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Tears For Trump
I really have nothing to add to this, from the Washington Post:
“It has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me,” Donald Trump said Monday morning during a televised town hall on the “Today” show. What hadn’t been easy? His career. “I started off in Brooklyn,” he explained. “My father gave me a small loan … I came into Manhattan and I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with interest.” The small loan? We took the number out of that quote for effect. It was a small loan of $1 million.
Wait. I do have one small thing to add (small as in “not large,” not small as in “$1 million”). It’s this: comments like this are really off-brand for Trump but may actually reveal his true nature. He’s sort of a whiny, thin-skinned, over-sensitive pampered rich boy, isn’t he?
And in that respect, he resembles another Republican candidate:
Published in PoliticsReally revealing comments from @JebBush in SC today pic.twitter.com/N7M51xlR6D
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 24, 2015
Looks like one of these guys could really use Sane Box.
But, this is the strongest field since….
Is that really that unusual? Say what you will about Kevin Williamson’s thoughts about Trump but it’s certainly true that Trump has repeatedly tried to wrap himself in the Horatio Alger story of self-made success when he is anything but.
The biggest knock to me is that Trump seems less like a rational moneyman (such as Mitt Romney) and more of a degenerate gambler: he bets big and either busts or wins big and it’s the rush, not the money, that he loves. He also, like any degenerate gambler, loves to talk about how great he is at gambling.
That’s a really good reason not to elect him: he’d probably do the same in public life as he has in private life.
That was $1 million nearly 50 years ago. That’s about $5 million today.
This election cycle so far is the most depressing one of my life. And my memory goes back to Goldwater vs. Johnson. God help us.
Duh?
tRump acts this way in every debate and it shows clear as day. He’s a spoiled brat that used government corruption to knock out competitors and prevent new ones in the real estate market. He never had it hard and he is pathetic. All he ever says are platitudes about deals and walls and that he is always the victim of some massive and all encompassing media conspiracy. This is hilarious when you consider that many like Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, et al. are always fawning over him and viciously attacking non-tRump candidates.
My only wish is that more of the electorate were engaged in politics because it seems like many are not and are simply falling to Pavlovian responses of successful, businessman, and outsider as if those very words made them the best candidate or better than all the alternatives. Those who claim to be conservatives should be far more prudent than to let themselves fall to simple passion over one issue or their frustration at politics. We are better than that, or at least we ought to be.
I share your sentiment.
It’s often been said that the way to make a couple of million dollars is to start with million.
The ‘strongest slate of candidates in history’ has come down to exactly two potentially electable candidates, Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio. I like Ted Cruz, but it is hard to imagine him winning the Presidency. Other than that, who is left?
When your two best candidates are a junior senator who essentially checked out after half a term and a CEO with baggage who has never won an election, it starts to look a little worrisome. And I say that while liking both of those candidates. It’s time to recognize that this is going to be a very tough fight.
Don’t knock Senator Rubio. He is emerging as the guy who put the most thought into how to get from here to the nomination & election. Also, Sen. Cruz, who, I agree, is not going to win much of anything. I’m not in love with the guy, but he seems to have been least affected by the great delusion of a great year with great debates & great candidates. If he is not the thoughtless creature some take him to be–which would not preclude him from good acting on foreign policy, where he talks serious, & never suggests anything that is serious, like what to do, so he pleases both an establishment deluded by education & a base deluded by principle–then he might just be the guy who is sufficiently skeptical of the primary electorate & of the party to have a shot at winning…
It is very disappointing that Walker and Perry dropped out. I blame both on terrible campaign managers that built too large of an organization too quickly. Of course if Walker and Perry really wanted to be president they would have retrenched, fired their campaign manager and most of their staff, and “lived off the land” like McCain did in 2008.
Ted Cruz might be able to win the primary, but he would lose in the general. His manner and speaking style rub many people the wrong way.
I think Trump’s support is starting to fade with actual Republican primary voters. We can see it in Iowa, where the caucus goers are actually starting to pay attention. That being said Trump won’t drop out until he is in < second place nationally or until voting starts to happen and he doesn’t win.
Borrowing money from family is how close to 100% of startups happened back then. VC money was limited to the already successful business.
I do not think the GOP electorate in the primaries really is that far to the right. I think what conservatives so often blame on the GOP establishment, concerning ’08 & ’12, is to blame on the electorate really. Look up Mr. Henry Olsen’s thoughts on the matter of the electorate on his new blog at National Review…
Also, there is this to consider: Many Southern states have elected to hold primaries in a period where the rules say, proportional allotment of delegates, not winner-take-all. That will hurt Sen. Cruz more than anyone-
Just what I was thinking… Duh?
