It’s Monday, July 25th, 2016…but before we begin, Trump and the Republicans need to hang this around the necks of Hillary and the Dimocrats neck like the Ancient Mariner’s albatross:
Or, if you prefer, Willie Horton around the jugular of Michael Dukakis. Let’s see how that plays in Peoria…or any other part of the country! Here’s hoping Virginia Republicans have a plan to put the Clintons’ former bagman in his place.
“…His politics are fundamentally personal, and not merely in the sense that he is compelled to make himself the center of attention. The businessman’s convictions on public matters are elusive; he is an unreliable guide to his own program, which can change from day to day; and to the extent he has a guiding ideology it is an invincible conviction in his own instincts, business ability and understanding of human nature.
Mr. Trump sees the world as a series of zero-sum transactions that produce winners and pathetic losers. He calls it “the art of the deal,” and the goal is to be the winner. Other than that, a Trump Administration is a plunge into the same unknown that Republicans dove into when they made him their nominee.
…A candidate with so many question marks would normally be expected to lose, but then he isn’t running against George Washington, or even Bill Clinton. The alternative is Barack Obama’s third term led by Hillary Clinton. No wonder polling suggests that most of Mr. Trump’s support is composed of opposition to Mrs. Clinton, and most of hers opposition to him. Both parties have nominated historically unpopular candidates who would lose to a generic opponent. While Mr. Trump’s Presidency would be polarizing, so would Mrs. Clinton’s.
Mr. Trump could win if he persuades voters to trust him as much as he trusts himself, and projects an air of competence and confidence. Or he could implode, and take the GOP’s Senate majority and even the House down with him. That’s the nature of his unconventional and unpredictable candidacy.“
In a related item, as Townhall.com‘s Guy Benson reports, we didn’t have to wait long for The Donald’s inner demons to manifest themselves:
“You know that long-awaited, elusive “pivot” to a more serious and presidential Donald Trump for which the commentariat keeps yearning?It’s not coming. The morning after formally accepting the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, Trump and his running mate appeared together at a “thank you” event for convention volunteers. The blowhard mogul proceeded to uncork a rambling, stream-of-consciousness soliloquy that careened from one topic to another, before eventually landing on his favorite subject: The Republican Primary process.From there, it was a short hop to Ted Cruz, whose non-endorsement speech on Wednesday night drew loud boos. Trump initially had downplayed the incident as no big deal, and even managed to avoid firing back at his former (?) rival during his acceptance speech. But Donald Trump is incapable of letting anything go, even when it’s in his best interests to do so. He told CBS News earlier that the crowd turning on Cruz was “beautiful,” then ramped up his fury at the post-convention gathering, declaring — apparently on-the-fly — that if Cruz were to endorse him before November, he’d reject it. (“You can’t fire me, I quit!” Allahpundit snarks). He also mused about forming a Super PAC to go after the Texas Senator in his home state, where Cruz crushed Trump in March.Keep in mind that this is the morning after Trump called for an end to “petty politics“.
…For good measure, Trump also attacked popular Ohio Governor John Kasich…
How many times can a clown say “very, very badly” in 1:47?!?
…who just happens to command a potent political operation in the most important swing state in the country, without which Trump cannot win the presidency.Because unity.Today’s churlish performance was a fitting coda to a dysfunctional convention, and a perfect encapsulation of Trump’s resentment-fueled campaign. Democrats will happily let him rip.Republican officials will tear their hair out, agog that he’d actively step on his own post-convention moment with such a stupid, impulsive, narrative-shifting act of self-sabotage. And his hardcore followers will absolutely eat it up. He fights!…”
As to The Donald’s curious claim Cruz’s added “sentence” “could have been viewed as a nasty thing, in terms of what he said, because he was implying something—which is wrong—but that’s OK”…whatever the heck THAT means…as Conservative Review reports:
“…So what was that “nasty” added line in the “first two sentences?”
The text of Cruz’s speech as it was prepared for delivery was released by the RNC before Cruz took the stage and the first few sentences read:
Thank you. Heidi and I are honored to join you here in Cleveland, where Lebron James just led an incredible comeback victory. I’m convinced America is going to come back too.
I congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night.
Conventions are times of excitement. But given the events of the last few weeks, I hope you’ll allow me a moment to talk to you about what’s really at stake.
Now, Time magazine has a transcript of Cruz’s delivered remarks, and if we put the “added” sentences in bold it reads:
Thank you, and god bless each and every one of you.
