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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
Funniest thing on TV!
I actually forgot about Christie. I would agree with you that he’s still in the ‘electable’ camp – if he can get the nomination. But he’s not my idea of the perfect candidate.
That’s why I said she was a ‘CEO with baggage’. She needs to come up with a compelling reason for what happened at HP, AND she has to defuse CEO problem with the populists and independents who these days tend to assume that CEOs are villains. Her layoffs play right into that.
I have also heard that she is difficult to work with, and that means if she becomes the candidate there will be no shortage of people willing to come forward and trash her – especially if they are working for the Democrats.
Don’t get me wrong – I really like Fiorina, and I don’t have a huge problem with Christie. But they aren’t exactly our dream candidates.
As for Rubio… I am very conflicted. On the one hand, I think he’s poised, and an eloquent speechmaker. I think he does his homework and is pretty good on foreign policy. However… I spent a lot of time in 2008 arguing that a President needs executive experience, that a young, one-time senator who has been in government for much of his adult life lacks the life experience and practical knowledge to make a good president. Then Obama got elected and proved me right on every point.
So that’s Rubio’s biggest problem. He’s a creature of government. His instincts may be right, but he’s woefully short of real world experience, and has no experience as an executive running a large organization. That worries me.
And neither of those will happen, because Trump will never be elected.
Here’s what’s going to happen: All of the dirt that the media and the Democrats are holding back, all the crazy talk they’re letting slide, is going to be plastered all over him the minute he’s the nominee, if he gets that far.
The second Trump is actually nominated, all those softball celebrity style interviews are over. The kid gloves will come off, and the knives will come out.
Remember, these are the people who managed to do real damage to Romney’s campaign over his ‘binders full of women’ comment. Just what do you think they are going to do with Trump’s long history of outrageous behavior and his sexist comments and all the rest?
Within a week of his nomination it will be widely known that he is the worst human being on the planet and totally unfit for the presidency, and that meme will be repeatedly endlessly by every talking head on the left and in the MSM. Mark my words.
The problem isn’t the field of candidates its the idiots who support them. I think between Bush and Trump supporters we have all the worst elements of the conservative movement. From stunningly ignorant to breathtakingly cynical, this thing is going to be a doozey. If either one of them wins it’s a bad sign.
[Editor’s Note: This comment was flagged. While we don’t think it rises to the level of an ad hominem, members are enjoined to chose their language carefully and to qualify broad statements.]
Oh I’m sure you are right, on the other hand Trump is a shameless braggart. He will glide past all his criticism, shrug, call the media liars, and move on. Look at this whole Megan Kelly thing. That was amazingly bad by all normal political standards. A politician with some sense of shame would have been buried by that. But, not Trump.
My friends we are living in the age of the Jerk. Civility, solemnity, stoicism and forbearance are long dead public virtues. 24 hour news, talk radio, and the internet have turned politics into reality TV entertainment. The American voters are no longer looking for someone with guts and determination to lead them they are voting for the next American Idol.
Okay, but you’ll have to call my agent.
Hey, I love Ann. But I also remember when she told me that Christie was our only hope. And then that Romney was our only hope. And then that Romney’s immigration plan was the most conservative one around. And now that Trump is so trustworthy on immigration that as far as she’s concerned he can “perform abortions in the Oval Office.”
And I mean it: I love Ann. She’s a dear friend and a genius and a spectacular writer. I guess what worries me in this primary season is that people who disagree with each other are acting like political enemies. I’ll back the nominee, whoever it is.
Unless it’s Lindsay Graham.
Got it. Is Tuesday good for you?
News flash: Rob Long endorses Rick Santorum for President in 2016!
Glad to know that Ann is now the Oracle of Delphi for us who claim the title of conservative. I am still waiting for that compelling argument that tRump is a conservative because all I continue to hear/see from his supporters is that he will close the borders and stop corruption. I fail to see how he will do either of those given his actions and what he has said on public television before 24 million Americans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuWkIaakqaM
Here is the one video I could find on tRump and bankruptcy. The man not only used the Tu Quo Que fallacy (if they do I can do it) to justify his actions but said all “great americans” do it too (meaning its the right thing to do). He also said, towards the last minute, that he felt no guilt over his gaming the system and leaving his investors high and dry because they deserved it.
No loyalty, no principles, no walk and only talk. That is what tRump is.
CbA,
You call’em like you see’em. Works for me.
Regards,
Jim
Perhaps my words were poorly chosen, and one should not comment in haste. So I won’t try and defend my original formulation or alter it because I think it should stand as testament to the function of the Code of Conduct. I’m sorry if I approached or crossed any line, this is Ricochet after all, and we are all friends, but sometimes your friends do things that you can’t just understand or even really accept. So let me see if I can more gently explain my position. In a subsequent post.
I think we see in Trump and Bush two avatars of radically different conceptions of presidential candidates. Views that in their extreme I think are ultimately deleterious and harmful. Trump is the embodiment of the idea that what matters is the man, not his ideas. To me it seems that Trump’s positions are based on his personality and the passions of the crowd. Those who support Trump support the man above their support for any of his positions, and so Trump has done very little work to think through or be consistent on most things.
Bush is the exact opposite. He is the embodiment of idea that what matters most is the policy not the man. His supporters back him because they support his policies above any loyalty they have to him as a man. Bush is a vehicle for his policies, if it would not be him it would be someone else just like him.
Yet, a president really has to be both man and policy. Trump risks having no direction if elected reacting to events without clear forethought and all with an eye to maintaining his persona. We already have a self-centered president in office now. Bush is a slave to his positions and the intellects behind those positions. He will lead an no one will follow and he will not care because he doesn’t need support he needs theories and economic models.
None of them are complete candidates. They strike me as caricatures.
I wouldn’t have even really noticed it (I totally agreed with it), but kudos to the Ricochet folks. They’re really serious about trying to foster a constructive dialogue.
Anyone else noticed this is tagged by Rob as “Donald Trunp”? Clearly an establishment squish conspiracy by Rob to not give Donald the real attention he is due.