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The Man is a Boor and a Bore
Let me say first that I still plan on voting for Trump in November. He’s done great things for the economy, for unemployment, new job creation, and has done a pretty good job on coronavirus, sanctioned Iran, supported Israel, as well as other achievements.
But my ability to listen to the man has been tapped out.
I know he can do whatever he wants when he calls a press conference, but he announced he was going to speak about China, which he did for about a total of (generously) 10 minutes of the 52 minutes he spoke, mostly at the end. I was about to tear out my hair listening to the same liturgy about all his achievements; I can almost recite them along with him. And don’t try to tell me that he’s doing it for all those people who’ve not heard him provide his long list of claims. By now, I’ll bet most people can recite them right along with me: more virus tests than anyone in the world, ventilators, respirators, facilities, testing leads to more cases, improved black employment, punishing China. It makes me crazy.
At this point, I realize he will not change his style or content. I know that he loves to hear himself talk. I know that he misses campaign rallies (which was essentially what he gave tonight). I know that he doesn’t care about persuading anyone to vote for him except his base: screw the independents or doubting Liberals.
I also know that many of you will want to persuade me to (1) stop listening to him; (2) accept his job performance, not his personality; and (3) just vote for him in November.
I will vote for him.
But I will go to the polls gritting my teeth.
Published in Elections
Read transcripts and watch after-the-fact videos if they are praised by people you admire. Otherwise tune out Trumpworld until November 3.
So, for comparison…
How do you like listening to Joe Biden?
And as a reference point…
How do you like listening to Hillary Clinton?
Susan. you’re exactly right. Most teenagers are more mature than Trump. My god, I thought the man would learn by this time how to come across as a thinking, mature individual. But no. He’s as petty and as egotistical as ever. What a blowhard! Can’t anyone in his administration control him?
And for that reason, I think Trump is going to be defeated come November.
I will be voting for him, come hell or high water. Because, well, look who he’s running against: Biden, those who will prop him up, and the worst group of lefties this country has ever seen.
I don’t think Trump has a chance. His childish personality will defeat him.
I hate it. I love Trump’s policies. I think he’s the most conservative Republican president, or would-be president, since Reagan.
The democrats may indeed run this country into the ground.
All Trump had to do was come across as an adult. He’s smart enough. But he couldn’t do it.
Just re-watch stuff like this:
Does Biden? What about the folks behind him?
Tree,
Those aren’t actually important questions to Gary — the trustworthiness of Biden et al. Gary is engaged in a gambit, deliberately sacrificing something in hopes of achieving something of greater value.
What he is sacrificing is four years of Republican governance that, if it’s like the past four years, is likely to be fairly conservative in several ways that matter. What he is accepting in its place is four years — or, more likely, eight years, given the prevalence of two-term administrations — of Democratic governance. In fact, he’s accepting eight years of what promises to be the most radical and “progressive,” transformative governance America has seen since at least FDR, and probably ever.
That’s a big trade. What does he hope for in return? He hopes that the Republican party will take a particular lesson from its loss, and that that lesson will be that it should never run a man of low character again. He hopes that the party will rise from defeat with a new resolve to nominate only men of outstanding character and ability.
Of course, other things might happen, things I think are at least as likely as a self-reflective rebirth of the party of Reagan.
As I say, it’s a gambit: we’re giving up an almost certain thing in exchange for a hoped-for better thing. I think it’s a fool’s bet, but then I think there’s a lot of foolishness, and incredible arrogance, on the anti-Trump right. So here we are.
The problem is he has limited ability to convert based on his talk and personality. His actions maybe, but the more you see him in person he’s a mess. I see all the time how he turns off people who should be agreeing with him on substance. He is what he is.
I wonder at this point if he really cares if he is reelected. His campaign is disorganized and dispirited and he can’t keep himself focused. I suspect Melania, Ivanka, and Jared would be happy to go home and call it a day.
Gumby, I’ve always dismissed this idea, but the more I see how Trump acts — and the more I think about it — the more I think you might be right. Surely if Trump wanted to be re-elected, he could control himself and come across as mature.
In a very real sense, the Trump victory of 2016 was really the Clinton defeat of 2016: she was a terrible candidate, unlikable, uncharismatic, and corrupt.
The opposition this cycle hasn’t come out of his basement yet, nor selected a running mate. In the meantime, his party is increasingly allied with a cultural revolution that is frightening and angering millions of Americans. We’re still in a chaotic moment, and I hope the President will regain his stride a bit once things settle down. If America remembers what we’ve witnessed of BLM and Antifa and the new anti-police movement and the explosion in violent crime, perhaps they’ll perceive, correctly, that that also is part of what Trump is running against.
This isn’t and has never been a question of ‘conversion’. I’ve come to see that as an absolute illusion. Unfortunately that’s a loser game. And it’s not a popularity contest either. Not with the media. The media is the ‘media’. They spin, collate, present, order and lie. If they were honest we might be able to ‘convert’ people. They are converting people, but they are losing people like crazy. Conversion is out the window. This is smash-mouth.
Did you see the Rushmore speech? There will be more of those.