Heidi and I are so honored to join you here in Cleveland where LeBron James just lead an incredible comeback victory, and I am convinced America is going to come back too.
I want to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night.
And, like each of you, I want to see the principles that our party believes prevail in November.
Conventions are times of excitement, but given the events of the last few weeks I hope you’ll allow me a moment to talk to you about what’s really at stake.
So, umm, which one of those sentences were “nasty?”…Trump said he thought it was very “dishonorable” of Sen. Cruz to add one of those sentences, that Cruz was “implying something.”
The closest statement to the Cruz line that elicited boos from the RNC crowd—“vote your conscience”—was “I want to see the principles that our party believes in prevail in November.” So let’s assume that’s what Trump is referring to. As Amber Phillips of the Washington Post wrote, that line is “not a full-throated embrace of Trump, but hardly the kind of snub Trump indicated Cruz ad-libbed.”
What does Trump think Cruz was implying by that line? Doesn’t Trump, as the Republican nominee, champion the principles of the Republican Party? Aren’t those principles the “conscience” of the Republican Party? If so, how can those lines be read as anything other than an endorsement of those principles and therefore a tacit endorsement of the one who is the (supposed!)standard bearer of them?“
A great question, for which there is no answer which speaks well of Donald Trump.
Here’s the juice: past, present and for the foreseeable future, The Donald’s his own worst enemy…his kids’ best efforts to counsel and control him notwithstanding; unfortunately, they’re not on the ticket, let alone atop it.
Trump’s uncivil treatment of both Cruz and Kasich, particularly with the country’s future literally on the line this election, is not only ill-advised, it demonstrates a rashness and lack of situational awareness we find highly disturbing. Now is not the time to be settling petty grudges, regardless of what either Cruz or Kasich might have done, real or imagined.
We know David French and others would dispute our assessment as to the stakes for which we’re playing in November. But as we noted in the our last edition, America’s been…or will be…lucky to survive 8 years of Obama; it remains our opinion we won’t make it through 8 more under Hillary…at least not as a Constitutional Republic. Three, possibly four SCOTUS appointments will see to that.
Trump needs to act less like the oversensitive, quick-tempered adolescent currently soiling the halls of the White House and more like arguably the greatest man ever to occupy the Oval Office.
On the evening of November 13th, 1861, Abraham Lincoln experienced one of the rankest acts of insubordination and disrespect ever encountered by a Commander-in-Chief. Having called upon then-General-in-Chief of the Union Army George Brinton McClellan at his home in the company of Secretary of State William Seward and presidential secretary John Hay, Lincoln was informed McClellan was out, so waited for the general’s return.
Returning an hour or so later, despite his porter having informed him as to the identity of his guests, the insufferably egotistical Little Mac retired for the evening without a word to the President. Some 30 minutes later, Lincoln was informed McClellan had gone to bed.
Both Seward and Hay felt McClellan’s slight deserved some response from Lincoln; but this humblest of Presidents, a younger and far wiser leader than The Donald, observed it was “better at this time not to be making points of etiquette and personal dignity.” Lincoln believed, at least at that particular moment in time, he needed the Young Napoleon to preserve the Union; all considerations, including the President’s ego and personal pride, were a distant second.
Similarly, on January 23, 1863, following McClellan’s final debacle at Antietam and Burnside’s fiasco at Fredericksburg, this same commitment to what was best for the country rather than Abraham Lincoln led the President to name Joe Hooker to lead the Army of the Potomac. This despite the fact Hooker had publicly observed the country was in need a dictator…one who closely resembled Joe Hooker.
In his letter informing Hooker of his appointment, Lincoln didn’t mince words:
“I have heard, in such way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command.Only those generals who gain successes, can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.“
This greatest of President’s sacrificed self, ultimately found his general and saved the Union; The Donald could…and should…borrow a page from Lincoln’s playbook.
Turning now from the greatest to the worst, writing at Townhall.com in what can only be described as a cross between Mr. Islamofascist Goes to Washington and The Muslim Minute, the great Victor Davis Hanson relates how…
“When President Obama entered office, he dreamed that his hope-and-change messaging and his references to his familial Islamic roots would win over the Muslim world. The soon-to-be Nobel Peace Prize laureate would make the U.S. liked in the Middle East.Then, terrorism would decrease.
But, as with his approach to racial relations, Obama’s remedies proved worse than the original illness. Obama gave his first presidential interview to Al Arabiya, noting that he has Muslims in his family. He implicitly blamed America’s strained relations with many Middle Eastern countries on his supposedly insensitive predecessor, George W. Bush.
