Topic: Up Like Trump - page 268. (Read 572822 times)
Planning the coming “Trump takedown”
Among the various Sunday shows this weekend there was a rather ominous segment which took place during John King’s Inside Politics panel on CNN. They were going around the table ferreting out the inside baseball aspects of the campaign which the various panelists were following, and when the inevitable subject of The Donald came up, a devious sounding plan arose for discussion. Since nobody is still sure “what to do about Trump” without burning their fingers on the stove, (more on that in a minute) there is talk of some sort of anonymous, clean hands plot to begin hitting him in a way where he can’t very easily strike back. (CNN)
And now, after weeks of assuming his support would be fleeting, there is a debate about how to take aim at Trump — and just who should finance such an effort.
CNN’s Maeve Reston noted that most GOP strategists see risks in having the attacks come from the other candidates or their directly affiliated super PACs. So, she reports, there is conversation about what other group might raise money for anti-Trump TV ads.
“There are a lot of donors out there who see it as much too dangerous, obviously, for the candidates, or their allied super PACs, to go after Trump,” said Reston. “So they’re looking to more establishment PACs to potentially take him down in post-Labor Day ads.”
Of course, nobody is going on the record to say precisely who is pushing the idea or offering specifics for who might handle the funding for a massive, anti-Trump television blitz, but it might not be too hard to guess. Assuming this is in the works you might see groups along the lines of the Conservative Victory Project (an offshoot of American Crossroads) or perhaps even the Chamber of Commerce funneling cash into an effort to undermine Trump. But it’s worth remembering that, in reality, none of these organizations operate in a vacuum when it comes to the established power structure in Washington and inside the GOP. There are big names who are not officially tied to any of them but obviously have some direct and influential input into their decision making process.
That brings us back to the initial question I indicated above. As a starting point, let’s just acknowledge for the bazillionth time that we’re not playing softball here and there are going to be some sharp elbows thrown. Fair enough. Everyone has their own preferences in terms of candidates and policy and we can all back who we wish. But at some point in the process reality has to begin to set in.
I suppose the point I’m trying to make here is that things are still fluid today and a lot can happen between now and, say… March. But Trump’s numbers are not some isolated aberration in a couple of remote boondocks. The guy is way, way out in front in not only the early states and the swing states, but nationally as well. Sure, that might change as the race ages and people begin dropping out, but it also may not. And if it’s not Trump, what if it’s Carson? (Currently running a very strong second in many locations.) What if – horror of horrors – the show ponies selected by the powers that be simply aren’t acceptable to enough of your voters this cycle and you’re stuck with somebody you can’t keep on a leash?
The bottom line is that healthy competition is fine. Any candidate who can’t take the heat should get out of the race. But if our GOP powerbrokers continue these sort of attacks well after the nation’s Republican primary voters have begun weighing in on a large scale in a different direction, that’s not just counterproductive… it’s insulting. You may have forgotten what your job actually is in that case. The only people who get to make the final decision are your voters who support and make up the party. If you insist on trying to torpedo their choice after they’ve spoken then you really need to get out of this business and go home.
Trump may not wind up being the leader for the nomination going into the convention, but at this point you have to concede the possibility that he might be. And if he is, it will be long past the time when you need to stop worrying over “what to do about Trump” and start figuring out how you’re going to get him elected.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/08/31/planning-the-coming-trump-takedown/comment-page-1/#comments
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Karl rove...
Trump: U.S. Treats Illegal Aliens Better Than Veterans
On Saturday, GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said illegal immigrants are treated better than Wounded Warriors and veterans in America.
Speaking in Nashville at a National Federation of Republican Assemblies event, Trump said that “illegal immigrants, in many cases–not in all cases, but in many cases–are treated better than our veterans, who are the greatest people we have.” Trump spoke about some of the horrors veterans have had to face in accessing basic medical care and services and vowed that veterans would be treated like first-class citizens under a Trump administration.
After mentioning that illegal immigrants and DREAMers were protesting outside of the event, Trump asked, “What about our children?… Why can’t our children that are in the country… Why can’t they be the dreamers?”
Trump added, “nobody ever talks about them… we talk about the DREAMERs… we talk about the illegal immigrants, who, by the way, are treated better than the vets.”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/30/donald-trump-u-s-treats-illegals-better-than-vets/
It might be fun playing the Trump game for awhile. But get your "Dump Trump" banners ready.
Be creative, don't let someone else do it for you. Do eet!
Not even president yet and people are already making a fortune selling trump pinatas...
Donald Trump piñatas hard to find in Sonoma County
The Donald Trump piñata — difficult to find at your local Latino supermarket or party store — is becoming a hot fiesta accessory.
