
In short, Trump will relent and fold in debating Clinton because he will spend the rest of his life living among the Left.
Boy, Trump has every angle figured.
I’m surprised at the lack of Cannonball Run references in this thread.
Even Right Angles.
I’m just ou…ou…out..looking for a pack of cigarettes.
Of course Trump is interesting. He had his own hit reality show and was already a famous celebrity for years before that. Obviously a lot of his appeal comes from the fact that his responses and words seem genuinely in the moment and do not have the canned, rehearsed feel of many other politicians. I can see the appeal of that.
Doesn’t change the fact that his statements are often contradictory, offensive, juvenile, and/or nonsensical. He seems often to say whatever pops into his head without a filter. Entertaining, sure, but no real comfort to me when I think of him in the White House. Quite the opposite, in fact.
The Joker is always the most interesting, entertaining character in the different iterations of Batman. But he’s also still a despicable villain.
Trump is not the moral equivalent of the Joker, and I probably will pull the lever for him come November, but I still have a hard time finding a silver lining to the terrible choice this election season has led us to.
I’m sure everyone has heard the supposedly ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”