…There was never cause for such weak-horse contrition. Radical Islam never had legitimate grievances against the West. America and Europe had welcomed in Muslim immigrants — even as Christians were persecuted and driven out of the Middle East.
Billions of dollars in American aid still flows to Islamic countries. The U.S. spent untold blood and treasure freeing Kuwait and later the Shiites of Iraq from Saddam Hussein. America tried to save Afghanistan from the Soviets and later from the Taliban. For over a half-century, the West paid jacked-up prices for OPEC oil — even as the U.S. Navy protected Persian Gulf sea lanes to ensure lucrative oil profits for Gulf state monarchies.
Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the original architects of al-Qaida, were so desperate to find grievances against the West that in their written diatribes they had to invent fantasies of Jews walking in Mecca. In Michael Moore fashion, they laughably whined about America’s lack of campaign finance reform and Western culpability for global warming.
Or he’s playing for the other side!
The real problem is that Islamic terrorism feeds off the self-induced failures of the Middle East. Jihadists try to convince the Arab street that returning to religious fundamentalism and exporting jihad will empower Muslims to recapture lost primacy over a decadent and guilty West, just as in the mythical glory days of the caliphate.
In truth, religious intolerance, gender apartheid, illiteracy, autocracy, statism, tribalism and religious fundamentalism all guarantee poverty, economic stagnation and scapegoating. While much of Asia and Latin America progressed through reform, the Middle East blame-gamed its miseries on affluent Western nations and on Israel.
More disturbing, millions of Middle Easterners fled to the safety of Europe and the United States — but on occasion, only to resist assimilation and show ingratitude once they got there.
In short, the dreamy Obama approach to terrorism has proved a nightmare — and it is not over yet.“
After all…
But at least, when the chips are really down and things look darkest, in the midst of the most horrific of circumstances…
…we can still depend upon The Dear Misleader to find some humor:
If you’ll forgive our crassness, what a deceptive bag of duplicitous Dimocratic douche!
Meanwhile, way down south in the Progressivism’s Latin American Utopia, Bloomberg reports…
“McDonald’s Corp.’s largest franchisee has had to stop selling the Big Mac in Venezuela as it can’t source the bread it needs to make the famous sandwich. Buenos Aires-based Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc., which operates more than 2,000 McDonald’s restaurants throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, said on Thursday that the problem was temporary and that other menu options were available.
…Shortages of everything from rice to toilet paper have worsened over the past several months in Venezuela, with reports of looting and protests on the rise. Venezuela’s economy will contract 10 percent in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund, with inflation accelerating to around 700 percent…”
Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions…hold the sesame seed bun; Viva las Liberales!
This on the heels of other happenings coming soon to a country very close to you:
“Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has extended the country’s state of ‘economic emergency’ for another 60 days, a sign of declining conditions in the crisis-hit country. The state of emergency, in place since January, was necessary due to ‘extraordinary… social, economic, political, natural and ecological’ pressures, according to the presidential decree, signed by Maduro and released last night.
The declaration allows the government to seize the assets of private companies to obtain essential food and goods. It was the third time the state of economic emergency has been extended.
Given the last seven years of The Obama’s governance by executive order…not to mention Terry “The Bagman” McAuliffe’s latest end-run around Virginia’s Constitution and General Assembly at the state level…would similar actions from an American Liberal really surprise anyone?!?
Meanwhile, on The Lighter Side…
Finally, yet another reason we’ll never watch the most boring professional sport and most grossly overpaid athletes on the planet:
Governor strongly defends North Carolina’s values after NBA moves All-Star Game
“Months after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver warned North Carolina that the league might move the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte if the state didn’t overturn its bathroom law, the league announced Thursday that it has, in fact, decided to take away the star-studded event.
The move prompted reaction from around the NBA world, but also a scathing statement from North Carolina governor Pat McCrory:
“The sports and entertainment elite, Attorney General Roy Cooper and the liberal media have for months misrepresented our laws and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present,” McCrory wrote Thursday. “Twenty-one other states have joined North Carolina to challenge the federal overreach by the Obama administration mandating their bathroom policies in all businesses and schools instead of allowing accommodations for unique circumstances. Left-wing special interest groups have no moral authority to try and intimidate the large majority of American parents who agree in common-sense bathroom and shower privacy for our children. American families should be on notice that the selective corporate elite are imposing their political will on communities in which they do business, thus bypassing the democratic and legal process.”…”
To which we can only add a hearty “AMEN“!
By the way, can you even BEGIN to imagine the hue and cry had…
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