But those who are searching for the hollow cardboard figure, complete with a crepe- paper comb-over, are not who you might think.
“I thought they would sell more with Hispanics, but it’s mostly Anglos,” said Andrea Zepeda, whose family owns Dulceria Las Tapatias in southwest Santa Rosa. “I don’t even know why Anglos would want it more than Hispanics.”
Across the Bay Area, Trump piñatas are selling almost as fast as they’re placed on store shelves. The ones sold at Dulceria Las Tapatias on Sebastopol Road come from Los Angeles, via San Francisco, Zepeda said. By the time the vendor gets to Santa Rosa he only has a few left, she said.
Trump, who is leading in national polls among registered Republican voters, has become extremely unpopular among Latinos, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. The poll found that Trump’s favorable rating was minus-51 percent among Latinos. In contrast, other GOP candidates had favorable ratings that ranged from plus-7 percent for Ted Cruz to plus-11 percent for Jeb Bush.
Pundits point to Trump’s unapologetic crusade against the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, and his now infamous claim that Mexico is sending drugs, criminals and “rapists” across the border.
Zepeda assumed local Latinos would be first in line to buy the Trump piñatas. The Los Angeles vendor brought only five Trump piñatas. Four were purchased by white customers and the fifth, which sold Friday afternoon, was bought by a Latino man.
The piñatas, which stand about 3 feet tall, depict Trump in a black suit with a red power tie. His arms extend outward and unruly, yellow crepe-paper hair billows upward.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4403363-181/donald-trump-pi%C3%B1atas-hard-to
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On immigration he's the only one calling for enforcing the current law and is getting better at drawing distinctions between people in the US illegally versus immigrants, which of course, everyone in the US is descended from.
On immigration he's the only one calling for enforcing the current law and is getting better at drawing distinctions between people in the US illegally versus immigrants, which of course, everyone in the US is descended from.
Not really.
Yes really. They migrated across the Bering Strait!
It might be fun playing the Trump game for awhile. But get your "Dump Trump" banners ready.
...
On immigration he's the only one calling for enforcing the current law and is getting better at drawing distinctions between people in the US illegally versus immigrants, which of course, everyone in the US is descended from.
On immigration he's the only one calling for enforcing the current law and is getting better at drawing distinctions between people in the US illegally versus immigrants, which of course, everyone in the US is descended from.
Not really.
Yes really. They migrated across the Bering Strait!
‘Pendulum Factor’ could land Trump in White House
If you’re having trouble understanding the phenomenal rise of Donald Trump, buck up — you’re not alone. Even political pros are dumbfounded.
They were shocked when the reality-TV star and businessman first grabbed the lead in national GOP polls. Now they’re double shocked as he soars in primary states, grabbing a 24-point lead in New Hampshire and a 15-point lead in South Carolina.
In one survey, Trump more than doubled his favorability ratings among Republicans in a single month, from 20 percent to 52 percent. The Hill newspaper called the turnaround “political magic” and the poll’s director, Patrick Murray of Monmouth University, called it “astounding.”
“That defies any rule in presidential politics that I’ve ever seen,” Murray told The Hill.
Other pollsters made similar comments, but a closer look shows an explanation. I call it the Pendulum Factor.
It reflects the fact that the legacy of each president includes the political climate he leaves behind. In plain English, Barack Obama’s most important failures as a leader begat Donald Trump’s success.
A favorable legacy among voters generally means the public wants more of the same in the next president. The clearest example is that Vice President George H.W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan in 1988, an election widely regarded as Reagan’s third term.
On the other hand, George W. Bush narrowly defeated Vice President Al Gore in 2000, a disputed election that was nonetheless seen as a repudiation of the scandal-scarred Bill Clinton era.
The pendulum swung back again when Obama followed Bush, who left office with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unsettled and the economy cratering and jobs vanishing.
With Obama’s poll numbers underwater, the country wants change again. And Trump is the ultimate Un-Obama candidate, especially in style and attitude.
A telling example of the chasm between them involves the speech Obama gave in Berlin in July 2008. Still a senator, he called himself “a fellow citizen of the world.”
The crowd of 200,000 gathered near the Brandenburg Gate correctly sensed a turning point in America’s relationship with the world, and roared its approval.
Seven years later, the citizen of the world has made a mess of things. From the rise of Islamic State to the horrific slaughters in Syria and the immigration chaos at home, along with the unchecked aggression of China, Russia and now Iran, Obama’s appeasement and blame-America approach are having disastrous consequences.
