Month: August 2016

Jimmy the Greek had a theory about American black athletic superiority.  When they were slaves their masters practiced eugenics, and made sure a big strong man had plenty of mates.  For all I know it’s true, but he was charged with racism, and to save his career he apologized.  It didn’t do him any good, so Trump thinks it’s not smart to apologize, or so I’ve read.

Jimmy had nothing to apologize for, and he was a fool to do it. But Trump does have something to apologize for.  I’m trying hard to get a read on this guy.  He was my last choice because I thought he’s the one guy Clinton could beat.  Three years ago, when I started thinking about this election, I thought it would be a slam dunk, and the candidate didn’t matter that much.  I sensed we were about to experience a paradigm shift in our politics, a turning of the hundred year long progressive tide.  I went with Kasich because of Article V, but I soon realized my mistake, and went with Rubio, even though he’d screwed the pooch on immigration.  He looked like another John F. Kennedy to me, but he started waffling around with the neoconservatives, so I switched to Cruz, and stuck with him to the end.  Now I’m a Trumpkin, I guess.  As such, I’m invested in this guy, and I really haven’t figured him out.

I can sort of understand his problem with Cruz.  I’ve never met the man, but a lot of people that he’s supposed to work with can’t stand him.  It’s not politics with these guys, it’s personal.  They just hate his guts.  This makes me think there’s something wrong with him, that he lacks the sociability gene, or something.  Maybe he’s just arrogant.  So maybe Trump can’t stand him for a reason, and his attacks on his father, while despicable, are a tiny bit understandable.

But belittling Mrs. Khan for not speaking herself, but letting her husband speak for them both, is just bullying bigotry.  The oldest part of the human brain is the inner, lizard core, and most people know how to keep it under control, but not Trump. Every time I see a picture of young Capt. Khan, a fine looking man, it pisses me off.

So if he won’t apologize, maybe he should send Mrs. Khan a gift, maybe a framed portrait of her son in uniform.  And just to show that he’s really a big man, after all, he could send some patriotic gift to Rafael Cruz while he’s at it.

Some guys are just born with too much testosterone.  Alexander the Great was 21 when he led his army against the Persians.  His battle strategy was simple.  He would personally lead his cavalry in a charge directly at the Persian king.  He cut through their lines and forced the king to flee, and went on to conquer the known world.  Way too much testosterone.

What finally got me aboard the Trump train were the people he’s surrounded himself with, and the fact that he’s listening to them.  That’s not to say he’ll keep on listening, but it’s been six days now, so maybe it’s sunk in.  If you won’t listen you won’t learn, and if you don’t learn you can’t be trusted.

I keep thinking back to the Reagan-Carter debate, and the line that won the election, “There you go again.”  Carter had asked him a really tough question, and he really didn’t have a very good answer. But he had so much self confidence that he could shrug it off.  I don’t think Trump has that much self confidence.  His tough guy act is an act.  Reagan was actually a tough guy, and played football in college.  Maybe that’s the difference.

But we’re stuck with him and all of his insecurities.  I plan on doing everything I can to help him win.  I didn’t like Nixon either, but he was better than the alternative.  So is Trump.

Donald Trump has at last assembled a team capable of winning this election.  This process began with the selection of Mike Pence as his running mate.  Ivanka and Jared Kushner apparently succeeded in convincing Trump that Pence, not Christie or Gingrich, was the seasoned political pro, with unimpeachable conservative credentials, that he needed.  It was Pence who convinced him to endorse Paul Ryan.  And Pence is no doubt behind the appointment of his confidante Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager.  The addition of Steve Bannon as campaign CEO, apparently in charge of messaging, completes the inner troika surrounding him.  

This all seems familiar.  Early in 1980, when Reagan realized John Sears wasn’t up to the job of running a Presidential campaign, he turned to an old pro, James Baker, to right the ship.  Reagan’s troika was Baker, Mike Deaver and Ed Meese.  Mike Pence is the new Baker, Conway is the new Deaver, and Bannon is the new Meese.  Ivanka fills the role of Nancy Reagan, and is perfect for the part.  The departure of Manafort clears the deck for the new team.  His presence would only be a distraction going forward.  Trump runs a tight ship, and now has everything he needs to win.

While he was forced to shake up his campaign,  Reagan’s message remained constant, as will Trump’s.  The Trump campaign is changing its tone and style.  The substance is unaffected.   American nationalism in every sphere, be it with respect to refugee, immigration, trade or foreign policy.  Populism, in the form of rejecting the corrupt Washington cartel, the entire media/political establishment, and political correctness.

 

The rest is here at American Thinker

Certain behaviors are appropriate in some circumstances, but not in others.  Trump, an old dog, has learned a new trick.  He’s behaving like the Republican nominee for President of the United States.  That behavior is different from being a celebrity, and different from being a candidate for the nomination.  This is serious business, more serious than anything Trump has done in his life.  If he’s to avoid the embarrassment of an ignominious defeat to the Queen of the Clinton crime family he’s going to have to keep it up.  I’m hopeful, because of the people he’s currently surrounding himself with.  Lewandowski reinforced all his worst instincts, and he rejected Manafort’s advice, probably because he didn’t respect him.

In a piece I sent in to American Thinker today, I compare his new advisers to those of Ronald Reagan  – –   James Baker, Ed Meese and Mike Deaver, the troika of aides closest to the Gipper.  I got a chance to talk to Meese at the 40th anniversary of the National Tax Foundation last December.   It was a real treat for me.