You didn’t pick that up after he whined for weeks based on the questioning from Megyn Kelly?
Perry is a great man I think but his campaign was doomed from the start. The country at large is still spoiled on the Texas brand. For at least another few elections…
In my opinion, two of the best candidates aren’t in the race anymore. No, not Jim Gilmore or Jim Webb; Walker and Perry.
The self-proclaimed base, who like to proclaim the need for executive experience in a candidate, have rejected two of the best governors in recent years.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.
I am not following on how this gets blamed on the self-proclaimed base?
They dropped out before the first primary caucus. They had PAC money behind them.
Only they know their reasons for stepping aside.
Trump – he’ll do for America what he did for the USFL.
http://www.salon.com/2011/04/21/trump_tollin_usfl/
“Filmmaker Mike Tollin, who ran the USFL’s equivalent of NFL Film back in the ’80s, told this story in “Small Potatoes,” a 2009 documentary that was part of ESPN’s “30 for 30″ series. One of the highlights of the movie is Tollin’s interview with Trump, who arrives for the taping in a combative mood, provides a series of hostile answers and then storms off the set. When the film debuted in October ’09, Trump publicly rippedit as “third rate” and attacked Tollin as “a sad guy.” (He also sent a note to Tollin with this handwritten postscript: “You are a loser.”)”
It’s because the base is the source of all ills in the Republican party. If they’d just cave on abortion, spending, amnesty, same-sex marriage, or whatever the roadblock to the impending Republican super-majority was everything would be alright.
The base is the establishment’s establishment.
I think Walker and Perry were both victims of the ‘Trump Effect”. Trump has soaked up all the oxygen in the campaign, which prevented quality candidates with iffy funding from gaining the early traction they needed to build up funding and remain in the race.
Walker left because his campaign was broke. Perry couldn’t get anyone to pay attention to him. Walker in particular adopted a strategy of spending big at the beginning to establish a strong position, and Trump just shut it down.
But soon we’re going to have to call it the “Trump/Carson” effect, because it seems that as Trump fades, Carson grows. Between the two of them, they’re just shunting everyone else aside – and neither of them are remotely electable.
In a year where the Republicans have had everything going for them, they seem poised to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory once again. Mind you, it’s a long, long way to the election, and anything can still happen.
The U.S. election system is royally screwed up, though. With deadlines looming for being registered in primaries, the candidates have to be in place more than a year before the election, and then you’re pretty much stuck with what you’ve got. That’s crazy. There has to be room for other candidates to emerge as events change.
For example, I think there’s a very good chance that the next election will be about national security, because I think this next year is going to be extraordinarily dangerous. It’s a very bad time to have a situation where there’s not a single candidate left in the race on either side who has any military experience. Rubio talks a good game and seems to be knowledgeable, but that’s not a substitute for decades of experience in military matters. We might be really crying for a Rick Perry or even a Jim Webb, but by then it will be too late.
I’m starting to feel the same way. But despair is a sin, right?
Agree. Wish I didn’t, but I do.
And a mighty one. But fear not Rob, in the coming post-America wasteland we’ll need good comedy more than ever.
We’ll need you to hole up at a UHF station outside Boise and crank out a sitcom about the wacky adventures inside the local survivalists’ mess tent.
Rob how is Carly more electable than Chris Christie? Because of Bridgegate? A scandal that got so much play because MSNBC hates the guy and is in New York? Because he hugged Obama and the biggest natural disaster to hit his state in decades? 400+ votes of a Democrat machine legislature is not enough for people?
And I like Carly just fine but you think the talk of her business record is bad now? Omg she’ll be a female Mr. Burns before this thing is over if she gets the nomination nod.
Billionaires are people too.
Ah! Another fine fall day for Trump bashing. It’s getting kind of boring, though. Silver spoon, thin skin, shallow, belligerent, unworthy, etc. If all he does is close the border and clean up our election rolls, he’s our hero. Please read Coulter instead of tea leaves, twitter feeds or other time wasters.
Rob,
Between the petulant heir apparent Jeb!, dead broke Hillary, and now poor Donald’s almanac, I think I’m going to be sick. This is the sign of the totally out of touch. They have no idea that their self pity is completely ridiculous to almost everyone else.
Regards,
Jim