All the Western democracies are rattled, and their politics are scrambled by nervous and unhappy publics. The United States is not immune, but the unique culture of American exceptionalism, which Obama never embraced, is alive and well in many hearts. If there is anything most Americans hate more than war, it is seeing the country behaving like a weakling and being pushed around.
Trump is scoring as the perceived antidote. You cannot imagine him going to Germany and proclaiming himself a “citizen of the world.” The slogan on his hat says, “Make America Great Again,” and he summarized his message as, “We’re not gonna take it anymore!” Subtle he’s not.
Pat Buchanan, a former GOP presidential candidate, says Trump represents a “new nationalism.”
In truth, Trump’s ideas are as old as the country. He vows that America will not be cowed with him in the White House — and many people obviously believe him.
He talks of building a wall on the southern border and forcing Mexico to pay for it. He talks about deporting illegal immigrants and stopping the waves of “anchor babies.”
He promises to get tough with China, to push back against Putin’s aggression, and to squeeze Iran — and everywhere to negotiate better deals than Obama. Trump would put America first and his bombastic personality helps persuade people he means it.
Just as you can’t imagine Trump echoing Obama’s soft internationalism, you can’t imagine Obama echoing Trump’s muscular nationalism.
That’s not to deny their similarities. Both have thin skins and zero patience for dissent. Obama tries to govern through executive orders and it’s easy to envision a President Trump doing the same. A supporter calls Trump the “Obama for the right.”
If so, the cover of a German magazine that greeted Obama in 2008 also fits Trump. Stern magazine featured Obama’s picture with the words: “Savior — or demagogue?”
The pendulum doesn’t stop in the middle.
http://nypost.com/2015/08/29/pendulum-factor-could-land-trump-in-white-house/
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On immigration he's the only one calling for enforcing the current law and is getting better at drawing distinctions between people in the US illegally versus immigrants, which of course, everyone in the US is descended from.
On immigration he's the only one calling for enforcing the current law and is getting better at drawing distinctions between people in the US illegally versus immigrants, which of course, everyone in the US is descended from.
Not really.
What is being done to Trump in US now? If the kind and amount of black PR against a presidential candidate that I observe now happened in Russian, that candidate would be guaranteed to have people's sympathy and top ratings.
Who can explain me all this desire to 0bama to be President when he have all he want? Who can explain this his great desire for such kind of power from what he doesn't understand nothing because was totally out of its previous interest and as such without the needed experience to do the things as it is necessary?
Obama a Constitutional Law Professor?
Q: Was Barack Obama really a constitutional law professor?
A: His formal title was "senior lecturer," but the University of Chicago Law School says he "served as a professor" and was "regarded as" a professor.
FULL QUESTION
When I was in law school, I addressed all of my course instructors as "professors," regardless of their rank or formal position in the school academic hierarchy (tenured professor, assistant professor, adjunct professor, lecturer, etc.). Was Obama exaggerating or factually wrong in referring to himself as a "constitutional law professor" at the University of Chicago Law School even though his official title was lecturer?
FULL ANSWER
Sen. Obama, who has taught courses in constitutional law at the University of Chicago, has regularly referred to himself as "a constitutional law professor," most famously at a March 30, 2007, fundraiser when he said, "I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution." A spokesman for the Republican National Committee immediately took exception to Obama’s remarks, pointing out that Obama’s title at the University of Chicago was "senior lecturer" and not "professor."
Recently, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has picked up on this charge. In a March 27 conference call with reporters, Clinton spokesman Phil Singer claimed:
Singer (March 27): Sen. Obama has often referred to himself as “a constitutional law professor” out on the campaign trail. He never held any such title. And I think anyone, if you ask anyone in academia the distinction between a professor who has tenure and an instructor that does not, you’ll find that there is … you’ll get quite an emotional response.
http://www.factcheck.org/2008/03/obama-a-constitutional-law-professor/
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Is there anything true about 0bama's life before becoming a US president? You do not need to answer that question...
Trump's life is an open book. Love him. Hate him. WYSIWYG
Government is trash exactly because it's run by people who've never had to conform to a bottom line. It's run by people who've never had to concern themselves with actually earning the money they spend. That's why they give it so liberally to some illegal inmigrant criminal invader so easily after they take it from the taxes of the people. I used to work for local government and its a pile of trash.
Who can explain me all this desire to Trump to be President when he have all he want? Who can explain this his great desire for such kind of power from what he doesn't understand nothing because was totally out of its previous interest and as such without the needed experience to do the things as it is necessary?