Pence, Bannon and Conway are Trump’s troika, and they’re responsible, along with his family, of keeping him focused.  I think they’re up to the task, especially Conway, because she’s a woman.  Women have a tendency to defuse things, especially for a guy like Trump.  Around men the testosterone level goes up.  Women cool you down.  Most men remember their mothers fondly, and deep in the brain we’re solicitous of women in general.  This woman looks perfect to me.

If Trump keeps this up he’ll be in a position to win it with a strong debate performance.  This will require an attention to detail, and a volume of knowledge, that will test his intelligence and his discipline.  I’m sure’s smart enough.  The other part, we’ll see.  Just do exactly what Romney did.  No need to reinvent the wheel.

Maybe there’s some kind of mental conditioning he could go through which would allow him not to be distracted by bright shiny objects.  The moderator, and Clinton, will be constantly baiting him, trying to get him to bite.  Like fly fishermen, they’ll try everything.  But if he bites, he’s hooked, and it’s game over.  Reagan showed you how you do it.  After Carter basically called him an idiot, the Gipper shrugged his shoulders, smiled a little bit, and said “There you go again.”  That one moment, more than any other, won him the election.  He passed the temperament test, and he was O.K. to vote for.  Can Trump do that?

A week or so ago Jonah Goldberg wrote that if Trump could be normal for an entire week he’d support him.  Five days down, two to go.

Some of these Never Trumpers are so invested in their loathing of Trump that they’re a little unhinged. The longer Trump stays normal the more untenable their position becomes.

I admit to being a little obsessed with the Paula Jones story.  It’s dying to be told.  I think Trump should establish an annual award from the Trump Foundation.  The gift of a $100,00 cash prize to the recipient of the “Woman of Courage” award.  Paula Jones would be the first winner.

Dave Biddulph and I worked up a proposal for the Trump campaign, which Dave and Lew Uhler will try to deliver.  It makes perfect sense to me.  I can understand why it might not work.  But at least I think it deserves a hearing.  With the addition of Pence and Conway, I’m pretty sure it will at least be considered.

Babbie, Brendan and I will be driving back to Bozeman  next week.  Right through the heart of the Sagebrush Rebellion.  Just think of the kind of life these ranchers have, basically running cattle in a desert.  A big, lonely, hot desert.  That’s a tough way to live, but it’s what they like.  The federal government hassles these guys.  The environmentalists in D.C. who pull the strings want to drive them out of business.  They want this land to revert to a state of nature, with limited human activity.  It’s ridiculous, and these guys need our support.  The Transfer of Public Lands is the answer. Under state management, dedicated to keeping them in business, they’ll thrive.

If Trump wins, we could do it.

The time is right for a palace revolution.  The peasants are at the gate, and the royals retreat to their tower.  All the king’s men are arrayed against the people, and the fight for the kingdom rages.  The weapons of war are unleashed, and for the next twelve weeks we’ll hear the roar of cannon, the blasts of the trumpet, and the clash of arms.  Who said politics wasn’t fun?

Come November  we’ll see if the star spangled banner still waves.  In the mean time, buckle up.  Lee Atwater is back, and he’s tougher and meaner than ever.  Steve Bannon is my kind of guy.  He’s fearless, smart, and the love of Old Glory burns within him.  Hell, I was starting to get turned off by this whole campaign.  No more.  Trump’s got some ads he’ll be running soon, and Donny Deutsch of With All Due Respect predicts that they will be a Bannon Production, and mean as hell.  I think Donny’s on the money, and I can’t wait to see them.  I’m kind of jealous.  I’d love to be in the room when they’re kicking around lines of attack.  This is the part of politics I like best, and have always done best, going all the way back to the Hammond campaign in ’78.  I learned from a master, Bob Clarke, a hired gun out of Chicago who Hammond hired to fix an absolutely dire political situation.  We won by 97 votes, and I never had so much fun in my life.  The guy we beat, Wally Hickel, hated my guts and did what he could to stop me politically.  It’s a tough business.

Kelyann Conway said they wanted to focus on issues.  She’s right.  The campaign is about the issues, which all favor Trump.  But the TV ads are separate.  They’re really not part of the campaign.  Peace and prosperity.  Those are the two issues.

As far as prosperity goes, we need to stop borrowing from our grandchildren.  We need a balanced budget amendment.  The BBA is the most agreed upon reform we have in this country.  65% of Democrats are in favor of it.  The language of the actual amendment will be worked out with Ryan and McConnell, and Trump could influence its contents to suit him.  This should be the subject of a major speech, with teleprompters.  And if he wins, and Congress won’t pass the BBA, everyone will realize we can get it through Article V.

If Trump wants to win this thing he should take a look at the first Romney/Obama debate.   It was absolutely brutal.  Is he capable of doing to Clinton what Romney did to Obama?  It would take a lot of debate prep.  It would be work, drudgery.  I don’t know if he’s up to it.

One ad I always liked would be Paula Jones in a sixty second spot, looking directly at the camera.  Sixty seconds is long enough.  Just tell her story, and end by telling how she was branded as trailer trash for being brave and standing up for herself and all women.  I think a lot of women would identify with Paula Jones, not just working class whites.  What she did required extraordinary courage.  It was her courage that finally exposed Bill Clinton as a serial sexual predator, and his wife as his chief enabler.  It’s like out of a TV script.  The ad writes itself.  And the thing is, I think Steve Bannon would do it.

I could go on.  I’ve got a good imagination.  But so does Steve Bannon.  He just may be smart enough to catch the wave.  The tide that I felt turn three years ago still runs.  Until Bannon came along I thought Trump was an obstacle to the flow.

Let’s see what he’s got.

The wildest election ever is about to get a little wilder.

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