It’s about motivating the base and getting new people who have been on the sidelines. There are people who didn’t vote for him in 2016 who will come out of the woodwork. Trump will win. It could be a landslide even. It hasn’t even really started yet.
It sounds to me like you ( and others) are falling for the MSM drumbeat narrative. Or maybe you have a direct source.
Now I could be deluded. I will digest their narratives, but I also look deeper and see what they are not reporting. This mayhem will bite the Democrats. The way the Democrats are becoming petty tyrants will also hurt them. There are unreported and credible polls that show quite the opposite.
Yes, like the racist and cancel culture Democrats. I see what you mean. Trump is surely the problem and all would be better had Bush or Rubio been nominated.
My perspective is as someone who sees a loss by Trump and loss of the Senate as a massive disaster, based on what we’ve seen going on in America in recent weeks. It’s informed by several things. Running across acquaintances who voted for Trump last time but are saying they are going to sit this one out because they just can’t take the man anymore. And speaking with people who don’t follow politics that closely but who, when you probe a bit, have views on policy much closer to Trump than to Democrats but refuse to vote for the guy because they can’t stand him. It’s hard to get those folks who’ve been on the sidelines.
I think this year has hurt him. My own impression is that those covid press conferences made him seem like a man who can’t control himself. And before anyone else jumps in, yes, I agree pretty much nobody in politics or in public health looks good regarding covid. But Donald Trump is the President and people expect something more from their president – not a guy who’s talking stream of consciousness endlessly and allowing himself to be baited by media idiots.
The Rushmore speech was great. I didn’t listen to it, but did read it and it’s probably his first speech where I agree 100% with every word. But what was the followup? He needs more than a couple of speeches. He needs to be hammering the same thing day after day with his campaign doing the same on every form of media and not be sitting around tweeting “LAW AND ORDER!” like some retired doofus.
And if he does it right, with some thought, the Democrats will play into his hands, as you point out. But is he capable of doing that now? I don’t know.
I think you are wrong that we would have been better off if Bush or Rubio had been nominated.
Think of Trump as chemotherapy for the cancerous deep state
Yeah, he’s repetitive. And he doesn’t give a great speech from a teleprompter.
But you know what I see? I see a president who has had it as tough as Lincoln or FDR but in an undeclared war and without a way to win. He looks like a guy who’s done 12 rounds and the fight’s not over. He’s Rocky. I have an idea why he always looks fat when he’s out of doors: he’s got a bullet-proof vest on, and probably it looks like a groin guard. When he points at the cameras and calls them all fake news and liars, he means it, and he’s right; and for a guy who’s supposed to be so thin skinned I think he’s taking unprecedented, near-universal, factually-false and otherwise misleading Press criticism rather well. Who can do three and a half years of being president and all the thanks you get is BS criticism.
And he’s been a very good president all told. And he looks like he’s been in a war zone for three and a half years. And no end in site, or at least no victory. That’s all the more reason to keep him in my prayers.
For instance, Joe Biden gave an important speech today covering the economy and energy.
Check it out, tell me what you think:
Thanks, but I could only watch the first 2.5 minutes of it. And he was even squinting at the teleprompter.
Trump may be a boor but he is definitely not a bore.
Bush and Rubio. Bush is a globalist and Rubio says whatever he thinks will get him noticed. And neither one would have been opposed by the Deep State. Trump was a stroke of … call it luck. And you can see how hated he is by those in power, in the government, the IC and the press. It’s easy to believe that people who voted for him and are now disenchanted have taken the he’s-a-loser message to heart and don’t realize it.
He starts off really bitter, obnoxious, and yelling. But around 13 minutes in he completely runs out of energy.
Okay, I’ll try again. :)
Okay I watched it. At the 20 minute mark, he said: “We’re gonna get to work toodling results right away on DAY ONE!”
I’m actually stunned that he is still the front man for the Democrat party.
I partially agree. For some of us, he is definitely not a bore, but for some of us, he definitely is a bore.
As he might say it, “My tweets are interesting, very very interesting. They are the most incredibly interesting things ever said by a President. And I am doing a good job, a very very good job. I am doing the most incredibly good job ever done by a President. And the press are bad, very very bad. They are the most incredibly bad press ever. And this person who praised me the other day, she is good, very very good. She is the most incredibly good person ever…”
Is an endless stream of that mindless, childlike pattern of speech, with only the topic changing, boring?
Matter of taste.
Me too.
You are so right, @philo! I already feel much better!
Excellent point, @henryracette. We do know what we have mostly, until those times he changes his mind. (Just kidding)
Well said, @flicker. It has been a war zone, and I think a lot of us are battle weary. But at least the rest of us are not taking direct hits.
Is there any evidence he can do this? Trump gonna be Trump.
Indeed.
What color is the sky in your world?
Trump is losing badly. No matter how much you want to believe otherwise, the national polls aren’t wrong. They weren’t wrong in 2016, and they weren’t wrong in 2018. Trump only won in 2016 because a few states shifted a percentage point the right way.
It’s possible he could still eke out a second victory, if the Dem/antifa left overplay their hand enough to spark a vote against them (rather than for Trump). And there really is a long way to go – at this point in 1988 H.W. Bush was down double-digits nationally.
But Bush was disciplined enough to stay on message. Trump, not so much.