This is a joke, right? We currently have demonstrably the most inexperienced and incapable President in American history. What, a bit in the Senate and that's it? A bit of half time lecturing at a university? Obama never EVEN HAD A FULL TIME JOB.
Don't make me laugh. There are enough similarities between running business and industry and government that Trump should do okay on this score.
Amazingly I think this is part of his appeal. He's rich and already has his own jet. Being president isn't a big upgrade for him like it would be most anyone else. He uses this to make the case that he'd be less influenced by special interests, which are a big problem in the USA, esentially legal corruption as oxymoronic as that sounds.
The advantage with Trump is that his wealth is known to everyone and he doesn't have to hide it, unlike the case with Hillary Clinton. Hillary claims that she is broke, and still for every speech, she charges around a quarter of a million dollars in hard cash. I am yet to find out how can someone, who earns $250,000 in an hour can be broke and poor.
Who can explain me all this desire to Trump to be President when he have all he want? Who can explain this his great desire for such kind of power from what he doesn't understand nothing because was totally out of its previous interest and as such without the needed experience to do the things as it is necessary?
Amazingly I think this is part of his appeal. He's rich and already has his own jet. Being president isn't a big upgrade for him like it would be most anyone else. He uses this to make the case that he'd be less influenced by special interests, which are a big problem in the USA, esentially legal corruption as oxymoronic as that sounds.
I had dismissed Trump out of hand earlier and that was a mistake. It's clear that he has really tapped into a lot of people's feelings and it is fun to watch him take down arrogant news "personalities". On immigration he's the only one calling for enforcing the current law and is getting better at drawing distinctions between people in the US illegally versus immigrants, which of course, everyone in the US is descended from.
Trump is also telling people they've been lied to for years, which I've come to conclude is basically true, and tells them that they are great and smart and with him can make the USA great again. Compare that to how Obama acted in response to last year's Ferguson shoothings where he suggested many americans are racist, and often seems to suggest most americans are not very intelligent. Sorry dude.
Trump may be a superficial egotistical blow hard and something of a bully. But he's entertaining to watch, isn't part of the establishment that has mislead the US population about its long term fiscal situation, may actually be able to get some infrastructure built, and it's not like any of the other candidates are lacking in the ego department.
Trump doesn't even try to win, he is just part of the hillary's campaign to destroy real republican candidates
By real republican candidate, you mean RINOs such as Jeb Bush and Ben Carson? No. They are not real republican candidates. They are just the nominees of the establishment faction of the Republican party. They don't command the support from the grassroots republican activists. IMO, Jeb Bush is a part of the hillary's campaign to destroy real republican candidates.
Who can explain me all this desire to Trump to be President when he have all he want? Who can explain this his great desire for such kind of power from what he doesn't understand nothing because was totally out of its previous interest and as such without the needed experience to do the things as it is necessary?
Trump doesn't even try to win, he is just part of the hillary's campaign to destroy real republican candidates
Inside the Trump-Bush melodrama: Decades of tension and discomfort
[...]
At the core, there are clashes of style, manner and class between the Bushes — a patrician clan of presidents, governors and financiers who have pulled the levers of power for generations — and Trump, a hustling New York City deal-maker who turned his father’s outer-borough real estate portfolio into a gold-plated empire.
“The Bushes were never Trump’s cup of tea,” said Roger Stone, a longtime confidant and former adviser to Trump. Asked why the Bushes often have kept Trump at arm’s length, he said: “He’s not from old, WASP money. The Trumps didn’t come on the Mayflower.”…
But Trump reserves particular, personal ire for Jeb Bush, whose first name he commonly mocks by drawing it out in a slight drawl. One Trump associate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly, said of Trump: “He’s very smart, he’s driven and he has two goals: one, to be elected president, and two, to have Jeb not be president.”…
And back to Jeb: “He’s not up to snuff. . . . Jeb is never going to bring us to the promised land. He can’t.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-the-trump-bush-melodrama-decades-of-tension-and-discomfort/2015/08/27/419b0686-4be6-11e5-902f-39e9219e574b_story.html
UNREAL: Popular News Website Posts Photo of Donald Trump in GUN CROSSHAIRS
Could you imagine if this would have happened to a Democrat?
…Obama or Hillary Clinton?
It’s only when it’s a popular Republican that the liberal media thinks it’s acceptable.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/08/unreal-popular-news-website-posts-photo-of-donald-trump-in-gun-crosshairs/
Traitor to His Class
Nothing is more terrifying to the elite than Trump’s embrace of a tangible American nationalism
Donald Trump is not a serious candidate. Donald Trump is not a serious man. The truth of these statements is supposed to be self-evident. But one begins to wonder, are they true?
Trump’s popularity, while beyond doubt, is treated not as a legitimate expression of popular will but as a mass psychosis to be diagnosed. It would seem to be the duty of every American pundit today to explain the inexplicable and problematic rise of Donald Trump. The critical question, however, is not the source of Trump’s popularity but rather the reason his popularity is so shocking to our political culture. Perhaps Trump’s candidacy threatens a larger consensus that governs our political and social life, and perhaps his popularity signifies a profound challenge to elite opinion.
Why is Donald Trump so popular? Explanations range from mere celebrity, to his adoption of extreme positions to capture the most ideologically intense voters, to his explosive rhetoric. These explanations are not entirely wrong, but neither are they entirely right.
To begin with, his positions, as Josh Barro has written in the New York Times, are rather moderate. As Barro points out, Trump is willing to contemplate tax increases to achieve spending cuts. He supports some exceptions to abortion bans and has gone so far as to defend funding Planned Parenthood. He has called for protective tariffs, a position heretical for Republicans, who are typically free traders. Although opposed to Obamacare, he has asserted that single-payer health care works in other countries. Even on the issue of immigration, despite his frequently strident rhetoric, his positions are neither unique—securing the border with some kind of wall is a fairly standard Republican plank by now—nor especially rigid.
With respect to his rhetoric, whether one characterizes his delivery as candid or rude, it is hard to ascribe his popularity to colorful invective alone. Chris Christie, who never misses an opportunity to harangue an opponent, languishes near the bottom of the polls. Or ask Rick Santorum, as well as Mitt “47 percent” Romney, whether outrageous comments offer an infallible way to win friends and influence voters. Trump’s outré style, like his celebrity, helps him gain attention but just as certainly fails to explain his frontrunner status.
Most candidates seek to define themselves by their policies and platforms. What differentiates Trump is not what he says, or how he says it, but why he says it. The unifying thread running through his seemingly incoherent policies, what defines him as a candidate and forms the essence of his appeal, is that he seeks to speak for America. He speaks, that is, not for America as an abstraction but for real, living Americans and for their interests as distinct from those of people in other places. He does not apologize for having interests as an American, and he does not apologize for demanding that the American government vigorously prosecute those interests.
What Trump offers is permission to conceive of an American interest as a national interest separate from the “international community” and permission to wish to see that interest triumph. What makes him popular on immigration is not how extreme his policies are, but the emphasis he puts on the interests of Americans rather than everyone else. His slogan is “Make America Great Again,” and he is not ashamed of the fact that this means making it better than other places, perhaps even at their expense.
His least practical suggestion—making Mexico pay for the border wall—is precisely the most significant: It shows that a President Trump would be willing to take something from someone else in order to give it to the American people. Whether he could achieve this is of secondary importance; the fact that he is willing to say it is everything. Nothing is more terrifying to the business and donor class—as well as the media and the entire elite—than Trump’s embrace of a tangible American nationalism. The fact that Trump should by all rights be a member of this class and is in fact a traitor to it makes him all the more attractive to his supporters and all the more baffling to pundits.
Trump’s campaign is predicated on restoring American greatness here and now, and he is seen to select policies in support of that overarching purpose. Others, in contrast, appear to pursue public office mostly for the sake of implementing favored policies so that they can read about the results of their grand experiments in future economics textbooks. They are like doctors who use patients to advance medical research for its own sake, rather than physicians who use medicine to cure the patients before them.
Conservative pundits have complained for years about the base and its desire for “ideological purity.” Trump shows that what is most in demand, however, is not ideological purity but patriotic zeal. Only a fool would believe that the fate of the Export-Import Bank could motivate millions of voters. It is not a minor and complicated organ of trade promotion that motivates but whether the ruling elite is seen to care more about actual national interests or campaign dollars and textbook abstractions like free trade.
Trump’s critics misunderstand his political appeal just as they fail to comprehend his business appeal. Indeed, Trump is almost certainly not as rich as he claims he is, nor is his record as glittering as others’, nor is his a rags-to-riches story. What he offers instead is a portrait of business as a fully human struggle filled with almost romantic jousting competitions. For Mitt Romney, corporations may be people and capital the invisible hand, but for Donald Trump business success is about human battles and visible victories. When asked if he feared a backlash against rich candidates like the one that damaged Romney, Trump responded, “Romney isn’t that rich.” If listening to Bizet made Nietzsche want to be a composer, listening to Trump makes one want to buy real estate. He imbues business with glory. For Trump, business is about winning and losing, and for real human beings, that’s what gives it life.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/traitor-his-class_1020527.html?page=2
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